India shines in Apple’s record September quarter

India emerged as a stellar growth market for Apple in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, registering an all-time company revenue record in the country.

“We also set September quarter revenue records in both developed and emerging markets, in addition to an all-time record in India,” Apple Chief Executive Officer John Ternus said.

The performance in India was propelled by a September quarter record for iPhone upgraders, with Worldpanel survey data ranking iPhone among the top-selling smartphone models in the country.

Mac sales also set an all-time revenue record in India, driven by demand for the new MacBook Neo and MacBook Pro.

Furthermore, Apple launched Apple Pay in India in this quarter in partnership with Axis Bank, extending digital payments to one of the world’s largest consumer markets.

“We are optimistic about the long-term future of our services business,” Apple Chief Financial Officer Kevan Parekh noted.

Global financials

Moving to global business, Apple generated quarterly total revenue from operations of $114.48 billion, an 11.72% YoY increase compared to $102.47 billion in Q4 FY25.

For the full fiscal year FY26, total revenue reached an all-time record of $478.83 billion, up 15.06% YoY from $416.16 billion, while full-year net profit reached $132.18 billion, up 18% YoY.

Quarterly revenue comprised two distinct streams: Products revenue of $82.90 billion (72.42% of total) and Services revenue of $31.57 billion (27.58% of total).

Across product categories, iPhone generated $57.58 billion (50.30% of total revenue), growing 17.46% YoY due to global upgrader records and demand for iPhone 18 Pro and the foldable iPhone Duo.

Services achieved an all-time record of $31.57 billion, rising 9.82% YoY on record cloud, video, and payment revenues, with paid subscriptions topping 1.5 billion.

Mac revenue jumped 23.68% YoY to $10.79 billion due to strong MacBook Neo adoption and global market share gains. Conversely, Wearables, Home and Accessories fell 7.91% YoY to $8.30 billion against tough prior-year comparisons, while iPad revenue declined 10.40% YoY to $6.23 billion due to supply constraints.

Apple’s profit after tax rose 11.81% YoY to $30.71 billion, compared to $27.47 billion in Q4 FY25, assisted by a $0.05 per share tariff refund benefit.

On a full-year basis, EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation), which measures operational cash profit, reached $171.49 billion, delivering an EBITDA margin of 35.81% on $478.83 billion in revenue.

Expense drivers

Managing total operations required $59.66 billion in total cost of sales, up 10.22% YoY. Total operating expenses jumped 20.58% YoY to $19.19 billion.

Research and Development (R&D) represented the largest cost centre at $11.73 billion (61.13% of total operating expenses), surging 32.30% YoY from $8.87 billion as Apple accelerated investments in generative artificial intelligence (AI), such as Siri AI, and custom silicon.

Meanwhile, Apple’s active installed base stood over 2.5 billion devices, with $28.10 billion in quarterly operating cash flow, and $137 billion in cash reserves.

However, unprecedented memory cost inflation compressed profit margins, while supply limits on advanced nodes, cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing chips, restricted device availability.

“What we are seeing with memory pricing right now is unprecedented. And as we said earlier in the September quarter, we did see higher memory costs as compared to the June quarter, which were partly offset by the benefit of carrying inventory and lower costs on certain non-memory components,” Ternus explained.

Supply chain bottlenecks also hampered shipments.

“The Q4 constraints were primarily driven by the availability of the advanced nodes our SoCs are produced on. But as we have transitioned more of our lineup to the latest 2-nanometer technology nodes, our constraints on advanced nodes are easing,” Apple Chief Operating Officer Sabih Khan said, detailing these operational challenges.