In its own way, Apple may have found a financial solution to the supply chain crises dogging manufacturers worldwide. After the latest set of Apple quarterly numbers, Wall Street analysts running the numbers say it’s possible to see how Apple can deliver double-digit profit growth without needing its manufacturing-driven hardware business, including iPhones, to grow at all.
Last week’s earnings report showed Apple’s $78 billion a year (the run rate for fiscal 2022) services business — now a Fortune 50 company by revenue all on its own — to be growing so fast that it can boost earnings per share by double digits annually, even if growth in its huge but narrower-margin iPhone business were to stall. With iPhones still growing, profits rose 20% in the first quarter of Apple’s fiscal year.