Apple Breaks Revenue Record in March But Faces $2 Billion Lawsuit
Apple has called the suit baseless, denying all accusations about defective batteries.
- Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, announced that Apple surpassed quarterly revenue projections for its operations in India.
- However, the company has found itself in trouble again with a lawsuit worth $2 billion in the U.K. for hiding defective iPhone batteries.
In its second-quarter results, Apple crossed earning projections with high sales of iPhones, surviving the industry-wide drop that has affected most companies. With a better-than-expected 3% year-on-year decline, the company announced a revenue of $94.8 billion this quarter, of which iPhone sales alone accounted for $51.3 billion.
Overall, revenue from the iPad and Mac divisions fell by 13% and 31%, respectively. While the services sector did not meet analysts’ expectations, it still managed to gain a 5.5% y-o-y increase, creating a positive picture for the company’s prospects at a time when most of the industry is struggling.
However, Apple is yet again facing allegations of purposefully throttling its iPhone 6 and 6S models, aimed to minimize the degradation of battery units. The tech giant is under fire with a lawsuit in the U.K. worth 1.6 billion GBP (approximately $2 billion).
The lawsuit could potentially undermine an otherwise profitable quarter for the company that surpassed expectations on Wall Street, aided by higher-than-expected sales of iPhones, as per CEO Tim Cook. Apple has reported a $24.16 billion profit in the quarter, with an all-time record for Services revenue in its India operations of $20.9 billion. The company also authorized $90 billion for repurchasing shares, boding well for stock prices, up by approximately 27% this year.
In addition, strong iPhone sales in India have resulted in a 62% lead in the premium segment while facing the challenge of lesser average revenue per user associated with Apple’s entertainment segment comprising music and movie streaming.
The lawsuit filed by Justin Gutmann on behalf of affected iPhone users in the U.K. claims that the company has knowingly reduced the performance of its phones to maintain the use of defective battery units.
This is not the first time that Apple has faced such accusations. Apple managed to settle the case in the U.S., where the company was forced to replace the batteries of older iPhone models to meet damages faced by users. Pointing toward the U.S. case, Gutmann and associates seek a similar solution for users in the U.K. The company has also faced antitrust cases across the E.U. regarding charging norms, which resulted in the first iPhones with USB-C charging capabilities.
However, Apple is looking to block the case in the U.K., with an appeal being filed at the London Tribunal. The company has called the case baseless, claiming that only a few iPhone 6 and 6S models have been found with faulty batteries. Apple will likely find the case challenging as the company has already acknowledged a similar issue in 2017.
See More: FTC Seeks to Ban Meta From Monetizing Children’s Data
Rapid Security Response Update Faces Installation Challenges
In other news, Apple has released a Rapid Security Response (RSR) update, iOS 16.4.1 (a), for iPhone and Mac users for the very first time. The move paves the way for how the company will launch smaller updates going forward. While the update is said to provide key security fixes for Apple devices, the company has not released any related security notes.
According to Apple, RSRs are a new software release for iPhone, iMac, and iPad devices for security updates between software versions, allowing faster mitigation of security issues.
Several users, however, have faced issues with installing the new update, with an error message saying “Unable to Verify Security Response.” Trying to install the update later seems to have solved the issue for most cases.
The new update has come before the much-awaited iOS 16.5 update, which is currently available as a public beta. The update provides features such as the ability for Siri to create screen recordings with the user’s voice, a Sports tab in the Apple News section, and multi-viewing capabilities for sports-based content.
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