Apple’s iPhone sales surge to new quarterly high despite early missteps in artificial intelligence :: WRAL.com
Publish Date: 2026-01-29 17:02:00
Source Domain: www.wral.com
- Apple’s iPhone sales reached a new quarterly record during the holiday season, driven by strong demand for the iPhone 17 models.
- Despite not delivering on its 2024 promise to enhance Siri’s AI capabilities, Apple released a “liquid glass” design update and a free software upgrade in September to offset AI miscues.
- The quarter saw iPhone sales of $85.3 billion, a 23% increase from the previous year, marking the highest sales for a three-month period since the iPhone’s 2007 debut.
- Apple’s profit rose 16% to $42.1 billion, with total revenue increasing to $143.8 billion, both exceeding analyst projections.
- Despite positive results, Apple’s stock price remains slightly down for the year compared to the end of 2024.
- Apple plans to sustain growth by finally launching delayed AI features, notably an upgraded Siri, with the help of Google’s AI model, Gemini 3.
- The iPhone maintained its market leadership with nearly 20% share, slightly ahead of Samsung, as the worldwide sales leader at the end of last year, according to the International Data Corp.
