Apple is on the way, the decline in iPhone sales after the scare in the Christmas business to slow down. At the end of last quarter have improved significantly, said Apple CEO Tim Cook on Tuesday.

The iPhone sales declined in the annual comparison, however, by 17.3 percent to over 31 billion dollars (27.7 billion Euro). Given better overall than analysts had expected Figures and a 75 billion-Dollar a further Share buyback of the course to put out, however.

quarterly sales fell year on year by 5 per cent to $ 58 billion, but remained higher than the forecasts of analysts, who were assumed to be approximately 55 billion dollars. Apple had already been in the Christmas quarter, a decline of iPhone sales, especially in China, were taken. This had triggered Concerns about the demand for the phones. The iPhone is the most important Apple product and still accounts for more than half of the business. Apple announced the numbers of sold units, but sales.

The decline in iPhone sales in the last quarter of the year was fully attributable to the development in the so – called growth markets of the Emerging and developing countries, said Apple. You control the purchase prices and repayment of the Offered for old devices and the pointing effect.

The Apple business in China shrank in the last quarter of the year of 13 billion dollars a year earlier to 10.2 billion dollars, and thus slower than in the Christmas quarter. This also includes the lowering of the VAT in the country have contributed from 16 to 13 percent, said Cook.

The profit in the end of March completed second fiscal quarter fell year-on-year 15.7 percent to 11.56 billion dollars. The share price rose in after-hours trading due to the violation of open expectations, and the share buy-back at times by five percent. The forecast for the current quarter was higher than analysts expected.

In the iPad business to the proceeds within one year of approximately 4 to 4.87 billion dollars. Apple has now included a new model of the more expensive iPad Pro in the offer. More than half of the iPad buyers last quarter were down for the first Time an Apple Tablet, stressed Cook.

The Service business, and includes the Streaming service Apple Music, as well as the revenue from the App Store, and the storage service, iCloud, grew from 9,85 to 11,45 billion dollars. Apple now has 390 million subscribers in different services and want to crack in the year 2020, the mark of 500 million. The services are seen as a way to earn more money with existing customers.

With the Apple Watch and the earphones AirPods, Apple is also now the most successful manufacturers of so-called Wearables. The division with these devices increased sales from 3.9 to 5.13 billion dollars. In the case of the Mac computers, there was a decrease of 5.8 to 5.5 billion dollars, which was triggered by the group is that of bottlenecks in chip deliveries.

Apple kept the end of the quarter reserves of 225 billion dollars – the debt of around 112 billion dollars. The group had obtained in the past years several times the money on the market for distributions to shareholders, the foreign source profits not for the high tax rate of 40 percent in the United States. According to the U.S. tax reform has taken care of this Problem, however.

dpa