Apple closed its fiscal 2026 with the strongest quarter in its history, and it did so in the first earnings report of the John Ternus era. For the September quarter, the company reported revenue of $114.48 billion, up 12% year over year and ahead of the $113.47 billion analysts expected. Diluted earnings per share came in at $2.10, up 14% from $1.85 a year earlier and comfortably above the $2.00 consensus.
Every headline segment delivered a record. iPhone revenue reached $57.58 billion, up 17% and a September-quarter record, even though the quarter included only eight days of iPhone 18 Pro sales — the new foldable iPhone Duo launched after the quarter ended. Mac revenue jumped 24% to $10.79 billion, well past the $9.7 billion consensus. Services hit an all-time high of $31.57 billion, up nearly 10%. The weak spots were iPad, down 10% to $6.23 billion, and Wearables, Home and Accessories, down 8% to $8.30 billion, both short of expectations.
The full fiscal year set records too: revenue of $479 billion, up 15% from fiscal 2025's $416.2 billion, with net income of $132.2 billion, up 18%. CFO Kevan Parekh highlighted $28 billion in operating cash flow for the quarter and $28 billion returned to shareholders, and the board declared a dividend of $0.27 per share payable November 16.
One number stood out to the market. Greater China revenue grew 21% year over year to $17.54 billion, but fell short of the $18.75 billion analysts had modeled — the quarter included no update to the standard iPhone in September, and supply shortages left inventory thin just as domestic competitors pressed harder. Investors watched the stock closely; it dipped about 1% in after-hours trading before recovering to roughly flat.
For an AI-focused readership, the most consequential line came from Ternus's statement rather than the tables. Wrapping up what he called the company's best year ever, he said Apple will enter the holidays with "the most ambitious lineup yet," naming the iPhone Duo, the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, an entirely new generation of home hardware, Touch ID coming to the Mac for the first time — and an "all-new Siri AI." That phrasing is the clearest signal yet that the long-promised Siri rebuild is central to Apple's holiday strategy, following the launch of the new home hardware generation in October.
Margin detail also matters for the AI cost story. Gross margin came in at 47.9%, and the company noted about one percentage point of favorable impact from electricity tax rebates, while analysts flagged rising memory prices as a pressure point heading into the memory-hungry AI device cycle. Apple's guidance commentary pointed to 9% to 11% growth for the quarter that contains the iPhone Duo launch — the first real test of whether the Ternus-led product slate and the new Siri can convert a record year into a record holiday.
The takeaway: Apple's core business has never been larger, and the transition from Tim Cook to John Ternus has, on first evidence, cost the company nothing in execution. But the growth story investors will now pay for is increasingly an AI story — the new Siri, on-device intelligence, and the China rollout of Apple Intelligence with Alibaba's Qwen. The next two quarters, starting with the iPhone Duo holiday, will show whether that narrative holds up as well as the income statement does.
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