Services growth is driving Apple’s continuing financial success, with a whopping 31 percent increase in services revenue year over year. These services include digital content and services, AppleCare, Apple Pay, licensing and other services. One of the pieces of that services pie that was only noted in a footnote on the Summary Data was a $236 million cash injection that appears to be a result of the final resolution of the Samsung lawsuit.
Take that $236 million out of the services picture, and the services revenues still grew by 1.3 percent over the previous quarter or 28 percent year over year. So the infusion of revenue from winning a lawsuit didn’t really take away from the fact that these services are growing by leaps and bounds.
That was obvious from Tim Cook’s litany of positive news about subscriptions (services such as Apple Music), apps and the App Store, surprising growth in AppleCare adoption, and the very powerful impact of Apple Pay. Cook pointed out that one long-time Apple Pay holdout — CVS Pharmacies — will adopt the payment system later this year, and that Apple Pay cash already has “millions” of users despite having been released only last December.
