By Brandon Bailey, Technology Writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) --Excitement for Apple's new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models drove sales of a record 39.3 million iPhones in the last quarter, boosting the company's earnings and revenue well above expectations.
All told, the company sold $23.7 billion worth of iPhones, beating the $21.5 billion in sales expected by analysts polled by FactSet. Apple's signature smartphones are the company's biggest source of revenue and profit.
"We had a really, really good quarter," Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri told The Associated Press. He also credited strong demand for the company's Mac computers and its online app store.
But the company didn't do as well with its iPad tablets. Apple said it sold 13 percent fewer iPad tablets than it did a year ago. That follows an industry-wide decline in tablet sales. Still, the company reported even lower iPad sales than analysts had expected.
Maestri said Apple is counting on interest in new models coming out this week and a partnership with IBM, which will create new tablet software for business users, to help shore up tablet sales in the coming months.
Apple's profit rose more than 12 percent for the three months that ended Sept. 27 to $8.47 billion. Total sales also climbed over 12 percent year-over-year, to $42.12 billion.
The Cupertino, California, company issued a strong forecast for the upcoming holiday shopping season as well. The company said it expects total revenue, from all products, of between $63.5 billion and $66.5 billion during the quarter that ends in December. That suggests the company will likely beat the expectations of analysts, who were forecasting $63.7 billion, according to FactSet.
Apple's shares have surged more than 35 percent this year, when adjusted for a seven-to-one stock split that occurred in June. The stock is off slightly since hitting an all-time adjusted high of $103.30 last month.
California governor signs law to protect children from social media addiction
California will make it illegal for social media platforms to knowingly provide addictive feeds to children without parental consent beginning in 2027 under a new law Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Friday.
California follows New York state, which passed a law earlier this year allowing parents to block their kids from getting social media posts suggested by a platform's algorithm. Utah has passed laws in recent years aimed at limiting children's access to social media, but they have faced challenges in court.
The California law will take effect in a state home to some of the largest technology companies in the world. Similar proposals have failed to pass in recent years, but Newsom signed a first-in-the-nation law in 2022 barring online platforms from using users' personal information in ways that could harm children. It is part of a growing push in states across the country to try to address the impacts of social media on the well-being of children.
"Every parent knows the harm social media addiction can inflict on their children — isolation from human contact, stress and anxiety, and endless hours wasted late into the night," Newsom said in a statement. "With this bill, California is helping protect children and teenagers from purposely designed features that feed these destructive habits."
The law bans platforms from sending notifications without permission from parents to minors between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m., and between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays from September through May, when children are typically in school. The legislation also makes platforms set children's accounts to private by default.
Opponents of the legislation say it could inadvertently prevent adults from accessing content if they cannot verify their... Read More