The premium-cost iPhone X has helped Apple to record profits and revenues despite a fall in overall phone sales.
In the last three months of 2017 the tech giant posted a record profit of $20.1 billion (£14bn) while revenues were $88.3bn (£61.9bn), up from $78.4bn (£55bn) in the same period last year.
There was a fall in iPhone sales to 77.3m (down from 78.3m in the final three months of 2016) despite the November launch of the iPhone X after the iPhone 8 range was also launched.
The X – referred to as ‘ten’ – incorporates facial recognition technology and starts at £999, making it the most expensive iPhone ever made.
“We’re thrilled to report the biggest quarter in Apple’s history, with broad-based growth that included the highest revenue ever from a new iPhone line-up,” said Apple chief executive Tim Cook.
“iPhone X surpassed our expectations and has been our top-selling iPhone every week since it shipped in November.
“We’ve also achieved a significant milestone with our active installed base of devices reaching 1.3 billion in January.
“That’s an increase of 30 per cent in just two years, which is a testament to the popularity of our products and the loyalty and satisfaction of our customers.”
Meanwhile iPad sales rose one per cent and Mac computers fell by five per cent.
Apple Music is also set to surpass Spotify in paying United States subscribers this summer.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple is gaining subscribers at a higher rate in music streaming’s biggest market, five percent a month versus Spotify’s two percent. It now has 36m paying subscribers worldwide compared with the 70m announced by Spotify earlier this year.
And that could rise at a faster rate still from February9th when its intelligent home music speaker HomePod goes on sale in the US and UK.