• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, May 2, 2022

A record quarter for video advertising and payment services helped drive overall revenues for Apple’s services business up 17%, to a record $19.8 billion, in the company’s fiscal 2022 Q2 ended March 26.

The App Store, Music, Cloud Services and Apple Care also saw record revenues, according to CFO Luca Maestri, who did not break out specific services’ contribution to the segment.

Apple said it had generated $75 billion in services revenue over the past 12 months.

It also reported 825 million paid subscriptions on its platform by the quarter’s end — up by more than 165 million in the past 12 months.

“Our install base has continued to grow, reaching an all-time high across each geographic segment and major product category,” Maestri said during Apple’s earnings call on Thursday. Transacting accounts, paid accounts and paid subs have all reached new highs across geographic segments, he noted.

The growth reflects “the impact of our continued investment in improving and expanding our services portfolio and the positive momentum that we’re seeing on many fronts,” he said.

Apple CEO Tim Cook gave a callout to the Apple TV+’s “CODA” for being the first streaming service-produced film to win the Best Picture Academy Award, adding that the streamer’s movies and series have earned more than 960 nominations and 240 awards in the past two years.

“We're also winning over sports fans with “Friday Night Baseball,” which debuted earlier this month, and “They Call Me Magic,”” a new four-part documentary about Magic Johnson, he noted.  

Apple TV+ signed a deal with League Baseball in March, and its weekly streaming of a doubleheader kicked off earlier this month.

Apple also has been aggressively pursuing National Football League streaming rights. According to Front Office Sports, the company wants to make one giant deal for the three assets up for bid: an equity stake in NFL Media, the “NFL Sunday Ticket” package for out-of-market games, and livestreaming games on mobile devices. 

In fact, at least according to a Puck report, Apple has already won the Sunday Ticket rights, but is waiting to make an announcement.

Apple also recently launched Apple Business Essentials services for SMBs, and will focus on growing that segment, Maestri noted.

The company is also planning new services offerings, and expects the business to continue to grow by double digits in the year ahead, but not at the 17% level.

Slower growth is projected because of challenges with meeting customer demand for products due to supply-chain issues, its suspension of sales in Russia, and foreign exchange rates, Apple said.

Maestri also cited supply-chain challenges — along with the COVID lockdown in China — in cautioning analysts that the current quarter’s sales could be impacted by $4 billion to $8 billion

That sent Apple’s shares down nearly 4% in extended trading, despite reporting record 9% year-over-year revenue growth for the March quarter, to $97.3 billion.

Apple also beat analysts’ expectations on earnings per share ($1.52).

iPhone revenue rose 5.5%, Mac revenue rose14.7%, and other products revenue rose 12.4%, although iPad revenue was down 1.9%.