Apple’s Q4 Report Reflects Need for Innovation

Apple has issued its latest quarterly report, and while the numbers are good, they’re not as good as they were this time last year.

Its Q4 revenues came in at $46.9 billion, compared to $51.5 billion in Q4 of 2015. Net income amounted to $9 billion, against $11.1 billion last year. Gross margin was 38 percent, down from 39.9 a year ago.

In a statement announcing the update, CEO Tim Cook said the “strong September quarter results cap a very successful fiscal 2016” for the company, and indeed, while the tech giant’s billions in revenues are nothing to sniff at, it is worth noting the drop in earnings. When Apple launched its newest iPhone this year, many journalists observed what felt like a relative lack of excitement among users, and its numbers may reflect that.

That consumer response was generally attributed to the iPhone 7’s relative lack of technological innovation, with the device having been seen as a very modest upgrade of the previous iPhone. Going forward, though, Apple could change things up. In a promising sign of technological progress, the company has now brought its pioneering Touch ID fingerprint scanning system to a laptop application in the new MacBook Pro; and analysts are expecting a much more significant redesign of the iPhone for next year, with Apple rumored to be working on features like iris scanning for the forthcoming device. While Apple certainly isn’t leaving its top-tier position in the tech market, those efforts could help it to regain some of the momentum that has dissipated.