During Apple's Financial Conference Call for Q1 2018 CEO Tim Cook delivered his traditional opening statement covering the highlights of the company's financial quarter that provides shareholders, analysts, news groups and fans with added color to the black and white numbers and focuses on the performance of the company's products and services.

Apple's performance for the full year was nothing shy of stunning considering the devastating power of COVID-19 had in shutting down the world economy. In these challenging times Apple was a shinning star and with Q1 2021 beginning with their new iPhone 12 line-up, Apple will be roaring into fiscal Q1 2021 on a high note. And, with the U.S. GDP booming at 33.1% in Q3 due to most Republican States reopening their economies, it will give most consumers in those states the confidence to buy Apple's many products during this upcoming holiday season.  

Tim Cook's Opening Statement

Apple's CEO began their October 29^th Conference Call with analysts with his traditional opening statement as follows:

"Back in April, I said we were in the most challenging environment in which Apple as a company has ever operated. That atmosphere of uncertainty, of resolve, of making difficult calls with limited information has not only come to define Apple's year, but each of our lives as individuals across this country and around the world.

It has been a chapter that none of us will forget. In the face of these challenges, Apple stayed relentlessly focused on what we do best and seeking every opportunity to do something new, something creative, something better on behalf of our customers.

Today, we report a quarter and a fiscal year that reflects that effort this quarter, Apple achieved revenue of $64.7 billion, a September quarter record, despite the anticipated absence of new iPhone availability during the quarter and the ongoing impacts of covid-19, including closures at many of our retail locations.

We also set a new all time record for Mac and services. Outside of iPhone, each of our product categories saw strong double digit year over year growth, despite supply constraints in several product categories."

On iPhone

"Our results for this quarter were ahead of our expectations, driven by stronger than expected iPhone and services performance. As we anticipated, we launched new iPhone models in October, a few weeks later than last year's mid-September launch.

Up to that mid-September point, customer demand for iPhone was very strong and grew double digits.

On iPad

Our iPad lineup continues to set the pace for the category, including the new iPad Air now shipping with the A14 Bionic, our most powerful chip ever.

On Services

In Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific: On services we saw stronger than expected performance across the board. Geographically, we set September quarter records in the Americas, Europe and rest of Asia Pacific. "

In India: "We also set a September quarter record in India, thanks in part to a very strong reception to this quarter's launch of our online store in the country.

In Greater China: Greater China is the region that was most heavily impacted by the absence of the new iPhones during the September quarter. Still, we beat our internal expectations in the region, growing non iPhone revenue, strong double digits and iPhone customer demand grew through mid-September."

Key Overview Points on Apple's Entire Fiscal Year

In this segment, Apple's CEO noted that "When you pull back the lens to the entire fiscal year, it's a testament to the team's work and to the resilience of the business in the era of covid-19. This year, we set an all-time revenue record of $274.5 billion, growing six percent year on year. We grew every quarter, set all time yearly records in Mac, wearables, home and accessories and services, and grew by double digits in every product category outside of iPhone.

When we first began to grapple with covid-19, I said there are worse things for a company whose business is innovation than having to periodically do just about everything, and in an entirely new way. This year, we not only launched our most powerful and compelling generation of hardware, software and services ever, we did it in a way that pushed us to reimagine every part of that innovation process down to how we share these announcements with the world and how we get new products into our customers hands.

'Working from kitchen tables and bedrooms and distanced office settings and reworked labs and manufacturing facilities, the team rebuilt every part of the plane while it was midair, and the results speak for themselves.'

In a year that has been enormously challenging, our retail team's contact centers and all those who work with our customers most closely have gone to creative and dedicated lengths to keep serving our customers from adapting our stores for contactless pickup, to new Apple Express storefronts, to new online customer support options amid store closings, reopening's and reimagining these teams have been an unfailing source of energy, creativity and determination, innovation isn't just about what you make, it's about how you approach problems."

In this last segment we presented some of the key points made in Cook's statement.  It's an abbreviation of this last segment that veered off into company values. For more on this segment along with commentary from Apple's CFO's and their Q&A session click here. Please note that the recording of the Financial Conference is only available for playback for a short time.   

For reference purposes, you'll be able to quickly find today's report in our Apple Event/Financial News archive should you wish to o review it at any time in the future for specific points that you're seeking.