Apple's iPhone sales and Services revenue were the stars of the tech giant's most recent quarter, but the Mac quietly outperformed — helped by growing demand for AI workloads.
Wall Street investors had expected to see Mac revenue in the low $8 billion range, but Apple reported $8.4 billion in the second quarter ended March 28 — a notable beat. Investors ahead of earnings believed that Mac sales would be essentially flat year-over-year. Instead, Mac sales were up 6% on an annual basis.
Apple CEO Tim Cook told analysts on the company's Q2 earnings call that customer demand for the MacBook Neo was "off the charts" and higher than Apple had expected. He also noted that Apple set a record in the quarter for customers new to the Mac, partly due to the Neo.
Cook attributed the Mac sales growth to the use of the platform for running local AI models, something that took Apple somewhat by surprise. Both the Mac mini and Mac Studio devices sold out in recent weeks due to AI demand.
"Cook said it may take Apple 'several months' to reach supply-demand balance on the Mac mini and Studio models. Mac revenue was flat on a quarter-over-quarter basis, suggesting this new demand has yet to scale.
The Mac mini was the top-selling desktop in China, a market that's been in an AI frenzy as of late.
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