Apple Q4 2026 earnings call: CEO John Ternus addresses iPhone Duo availability and increasing prices
Apple held its Q4 2026 earnings call on Monday, its first since John Ternus took over from Tim Cook as its new CEO. The tech giant reported quarterly revenue of $114.5 billion, marking a 12 percent increase compared to the same period last year. Unsurprisingly, a large chunk of that came from iPhone sales.
iPhones remain Apple’s biggest money spinner, making the company a net profit of $57.6 billion in the three months from July to September. That’s a 17 percent increase from the $49 billion it made during the same period last year. Calling Q4 2026 “one of the most prolific launch periods in [Apple’s] history,” Ternus specifically cited the iPhone Duo as “the most transformational iPhone since the original.”
“We have been thrilled with the early response from reviewers and customers, and we are working hard to get iPhone Duo into customers’ hands as quickly as we can,” Ternus said.
While Apple’s consolidated financial statements didn’t break down exactly how much profit can be attributed to each iPhone model, the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max were two of Apple’s biggest releases within Q4. The iPhone Duo orders opened too late to be included in these quarterly results, but the launch itself was a big deal for Apple. The device had been highly anticipated for years prior to its unveiling in September, with preorders for Apple’s first foldable phone selling out within hours despite a starting price of $1,999.
The iPhone Duo is currently on backorder, with the Apple Store stating that shipments are expected to resume late January next year. However, Apple’s executives couldn’t say when the company would have enough units to fulfill customers’ orders.
“iPhone Duo is constrained as of today,” said COO Sabih Khan during Apple’s earnings call. “The ramp is going well… But at this time, it is really hard to predict when supply and demand will be in balance.”
Apple acknowledges increased iPhone prices and memory chip demand
Apple’s growing revenue comes in spite of higher manufacturing costs, driven by increased demand for memory chips due to the AI boom. In response to these pressures, Apple quietly raised the prices of the iPhone 16, 17, 17e, and Air in September, making most of these older models more expensive than they had been at launch. These price increases followed a similar adjustment of iPad and Mac prices in June. Apple’s former CEO Tim Cook stated that month that while the company was attempting to “mitigate” the impact of the memory shortage on customers, “price increases are unavoidable.”
“What we’re seeing with memory pricing right now is unprecedented,” Ternus said during Monday’s earnings call, stating that memory prices are continuing to climb every quarter. “For the December quarter, we expect even higher memory costs.”
“We did reluctantly make the decision to change pricing on a number of our products, starting with the iPad and Mac in the June timeframe, and then iPhone more recently in September,” said CFO Kevan Parekh. “We evaluate the unit’s revenue margin, and we are really being thoughtful and deliberate at evaluating kind of the short-term and long-term considerations, and we really believe we are balancing this well.”
U.S. tariff refunds assist Apple’s finances
Apple further noted that its finances have been significantly helped by tariff refunds. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down many of the Trump administration’s tariffs in February, finding that the president did not have the authority to unilaterally impose them.
As such, Apple received enough tariff refunds in Q4 to account for approximately one percentage point of its 47.9 percent gross margin. While not as much as the two percentage points attributable to its Q3 tariff refunds, it’s still a significant amount.
“When you remove the tariff refunds from both the June and September quarter, both company and products gross margin would be down about one point sequentially, primarily driven by higher memory costs,” said Parekh. “As of the September quarter, we have received the vast majority of the refunds related to tariffs paid.”
Now that Apple has received almost all of its tariff refunds, it likely won’t receive a similar boost in future earnings reports. As such, the company may look to make savings or bring in additional revenue elsewhere.
Ternus began cutting jobs at Apple just two weeks after he began his new role on Sept. 1, aiming to run it leaner and to move faster according to a report from Bloomberg. Impacted workers have been told to find other roles within the company, or will eventually be laid off. Apple has also reportedly looked into replacing around 5,000 AppleCare customer support workers with AI agents, though such plans have been shelved for now.
