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Apple warns supply constraints will increase ‘significantly’ next quarter

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Why This Matters

Apple's recent earnings highlight strong growth in certain product lines but also signal significant upcoming supply constraints that could impact availability and revenue. This development underscores ongoing supply chain challenges in the tech industry, affecting consumer access to key devices and potentially influencing market dynamics. For consumers and industry stakeholders, understanding these constraints is crucial for anticipating product availability and planning accordingly.

Key Takeaways

During today’s earnings call discussing its Q3 2026 results, Apple said it is bracing for a tougher September quarter, with growing supply pressures affecting its most important products. Here are the details.

iPad, iPhone, and Mac to face growing supply constraints

Today, Apple reported strong Q3 2026 results, driven by double-digit growth in iPhone and Mac revenue and a 27% increase in profit.

However, Apple saw iPad revenue fall 5% year over year, while Services recorded its first sequential decline since 2022, with revenue of $30.73 billion for the period, a 12% increase year over year.

Wall Street’s immediate reaction to Apple’s results was far from positive, with the company’s stock currently trading roughly 6.5% below its closing price.

During the earnings call, Apple offered guidance for the September quarter and was very clear about the challenges ahead, warning of significantly greater supply constraints and continued foreign exchange headwinds.

Apple CFO Kevan Parekh said currency fluctuations alone are expected to shave roughly 2.5 percentage points off Apple’s revenue growth next quarter (compared with the June quarter), and added that “the impact from supply constraints [is expected] to increase significantly sequentially.”

Parekh listed the iPhone, Mac, and iPad as products that will be significantly affected by the supply constraints, and added:

On iPhone, we expect to continue to see high levels of demand. However, we do expect iPhone revenue to be impacted by these foreign exchange headwinds and supply constraints. Therefore, we expect the September quarter reported growth rate for iPhone to be mid-teens year over year. For services, we expect the September quarter year-over-year reported growth rate to be largely similar to what we reported in the June quarter after removing the negative sequential impact of about 2.5 percentage points from foreign exchange that we just described.

He said Apple expects total revenue for Q4 2026 to grow between 9% and 11% year over year, with gross margin ranging from 47% to 48%, provided that “global tariff rates, policies, and their application remain in effect as of this call, and the global macroeconomic outlook does not worsen from today.”

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