Apple December quarter guidance calls for revenue growth of 7% to 10% year over year, as per the latest update from Apple. CFO Kevan Parekh said the range reflects constrained supply, and that Apple expects it to be the best quarter for revenue in its history.
Gross margin is guided to 45% to 46%, down from the 47.9% in Apple’s fourth-quarter results. Apple expects Services to grow 8% to 9%, slower than the 9.8% of the September quarter.
Apple December quarter guidance puts revenue near $154 billion to $158 billion
Apple’s December 2025 quarter brought in $143.8 billion, so growth of 7% to 10% works out to about $153.8 billion to $158.1 billion. Wall Street’s consensus of $153.4 billion, from our earnings preview, sits just below the low end of that range.
- Total revenue: up 7% to 10%
- Services revenue: up 8% to 9%
- Gross margin: 45% to 46%
Parekh said supply constraints held back iPhone, Mac and iPad in the September quarter, and he tied the December range to the same limit. Apple has also given no end date for iPhone Duo supply constraints, which means the first quarter with iPhone Duo sales starts supply-limited.
Memory costs and Siri AI take gross margin down to 45% to 46%
Parekh attributed the lower margin to higher memory costs and to some costs from the ramp of Siri AI. Apple is bringing Siri AI to five new languages in iOS 27.2.
The September quarter’s 47.9% included about one percentage point from tariff refunds, so the underlying margin was near 46.9%. A guide of 45% to 46% is one to two points below that. Parekh said Apple has received the vast majority of the tariff refunds it was owed.
Operating costs are rising too. Operating expenses were $19.2 billion in the September quarter, up 21%, and research and development rose 32% to $11.7 billion. Apple expects memory costs to keep rising through at least the end of the year, and Tim Cook has said that adding memory suppliers would not necessarily lower prices.
Services growth is guided to 8% to 9% after 9.8% in September
Parekh named third-party licensing and foreign exchange as the sequential headwinds for Services in the December quarter. The September quarter already carried more than one and a half points of sequential currency headwind.
Against Apple’s December 2025 Services revenue of $30.0 billion, growth of 8% to 9% means about $32.4 billion to $32.7 billion. That is 2.7% to 3.6% above the record $31.6 billion of the September quarter. Services gross margin was 76% in September, up 40 basis points from the June quarter.
