Text/Yang Jianyong
On the first trading day of 2022, Apple's market value hit a record high, and it once exceeded the $3 trillion mark during the session, which was the first listed company in history to exceed $3 trillion in market value. Although the closing gains narrowed, the market value was still as high as $2.986 trillion (19 trillion yuan), within easy reach of standing above $3 trillion. In the capital market, it has repeatedly reached new highs, showing that consumers have strong demand for iPhones, bringing a steady stream of profits to Apple.
According to the financial report, in fiscal 2021, revenue from iPhones was $191.973 billion, an increase of $54.192 billion compared with fiscal 2020, an increase of 39% year-on-year. In the case of the decline of global smartphones, Apple still maintains a high growth trend, which can be seen that the iPhone is favored by consumers around the world. IDC report shows that in the third quarter of 2021, global smartphone shipments fell by 6.7% year-on-year, and Apple bucked the trend by 20.8%, which is the highest growth rate of the world's top five mobile phone manufacturers. In the quarter, iPhone shipments were 50.4 million units, ranking second in the world with a market share of 15.2%.
It should be pointed out that in the absence of Huawei, a strong competitor, the iPhone shows a high-speed growth trend in the domestic market. According to Canalys data, Apple's domestic shipments in the third quarter of 2021 increased by 62%. In fiscal 2021, Apple's revenue from the Greater China region was $68.366 billion, an increase of 70% year-on-year, making it the fastest growing regional market in Apple's global market.
At the same time, not only the iPhone, but also other hardware products are in high demand. In fiscal 2021, iPad revenue increased by 34.3% year-on-year to $31.862 billion, and Mac revenue increased 23% to $35.19 billion. Benefiting from strong demand for various products, Apple's hardware product revenue reached $297.392 billion, an increase of $76.6 billion compared with fiscal 2020, an increase of 34.72% year-on-year.
In addition, revenue from the services sector is also increasing, and has become Apple's second largest revenue segment. Revenue for the fiscal year was $68,425 million, up 27% year-over-year. In recent years, Apple has aggressively developed the services sector as a way to reduce its dependence on the iPhone. In fiscal 2021, iPhone revenue accounted for 52.47% of total revenue, and services segment revenue accounted for 18.7% of total revenue. Service-centric businesses are driving the rapid growth of wearable devices and smart home devices.
Take the smart watch as an example, the Apple Watch is the world's best-selling smart watch, behind which is a wealth of health services, so that people can better grasp their overall health. It indicates that the Apple Watch is not limited to a smart hardware, but a healthy living device. There are also airPods that are popular around the world, and AirPodsPro with noise reduction functions have been sold out in the world.
The AirPods series of headphones can be continuously adjusted according to the geometry of the ear and the fit of the earbuds to block out external noise, which is unique among in-ear headphones, bringing immersive sound quality, and is the world's most popular wearable headphones. Guo Mingxi, an analyst from Tianfeng International, predicted in a recent report that AirPods shipments will reach 90 million units in 2022, an increase of about 25% year-on-year. Among them, it is optimistic about the trend of AirPods Pro 2 demand and future AirPods integrating health management functions.
According to data released by IDC, Apple shipped 39.8 million wearable devices in the third quarter of 2021, with a global share of 28.8%, ranking first in the industry. It's mainly the ear-mounted devices of AirPods and Beats that have helped Apple consolidate its leadership position in the wearables market. Combined with Apple's earnings data, wearable devices are Apple's most potential consumer hardware products. In fiscal 2021, the revenue of other segments composed of wearable devices such as AirPods and Apple Watch and smart homes reached $38.367 billion, an increase of 25.3% year-on-year, making it Apple's third largest business segment. This will be the world's most promising consumer technology market after smartphones.
Due to the strong consumer demand for Apple products, revenue and net profit have grown rapidly. In fiscal 2021, Apple's revenue was $365.8 billion, up 33% year-on-year, and its net profit was up 65% year-on-year to $94.7 billion (more than 600 billion yuan), making it the world's most profitable technology company. It should also be pointed out that this net profit scale is comparable to Huawei's annual revenue, and in 2021, Huawei's revenue is expected to be 634 billion yuan.
Finally, the strong demand for the iPhone, the record high revenue, the biggest profit in the industry and many other factors have also been favored by investors in the capital market, and became the world's first company with a market value of more than $3 trillion. Of course, the sharp rise of technology giants in the capital market has also caused concern in the industry, and the market value of these large technology giants has also triggered fears of technology bubbles.
Yang Jianyong, a contributor to Forbes China and winner of the NetEase 2020 Most Influential Award, is committed to in-depth interpretation of cutting-edge technologies such as the Internet of Things, cloud services and artificial intelligence, and his views and research strategies have been cited by many authoritative media and well-known enterprises.