(Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said that store closures related to the Covid-19 pandemic are weighing on sales of the iPhone and wearable devices more than the iPad and Mac.
Cook said the pandemic likely boosted iPad and Mac sales due to lockdown rules and an increase in remote learning. “There is a shift that occurs online, but online doesn't fully make up for the offline loss,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.
Still, the “iPhone did better than what we expected,” Cook said. Apple's iPhone sales climbed 1.7% to $26.4 billion in the fiscal third quarter, topping the average $21.3 billion estimate.
Apple saw a slow first three weeks of iPhone sales in April when the impact of Covid-19 was “particularly bad,” but conditions improved in May and June. The iPad had its best June quarter in 8 years and the Mac had a June quarter record, he said.
More than 100 Apple retail stores in the U.S. have had to shut again due to the pandemic. He said the closures “weigh on the results” and implied they would continue to hamper iPhone sales. He said Apple isn't giving fiscal fourth-quarter guidance due to the ongoing uncertainty.
The Apple executive also said that some services, including AppleCare repairs and advertising, were negatively impacted by the pandemic. Still, he cited record revenue for the App Store, Apple Music, video products and cloud services.
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