Cupertino’s comeback kid: With iPhones doing the heavy lifting, Apple shrugsoff the gloom and posts a clean beat for Q3iPhones to the RescueApple has done it again, snatching another quarterly win from the jawsof analyst doubt. The tech giant’s thirdquarter earnings report dropped yesterday and brought some much-needed goodnews for investors: revenue came in at $94 billion, beating expectations and up10% year on year, largely thanks to an unexpected jump in iPhone sales.8 billion people.3 billion iPhones sold.That’s 1 iPhone for every 3 humans on earth. pic.twitter.com/ZEjhhShv4F— Apple Design (@TheAppleDesign) July 31, 2025You read that right. The iPhone, the product Wall Street loves toprematurely eulogize, posted a year-over-year sales increase, pulling in $44.58billion this quarter, up 13.5%. That’s around $4 billion more than analysts hadanticipated. Apparently, there are still enough people on the planet willing toshell out over a grand for marginal camera upgrades. Apologies for the snark,the latest models are great, as usual but, as usual, they’re overpriced.CEO Tim Cook, naturally, was ready with the victory lap. “Today Appleis proud to report a June quarter revenue record with double-digit growth iniPhone, Mac and Services and growth around the world, in every geographicsegment,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “At WWDC25, we were excited to introducea beautiful new software design that extends across all of our platforms, andwe announced even more great Apple Intelligence features.”All good news? Sure. But, iPhone is the key.The Stock Likes ItApple’s share price reacted accordingly. After the earnings werereleased, shares rose around 2-3% in after-hours trading.Investors found comfort in Apple’s forward guidance. The company hintedat continued strength in iPhone sales for the next quarter and suggested thatwearables and iPads, which declined this time, could see an improvement ahead.No flashy artificial intelligence (AI) announcement, no “one more thing”, no big pivot, justsolid numbers and a calm tone from the executive suite. In this market, that’spractically a flex.Not All Sunshine and TitaniumItwasn’t a flawless quarter. Mac sales of $8.05 billion beat expectations of$7.26 billion, and wearables (yes, that includes your Apple Watch and AirPods) did$7.4 billion, missing estimates of $7.82 billion. Services, long considered thecompany’s golden goose, pulled in $27.42 billion, topping analyst expectationsof $26.8 billion. iPads hit $6.58 billion in sales, missing expectations of$7.24 billionAs a Mac user for over 25 years, I’m happy to say that the Apple siliconMacBook Pros are … great. They’re fast, powerful, offer a load of options interms of RAM and storage … but they’re incredibly expensive for what you’regetting and the upgrade pricing is eye watering. Perhaps in these challengingtimes, that’s becoming more of a factor. But if you’re wedded to Mac OS, or lovea good piece of aluminum, you’re probably all in.Apple CEO: "...a June quarter revenue record with double-digit growth in iPhone, Mac & Services & growth around the world, in every geographic segment"—Net sales: +9.6% to $94B—Operating income: +11.5% to $28.2B—Net income: +5.8% to $23.4B$AAPL: +2% AH pic.twitter.com/3hmeV3zDRP— The Transcript (@TheTranscript_) July 31, 2025Still, the real story here is how the iPhone is carrying the wholeecosystem. Critics have spent years calling Apple a one-trick pony, and whilethe company has made attempts to diversify (hello, Vision Pro), it turns outthe old pony can still shift when it needs to.Added to that, the firm unveiled the impact of tariffs, with a $1.1 billion increase in costs just from tariffs for the current quarter. So while Cook and co. talk up services, privacy, and environmentalgoals, the quarterly earnings math remains simple: sell iPhones, win quarter.What Comes Next?With Q3 in the bag, all eyes are on the September quarter, typicallyApple’s most lucrative thanks to new product launches. The company didn’t giveaway much, as usual, but reading between the lines, they’re expecting a strongiPhone 16 cycle and probably a little help from back-to-school Mac and iPadsales.Meanwhile, Apple continues to invest heavily in AI, cloudinfrastructure, and who knows what else in its top-secret R&D bunker. Butfor now, Wall Street is just relieved that people are still buying iPhones in asaturated smartphone market.Maybe the iPhone isn’t dead. Maybe it just needed another incrementalupgrade.For more news around the edges of finance, visit our Trending section.This article was written by Louis Parks at www.financemagnates.com.