Apple reported continued strength across Asia, particularly in greater China where revenue in its fiscal Q1 2018 increased 11 per cent year-on-year to $17.9 billion.

In an earnings call, CFO Luca Maestri said: “In greater China we were very happy to generate double-digit revenue growth for the second quarter in a row, and in emerging markets outside of greater China, we saw 25 per cent year-over-year growth.”

Sales in Japan jumped 26 per cent year-on-year to $7.24 billion in the quarter ending 30 December 2017, while revenue for the rest of Asia Pacific rose 17 per cent to $6.85 billion. Asia accounted for 36.3 per cent of Apple’s global revenue, with greater China contributing 20.3 per cent of the total (down from 20.7 per cent in fiscal Q1 2017).

The quarter had 13 weeks compared with 14 weeks in fiscal Q1 2017, prompting Apple CEO Tim Cook to say in the call: “Even though we were reporting a similar year-over-year growth for greater China, if you change that reporting to average weekly sales, there was actually a really nice acceleration. And specifically the numbers this quarter as reported are an 11 per cent increase for greater China year-over-year, but on an average weekly revenue basis, we were up 19 per cent.”

Responding to a question about the potential decaying of demand for iPhones, Cook noted in urban China and the US the top five smartphones during the quarter were all iPhones, while in Japan and the UK six of the top seven were iPhones.

“In a market that is as large as the smartphone market is, people want some level of choice and they’re deciding which ones to buy. But we feel fantastic, particularly as it pertains to iPhone X,” Cook said.

Apple posted record revenue of $88.3 billion and profit of $20.1 billion in the recent quarter, but recorded its first year-on-year drop in fiscal Q1 iPhone shipments since 2008.