Apple CEO Tim Cook (pictured) insisted the company remained confident iPhone sales would return to growth, as it unveiled plans to offer interest-free finance for the device.

On a call discussing its fiscal Q4 earnings (covering the period from 30 June to 28 September), Cook said the offer will be available to Apple Card users by the end of calendar 2019, enabling the cost of purchases to be spread over 24 months along with a 3 per cent cashback incentive.

“We’re cognisant that there are lots of users out there that want a recurring payment like that…and we’re committed to make that easier to do than maybe it is today,” he said.

Carolina Milanesi, principal analyst at Creative Strategies, told Mobile World Live the move will help Apple reach consumers who may not be able to qualify for other payment plans, or afford a new iPhone outright.

This isn’t Apple’s first foray into financing: it launched an offer with similar terms alongside payment giant Alipay in China earlier this year.

Service lift
In its fiscal Q4 , overall revenue inched up 2 per cent year-on-year to $64 billion, despite a 9 per cent drop in iPhone revenue to $33.4 billion. Profit fell from $14.1 billion to $13.7 billion.

The company’s services segment continued to shine, with Cook noting revenue growth of 18 per cent to $12.5 billion and all-time sales records across the App Store, Apple Music and Cloud Services.

Revenue in the company’s Wearables, Home and Accessories unit jumped from $4.2 billion to $6.5 billion, and iPad revenue increased from nearly $3.98 billion to $4.7 billion. However, Mac revenue dipped around 5 per cent to $6.99 billion.

Apple did not break out iPhone estimates for the current quarter (its fiscal Q1), but signalled confidence in its products across the board, with an overall revenue forecast of $85.5 billion to $89.5 billion.

For comparison, it posted overall revenue of $84.3 billion in fiscal Q1 2019, after facing a steep drop in iPhone revenue.