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AAPL · Forward model · Services · Bear case

What has to happen in Services

Model as of

This page changes Services inside the complete AAPL model. Every other vertical, corporate programme and valuation assumption stays in the selected portfolio case.

AAPL forward model
Horizon
Consolidated fair value $217.85 all other verticals held in this portfolio case
Final-quarter revenue $40.86B 31% of company revenue
Explicit segment contribution $427.68B EBITDA less segment capex, before corporate items

The June quarter was the peak. Company growth halves from 16.4% to the guided 9-11%, gross margin steps back from 50.06% to 47-48% as the tariff refunds shrink from about two points to about one, supply constraints were guided to increase significantly sequentially across iPhone, Mac and iPad, and memory costs rise again. Services, the margin engine, already decelerated from 16.3% to 12.1% in a single quarter. R&D has grown at roughly twice the revenue rate for two consecutive quarters with no disclosed AI revenue, so corporate overhead drifts up rather than staying at 17.4%. What this case does NOT assume is a collapse in the installed base or the loss of the Google licensing payment - it says the fiscal 2026 growth rate was a tariff-and-cycle artefact that does not repeat.

Services

Basis quarter$30.74B
Final quarter$40.86B
Implied CAGR+6%
Final revenue mix31%

$30,739M, 28.1% of revenue at a disclosed 75.62% gross margin, and the reason the whole company earns what it does - but growth decelerated from 16.3% year over year in the March quarter to 12.1% in the June quarter, and the September guide is for a REPORTED rate of about 9.6% once the guided foreign-exchange headwind is applied. Apple discloses an installed base of over 2.5 billion active devices and over 1.5 billion paid subscriptions, but both are repeated floors, not a quarterly series, so a subscribers-times-ARPU driver cannot be built from disclosure. Services carries no seasonal index.

Last four quarters
2025 Q3 $28.75B Reported
2025 Q4 $30.01B Reported
2026 Q1 $30.98B Reported
2026 Q2 $30.74B Reported
App StoreadvertisingiCloudApple MusicApple TVAppleCarepayment serviceslicensing
Sequential growth +2.5%/qtr decaying toward +1.8% Guided reported September rate of ~9.6% - June’s 12.1% less the 2.5-point FX headwind - on $28,750M.
Services

Latest: $40.86B (2031Q2E)

Period Value
2025Q1 $26.64B
2025Q2 $27.42B
2025Q3 $28.75B
2025Q4 $30.01B
2026Q1 $30.98B
2026Q2 $30.74B
2026Q3E $31.35B
2026Q4E $31.95B
2027Q1E $32.52B
2027Q2E $33.09B
2027Q3E $33.63B
2027Q4E $34.17B
2028Q1E $34.69B
2028Q2E $35.20B
2028Q3E $35.70B
2028Q4E $36.19B
2029Q1E $36.68B
2029Q2E $37.16B
2029Q3E $37.63B
2029Q4E $38.10B
2030Q1E $38.57B
2030Q2E $39.03B
2030Q3E $39.49B
2030Q4E $39.95B
2031Q1E $40.41B
2031Q2E $40.86B

Assumptions & reasoning

  • The guidance here is read whole, and it is the correction that matters most on this page. The CFO said the September quarter reported growth rate would be largely similar to the June quarter's AFTER REMOVING the negative sequential impact of about two and a half percentage points from foreign exchange. The number that will be PRINTED is therefore about 12.1% - 2.5 = 9.6%, not 12.1%: $28,750M x 1.096 = $31,510M, which is +2.51% sequential on $30,739M.
  • Services is deliberately aseasonal. Its seasonal amplitude measured across the two full-year windows is 0.044 while the windows disagree by up to 0.084 - the shape is entirely inside the noise, which fits a subscription and commission annuity.
  • The 78.7% margin is the disclosed Services gross margin of 75.62% ($7,494M of Services cost of sales on $30,739M of Services net sales) plus the same uniform 3.0-point revenue share of company D&A used on the hardware lines. This is the only vertical whose gross margin Apple actually prints.
  • The installed base of over 2.5 billion active devices and the over 1.5 billion paid subscriptions are disclosed floors that Apple repeats across quarters. They are context and a ceiling check - $12.30 of Services revenue per active device per quarter is a ceiling, not a point estimate - and they are deliberately not turned into a quarterly subscriber series.
  • Apple publishes no sub-line split of Services in any filing, so no App Store, advertising, iCloud or licensing share appears here. In particular the Google search-default licensing payment is an undisclosed, high-margin slice of this line whose antitrust remedies are unresolved; it sits inside the terminal growth rate with no way to size or sensitise it.
  • Terminal capital intensity is set at 4.0% of segment revenue against 2.5% for the hardware lines, because Siri AI and iCloud need server capacity Apple has not yet built. Apple allocates no capex by category, so this is an assumption, not a disclosure.
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