Apple’s Insane iPhone Sales Take Pressure Off the Apple Watch

One thing is abundantly clear in Apple’s second-quarter earnings: Apple is a phone company first and foremost.

The firm sold 61.2 million iPhones last quarter, up a staggering 40% year-over-year. iPhone sales accounted for nearly 70% of the company’s total Q2 revenue. Phone sales are down from the last quarter when Apple sold a record 74.5 million of them, but that figure got a big boost from excitement over new models—the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus—and the holiday shopping season, factors that didn’t apply in Q2.

The iPhone’s stellar Q2 numbers couldn’t come at a better time for Apple. The company has just begun shipping the Apple Watch, its first all-new product under CEO Tim Cook. While Apple has a habit of reviving and then dominating dormant categories (music players, smartphones, tablets, ultra-lightlaptops…), it still isn’t clear if the Apple Watch will be a mainstream hit. Massive iPhone sales provide plenty of cover for Apple in the meantime.

There’s no official word yet on how Apple’s new Apple Watch wearable device is selling; the company did not disclose details. One unofficial estimate suggests Apple sold 1.7 million of the devices in a presale period.

Another bright spot for Apple last quarter were sales of Macs. Apple sold 4.6 million desktops and laptops last quarter, thanks in part to new models. The company recently refreshed the MacBook Air, the 13-inch MacBook Pro and introduced a new design for the mid-level MacBook laptop. It also introduced a retina 5K version of the iMac desktop late last year.

All that iPhone and Mac success is helping Apple counter sagging sales for its iPad tablet. Apple sold only 12.6 million iPads last quarter, down 23% year-over-year. Tablet sales have been slowing universally as it becomes apparent consumers aren’t upgrading their devices as frequently as they buy new smartphones. However, Apple and other tablet makers are looking toward enterprise clients as a promising path for growth down the road.