7 Big Highlights From Apple's Q1 Conference Call

Apple Inc. AAPL shares are up 5 percent in early trading on Wednesday after the company delivered a huge quarterly earnings beat.

If you saw the top- and bottom-line numbers but didn’t sit through the earnings call, here are seven things you missed about Apple’s tremendous quarter.

• 1. The App Store set a new all-time sales record with $3 billion in purchases in the month of December. The Services segment will already be the size of a Fortune 100 company in 2017, but CEO Tim Cook wants to double its size in the next four years.
• 2. Apple’s massive cash hoard grew to $246.1 billion, 94 percent of which is held overseas. Cook said Apple is exploring uses for the cash regardless of possible tax reform, but he anticipates that changes to the tax code could be coming soon.
• 3. Greater China revenues declined 12 percent year-over-year, but Cook said China sales would have been up 6 percent if not for weakness in China’s currency. Cook said 50 percent of Apple’s iPhone sales in China came from “switchers” (customers coming from other devices) and first-time buyers.
• 4. When asked about Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus price hike, CFO Luca Maestri said there hasn’t been much push-back from customers. The price hike and favorable iPhone 7 Plus mix pushed iPhone ASP to $695 on the quarter.
• 5. Cook said Apple underestimated iPhone 7 demand, especially for the Plus model. He noted unprecedented switcher demand and supply constraints during the quarter.
• 6. Cook said QUALCOMM, Inc. QCOM held up $1 billion in payments and that Apple was essentially forced to sue the company.
• 7. When asked about iPhone 8 hints, Cook mentioned home, health and car services but didn’t provide any hardware insight. Many analysts and Apple enthusiasts expect the iPhone 8 to be a particularly innovative model because its release will mark the 10-year anniversary of the original iPhone.