Revenue Recognition

6 Months Ended

Mar. 30, 2019

Revenue from Contract with Customer [Abstract]

Net sales consist of revenue from the sale of iPhone, Mac, iPad, services and other products. The Company recognizes revenue at the amount to which it expects to be entitled when control of the products or services is transferred to its customers. Control is generally transferred when the Company has a present right to payment and title and the significant risks and rewards of ownership of products or services are transferred to its customers. For most of the Company’s products net sales, control transfers when products are shipped. For the Company’s services net sales, control transfers over time as services are delivered. Payment for products and services net sales is collected within a short period of time following transfer of control or commencement of delivery of services, as applicable.

The Company records reductions to products net sales related to future product returns, price protection and other customer incentive programs based on the Company’s expectations and historical experience.

For arrangements with multiple performance obligations, which represent promises within an arrangement that are capable of being distinct, the Company allocates revenue to all distinct performance obligations based on their relative stand-alone selling prices (“SSP”). When available, the Company uses observable prices to determine the SSP. When observable prices are not available, SSPs are established that reflect the Company’s best estimates of what the selling prices of the performance obligations would be if they were sold regularly on a stand-alone basis. The Company’s process for estimating SSPs without observable prices considers multiple factors that may vary depending upon the unique facts and circumstances related to each performance obligation including, where applicable, prices charged by the Company for similar offerings, market trends in the pricing for similar offerings, product-specific business objectives and the estimated cost to provide the performance obligation.

The Company has identified up to three performance obligations regularly included in arrangements involving the sale of iPhone, Mac, iPad and certain other products. The first performance obligation, which represents the substantial portion of the allocated sales price, is the hardware and bundled software delivered at the time of sale. The second performance obligation is the right to receive certain product-related bundled services, which include iCloud, Siri and Maps. The third performance obligation is the right to receive, on a when-and-if-available basis, future unspecified software upgrades relating to the software bundled with each device. The Company allocates revenue and any related discounts to these performance obligations based on their relative SSPs. Because the Company lacks observable prices for the undelivered performance obligations, the allocation of revenue is based on the Company’s estimated SSPs. Revenue allocated to the delivered hardware and bundled software is recognized when control has transferred to the customer, which generally occurs when the product is shipped. Revenue allocated to the product-related bundled services and unspecified software upgrade rights is deferred and recognized on a straight-line basis over the estimated period they are expected to be provided. Cost of sales related to delivered hardware and bundled software, including estimated warranty costs, are recognized at the time of sale. Costs incurred to provide product-related bundled services and unspecified software upgrade rights are recognized as cost of sales as incurred.

For certain long-term service arrangements, the Company has performance obligations for services it has not yet delivered. For these arrangements, the Company does not have a right to bill for the undelivered services. The Company has determined that any unbilled consideration relates entirely to the value of the undelivered services. Accordingly, the Company has not recognized revenue, and has elected not to disclose amounts, related to these undelivered services.

For the sale of third-party products where the Company obtains control of the product before transferring it to the customer, the Company recognizes revenue based on the gross amount billed to customers. The Company considers multiple factors when determining whether it obtains control of third-party products including, but not limited to, evaluating if it has the ability to establish the price of the product, retains inventory risk for tangible products or has the responsibility for ensuring acceptability of the product. For third-party applications sold through the App Store^®, Mac App Store and TV App Store and certain digital content sold through the iTunes Store^®, the Company does not obtain control of the product before transferring it to the customer. Therefore, the Company accounts for such sales on a net basis by recognizing in services net sales only the commission it retains.

The Company has elected to record revenue net of taxes collected from customers that are remitted to governmental authorities, with the collected taxes recorded within other current liabilities until remitted to the relevant government authority.

Deferred Revenue

As of March 30, 2019 and September 29, 2018, the Company had total deferred revenue of $8.2 billion and $8.8 billion, respectively. As of March 30, 2019, the Company expects 67% of total deferred revenue to be realized in less than a year, 26% within one-to-two years, 6% within two-to-three years and 1% in greater than three years.

Disaggregated Revenue

Net sales disaggregated by significant products and services for the three- and six-month periods ended March 30, 2019 and March 31, 2018 were as follows (in millions):



	Three Months Ended				Six Months Ended
	March 30, 2019		March 31, 2018		March 30, 2019		March 31, 2018
iPhone⁽¹⁾	$	31,051	$	37,559	$	83,033	$	98,663
Mac ⁽¹⁾	5,513		5,776		12,929		12,600
iPad⁽¹⁾	4,872		4,008		11,601		9,763
Wearables, Home and Accessories ⁽¹⁾⁽²⁾	5,129		3,944		12,437		9,425
Services ⁽³⁾	11,450		9,850		22,325		18,979
Total net sales ⁽⁴⁾	$	58,015	$	61,137	$	142,325	$	149,430


(1)	Products net sales include amortization of the deferred value of unspecified software upgrade rights, which are bundled in the sales price of the respective product.


(2)	Wearables, Home and Accessories net sales include sales of AirPods®, Apple TV®, Apple Watch®, Beats® products, HomePod™, iPod touch® and Apple-branded and third-party accessories.


(3)	Services net sales include sales from the Company’s digital content stores and streaming services, AppleCare®, Apple Pay®, licensing and other services. Services net sales also include amortization of the deferred value of Maps, Siri and free iCloud services, which are bundled in the sales price of certain products.


(4)	Includes $1.9 billion and $2.2 billion of revenue recognized in the three months ended March 30, 2019 and March 31, 2018, respectively, and $3.8 billion and $3.5 billion of revenue recognized in the six months ended March 30, 2019 and March 31, 2018, respectively, that was included in deferred revenue at the beginning of each respective period.

The Company’s proportion of net sales by disaggregated revenue source was generally consistent for each reportable segment in Note 11, “Segment Information and Geographic Data” for the three- and six-month periods ended March 30, 2019 and March 31, 2018.