IPhone sales are in a major slump. AirPods and iPad are helping Apple grow

Apple’s iPhone sales slump isn’t going away. But the company has invented new revenue streams — and it’s relying on an old one — to keep growing.

Services, such as Apple Music, Apple Care and the soon-to-be-released Apple TV+, gave Apple a big boost in the last quarter. So did the iPad, after Apple released new iPad Pros and a separate, purpose-built “iPad OS” operating system.

Quarterly sales from services grew 18%, and iPad sales grew 17% between July and September. Sales of Apple’s wearables, including the now-ubiquitous AirPods and the Apple Watch, surged 54%. All of that helped make up for iPhone sales, which tumbled 9% last quarter.

Apple sold $33.4 billion worth of iPhones in July, August and September. Although that was down significantly from a year ago, iPhone sales easily beat investors’ expectations. The iPhone 11 went on sale during the final 10 days of the quarter.

That sent Apple’s stock 2% higher in after-hours trading.