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Apple’s market cap drops despite record Q3 sales

Yet more record sales over the last three months paved the way for 33% revenue growth for Apple in the third fiscal quarter of 2015. However, after several back-to-back quarters of “blockbuster earnings,” expectations of the company have risen dramatically and even solid sales weren’t enough to stop Apple stock from dropping substantially.

Apple reported revenue of $49.6 billion for Q3 2015, a big increase on the $37.4 billion revenue earned the same time last year. Net profit in this period was $10.7 billion, up from last year’s $7.7 billion. According to its official report, the substantial year-on-year growth was fueled by “record third quarter sales of iPhone and Mac, all-time record revenue from services and the successful launch of Apple Watch.”

The specifics of exactly how successful the Apple Watch launch has been are open to interpretation: Apple, as promised, has not revealed exact sales figures for the new wearable device. Instead, revenue from the smartwatch has been lumped into a catch-all “other” category with the iPod, Apple TV and Beats accessories. What we do know is that the category earned $2.64 billion in revenue, an increase of almost $1 billion over the same period last year.

Read more: Apple Watch already makes up 75% of smartwatch market

So: decent sales, poorly received by the stock market. Apple CEO Tim Cook is keen to focus on the impressive customer satisfaction rates, according to the Wall Street Journal blog, although even they can’t explain exactly why the stock is down. The most likely explanation is simply that “the revenue outlook for the current quarter didn’t easily clear any Wall Street forecasts.”

Apple itself doesn’t seem too bothered, though. iPhone sales are still through the roof, with emerging markets in China and India making up more and more of the global sales figures. We should see in another three months at the next earnings call whether the stock drop has any long-term effect on Apple’s confidence.