New CEO John Ternus delivers an Apple earnings beat — but soft China and iPad sales

• Apple's first earnings report under John Ternus is here.
• Apple faces skyrocketing memory costs, component shortages, and a lineup that is more expensive after it boosted prices.
• The company beat on the top and bottom line, but missed on China and iPad sales.

Step on up to the earnings plate, John Ternus. The Apple executive with buzz for being a "product guy" oversaw his first earnings report as CEO on Monday.

Apple's revenue for the third quarter — its fiscal fourth quarter — was $114.5 billion, surpassing Wall Street's estimates of $113.46 billion. Earnings per share came in at $2.10, topping analysts' estimates of $2.

Spoiler alert: the company continues to sell a ton of iPhones. Revenue for the segment was $57.58 billion, compared to analysts' estimates of $56.48 billion. The company's highly watched gross margin was 47.9%.

China revenue of $17.54 billion missed analysts' estimates of $18.75 billion. Sales of its iPad were also in light, coming in at $6.23 billion compared to Wall Street's estimates of $6.83 billion. Its Services business came in largely in line with estimates at $31.57 billion.

Ternus, who took over for Tim Cook on September 1, has already taken the stage to announce multiple major new products for Apple: its first folding smartphone, the iPhone Duo, the company's first smart home hub, the Apple HomeView, and the first-ever touchscreen MacBook Pro.

While the iPhone Duo didn't go on sale until October, meaning they won't show up in Apple's results for the previous quarter, Wall Street will be looking for any color on how early orders are pacing.

The quarter does include roughly a couple weeks of iPhone 18 Pro sales. Importantly, Apple has yet to announce any non-Pro variants of the new iPhone lineup, which are expected early next year.

Ternus is beginning his CEO tenure at a time when Apple faces soaring memory costs — a key component for its iPhones, iPads, and Macs — and other supply chain constraints that have led it to boost hardware prices.

This is a developing story…