APPLE Inc. sales led by the pricey iPhone X pushed quarterly results far beyond Wall Street targets on Tuesday, with subscriptions from App Store, Apple Music and iCloud services bolstering business.

The world’s most valuable technology company also forecast revenue above expectations for the fall, when it typically launches new iPhone models, reassuring a nervous tech sector that saw sell-offs last week in Facebook Inc, Twitter Inc and Netflix Inc on concerns about their future growth.

The Cupertino, California company has responded to a plateauing global smartphone market by launching ever-more expensive phones and diversifying into services, prospering even as rival Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. missed targets for its flagship Galaxy S9 and China’s Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.[HWT.UL] took the No. 2 global smartphone sales spot.

Apple also regained growth in China, where sales rose 19 percent. Sales there fell dramatically in 2016 after Chinese consumers shunned the iPhone 7, whose overall appearance differed little from its predecessor.

And a US$20 billion stock buyback in the quarter spurred by sweeping U.S. corporate tax cuts brought Apple’s buyback tally this year to a record US$43 billion and exceeded the stock market value of almost three-quarters of the companies in the S&P 500.

“The lesson Apple’s management has learned from the iPhone X, is when you sell a smartphone for more than US$1,000 you can sell fewer units and still reap the financial benefits,” said analyst Thomas Forte from D.A. Davidson & Co.

Shares rose 3.7 percent in extended trade to US$197.34, a record high, putting its market capitalization at US$954 billion. The stock would need to hit US$206.49 for Apple to become the first publicly traded U.S. company to cross the US$1 trillion threshold, based on Apple’s share count at the end of the quarter. 　(SD-Agencies)

But several of Apple’s services do not face strong rivals. Maestri told Reuters that sales from Apple Care, the company’s warranty offering, were up 27 percent versus a year ago.

Apple’s biggest selling products do not yet face duties stemming from the U.S.-China trade disputes, but U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened hundreds of billions of further tariffs whose product categories have not yet been enumerated.

(SD-Agencies)