John Ternus Gets His First Earnings Call. Apple Gets Its First iPhone Price Hike Test.

Apple reports fiscal fourth-quarter results after the closing bell on Monday, and for the first time, the voice on the earnings call explaining it all won't be Tim Cook's. New CEO John Ternus takes the lead on a 5 p.m. ET call that doubles as his introduction to Wall Street as the man now running the world's most valuable company.

Analysts polled by LSEG expect earnings per share of $1.99 on revenue of $113.39 billion, which would mark an 11% jump from the $102.5 billion Apple posted a year earlier. iPhone sales alone are projected to hit $56.59 billion for the quarter.

That iPhone number is where things get interesting, and complicated. The quarter captures eight days of sales from the new iPhone 18 Pro, giving investors their first real data point on how the device is selling. But Apple's actual flagship launch for the cycle, the iPhone Duo, didn't reach stores until after the quarter closed. The company also skipped releasing a new entry-level iPhone 18 entirely. That combination means this report is a partial, slightly awkward snapshot: new premium hardware has barely had time to move units, while Apple's budget tier sat on last year's model.

Then there's pricing. Apple raised iPhone prices by $100 across the board, a move that could goose revenue per unit while potentially cooling actual demand. Whether the price increase translated into higher sales dollars or just fewer buyers is one of the central questions the numbers should start to answer, even with only a partial quarter of iPhone 18 Pro data to work with.

What Ternus will be asked

Beyond the headline numbers, this call is really about Ternus himself, taking questions from analysts in a substantial way for the first time since stepping into the CEO role. A few topics are expected to dominate.

China is at the top of the list. Apple's AI software recently got regulatory approval there, a meaningful unlock in a market that's been a persistent soft spot for iPhone sales and where Apple has had to navigate local rules around AI features more carefully than almost anywhere else. Investors want to know what Ternus plans to do with that approval now that it's in hand.

There's also the broader product cadence to address. Apple has pushed out a run of new devices recently, and with the iPhone Duo arriving just after the quarter ended, how Ternus frames the launch and early demand signals will matter for what comes next in the fiscal year.

And looming over all of it: a global shortage of memory and flash storage chips that's been squeezing hardware makers across the industry. How Apple is managing component costs and availability heading into the holiday quarter is the kind of operational detail that doesn't make headlines the way a new iPhone does, but directly affects margins and supply.

Why the timing matters

Taking over as CEO is one thing. Doing it on a call where the market is simultaneously digesting a price hike, a late flagship launch, and a skipped product tier is another. Ternus doesn't get the luxury of a clean introductory quarter, he's stepping into a report with a lot of moving pieces and limited data on the device Apple is betting on most.

The numbers Monday will offer an early read on price elasticity for the iPhone line and a gauge of pre-Duo demand. The real test, for Ternus and for the stock, likely comes next quarter, when a full three months of Duo sales and the holiday shopping season show up in the results.