Mashable: The results were just better than what Wall Street had expected.

Apple reported financial results for its fiscal third quarter that were better than what Wall Street was expecting. This made its stock go up in after-hours trading.

Unfortunately for shareholders, sales increased by only 2% during the same period last year.

Before costs like stock compensation, the company that makes the iPhone and Mac reported earnings of $1.20 per share. This is down 8 percent from a year ago. The company made $83 billion in sales, which was a new record for the third quarter. Net income was $19.44 billion, which was less than last year's $21.74 billion.

According to a report, the results were just better than what Wall Street had expected. Analysts expected a profit of $1.16 per share and sales of $82.81 billion. After the news came out, Apple's stock went up by almost 3% in the extended trading session.

Tim Cook, the chief executive officer of Apple , emphasized the positive aspects of the findings and used the occasion to reiterate that "we are leading with our values, and expressing them in everything we develop, from new features that are designed to safeguard user privacy and security to tools that will boost accessibility, part of our long-standing commitment to creating products for everyone."

Cook's upbeat attitude, though, could not mask the truth that Apple's growth had slowed to a crawl. A year ago, the company's revenue grew by 36%, and even in the previous quarter, it still managed to grow by 8%. The CFO of Apple, Luca Maestri, said that the company was in a "challenging operating environment."

According to analysts, this year's economic uncertainties resulted in weaker demand for smartphones, personal computers, and other electronic products as customers battled concerns about a recession and out-of-control inflation. The fact that Apple's growth was slow in the last quarter suggests that the consumer electronics industry may be about to go through a long period of slower or even no growth.

However, Apple is currently making more money than expected, largely due to the success of its iPhones, which generated $40.67 billion in revenue during the quarter, beating Wall Street's projections and increasing by 3% from the same period last year.

The company said that there was still a lot of interest in its iPhone 13 models. Apple comes out with new iPhone models in September, which causes sales to drop as people wait to grab themselves the latest one.

Cook told Apple was still doing well at getting people who had Android phones to switch to iPhones. "We had a record number of people switch, and customers who were new to the iPhone grew by more than 10%"

That was a good thing because sales of Apple's other three major products went down in sales this quarter. For example, sales of Macs fell by 10%, to just $7.38 billion, which was less than expected. Cook said that a weak supply chain and a strong U.S. dollar hurt Mac sales.

In the "Other" category, which includes the Apple Watch, AirPods, and other devices, sales fell by 8%, to $8.08 billion. Sales of the iPad fell by 2%, to $7.22 billion.

Apple's services, which includes Apple Music, Apple TV+, iCloud, and AppleCare+, did better. Their revenue rose by 12 percent to $19.6 billion, which is a good sign. But that growth was less than the 17 percent growth it had in the previous quarter, and it was less than the 27 percent growth it had a year ago. Cook said that at the end of the quarter, Apple had 860 million paid subscriptions. This includes people who pay for Apple's own products as well as apps from the App Store.

Apple said three months ago that problems with the supply chain would likely cause sales to drop by $4 billion to $8 billion. This was clear from the company's website, which showed, for example, longer shipping times for many Mac models. Cook said that the company lost about $4 billion at the end of the quarter.

Greater China, which includes sales in Hong Kong and Taiwan, is Apple's biggest market. Sales fell by 1 percent, to $14.6 billion, in this market. Cook was optimistic of the result, especially since the Zero Covid policy in China and the shutdowns there had hurt demand for its products.

Apple also said that its gross margin of 43.26 percent was higher than its own estimate from three months ago, which was between 42% and 43%. The company also said that during the quarter, it spent $28 billion on share buybacks and dividends.

As they have done since the COVID-19 pandemic started, Apple did not give any guidance for the next quarter. But Cook told CNBC that he thinks sales will go up in the next quarter, despite "some pockets of softness." Analysts on Wall Street think that the company will earn $1.31 per share in the fourth quarter on sales of about $90 billion. The iPhone maker made $83.4 billion in sales in Q4 of the fiscal year 2021.