Tim Cook touted the iPhone's "gorgeous new finishes" during Apple's quarterly results conference call on Tuesday evening. The earnings themselves do not come in "jet black" and "rose gold", but there seems to be a similarly inordinate amount of time spent on their superficial appearance. 

First, Apple applied some heavy timing gloss. It released the new iPhone seven days earlier than last year. Even with this artificial boost to the September-end quarter, iPhone revenues fell 13 per cent. Stealing from the future like this should hurt Apple's next quarter, but the company is doubling down by adding an extra week to the December-end quarter.

Apple expects to make about $US77 billion ($100.7 billion) in revenue in that quarter compared with about $US75 billion last year, setting it up for another record. Strip out the extra week, however, and it looks like another decline. 

Details matter

These fine details matter due to fears that a saturated smartphone market and a lack of dazzling new products are killing the growth prospects of the world's largest public company.

All around, big bets are being placed. This month alone has seen SoftBank announce a $US100 billion buyout fund and AT&T; announce a $US85 billion acquisition of Time Warner. Apple could easily have made either move, yet, though it talks big on deals, it has never paid more than $US3.5 billion. 

Nor, after five years as chief executive, has Mr Cook launched a big new product. Instead of hardware, Apple has chosen more gloss: emphasising its credentials as a services company.

For the second quarter in a row, the group's press release highlighted record services revenue, which grew at 24 per cent a year. Services are the only product line that grew at all, so no wonder Apple wanted to highlight it.

This is a perfectly reasonable tactical move – the company deserves more credit for its sticky software revenues – but it is also totally inadequate as a strategic next step of substance.

The Lex Column