Apple on Thursday reported a fall in quarterly revenue and profits for the final three months last year, hit by a drop in sales of its flagship iPhones.

For the just-ended quarter, Apple's profits missed Wall Street expectations for the first time since 2016. The company said iPhone sales fell for the first time since 2020, down 8 percent from the year before at $65.8 billion.

"COVID-19 related challenges" that "significantly" reduced Apple's supply of iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max lasted through most of December, Apple chief executive Tim Cook said on an earnings call.

However, the company forecasts that iPhone sales were likely to improve as production had returned to normal in China after COVID-19-related disruptions.

Apple's revenue was $117.1 billion, down 5.4 percent from a year ago for the same quarter a year earlier, missing what analysts had forecast.

The company's services segment, which includes content businesses such as Apple TV+ and software business like the App Store, rose 6 percent to $20.8 billion in revenue. Sales of the iPad were up 30 percent to $9.4 billion.

Sales of the company's Mac computers, which had boomed during the wave of working from home during the pandemic, declined 29 percent year on year to $7.7 billion.

Meanwhile, Google also reported downbeat results for the last quarter of 2022 on Thursday. Fourth quarter revenue for Google parent Alphabet at $76 billion and profit of $13.6 billion were below what it made in the same period a year earlier.

(With input from Reuters, AFP)