Three takeaways from Apple's earnings report

As I expected, Apple's top level revenue and earnings numbers weren't that interesting in and of themselves, but there were several things that stood out from Apple's quarterly financial report. iPhone sales were sluggish. CEO Tim Cook acknowledged that demand has been a bit slow, possibly due to earlier-than-usual rumors about what might be coming in the next iPhone. China was weak, again. As it has been for the last several quarters, the once fast-growing Greater China segment was Apple's weakest. Cook did say he sees the business improving this quarter, but cautioned Apple is unlikely to return to year-over-year growth. The Apple Watch is becoming a big business. No, Apple didn't actually give us sales figures. But it did give two data points. Sales last quarter were double those of the prior year, and if you add watch sales with the Beats headphones and AirPods business, you have the equivalent of a Fortune 500 company, meaning more than $5 billion a year. Creative Strategies analyst Ben Bajarin estimates Apple sold 3.2 million Apple Watches in the quarter. This originally ran in Login, Axios' technology newsletter. For more new like this, sign up here.