iPhone success stops Apple's downward trend. Smartphone sales accounted for $69.7 billion of this. Sales there only reached $20.82 billion instead of the hoped-for $23.53 billion. Apple CFO Luca Maestri predicted group sales for the current quarter would be below the previous year's figure. The group is no longer allowed to force third-party app providers to use Apple's payment service for billing subscriptions, for which a 30 percent commission is due. Apple users will in future be able to install apps from sources other than the App Store.