An employee assists a customer who purchased four Apple Inc. iPhone X smartphones during the sales launch at a store in Chicago.

Apple sold 52.2 million iPhones in the quarter ended March 2018, up slightly from 51 million in the year-ago quarter.

That follows a year-over-year dip in phone sales during the first quarter of its fiscal year, when Apple sold just 77.3 million. The company reported the stat in its second quarter earnings report Tuesday.

Analysts were expecting 53 million phone sales for the March quarter in the wake of reports of weak iPhone X demand, according to FactSet consensus estimates.

Apple announced its most expensive handset to date in September and struggled to meet initial orders. The company has faced supplier-driven reports of lower market demand in the months since.

Sales of other major devices rang in right in line with expectations.

The company shipped 9.1 million iPads in the March quarter, compared with 9.17 million expected, and shipped 4.1 million Macs compared with 4.14 million expected.