Thank you, Steve, and good afternoon, everyone. I will begin with comments on our fiscal fourth quarter and 2018 results, followed by our fiscal first quarter of 2019 guidance and some additional perspective on 2019 overall. In our fiscal fourth quarter, results were strong, with revenues of $5.8 billion, above the midpoint of our guidance range, and non-GAAP EPS of $0.90, above the high end of our prior guidance range.
Revenues benefited primarily from stronger than expected demand for chips from Chinese customers. Non-GAAP EPS results exceeded the midpoint of our guidance by $0.10. $0.06 of that impact was driven by operating performance in QCT and QTL and from lower operating expenses. The remaining $0.04 was driven by favorable tax impacts and lower share count from our repurchase activity. QCT delivered revenues of $4.6 billion and an EBT margin of 17%, driven by strength in MSM chip shipments of 232 million, above the high end of our guidance range on stronger than expected demand from Chinese OEMs. In QTL, revenues were $1.14 billion, in line with the midpoint of our guidance range, and EBT margin was 65%, better than expected, reflecting lower operating expenses, largely from litigation spending. We also recognized $100 million of revenue from the other licensee in dispute under the interim agreement.
In our fiscal fourth quarter, non-GAAP combined R&D and SG&A expenses were down 1% sequentially on cost reduction actions and lower than expected excess litigation expense more than offsetting the impact of an extra week of operations in the fiscal fourth quarter. Our non-GAAP tax rate was a 1% benefit in the quarter, lower than our prior expectations, reflecting a modest benefit related to tax restructuring completed in the quarter.
Now, turning to fiscal 2018, non-GAAP revenues for the year were $22.7 billion and non-GAAP earnings per share were $3.69. We returned $26 billion to stockholders in fiscal 2018, including approximately $3.5 billion of cash dividends paid, an increase of 7% year over year, and $22.6 billion in share repurchases, largely via our accelerated programs, including a $5.1 billion Dutch auction and a $16 billion ASR. In terms of average price realized under the ASR, that will be based on ratable pricing over the term of the ASRs, which will run through August 2019.
Turning to 3G/4G devices, for calendar year 2018, we continue to forecast approximately 1.8 billion to 1.9 billion 3G/4G device shipments, growth of approximately 5% year over year at the midpoint. Our forecast for handset unit shipment growth in the year is approximately 100 million units lower than our forecast at the outset of the year on lower demand in both developed and emerging regions, particularly in China.
Global device sales have been less impacted, as global handset ASPs have been better than expected, growing more than 10% year over year in fiscal 2018. In QCT, we saw strong performance in fiscal 2018, with 8% year-over-year growth in earnings before tax dollars and EBT margin at 17%, with strong demand trends in China, particularly in the mid and high tiers, offsetting the impact of lower share at Apple. In QTL, results in fiscal 2018 were significantly impacted by the disputes with Apple and the other licensee and by the related litigation costs. These dynamics mask the strong global device sales growth in fiscal 2018, as higher handset ASPs across multiple price tiers made up for the modest handset unit growth. Looking at handsets in the fiscal year, we estimate that global sales grew 13%, driven by 1% unit growth and 11% ASP growth. Let's now turn to our financial outlook for the first fiscal quarter of 2019. We estimate fiscal first quarter revenues to be in the range of approximately $4.5 billion to $5.3 billion.
We estimate non-GAAP earnings per share to be approximately $1.05 to $1.15 per share. Our first quarter estimate assumes continuing nonpayment of royalties by Apple and the other licensee. As we have noted on previous calls, the impact of these nonpayment of royalties has largely eliminated the seasonal effects that we would normally see in QTL.
Our fiscal first quarter outlook also reflects the change in our share in Apple from approximately 50% modem share in our fiscal first quarter 2018 to zero share in the flagship launches in our first fiscal quarter 2019. We have also seen our RF front-end share at Apple drop in the current launch. I will discuss the impacts here in more detail shortly. More than offsetting the demand and share impacts in the quarter is a one-time estimated benefit of approximately $0.45 of deferred tax asset impacts resulting from tax elections made in the first quarter of fiscal 2019 as part of our previously announced tax restructuring. We anticipate fiscal first quarter non-GAAP combined R&D and SG&A expenses to be down approximately 5% to 7% sequentially, primarily reflecting one less week of operations. Our cost management efforts will be somewhat muted in the quarter due to timing of certain divestitures expected to be completed later in the fiscal year. In QTL, we expect revenues of $1 billion to $1.1 billion in the fiscal first quarter. As a reminder, we are adopting revenue accounting standard 606 in the first quarter, which results in us moving from reporting QTL revenue in arrears to estimating revenues in the period our licensees sell their products. ASC 606 requires us to report revenue in a manner that will include an estimate of our QTL royalty revenues before all information is received from our licensees. This will lead to quarterly true-ups against reported numbers. Despite the change in revenue recognition method, we continue to expect revenues to range between $1 billion and $1.1 billion quarterly in the near term, as we see more muted seasonality on the absence of Apple licensing revenues.
This range also excludes any payments from the other licensee in dispute under the $700 million interim agreement signed in fiscal 2018. As a reminder, the final $100 million payment received under that interim agreement is being taken to retained earnings and not reported in the P&L as a result of the transition to ASC 606. We expect fiscal first quarter QTL EBT margin to be approximately 53% to 57%, lower sequentially, reflecting the absence of the $100 million interim payment and a change in R&D cost allocations, which I will discuss shortly. In QCT, we expect approximately 175 million to 195 million MSM chip shipments for the fiscal first quarter, down 20% sequentially at the midpoint, which is a result of one less week in the quarter, lower Apple legacy shipments, and lower demand from China on weaker sell-through following very strong demand in fiscal Q4. Year over year in the first fiscal quarter, we see a large decrease in units, which is fully explained from both a unit and EBT basis by the loss of share in the new Apple devices. We expect the Apple share reduction to be most impactful in our fiscal first quarter. In fiscal 2018, Q1 units represented approximately 50% of the full-year MSM orders from Apple. Compared to the same quarter last year, Apple volumes are expected to be down 50 million to 55 million units. We expect QCT EBT margin to be between 13% to 15% in the quarter, reflecting the lower MSM volumes and the impact from a lower mix of modem sales. We expect a recovery to high teens percentage in the second half of the fiscal year on improved product mix, the initial 5G launches, growth in adjacencies, and the impact of cost actions. We expect QCT's demand profile and EBT in the fiscal second quarter to reflect more muted seasonality, as the normal pullback in Q2 versus Q1 was historically heavily driven by Apple. Non-GAAP interest expense net of investment and other income in the fiscal first quarter is expected to be approximately $100 million, which is a reasonable estimate for each of the remaining quarters in fiscal 2019. We forecast diluted weighted average shares for the first fiscal quarter to be approximately 1.23 billion.
Turning to 2019, as Steve mentioned, resolving our two licensee disputes is a key driver for fiscal 2019 performance. Upon resolution, we continue to forecast significant positive revenue and EPS impacts. For calendar year 2019 3G/4G/5G device shipments, we are estimating approximately 1.9 billion to 2 billion units, up approximately 5% at the midpoint, reflecting low single-digit handset growth, driven primarily by migrations to 3G and 4G in emerging regions, and strong double-digit growth for non-handsets.
We currently see limited macroeconomic risk to our outlook from the trade dispute between China and the U.S., as there are currently tariff-related impacts on only a limited number of our revenue drivers. For Chinese imports to the U.S., some networking products will be subject to U.S. tariffs, potentially impacting end market demand if the incremental cost is passed to consumers. Cellular phones at present are not currently subject to U.S. tariffs, and for U.S. imports to China, ICs are not currently on the China tariff list. In fiscal 2019, we expect relatively flat global handset average selling prices and low to mid-single-digit percentage handset sales growth year over year, with strength coming from the emerging regions, providing solid end market trends for QTL once the licensing disputes are resolved.
We are making some changes with respect to our allocation of certain technology items, predominantly in our corporate R&D spending. With the commercialization of 5G devices in 2019, the spend for device development will be reflected in QCT, consistent with past practice, and the technology development currently in corporate will largely be reflected in QTL. Also moving into QTL is a minority share of some IP technology items previously shown in QCT, but which are related to future technology. The net effect of these changes will be decreased spend in our corporate expenses by approximately $500 million and an increase in QTL expenses of approximately the same amount. The increases and decreases in these R&D changes are solely related to location of reporting in the segments and are not related to the cost reduction program.
The cost program remains on track to deliver $1 billion in savings from our $7.4 billion baseline spend. At present, we are trending somewhat above the $6.4 billion run rate, as excess litigation expenses have increased relative to the baseline. However, we are on track to deliver the $1 billion in operating savings and expect additional savings post-licensing resolution as litigation costs will come down significantly.
We expect the net effects of the cost reduction in corporate and other plus the change in corporate R&D expense allocation and increased interest expense to result in savings of approximately $300 million in our Other segment outside of our core businesses in fiscal 2019. Our forecast for our non-GAAP tax rate in fiscal 2019 is approximately 3% to 4% and reflects both the run rate tax impacts of tax reform and the fiscal first quarter impacts of our tax restructuring. Excluding the impact of the deferred tax asset item, we expect the non-GAAP tax rate to be approximately 15% for the year. We expect fiscal 2019 weighted average diluted shares to be approximately 1.19 billion to 1.2 billion, lower year over year by approximately 280 million shares or 19% of shares outstanding on the full impact of our ASR, the Dutch tender, and open market repurchases. In summary, we expect fiscal 2019 earnings to be heavily weighted toward the back half of the year, as the impacts of a number of factors increase over the next several quarters. We expect QCT to return to year-over-year earnings growth in the second half on growing China OEM share, initial 5G shipments, growth in adjacencies, and margin expansion. Our additional cost actions and share repurchases over the year will further lever our second half performance. That concludes my comments. I will now turn the call back to John.