Answer:
historical comparison
Step-by-step explanation:
When you are performing a historical comparison of financial statements, you are comparing the current financial statement against older financial statements of the same company to understand how certain accounts have changed over time and affected the company's financial health and profitability.
In this case, Apple's 2015 financial statements were compared against their past 2014 statements and the growth rates were calculated: revenues grew by 28% and net income grew by 33%. If compared against any industry parameter, this growth rate was exceptional and stunning, but it also is not sustainable in time (if Apple kept growing this way in less than 20 years it would have been larger than the US economy).
When comparing historical information you must also consider future probabilities of the data repeating.