In January, the company reported Q1 2016 revenue of $75.9 billion, which was a new Apple record, but its sales of 74.7 million iPhones were flat from the 74.5 million that were sold in the same quarter a year earlier.
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Apple sold a total of 51.1 million iPhones in the quarter, they also sold a total of 10.2 million iPads and 4 million Macs. But that was when it appeared Apple’s iPhone sales would never stop growing.
At Wednesday’s share price of $96.30, more than $200 billion has been wiped off the value of the world’s most valuable listed company over the past year – roughly the equivalent of the market cap of Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world’s biggest retailer.
Maybe that’s because Apple isn’t just preparing a modest revision to the Apple Watch – maybe the second model will do a lot more to advance the wearable experience for Apple fans.
Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, Apple CEO Tim Cook said “it was “a challenging quarter” but he dismissed concerns that Apple was in decline. The product makes more than two-third of revenue for the company.
In China, the sales numbers slipped more than one fourth in the quarter. “He attributed the slump to short-term factors such as the strong dollar, hard economic conditions, and hard comparisons for iPhone sales”. Apple, who used to set the benchmark for others by registering high volume global sales for continuously 13 years, is now seeing what it can be called as “End of Its Era”.
Apple’s disappointing results fit a recent pattern for tech companies.
Second-quarter earnings saw services emerge as Apple’s second-largest business after the iPhone for the first time, topping iPad and Mac sales, which both fell.
Speaking of its services, the tech giant also reported on Tuesday that it now has 13 million Apple Music subscribers, up from 11 million in February, according to TechCrunch.
Shares in the company are also down by 5 percent.
Apple had previously warned that revenues would fall, but the results were a little worse than expected.
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Colin Gillis, an investment analyst with BGC Financial, said smartphone sales are likely to level off rather than grow.
