Apple Inc.’s quarterly profit fell 22.5% as revenue declined for the first time since 2003 and iPhone sales declined for the first time ever.
Revenue and profit for the period ended March 26 both fell short of analysts’ expectations, as Apple struggles to maintain the sales surge that followed the introduction of its larger-screen smartphones in late 2014. The 2015 successors to those initial big-display models haven’t garnered as much enthusiasm from consumers, and Apple projected that revenue in the current quarter would fall far short of expectations.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said it was “a challenging quarter” for the company. It struggled with tough comparisons on iPhone sales compared with a year earlier when demand for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus was booming. What’s more, demand for those models prompted some consumers to upgrade sooner than usual, and sapped interest in the latest phones, he said.
“It’s a tough bar to hurdle, but it doesn’t change the future. The future is very bright,” Mr. Cook said.
Shares of Apple, down 20% over the past year, fell 7.6% to $96.41 in after-hours trading.
Apple said net income in its fiscal second quarter totaled $10.52 billion, or $1.90 a share, compared with $13.57 billion, or $2.33 a share, in the same period a year earlier. Revenue declined 13% to $50.55 billion from $58 billion.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated that Apple would post earnings of $2 a share on revenue of $51.97 billion.
Apple said it was still feeling the impact of the strong dollar in its global sales, noting that the revenue decline would have narrowed by 4 percentage points without the currency’s impact. In addition, the price increases that the company implemented to deal with the dollar’s appreciation hurt demand for its products.
As a apple stan, this is good in a sense that it annoys me everytime that apple barely makes any upgrades. I really hope they do huge upgrades to the phone and the iOS it self.
As a apple stan, this is good in a sense that it annoys me everytime that apple barely makes any upgrades. I really hope they do huge upgrades to the phone and the iOS it self.
This. Their iOS is still very 2008 without any core changes. They make beautiful quality phones, but their software is so dated, closed and backward that I would never consider an iPhones unless they step it up.
