Apple, the world’s most valued company, reported a third consecutive quarter of declining sales.
It reported a 1.4 percent drop in sales for the April-June period, hit by an industry wide slump that has led to a lower demand for phones, computers and tablets.
Flagship devices sales slump
It posted quarterly revenue of $81.8 billion, which was down 1% year over year.
Revenue from iPhones stood at $39.67 billion, down 2% from the corresponding quarter last year.
Revenue from iPad was $5.79 billion, down by 20% compared to last year.
Silver lining
However, it registered record revenue in India, with double-digit growth in the country.
The one category that performed well was Wearables.
Revenue from Apple Watch, AirPods, and others was $8.3 billion, up 2% compared to last year.
Its services such as iCloud and App Store saw strong growth.
Revenue from Services was $21.2 billion, up from $19.1 billion compared to last year.
Expect to continue into September
It guided for this trend to extend in the September quarter as well.
CFO Luca Maestri expects iPhone sales to do better than the June quarter.
“We expect our September quarter year-over-year revenue performance to be similar to the June quarter assuming that the macroeconomic outlook doesn’t worsen from what we are projecting today for the current quarter,” Maestri said.
Consumer motivation
Daniel Flax, an analyst at Neuberger Berman commented that consumers face pressure from general interest rates and higher inflation.
“There are a lot of cross currents that Apple, like a lot of other companies, cannot outrun,” said Flax.
They tend to hold on to their older iPhones longer in anticipation of the release of the latest version.
iPhone demand
Demand for the iPhone 14 is falling, even as the company is planning to unveil the next version, which it promises to be the most significant iPhone upgrade in three years.
It typically debuts new iPhones in September before the fourth quarter ends.
So the majority of its sales comes in the following period, Apple’s fiscal first quarter, making it its most lucrative time of the year.
Shipment numbers
Apple informed suppliers that it expects shipments of the iPhone to stay flat with the year before through the rest of 2023, at about 85 million units.
Rivals including Samsung have also seen sales of their products slow or remain flat.
