Ever since the advent of the iPhone, its sales have always gone up a notch with almost every generation. Unfortunately, every good thing comes to an end. Following this trend, analysts have predicted that Apple will report the slowest ever iPhone sales growth on Tuesday. The announcement is expected to come with the company’s first quarterly sales earnings for the financial year 2015/16.
The company’s shares closed down 1.98% at $99.41 on Monday. This is a fall of nearly 10% since the start of October. As the iPhone was one of the major contributors to the company’s economy, analysts believe that this fall in shares is a direct result of the stagnant sales of the smartphone. In fact, 2015 was just the second time Apple shares have gone backwards on an annual basis since the iPhone was first unveiled in 2007.
Looking at the sales from an analyst’s perspective, you can easily come to the conclusion that the numbers have peaked for this year and from here on, there could be a decline. The sales of the iPhone 6S were record-breaking during the first week. And although the sales have been amazing from then on — an effective 74.5m units– there doesn’t seem to be any significant rise in the sales over the smartphone’s predecessors.
Each of the previous gen iPhones had something new or exciting to offer. The iPhone 6, for example, was the first iPhone to gain a significant couple of inches, which attracted many Android users too. Thus, analysts believe that as the 6S doesn’t seem to have any distinguishing features, some percentage of users skipped this generation to await the iPhone 7 (expected in September, 2016) to gain a better upgrade.
“Apple has become a victim of its own success as the blockbuster iPhone 6 product cycle was hard to replicate with many customers either buying an older, cheaper iPhone 6 or waiting for the iPhone 7,”
FBR Capital Markets analyst Daniel Ives said.
That covers the first quarter, luckily just stagnant sales for the company. Things get worse as predictions for Q2 come along. The Cupertino giant is expected to forecast a drop in iPhone sales for the second quarter of its 2015/16 financial year. This will be the first time sales will fall since the first iPhone was launched.
According to most analysts, sales will finally pick up for the tech giant once its next flagship smartphone, the controversial iPhone 7 comes out in September. While many people are excited about this device, it has been subject to a lot of criticism even before its launch because of rumours that Apple might be ditching the 3.5mm headphone jack.
Another effort Apple is trying to make in order to gain the upper hand in terms of sales is the launch of the infamous 4-inch iPhone 5se. This smartphone is expected to be an upgrade to the 5S with a smaller screen for users who need a smaller phone or are on a tight budget. It is expected to be out in March.
