If there was any doubt that iPhones have — for a definite reason — taken a hit in their sales, it has been laid to rest today. In today’s earnings call for its Q4’16, Apple revealed, that while it did manage to surpass wall street expectations of selling 45 Million devices, its saw a 3 Million dip from previous year’s number for the same quarter.
So, at the very outset, Apple is still selling a lot of iPhones. Despite of the fact that there has been a 3 Million+ decline in the number of iPhone units sold this quarter, 45.4 Million is still a massive number. The number has exceeded investor expectations and is no match to even the closest competitors.
But Apple itself, has realised the fact that iPhones aren’t the hot selling commodity they used to be. The case looks confirmatively true in two of Apple’s largest markets — the U.S. and China. While the states saw a 7% decline in sales of iPhone devices, China sales tanked by a massive 30%. Apple however, highlighted the fact that it saw an increase in sales in 33 of the 40 markets it is currently selling into. Cook said that iPhone saw year over year growth in 33 of its top 40 markets, given us a hint that most of the revenue decline came from its larger markets.
India sales, just like previous quarter results, continue to be the lone bright spot with an impressive 50% increase in sales. That of cours tis due to a largely Apple-immune market, finally getting a taste of the device due to multiple payment options and low-cost EMIs.
Due to supply constraints, Apple notably did not report launch weekend sales of its iPhone 7 devices. Cook noted that with iPhone sales, “demand continues to outstrip supply.” Apple CFO Luca Maestri noted that the iPhone 7 Plus in particular was having trouble keeping up with demand.
Apple’s stock however responded pretty affirmatively — as you’d expect when a company beats analyst estimates.
Due to demand-supply constraints, the Cupertino giant did not reveal weekend iPhone 7 sales. Cook did clarify upon an investor query, that he is expecting the supply to catch up to demands by end of quarter. An equilibrium of sorts however, doesn’t look in close sights.
This story is still developing…
