Apple has recently released its earnings reports. While the company’s iPhone revenue surged up slightly, it also saw a slight drop in the number of iPhones it shipped in the quarter. Interestingly enough, Apple believes that the constant buzz that has been kept around rumors of future products may have been to blame for this drop.
To put numbers to words, Apple sold around 50.8 million units in the quarter. Not only is that below analysts expectations which stood at around 51.4 million units, it is also a one percent drop as compared to the same quarter last year.
While speaking with CNBC, Tim Cook said that prevalent rumors around Apple’s future or planned products may have been responsible for this dip. According to the CEO:
We are seeing a kind of delay in purchasing behavior that we think is a consequence of the number of rumors and reports about future products.
And this might be particularly true considering that this year is slated to see the release of the iPhone 8, which will also mark the tenth anniversary of the lineup. Customers expect it to be special and considering that iPhones are none too cheap, many users ay have held off from picking up the 7 in hopes of buying the 8. And to be honest, the iPhone 7 wasn’t exactly a revelation. The device certainly didn’t bring as many changes as compared to the iPhone 6 and the 8 is expected to bring.
So sure, this could have had a role in damping sales for this quarter. Meanwhile, Apple isn’t fazed in the slightest. This is mostly due to the fact that despite a drop in numbers, revenue registered an increase of one percent year over year. Meanwhile, Mac sales registered an impressive and unexpected jump as the company managed to sell off 4.2 million devices in the quarter — a 14 percent year over year surge in revenue.
iPads were unable to make an equally good showing for themselves and sales dropped 13 percent year over year with respect to numbers and 12 percent year over year with respect to revenue. The company is hoping for schools and colleges to give the niche a boost. People don’t exactly change their tablets with the same frequency they change their smartphones and bulk orders from educational institutions would help iPad sales along mightily. However, Apple now has Microsoft to contend with in the space as well along with Google’s Chromebooks, that occupy a 51 percent share in the K-12 education in the US.
