Another drop in revenue in the July-September quarter would mean the worst run of revenue declines for Apple in two decades. Shares were down about 3% in early trading Friday, dragging Apple’s stock market value below the coveted US$3 trillion level it reached at the end of June. That is despite overall company revenue being higher than expected due to Apple’s booming services segment — the part of its business that covers subscriptions such as Apple TV+ and Apple Music. For the first time, there were more than 1 billion subscribers to its various offerings, Apple said, pushing up services revenue by 8.2%.
Apple Inc’s third straight quarter of declining revenue is a symptom of the fact that while people love to use the company’s iPhones, they are these days feeling less pressed to buy a new one. If Apple wants to turn that around, bucking an industry-wide slump, the next iteration of its most popular product needs to be a return to the days when owning the latest iPhone felt like a major upgrade.
For the April-June period, iPhone sales of US$39.7 billion — a 2.4% drop versus the same period last year — came in below analysts’ expectations, as did the iPad, down 20% year-on-year and the Mac line, down 7.3%. Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said device sales in the current quarter weren’t looking too hot, either, blaming foreign currency headwinds and supply chain disruptions.
