iPhone sales have slowed for the first time since the Apple device debuted in 2007, bringing to an end a period of unparalleled growth by any tech giant
The non-stop growth of the iPhone in its 9-year history has halted for the first time and sales plummeted 16pc in Q2, Apple has reported.
The company reported Q2 revenues of $50.6bn, down from $58bn a year ago.
Net income was $10.5bn, down from $13.6bn.
Apple reported that iPhone unit sales were down from a year ago for the first time, coming in at 51.2m devices sold, down 16pc. This was actually more than the 50m that Wall Street had been anticipating.
Mac revenues came in at $5.1bn on more than 4m unit sales.
iPad revenues were $4.41bn based on unit sales of 10.3m devices.
Apple reported that services revenue from platforms like iTunes, Apple Music and iCloud came in at $5.9bn, a strong indicator that there are more strings to the tech giant’s bow than just devices.
Apple’s ecosystem has 1bn active devices
“Our team executed extremely well in the face of strong macroeconomic headwinds,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.
“We are very happy with the continued strong growth in revenue from Services, thanks to the incredible strength of the Apple ecosystem and our growing base of more than 1bn active devices.”
Apple has also authorised a $50bn increase in return capital to shareholders. Under the programme, the company plans to spend $250bn of cash by the end of 2018.
“We generated strong operating cash flow of $11.6bn and returned $10bn to shareholders through our capital return programme during the March quarter,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO.
“Thanks to the strength of our business results, we are happy to be announcing today a further increase of the programme to $250bn.”
Looking ahead to the third quarter, Apple is predicting revenues of between $41bn and $43bn.
Tim Cook of Apple image via Shutterstock
