Everything has fallen for Apple – iPhone sales down 13% and stock down 8%

As the company’s results were weaker than analysts expected, Apple’s stock price plummeted nearly 8% in after-hours trading on Wall Street on Tuesday, wiping out $46 billion in market value.

Apple’s revenue in the last quarter fell 13% year-on-year to $50.6 billion, marking the first revenue decline for the tech giant in 13 years, a consequence of falling iPhone sales.

According to the business report released on Tuesday, Apple achieved a net profit of $10.5 billion in the last quarter, 22% less than in the same period last year, when it recorded a profit of $13.5 billion. This is a result of the first decline in iPhone sales in nine years, since Apple introduced the first model of this smartphone, now the company’s most important product.

In the last quarter, 51.2 million iPhones were sold, while in the same period last year, sales amounted to 61.2 million. Notably, revenues from sales in Greater China fell the most, by 26%, in the markets of China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, which is Apple’s second-largest market after the U.S.

One of the reasons for this is the high dollar exchange rate, which causes revenues of American companies from foreign markets to decline. After years of strong growth, investors fear that iPhone sales have reached a saturation point.

– Apple needs to come out with a radical new innovation or product, not just improve existing products. That is the only way it can revive sales growth, says Neil Saunders, director at Conlumino.

The company did not disclose sales figures for the Apple Watch, its first completely new product since 2010, but analysts say it is unlikely that this product will become a hit like the iPhone.

However, a bright spot in the report is the growth of the company’s services revenue, which includes Apple Music and App Store applications, up 20% year-on-year to $6 billion, surpassing revenues from iMac and iPad sales. However, investors were disappointed by Apple’s management’s estimate that it would achieve revenues between $41 billion and $43 billion in the current quarter, while analysts had forecasted $47.3 billion.

As the company’s results were weaker than analysts expected, Apple’s stock price plummeted nearly 8% in after-hours trading on Wall Street on Tuesday, wiping out $46 billion in market value.

And this, despite the management’s decision to increase the capital return program to investors by $50 billion through stock buybacks in the market and increasing the quarterly dividend by 10%.