Down 17%, iPhone sales drop at record pace

Apple posted better earnings and revenue than Wall Street expected for the March 2019 quarter — even as sales of its flagship iPhones were $6.5 billion lighter in the period, down by 17 per cent.

iPhones sales fell at their steepest-ever rate during thethree months to the end of March but are showing signs of stabilising, the BBCreported.

   

Apple lifted its outlook for the three months to June,sending its shares over 5 per cent higher in after-hours trading.

The company had warned on iPhones sales earlier this year,citing China where Apple competes with cheaper rivals such as HuaweiTechnologies and Xiaomi.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook though said sales werestronger towards the end of March, including in China where it cut iPhoneprices to boost demand.

For the quarter ended March 30, which is Apple’s fiscal year2019 second quarter, the company reported revenue of $58.0 billion, down 5 percent from the year-ago quarter, and earnings per diluted share of $2.46, down10 per cent.

Wall Street analysts’ consensus estimates had projectedApple to report revenue of $57.37 billion and EPS of $2.36. Apple’s stock roseover 5 per cent in after-hours trading.

While iPhone revenue fell, to $31.05 billion, Apple’sServices segment — which includes the App Store, Apple Music, iCloud, AppleCare and Apple Pay — generated quarterly record revenue of $11.5 billion, up16 per cent.

According to the CEO, Apple had 390 million paidsubscriptions at the end of March, up 30 million in the last quarter.

Apple is also attempting to shift its reliance on the iPhonetowards services and last month unveiled its new TV streaming platform, AppleTV+, to take on the likes of more established companies such as Netflix.

Services revenue rose to $11.4 billion from $9.8 billion inthe same quarter last year.

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