The thing that Apple Inc was worried about finally happened. The tech giant reported on Tuesday that its iPhone sales have dropped - the first time ever. Apple's fiscal second-quarter unit shipments went down 16 percent to 51.2 million.
That figure is lower than the 61.1 million it has sold during the same period last year, although it is near the 51 million mark that analysts expected the company to sell during the three months which ended in March.
To make matters worse, the tech giant said company sales for this quarter may drop to double digits again. Its current target sales are from $41 billion to $43 billion for the three months ending in June, below the predictions of analysts which is $47.3 billion.
Shares of the company fell more than 6 percent in late trading.
The company is struggling to maintain its historically huge growth, said Tim Cook, CEO. He insisted though that the company's future remains bright.
A report said this drop in sales shouldn't come as a surprise for those who are aware that the market is close to, if not already at peak iPhone levels. This has been the experience in China, the largest market for mobile phones.
That country has finally reached its saturation point and began to experience an overall drop in the sales of smartphones. For Apple, this means a drop in total sales of about 26 percent. But it's unclear how big a role iPhones have played in that dip.
Additionally, the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus do not offer anything that is particularly compelling to induce yearly upgrades.
But Tim Cook, Apple CEO is still unperturbed. "Our product pipeline has amazing innovations in store," said Cook.
But beyond his rhetoric, his company is facing a tough year. Even if Apple sells a lot of iPhones, the company has to sell more than it sold a year ago. The tech giant earns over two-thirds of its income from iPhone sales, therefore selling more than last year is very important to its viability.
