1 billion Apple devices in circulation around the world

For the first time in last 13 years, world’s leading tech giant Apple registered slump in its revenue due to slowest-ever shipment of iPhone in the global market.

Apple reported its “best quarter by far” for Apple TV sales during its fiscal first quarter, as the company posted record quarterly profit of US$18.4 billion. Analysts had expected Apple to report earnings of about $3.23 a share on $76.54 billion in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.

Over the past several years, Apple could be relied upon to post massive iPhone sales that passed the preceding year’s handily.

Apple is used to being the overachieving popular kid in Silicon Valley, but the iPhone maker is about to face its most hard quarter since the first iPhone was announced, after the company forecast a decline in sales.

“Our installed base recently crossed a major milestone of one billion active devices”, said Cook.

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said he is bullish on prospects in China and the company will continue to increase investment in the market.

The smartphone accounts for 68% of Apple’s revenue and iPhone revenue has never declined year-over-year. Apple’s revenue dropped to the low side of its guidance released in October, which put revenue projections at $75.5 billion to $77.5 billion. During the quarter, the company sold 74.8 million iPhones, 16.1 million iPads, and 5.3 million Macs.

He also admitted that this was likely to mean iPhone sales will fall in the coming quarters: “We do think that iPhone units will decline in the quarter”.

“We are looking for March to mark the trough in year-on-year iPhone unit growth, which should provide an attractive entry point into the stock…”, Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a note.

Finance director Luca Maestri attributed Apple’s relatively lacklustre revenue to the strength of the USA dollar, which he said knocked about $5bn off the total figure.

The company is still keeping sales of the Apple Watch under wraps – the only clue in these results was the $4.4bn in sales of “other devices”, up almost two-thirds on a year ago.