Apple Shares Slumped As iPhone Growth is Slowing

Apple has shipped more than a billion devices in the past: the company sold its billionth iOS device back in November 2014.

Without giving specific sales numbers, Apple CEO Tim Cook said on the 2016 Q1 2016 earnings call that it was the “best quarter by far for Apple TV sales”. That wasn’t the case this time.

Apple usually launches new iPhones in September and sells most devices in the December quarter.

To put those numbers in perspective, the $18.4 billion profit was the largest ever recorded by any publicly traded company.

For the first time in 13 years, Apple Inc (AAPL.O) is staring at a revenue slide.

Gross margin for the quarter was 40.1 percent compared to 39.9 percent in the year-ago quarter, with worldwide sales accounting for 66 percent of revenue. Cook also revealed the 0.4 percent growth in iPhone shipments was also the product’s lowest since its launch in 2007.

This may mark the first drop in sales of Apple since it started the iPhone.

One thing is clear, said analyst Angelo Zino at S&P Capital IQ: “Last year was an unprecedented year for Apple and the iPhone…”

According to the report, Apple had earned $31 billion in revenue from its installed service base in the fiscal year 2015 which was a 23 percent annual increase.

As expected, Apple announced on Tuesday that growth in the sale of iPhones has slowed significantly. Despite the Cupertino, California based company setting an all-time record for quarterly profit for any public company in the U.S.by moving up 2% from the same period previous year, the tech giant did not meet expectations on Wall Street with its iPhone 6S, the most recent smartphone let alone other products such as the Mac and iPad.

Kagan said he expects the newest version of the iPhone to spur growth, provided it has the right eye-catching new features.

The company did see growth in services, where revenue rose 26 percent, while revenue from a category known as other products – which include the Apple Watch – increased 62 percent.

The iPad continued to struggle, with unit sales of 16.122 million on revenue of $7.084 billion (£4.95 billion) – falling 25 per cent and 21 per cent respectively.