Apple could cut iPhone prices while Chinese pressures affect sales | Economic news

By James Sillars, Business Journalist

Apple said prices for the iPhone could be down after its latest financial results have confirmed the drop in sales.

Figures covering its first quarter to end December were released after the closure of US markets and followed warning on the income issued by the company at the beginning of the month which reported weaker than expected sales in China and a small number of phone upgrades.

Apple recorded a 5% drop in overall sales, to $ 84.3 billion (£ 64.5 billion), in line with its weakest forecast and down 5% from the same period last year.

However, revenues from the iPhone – which make up the bulk of its revenues – have been reduced by 15%.

In an interview with the Reuters news agency, CEO Tim Cook said price increases to account for the expected slowdown in sales would be tempered to help the recovery.

He added that iPhone prices, also high outside the United States due to the appreciation of the dollar, would now be fixed in local currency.

On January 2, Apple warned that sales would be affected by weaker-than-expected economic growth in major emerging markets, particularly China, and by a reduction in the number of customers upgrading their handsets in the second quarter. Mondial economy.

The company has also faced strong competition in the smartphone sector from its Asian competitors, including Huawei.

Apple stocks – which traded at levels seen last February as a result of the general slowdown in technology in recent months – rose 3% after normal trading hours.

This was seen as a response to an improvement in the outlook for the second quarter after an improvement in January.

Apple's share price has almost fallen by almost a third compared to last October, following the collapse of technology stocks last year following concerns over the overvaluation, the trade war between the United States and China and the resulting global slowdown.

Apple lost its crown as the most valuable listed company in the world.

Amazon and Microsoft both surpbaded Apple in terms of market value as the 2018 close.

While Apple was the first to reach a market capitalization of $ 1 trillion, it has since sunk to about $ 750 billion.

:: How Microsoft overturned Apple in the race for value

This disappearance has been attributed to its problems in China, but badysts say that this highlights the fact that Apple continues to depend on a single product, the iPhone, for the bulk of its sales .

He is under pressure to innovate and the results have been poorly planned as they coincided with the admission that the group discussion function in his FaceTime function had been suspended due to a gremlin.

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The company announced plans to develop a patch soon after iPhone users reported a bug allowing callers to activate another remote user's microphone.

This was Apple's first set of quarterly results in which it did not give the full figures of iPhone sales.

He had previously argued that a 90-day trading period was too short to give a fair picture of his performance.

His other main characters contained no surprises.

The Business Services figure – which includes sales from the App Store – hit a record close to $ 11 billion (8.4 billion pounds sterling).

Mr Cook said the company would target 500 million subscribers to Apple and third party services by 2020.

He told shareholders: "While it was disappointing to miss our revenue forecasts, we are managing Apple for the long term and this quarter's results demonstrate that the underlying strength of our business is deep and broad.

"Our installed badet base reached a record $ 1.4 billion in the first quarter, growing in each of our geographic segments.

"This is a testament to the satisfaction and loyalty of our customers, which has led our Services business to new records with our large and growing ecosystem."