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Apple's Annual Sales Fall For First Time Since 2001 (cnn.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the blast-from-the-past dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNNMoney: Apple just posted its first annual sales decline since 2001, the year it launched the iPod and kicked off a tremendous run of groundbreaking products. The tech company revealed Tuesday that annual sales fell to $216 billion in the 2016 fiscal year ending September 30, from a record $234 billion in 2015. The sales decline is closely connected to the falling sales for the iPhone, which remains Apple's largest source of revenue. Apple sold 45.5 million iPhones in the September quarter, down from 48 million iPhones in the same quarter a year earlier. That marks the third consecutive quarter when iPhone sales and overall revenue have declined from a year prior. Many analysts have raised concerns that the global smartphone market is saturated. Customers are taking longer to replace their phones. And Apple's latest iPhone is a dead ringer for the previous two models, eliminating some of the desire to upgrade. The good news is that this sales decline may prove to be a blip and not the new norm. Apple is projecting that it will post sales of $76 billion to $78 billion in the upcoming quarter, up from $74.8 billion a year earlier.

9 of 232 comments (clear)

  1. Nothing of significance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "a tremendous run of groundbreaking products"

    - removed headphone jack to previous generation phone
    - upgraded battery and performance slightly on watch
    - released a more performant iPad

    Nothing of significance -- and that's coming from an iSheep with several Apple products.

    1. Re: Nothing of significance by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 3, Insightful

      >> tremendous run of groundbreaking products...since 2001

      That's more polite than saying "Apple was peeing awesome sauce until Jobs started pushing up daisies"

  2. PRO hardware needs to come back they killed by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    PRO hardware needs to come back they killed so much like.

    Mac mini server

    Mac mini with quad core cpus

    Xserve and they did not at least say it's ok to run Mac OS X Server in a vm on any base hardware you can run it that way but the licensing restrictions say no.

    imacs with easy to get to disks

    laptops with easy to get to disks.

    a pro workstation (the new mac pro really missed the mark)

    They payed lip service to gameing by making some of a deal of trying to push mac os for gameing but not really having the video cards for it to work well. Say big imac screens with weak video cards, the 2012 old mac pro only had a ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB in the base system.

    1. Re:PRO hardware needs to come back they killed by dgatwood · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The pro machines never sold well. The Mac Pro had laughable sales,a s does the Mac Mini. Apple really kept them along because of the small by very vocal community who can be guaranteed to buy a few thousand units.

      The purpose of pro machines isn't to sell well. The purpose of pro machines is bragging rights—specifically, being able to say that you build machines that are some of the best on the market, and being able to say that people do amazing things with your machines. But sure, if you want OS X to turn into a passive media consumption platform like iOS, keep dumbing down the hardware. Pro users will start using other platforms to do real, creative work, and eventually OS X will wither and die.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

  3. I've said it before, without Jobs they're toast by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've said it before and I will say it again: Without Jobs Apple is toast. Just like the last time Jobs left. They will continue for some years due to momentum but there is no stopping their fall. Without Jobs they are rudderless.

  4. The 6th gen was a spike above the normal trend by perpenso · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This doesn't seem like a surprise. You can't expect people to keep replacing $700+ devices every one or two years.

    I think it has more to do with the iPhone 6 generation being a very popular upgrade, mostly due to the larger screen sizes. That was a significant differentiator between the iPhone 4 and 5 generations. The iPhone 7 generation is too similar for many people to want to accelerate their device upgrade plans.

    In short its not that sales of the current generation are bad its just that the previous generation was phenomenal, a spike above the trend.

    1. Re:The 6th gen was a spike above the normal trend by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes, I am in the same boat: I really prefer the size of my old 5S, but kind of had to upgrade for my app development work. Another thing: why on earth did they move the off button from to top of the phone to the side? When you pick up the phone you tend to squeeze it, often hitting that off button as a result.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
  5. Re:Apple is the Trump Towers of computing. by dreamchaser · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Seriously. People are talking about it. Very important people. Experts!

  6. Phones ARE computers by sjbe · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Phones are like computers.

    They aren't "like computers" they ARE computers. They are computers that happen to be able to make phone calls.