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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.

3 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.