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Apple Q2 Earnings: iPhone Sales Fall Flat (reuters.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the beginning-of-the-end dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Apple Inc reported a surprise fall in iPhone sales for the second quarter on Tuesday, indicating that customers had held back purchases in anticipation of the 10th-anniversary edition launch of the company's most important product. Apple sold 50.76 million iPhones in its fiscal second quarter ended April 1, down from 51.19 million a year earlier. Analysts on average had estimated iPhone sales of 52.27 million, according to financial data and analytics firm FactSet. However, revenue from the smartphones rose 1.2 percent in the quarter. Expectations are building ahead of Apple's 10th-anniversary iPhone range this fall, with investors hoping that the launch would help bolster sales.

2 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. Headphone jack and charger shenanigans? Nah... by choovanski · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Our customers are just waiting for the tenth anniversary edition. Yep. Nothing to see here.

  2. Re:hold off or went elsewhere? by Anubis+IV · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I know quite a few apple phone fans and none of them ever hold off

    This is an anecdote, to be sure, but my parents are holding off until later this year, even though they haven't heard any rumors and even though their iPhone 5s has since been surpassed by the 6, 6s, and 7 generations.

    The reason they're holding off is because their existing iPhones are simply good enough. The iPhone 5s still runs the latest OS, gets the latest patches, and runs apps nearly as well today as it did when it was first introduced in 2013. It's held up remarkably well. The fact that it was also the first 64-bit smartphone has helped to keep it on the good side of any compatibility cutoffs as well, as apps have dropped support for older architectures and devices.

    Really though, none of this is surprising. Though my dad was in a line before dawn to get the iPhone 3G on launch day, he held off two generations before upgrading to the iPhone 4, three generations to get the iPhone 5s, and now holding off four generations for whatever comes out later this year.

    All of which is to say, it has nothing to do with whatever's next, and everything to do with what they already have: something that's good enough.