Julia Love and Anya George Tharakan
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Apple on Tuesday announced the first drop in sales of the iPhone since the launch of the first version of its flagship product and the first decline in sales for more than ten years of against-performances that illustrate the difficulties facing the growing saturation of the smartphone market.
the American group in particular suffered a fall of more than a quarter of its sales in China, its second largest market after the United States, and the forecasts it presented for the current quarter are below expectations.
Apple shares fell up 8% in after-hours trading Tuesday, falling under the symbolic threshold of 100 dollars for the first time since February and erasing some $ 46 billion market capitalization.
the apple brand has sold 51.2 million copies of the iPhone in the January-March quarter, the second of its fiscal year, 10 million less than the same period last year. This figure is better than expected as analysts expected 50 million units just passed.
The quarter was a profit per share of 1.90 dollars, while the Thomson Reuters consensus I / B / E / S gave it to 2.00 dollars.
the turnover at 50.56 billion dollars (44.79 billion euros), is also below consensus which stood at 51.97 billion.
Chief financial Officer Luca Maestri, told Reuters that iPhone sales were particularly high in the second quarter of the previous year in the wake the launch of a new version of the iPhone.
“the iPhone 6 is an anomaly and therefore creates a very difficult comparison for us,” he said.
for the third quarter of its fiscal year, Apple expects revenue 41 to $ 43 billion while Wall Street was expecting far 47.3 billion.
the group parallel announced an increase of $ 50 billion of its distributions to shareholders via a 10% increase in its dividend and $ 35 billion for share repurchases, it will partly finance through bonds, which prevent him to repatriate tens of billions of cash it keeps abroad, away from the IRS.
DEFENSIVE POSITION
If the group’s leaders had warned that iPhone sales were down on January-March, they now have to convince investors that this decline is a temporary phenomenon and not the beginning of lasting decline of a product that has expanded dramatically in recent years.
the issue is all the more important that Apple does not have a product may constitute a credible growth.
the sales of mobile phones led group Tim Cook seem to suffer for some months the postponement of purchases many consumers who prefer to wait for the likely release of the iPhone 7 in September rather than buying the iPhone 6S or 6S Plus, explain analysts.
“Apple finds himself in a defensive position and must demonstrate its growth; this is a situation in which Apple did not have to meet for several years, “said Patrick Moorhead, an analyst with Moor Insights & amp; Strategy
The group presented last month the iPhone. SE, whose screen is smaller than other models but has most the most advanced range of functions.
This model has had no influence on the results Luca Maestri released Tuesday but said he had managed a good sales start, particularly in emerging markets.
“the current situation in the world is that we are energized at of the offer, “he added.” the demand is very, very strong. “
group revenues in the” Greater China “(which includes mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan) fell by 26% year on year but Luca Maestri assured that the group’s position on the region had not changed.
“We remain very optimistic about the Chinese market and we are continuing to make big investments, “he said.
in response to Apple’s announcements, shares of several group of suppliers as Skyworks Solutions, Qorvo, Broadcom and NXP Semiconductors lost ground in after-hours trading.
the revenue generated by Apple in services, such as selling music or offering Apple pay mobile payment, increased by 20% over a year to six billion
(Julia Love in San Francisco and Anya George Tharakan Bangalore. Marc Angrand for the French service)
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