United States: Apple’s revenue has decreased for the fifth straight quarter, primarily due to the biggest drop in iPhone sales since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The tech giant with headquarters in California said on Thursday that it made $23.6 billion on $90.8 billion in revenue from January to March.
The iPhone saw a 10 percent decline in sales to $45.7 billion, as Chinese competitors like Huawei and Xiaomi became more formidable.
Greater China, one of Apple’s most significant regions, saw an almost 8 percent fall in sales, from $17.8 billion to $16.4 billion year over year.
The decline in sales was the largest since the third quarter of 2020, when COVID-related plant closures caused the debut of the iPhone 12 to be delayed.
Even yet, the revenue decline was more than anticipated by investors, and the company’s stock shot up after it announced a bigger quarterly dividend and a buyback of company stock.
Following the announcement that the company would repurchase $110 billion of its stock and increase its quarterly dividend by 4 percent to $0.25 per share, Apple shares increased by about 6 percent in after-market trade.
Apple had a difficult start to the year, which is why the company’s results were lackluster.
In addition to increasing pressure from low-cost Chinese competitors, the corporation is under investigation by US and European antitrust authorities and recently gave up on its ten-year endeavor to develop an electric vehicle.
In the meantime, sales of Apple’s only new product since the 2015 launch of the Apple Watch, the mixed-reality headset known as the Vision Pro, have not yet increased noticeably.
The industry leader is also fending off claims that it is lagging behind competitors like Google and Microsoft in the battle to create and implement artificial intelligence (AI).
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