Since Apple announced that it would stop announcing the number of sales of its devices, both iPhone, iPad and Mac many have been the analysts who have affirmed that Apple had peaked and that from this moment on, everything would go downhill. Many have been the rumors and studies that affirm that the sales of the new iPhone are not being as expected.
However, other analysts and studies affirm that sales of the iPhone XR in particular are being much better than expected, contradicting all the news about it. In the end, all those who claimed that sales were not as expected and that Apple had peaked were right, according to the statement that Apple has sent to the media moments after withdrawing the shares from the stock market.
Any company that intends to make a statement that can seriously affect the price of your shares, you have the obligation to withdraw them from the market before doing so, to avoid that in the initial moments, the panic and the base action spread considerably. This is what Apple has done, because the announcement that it had to make was not good.
In the statement that Tim Cook has sent to the media lowering expectations for the next financial results, financial results to be announced on January 29, the following is exposed:
- Initial expectations for Apple were for revenue of between $ 89.000 billion and $ 93.000 billion. Current predictions lower that number to $ 84.000 billion.
- Apple's typical profit margin is 38%. The next financial results point to an increase of half a point, placing it at 38.5%.
- The expected operating expenses were 8.700. According to Apple, these will increase to 8.800 million.
- The section of income and expenses goes from 550 million to 300 million dollars.
- The tax rate remains the same as originally planned, and stands at 16.5%
What are the reasons?
- Tim Cook states in the statement that they knew that syncing iPhone releases they would hurt year-on-year comparisons. While sales of the iPhone X were concentrated in the company's first fiscal quarter (Q1 2018), sales of both the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max have been spread between the first fiscal quarter Q1 2019 and Q2 2019, since both models later hit the market.
- The strength of the dollar against other currencies This has hurt the exchange rate against other currencies, something they had taken into account and that could reduce revenue growth by about 200 basis points compared to the previous year.
- Too many new products on the market. According to Tim Cook, offering so many new products on the market almost at the same time, they have limited the sales of some of their products, referring to the Apple Watch Series 4, the iPad Pro, the AirPods and the MacBook Air.
- The weakness of some emerging markets has significantly hurt the company's expectations.
According to Tim Cook, other factors that can affect iPhone sales is that consumers adapt to the fact that operators no longer give so many subsidies when it comes to renovating their terminals, and that some customers (rather many) have taken advantage of the significant reduction in the price of battery replacement to keep the iPhone for another year without renewing the device.
Other points that, according to Tim Cook, affect the company's economic results are the reduced income from China, stating that the income that comes from the country represents "more than 100% of our annual decrease in income worldwide." Much of the blame is due to trade tensions between China and the United States.
But it's not all bad news, according to Tim Cook, as he has taken the opportunity to point out that there are many positive results in the last quarter, stating that non-iPhone revenue has increased by 19% due to Apple Watch and AirPods, increasing the wearables business by 50% compared to the previous year.