Nearly everyone who watches Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), from consumers to shareholders, assumes that its latest quarterly results demonstrate that the company’s rapid growth period has ended. That may not be true, if Apple can introduce a new series of revolutionary products that almost certainly will be led by the iPhone 7.
The quarter was stunningly poor. Revenue rose from $74.6 billion in the same period last year to $75.9 billion. The net profit numbers were just as depressing. Net income for the latest quarter was $18.4 billion, compared to $18.0 billion the year before. For the current quarter, revenue will post in the $50 billion to $53 billion range.
The two most important numbers in the earnings report were iPhone sales of 74.5 million and Greater China sales that rose only 14% from the same quarter a year ago to $18.4 billion. Hardly the engine of growth CEO Tim Cook has boasted about for years.
Sales of the iPhone 6 family likely will remain flat, at best, over the first half of calendar 2016.
The latest version of the iPhone family is the iPhone 6s, introduced last September. Over the first weekend it was available, Apple sold 13 million units. Apple’s marketing campaign for the iPhone 6s is that “The Only Thing That’s Changed Is Everything.” Clearly, buyers of smartphones do not believe that. The only thing that has changed is slowing sales.
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