Apple on Thursday reported that second-quarter iPhone sales fell 10% year over year, from $51.3 billion to $45.9 billion. Contributing to the economic slowdown was China's 8% decline in sales.
Apple's slow adoption of AI compared to competitors like Google and Microsoft likely influenced consumers' decisions to hold off on purchasing new iPhones. Apple has promised some big announcements in this regard (likely at WWDC in June), but the iPhone 16 itself likely won't arrive until the fall.
But despite the dismal hardware numbers, the company managed to beat Wall Street's expectations, buoyed by both rising services revenue and a massive $110 billion share buyback, up from $90 billion last year. I was able to surpass it.
Services, which include services like iCloud, Apple TV+, and Apple Music, grew 14% over the year. Apple has long anticipated a slowdown in hardware sales, and its increased focus on subscription services is helping offset some of that loss.
developing…