Apple's December-quarter results call was "dysfunctional," but not from Tim Cook's and Luca Maestri's side because analysts didn't know how to react when they learned that the numbers weren't as bad as feared, according to the host of CNBC's "Mad Money," Jim Cramer.
Apple on Tuesday detailed what CEO Tim Cook only hinted at earlier this month, acknowledging a 26.7 percent drop in its December-quarter Chinese revenues.
Following the release of Apple's earnings report on Tuesday, CEO Tim Cook revealed the company is planning price changes for iPhones overseas to goose sales of the device after sluggish sales in China and other regions during the important holiday quarter.
Apple shares closed at $157.76 on Friday, reclaiming nearly all of the valuation that the company lost following a bombshell guidance downgrade made on Jan. 2.
Apple has faced profound challenges in the past from powerfully entrenched adversaries that once looked like they might derail the company's advancement, including Microsoft, Nokia, Google, Motorola, and Samsung. But today, with no real competitors standing in its way, will Apple's premium-priced trajectory get knocked out of alignment by a recession in China and global aftershocks? Here's a look at Apple's future informed by its recent past.
Shedding light on Apple's China woes, Strategy Analytics on Thursday published smartphone shipment estimates for the region covering calendar 2018 that shows a precipitous decline in iPhone unit growth.
Wall Street predictions for Apple's future demonstrate that the analysts don't yet have a good handle on the long-term effects of Apple's predicted $5 billion shortfall during the holiday quarter according to long-time Apple analyst Gene Munster.
A glance at the writing that passes for financial news headlines today might make it appear that Apple is entering 2019 with troubled sales, intense new competition emerging in China, and a weakening economy where nobody can afford to buy its expensive products anymore. The solution held up by many pundits is so old that it sounds comfortably soothing: iPhones should be cheaper! But they're wrong, here's why.
Apple's main assembly partner, Foxconn, said on Tuesday that it's aiming to hire over 50,000 people across its Chinese factories during the first quarter, which may at least eliminate any worst-case scenarios in the aftermath of weak iPhone sales.
Foxconn is examining an expansion into India to both skirt a potential US-imposed tariff, as well as to help Apple comply with Indian requirements to manufacture locally.
A think tank linked to the Chinese government is criticizing Apple, Amazon, Nike and other foreign companies for using "incorrect labels" in reference to Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The entire smartphone industry may be under a great deal of strain in 2019, with the biggest impact felt at the higher end as manufacturers like Apple and Samsung are poised to take a big hit, assuming a market analysis by J.P. Morgan is correct.
The HomePod, available in the U.S. for nearly a year, will at last ship to Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland on Jan. 18, Apple said in a rare Sunday announcement.
Apple has reportedly knocked down the pricing of iPhone XR units sold by Chinese channel resellers by about $100, hoping to revive the market's sagging iPhone sales.
The Wall Street Journal is telling stories of an arrogant fall from grace by the world's leader in smartphone profits, centering on the new iPhone XR — a model that ostensibly failed to live up to its hyped expectations. However, that cyclical tale of Apple's impending doom is really a contrived bit of fiction that isn't based in facts.
The sales of iPhones went down in November by a fifth compared to 2017, according to sales estimates from Counterpoint, but while the iPhone XR is said to have become Apple's most popular currently-sold model, it hasn't reached the same volume of sales as the iPhone X in the same period the previous year.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has advised that Apple's reduced revenue expectations are not due to trade tensions between the United States and China, while simultaneously claiming that the dispute between the two countries "certainly has hurt" the Chinese economy.
Samsung is preparing to follow Apple in warning of lower than anticipated revenue, with the South Korean electronics giant expected to advise of a 12-percent year-on-year quarterly operating profit drop, its first in a two-year period.
After Apple restated its December quarter revenue guidance to account for weaker than expected iPhone demand in China, media across the spectrum has cranked their clickbait content generators up to 11 to take full advantage of AAPL panic season. Unfortunately, what almost all of them are writing is ignorant gibberish that has nothing to do with actual events.
Apple is "going to be fine," President Donald Trump advised on Friday in comments about the iPhone maker's recent financial stumble, while also taking credit for the company's rise in value since taking office almost two years ago.
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Roger Fingas
William Gallagher
Daniel Eran Dilger
Mikey Campbell
Malcolm Owen
AppleInsider Staff
