Apple faces steepest iPhone slump since Covid
Apple Inc.’s iPhone shipments slid a worse-than-projected nearly 10% in the quarter ended in March, reflecting flagging sales in China despite a broader smartphone industry rebound.
The company shipped 50.1 million iPhones in the first three months of the year, according to market tracker IDC, falling shy of the 51.7 million average analyst estimate compiled by Bloomberg.
The 9.6% year-on-year drop is the steepest for Apple since Covid lockdowns snarled supply chains in 2022, the researchers said.
The Cupertino, Californiabased iPhone maker has struggled to sustain sales in China since the debut of its latest model in September. The resurgence of rivals from Huawei Technologies Co. to Xiaomi Corp. and a Beijingimposed ban on foreign devices in the workplace have all weighed on sales. The IDC data provides the first snapshot of the global performance of Apple’s most important product ahead of earnings on May 2.
Shares were down less than 1% in premarket trading in New York on Monday.
The drop in the shipments of iPhone is significant given the overall mobile market registering its best growth in years.
Smartphone makers shipped 289.4 million handsets in the period, marking a 7.8% rise from the trough of a year ago, when many manufacturers were grappling with a surfeit of unsold devices.
Samsung Electronics Co. regained the top spot in the March quarter, while budgetfocused Transsion increased shipments by 85% and Xiaomi bounced back to close the gap on second-place Apple.
“The smartphone market is emerging from the turbulence of the last two years both stronger and changed,” said Nabila Popal, research director at IDC.
“While Apple has been super resilient and seen a lot of growth in shipments and share over the last few years, it will be a challenge for it to maintain the pace of growth and the peak share it saw in 2023. As the market recovers further in 2024, IDC expects Android to grow much faster than Apple.”