Apple sees iPhone sales lag, also hurt by currency exchange


Matthew Zeitlib for BuzzFeed:

iPhone sales peak each year in the holiday season, and they were flat in the last quarter of 2015 relative to the same period a year prior. For the coming quarter, Apple projected revenues between $50 billion and $53 billion, down from the $58 billion it made in the first three months of 2015. If Apple's revenue falls into that range, it would be its first annual revenue decline in the second quarter since 2003, almost four years before Steve Jobs presented the iPhone.

iPhone growth appears to have finally hit a bump with a multitude of issues affecting sales. Last year's results, however, may have skewed year over year performance by what's generally perceived as a redesigned iPhone 6/Plus launch and also likely pent up demand with Apple getting into the super-sized smartphone business. The flip side of that, however, is last year's results may have helped hid a longer trend.

In other news, Apple is seeing affects of weakening global currency relative to the US Dollar. Apple said the exchange rate volatility effectively knocked $5 billion off of their books. Despite all that, Apple still posted a record first fiscal quarter.