IPhone sales flatline, as decline predicted

Apple has shipped more than a billion devices in the past: the company sold its billionth iOS device back in November 2014.

With the growth slowing in iPhone sales, analysts expect sales of units of the smartphone to enter negative territory for just the first time later in 2016 due in part because of rumors from the supply chain of Apple of reduced orders for the iPhone 6S. During the quarter, the company sold 74.8 million iPhones, 16.1 million iPads, and 5.3 million Macs.

Apple does not report individual sales figures for its various products, just bundling all “other” products apart from iPhone sales. That wasn’t the case this time.

Daniel Ives, managing director at FBR Capital Markets, told ABC News that softness – that’s a saturation in smartphones on the market with fewer buyers – will be a challenge for Apple and its competitors. The company is now projecting its first revenue decline in more than a decade.

Despite the worrying signs Apple chief executive, Tim Cook, described the quarter as a period in which there were “a lot of great things happening in a turbulent environment”.

Looking forward, there are more clouds on the horizon.

These results compare to revenue of $74,6-billion and net income of $18-billion, or $3.06 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Accordingly, iPhone sales were up by 76 percent in the Asian country. If that were to be the case, it would mark Apple’s first fall in revenues since the launch of the first iPhone. “To be fair, growth engines inevitably hit a saturation point, but this is something that Apple has been able to maintain since it launched the iPhone in 2007″.

Apple shares dropped as much as 5.6 percent to $94.39 in the morning.

Kagan said he expects the newest version of the iPhone to spur growth, provided it has the right eye-catching new features.

The company is still keeping sales of the Apple Watch under wraps – the only clue in these results was the $4.4bn in sales of “other devices”, up almost two-thirds on past year.

In the quarter Apple also sold a record 74.8 million iPhones, however sales were only up slightly from the 74.5 million units it sold in the same quarter a year earlier – marking the slowest growth ever for iPhone sales. Sales of the iPad stagnated during the quarter despite the introduction of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro.