iPhone sales drop but Apple diversifying 
2019-08-01
Apple Inc iPhone sales dropped to less than half of quarterly revenue for the first time in seven years, but CEO Tim Cook on Tuesday (US time) described the change as successfully diversifying away from a single product and forecast results above Wall Street targets.
Apple’s Chinese mainland sales, which had gone into a near free-fall this year, dipped only slightly, assuaging concerns that trade tensions were undermining Apple’s standing in an important market.
Moribund global mobile phone sales have led Apple to focus on accessories like the Apple Watch and growth in music, apps, gaming, video and a credit card coming in August. In Chinese mainland, Cook said the overall number of Apple device users had grown in the fiscal third quarter, helping to increase the market for its services, whose sales were up by more than 10 percent there.
“We actually grew in the Chinese mainland,” Cook said. “Non-iPhone revenue grew 17 percent. We grew in every category outside of iPhone.”
But globally, iPhone sales fell 12 percent to US$25.99 billion, after dropping 17 percent in the previous quarter. Wearables and other accessories revenue rose nearly 50 percent, topping expectations. Services revenue rose 12.6 percent to US$11.46 billion, slowing and slightly missing expectations but setting a new record. Apple expects revenue for the fiscal fourth quarter of between US$61 billion and US$64 billion.
