Tepid iPhone sales have left a sour taste in Apple (AAPL) shareholders' mouths. But the consumer electronics company remains far from rotten.
Apple sold a record 51m iPhones in its first quarter, but failed to meet analysts' expectations of 55m or more. Moreover, it guided for revenues between $42bn and $44bn in the current quarter, when a figure below $43.6bn would be the company's first year-on-year sales decline since 2003. The company blamed a bushel of issues; a sluggish North American market, new mobile carrier polices delaying upgrades, lacklustre sales of the lower-end iPhone 5c, and declining iPod sales.
The business did beat revenue and EPS estimates for the period. But its misses on key indicators mean it faces mounting pressure to reveal its first new, game-changing product since the iPad in 2010. Rumours abound of larger-screen iPhones, a wearable iWatch, a video game-ready Apple TV and an iPhone-based mobile payments system. But we will have to wait and see what product Apple picks from its tree.
