iPhone sales continue to fall ahead of iPhone 8 launch

Yesterday we debated whether interest in the Apple Watch is falling, but Tim Cook says that sales have doubled over the last year. This is an easy claim to make when you don’t reveal the actual sales figures, but the story is definitely less rosy when we look at the iPhone. For the second quarter ever, sales of Apple's smartphone fell.

This was not only a drop in sales, but an unexpected one. While analysts had been predicting sales in the region of 52.27 million, the reality is that the company shipped just 50.2 million in the quarter ending April 1, 2017. It might not seem like a big difference, but the sustained fall in sales saw Apple's stock to follow suit to the tune of 1.5 percent.

Despite the drop in sales -- which could be attributed to people holding out for the launch of the iPhone 8 -- Apple still managed to report an increase in revenue. That said, the 4.6 percent rise to $52.9 billion fell short of the $53.02 that had been predicted. The revenue increase is thanks partly to the higher selling price of the iPhone 7, but also improving Mac sales -- a jump from 4 million to 4.2 million.

iPad sales dropped to 8.9 million units, and experts at FactSet predict that the decline will continue for the iPhone. In the next quarter, sales are predicted to be 42.31 million handsets. On the face of it, this looks and sounds bad, but sales are still impressive. The drop will also paint sales of the iPhone 8 in an even better light, as the near-certain jump in sales will be even more marked.

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