Apple Revenues Down 9% as iPhone Sales Fall

Apple has reported a 9% fall in revenue in the fourth quarter of its 2016 fiscal year as iPhone sales dropped 13% percent year-on-year.

Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) reported $46.9 billion in revenue for the quarter ending September, compared with $51.1 billion in the same quarter a year ago. It made a profit of $9 billion compared to $11.1 billion in the same quarter in 2015, a drop of 19%.

The company has been hit by sales declines across its product line but was mainly affected by a slump in iPhone unit sales. It sold 45.5 million iPhones in the quarter, compared to 48.06 million units in the same quarter in 2016.

Most of the sales in the quarter came from the the iPhone 6 and 6S lines. Apple launched the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus at the end of the quarter. And -- as is typical with Apple launches -- the new devices were in very short supply, as Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) and T-Mobile US Inc. noted on earnings calls this week. (See Apple iPhone 7 Rides LTE-A Speed Curve to 450 Mbit/s.)

"We are supply constrained on the 7 and 7 Plus," said Luca Maestri, Apple's senior vice president and CFO. "So when you talk about other competitors, it's not particularly relevant to us right now because we are selling everything that we can produce."

Maestri was referencing Samsung Corp. 's recall debacle with its Note 7 "phablet." Both the recall and the Apple launch happened late in the quarter, so the impact of both may be felt more keenly next quarter. (See Samsung's NoteGate: Winners & Losers.)

Certainly US carriers are expecting to have more iPhone 7 units available as 2016 draws to a close. Asked about this on call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that it is "hard to say."

"I believe that on iPhone 7 we will." Underlying demand for the iPhone 7 Plus, though, is "particularly" strong, the CEO noted.

Apple reported after the market closed on Tuesday. The company's shares were trading down 2.79% at $114.95 after hours.

— Dan Jones, Mobile Editor, Light Reading

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