Apple’s iPhone sales could suffer ‘corona shock’

Apple, which is bearing the brunt of the novel coronavirus from China, announced sales estimates for investors on the webpage on Monday (local time). “We do not expect to meet the revenue guidance we provided for the March quarter due the two main factors,” it said. It did not provide a new sales guidance, which means it is hard to even grasp the scale of damages coming from the spread of the virus.

Up until last month, the multinational tech company projected the revenue for the first quarter to be 63 billion to 67 billion U.S. dollars, 30 billion dollars lower than 91.82 billion dollars of the fourth quarter of last year. It set the range of projections as broad as 4 billion dollars because of COVID-19, but it seems hard for the company to meet the minimum target.

There are two factors that Apple lowered its guidance: Delays in production and decreased sales in China. Apple produces 90 percent of iPhones in China. Foxconn, the largest iPhone assembly business in China, resumed operation on Monday but has not been able to put the factory on track.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple has a target of resuming 50 percent of its production in China by the end of this month and 80 percent by the middle of next month. “Work is starting to resume around the country, but we are experiencing a slower return to normal conditions than we had anticipated,” said the tech company. “Worldwide iPhone supply will be temporarily constrained.”


Dong-Il Seo dong@donga.com · Yong Park parky@donga.com