Apple reports slower iPhone sales for Q1

Apple showed a slightly disappointing performance the first quarter of this year. According to the announcement made by Apple on Tuesday (local time), reported a 4.6 percent rise in revenue, from 52.9 billion dollars to 50.6 billion dollars year-on-year. During the first quarter, the smartphone giant sold a total of 50.76 million units, which was below market expectations forecasted at 52.27 million. Apple's shares closed the day at 144.65 dollars, down by around 2 percent.

On slow sales of iPhone, which accounts for 60 percent of total sales, Apple CEO Tim Cook said, "We believe is due to the earlier and much more frequent reports about future iPhones." Cook implies that consumers are delaying purchase due to expectations on the upcoming "iPhone 8" to be released in the latter half of this year.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of iPhone. Apple opened an era of smartphones with its first iPhone announced in 2007. Indeed, there are high hopes from the market that Apple will unveil an innovative phone to commemorate its first decade of iPhone series.

"Numerous outlooks churn out every day, forecasting that iPhone 8 will be equipped with an edged OLED display similar to that of Galaxy S8, and will feature Augmented Reality (AR) functions with the camera," an industry expert said.

Sluggish sales in China also resulted in slower sales. During the first quarter in 2017, Apple sold 10.7 billion dollars worth of iPhones in China, down by nearly 14 percent year-on-year. "While sales generated from North America and Europe slightly grew, sales from China waned due to the strong dollar," the Apple CEO said. Local smartphone manufacturers including Huawei, Oppo, and Vivo have continued to enlarge their pies in the market, and have now taken over 50 percent of the mobile phone market in China.

Dong-Il Seo dong@donga.com