Apple losing its shine

Apple announced its fourth fiscal quarter financial results after the bell on Tuesday, despite a positive knee jerk reaction, shares in after-hours trading soon tumbled by 2%.

Third straight revenue fall in Q4

Apple reported revenues of $46.85 billion, marginally off the $47billion expected, net quarterly profits of $9billion and earnings per share of $1.67, 1 cent higher than the forecast $1.66. Furthermore, Apple beat expectation on the number of iPhone´s sold, 45.5 million versus expectation of 45 million. However, the figures across the board were notably down from the fourth quarter a year ago and equate to the third straight revenue fall for the tech giant.

Chinese revenues fall 30% yoy

Looking from a geographical perspective, Apple revenue was up in Europe and Japan, but fell in American and China. China appears to be a particular concern, where revenues have fallen 30% year over year. The company faces strong headwinds in China, where it has lost a significant percentage of market share to new domestic brands such as Huawei, which is considered to be as technologically advanced as Apple, but significantly cheaper. The US, on the other hand, is experiencing smart phone saturation, which is causing sales to decline.

Revenue guidance for next quarter

Apple hopes the new iPhone 7 will kick start its growth engine after a rather lackluster performance of the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus line and so far the outlook is promising. A brighter spot from the release this evening was the revenue guidance for the next quarter which was higher than expected, at $76 to $78 billion; possibly in part due to an expected increased market share for Apple as main rival Samsung remains in serious trouble over its defective Galaxy Note 7.