The world’s most valuable brand, Apple, saw its stock drop on Thursday on the back of a poor iPhone sales from November in China.
Dec. 13, 2019
Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) stock price dipped more than 1% in premarket on Thursday but managed to bounce back and close up with a 0.25% rise, following a report on the latest iPhone numbers in China.
Shipments of iPhones in the world’s second-largest economy dropped more than 35% in November compared to the same period last year. Since the launch of Apple’s iPhone 11 range, total product shipments in China have dropped by more than 7% year-on-year.
When a company as big as Apple is sweating over the trade war situation between the U.S. and China, you know things must be getting bad.
Apple stock could be in for more shocks…
Apple investors will be nervously looking towards the looming December 15th tariffs deadline, which could see Apple products be hit with a 15% tariff increase, if no deal between the U.S. and China is reached.
As well as this, Apple is not safe from the recent upsurge in antitrust regulators coming for Big Tech. The European Commission has been particularly active in taking on Silicon Valley giants, which includes the likes of Apple, Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL). The executive arm of the EU is also currently looking into Apple Pay and the company’s app store for antitrust breaches.
In the U.S. there are also many key figures looking into breaking up Big Tech. Could Apple have a target on its back?
Apple does have a long term plan
It might be time for the iPhone to move over and let Apple’s other children play.
The company has switched to a more subscription-based business model in recent years and has enjoyed massive success in expanding its array of services such as Apple News, and the recently launched Apple TV+.
Services such as Apple Music have seen the company directly compete with music-streaming giant Spotify (NYSE: SPOT), while the likes of Siri and other services have helped with the company’s ever-growing wearables department.
Just look at how successful AirPods have become?
It is beginning to look more likely that the iPhone will not be Apple’s flagship product forever. Nevertheless, there’s no denying its importance to the company, and Apple will be hoping that it can start to increase iPhone sales over the coming years, especially with the launch of a 5G capable device in 2020.
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