Amaya Toman Practically since the launch of the first ever iPhone, Apple's smartphones have seen a steady rise. Apple smartphones were very popular with the public, but no tree grows to the sky, and it was clear from the beginning that the rapid growth of the curve would one day necessarily have to slow down. It first happened in late January 2016 after nine years of spectacular growth.
It could be interest you
Figures released by Apple showed that iPhone sales rose by just 2015% during the last three months of 0,4. Key sales during the holiday period were relatively unfavorable compared to the 46% jump seen in the same period a year earlier. Apple sold 74,8 million iPhones in the period, up from 74,46 million in the fourth quarter of 2014. By then, analysts had been asking for several years when Apple would peak in iPhone sales, and for the first time, it looked like the moment actually happened.
The fault wasn't necessarily Apple's, even though the iPhone 6s was, for many, the least "interesting" update in years. Instead, the iPhone slump actually had a lot to do with slowing global smartphone growth. According to experts from Gartner, overall smartphone sales fell to the lowest level since 2013. This was especially evident in the United States and other developed markets, where fewer people bought their first smartphone. Apple therefore focused on satisfying its existing customer base as well as any users it could potentially "steal" from its competitors.
Gallery
The slowdown in smartphone sales has also affected China, which Apple has identified as its future largest market. Apple CEO Tim Cook noted that although Cupertino has achieved great success in the Asian country, the company "started to see some economic deterioration especially in Hong Kong in recent months." The fact that Apple didn't create a new blockbuster product category to take on only exacerbated the problem. In addition, sales of other Apple product lines were also falling. For example, the company sold 4% fewer Macs and just 16,1 million iPads in the quarter (compared to 21,4 million in the same period in 2014). The Apple Watch and Apple TV, meanwhile, generated just a fraction of Apple's total revenue.
Apple nevertheless reported record sales in the said quarter. However, the slight slowdown also proved to be a continuing trend as the company's meteoric rise in the early 2000s began to lose steam. In the following years, the Cupertino company began to focus more and more on its services.
At the moment, services such as Apple Music, iCloud, Apple Arcade, Apple Card or even Apple TV+ make an increasingly solid and significant pillar of Apple's income and help the company catch up with stagnant smartphone sales.
But it would be wrong to call 2015 the "peak of the iPhone" from today's point of view. Market research shows that Apple shipped 2020 million iPhones in the fourth quarter of 88 and 85 million in the same quarter a year later. That's a lot more than in the fourth quarter of 2015. And total shipments during the full year of 2021 showed an 18% year-over-year increase.
