Difficult year for Apple: Its CEO companys, Tim Cook, he published a letter to investors, warning of lower-than-expected earnings in the first quarter of 2019, saying there were “fewer upgrades iPhone than we expected".
The weakened demand came mainly from China, according to Cook, although he said that in general the trend for "upgrades was not as strong as we thought it would be".
In his letter, Cook tries to explain the lower earnings by highlighting: the release timing of the iPhone XS and XS Max compared to the iPhone X, the price of the US dollar, supply constraints due to the number of new products released by Apple in the Fall and the overall economic weakness in some markets.
But the underlying issue remains simple: people simply aren't buying as much news iPhones as much as Apple hopes.
According to Mr. Cook's letter,
"Lower iPhone revenue, especially in China, represents our revenue deficit." Cook says other Apple divisions have actually seen growth of 19 percent over the year, but the truth is that the iPhone is Apple's core business, and if Apple can't sell enough of them , the whole business is shaken.
In an interview with CNBC, Cook said of the deficit that "trade tensions between the United States and China are putting additional pressure on their economies," leading to fewer customers.
Overall, the forecast for the first quarter of the year is up to 9 billions of dollars, compared to its initial estimate.
Apple's share fell by almost 10%.
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