After Thursday's trading hours Eastern Time, Apple will release its first quarter financial report.
Given that Barclays, Piper Sandler, and Redburn Atlantic have successively downgraded Apple's stock rating earlier this month, and Apple has revealed that "big brother" Guo Ming expects iPhone shipments to decline by 15%, Apple's financial report has received particular attention.
For investors, they not only want to understand Apple's sales performance, but also want to have a deeper understanding of iPhone sales performance and prospects, especially in China.
Expected decrease in revenue for Greater China region
From the expectations of Wall Street analysts, the market still mostly expects Apple to achieve strong performance in the fiscal quarter, and expects iPhone sales prospects to remain optimistic. If that's the case, it may start to reverse the company's recent relatively weak stock performance.
According to Wall Street analysts, Apple's earnings per share for the first quarter were expected to be $2.11, with revenue of $117.9 billion, both of which are expected to increase compared to last year. In the same period last year, Apple announced earnings per share of $1.88, with revenue of $117.2 billion.
According to the latest reports released by market research firms IDC and Canalys, Apple became the world's best-selling smartphone in 2023, surpassing Samsung for the first time to become the annual smartphone sales champion. Based on the strong performance of the iPhone last year, analysts on Wall Street have predicted that Apple's first quarter revenue will reach a historic high,.
However, Apple's overall revenue in Greater China is expected to decrease from $23.9 billion to $23.5 billion. Greater China is Apple's third largest sales region after North America and Europe.
Analysts say that the competitive pressure brought by Huawei's high-end smartphones and the weakening demand in the Chinese market are weakening Apple's sales prospects in the region.
IPhone revenue remains optimistic
Looking at sub sectors, Wall Street expects Apple's iPhone revenue to reach $68.6 billion, an increase from $65.78 billion in the same period last year.
Apple's Mac revenue may also slightly rebound, with analysts predicting sales of $7.9 billion for the quarter, compared to $7.7 billion in the same period last year.
But analysts predict that Apple's iPad revenue will decrease by over $2 billion from last year's $9.4 billion to $7.06 billion. According to analysis, given that Apple will launch new iPads and Macs in March, this may help increase sales for these two business units in the coming year.
Wearable devices, home furnishings, and accessories are expected to generate $12 billion in revenue this quarter, down from $13.5 billion in the first quarter of last year. This is mainly due to a patent war between Apple and medical device manufacturer Masimo at the end of last year, which forced Apple to temporarily take down this device. Since then, although Apple has removed controversial blood oxygen sensor components from its Series 9 and Ultra 2 watches, it is currently unclear how much impact this will have on sales.
Meanwhile, the sales revenue of Apple's service division is expected to increase from $20.8 billion to $23.4 billion.
Cook may reveal more information about the iPhone
As Apple releases its financial report, its latest heavyweight new product, the Vision Pro AR/VR headset, is also about to be officially launched.
This head display device will be officially released on February 2nd Eastern Time at a price of $3499.
Although it is indeed an impressive product from various evaluations, its price tag may deter most consumers.
Although Apple will not disclose the exact device sales data for this product in its financial report, Apple CEO Tim Cook is likely to reveal more clues and sales information about this product at the financial report.