Apple: iPhone sales revenue dropped 15 percent last quarter

Apple said its quarterly revenue dropped 5 percent and its iPhone sales are down 15 percent from last year, following CEO Tim Cook’s warning early this month that trade tensions with China were hurting the company’s device sales.

The tech giant brought in $84.3 billion in revenue for the first fiscal quarter of 2019. The number beats the slashed predictions it announced on January 2, but is 5 percent lower than the previous year.

“While it was disappointing to miss our revenue guidance, we manage Apple for the long term, and this quarter’s results demonstrate that the underlying strength of our business runs deep and wide,” Cook said in a statement.

{mosads}In a rare revenue guidance from one of the most reliable companies in the U.S. for investors, Cook said on Jan. 2 that Apple expected to bring in up to $9 billion less than it had previously estimated for the quarter. He blamed an economic downturn in China as a result of a tariff battle with the U.S.

“While we anticipated some challenges in key emerging markets, we did not foresee the magnitude of the economic deceleration, particularly in Greater China,” Cook wrote in a letter to investors. “In fact, most of our revenue shortfall to our guidance, and over 100 percent of our year-over-year worldwide revenue decline, occurred in Greater China across iPhone, Mac and iPad.”