iPhone sales dip in Q2

Apple sold 50.8 million iPhones in the first three months of 2017, down one per cent year-on year, according to the company's second quarter results.

Apple CEO Tim Cook blamed a "pause" as customers wait for the next iPhone which is due to release later this year, the BBC reported on Tuesday.

Apple announced on Tuesday financial results for its fiscal 2017 second quarter ended April 1, 2017 and posted quarterly revenue of $52.9 billion and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $2.10.

The company hit an all-time high before its shares fell nearly two per cent in after-hours trading.

Apple's earnings per share were higher than expected at $2.10, compared to $2.02 while its market cap slipped to $765 billion during after hours trading due to the poor results.

Apple reported a 4.6 per cent rise in revenue across the whole company to $52.9 billion, slightly below analysts' forecasts.

"The dip in iPhone sales was offset by services, including Apple Pay, iCloud and the App store, which recorded an 18 per cent increase in sales to $7 billion," the report noted.

Due to the robust sales of its iPhone 7 Plus, the revenue from iPhones climbed one per cent to $33.2 billion.

The quarterly profits of Apple were $11 billion worldwide, up 4.9 per cent from the same period in 2016.

Apple also plans to return an extra $50 billion to shareholders.

According to analysts at GlobalData Retail, Apple's revenue from iPhones is $7 billion less than the same period two years ago.

"We highlight these facts not to be unduly harsh to Apple, but to indicate that the company has only partially emerged from the slump that hit it over the last fiscal year," the report quoted Neil Saunders, Managing Director of GlobalData Retail, as saying.

"In our view, the company's mature product line up and an absence of any significant new devices mean it has struggled to regain all of the lost ground," he added.

Also, revenue from China dropped 14 per cent but Cook partly blamed currency fluctuations for dip.

According to a senior analyst at Canalsys Tim Coulling, the Chinese smartphone market is highly competitive that offer cheaper products and are full of features similar to an Apple phone.

As the company has authorised share repurchase to $210 billion from the $175 billion level, Apple now has 5.25 million shares outstanding, compared with the 5.76 million shares outstanding it had in March 2015.