Setback for Apple as iPhone sales stutter

According to analysts, this year ought to have been Apple Inc’s watershed moment in China, when a long-awaited deal with the nation’s largest carrier was to have propelled it back toward the top ranks of its most significant market.

Instead, the forecast for the March quarter – when Apple is expected to have reaped the fruits of that long-awaited deal – raises questions of whether investors had over-estimated that arrangement, and broader concerns about flagging demand for smartphones and tablets in general.

“There’s no doubt that shipments (to China Mobile) are lower than almost anybody expected,” said Pacific Crest Securities’ Andy Hargreaves.

Globally, “the high-end smartphone and tablet markets are saturated, and that’s not going to grow”.

The world’s most valuable technology company sold a record 51m iPhones in the quarter, but that was still less than the 55m that many analysts had expected.

The company recorded sales of $57.6bn in its December or fiscal first quarter.

Net profit was flat from a year earlier at $13.1bn.