By Seth Fiegerman
The new $999 iPhone helped supercharge Apple’s sales in the holiday season, but trouble may be ahead.
Apple said Thursday it posted sales of $88.3 billion in the final three months of 2017, beating its own sales forecast and setting a new quarterly record for the company.
However, Apple said it expects sales for the upcoming quarter to be between $60 billion and $62 billion, well below Wall Street estimates. The forecast raises concerns about demand for the new line of iPhones.
The iPhone X, Apple’s priciest smartphone to date, went on sale during the holiday quarter. This was also the first full quarter when the new iPhone 8 and 8 Plus were available to customers.
Apple does not break out sales by model. The company said it sold 77.3 million devices, which is actually a slight 1% decline from the same period a year earlier. But the higher price tag for its models likely offset the dip.
Still, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the iPhone X “has been our top-selling iPhone every week since it shipped in November.”
The company’s stock had slipped in the days leading up to its earnings report as analysts and media outlets raised concerns about demand for the iPhone X after the holidays.
The company is rumored to be cutting production for the $999 smartphone by half for the first three months of 2018, according to multiple reports. The lower sales forecast only adds to those jitters.
Apple stock was down 1% in after hours trading following the earnings report.
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