The shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) declined again Tuesday as the tech giant faces several bad news related to its iPhone products. The stock price of iPhone maker declined 1.77% to $110.49 per share.
Apple already lost 17.8% of stock value from its 52-week high of $134.54 on April 28. The iPhone maker is just few percentage points above the 20% bear market threshold.
Apple’s big hiccup
In an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Alley, Collin Gillis, a senior technology analyst at BGC Financial said the smartphone market is slowing broadly particularly for Apple. According to him, people are concerned every time there is a hiccup when “we are moving into a stalled part of the cycle.”
Gilles added, “We are lucky if we get a 7% growth rate this quarter and in the March quarter. He predicted that the growth rate of the smartphone market could stall and event contract.
Gilles emphasized that Apple did an amazing job for dominating the high-end segment of the smartphone market with the iPhone. However, he said the iPhone maker may become a “victim of its own success to a certain degree” because it is so dependent on the iPhone.
According to him, Apple still values the iPhone because its profits are coming from the hardware. “There’s a lot of talk about the ecosystem, and the stickiness of the platform,” but we need to see if the upgrade cycle lengthens, stays the same, or if it detracts.”
Gilles noted that Apple suffered a big hiccup with the iPad—its revenue from the product declined in eight consecutive quarters. He said, “The concern is; can that happen to the iPhone? And what can Apple do on the services layer to replace that revenue?”
The technology giant’s shares were down more than 1 percent to $110.89 in late trading Tuesday.
Dialog’s weak revenue guidance spooks Apple investors
Separately, Credit Suisse issued a report indicating that the iPhone cycle will be subdued over the next quarter as the smartphone market shows signs of slowdown.
Dialog Semiconductor, one of the major suppliers of Apple, spooked investors after reducing its revenue guidance by 11% for the quarter. A sign that Apple’s smartphone growth is slowing.
According to Credit Suisse, Dialog’s weak revenue outlook is a sign that Apple’s iPhone shipments for the March quarter could be lower than 50 million units compared with the 55 million units expected by brokerage firms.
