During the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference held at the Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California, on June 10, 2024, Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, participated in a pivotal event highlighting Apple’s latest advancements. This image, captured by David Paul Morris for Bloomberg, was featured by Getty Images.
Apple’s stock took a hit on Thursday, plummeting 4%, marking its steepest drop since August 5th. This decline followed a spate of reports indicating weak iPhone sales in China. Since its recent peak in December, the tech giant’s stock has fallen by nearly 12%, making it the lowest performer among the seven major technology firms so far in 2025.
Contributing to the downturn was a report from Canalys, a well-regarded market research firm. The report indicated that Apple had slipped to third place in smartphone sales in China during 2024, trailing behind local giants Vivo and Huawei. Apple accounted for 15% of the 284 million phones sold in the Chinese market last year, yet this figure represented a 17% decline compared to the previous year. In contrast, both Vivo and Huawei experienced substantial growth.
Adding to the concerns, TSMC—one of Apple’s key suppliers—revealed on Thursday that it anticipates a nearly 6% sequential decrease in smartphone sales for the first quarter. TSMC, responsible for producing the core chips for Apple devices, attributed this expected decline to seasonal variations. Interestingly, TSMC reported that AI chips represented over half of its fourth-quarter revenue, overshadowing smartphones, which had traditionally been its mainstay.
Renowned Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo shared insights earlier this week, projecting a 6% year-over-year decline in iPhone shipments for the first half of 2025, with the second quarter being particularly affected. Kuo further highlighted that Apple Intelligence, the company’s cutting-edge AI system yet to launch in China, isn’t driving increased iPhone demand. “There is no evidence of Apple Intelligence’s ability to benefit hardware replacement cycles or service business,” Kuo remarked.
Apple is set to announce its December quarter results on January 30.
In a discussion about Apple’s market trajectory, Morgan Stanley’s Woodring suggested that the recent corrections in Apple’s stocks are due to fundamental reasons, and he anticipates upgrades with the iPhone 17.
