Apple Beats on Revenue Despite AI Hiccups and iPhone Sales Dip

AI challenges, iPhone sales weigh on Apple

Apple's trading patterns have been turbulent, mirroring the broader trend in the tech sector.

Shares pulled back earlier this month after the company receiving ratings downgrades from Jefferies and Oppenheimer, but fared fairly well on Monday (January 27), when the DeepSeek selloff affected markets.

Apple is up about 6 percent for the week, while its peer NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) is recovering from heavy losses.

“Apple obviously is taking a little bit more of an asset-light approach to artificial intelligence (AI), so they are not spending the capex and building the AI infrastructure like some of the other large internet companies are,” Barclays (NYSE:BCS,LSE:BARC) Managing Director Tim Long told CNBC’s Squawk Box.

Long added that Barclays analysts anticipated a “little bit of a reboot in strategy over the next year for AI offerings,” noting Apple Intelligence's lack of success since its debut in June 2024.

Apple’s failure to impress users with its AI is coinciding with increased competition, particularly in China, where local brands are leveraging the company’s delayed AI rollout to gain market share, integrating AI into their newer models.

A January 13 report from Counterpoint Research shows that Chinese smartphone brands gained market share in 2024, while Apple's iPhone 16 sales were mixed due to the lack of Apple Intelligence at launch.

The company has also been unable to lift a ban on the iPhone 16 in Indonesia, although Bloomberg reported last week that the company may be close to a deal to resolve the issue. Looking ahead, Apple plans to continue its global rollout of Apple Intelligence and expects revenue to grow in the low to mid-single digits in Q1.

Apple’s share price closed Thursday around 0.4 percent below its opening price, dropping off in the final hour of trading. After an initial fall after hours, Apple was up nearly 3.5 percent at the time of this writing.