Apple's (AAPL) Retail Sales Growth Comes to a Dead Halt
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One problem onlookers are pointing to from Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) fourth quarter report was weakness in retail store sales.
Year-over-year, retail sales rose just 1% to $3.584 billion in Q4. This was an abrupt change from prior quarters when growth was off the charts. In Q3, Apple reported that retail sales grew 36%. In Q2 it was 90% and in Q1 it was 95%.
The anemic fourth quarter retail sales growth came even as Apple opened 30 new stores in the quarter. In addition, Apple said it hosted a record 77.5 million store visitors in the quarter. So people were browsing but not buying.
While these latest number are concerning, this quarter was a difficult comparison as the year-ago quarter was when the iPhone 4 was launched. In addition, speculation about a new iPhone likely had many prospective customer holding off on purchases.
The launch of the iPhone 4S this quarter should return Apple's stores to growth.
Shares of Apple are down 5.5 percent in mid-day action Wednesday.
Year-over-year, retail sales rose just 1% to $3.584 billion in Q4. This was an abrupt change from prior quarters when growth was off the charts. In Q3, Apple reported that retail sales grew 36%. In Q2 it was 90% and in Q1 it was 95%.
The anemic fourth quarter retail sales growth came even as Apple opened 30 new stores in the quarter. In addition, Apple said it hosted a record 77.5 million store visitors in the quarter. So people were browsing but not buying.
While these latest number are concerning, this quarter was a difficult comparison as the year-ago quarter was when the iPhone 4 was launched. In addition, speculation about a new iPhone likely had many prospective customer holding off on purchases.
The launch of the iPhone 4S this quarter should return Apple's stores to growth.
Shares of Apple are down 5.5 percent in mid-day action Wednesday.
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