Apple reported a surprise fall in iPhone sales for Q2 on Tuesday. The California-based company believes that the drop in sales is because the customers may have held back purchases in anticipation of the 10th-anniversary edition - iPhone 8 which Apple is expected to announce by the end of this year. iPhone 8 is going to Apple's most important product later this year.

Under pressure from shareholders to hand over more of its $250 billion-plus (roughly Rs. 16,03,228 crores) hoard of cash and investments, Apple boosted its capital return programme by $50 billion (roughly Rs. 3,20,648 crores), increased its share repurchase authorization by $35 billion (roughly Rs. 2,24,448 crores) and raised its quarterly dividend by 10.5 percent.

Investors were unmoved, sending shares of the world's most valuable listed company down 1.9 percent at $144.65 in after-hours trading. Apple sold 50.76 million iPhones in its fiscal second quarter ended April 1, down from 51.19 million a year earlier.

Analysts on average had estimated iPhone sales of 52.27 million, according to financial data and analytics firm FactSet. Apple Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri argued the decline was not as bad as it looked, given the peculiarities of how phone sales are calculated.

The company reports what are called "sell-in" figures for the iPhone, a measure of how many units it sells to retailers, rather than "sell-through" figures, which measure how many phones are actually sold to consumers.

Source: indiatoday