The difficulties that Apple has faced in recent months are reflected in its results for the first quarter of the year. This was announced by the company from Cupertino. 5% loss of income compared to the same period the previous year, amassing $117,154 million in a quarter in which we’re used to seeing record numbers due to Christmas sales and in which they now perform poorly in only three of their five product categories.
Despite the poor results, the firm is reluctant to take one of the steps that virtually all big tech companies use to cut costs: layoffs. Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, said in a routine investor address that he views layoffs “as a last resort.” It is possible, yes, to do it if necessary. “you can never say never. We want to manage costs in as many different ways as possible,” the executive said.
In addition, Apple, in order to avoid mass layoffs of hundreds or thousands of employees, has been cutting hiring in some areas for several months. Also hiring carefully in those departments where they need personnel. “We are hiring slowly and deliberately,” said Tim Cook.
Currency exchange hurts Apple
On the other hand, the drop in Apple’s revenue in the first fiscal quarter of the year was due to inflation, or rather, currency exchange and the appreciation of the dollar against other currencies. In fact, the company claims that impact on currency exchange led to an 8% drop in sales. While that’s less than the 10% expected, Cook says, “That 8% is still a very strong headwind.”
Apple, let’s remember, came up with price hikes on some of its products in Europe to try and offset this parity of the euro against the dollar. And, thus, to avoid the fact that the amount of income will be significantly less than stated. However, despite the fact that the dollar is already stable, the company expects foreign exchange rates to affect sales by up to 5% in the second fiscal quarter.
The Cupertino-based company was also affected by supply chain difficulties. A problem that they claim has already been solved, which caused that production is at the level they expected.
Source: Hiper Textual
I’m Ben Stock, a highly experienced and passionate journalist with a career in the news industry spanning more than 10 years. I specialize in writing content for websites, including researching and interviewing sources to produce engaging articles. My current role is as an author at Gadget Onus, where I mainly cover the mobile section.
