Is China taking a big bite out of Apple?

If you are an Apple stockholder, these are not good times. Last week, the tech giant reported fiscal second-quarter earnings of $1.90 a share on $50.56 billion in revenue, marking its first quarter-over-quarter revenue decline since 2003.  Apple shares had lost 9% of their value since Apple revealed their first quarter financial results.

In itself, this would not be anything to worry about for a behemoth like Apple. There are several other factors however that must be considered before being able to fully understand what is going on here.

1) World class Apple Analyst/Prognosticator, Ming Chi Kuo is the most respected Apple analyst on the planet. I'm aware of 26 of his previous predictions of which 23 of them were spot on. Ming claims that this September when Apple will launch their newest iPhone 7, the response is going to be mediocre. He feels this device is just not different enough from the 6s series to excite people. He also feels, as I do, that removing the industry standard 3.5mm headset jack in favor of their own proprietary "Lightning" style was a big mistake that is really going to anger a lot of folks.

2) Yesterday, billionaire business magnate, Carl Icahn, dumped the remainder of his Apple stock shares which amounted to about 1% of Apple's worth. He told CNBC that it was a combination of factors. First, there was a 26% sales drop in greater China, compared to this time last year.  Much of this likely had to do with the initial infatuation for the Apple iPhone as a status symbol. Well, the shine is apparently wearing off the Apple. Today, there are some amazing new Chinese made Smartphones at a fraction of the cost of Apple's models such as Huawei's new P9 Android with Leica camera. 

3) China's government regulators recently took aggressive measures against Apple by blocking access to the company's online stores for digital books and movies. This capricious behavior, combined with the fact that the iPhone and many of its components are actually made in China were too much for Icahn to handle. After all, he took a beating with his oil holdings last year and was possibly feeling like Apple might be a Deja Vu. Maybe Carl Icahn feels Trump is going to be the next POTUS and knows how he feels about China?

While Apple's earnings are down, Samsung is still on the rise and doing great. There are also now at least a dozen really good Android options out there, including the new BlackBerry PRIV Android.  Lately, I have been hearing quite a few people say that "Tim Cook is no Steve Jobs". Well, for Mr Cook's sake and all of Apple's shareholders, I sure hope Apple does something revolutionary in September.

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