HAS gravity finally caught up with Apple and its stratospheric share price?Last week Apple lost 8% in after-hours trade the day its second-quarter earnings were announced. This shaved US$47bn off its market value. The quarter saw the fist drop in gowth since its remarkable run began in 2003.There has been an outflowing of Schadenfreude from the tech industry and its commentators that Apple’s 13-year growth surge has finally ended.But in the past quarter its revenue fell 13% year-on-year to $50.6bn; while iPhone sales fell 16% to 51.2m. Sales of iPads were down 19% to 10.2m and Macs dropped 11% to 4.03m.The iPhone sales are the most problematic, as they account for two-thirds of Apple’s revenue. This market-defining device not only spawned the smartphone era (though early precursors from Nokia, Sony Ericsson and BlackBerry paved the way) but now is the biggest part of Apple’s business and reportedly accounts for half of smartphone sales in the US.“There’s no question that Apple’s bes...
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