Chinese sales decline, holiday sales are worrying, "the leading technology giant in the US stock market" Apple shows weakness.

The highly anticipated Q4 holiday sales for Apple may show signs of decline, making it difficult for the company to achieve significant growth compared to the same period last year. This reality is gradually dawning on investors, who may find it challenging for Apple to deliver a "significant rebound" in the short term amidst various challenges.

According to the overnight Q3 earnings report of Apple, the company's revenue has declined for four consecutive quarters, the longest in 22 years, but it still slightly exceeded expectations. However, during the conference call that followed, the "unofficial hints about next quarter's performance" that the market was particularly focused on were far from expectations.

During the call, Apple's CFO Luca Maestri stated that although iPhone revenue is expected to grow in Q4, revenue from iPad and wearable devices "may significantly decline compared to Q3" due to different product release timings. As a result, overall revenue will be "similar" to the same period last year, falling far short of Wall Street's general expectation of a "5% YoY growth".

Analysts believe that "similar" means stagnant growth, and considering the uncertainty of the global economic environment, Apple's total revenue in Q4 may decline YoY, marking five consecutive quarters of decline.

As a result, even though the US stock market had a "strong start in November," the "leading technology giant in the US stock market," Apple, fell by 4% in after-hours trading.

The intense competition in the Chinese market and the weak global consumer spending under high interest rates have attracted much attention as the reasons behind this.

Firstly, the financial report shows that revenue from the Greater China region, which contributes 20% of Apple's annual revenue, declined by 2.5% YoY, falling short of expectations and significantly decreasing from the 7.9% YoY growth in the previous quarter. Since iPhone accounts for about half of Apple's sales, the launch of iPhone 15 has become the focus. However, Morgan Stanley analyst Samik Chatterjee pointed out this week that the market is concerned about iPhone 15 losing market share in China.

In the current Chinese smartphone market, Apple faces significant competition from its peers. On one hand, Huawei's Mate 60 sold out online and offline, and on the other hand, Xiaomi's 14 broke records in its first sale, making it difficult for Apple to maintain its dominant position. In addition, just like the challenges faced by Tesla, high interest rates have "eaten away" at consumers' wallets, resulting in weak spending. This not only causes people to postpone their car replacement plans, but may also make the habit of "replacing electronic products every year" a thing of the past.

However, compared to Musk's frustrated statement that "even the strongest ship can have trouble in a storm," Cook seems to remain quite confident.

During the conference call, when asked about the Chinese market, Cook stated that iPhone revenue in mainland China reached a historic high in the third quarter of this year. He also expressed great appreciation for the performance of the latest Mac computers released this week, stating, "We now have the strongest product lineup for the year-end holiday shopping season."