Apple Q3 Earnings Report to be Released: Apple's Revenue May Decline by Over 2%, AI Potential Draws Attention

According to the Zhongtong Finance APP, Apple (AAPL.US) will announce its fiscal third-quarter earnings report for the 2023 fiscal year after the US stock market closes on August 3. Analysts believe that Apple's third-quarter revenue may decline by 1.6% compared to the same period last year, marking the largest year-on-year decline in the third quarter since 2016. Analysts also predict that Apple's sales will decline by more than 2% as consumers adopt a wait-and-see attitude towards the upcoming new models amid an economic slowdown. In addition, how Apple utilizes artificial intelligence to drive growth is also a focus of market attention.

This latest earnings report from Apple may mark the end of an optimistic earnings season for companies such as Meta Platforms (META.US), Alphabet (GOOGL.US), and Microsoft (MSFT.US). These companies have shown resilience in their cloud computing businesses, and digital advertising sales have also increased.

Analysts believe that Apple's weak sales are expected to come mainly from the Americas, with Apple's sales in this region projected to decline by 6%. Analysts expect that with the details of the new Apple 15 series phones set to be released next month, Apple's sales may receive a slight boost from July to September (the fourth quarter).

Furthermore, analysts predict that sales of Mac and iPad will decline by 10.6% and 11.2% respectively. Some analysts also believe that Apple's services business, including the Apple App Store and audio/video streaming services, may be a bright spot, with an expected growth of 5.7%. This is partly due to the increase in Apple subscription prices, although the growth rate is similar to the previous three quarters.

Bob O'Donnell, founder of TECHnalysis Research, said, "Apple cannot escape the influence of macroeconomic trends and will continue to lead the pace of the smartphone industry for a considerable period of time."

Analysts also point out that although Apple traditionally does not provide quarterly performance outlooks, the company is expected to provide detailed information on how it plans to leverage artificial intelligence to improve its upcoming products. In contrast to tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft, Apple has so far avoided using terms such as artificial intelligence in its activities. However, reports last month indicated that Apple has built a framework for creating large-scale language models, and based on this platform called "Ajax," Apple has also launched a chatbot service.

Analysts from Bank of Wealth stated, "We expect Apple's latest comments on its artificial intelligence ambitions to be the focus of attention." Analysts added that any comments related to this technology could boost Apple's stock price. So far this year, Apple's stock price has risen by over 50%, outperforming the nearly 37% increase in the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index during the same period.