Duncan Davidson
Wednesday, January 2, 2019

Tim Cook has written a letter to shareholders revising Apple’s guidance for the previous quarter. The big surprise — other than providing a revision to advice in the first place — is the reason that Apple lowered their expected revenue:

…we did not foresee the magnitude of the economic deceleration, particularly in Greater China. In fact, most of our revenue shortfall to our guidance, and over 100 percent of our year-over-year worldwide revenue decline, occurred in Greater China across iPhone, Mac and iPad.

Wow. Just wow. Every single bit of the decrease in revenue is attributable to one market. Then comes the kicker:

We believe the economic environment in China has been further impacted by rising trade tensions with the United States.

The economic impact of the current administration’s actions is kicking in. I doubt this will be the last we hear of this.