Apple Reports First Profit Decline in a Decade

On Tuesday, April 23, Apple reported its first quarterly profit decline since 2003. The company reported net earnings of $9.55 billion for the quarter that ended March 31, an 18 percent decline over last year's March quarter. Apple's exceptionally high profit in Q2 2012 had been powered by the release of the iPhone 4S in China. Hence the decline was somewhat to be expected.

Apart from the profit decline, Apple's results were slightly better than expected. The company sold 37.4 million iPhones, 19.5 million iPads and posted the highest non-holiday quarter revenue ever. And even though it seems as if the years of massive double-digit growth are behind Apple for now, the company still has an incredibly strong business.