Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) reported a surprise fall in iPhone sales on Wednesday, as consumers await the new model of the best-selling smartphone.
Apple reported a 4.6 percent rise in revenue across the whole company to $52.9 billion (£41 billion), which fell slightly below market expectations.
The fall in iPhone sales was mitigated by strong performance across its other services, including Apple Pay, iCloud and the App store, which recorded an 18 percent increase in sales to $7 billion.
Despite falling unit sales, revenue from iPhones still rose 1 percent to $33.2 billion, as a result of continually strong sales of its more expensive iPhone 7 Plus models.
“We are proud to report a strong March quarter, with revenue growth accelerating from the December quarter and continued robust demand for iPhone 7 Plus,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.
“We’ve seen great customer response to both models of the new iPhone 7 (PRODUCT)RED Special Edition and we’re thrilled with the strong momentum of our Services business, with our highest revenue ever for a 13-week quarter. “
In recent years Apple has been falling behind competition, and struggled to retain its place as a major innovator within the tech industry. The company were dealt a blow back in February, when Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) replaced Apple as the world’s most valuable brand for the first time in five years.
The highly-anticipated release of the iPhone 7 ultimately underwhelmed critics, despite the addition of new wireless earphone capability. Nevertheless, despite a recent dip in sales, the iPhone had been relatively successful with consumers.
Whilst the company is traditionally very secretive when it comes to releasing new iPhone updates, Apple are reportedly in the midst of investigating ways to patent charging its devices over Wi-Fi.
According to speculation, the new iPhone 8 is expected to have an edge-to-edge display, wireless charging and no home button.
Apple is said to be designing three versions of the new model, with a third model featuring an OLED (organic light-emitting diode) screen rather than the normal LCD.
Whilst a date has yet to be formally confirmed, the iPhone 8 is expected to be presented some time in September 2017, in line with previous releases and just in time for the festive season.