Apple warns March revenue will fall short of expectations due to coronavirus impact
Apple is advising investors it does not expect to meet the revenue guidance it provided for the March quarter due to supply constraints and poor sales performance in China as a result of the deadly coronavirus outbreak.
Within an update shared by Apple today, the company is backtracking on its previous forecasts for second quarter revenues which it had hoped to be in the $63 billion to $67 billion range, saying the company now doesn’t expect to hit even the lower-end of that scale.
The news follows after Apple announced its highest quarterly revenue ever of $91.8 billion during Q1 2020. The update notes that whilst work is starting to resume around China, the pace of return to work is slower than anticipated.
Our quarterly guidance issued on January 28, 2020 reflected the best information available at the time as well as our best estimates about the pace of return to work following the end of the extended Chinese New Year holiday on February 10. Work is starting to resume around the country, but we are experiencing a slower return to normal conditions than we had anticipated. As a result, we do not expect to meet the revenue guidance we provided for the March quarter.
The full note, available here, assures investors that customer demand across the product and service categories has been “strong to date and in line with our expectations.”
Earlier today, it was reported MacBook manufacturer Quanta is said to be shifting assembly work to Taiwan as reports claim industry-wide laptop production will be severely hit as a result of the virus, with notebook shipments expected to fall 29-36 percent in Q1 2020, much steeper than previously thought.