by Stephen Nelis

San Francisco (Reuters) – Apple published a profit above Wall Street on Thursday in the fourth quarter, but iPhone sales and its turnover in China have disappointed, against the backdrop of increased competition on the Chinese market and Slow deployment of features fueled by artificial intelligence.

In the post-cloth stocks, the title of the apple firm alternated gains and folds, increasing by 0.5% before falling by 1.6%.

Global sales and the benefit of the technological giant in the fourth quarter were supported by better sales than expected from its iPad tablets and Mac computers, while consumers were attracted to ranges equipped with new cutting -edge chips.

Over the period October-December, iPhone sales fell slightly to $ 69.14 billion, against a consensus of 71.03 billion according to LSEG data, the absence of new AI features that have harmed demand .

In China, iPhone sales declined to $ 18.51 billion, compared to $ 20.82 billion a year earlier, while analysts anticipated an average of 21.33 billion according to Visible Alpha data.

Apple recorded quarterly overall sales at 124.30 billion dollars, a bit superior to Wall Street expectations which were 124.12 billion, according to LSEG data.

The profit per share established at 2.40 dollars, beating the consensus of 2.35 dollars.

If the group has placed AI at the heart of a range of new features, such as writing email and transcription of telephone calls, the deployment of these tools is spread over time and, in China, no partner n ‘has yet been found to allow their commissioning.

Apple Director General Tim Cook said in an interview that the features fueled by AI, grouped under the name of Apple Intelligence ‘, promote sales of new devices.

Noting that Apple Intelligence would be available in French and German from April, he said, however, that no calendar was for the moment set for China.

Tim Cook said Apple continued to “work with regulators” Chinese. “We will launch (Apple Intelligence) as early as we can,” he added.

Thanks to a new range of computers equipped with M4 chips and certain AI features, Mac sales have increased, as well as those of iPads. Over the period October-December, they reached 8.99 billion and 8.09 billion dollars respectively, clearly beating expectations.

Regarding its so -called service activities, which include iCloud and its streaming platforms, Apple reported in the fourth quarter of a sales increase of 13.9% over a year at 26.34 billion dollars. The consensus was 26.09 billion, according to LSEG data.

(Stephen Nellis; Jean Terzian)

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