On Monday, the US stock market was closed because of the president's day, but Apple Inc broke the news in the afternoon US Eastern time, saying that due to temporary restrictions on the supply of iPhone mobile phones, it did not think it would be able to meet the 2020 natural year first-quarter revenue guidance issued nearly three weeks ago (the bottom of the range).

Downgrade revenue guidance for the first quarter

Apple Inc said in a statement on its website that due to temporary restrictions on the supply of iPhone worldwide and changes in the needs of some users in key markets around the world, the company's global revenue is temporarily facing a negative impact. "We do not expect to meet the revenue guidance for the fiscal quarter ending March this year. "

Apple Inc said that as the situation is changing, more information will be provided at the earnings call in April. The statement also stressed that Apple Inc's fundamentals are still strong and that any impact on the business is only temporary.

Apple Inc said operations across China had begun to resume work, but at a slower-than-expected pace, forecasting quarterly revenue of between $630m and $67 billion in March in its results released at the end of January. On the supply side of "iPhone", Apple Inc said that all its manufacturing partner facilities are located outside the epidemic center of Hubei Province and have been reopened, and the progress of full production is slower than expected.

On the Chinese market, Apple Inc said bluntly that although the company's offices and contact centers have been reopened, while online stores remain open, store closures and time-limited operations have greatly reduced customer traffic.

Earlier, on January 28th, Apple Inc released positive results for the end of December 2019 (the first quarter of the company's fiscal year 2020). The guidance for the next fiscal quarter (the company's second quarter of fiscal 2020 and the first quarter of 2020) is also positive, with Apple Inc forecasting revenue of $630m to $67 billion in the quarter to March, higher than analysts' expectations of $62.45 billion, or at least 8.6 per cent year-on-year growth.

Driven by iPhone's new products, Apple Inc handed in a beautiful report card during the blockbuster shopping season at the end of last year. In the last quarter, Apple Inc's earnings per share (EPS) and net profit reached record highs, with operating income exceeding $90 billion for the first time in history, accessories revenue including AirPods exceeding $10 billion for the first time, iPhone sales revenue reaching the second highest level in history, and sales in the Chinese market reversed the downward trend.

Although Apple Inc is emphasizing the shift from hardware sales to service subscription, and the proportion of iPhone revenue in total revenue is also declining quarter by quarter, the market is still very concerned about providing more than half of the company's revenue from mobile phones. Last quarter, iPhone topped $100 billion in US revenue for the first time, compared with "just" $24.5 billion for the fastest-growing wearable home accessories category.

Finally, Apple Inc confirmed that the company will more than double the previously announced donation to help fight Wuhan coronavirus public health.

On January 25 this year, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc, announced that Weibo Corp said Apple would donate money to relevant organizations to help people affected by the coronavirus, but he did not mention the exact amount of the donation.

The situation of returning to work is not optimistic.

Last week, foreign media reported that it was not smooth for Foxconn to resume work at its Chinese mainland plant under the influence of the epidemic, which has begun to affect Apple Inc's orders. in order to improve the problem to the greatest extent, Foxconn launched a "epidemic prevention return incentive award" at its factory in Zhengzhou, encouraging iDPBG employees in Zhengzhou (excluding Sunshine Workshop) with a reward of 3000 yuan per person. The incentive policy also gives a detailed description of the return time, attendance requirements and reward distribution time.

However, some sources said that even with the above policy incentives, the situation of returning to work is still not optimistic. first of all, when employees return to work, the shortage of protective materials is no small problem, and secondly, the personnel of intensive processing enterprises are relatively miscellaneous, and the living environment is also relatively general. If there is an epidemic, then the situation is not optimistic, so employees are very worried about returning to work.

It is reported that Foxconn's plant in Zhengzhou resumed work on February 10, but the resumption rate is about 40%. It is crucial for Foxconn to resume work at its Zhengzhou plant in the first place, where 90 per cent of the world's iPhone comes from.

Analyst Guo Mingyi has also released a report saying that both supply and demand of iPhone will be hit by the epidemic, so he lowered his forecast for iPhone shipments in the first quarter of 2020 by about 10%, with shipments expected to be 36 million to 40 million units.

This is not the first time Apple Inc has lowered his revenue guidance.

After the US stock market opened on January 2, 2019, Apple Inc unexpectedly announced that he would cut his revenue and gross margin forecasts for the first quarter of fiscal 2019 (the fourth quarter of 2019), mainly due to supply constraints of new products and weakness in some emerging markets. It was only 60 days after the official revenue guidance was given, and it was the first time that the quarterly revenue guidance had been lowered before the quarterly results were released since the launch of iPhone in 2007.

After the revenue warning was issued, Apple Inc's share price fell 8% at one point, hitting a 52-week low. It closed down 9.96% the next day, the biggest one-day decline in six years, and closed at a new low for more than a year and a half, with its market capitalization reduced by more than $74.6 billion throughout the day.

After lowering the performance guidance, Apple Inc CEO Cook once told the media that the most important indicator for observing Apple Inc is not iPhone sales. In the fourth quarter of 2018, after excluding iPhone, Apple Inc's income increased by 19%. "Apple Inc's core advantages are innovation, customer satisfaction and loyalty, ecosystem, and so on. Wall Street people who are not optimistic about Apple Inc may underestimate Apple Inc's growing equipment and service ecosystem. "

Apple Inc closed slightly higher on Friday, with its share price close to $325 and near an all-time high. Apple Inc has risen nearly 11% so far this year, with a market capitalization of nearly $1.4 trillion.