Apple (AAPL), Alphabet (GOOGL) & Meta (META) – iPhone, VR & Regulation – March 30, 2024
Apple iPhone shipments to China fell 33% Y/Y in February. That’s an ugly headline, but more context is needed. Apple’s quarterly guidance offered in November directly cited tough iPhone comps related to $5 billion in incremental revenue from supply chain recoveries. Comps are uniquely tough for months including February 2024. So? Headlines like this are not positive. But this one is already baked into guidance and (in my non-shareholder view) is not alarming.
Tencent and Apple are partnering to offer Vision Pro to Chinese consumers. I found this interesting, considering Meta also has a Tencent partnership there to sell lower-priced headsets. Clearly, the Chinese giant sees value in selling one ultra-high end device and one that’s affordable to the masses. More confirmation of two compelling niches existing and a global duopoly forming in VR headsets.
And finally, what’s a News of the Week article without a new investigation from the EU on regulatory compliance. They’ve opened a new investigation into Google, Apple and Meta’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) compliance.
