Apple Reversed Its iPhone Slump. But What's Next?

Apple has snapped out of the first sales slump in the iPhone’s decade-long history, although the modest upturn doesn’t mean that it has broken out of its innovation funk.

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If anything, the numbers Apple released Tuesday highlight the company’s growing dependence on the iPhone, whose sales tower above Apple’s other current offerings. The company hasn’t managed to come up with another breakthrough product since its chief visionary, Steve Jobs, died in 2011.

Meanwhile, Apple’s rivals have been rolling out new products in other promising fields such as augmented reality, virtual reality and artificial intelligence. Apple currently trails in those areas, although many analysts believe the company may try to catch up with products featuring those trendy technologies later this year.

No matter what’s coming down the pike, the iPhone remains a huge moneymaker. Its success is the main reason Apple boasts a market value of $640 billion - more than any other company.

The iPhone is also driving the rapid growth of Apple’s services division, which makes money from fixing devices, selling music streaming subscriptions and commissions on sales of mobile apps. Apple’s services revenue surged 18 percent to $7.2 billion in the past quarter, putting it on pace generate enough annual revenue by itself to rank among the world’s largest companies.

IPHONES ON THE RISE AGAIN ... BARELY

But selling more iPhones has been getting tougher as more people hold on to older models for longer periods and competitors such as Samsung and Google entice customers with sleek devices running on Android software. The trend led to three consecutive quarters in which iPhone sales fell compared to the prior year, causing Apple’s total revenue to sag as well.