US tech giant Apple has seen sales of its iconic iPhones dropping in its second fiscal quarter. The company downplayed the dip, saying customers had held back because of an upcoming anniversary edition.Apple announced it sold 50.76 million iPhones in its fiscal second quarter that ended on April 1, down from 51.19 million units a year earlier.

The company argued that customers may have held back purchases in anticipation of the 10th-anniversary edition of the firm’s most important product later this year.

The next iPhone edition is expected to feature wireless charging, 3D facial recognition and a curved display.

“There is a general softening in phone demand to contend with as well as expectations of a big upgrade,” said James McQuivey, a Forrester Research analyst.

Unimpressed investors

Despite the drop in iPhone sales, Apple’s second-quarter net income rose to $11.03 billion (10.09 billion euros), compared with $10.52 billion year on year.

Under pressure from shareholders to hand over more of its $250-billion-plus hoard of cash and investment, Apple boosted it capital return program by $35 billion and raised it quarterly dividend by 10.5 percent.

Investors appeared unmoved, sending the company’s share price down by 1.9 percent at $144.65 in after-hours trading.

hg/jd (dpa, Reuters)