Due to a rare Q4 earnings miss, Apple shares fall.

Apple has been praised thus far for its deliberate hiring strategy, which protected the company from the mass layoffs of major rivals like Alphabet and Amazon. However, economic challenges are not exclusive to the iPhone manufacturer. The company posted its first loss year over year since before the pandemic in today's quarterly earnings.

According to a press release linked to the news, the company's quarterly revenue for the quarter ending December 31, 2022, which was $117.2 billion, was down 5% year-over-year.

In the earnings report, CEO Tim Cook attempted to emphasize the positive aspects. Cook wrote, "We are proud to have our best lineup of products and services ever as we continue to navigate a challenging environment. As always, we remain focused on the long term and are leading with our values in everything we do."

In an interview with CNBC, the executive opened up a little more and mentioned three important obstacles, including issues with iPhone production in China, the general economic climate, and the strength of the US dollar. He made the observation that Apple, like the rest of the world, will implement strategic reductions. Cook continued, "We are also acknowledging the difficult environment in which we are operating." Thus, we are reducing expenses. We are cutting back on hiring, and we are hiring carefully and carefully.

The company saw an increase in hardware sales during the pandemic as individuals reorganized their professional and educational lives during a relative economic boom; however, sales activity is now declining. The company's quarterly revenue dropped to its lowest level since 2016 in the most recent quarter.

Revenue from the iPhone was down 8%, while revenue from the Mac was down nearly 30% from the previous year. In the past year, issues with the supply chain and manufacturing have resulted in a significant bottleneck for the handset. In the meantime, problems were made worse by a new round of lockdown in China at a time when the company typically makes the most money. Apple claims that the current iPhone production levels are satisfactory.

Cook would receive a salary of just $49 million per year despite receiving a pay cut of nearly 50% for the year, the company announced last month.

Given Cook's most recent remarks about strategic cuts and what we now know about the company's financial performance, it's reasonable to wonder if the workforce will be cut. We do know, however, how difficult the hardware giant's installed base of more than 2 billion active devices has been affected by the macroeconomic climate.