Were Apple's sales results for the third quarter of 2016 finally encouraging? iPhone sales fell for the second time in the device's history, proving that the decline in the previous quarter was not a cyclical event.
In its latest quarterly earnings announcement, Apple revealed today that it sold 40.4 million iPhones, 9.95 million iPads, and 4.25 million Macs during the third quarter of 2016. 
Compared to the third quarter of 2015, the numbers are noticeably lower as Apple sold 47.5 million iPhones, 10.9 million iPads and 4.8 million Macs. This means that in one year, iPhone sales fell by 14.9 percent, iPad sales fell by 8.7 percent, and Mac sales fell by 11.5 percent.
The company's estimates for the third quarter of 2016 ranged between 39,830,000 and 40,860,000 for iPhones, 8,890,000 to 8,970,000 for iPads, and 4,340,000 to 4,360,000 for Macs. So Apple correctly estimated upcoming iPhone sales, but fell short on both iPad and Mac estimates.
As always, the company's iPhone sales are by far the most important, and yet Apple has managed to beat earnings expectations for the company's stock, and its shares continue to climb.
But until when?
Forty million phones are not a few, but the iPhone's unbeatable sales growth trend finally succumbed.
Apple (and others) knew that the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus wouldn't be enough this year, so it released the iPhone SE at the end of March. The company says it's happy with the new phone's sales, but it's not even close to 2015's numbers.
Apple has failed to deliver positive growth results to its shareholders twice in a row, and unfortunately money doesn't make mistakes.
The language of numbers doesn't lie, and it reminds the company that innovation hits big numbers while rehashed products falter.
Here we should mention that Apple is planning to release an iPhone 7 without much else and has already announced that the big release will come in 2017 with the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the release of the first iPhone.
Essentially, this promise buys the company some time. It remains to be seen whether it will take advantage of it.
