Apple stock suffers worst product launch week of the iPhone era 

Shares shed 5% on week

By

WallaceWitkowski

Reporter

Apple Inc. shares fell Friday, as the consumer electronics giant launched its new line of smartphones and watches, and turned in their worst weekly performance the week of a major product launch since the original iPhone was released back in 2007, following less-than-stellar product reviews.
Apple shares AAPL, +0.44% fell 1% to close at $151.89 on Friday, as the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, Apple Watch Series 3, and Apple TV 4K became available to the general public.
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For the week, shares fell 5%, their worst performing week prior to an iPhone or Apple Watch launch, according to FactSet data. Previously, the stock’s worst week of a product launch in the iPhone era was in June 2010, the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS launched.
Shares are down 6% from their close before Apple’s Sept. 12 event announcing its new offerings, and are down 7.4% for the month of September, on track for their worst monthly performance since April 2016. In comparison, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.37%  has gained 1.8% this month.
Some analysts, however, see the pullback in Apple shares as a case of “short-term pain for long-term gain” seeing the iPhone X was excluded from this week’s release.

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The $1,000 iPhone X that is supposed to be Apple’s most advanced smartphone yet and is the focus for many Apple investors and customers. iPhone X preorders are scheduled to begin Oct. 27, with an official launch on Nov. 3.
Apple shares also logged their worst performance from an iPhone announcement to its release, according to Dow Jones data. Since the close of markets just after the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus were announced to Friday, Apple shares declined 5.6%. The previous worst performance was back when the iPhone 5s and 5c were released in September 2013 and shares had declined 5.5% from when the phones were announced.

Apple stock from product announcement to release, according to DJ data

iPhone Model	Announced	Available	Performance
iPhone	1/9/2007	6/29/2007	31.8%
iPhone 3G	6/9/2008	7/11/2008	-5.0%
iPhone 3GS	6/8/2009	6/19/2009	-3.0%
iPhone 4	6/7/2010	6/24/2010	7.2%
iPhone 4S	10/4/2011	10/14/2011	13.3%
iPhone 5	9/12/2012	9/21/2012	4.5%
iPhone 5s & 5c	9/10/2013	9/20/2013	-5.5%
iPhone 6 & 6 Plus	9/9/2014	9/19/2014	3.0%
iPhone 6s & 6s Plus	9/9/2015	9/25/2015	4.1%
iPhone 7 & 7 Plus	9/7/2016	9/16/2016	6.1%
iPhone 8 & 8 Plus	9/12/2017	9/22/2017	-5.6%

US:AAPL

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On Tuesday, shares barely managed a gain after ho-hum iPhone 8 reviews. On Wednesday, shares dropped 1.7% after a few prominent Apple Watch Series 3 reviews complained about spotty connectivity, an issue Apple acknowledged it was seeking to solve.
Thursday’s 1.7% decline followed an announcement that Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG, +0.47% GOOGL, +0.48% Google is spending $1.1 billion on a cooperation agreement with smartphone manufacturer HTC Corp. 2498, -2.42% to produce the Pixel smartphone and mixed reviews on the Apple TV 4K.