Apple’s Market Value Dips Below $3.5 trillion as iPhone 17 Launch Fails to Boost Shares
CUPERTINO, CA – Apple’s stock price fell 4.6% in the week following the Tuesday launch of the iPhone 17, pushing the company’s market capitalization below $3.5 trillion. Despite featuring the new A19 chip adn improvements to display and camera technology, analysts question whether the latest iteration will expand Apple’s market share in a saturated mobile phone market.
While the iPhone 17 boasts advancements in memory, calculation speed, and camera capabilities, concerns remain that these improvements don’t translate into significant new features for the average user. Apple is focusing on on-device artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities,with iOS 26 laying the groundwork for fully operational functionality expected by 2026,bolstered by improvements in cooling and steam chamber technology.
However, Apple lags behind competitors like Meta, microsoft, and Alphabet in AI investment. Alphabet’s Google is advancing with multimodal functions through its Gemini model and integrating AI more deeply into the Android ecosystem, especially with the tenth generation of Google Pixel phones powered by the G5 chip and Gemini Nano AI model.
This reliance on AI models from other companies is viewed as a potential disadvantage for Apple.The company is prioritizing on-device Large Language Models (LLMs), considered more suitable for real-time applications, as a potential long-term strategy to counter perceptions that it is “late in the AI” race.
Apple hopes improvements to siri - aiming for seamless functionality across all apps – and the Visual Intelligence feature arriving with iOS 26 will strengthen user loyalty.
Analysts note that Apple’s current valuation is heavily supported by record stock levels, but organic growth is limited within the mature mobile phone market. The anticipated launch of on-device AI may not be enough to justify the company’s high price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, which is increasingly attributed to financial engineering rather than essential growth.
Despite these challenges, Apple benefits from notable financialization effects, including inclusion in various investment funds and the substantial holdings acquired by Warren Buffett since 2016. However, the stock has already fallen 7% over the past year, suggesting limited potential for higher returns for new investors.
