Apple shares edged lower in early Friday trading, eating in to their modestly one month advance, following a notable rating change from a top Wall Street analyst and another round of weak iPhone 16 sales data from China.

Kuo is bullish on Apple's yet-to-be-released AI features but said it would likely take new hardware iterations to grow iPhone sales.

According to Kuo, the order cut was due to a worse product mix expected in the first half of 2025 and uncertainty about iPhone revenues. This comes in line with expectations of the release of the iPhone SE 4, which, although usually cheaper, does not receive an annual update, which might change the balance in the market.