Apple CEO John Ternus will host his inaugural earnings call on Monday amid investor scrutiny over rising chip costs, AI strategy and the new iPhone Duo .
Mr Ternus, who took over from Tim Cook in September, has directed the launch of Apple's first foldable smartphone, a $2,000 device that has been beset by an issue that causes some screens to crack and break.
Apple claims the issue, dubbed 'crackgate' by some early owners, only impacts "a small number of iPhone Duo units".
An internal memo from the US tech giant to Apple Stores, first reported by MacRumours, provided guidance on how to address the issue, suggesting it is widespread enough to warrant an official notice.
"The new Duo offers an opportunity to reinvigorate sales, but its premium pricing and reports of cracked screens present challenges for the tech giant," Emarketer analyst Jacob Bourne told The Independent .
"Beyond smartphones, Apple's expansion into the smart home represents a significant opportunity as competition intensifies around AI-enabled devices, with Amazon, Google, and OpenAI all vying for a larger role in consumers' daily lives."
Apple investors will also be looking to the tech company's forecast to determine whether a wave of new product releases can help offset rising costs of memory chips.
Alongside the iPhone Duo, Apple also unveiled a smart home hub and an updated Siri , as well as the firm's first touch-screen laptops last week.
Ternus will likely address the mounting memory-chip costs that analysts predict will pull quarterly profit growth down to its weakest rate in six quarters.
Apple's artificial intelligence strategy will also be scrutinised, with the company attempting to position itself differently from competitors such as Meta Platforms' Muse agent, which climbed App Store charts rapidly in recent weeks.
Rivals including OpenAI, which Apple is suing over alleged trade-secret theft, are likewise developing hardware aimed at replacing the iPhone as the central device in everyday life.
How Apple approaches AI could also carry significant consequences for the future of its services arm, where slowing growth has alarmed investors following years of swift expansion.
"Recent agentic innovation far outpaces our experience with Siri AI, but Apple has acknowledged that Siri AI... is far more focused on trust/privacy," said Dan Morgan, portfolio manager at Synovus Trust, which holds Apple shares.
Apple is marketing its AI systems toward "everyday people" rather than Silicon Valley insiders, who are heavy consumers of frontier AI models built by the likes of OpenAI.
Morgan added that investors wish to know if Apple can generate profit by distributing third-party AI agents on its App Store and claiming a share of the revenue generated.
For now, Apple's hesitation to enter the massive AI spending race has worked in its favour. Its shares have climbed roughly 27 per cent this year, outperforming rival tech giants such as Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta and Amazon as investors search for shelter from rising concerns over the expense of constructing AI infrastructure.
Analysts anticipate Apple will report an 11 per cent rise in revenue to $113.39 billion for its fiscal fourth quarter ending September, according to LSEG data, with net profit rising around 6 per cent to $29.04 billion.
Apple's services revenue is projected to grow nearly 10 per cent to $31.56 billion, representing its slowest growth rate in more than three years. iPhone sales are expected to rise roughly 15 per cent to $56.54 billion, moderating from growth of about 22 per cent in the prior three months.
