Apple on Thursday disclosed its iPhone sales dipped slightly during the holiday-season quarter, signaling a sluggish start to the trendsetting company’s effort to catch up to the rest of Big Tech in the race to bring artificial intelligence to the masses.

Apple shares rose more than 3% in premarket trading on Friday after the company forecast relatively strong sales growth, hinting at a recovery from a dip in iPhone sales as it rolls out artificial intelligence features.

In a post on X, Wedbush's Dan Ives said Apple had "yet again proved the skeptics wrong as the upgrade cycle for iPhone 16 is ahead of iPhone 15 with March guidance much better tha