iPhone 17 Hits Stores Today, With Shares Down YTD

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Sep 19, 9:15AM EDT

Quick Read

As Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) new flagship iPhone 17 hits stores, its stock is underperforming the S&P 500.
Will consumers buy the new iPhone without Apple AI?

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

iPhone 17 Hits Stores Today, With Shares Down YTD — © ViewApart / iStock Editorial via Getty Images

Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction) new flagship iPhone 17 hits stores today. Its stock is down 5% this year, compared to an increase of 12% in the S&P 500. The launch will test whether people are willing to buy the new iPhone before Apple releases its AI-powered iOS product.

Apple faces three difficult hurdles. The first is that several AI products on the market can be downloaded onto iPhones. TechCrunch reports that Google’s Gemini AI product is the most downloaded app at Apple’s App Store this month. Apple’s AI product may be crowded out because so many people already use competing products.

Apple’s next problem is whether the iPhone 17 is enough of an upgrade over the iPhone 16. One new version is super thin. For the most part, however, the primary improvements are in the camera and the chip. Most people cannot tell the difference between a slightly better camera and Apple’s current one. A faster chip also will make no difference for most buyers.

The iPhone 17’s largest challenge may not be in the United States. China is the world’s largest smartphone market. Four local companies—Huawei, Vivo, Xiaomi, and Honor—have large market shares. Each has AI features of its own.

Apple Stock Price Prediction and Forecast 2025-2030

The iPhone has been at the top of the smartphone food chain most years since its launch in 2007. Eighteen years is a long, long time in the consumer electronics business. Each year, Samsung challenges it for first place globally. And Samsung is early to the foldable smartphone business, which many industry observers believe is key to success in smartphones in the next few years. Apple does not have one.

The iPhone 17 is a watershed product. If it does not do well, Apple will have to do something it has not done in years, if ever. In the global smartphone business, it has to fight from behind.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.