Apple Cuts CEO Tim Cook's Salary After Fall in iPhone Sales

Apple penalised CEO Tim Cook for the iPhone maker's first sales slump in 15 years with a 15% pay cut. Cook still did extremely well, with a compensation package valued at $8.7 million for Apple's fiscal year that ended Sept. 24, according to a regulatory filing made Friday. But the amount was down from nearly $10.3 million in the prior year.Read more: WhatsApp Users in India Sent Record 14 Billion Messages on New Year's Eve

The Cupertino, California, company cited a downturn in Apple's revenue and operating profit as the main reason it cut the pay of Cook and its other top executives.

Apple's revenue dropped 8 percent to $216 billion, while its operating profit declined 16% to $60 billion. That was mainly because it sold fewer iPhones for the first time since the device came out in 2007.Read more: Vodafone Users Will Get Unlimited Data For 1 Hour; Here is How?

It also marked the first time that Apple's annual revenue decreased since 2001, which was just before the company's late co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPod. That digital music player set the stage for the iPhone and iPad.Read more: Verizon Unsure About Yahoo Acquisition

The iPhone triggered a revolution in mobile computing and became Apple's biggest moneymaker, even as a wide range of device makers released competing products primarily running on Google's free Android software. Most of the world's smartphones are powered by Android, but the iPhone remains a popular high-priced status symbol.Read more: India Reluctant to Give Special Tax Incentives to Apple

Even so, consumers are holding on to their existing iPhones for longer periods instead of upgrading to a newer model every year or two. That has raised investor concerns that Apple has become too dependent on the iPhone, a nagging worry that has been aggravated by the company's inability to introduce another breakthrough product since Jobs' death in 2011.Read more: Apple Removes New York Times App from iTunes Store in China

Cook, Jobs' anointed successor, had hoped Apple would have another huge hit with a smartwatch unveiled in 2014, but that device has only had moderate success.

Apple's regulatory filing revealed that the company was bracing for a sales drop last year, although not quite as steep as what occurred. The compensation committee for Apple's board of directors had established a revenue goal of $224 billion for last year, which would have been a 4 percent decline from the previous year.

The company expected sales to rebound during the holiday shopping season on hopes that consumers would be snapping up its latest iPhones, the 7 and 7 Plus. Apple will release its quarterly results that include the holidays later this month.