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.

Sales of Apple iPhones dropped at the end of last year, as the tech firm's roll out of new artificial intelligence (AI) features was met with a lukewarm response. Chief executive Tim Cook said the new features helped to drive stronger sales in the countries where they were available, such as the US.

Apple reported $18.5 billion in sales in greater China last quarter, comfortably below consensus estimates of $20.9 billion.