this is business live from bbc news with ben thompson and sally bundock. apple is bruised as iphone revenue falls. could it now lower prices to boost sales? live from london, that's our top story on wednesday 30th january. apple's iphone revenue slides 15%, but it's bittersweet for investors, as the tech giant reports strong growth in its services businesses, like itunes and subscriptions. also in the programme... a new round of us—china trade talks gets under way in washington. can the world's two biggest economies reach a compromise before the deadline, just a month away? and keep an eye on the pound today. it took a hit yesterday as the latest brexit votes raised the prospect of the uk leaving the eu without a deal. and mountain—climbing, skiing, sailing — all options

for the visually—impaired thanks to an award—winning holiday company. we'll get the inside track on traveleyes, which pairs blind and sighted holiday—makers, enabling them to explore the world together. and as parts of europe and the us brace themselves for extreme weather, we are asking do you know your rights if you can't get to work and are forced a day off? let us know — just use the hashtag bbcbizlive. hello and welcome to business live. we start with tech giant apple, it's issued its latest results and we already knew that they might contain a few surprises. the us firm had already warned that the key christmas and holiday period could be a tough one for the firm — but the tech giant did fare better than some might have expected. revenue in the three months to december came in at $84.3 billion.

that's slightly higher than chief executive tim cook had predicted earlier this month, when he warned that a slowdown in iphone sales and weakness in china could mean it made $5 billion less. and, as predicted, sales of iphone were a drag on overall results. revenue from the smartphones fell 15% year on year to just under $52 billion. tim cook said apple will look at how it prices the phones in future. that's led some to speculate that prices could be cut. apple's share price was up slightly after the announcement, but that trillion—dollar status it hit last year — making it the world's most valuable compay — now seems a distant memory. it reached a high in october but it's been downhill since then. with us now is jake kanter, executive editor of business insider.

good morning. so, going through the headline figures, give us your take on these numbers. well, i mean, it has been apple's worst holiday period for about a decade but it is not a horror show that some investors predicted and, if you look at, as you havejust investors predicted and, if you look at, as you have just said, investors predicted and, if you look at, as you havejust said, the investors predicted and, if you look at, as you have just said, the share prices bounced about 6% in after hours trading and, you know, in terms of some of the details, there have been certainly fewer iphones under christmas trees this christmas and there has been a slowdown in china and the strong dollar also hasn't helped apple, but apple's total revenue was about $84.3 billion, which was kind of in line with expectations and in line with

the profit warning it issued earlier this january, so not too many surprises, basically. looking ahead, what is the future like for apple? a lot of these headwinds aren't going to change soon, china looks like it will continue to slow and the trade war between the us and china looks like it could affect apple in the future. one in three americans say they are not upgrading their bones any time soon and you have other issues impacting apple. —— upgrading their phones. is this a lull we will see for a while? the suggestion is we have hit peak iphone and the numbers seem to bear that out at the moment. there is no doubt that iphone sales have stagnated and that isa iphone sales have stagnated and that is a trend we are seeing across the market as well. innovation is getting harder to come by and people are holding onto their phones for longer, they are not upgrading, so apple is being impacted by that but you suggested a couple of things they might do in the future. it

might reduce the cost of iphones. in the uk, the top model is worth £1000, which is still a source of amusement for some and i think you will also see apple depending more on its services division. we saw a bigjump in its on its services division. we saw a big jump in its services division in terms of growth, they are investing more in that. is that the right way forward for them if they don't come up forward for them if they don't come up with the new well product?m forward for them if they don't come up with the new well product? it is potentially the future engine room of growth for apple. it stops reporting iphone unit sales this quarterfor reporting iphone unit sales this quarter for the first time in its history but it did give us one figure that is really interesting, that there is 900 million iphone users in the world and that gives you an indication as to how big the services play might be for apple. that is nearly 1 services play might be for apple. that is nearly1 billion people it can provide its services to, things like apple music subscriptions, itunes, app store sales, that is potentially real growth there for

apple. jake, thank you very much, good to have you with us on the programme. so much more detail on oui’ programme. so much more detail on our website as well on those apple numbers. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. german industrial giant siemens has reported wea ker—than—expected first quarter profit blamed on a slowdown in its power business. profits fell by 49% to $1.6 billion — that's down from $2.5 billion in the same quarter last year. the firm's power and gas business has been hit by collapsing demand as the global energy industry shifts towards renewable sources like wind and solar and away from fossil fuel. air new zealand is cutting its profit forecasts by as much as 30% because of a slowdown in tourism. the move has raised broader concerns about slowing arrivals to new zealand and australia. both countries have been beneficiaries of a boom in tourism arrivals in recent years, led by the fast—growing chinese market. former nissan motor chairman carlos ghosn said that he had "no doubt" that the charges against him

were the result of "plot and treason" by nissan executives opposed to his plan for deeper integration between renault and its two japanese alliance partners. he was interviewed by the nikkei at the tokyo detention centre. it is the first interview with ghosn since he was arrested in november in japan for financial misconduct. global investors will be watching washington closely for two reasons today. in washington, the us and china are due to hold their highest level talks since the two sides struck a temporary truce to their trade war. robin brant is following this for us from shanghai. robin, this has been going on a while, this trade spat and now we get to the point where talks can resume. are we expecting any real progress? what we are expecting, i think, is signs of progress, plenty

of time for agreement to be signed off by president xi and donald trump but we are not going to get white smoke emanating out of these talks and some kind of deal. china, led by the country's lead negotiator, and the country's lead negotiator, and the president's chief economic adviser, have gone to washington, dc trying to persuade the americans that they are serious about some of the structural reforms the americans w011. the structural reforms the americans won. i don't think there is a debate about trade imbalances, they have already pledged to buy more soy beans from american farmers and perhaps more el mg. what this will come down to is the big changes some around donald trump want to see and thatis around donald trump want to see and that is about forced technology tra nsfer that is about forced technology transfer for that is about forced technology transferfor american that is about forced technology transfer for american firms coming here, market access more generally and the protection of intellectual property. we heard from steve mnuchin, the american trade

secretary, hearing enforcement enforcement is what this is all about and we have the talks and after a ll about and we have the talks and after all of the guha yesterday, the fa ct after all of the guha yesterday, the fact that the chinese are there and going ahead shows they are serious. guha over a while, —— going ahead shows they are serious. guha overa while, —— —— hoo hah over huawei. shares in tokyo ending lower with investors waiting to see how those us and chinese trade talks progress. they're also waiting for news from the us federal reserve's policy meeting later today — but no change is expected. in europe, it's been about those brexit votes last night in the uk parliament. the pound took a hit during the votes last night — with the prospect of the uk leaving the eu without a deal back on the cards. the pound has rallied over recent weeks, hitting an 11—week high versus the dollar on the hope that the uk will avoid a no deal brexit. that cliff edge as some have

described it. whether theresa may can get those concessions from the eu is the big question. so far, the eu is sticking to the line that there will be no more negotations on the exit deal. more on that in a moment, but michelle is in washington for us today ahead of that fed meeting. she's looking at what we can expect. people here inside america's central bank set interest rates. they do so based on how well they think the economy is doing. but forming a clear picture is tough right now, given the uncertainty over trade and the lack of crucial economic data. the federal reserve, along with investors and businesses, all rely on data from the commerce department and the census bureau to gauge the health of the us economy. but for 35 days, the people who collect, analyse and publish those reports were furloughed. it will take at least a month and probably 6—8 weeks to begin to get back to normal. the federal reserve faces a tough challenge, steering the us economy

at a time of slowing global growth. it had signalled it would raise rates twice this year but given all the noise, few will be surprised if the fed hits the pause button. we will hear from michelle again later. joining us is shaun port, chief investment officer at investment management company, nutmeg. good morning, nice to see you. so much going on, we have got the fed, the trade talks, earnings from apple already but many more coming later today and of course reaction to those votes in parliament. what are you most focused on? obviously, a lot we need to give a good eye on but us earnings at the moment, everyone is looking at us earnings and what is the impact of the slowdown in china ? and what is the impact of the slowdown in china? if you look at the economic statistics, it is not that bad but if you look at

paintings and companies in europe and the us, there is a very big slowdown in china —— look at earnings. sales of luxury goods in china is really holding up, so looking at the china impact coming through in earnings and the federal reserve later tonight. it is interesting what is holding up in china, you would expect caterpillar to do well and the luxury end but not. another big day in the brexit negotiations last night and the prospect of no deal creeping back onto the table. we have seen this big rally in the pound because the risk of a hard brexit has really been taken off the table, so it has been taken off the table, so it has been going down but on the other hand, the probability of no brexit has been going up, that is one of the reasons the pan has been rising. most investors are focused on the fa ct most investors are focused on the fact that the hard brexit risk is coming out of market, we don't think it isa coming out of market, we don't think it is a material risk any more, particularly as parliament could take control. in terms of earnings

still to come, we have facebook, microsoft, samsung, qualcomm, lots of big names in tech. and expectations in earnings have been downgraded over the last few months but we saw apple, they hit numbers, still quite disappointing but because they didn't come up with any worse news, markets could rally on that story. thank you for that, sean will be back later in the programme. still to come shared journeys to the world's most exotic destinations. we'll meet the founder and director of traveleyes, an award—winning holiday company which pairs blind and sighted travellers to explore the world together. you're with business live from bbc news. sa ntander anounced its latest results this morning for the fourth quarter, with the bank reporting a 4% increase in profits. but, last week, the bank anounced it would close up to a fifth of its uk branches, as it looks to cut costs. peter hahn is professor of banking at the london institute

of banking & finance. peter, good morning. what do you make of these figures, given that last week, sa ntander make of these figures, given that last week, santander said they needed to save money but fourth—quarter figures showing a 4% rise in profit? generally, santander‘s rise in profit? generally, sa ntander‘s numbers rise in profit? generally, santander‘s numbers are where a nalysts santander‘s numbers are where analysts predicted and generally look good. latin america is really what boyd them and latin america, though seen as having a little more risk in the uk, the numbers are disappointing, down, and one of the numbers that struck me when i look at these quickly this morning, tells at these quickly this morning, tells a big story, santander‘s reduced its global branches by about 400 branches so far. we know about the uk, but the total number of employees is about the same, so i would see more cost pressure, cost coming out santander over the next year. that is interesting, isn't it,

because we tend to look at this as very much a uk story, it is all of oui’ very much a uk story, it is all of our changing habits that mean we are not going into the branches but it is being replicated around the world and the bank says, we paying all of these overheads are people aren't using them? there is a reduction in the use of branches. i'm sure you do andi the use of branches. i'm sure you do and i do, use more and app on my home pc and branches have to be reinvented. peter, good to talk to you, thank you very much, on the latest figures from santander, reporting a 4% rise in profits. this is a story that has everybody‘s attention, the company behind the terrible disaster in brazil, vale, spending more in order to decommission a number of dams after its most recent mining disaster. it says it will take ten dams off—line and temporarily halt production

while it does so. it is a harrowing story unfolding in brazil as this company, vale, is trying to look ahead to what other disasters could ta ke ahead to what other disasters could take place in the future. more details on the website. your‘re watching business live. our top story — apple says revenue growth in music, movies, apps and other services offset a slump in iphone sales, in the latest quarter. it is an apple crumble. apple turnover. you have been waiting all morning for that. we have been doing it for years. now, you might think travel is all about seeing new places, taking in the sights and the sounds. it's something we take for granted when we go on holiday.

but what's it like to travel as a blind person? does that limit what you can do and where you can go? well, specialised companies are now opening up more and more opportunities for visually impaired travellers. and one of those is traveleyes. its founder amar latif, who lost his sight by the age of 18, joins us. welcome to business live. thank you, lovely to be here. so, 18 years old, you lost your site and just talk us through the journey from 18 to starting a company. how did that work? well, when i was 18, i woke up one morning and ijust couldn't see the poster at the end of my bed and i remember that day, i was walking around andi i remember that day, i was walking around and i was crashing into things and i couldn't see the faces of my parents and i realised that this was it, that i was now blind, but i didn't want to be that blind person, but the reality was that my life was going to be different forever. so cutting a long story

short, i changed my mindset and i realised that in this world, if you wa nt realised that in this world, if you want something, by having a positive mindset, you can actually do incredible things. so i went to uni, asi incredible things. so i went to uni, as i was planning, did my degree in maths and finance, became an accountant, work the british telecom but then i felt something was missing. because when i became blind, i had two problems. the first was obviously i couldn't see and the second was that i hadn't seen much of the world and i knew there was beauty all around me and i was dammed ifi beauty all around me and i was dammed if i was going to let blindness stop me. when i approached travel companies, they would say, i'm sorry, you are blind, you can't travel with us and couldn't especially do the exciting things andi especially do the exciting things and i thought this is not good. so i thought if you want something that doesn't exist, you do without you build it yourself and i set up traveleyes. there is a wonderful quote here from you that says if you had gone blind, you wouldn't have seen as had gone blind, you wouldn't have seen as much of the world as you have. explain that. absolutely,

blindness has literally helped me see the world. if it wasn't for blindness, i wouldn't have had the mindset that i did and have the opportunity to do great things. so when i set up traveleyes, we do over 65 destinations a year and we go to so 65 destinations a year and we go to so many wonderful places. i wouldn't have done any of that had i been fully sighted. explain to me how it works. so you will pair up visually impaired travellers with sighted travellers and it is all about being able to explain things in detail. absolutely, it is just like a conversation. so if you're fully sighted and have never met a blind person before, you canjust book on a trip you want to go on and you don't need any training in advance. we provide all of the training for you and you are just having a conversation, so when you are walking and exploring beautiful places like peyroux or china, you just tell your partner what you are seeing and they ask questions and then you and so those questions, so

it is like, you don't have to be a wordsmith —— like peru. it is like, you don't have to be a wordsmith -- like peru. presumably there has to be a vetting process so people don't have to do have vulnerable people and people abusing the situation? i think it attracts people who naturally, the people who wa nt to people who naturally, the people who want to do that, good people, positive thinking and on these trips, it gives you a real chance to actually connect to people that you wouldn't be able to do with at any other travel company. and i would imagine it breaks down some taboos, because many people would be nervous about asking questions about guiding and how much description they need, but you explain to me earlier it is just about having a conversation and, halfan just about having a conversation and, half an hour in, everything is fine. absolutely, iwould and, half an hour in, everything is fine. absolutely, i would advise anybody, if you come across a blind

person or a disabled person, feel free to ask because it creates a barrier if you think "i don't know what the right term is, so i won't ask," and i would say as. just use common sense. if i need someone in a wheelchair, i asked them if i am supposed to bend down or if i am ok standing up. you can get more productivity from being open and honest. there is so much more we wa nt to honest. there is so much more we want to ask you, amar, but we haven't got time, unfortunately, but we will tweet the information about traveleyes. there are other things like if you go to certain parts of the world to see things, they allow your customers to touch things. that is right, in china, the terracotta warriors, and in peru, and it is amazing. thank you so much coming on, it has been to have you with us. now, we have to return to the latest on brexit and we have heard a lot of reaction from business groups to the events of last night. the chief executive of the business group the cbi, carolyn fairbairn, said moves by mps to reject no deal

did not go far enough. mps also voted to renegotiated the irish backstop and the brexit minister kwasi kwarteng told the bbc what those alternative arrangments might be in ireland at the moment, there is already a difference, there is a border insofar as northern ireland has a different currency, it has different corporation tax regimes, it has different vat regime. so there is a border and obviously we don't want a hard border, we don't wa nt to don't want a hard border, we don't want to go back to the 1970s, so alternative arrangements i think is looking at technology. that was said in the political declaration between the eu and the uk that was published last month, you know, that we have to look at new arrangements, technology, to try and sort out those differences. i think the vote last night was very significant because if you wind the clock back two weeks ago, the government lost by 230 votes and people were saying it was a disaster, we weren't going

to get anywhere and we would face no deal and what happened last night was in fact the opposite. we moved from a big defeat two weeks ago to a victory yesterday. that is some commentary about that day in the house of commons late yesterday and, of course, the ramifications of that. sean is back with us in the studio to look at some of the stories in the business pages. we have talked about the apple results already, yesterday, apple was in the news because of a bug with the face time situation and according to one article, a teenager and a teenager's mum tried to alert apple to this problem some time ago. yes, the wall streetjournal said a teenager and his mum backs apple, i'm surprised they have a fax machine, i managed to get in touch with and they said because they didn't have a registered account, they couldn't register the bug with apple. it took repeated attempts until apple acknowledged it and it wasn't until it was picked up on

social media that the story broke. that is what i love, the coders, the tech people didn't pick up on this and it was a mum and son at home saying are you have a problem. there was no way they could get in touch be taken seriously. sometimes that is the power of twitter, you post these things on twitter and other security researchers see this thing is that it gets escalated. u nfortu nately, is that it gets escalated. unfortunately, that didn't happen this quickly. they should be in line for a reward, i this quickly. they should be in line fora reward, ithink. there is another story about the cost of the partial government shutdown in the united states, eve ryo ne shutdown in the united states, everyone will try and weigh these costs up. it will cut around two tenths of 1% of total gdp in the first quarter, the federal employees will get the payback but where they spent the money, they will not get the boost to the economy. another thing that can really hit is extreme weather events and, in the uk, part of the country are already grappling with lots of snow and there is more to come. in the us, they are going to have the worst weather they have had for decades,

actually, and the bbc has been looking at what are our rights in these circumstances it we can't get to work because we are forced to stay home because we can't travel in. it is an interesting story, a difficult situation for employees and difficult for employers as well. we would support in our business flexible working, so people can work from home, they can bejust as effective working outside the office, and it is great for disaster recovery but that is very different jobs. we have just had people get in touch about this, david said ijust ta ke touch about this, david said ijust take a holiday days but this is the thing, people don't want to take their annual leave. if your children's school is shut and they have a snow day and you have no childcare, joe says employers have a duty of care so if they insist employees do not commit because it is too dangerous, they should be given the leave. have a look at those stories on the website, thank you for your company today.

hello, there, good morning. it has been a very icy start to the day, treacherous conditions in places, especially where we have had further snow showers moving in across northern and western parts of the uk. today, for many others, a drier day and plenty of sunshine across most areas of the uk but the wintry showers will continue across parts of north wales, north—west england, through north west scotland and northern ireland. it is going to be cold, maximum temperatures will only get from 2—6dc but with the winter sunshine, it will feel fairly pleasant, i suspect, sunshine, it will feel fairly pleasant, isuspect, out sunshine, it will feel fairly pleasant, i suspect, out and about. as we go through tonight, we will still see a few showers across scotland, northern ireland, some patchy fog developing across central areas through tonight. temperatures widely are going to fall away well below freezing, it could be the cold est below freezing, it could be the coldest night of the winter so far, temperatures down to —3, and 2—6

widely. cold air firmly locked temperatures down to —3, and 2—6 widely. cold airfirmly locked in place across the uk but it is the area of low pressure moving in that will cause headaches for the forecast over the next 24 hours. for many across northern england, scotla nd many across northern england, scotland and northern ireland, first they will be a bright day, pretty cold, temperatures barely above freezing. for england and wales, the cloud will tend to increase as the day goes on but it is across the south—west of england that we start to see some rain moving its way in, turning readily to smoke across the temperatures barely above freezing in northern parts. let's focus in on this rain that turns to snow in the south—west, 1—3 centimetres by the evening rush hour, that will spread further north, 2—5 centimetres around the london area, the south—east, 2—8 centimetres across the midlands and 5—15 centimetres of

snow across parts of south wales. said thursday evening rush—hour across the night and thursday into friday, this zone here could be quite problematic, widespread, potentially disruptive snow. as we go into friday, the weatherfront kind of weakens out across southern areas so it will tend to clear away but the snow and ice will still be around for friday morning and that will still continue to cause a bit of disruption, certainly through this morning, some disruption because of the snow and ice so take care. bye—bye. you're watching bbc news at 9 with me annita mcveigh — the headlines... theresa may prepares to return to brussels, after mps in the house of commons last night supported plans to renegotiate her brexit deal with the european union. mps voted in favour of an amendment calling for alternatives to the current plans for the irish border. it is now clear that there is a route to secure a substantial and sustainable... jeering. ..substa ntial and sustainable

majority in this house for leaving the eu with a deal. and after mps backed an amendment rejecting a no—deal brexit, labour leaderjeremy corbyn said he was now prepared to talk to the prime minister — we understand those talks will take place today. but the head of the cbi says uk companies are now likely to speed up their no—deal brexit plans, adding further renegotiations with the eu feels like a real throw of the dice. and this morning the eu's chief brexit negotiator has said brussels' position was "very clear". i'll be here throughout the morning in the run up