Tech giant Apple is expected to reveal its first profit slide in a decade later.

The group is widely forecast to announce a decline in earnings following reports of a slowdown in sales of its iPhone.

Just last week Apple lost its position as the most valuable publicly-traded company in the world when its shares hit their lowest levels in a year-and-a-half.

Analysts expect a tumble of up to 18% in earnings when it delivers its 2nd quarter trading statement. However revenues are expected to rise. It is reported that that higher component prices and lower costs of some of its products have eaten into its profit margins.

Stronger competition in the smartphone and tablet markets is also expected to be reflected in the statement.

Higher profits for Microsoft, Google

Meanwhile rival firms Google and Microsoft both announced higher profits last week.

Google which has its European headquarters in Dublin said profits in the 3-months to the end of March were up to nearly US$4 billion (€3 billion). That was a jump of 21% from a year ago.

Google said the increase was mainly due to more sales from its core web search business. The company employs about 2,500 people here.

While Microsoft also reported decent quarterly earnings following the launch of Windows 8. Profits rose to just over US$6 billion (€4.6 billion) in the 3-months to the end of March which is up about US$1 billion on the previous year.