iPhone maker Apple’s future comes down to four crucial questions

Apple Inc. reported some ugly numbers on Tuesday. Revenue in its fiscal second quarter dipped 5 percent from a year earlier — including a 17 percent slide in iPhone sales, the company said.

Yet investors sent Apple’s shares higher in part because revenue wasn’t as ugly as expected and because the company forecast no worse than a 1.4 percent dip in revenue for the three months ending in June. Hooray, I guess.

But investors have essentially written off this year for Apple. The company acknowledged in January that it hit what it implied were transitory problems for iPhone sales, largely attributed to problems in China — where, to be fair, Apple’s sales declines have been concentrated.