Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s App Store is losing steam, at least according to Goldman Sachs analyst Michael Ng, who's tracking some concerning deceleration in the company's services business. December saw App Store net revenue growth slip to 5.7% year-over-year, down from 6.1% in November—not exactly the trajectory investors want to see heading into the new year.

Here's the broader picture: December marked the slowest monthly growth rate for App Store spending in all of 2025, and it came in well below the 9.6% average December growth Apple posted between 2022 and 2024. The fourth quarter overall wasn't much better, with App Store net revenue growing just 7% year-over-year—the weakest quarterly rate since the first quarter of 2023.

The geographic breakdown tells an even more interesting story. While U.S. spending held relatively steady, China and Japan both deteriorated significantly. China's App Store spending contracted by 5% year-over-year in December, worse than November's 1% decline. Japan wasn't much better, contracting 3% compared to a 2% decline the previous month.

Despite the softening services data, Ng maintained his Buy rating on Apple with a $320 price target. Shares were trading at $262.74, down 1.69% at the time of the report.