Apple's Q1 2020 earnings report will probably break some records. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
When Apple unveils its earnings report for last year’s crucial holiday quarter, the entire world will be watching for signs of the company’s long-rumored impending doom.
Several factors will make Tuesday’s Q1 2019 earnings call Apple’s most important in years. Depending on how it goes, it could have an enormous impact on the company’s stock’s performance in 2019 and beyond.
Analysts want Apple to snap up a movie studio. We disagree. Photo: Naoya Fujii/Flickr CC
How can Apple’s streaming video service battle established competitors like Netflix? Simple: Buy a movie studio.
That’s the battle cry from certain Wall Street analysts, who suggest that Apple use its Scrooge McDuck-style cash pile to buy everything from Sony Pictures to Disney.
As sexy as that idea might sound on paper, however, in reality it would be a terrible idea. Here are three reasons why.
You'll soon be able to control your favorite TVs and gadgets right from your iPhone. Photo: @YSR50
This week on The CultCast: Smart window blinds, smart plugs, smart lights, smart locks and now … the best televisions on the market. Apple just revealed big moves to bring HomeKit to all your favorite gadgets, and Cupertino is just getting started. In 2019, the smart HomeKit devices we’ve always wanted finally arrive. Plus: Tim Cook just let it slip — Apple’s got new services lined up for release this year, but what could they be? We think we might just know.
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Unsurprisingly, he won't spill the beans on what they are. Photo: Apple
Tim Cook teased new services that will be coming to Apple users this year. Responding to questions about falling iPhone sales during a CNBC interview, Cook stressed the way that Apple’s services division has grown significantly in the past several years.
“The services are on a tear,” Cook said. “On services, you will see us announce new services this year. There will more things coming.”
The HomePod could be yours for a bit less this festive season. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Apple is offering promo codes to Apple Music customers, giving them money off the HomePod smart speaker in time for the holidays.
So far, users in the U.K. have reported receiving the offer for 50 British pounds ($63) off the full price of a HomePod. The offer runs through December 16, giving would-be purchasers until the end of the week to take advantage. It’s not clear how many markets Apple will offer the discount in.
Apple is changing up its sales strategy. Photo: Apple
Apple is resorting to very un-Apple marketing strategies to try and bolster sales of this year’s new iPhones, a report claims.
These strategies include discount promotions via “generous” device buyback terms. The company is even moving marketing staff from other projects to try and come up with ways to move the iPhone XR and XS off the shelves. This could be proof positive that the new iPhones haven’t been selling as expected.
Belgium will be the 30th market to get Apple Pay. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Apple Pay has gone live in Belgium. It is supported by BNP Paribas, Belgium’s most popular major bank, and its brands Fintro and Hello Bank. Online services and apps such as Deliveroo, Taxi.eu and Booking.com also accept Apple Pay.
Apple’s contactless payment system has also apparently gone live in Kazakhstan. The two countries are the 30th and 31st to offer Apple Pay.
Apple’s CEO pays attention to what people outside the company are saying about its products. Screencap: Apple
If you’ve ever wondered if anyone at Apple ever sees the online comments people post about iPhone, Mac, etc., you can rest easy: No less a person than CEO Tim Cook reads them every day.
And you might be surprised at how much time he spends doing so.
This is the latest chapter in a long-running case involving Apple. Photo: Supermac1961/Flickr CC
Apple’s legal team could soon be headed to the Supreme Court to face an antitrust case being levied against the company.
U.S. Supreme Court justices heard an hour of arguments for an antitrust lawsuit against Apple today. The nine justices appeared to be open to letting the lawsuit move up to the highest court. If Apple loses, we could see huge changes in the App Store.
Futurists claim the iPad has already eliminated the need for a Mac. Realists say nah. Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac
Since the new iPad Pro’s launch, debate about the powerful devices has become increasingly polarized into two opposing camps: futurists and realists.
The futurists argue that the iPad is the future computing. Apple’s tablet has eliminated the need for laptops, they say, and anyone who claims they can’t manage their workflows on iOS is living in the past (and should just get with the program).
The realists, on the other hand, retort that while the iPad may be cool, it remains limited by iOS in a lot of very important ways. Those limitations mean it is currently impossible to use the iPad as a primary workstation for pros.
Apple's new iPhones are great. But are they the money-spinners Apple is hoping for? Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Goldman Sachs has added its name to the list of financial institutions worried about stagnating iPhone sales.
“We are concerned that end demand for new iPhone models is deteriorating,” Goldman Sachs wrote in a new note to clients. The firm estimates that Apple will produce 6 percent fewer iPhones next year than it did in the year previous. However, the big investment banking company admits it could be jumping the gun.
The obsession with iPhone sales numbers is now a thing of the past. Probably. Photo: Apple
Apple shocked Wall Street yesterday when it revealed that it will no longer share information about how many iPhones sell each quarter. Instead, the company will provide the average sale price, which Cupertino claims is a far more useful figure to investors.
It’s a big change in strategy from a company that used to make a point of crowing about its landmark sales figures. But, while this move might disappoint some fans, it’s totally the right call. Here’s why.
For the first time in years, Apple's best iPhone is also its cheapest. Photo: Apple
The iPhone XR is out and, for the first time in years, Apple’s most exciting device isn’t the one that commands the really big bucks. For all the talk of an “Apple tax,” 2018’s coolest iPhone starts at just $749. That’s half the price of a top-of-the-line iPhone XS Max.
Will Apple's weird plan to give away its TV shows make Netflix nervous? Photo: Siniz Kim/Unsplash CC
After spending upward of $1 billion creating original TV shows, Apple apparently plans to give them away for free. That would certainly be a bold move as Apple muscles into original video production, but it might be the craziest idea ever.
Here are three reasons why it’s a smart strategy — and three more why it could backfire.
Tim Cook says companies don't need access to your data. Photo: Apple
Tim Cook went on the offensive toward competing companies like Amazon and Google in a new interview tonight on privacy.
Appearing on Vice News Tonight on HBO, the Apple CEO was asked if his company’s stance on privacy is stopping Siri from becoming more competitive with Alexa. Cook pushed back saying any company that says it needs all your data to make its service better is telling you a “bunch of bunk.”
Catch our iPhone XS Max and Apple Watch 4 first week impressions! Photo: @YSR50
This week on The CultCast: Beautygate — what it is, and why it’s undoubtedly the dumbest “gate” in the history of iPhone! Plus: How have we liked our first week with Apple Watch 4 and iPhone XS? We reveal all. And the shockingly low production price of the iPhone XS Max proves Apple owes us more storage space!
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Open the iPhone XS Max and you'll see just $443 worth of components. Photo: TechInsights
An estimate of the component costs for each iPhone XS Max shows that much less than half of the purchase price goes to producing the device. This is Apple’s most expensive phone ever — and likely its most profitable.
The cost of storage went up considerably but Apple managed to save money by removing some 3D Touch components from the display.
The LCD iPhone XR could be Apple's most popular new handset. Photo: Apple
Apple is shifting orders for the iPhone XR between its suppliers to make sure that there are as few supply constraints as possible when the device finally launches in October.
Lisa Jackson showcases Apple's green innovation during the Gather Round event. Photo: Apple
It’s an incredibly big deal that Wednesday’s Gather Round keynote featured Lisa Jackson, Apple’s head of environmental initiatives.
The annual iPhone unveiling is Apple’s biggest product event of the year. Every single word and image is carefully calibrated to do one thing, and one thing only: sell as many of the new products as possible.
So why did Tim Cook turn over several precious minutes to Jackson to talk about renewable energy and recycling?
"Do you want to eat pasta all your life, or join me and change the world?" Photo: Lou Stejskal/Flickr CC
It’s not exactly breaking news that Steve Jobs was a great salesman. But a hilarious anecdote from Adam Fisher’s recent oral history of Silicon Valley, Valley of Genius, gives a great example of Jobs’ next-level skills.
Want to know how Jobs persuaded a product marketing expert from Microsoft to join his company NeXT? It turns out it involved little more than a bit of patented Steve Jobs charm — and a helping hand from a local Italian restaurant menu.
Many people are hoping the iPhone 9 will cost less than its predecessor, but it could be priced higher. Screenshot: Lee Gungho
The main reason the iPhone 9 is hotly anticipated is because it’s rumored to boast a large display but a relatively low price tag. However, some analysts are predicting that this 6.1-inch model will instead cost more than the iPhone 8.
They say Apple can do this because the one feature that consumers want more than anything else: larger screens. And we’re willing to pay more for them.
What if your iPhone and iPad had a standard USB port instead of a Lightning one? Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Apple has its Lightning connector and everyone else has USB. But EU regulators are considering whether they need to force a common standard for phone chargers.
The idea is to cut down on the 51,000 tons of old chargers and cables thrown away each year.
With its upcoming software, Apple addresses some Silicon Valley's most egregious abuses. Photo: Apple
After a particularly rough patch for the tech industry, Apple used yesterday’s WWDC keynote to atone for some of Silicon Valley’s biggest sins. The company showcased key features in its upcoming operating systems that reinforce the fact that it thinks different about how technology should work.
Undoubtedly eager to position itself as one of the good guys, Apple directly responded to some of the biggest tech scandals of the past year.
Everything you heard about iPhone X sales was wrong. In fact, it's Apple's most popular model. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Analysts have been extremely pessimistic about the iPhone X, with almost daily predictions that Apple’s top-of-the-line model was a flop. And they were all dead wrong. Tim Cook just said the iPhone X has been Apple’s best-selling model for every week since it launched, and that sales of all the company’s phones grew last quarter.
How did the analysts get it so wrong? Here’s what probably happened.
iPhone naming is all kinds of broken these days. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple could be about to change the way it names successive generations of iPhone. The aim would be to simplify a naming pattern that has become increasingly unwieldy in the past few years.
It’s about time — although that doesn’t mean a new iPhone naming system will necessarily make things any less confusing. Here’s why.