The results of each Apple financial quarter somehow keep topping the one before. This time, the big news is that revenue blew past $100 billion for the first time, buoyed by record-breaking sales of iPhone and other products.
But there’s more to Apple’s announcement than a parade of figures. Here’s what all those number mean for the company, and for users, based on what Apple’s top brass told investors on Wednesday.
As a company, Apple is firing on all cylinders. It pulled in record revenue from iPhone, Wearables and Services during its most-recent financial quarter. And there was healthy growth in Mac and iPad revenue too.
Total quarterly revenue hit 111.4 billion, up 21% year over year. This is the first time Cupertino broke $100 billion, a milestone few companies reach.
iPhone 12 may be Apple’s prettiest smartphone to date, so you’ll probably want to keep it looking that way by protecting its glass and metal frame. Do it with a brilliant new case from SwitchEasy.
SwitchEasy’s new lineup is available today from the Cult of Mac Store, with prices starting at under $15. It includes super-slim skins that keep things thin, and rugged cases that protect against almost anything.
Google’s iOS applications will comply with Apple’s App Tracking Transparency policy, according to a blog post from the company on Wednesday. That means these applications won‘t have to specifically ask users to permit the app to track them online.
Apple’s ATT policy hasn’t gone into effect yet, but it’ll give iPhone and iPad users more privacy. And it’s expected to cost advertisers billions.
Apple overtook Amazon and Google to regain its position as the world’s most valuable brand, according to a new ranking by Brand Finance.
The annual survey values Apple’s brand at $263.4 billion in 2021. The last time Apple held the coveted No. 1 spot came half a decade ago.
Ahead of Apple’s Wednesday Q1 2021 earnings call, iPhone screen-maker manufacturer LG Display has posted its latest earnings — and they’re good. Very good, in fact.
According to Reuters, the South Korean company reported its highest quarterly profit in more than three years. The success of the iPhone 12 is said to be one of the big reasons.
An Apple Watch user in the UK recently had their life potentially saved after they used their Apple wearable to call for help after getting stranded in a flooded river.
The cyclist, from Rotherwas, Hereford, was swept off their bike during a flood, and swept downstream for a mile. Eventually, they were able to grab onto a tree branch, and use their Apple Watch to dial 999, the UK equivalent of 911.
For years, China has been Apple’s biggest manufacturing hub for building its devices. But that’s now changing, with a report Wednesday claiming that Apple is “ramping up” production of iPhones, iPads, Macs, and other products in other parts of the world.
This is an attempt by Apple to diversify manufacturing beyond China, following trade tensions between the U.S. and China in recent years.
With its population of more than 1.3 billion people, India is the only country on Earth with a population that rivals China’s. (By comparison, the United States’ is a paltry 328 million.) It’s no wonder, then, that Apple has been hungrily eying the market for quite some time.
To date, success has been a bit disappointing, however. That may be changing, though, with a new report claiming that Apple doubled its market share in India during the last quarter, based on research from Counterpoint and CyberMedia.
Working and schooling from home has led to a rush of computer purchases, to Apple’s benefit. The Mac-maker is set to reveal the results of its most-recent financial quarter on Wednesday, and analysts predict quarterly revenue will break through the $100 billion mark for the first time.
Apple committed to a second season of its spy thriller Tehran on Tuesday. The first season drew praise from critics when it streamed on Apple TV+, and the adventures of Mossad agent Tamar Rabinyan will continue.
The recently released HomePod mini got a raft of new features in a software update released Tuesday. The process of handing off songs from an iPhone to the smart speaker now comes with some visual, audio and haptic effects. And media controls automatically appear on the iPhone when it nears the diminutive HomePod.
Starting Tuesday, Apple Watch users can install watchOS 7.3. This adds support for the recently announced “Time to Walk” audio feature for Fitness+ subscribers. There’s also a new Unity watch face. Plus, the ECG app will be available in four additional Asian countries.
Apple released iOS 14.4 to the general public on Tuesday, along with the iPad equivalent. According to their developer, these allow users to scan smaller QR codes, and to classify their various Bluetooth devices so audio notifications can be routed correctly.
It also closes a security hole that hackers might have actually used to break into iPhones.
Apple CEO Tim Cook will give a pro-privacy speech during the Computers, Privacy and Data Protection conference in Brussels this Thursday.
Cook will deliver his speech virtually from Cupertino. The talk will cover “enforcing rights in a changing world,” and will deal with boosting user confidence in online advertising, among other topics.
Apple TV+ is reportedly gearing up to buy a new serial-killer series called In With the Devil, starring Taron Egerton (Rocketman) and Paul Walter Hauser (Richard Jewell).
The six-part series will be based on James Keene and Hillel Levin’s 2010 book of the same name. It tells the story of Keene, a convicted drug dealer, who was asked to befriend a murderer in prison in order to link him to a series of unsolved killings. In exchange for taking on the undercover assignment, Keene was promised that he would be released.
Corellium, a company that makes virtualization testing products for iOS devices, is opening up its offering to include individual plan subscribers. Before this, its tools were only available with enterprise accounts.
This should make its products available to more developers than ever. In a blog post announcing the change, Corellium said that this also brings about a change in pricing. It notes that:
Is Apple helping facilitate an illegal gambling den by running the App Store? That’s the accusation made by a new lawsuit, claiming that freemium casino apps are running wild in the App Store — and Apple’s taking a piece of the action.
The plaintiffs in the case are two social casino app users. Each has spent upward of $15,000 on casino app in-app purchases.
Apple TV+ executives felt the need. The need for Top Gun: Maverick, the long-awaited sequel to 1986’s classic blockbuster, Top Gun. Unfortunately, Paramount Pictures wasn’t selling.
That’s according to a new report, claiming that Apple tried to pick up the rights to the new Tom Cruise-starring movie, after coronavirus scuppered original theatrical plans.
Programmers with years of automotive experience can apply now to help create the Apple Car. Apple’s website lists a number of job openings that, reading between the lines, appear to be for the team that’s building Apple’s self-driving vehicle.
Dan Riccio, one of Apple’s top designers, is moving to a mysterious new role in Cupertino.
After joining Apple in 1998, Riccio worked on loads of groundbreaking products, from the first iMac to last year’s AirPods Max and the M1-powered Macs. Now, he’s become Apple’s “vice president of engineering.”
Going forward, Riccio says he will be “focusing all my time and energy at Apple on creating something new and wonderful that I couldn’t be more excited about,” according to a press release Monday.
When Florian Mueller submitted his latest game to the App Store, he didn’t think it would end with him filing a complaint against Apple with the European Union, the U.S. Department of Justice and other antitrust authorities around the world.
But that’s exactly what happened after Apple rejected his Corona Control Game due to its COVID-19 theme. Google, which barred Mueller’s game from the Google Play store, is also named in his complaints.
Germany-based Mueller, who has another career as a blogger on legal issues, is not happy with how Apple and Google handled his game submission.
“When [Apple and Google] rejected the game at the beta-testing stage, I was indeed surprised that they took issue with it in such a fundamental way they wouldn’t even let us distribute it to testers,” Mueller, 51, told Cult of Mac.
The Snoopy Show, coming to Apple TV+ in February, puts the focus on Charlie Brown’s irrepressible beagle. A new trailer for the series dropped Monday, and it demonstrates the show is going to come crammed with lighthearted fun.
Watch the just-released trailer now.
Magnets and implanted medical devices don’t mix. Apple warned users of the iPhone 12 and MagSafe accessories that these devices all have built-in magnets, and therefore should be kept away from pacemakers and defibrillators that have been surgically implanted in someone’s body for safety reasons.
Time to Walk, a new Apple Watch feature for Fitness+ subscribers, promises interesting and encouraging audio stories to liven up walking for exercise.