Microsoft’s decision to wage a new war against Macs with premium Windows PCs is paying off, the company says. Thanks to high-end devices like the Surface Book and Surface Studio, Microsoft managed to steal market share from Apple last quarter.
Spotify might have been more than a little worried when Apple Music launched last June, but the rivalry has so far been beneficial for the streaming music pioneer. Spotify revealed today that it has grown even faster over the past year.
Although iOS 8 got off to a slower start than iOS 7, it’s finally starting to rebound. New numbers suggest that over half of all customers have upgraded to iOS 8. But all’s not well yet. In fact, iOS 8 uptake is pretty much stagnant.
Apple submitted its annual 10-K report with the SEC today, which summarizes the company’s growth over the last year. Reading the report shows an amazing amount of growth for the Cupertino-based company across all areas of its business: retail, research and development, and square footage it owns.
Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer presented the results of the company’s spring 2012 quarter. The quarter included extensive growth for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac product lines though iPod sales declined 10% from the same quarter a year ago.
Here are the financial numbers delivered during the call.
The Instagram phenomenon continues to captivate mobile users across the globe and now generates over 5 million new users a week, according to its API. Those are absolutely amazing numbers for the once iOS exclusive photography sharing app that now boasts over 50 million total users thanks to its recent launch on Android. With numbers like this, it’s no wonder Facebook reached deep in their pockets to snatch them up.
While Apple announced another record-breaking quarter yesterday, U.S. mobile carrier Sprint reported a significant net loss of $863 million – nearly twice the loss that it reported for the same quarter last year. iPhone sales, however, helped increase Sprint’s overall subscriber base – making this the eighth consecutive quarter where the company reported overall growth.
The Android Market saw staggering growth in 2011 and thanks to some tracking done by Distimo, we have a better look at how the numbers play out in comparison to Android’s top competitor Apple. According to Distimo, the Android Market has now reached over 400,000 apps, which is still 100K shy of Apple’s 500K+ active apps available according to 148apps metrics. While Android still trails in overall apps, it’s really the rate at which it’s growing that is impressive.
Since its refresh in October 2010, the popularity of Apple’s MacBook Air has been rapidly increasing according to new research by J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz. Sales of the device have seen a 333% year-over-year rise, with a projected annual revenue of a whopping $2.2 billion.
Moskowitz said in his research note:
“We believe that the growth rate of the MacBook Air stands to moderate, but we expect the product to exhibit increasing contribution to the overall Mac business,” Moskowitz wrote. “(The fourth quarter of calendar 2010) was the first quarter in which the MacBook Air accounted for greater than 10% of total Apple Mac units. More importantly, the MacBook Air accounted for 15% of total notebook sales during the quarter, versus 5% in the prior year.”
The latest refresh to the MacBook Air line introduced an ultraportable 11.6-inch model – a perfect alternative to users looking for the portability of a netbook but with the stability of a Mac. When the device first launched back in January of 2008, a 13-inch machine was the only option, with a starting price of $1,799. Now there are two machines to choose from, both of which come equipped with SSD hard drives as standard, starting at just $999.
It’s believed that the lower starting price and a choice of two notebooks are the main reasons behind the growth in popularity of the MacBook Air.
[via MacRumors]
