Tim Cook will give the commencement address for Duke University’s graduating class this Sunday, May 13. Cook graduated from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business with an MBA in 1988.
“I’m honored to be returning to Duke this weekend to help celebrate the Class of 2018,” Cook told Duke University’s Chronicle newspaper this week. “I graduated from Fuqua 30 years ago, and the friends and memories I made at Duke are among the most treasured of my life.”
In this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine: 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?
You’ll find that story and more in this issue. Mother’s Day is around the corner on May 13, so check out our Watch Store’s Mother’s Day Gift Guide for on-time shipping. Get your free subscription to Cult of Mac Magazine from iTunes. Or read on for this week’s top stories.
This week on a very volatile episode of The CultCast: the analysts were all wrong—iPhone X is a massive hit. Plus: the death of 3D Touch starts with 2018 iPhone; the world’s most famous Apple analyst may no longer be reporting on Apple; Apple’s AirPort router lineup is officially dead; and we pitch you our favorite show, movie, and vodka in an all-new Under Review. It’s a juicy one. Hit play and catch the discussion.
Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. It’s simple to accept Apple Pay and sell your wares with your very own Squarespace website. Enter offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off your first hosting plan or domain.
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.
Apple blew analysts’ expectations out of the water this afternoon with its historic Q2 2018 earnings report that saw the company post the most revenue ever in the March quarter.
Tim Cook and Apple CFO Luca Maestri were absolutely giddy during today’s call with investors. Everyone expected the iPhone X to be a bust, but even Apple was surprised by its success as it still dominates the iPhone sales charts. New products are on the horizon too as Apple’s executives teased new goodies coming down its pipeline:
These were the biggest takeaways from the call:
Apple is set to reveal its second quarterly earnings report of 2018 this afternoon. If you’ve been listening to the analysts the last few months, you know that iPhone sales might take a dip.
Lagging iPhone X demand could cause Apple to bring in slightly less revenue than this quarter last year, unless Apple’s services or “other products” sectors picked up the slack. We’ll know for sure once Tim Cook and Apple CFO Luca Maestri run through all the numbers with investors today at 2 p.m. Pacific.
As usual, Cult of Mac will be live-blogging the action with all the analysis and snark we can muster.
Come join the fun:
There’s a lot of good news in Apple’s second earnings report of 2018 that should keep investors happy going into the next quarter.
Revenue during Q2 2018 hit an all-time high for a March quarter at $61.1 billion, thanks in large part to 52.2 million iPhones sold. Apple CEO Tim Cook says iPhone X sales are still killing it, too.
The second Apple earnings report of 2018 is set to come out on May 1 and Wall Street’s top analysts are worried that disappointing news is on the horizon.
Rumors have been circulating for months that iPhone X sales have been far weaker than Apple expected. The company’s stock price has been slipping in the last two weeks leading up to the Q2 2018 earnings report. Everyone’s waiting to see if Apple can pull out another surprise, but the signs don’t look too promising.
Per usual, Cult of Mac will be here to live blog all the action as it transpires on Tuesday, May 1, at 2 p.m. Pacific. Here’s what to watch for on the call:
Steve Jobs was a mercurial genius with a singular knack for turning bright ideas into shiny new products. Tim Cook is an operations wizard who hammered Apple’s supply chain into a manufacturing powerhouse.
If you’re an Apple fan, you know the widely accepted narrative. You’ve heard the stories about these powerful CEOs and their various strengths and weaknesses. But who helmed Apple most successfully?
We put Cupertino’s most capable execs head-to-head to determine which Apple era was really the best. Get ready to settle things once and for all!
Apple CEO Tim Cook was reportedly “most helpful” during his White House meeting with President Donald Trump earlier this week. Cook was enthusiastic about the Trump administration’s recent tax cuts, and also had some advice about business dealings in China.
“I really enjoyed the meeting,” Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, told CNBC’s Squawk on the Street. “I spent a good amount of time with [Cook], and then we came back and we visited the POTUS.”
Tim Cook will have a private meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office later today, according to Trump’s official schedule.
While it’s not clear what they will be discussing, the 1:45 p.m. meeting comes a day after Cook was among the guests present at Trump’s first official state dinner.
President Donald Trump held his first White House state dinner tonight since moving into the Oval Office, and Apple CEO Tim Cook was on the guest list.
The left-leaning Cook might have felt very much in the minority. Trump didn’t invite a single Democratic member of Congress to the dinner, but arch-conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch was in attendance.
Tim Cook generally stays quiet about Apple’s plans, but there’s one thing he’s open about: his company’s laptops and tablets aren’t going to merge together.
It’s a question that comes up every couple of years. Which is understandable, given the recent rumors that macOS is migrating to the same type of processors as iOS, allegedly to enable apps to run on both Mac and iPad.
New drones videos of Apple Park are about to become extinct.
Apple is ramping up security when it comes to drones hovering over its new headquarters. Droner Duncan Sinfield has flown at the campus since the early days of construction. However, on his latest flights, Duncan says Apple security has been able to track down his precise location in ten minutes.
Check out his latest footage, it could be his last:
Apple issued a stern warning to employees this week about leaking confidential information to the media.
In a leaked memo detailing Apple’s efforts to stop leaks, the company says it caught 29 leakers in 2017. Of those caught, 12 were arrested. Apple told employees they are “getting played” by journalists and bloggers that approach them with flattery in exchange for information.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited Apple’s new headquarters in California as part of his tour across the western U.S., during which he aims to change the country’s perspective on Saudi Arabia.
Apple CEO Tim Cook was on hand for Salman’s tour of the newly completed Apple Park. The prince even got a special presentation inside Steve Jobs Theatre that focused on Apple’s modern voice applications.
Check out some of the pics:
Apple has become the world’s first major tech company to be powered by 100% renewable energy.
The company has been investing heavily in renewable energy sources for years, and in a statement today, Apple says it has already achieved its goal to use 100% clean energy to power all of its global facilities.
Tim Cook will attend a deposition on June 27 as part of Apple’s continuing legal battle with Qualcomm.
Qualcomm’s lawsuit accuses Apple of lying to regulators in order to spur investigations into Qualcomm’s business. Apple previously filed a complaint over chip royalties.
Tim Cook visited his home state of Alabama this week, and paid homage to American Baptist minister and activist Martin Luther King Jr. on the 50th anniversary of his assassination.
Cook also met with a group of Birmingham, AL high school and college students, and talked about the importance of the civil rights struggle, the need to learn coding, and answered questions about his own career.
The date for Apple’s second financial earnings call of 2018 was revealed on its investors’ website today, setting Tuesday, May 1, as the big date.
Apple has reportedly been facing slumping iPhone sales amid waning demand for the iPhone X. Investors will find out just how bad (or good) the sales figures are when Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri go over all the numbers at 2 p.m. Pacific. Per usual, Cult of Mac will be here live-blogging the whole thing.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has taken exception to Apple CEO Tim Cook’s comments that Facebook doesn’t care about its customers because it sells their data to advertisers.
Zuck went on the defensive in one of his first interviews since news broke that Cambridge Analytica leaked the personal data of 50 million users. The interview touched a number of topics, but when asked specifically about Cook’s comments Zuckerberg unleashed a tangent on why Tim Cook is wrong.
Apple is giving developers new tools that will allow iPhone and iPad users to download and delete any personal information being stored in iCloud.
Developers received word of the new tools today which were created in order to help developers comply with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation that goes into effect this May. The new laws mean developers will be forced to comply anytime a customer requests to access manage, restrict or delete personal data.
Apple will soon let you download all the information it has stored about you, modify it, or even delete it. The privacy change is required by a new European law, but is also in-line with Apple’s policy to not spy on its customers. This sets it apart from rivals like Google and Facebook.
Thanks to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, a backlash is brewing against the way tech giants like Facebook monetize data. This could result in government regulation, which has the potential to upend the business models of some of the world’s biggest companies.
Luckily, Apple is practically immune. Here’s why 2018’s biggest tech scandal could actually help the world’s biggest tech company.
Tim Cook doesn’t have the same problem with porn that Steve Jobs did.
During a recent interview, Cook made it clear that he feels comfortable with people using their Apple devices to check out, err, adult materials online.