Apple convinced us we couldn’t live without a smartphone. Now many of us have a smartphone in hand and Apple may be facing the curse side of the blessing — finding new customers for the iPhone.
Credit Suisse recently issued a report to investors that further fuels speculation that iPhone sales will dip for the first time since Apple introduced it in 2007. The upshot: Smartphone ownership is approaching 100 percent. We’re nearing “peak smartphone.”
Unlike any other consumer electronics company, Apple has been nailing product design for decades. Jony Ive and his incredibly talented team have produced countless iconic gadgets that rivals can only dream of, and it’s the biggest reason why the company is so successful today.
But there are suggestions that Apple’s design prowess is beginning to slip away. Under new leadership, Apple has rolled out a number of products — most recently the butt-ugly Smart Battery Case — that have led some fans to question various design decisions.
Are those fans right to be concerned? Is it downhill from here for Apple’s design team, or is this a whole lot of fuss over nothing?
Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Android and Cult of Mac as we battle it out over those questions and more — and weigh in with your thoughts down in the comments section!
Tim Cook accepted the Ripple of Hope Award in New York last night. During his speech at the the benefit for the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, the Apple CEO touched on a number of world issues, from protections for the LGBT community, to the Syrian refugee criss.
Cook also cited Robert F. Kennedy’s remarks from a 1966 speech promoting the idea that business plays an essential role in helping society solve its greatest problems. According to Cook, RFK’s ‘wonderful optimism’ is the kind of spirit that drives Apple.
Siri is loaded with fun Easter eggs. However, its latest addition — created in collaboration with the Cerebral Palsy Foundation — isn’t flippant or sarcastic like some of the AI assistant’s other one-liners; it’s just good advice.
Ask Siri how to start a conversation with someone with a disability, and she’ll answer, “It’s easy. Just say, ‘Hi.’”
Tim Cook has weighed in on the Apple Store accused of racially discriminating against six black students who were barred from the store because security felt that they might steal something.
In an email sent to all Apple employees this morning the CEO called the situation ‘unacceptable.’ Cook said he thinks the Highpoint store issue was an isolated incident, but notified employees that leadership teams will be ‘refreshing their training on inclusion and customer engagement,’ starting with Australia.
Read Cook’s full email below:
Apple PR has sprung into “damage control” mode after Tim Cook uncharacteristically fired verbal shots at Microsoft yesterday — reportedly telling a crowd in Ireland that Microsoft’s attempts to create “hybrid” laptops is, “deluded.”
What is being claimed is that Cook didn’t mean to say “deluded” at all, but instead “diluted” — which is still a diss, but without the insinuations that the good folks at Microsoft are a few sandwiches short of a picnic if they think the Surface will ever be a hit.
Tim Cook is in my home country of Jolly Old Blighty (read: the U.K.) at the moment, promoting the imminent launch of the iPad Pro.
While there, he’s given an interview to the Telegraph newspaper, in which Apple’s CEO touches on everything from the new Apple TV to the U.K.’s rumored “snooper’s charter” to, of course, Apple’s super-sized tablet.
Check out the lessons we learned below.
Tim Cook loves the new iPad Pro so much it’s the only product he travels with now, other than his iPhone.
In a new interview talking about the benefits of the new big-screened iPad, the Apple CEO trumpeted the iPad Pro’s productivity thanks to new multi-tasking software in iOS 9 complimented by the new keyboard and Apple Pencil. Some detractors have dismissed Apple Pencil as a just a fancy stylus, but Cook insists it’s a much more revolutionary product than that.
A company that specializes in making Lego-ized versions of tech-world giants is offering minifigures based on Apple co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, current CEO Tim Cook, and some people who work for other companies, if you want to be all diverse about it.
The figures won’t even set you back that much, really. Depending on how much you value plastic that looks like people.
The iPhone 6s is a huge hit, China is still doing great, and Android users absolutely love switching to iPhone.
Those are just some of the details Tim Cook and Apple CFO Luca Maestri revealed during this afternoon’s earnings call with investors that revealed Apple managed to top Wall Street’s expectations thanks to the iPhone 6s.
Here are the top takeaways from Apple’s latest record-setting quarter:
Apple is scheduled to reveal its earnings for the final fiscal quarter of 2015 on Tuesday, October 27, and investors are expecting monstrous results.
Sales of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus should boost revenues to new heights after Apple announced that it sold a record 13 million units of the new devices during launch weekend alone. Exactly how many iPhones Apple sold won’t be revealed until the bell closes, but Tim Cook seemed pretty optimistic in a recent interview.
Cook told The Wall Street Journal that Apple Watch shipped even more watches last quarter than in the first quarter. It’s unlikely Apple will give us the actual Apple Watch sales figures during the earnings call, but there should be a lot of juicy Apple bits.
Here’s everything to expect from Apple’s Q4 2015 earnings:
Tim Cook has stuck his neck out again in support of the Chinese economy, saying that Apple will continue to pour money into the market, despite a slowing stock market and economy.
“I know some people are worried about the economy,” Cook said in an interview with the Chinese Xinhua news agency. “We’ll continue to invest. China is a superb place to be. Nothing has changed that.”
Tim Cook heads a company that devotes massive brain power in developing and understanding algorithms. And it was an algorithm that ranked the Apple CEO the nation’s top executive from a list of 250.
ExecRank, a kind of social network for companies to find advisors and board members, uses a statistical and algorithmic analysis to measure 24 categories, including experience, business resolution, company growth and earnings and industry reputation.
Tim Cook may like the “runway” for Apple Music’s take off, but Spotify is currently soaring.
Apple’s competitor in the music streaming business found itself in the No. 1 position on the iPhone App Store’s Top Grossing charts for the first time in the United States. This is on the same day that the Apple CEO Cook told the audience at the Wall Street Journal Digital Live conference that Apple Music has 6.5 million paying customers.
Apple Music has 6.5 million paying customers, according to no less an authority than Tim Cook, speaking at the Wall Street Journal Digital Live conference.
Given that Apple claimed it had 11 million people using its free trial back in August, that’s an impressive free-to-paid conversion rate of almost 60 percent. It’s also around one-third of the paid subscriber base of Spotify, which has 20 million subs.
Good work, Apple. Good work.
Apple CEO Tim Cook joined the CEO Council for Sustainable Urbanization this week as part of Apple’s continued fight against global warning and environmental issues.
The council is basically like an Avengers-style group (or Justice League if DC is your preferred flavor) consisting of CEOs and chairmen from the top companies in China and the West, that are hellbent on saving the planet from overpopulation, deforestation, and finite energy resources.
Steve Jobs writer Aaron Sorkin has been doing the media rounds as of late. Last night he appeared on Conan, where he made a kinda-sorta apology to Tim Cook for their recent falling-out — only to then turn around and joke about Apple hacking his personal files.
As you do.
Laurene Powell Jobs and Tim Cook have slammed Aaron Sorkins’ upcoming biopic on Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, but according to the Sorkin, they actually might like it, if they ever go see it.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has opposed the film by calling out “opportunistic” filmmakers like Sorkin for making movies about Jobs, while Steve’s widow tried to kill the movie starring Michael Fassbender. At a press screening in New York City on Monday, Sorkin addressed their concerns, saying it might surprise them.
Today is the fourth anniversary of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs’ passing, and as has become tradition on October 4, some of his closest co-workers are sharing their fondest memories of what it was like working alongside him.
Tim Cook, Phil Schiller, Eddy Cue, Andrea Jung and Bud Tribble all shared short essays with Apple employees this morning on the company’s intranet. To commemorate Jobs’ legacy, Tim Cook told employees in an email to stop older executives today and ask what Jobs was really like.
With controversial movie Steve Jobs set for release later this month, Jobs’ co-workers’ essays provide a look at aspects of the visionary Apple CEO’s personality that those who only knew him through the public eye probably missed.
Here’s what Jobs’ friends had to say about working with him:
It looks like Apple hated Microsoft’s new Windows logo so much that it got redesigned for an iCloud support page.
Apple updated its article on how to get help using iCloud Calendar recently and added a custom Windows logo that looks like a literal window with a little windowsill underneath. It’s more like clip art than something master designer Jony Ive would approve of, which makes it kind of mysterious why it’s there when the official logo would suffice.
Here’s the official logo for comparison:
It may not seem like it, but Steve Jobs passed away four whole years ago today — leading to his colleagues paying tribute to the late Apple CEO.
In an email sent out to employees, Tim Cook praised Jobs as a “visionary,” reminding people that Jobs’ office remains untouched at Apple, and encouraging people to post their own memories to Apple’s internal AppleWeb intranet and messaging system.
Check out Cook’s complete message below:
Over the weekend, Tim Cook received the Human Rights Campaign Visibility Award in Washington D.C. for his work as an outspoken voice in support of the LGBT community.
Cook — who came out as gay last year — delivered a great acceptance speech in which he talked about his decision to publicly reveal his sexuality as well as talking about the numerous advances LGBT rights have made within his lifetime.
Check it out below.
Tim Cook participated in a recent interview with NPR’s Robert Siegel, in which he reiterates Apple’s stance on user privacy, discusses what it would take for Apple to bring its overseas cash pile back into the U.S. — and comically avoids talking about the Apple Car.
You can listen to it below.
SAN FRANCISCO — Apple CEO Tim Cook is urging competitors to copy Apple in the fight against climate change.
Speaking today at the BoxWorks 2015 conference at Moscone Center here, Cook said Apple’s rivals should copy its efforts to run their operations entirely on renewable energy.
“We are very focused on the environment,” he said. “Climate change is real, and we should stop denying it.”
SAN FRANCISCO — Will Tim Cook do anything to steal Google’s thunder?
The Apple CEO is back at the Moscone Center, this time for BoxWorks 2105, the annual gathering of customers and developers for enterprise cloud storage company Box.
It’s a rare speaking gig for Cook, who tends to limit his engagements to just a few high-profile events a year. While big and successful, Box’s conference is hardly one of the marquee events on the tech calendar. Unless it falls on the same exact day Google is announcing new products at its big Nexus media event.
“He’s f****ing with Google,” said one analyst in the press room when asked why Cook chose this event.
Cook is likely to talk up the new iPad Pro and Apple’s enterprise efforts, which include partnering with IBM and Cisco. Read on to see what he says. We’re liveblogging the event. Cook will be onstage at 9 a.m. Pacific.