Main Highlights:
- Thursday afternoon, Apple slightly beat Wall Street estimates, reporting a small year-over-year increase in iPhone sales and a 12 per cent growth in its services segment.
- Apple unveiled a revamped MacBook Air powered by the company’s M2 processor
- According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple has a “flood” of new products in the works for the fall and into 2023.
With its Q3 earnings announcement on Thursday afternoon, Apple slightly beat Wall Street estimates, reporting a small year-over-year increase in iPhone sales and a 12 per cent growth in its services segment. However, the company’s statistics fell elsewhere: Mac revenue fell 10%, which CEO Tim Cook ascribed to supply chain limitations and poor foreign currency rates. However, it is consistent with an industry-wide trend of declining PC sales.
Apple unveiled a revamped MacBook Air powered by the company’s M2 processor earlier this month, but it did not contribute to this quarter’s numbers. The new Air follows the June release of the updated 13-inch MacBook Pro.
In March, Apple released the Mac Studio desktop, Studio Display, M1-powered iPad Air, and the updated iPhone SE. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple has a “flood” of new products in the works for the fall and into 2023.
Wearables revenue was down roughly 8%, while iPad unit sales were down 2%. Overall, Apple achieved a new June quarter revenue record of $83 billion, with earnings per share of $1.20.
Apple is reported to be planning not one, but two huge, 6.7-inch iPhones for its 2022 range. These will be the iPhone 14 Pro Max and a simpler iPhone 14 variant. There will also be two 6.1-inch phones: the iPhone 14 Pro and the iPhone 14. The mini-sized iPhone will not be updated this year. The new phones will have better cameras, as well as a speedier processor and revised, smaller screen cutouts for Face ID and the selfie camera.
Apple is working on the next round of major software upgrades for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV. iOS / iPadOS 16, macOS Ventura, and other improvements are presently in public beta testing in preparation for a fall broad release to all customers. New lock screen customization possibilities, the ability to edit or unsend messages, and other enhancements will be included in the iPhone release.
However, Apple, like other IT behemoths in recent weeks, plans to restrict hiring in the face of a likely economic slowdown and recession. Cook told CNBC’s Steve Kovach that Apple will hire additional personnel “deliberately.”
About Apple
Jobs recognised that experienced management and big financing would be required for the firm to thrive. He persuaded Regis McKenna, a well-known public relations specialist for the semiconductor industry, to represent the company; he also secured an investment from Michael Markkula, a wealthy Intel Corporation veteran who became Apple’s largest shareholder and an influential member of Apple’s board of directors.
The firm was an instant success, thanks in large part to Wozniak’s invention of a disc controller that enabled the inclusion of a low-cost floppy disc drive, which made data storage and retrieval quick and reliable. The Apple II became the computer of choice for thousands of amateur programmers due to its ability to store and process data.
Most famously, in 1979, two Bostonians, Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston released VisiCalc, the first personal computer spreadsheet, establishing what would later be described as a “killer app” (application): a software package that is so helpful that it drives hardware sales.
While VisiCalc introduced the Apple II to the small-business and consumer markets, primary educational institutions were an important early market. Apple maintained a dominant presence among educational institutions through a mix of aggressive pricing and contributions (and the absence of any early competition), contributing to their platform’s domination of primary-school software far into the 1990s.
Apple’s profitability and scale rose at an unprecedented rate: by 1980, the business had earned more than $100 million and employed more than 1,000 people. It’s initial public offering in December was the largest since the Ford Motor Company went public in 1956. (In fact, by the end of 1980, Apple’s worth had surpassed Ford’s by over $2 billion.)
However, Apple would soon face competition from International Business Machines Corporation, the computer industry’s dominant player. IBM waited for the personal computer industry to mature before launching its own line of computers, the IBM PC, in 1981.
IBM deviated with its practice of utilising solely proprietary hardware and software and constructed a computer using generally accessible components, including the Intel CPU, and the Microsoft Corporation’s DOS (disc operating system). Because other manufacturers could utilise the same hardware components as IBM and licence DOS from Microsoft, new software writers could expect a large market for IBM PC-compatible applications. Soon after, the new system had its own killer app: the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet, which quickly gained a following in the corporate world—a field that the Apple II had failed to enter.
