Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2018/05/thursday-morning-news030518/
Apple’s Q2 2018 financial results were put into graphs yesterday by MacStories. The company’s sixth consecutive quarter of YoY revenue growth meant some impressive numbers, with the iPhone making up 62% of Apple’s overall revenue, and services being the next biggest slice of the pie at 15%. The US continues to account for 41% of revenue by region, with Europe and Greater China coming in at 23% and 21%, respectively.
The transcript of the conference call following the earnings release is always interesting, not just because we get to hear from Apple leadership about how the company is doing, but because we get interesting questions asked by financial analysts. Apple’s wearables business consisting of Apple Watch, Beats, and AirPods is now a Fortune 300 company all by itself, with Apple CEO Tim Cook saying that Apple’s pipeline of products and services looks better than it ever has.
Curiously, while Apple was OK with telling about the great sales of the iPhone X (more on that in a moment), they were suspiciously quiet on the topic of HomePod sales. Apple’s smart home speaker was barely mentioned by Apple execs, and The Verge points out that revenue from Apple’s other hardware category, which includes the HomePod, fell by 29% compared to the same quarter last year, and 28% from the previous quarter.
Over at Macworld, Jason Snell talks us through a number of takeaways from Apple’s financial results. The iPhone X is doing great, Apple is still doing well in China (regardless of what financial analysts and the Apple rumour blogs would have you believe), services revenue continues on its upward trajectory, and wearables still seem to be doing well. Overall, a pretty standard story for Apple financials.
AppleInsider explains why the iPhone X is doing so well despite being priced as high as it is. Citing various reports from analysts and supply chain sources which claimed the iPhone X was a flop, Daniel Eran Dilger says it’s the iPhone’s advanced technology that allowed it to sell as well as it has been and still is. Given that no other device on the market comes close to comparing to the iPhone X, six months after the fact, the high price of the iPhone X isn’t all that high, after all.
Speaking of supply chain sources, it’s possible this year’s iPhones could come with new power adapters. Rumour has it 18W USB-C power adapters will be included in the box, along with the USB-C to Lightning cable to enable fast charging, with some quick back-of-the-envelope maths saying that such a charging setup could take your iPhone from 0% to 50% charge in as little as 30 minutes.
Apple has been meeting with execs at the California DMV to discuss autonomous driving. It’s unknown what the two companies might have planned, but a follow-up email was said to mention California’s process of driver safety and testing.
Along with other tech companies, Apple opposes proposals to create secure backdoors in encrypted services. It should go without saying that any such backdoor would be usable by anyone, and the Reform Government Surveillance coalition consisting of Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Dropbox, Evernote, and more say that strong encryption helps protect the security and privacy of individuals worldwide.
Peter Cohen writes that it’s OK that Apple is discontinuing AirPort. Apple pioneered wireless technology for years before it became truly mainstream, and the set-and-forget nature of the technology means that it’s no longer the iterative business that will sell Apple devices for years to come. That, along with advances in technology, mean that it’s time AirPorts were put to rest.
The first major update to Cardhop brings the version numbers to 1.1, which now includes support for smart groups and printing your contacts, if, for whatever reason, you have descended into a level of madness not currently known to man.