Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2017/08/wednesday-morning-news020817/
Apple’s financial results for Q3 2017 are in, and the story remains the same. Apple reported US $8.7 billion in profit on US $45.4 billion in revenue, with 41 million iPhones and 11.4 million iPads sold. 4.3 million Macs were also sold during the period, and Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the company was happy to report its third consecutive quarter of growth, with services revenue setting an all-time quarterly revenue record.
MacStories has graphs comparing this quarter to Apple’s previous financial results. It’s interesting to note just over half of Apple’s total quarterly revenue comes from the iPhone, just under half from the Americas, and revenue from Japan is on par with the rest of the Asia Pacific region.
TechCrunch reports Apple has provided guidance that signals a huge fourth quarter, with revenue expected to be between US $49 and $52 billion.
Pricing speculation from Horace Deidu asks how much the new iPhone will cost, and his answer is pretty simple: whenever you ask, it will cost the same as the current iPhone. The graph of iPhone prices shows a clear trend dating back to around the 4/4S/5 era — Apple has been steadily increasing the cost of the iPhone as they’ve introduced newer models, but the average has, more or less, remained the same.
In what I really hope to be the final leaks from the HomePod firmware, it seems as the the bezel-less iPhone will feature a split status bar, tap to wake, and probably no embedded Touch ID. If you’ve been keeping up with the story so far, Apple’s put a lot of work into their facial recognition, which is capable of recognising a variety of expressions. Whether it’ll be as good as Touch ID still remains to be seen, however.
I’m kind of OK with the HomePod firmware being used to discover a new skiing workout for the Apple Watch, though.
Another day, another set of apps removed from the App Store. This time around, Apple removed apps relating to “binary options trading” from unlicensed providers, which led to a high number of scams. They did so at the request of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, who have also worked with Google to do the same from their Play Store, amidst fears of Australians getting scammed out of their savings.
Amongst the 26 providers added to the list of banks and financial institutions that support Apple Pay, just one is applicable to Australia. Members of Australia’s Police Credit Union can now pay from their iPhone or Apple Watch, or on the web at the few stores that support it.
9to5Mac reports on how Apple wants tax breaks to apply to suppliers in India, with the end goal being to create a mini-Shenzhen as it builds out its operations in the country.
The Verge speculates whether Apple will release an AR headset for the next iPhone, but arguably Apple doesn’t need to. While a headset would provide a more immersive experience, it would seem like a bit of an iPhone accessory that added limited additional functionality.