Over all, Apple posted a profit of $11.1 billion for its fiscal fourth quarter, up 31 percent from a year ago. Revenue was $51.5 billion, up 22 percent from last year. The results exceeded Wall Street estimates. Yet while the performance was bolstered by sales of the iPhone — Apple said that it sold 48 million iPhones in the quarter, up from 39 million in the same period last year — the company was more cautious about sales for the key holiday sales period.
[...]
Mr. Cook for the most part shrugged off the growth question. In the conference call, he said Apple’s full fiscal year revenue growth was equivalent to that of almost 90 percent of the companies in the Fortune 500. Apple delivered “a strong finish to a very strong year,” even with a strong dollar that has forced the company to raise prices in many of its markets around the world, he said.
Apple today announced an expansion of its mobile payments service Apple Pay in two new countries, Australia and Canada, for owners of American Express cards. CEO Tim Cook broke the news on Apple's fourth-quarter earnings call today, saying the company wanted to bring Apply Pay to more "key global markets."
Apple sold 9.88 million iPads in Q4 of this year compared to 12.32 million last year. It made Apple $4.28 billion in revenue, about 8.3 percent of the company by revenue. The last time the iPad grew year-over-year was Q1 of 2014, and it's not a coincidence that its decline accelerated at around the same time that Apple introduced larger iPhones.
“Frankly, if I were to shut off my web and shut off the TV and just lookat how many customers are coming in our stores regardless of whetherthey’re buying, how many people are coming online, and in additionlooking at our sales trends,” Cook said, “I wouldn’t know there was anyeconomic issue at all in China.”
During Apple's earnings call for the fourth quarter, ended Sept. 26, Cook said the growth in Apple's enterprise segment -- rising 40 percent year over year to $25 billion in revenue -- was due in part to the company's blockbuster enterprise deals with vendors like IBM and Cisco. But beyond that, he said, the company's indirect sales -- through channel partners -- also played a big role in appealing to the commercial market.
And indeed, Siri is the kind of interface where, when everything works, there’s a complete lack of friction. But when it does not work, the amount of friction involved rapidly increases: you have to repeat or rephrase the whole request (sometimes more than once), or take the device and correct the written transcription. Both actions are tedious — and defeat the purpose. It’s like having a flesh-and-bone assistant with hearing problems.
The world is about to start sounding even more feminine, as voice systems pop up in things that are not phones and prove to be a more effective interface than keyboards. Siri is an integral element to navigating the newly announced Apple TV. The Nest smoke detector interacts with users via a female voice. We prize gender diversity in plenty of other areas; why does most of our tech sound so female?
One of the greatest joys for expectant parents is the birth of their child — and one of the greatest tragedies is the loss of that child. Now, Yale physician scientist Dr. Harvey J. Kliman, has developed an iPhone app that helps women contribute to research that aims to decrease the chance of pregnancy loss due to an undersized placenta, the fetal organ that provides nourishment to the fetus.
Providing practical information on what to do next in a range of emergencies including flooding, power outages and even terror threats, the app is available on Android, iPad and iPhone.
Apple today shared yet another new ad for the iPhone 6s, this time focusing on the Siri personal assistant and the wireless "Hey Siri" feature built into the new device.
There’s been a subtle shift recently, though. In virtually every meeting I’ve taken with a manufacturer during the last six months, people have spoken openly about how they’re competing with, and improving upon, Apple’s stuff. Rather than offering gimmicky eye-tracking features or touting their removable batteries, they’re talking about cameras, about design, and about delighting users. They’re taking on Apple’s products on Apple’s terms.
Two things happened between last night and this morning.
One: Last night, just before bedtime, I updated my iPhone to the latest version of iOS. 9.1, if you must know.
Two: This morning, just before I step out of my apartment, I discover all of the offline music in my Apple Music app is gone.
I am not sure if they are related. But the end result is a day without music.
~
Thanks for reading.