Specifically, Cook pointed out several times, the company’s weakness in China is at the root of a lot of its lagging numbers, pointing out that Apple “grew year over year in developed markets,” with “record [quarterly] results in a number of major markets including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Japan.”
China, meanwhile, has lagged. But Cook and Maestri both said that stronger sales as the quarter went along, driven by fiscal stimulus moves by China’s government and improved trade discussions between the U.S. and China, gave them hope that things were going to keep getting better. China is such an important market for Apple that failure there can swamp good news in other markets, and that seems to be the case right now. But it sounds like Apple’s status in China may be headed back in a positive direction.
There was a time when Apple didn’t need to exert much effort to sell iPhones. Those times may be over, but it’s still got a lot of tricks up its sleeve. I’m not surprised to hear that, as Cook and Maestri both pointed out, iPhone sales are already turning around. The execs said that November and December were the worst months of the current iPhone dip, that March was the best of the bunch, and that the last couple of weeks of March were the best weeks of the entire quarter.
That’s why Apple projected a much smaller dip in revenue between its second and third financial quarters than usually happens. The company’s executives seem quite confident that their iPhone sales techniques are working and that the product’s downturn has been smoothed out or stopped.
Apple's services category, which includes iTunes, the App Store, the Mac App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, and AppleCare, has become an increasingly important revenue driver for Apple amid stagnating iPhone sales, and Apple has been focusing more than ever on its services category.
“There’s a huge move from the cable bundle to over-the-top,” Cook told investors during a call on Tuesday, referring to streaming television services delivered over the internet rather than a traditional cable service.
“We think that most users are going to get multiple over-the-top products, and we’re going to do our best to convince them that the Apple TV+ product should be one of them.”
But we feel positive about our trajectory. Our year over year revenue performance in Greater China improved relative to the December quarter, and we’ve seen very positive customer response to the pricing actions we’ve taken in that market, our trade in and financing programs in our retail stores, the effects of government measures to stimulate the economy, and improved trade dialogue between the United States and China. Our App Store results are still reflecting the impact the slowdown and regulatory approval in gaming apps in China. But we’re encouraged by the recent increase in the pace of approvals. We believe strongly in our long-term opportunity in China thanks to our robust ecosystem, our talented developer community, and the country’s growing population of tech-savvy consumers who value the very best products and services.
For iPhone, while our worldwide revenue was down 17 percent from a year ago, declines were significantly smaller in the final weeks of the March quarter. Looking back at the past five months, November and December were the most challenging. So this is an encouraging trend. We like the direction we’re headed with iPhone, and our goal now is to pick up the pace. Importantly, our active installed base of devices continues to grow in each of our geographic segments, and set a new all-time record for all major product categories. That growing installed base is a reflection of the satisfaction and loyalty of our customers and it’s driving our services business to new heights. In fact, we had our best quarter ever for the App Store, Apple Music, cloud services, and our App Store search ad business, and we set new March quarter revenue records for Apple Care and Apple Pay.
Apple Carnegie Library will join a small but growing number of global flagship stores worldwide — Apple’s most significant retail and event spaces. The building’s restoration has been planned for several years and was the result of a close collaboration between Apple, architects Foster + Partners, restoration firm Beyer Blinder Belle, and the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. Prior to revitalization, the spectacular Beaux-Arts structure was highly underutilized and in a state of decay.
Hyper's offering a six-in-one USB-C dock that houses a 3.5mm headphone jack, a full-size HDMI port, USB-A, USB-C, SD, and microSD ports. That's the most we've seen on a dedicated iPad Pro USB-C hub thus far.
Right now, if you’ve got a friend who employs reactions you’re thinking, Oh God, those stupid things. For the blissfully uninitiated, there are six text reactions: thumbs up, thumbs down, double exclamation point, question mark, a heart, and “HA HA.” When you send someone a text on their iPhone, the recipient may choose to reply normally—you know, by texting back. Or the recipient may emit a reaction, a small blunt tool of confusion. Reactions are confusing and annoying. They’re quietly ruining group chats and therefore our society. Kill them!
The good news for the sleep-deprived is that we’re living through a golden age of sleep aids. A decade ago, “sleep aid” was synonymous with sleeping pills, but these days, medication only makes up 65% of the market. The last three years have seen an explosion of other types of products designed to help people to fall asleep more easily and stay asleep longer. Initially, many of these sleep tools were tech gadgets, including sleep trackers, apps, lights, and noisemakers, many of which I tested for a story in 2017. But more recently, the trend has shifted toward low-tech products like weighted blankets, temperature-regulating duvets, and pillows with built-in hoods to block out light and keep the sleeper’s head warm. “I think we’re increasingly coming to understand that technology is partly what is causing us stress and insomnia,” says Kathrin Hamm, Bearaby’s founder. “Consumers seem to be gravitating toward products that take them away from all of this blue light.”
My good mood for today is spoilt by either Microsoft, who made the Windows operating system, and Dell, who made the laptop that my daughter is using for her schoolwork, or both companies.
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Thanks for reading.