Apple reported its earnings results for the third quarter of the 2024 fiscal year, and it satisfied investors' expectations at the top level with 5 percent growth year over year. The company set a third-quarter record with $85.8 billion in revenue.
Despite that growth, a couple of key things investors were concerned about—overall iPhone sales and revenue in China—slipped downward, and Apple's stock fell slightly in after-hours trading.
Apple Inc. predicted that its new artificial intelligence features will spur iPhone upgrades in coming months, helping the company reemerge from a sales slowdown that has hit its China business especially hard.
Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook, speaking on a conference call Thursday to discuss third-quarter results, said that upcoming Apple Intelligence features will provide a fresh reason for customers to buy new phones.
At the heart of all of our innovations are the values that guide everything we do. We believe fundamentally that the best technology is technology that works for everyone, and in honor of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, we introduced all-new capabilities to give users more ways to take advantage of all our products can do. These include eye tracking for users to control iPhone or iPad visually, music haptics to give those who are deaf or hard of hearing a tangible way to experience music, and vocal shortcuts that tie tasks to a user’s voice.
Apple today refreshed its App Store Guidelines created for developers, modifying the emulator rules to include express permission for PC emulators to download games.
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UTM SE was the first PC emulator app to be allowed on the App Store, but the guideline changes today will streamline the approval process for similar apps.
Apple Inc. is ramping up pressure on Tencent Holdings Ltd. and ByteDance Ltd. to make fundamental changes to China’s most popular apps, an unusual move that may inflame tensions in the world’s largest smartphone market.
The iPhone maker in recent months has demanded the two companies close loopholes that their in-app creators employ to funnel users to external payment systems, circumventing Apple’s typical 30% commission, according to people familiar with the matter.
Tech giant Apple issued an apology on Friday after its recent advertisement sparked widespread criticism for negatively portraying Thailand.
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“We would like to apologise that the advertisement has failed to present the Thai way of life in a complete and appropriate manner,” a statement from Apple said, adding that the advert had been pulled off the air.
The change means users can use the Wallet app to add an Apple Account Card, which displays the Apple credit balance associated with an Apple ID. If you receive an App Store or Apple Store gift card, for example, it is added to an Apple Account that was previously visible in the App Store and Apple Store apps.
Apple has asked a federal judge to dismiss the Justice Department’s antitrust case against it, claiming that the government is asking the court “to sanction a judicial redesign of one of the most innovative and consumer-friendly products ever made: iPhone.”
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Apple says in a new filing that the DOJ’s argument “is based on the false premise that iPhone’s success has come not through building a superior product that consumers trust and love, but through Apple’s intentional degradation of iPhone to block purported competitive threats.” It calls that idea “outlandish” and says that antitrust law protects its ability “to design and control its own product” rather than cater to third-party developers.
While Europe's AI rules aren't really becoming effective until February 2025, with some of the provisions applying as late as August 2026, the practical outcome for users right now is that the U.S. tech giants are extremely wary of offering AI features to European users.
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Tech giants such as Apple and Meta certainly won't simply give up on AI in Europe. When it announced its AI features will arrive late in Europe, Apple said it will try to find a way to "deliver these features to our EU customers without compromising their safety," and the AI stuff will certainly come in one form or another. But this is just the beginning; as AI becomes more deeply integrated with the devices we use and rely on, it might get increasingly difficult to make them work similarly in the U.S. and Europe, given the different rulesets.
How AI will the next iPhone be? Are there anything beyond whatever that has already been announced for iOS, or will there new AI stuff that is exclusive to iPhone 16 family? That, I think, will determine if Apple will sell a whole lot more iPhones, or if Apple will just sell a lot iPhones.
(The leak photos doesn't seem to indicate a major exterior design change. That used to help sell more iPhones.)
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Thanks for reading.