Apple earnings show growing immunity to smartphone's sales slowdown

Apple Inc.’s results confirmed that, while the days of double-digit smartphone industry growth are over, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has a plan to withstand the slowdown.

The shares gained in late trading Tuesday after the company reported iPhone sales in line with analysts’ expectations, gave a bullish revenue forecast and highlighted a surging services business. A new $100 billion stock repurchase plan and higher dividend also helped.

The numbers show that Cook’s strategy of selling a growing array of services through a base of more than 1.3 billion Apple devices is working. The smartphone sector saw shipments fall 2 per cent in the past year, according to Strategy Analytics, so the company must evolve beyond its reliance on a device that still accounts for more than 60 per cent of revenue.

“Slowly but surely, [Apple] is morphing into more than just an iPhone story and is displaying ability to sustain revenue growth irrespective of iPhone trajectory,” Amit Daryanani, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, wrote in a research note.

The company reported iPhone unit sales grew just 2.9 per cent in the fiscal second quarter. While the flagship iPhone X may not have matched the hype from its launch late last year, the device’s $999 starting price helped boost phone revenue growth 14 per cent.

Apple offered FBI help to unlock Texas shooter's iPhone: Report

Refuting the claims of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the aftermath of Texas church shooting, Apple reportedly said it offered to help the investigating agency in opening the attacker's encrypted iPhone.

The Cupertino-based giant said it reached out to the bureau "immediately" to offer assistance in getting into the gunman's iPhone and expedite its response to any legal process, The Verge reported late on Thursday.

The FBI had said that it has been unable to access the encrypted iPhone used by Devin P Kelley, who killed 26 people at a rural Texas church.

"Law enforcement is increasingly not able to get into these phones," Christopher Combs, a special agent at the investigating agency was quoted as saying.

The iPhone Kelley was carrying is said to have crucial information about his activities that led to the shooting.

The FBI and Apple have had strained relations after the December 2015 San Bernardino, California, terror attack when the company had refused the agency's request to help it unlock on the phones of the attacker despite a court order.

In a statement, CEO Tim Cook had said the court order sought and obtained by the FBI would pose a serious threat to data security.
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The real story behind the huge crowds gathered at iPhone launches

Apple’s special edition iPhone X release – like the new iPhones before it – brings thousands of people lining up in front of Apple stores around the globe. It raises the seemingly obvious question: what sane person would queue overnight for an over-priced, at best incrementally-changed gadget?

But what sounds like a question for psychologists, may actually be better addressed as a matter of the way media and markets work.

You’d be forgiven for expecting this article to be a rant about the blatant consumerism of the people that stand in line – many overnight – to get the latest iPhone. Or against the world’s obsession with smartphones more generally. After ten years of extensive media coverage of each launch, we’ve all grown used to the clichéd pictures of “die-hard fans” queuing outside Apple stores.

Many regularly express their profound dislike of the practice. One commentator called the iPhone 6 queues a “giant cocktail of wrongness and irrationality”. Samsung even ran a series of commercials to mock the infamous queues.

At the same time, marketing experts celebrate Apple for its seemingly magical ability to electrify the masses and mobilise thousands of people to line up for days. It has become a custom among admirers and critics alike to compare the relationship between Apple and its loyal customers with religions and mystical cults. What we are told is a story of powerful symbols and an idolised brand on one side, meeting irrational lemmings on the other.

Yet, there is also evidence suggesting that iPhone queues may be the result of something much more banal than the “mythical power of symbols, icons and stories”. And what if iPhone queuers weren’t irrational hedonists, but were acting more like calculating entrepreneurs?
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Apple may price iPhone X at a hefty $1,000

Apple is expected to sell its fanciest iPhone yet for $1,000, crossing into a new financial frontier that will test how much consumers are willing to pay for a device that's become an indispensable part of modern life.

The unveiling of a dramatically redesigned iPhone will likely be the marquee moment tomorrow when Apple hosts its first product event at its new spaceship-like headquarters in Cupertino, California.

True to its secretive ways, Apple won't confirm that it will be introducing a new iPhone, though a financial forecast issued last month telegraphed something significant is in the pipeline.

In addition to several new features, a souped-up "anniversary" iPhone -- coming a decade after Apple's late co-founder Steve Jobs unveiled the first version -- could also debut at an attention-getting $999 price tag, twice what the original iPhone cost. It would set a new price threshold for any smartphone intended to appeal to a mass market.

Various leaks have indicated the new phone will feature a sharper display, a so-called OLED screen that will extend from edge to edge of the device, thus eliminating the exterior gap, or "bezel," that currently surrounds most phone screens.
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Apple's iPhone 8 launch: 7 stocks to watch out for today

When Apple Inc unveils new iPhones on Tuesday at its Apple Park “spaceship” campus, there may be important clues for the watchers of seven semiconductor stocks.

Apple exerts a sun-like gravitational pull on the global electronics supply chain, affecting the pricing of commodities like flash memory chips - it consumes 18 percent of global supply. The iPhone maker can make or break small, specialty chip suppliers.

The final tally of semiconductor winners and losers will not be known until the devices ship and analysts rip them apart to examine the circuit boards. That will give insight into matters like the continued battle between Intel Corp and Qualcomm Inc to supply so-called modem chips for mobile data.

Even the limited technical information Apple gives on stage tomorrow could shed light on how several other companies are faring. Here are seven stocks to watch during today’s launch.

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Apple chief Tim Cook touts India impact in push for deeper market access

Apple CEO Tim Cook on Sunday highlighted the economic impact the company is having on India in a meeting with its prime minister as the iPhone maker seeks deeper access to the world's third-largest smartphone market behind the United States (US) and China.

Cook met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a business summit in Washington at a time when Apple Inc is targeting the nascent Indian market as a revenue source after its sales in China slipped.

Apple has asked Indian government officials for a range of tax and policy changes to help build out its iPhone assembly work in the country. It is seeking permission to open its own retail stores in India where it currently sells iPhones through resellers.

In his meeting with Modi, Cook disclosed that Apple expected its Indian operations to be run completely from renewable energy within the next six months, according to a person familiar with the discussion.

Cook reiterated that Apple had generated 740,000 jobs in India through its so-called "app economy" and Indian developers had created nearly 100,000 apps for the App Store, the person said.

Modi talked with Cook and the other US corporate leaders ahead of a meeting with President Donald Trump on Monday.

Apple, working with contract manufacturer Winstron, began assembling the iPhone SE in Bengaluru last month. Indian authorities have offered Apple tax concessions for the work with the requirement that more local components be used over time.

The company is looking to India after sales in the greater China region, once a major factor in Apple's rise, fell 14% year over year to $10.7 billion in the most recent quarter.
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Apple pins hope on India even as global iPhone sales dip

Within weeks of the Narendra Modi government rejecting Apple Inc’s demand for Customs duty concessions for its suppliers who could look at manufacturing in the country, Cupertino-based tech major has pinned its hope on India even as global sale of iPhones dipped.

At the analyst call after the second quarter earnings early Wednesday (India time), Chief Executive Tim Cook said, “We’re very optimistic about our future in this remarkable country with its very large, young, and tech-savvy population, fast-growing economy, and improving 4G network infrastructure.” Cook said in his opening address that revenue in India grew by strong double digits during the quarter ended April 1, setting a record.

Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri quantified the “strong double-digit” growth for India — over 20 per cent. The company achieved double-digit growth in the US, Canada, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, Turkey, Russia and Mexico, Maestri said. “Our growth rates were even higher, over 20 per cent in many other markets, including Brazil, Scandinavia, the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe, India, Korea and Thailand.”

Globally, Apple sold 50.76 million iPhones in its second quarter financial year, down from 51.19 million a year earlier during the corresponding period. In India, around 2.5 million iPhones are estimated to have been sold between October 2015 and September 2016.

While the talk on India revolved around high growth (mainly of iPhones) and 4G network access, top executives remained tight-lipped on the regulatory hurdles Apple faces in the country as well as on the company plans in this geography.
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Apple opens its accelerator for app developers in Bengaluru

Nearly a year after Apple CEO Tim Cook visited India to woo Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bollywood stars and start-ups, the iPhone maker has opened its doors to app developers with the first-of-its-kind accelerator in Bengaluru.

The Centre will support Indian app developers to design, test and optimise their apps to better run on Apple's iPhone and iPad. The move is aimed at replicating the iPhone's success a decade ago in developed markets, where users flocked to it due to the availability of higher quality apps.

"We are impressed by the great entrepreneurial spirit in India, and are excited to provide a platform for these developers to share their innovations with customers around the world," said Philip Schiller, SVP of Worldwide Marketing, in a statement. "In just the first few weeks, we've already seen some incredible developers here at the App Accelerator Bengaluru."

Apple will be able to provide guidance to over 500 developers every week where they will be able to get analysis and feedback for their apps from a set of experts. The company will also look at supporting Indian developers in using its own Swift development language to build apps and services for its iPhone.

The opening of the app accelerator comes weeks ahead of Apple's first iPhone manufacturing plant in Bengaluru going online. The facility is expected to produce the low-cost iPhone SE and will allow the company to circumnavigate high excise duties of importing a fully assembled device into India.

As Apple is working hard to increase sales of its iPhones in India, the company is trying to woo developers who've traditionally built services for Google's Android operating system first. Even today, devices running Android outnumber iPhones by over nine to one, as majority of buyers look for affordable smartphones. (READ MORE)

Apple Inc chief Tim Cook calls for more global trade with China

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook expressed support for globalisation and said China should continue to open its economy to foreign firms, while speaking at a forum in Beijing on Saturday.

"I think it's important that China continues to open itself and widens the door if you will," said Cook, speaking at the government-sponsored China Development Forum.

Cook's comments come amid rising tensions between the US and China, with protectionist rhetoric from U.S. President Donald Trump sparking concern of increased trade friction between the two countries.

"The reality is countries that are closed, that isolate themselves, it's not good for their people," said Cook, in a rare public speech.

Apple said on Friday it will set up two new research and development centres in Shanghai and Suzhou in China.

It has pledged to invest more than 3.5 billion yuan ($508 million) in research and development in China.

Apple has been singled out in Chinese media as a potential target for retaliation in the event of a trade war.

The Global Times warned last November if Trump triggered a trade war with China, Beijing would then target firms from Boeing to Apple in a "tit-for-tat" approach. (READ MORE)