by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Business, Large Enterprise, Markets, Technology
Singapore : Apple shipped 29 million iPhone X units in the fourth quarter of 2017, Singapore-based market research firm Canalys has said, adding that this has made iPhone X the world’s best-shipping smartphone model over the holiday season.
“Another notable highlight for the iPhone X is that of the 29 million shipped, seven million were in China,” Canalys said late on Tuesday.
“The iPhone X performance is impressive for a device priced at $999, but it is slightly below industry expectations,” said Ben Stanton, analyst at Canalys.
“Apple struggled with supply issues in early November (2017), but achieved a massive uplift in production in late November and throughout December. This helped it meet and even exceed demand in some markets by the end of the quarter,” he added.
One major benefit to Apple is that customers are increasingly realising the residual value of their old smartphones, opting for trade-in programmes to offset the high price of the iPhone X.
“But that big price tag, and Apple’s split launch strategy, still had an impact, and shipments were not the fastest ever for an iPhone,” Stanton added.
Earlier this week, Ming-Chi Kuo, the most famous analyst with KGI Securities when it comes to Apple, said the Cupertino-based giant may discontinue the first-generation iPhone X sometime in mid-2018 as the second-generation model is set for launch later this year.
Kuo has estimated that Apple would ship about 18 million iPhone X units in the January-March quarter in 2018.
According to Canalys, Apple’s iPhone SE, 6s, 7 and 8 models also shipped well in Q4.
The older handsets are still popular with iPhone users looking for value for money.
“Apple is looking at its best performance to date, all thanks to the massive changes it made to its portfolio in Q3,” said Canalys analyst TuanAnh Nguyen.
While new technologies, such as Face ID and bezel-less displays, help to justify the $999 price tag and maintain competitiveness with Samsung, Huawei and Google, “having a larger portfolio allows Apple to meet its overall shipment targets, and protect its market leadership in the premium segment”, Nguyen added.
According to Kuo, “we revise down 1Q18 and 2Q18 shipments of iPhone X to 18 million units and 13 million units, respectively, lower than market consensus of 20-30 million and 15-20 million units”.
“We expect iPhone X will go to end of life (EOL) around mid-2018 and that total life cycle shipments will be around 62 million units, lower than our previous forecast of 80 million units,” the analyst claimed.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
London : Apple on Monday announced to support The Malala Fund — led by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai — which is focused on advocating every girl’s right to 12 years of free, safe and quality education.
Apple will become the fund’s first Laureate partner, enabling a significant expansion of Malala’s effort to support girls’ education and advocate for equal opportunity.
“We believe that education is a great equalising force, and we share Malala Fund’s commitment to give every girl an opportunity to go to school,” CEO Tim Cook said in a statement.
Cook will also join the Malala Fund leadership council.
“Yousafzai is a courageous advocate for equality. She’s one of the most inspiring figures of our time, and we are honoured to help her extend the important work she is doing to empower girls around the world,” Cook added.
With Apple’s support, Malala Fund expects to double the number of grants awarded by its “Gulmakai Network” and extend funding programmes to India and Latin America — with the initial goal of extending secondary education opportunities to more than 100,000 girls.
The fund’s “Gulmakai Network” currently supports programmes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Turkey and Nigeria.
Apple will help Malala Fund scale its organisation by assisting with technology, curriculum and research into policy changes needed to help girls everywhere attend school and complete their education.
“My dream is for every girl to choose her own future,” said Yousafzai.
“I am grateful that Apple knows the value of investing in girls and is joining Malala Fund in the fight to ensure all girls can learn and lead without fear,” she noted.
Since 2013, Malala Fund has been working in partnership with other organisations, the private sector and governments around the world to realize every girl’s right to 12 years of free, safe, quality education.
“With an estimated 130 million girls out of school, the importance of their work is increasingly essential,” Apple said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Business, Investing, Large Enterprise, Markets, Sales, Technology, World
San Francisco : Apple has announced to contribute $350 billion to the US economy over the next five years that includes an estimated $55 billion investment this year.
The investments will concentrate in three areas where Apple has had the greatest impact on job creation: direct employment by Apple, spending and investment with Apple’s domestic suppliers and manufacturers, and fuelling the fast-growing app economy which Apple created with iPhone and the App Store, the Cupertino-based iPhone maker said in a statement on Thursday.
“Apple is a success story that could only have happened in America, and we are proud to build on our long history of support for the US economy,” said CEO Tim Cook.
“We believe deeply in the power of American ingenuity, and we are focusing our investments in areas where we can have a direct impact on job creation and job preparedness,” he added.
The contribution will not include Apple’s ongoing tax payments, the tax revenues generated from employees’ wages and the sale of Apple products.
Apple is already responsible for creating and supporting over 2 million jobs across the US and expects to generate even more jobs as a result of the initiatives being announced on Thursday.
Planned capital expenditures in the US, investments in American manufacturing over five years and a record tax payment upon repatriation of overseas profits will account for approximately $75 billion of Apple’s direct contribution.
Apple, already the largest US taxpayer, anticipates repatriation tax payments of approximately $38 billion as required by recent changes to the tax law.
As part of the total investment, Apple will spend an estimated $55 billion with US suppliers and manufacturers in 2018.
Apple expects to invest over $30 billion in capital expenditures in the US over the next five years and create over 20,000 new jobs through hiring at existing campuses and opening a new one. Apple already employs 84,000 people in all 50 states.
“The company plans to establish an Apple campus in a new location, which will initially house technical support for customers. The location of this new facility will be announced later in the year,” Apple said.
Over $10 billion of Apple’s expanded capital expenditures will be investments in data centres across the US.
The iOS app economy has created more than 1.6 million jobs in the US and generated $5 billion in revenue for American app developers in 2017.
“With demand for coding skills stronger than ever, today there are more than 500,000 unfilled programming-related positions across the country, and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that by 2020 there will be 1.4 million more software development jobs than applicants qualified to fill them,” Apple said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Faisal Kawoosa,
Given the current market conditions in India for smartphones, it appears that Steve Jobs, the late Apple co-founder, was prophetic: He did not consider this country a significant opportunity.
Let’s take a look at the Apple story since its entry into India in 2008. A lot has changed in the market — changes that have been favourable for consumers and the industry but, perhaps, not so much for Apple.
In the decade since its arrival, almost all the segments — barring the $100 to $200 segment — have seen a decline in the competitive and price-sensitive Indian market. But what should concern the Cupertino-based iPhone-maker is the steep fall in the $400-and-above market.
In 2008 and 2009, this segment used to account for 30 per cent of the total smartphone shipments. From 2010 onwards, around the time domestic brands made their entry in the ring, helping to expand the sub-$100 category, the premium segment fell to half at 15 per cent.
Barring a spike in 2011, the $400-and-above market has been on the decline in terms of shipment contribution. In the period, whatever growth took place in the smartphone market, happened at the lower end of the price strata.
Since 2013, the $400-plus market has been in single digits, and this is obviously not a good sign for a premium brand like Apple in India — even if the iPhone SE is taken into account, which is more of a mid-premium smartphone and is now being assembled in Bengaluru.
The big question now is: Has Apple’s poor performance in India been on account of some loose ends in its strategy? Or is it merely because of the segment/s in which the Cupertino-based iPhone-maker operates?
Let us examine the market share of Apple in the segments it operates in.
Over its decade-long presence in the country, Apple has been operating in three price segments. Among these, $400-plus has been the staple where the tech giant has performed superbly.
From just over five per cent share of the segment in 2008, when Apple said ‘Namaste’ to India, it currently enjoys over 47 per cent share in the $400-and-above smartphone segment by units.
In terms of revenues, Apple has also seen consistent growth despite pressures like shrinking opportunities in the premium segment as well as falling average selling prices — not the forget the “forced” downward movement to cater to the mid-premium segment.
In 2017, till September end, there has been a 21 per cent revenue decline compared to the calendar year 2016.
But then, Apple has witnessed good annual growth rates since 2010 — its average annual revenue growth rate has been 116 per cent in its first decade of presence in India.
Both from the revenue as well as volume aspects, Apple has seen a consoling India story so far.
The real issue is the growth in the premium segment with several players, incluing from China, now offering devices. This segment is going to see some difficult times ahead owing to the fact that, after Jio surfaced on the landscape, the opportunity now shifts towards the entry-level players to let a user have his or her first smartphone experience.
In the era of “Desh Ka Smartphone” and “Mera Pehla Smartphone”, it would be challenging for any premium smartphone brand, including Apple, to grow like in the past.
The overall declining growth in all price segments of smartphone over the last decade or so, Apple’s consistent growth in revenues as well as its increasing growth in market share in the segment(s) it is present, has an interesting story to tell.
For Apple, revenues as well as its market standing is on the rise so far, as it faces the peculiar nature of the domestic market.
Was Jobs able to foresee this peculiarity of the Indian smartphone market or was his interpretation something different?
Whatever his interpretation, the impact for Apple is more or less the same.
(Faisal Kawoosa is the General Manager-Research & Consulting with CyberMedia Research. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at releases@cmrindia.com)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Sales, Technology
San Francisco : Apple users spent a record $300 million on purchasing or downloading apps and games from App Store on January 1 — the biggest ever since App Store’s launch in July 2008.
During the week starting on Christmas Eve, customers spent over $890 million in purchases or downloaded apps in that seven-day period, the Cupertino-based iPhone maker said on Friday.
“We are thrilled with the reaction to the new App Store and to see so many customers discovering and enjoying new apps and games,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing.
“In 2017 alone, iOS developers earned $26.5 billion a” more than a 30 per cent increase over 2016,” Schiller added.
Since the App Store’s launch, iOS developers have earned over $86 billion.
Pokemon GO went back to the top of the App Store charts on December 21 with the introduction of new Augmented Reality (AR) features, built on Apple’s ARKit framework for more detailed and realistic gameplay.
“Customers are now enjoying close to 2,000 ARKit-enabled apps spanning every category on the App Store,” Apple said.
Among the most popular AR titles are games such as “CSR Racing 2”, “Stack AR” and “Kings of Pool”; shopping apps like Amazon and Wayfair; education apps including “Night Sky” and “Thomas & Friends Minis”; and social media apps including Pitu and Snapchat.
—IANS
