RealSimpleEDU Takes #1 Ranking on App Store with
Biology for iPad

post from prMac on 24 January 2012 10:35:00 PM. © prMac

RealSimpleEDU's Biology for iPad has recently risen to the number one spot for Biology apps, showing what is possible for a young company focused, above all else, on creating amazing mobile apps that are constantly evolving based on user feedback. With the rising success of their wide range of excellent mobile apps, it looks like RealSimpleEDU is well on their way to achieving their dream of becoming the number one company for on-the-go learning and reference.

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Ubuntu HUD to Replace Menu Bar

post from Daring Fireball on 24 January 2012 09:04:25 PM. © Daring Fireball

Sort of like Quicksilver or LaunchBar, but for menu items instead of apps.

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Cook on iCloud

post from Daring Fireball on 24 January 2012 09:04:25 PM. © Daring Fireball

Transcript of Cook’s remark’s on today’s call. I point you to his remarks on iCloud:

I think Peter shared earlier the number of customers thathad signed up for iCloud, and it?s already over 85 million, soit?s incredible that this has happened in just a few months?period of time. We?re thrilled with it, and the response fromcustomers has been incredible. It?s solved a lot of problems thatcustomers were having and made their lives much much easier…. Itwas a fundamental shift recognizing that people had numerousdevices and they wanted the bulk of their content in the cloud andeasily accessible from all of their devices, and you know, I thinkwe?re seeing the response from that. With 85 million customers injust three months, it is a very very important part — it?s notjust a product, it?s a strategy for the next decade.

I saw Matt Deatherage from MacJournals flag this remark during Macworld’s live coverage of the call. iCloud is as central to Apple’s next 10 years as the digital hub strategy was to the previous 10 years — and financial analysts are likely to ignore it, just like they did Apple’s digital hub strategy. I think Steve Jobs had his fingers in as many projects as he could manage in his final year, but it’s no coincidence that his last product announcement was iCloud. Put another way, I don’t expect any new Apple products that aren’t related in some way to iCloud.

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http://www.macworld.com/article/164979/2012/01/this_is_tim_apples_ceo_in_his_own_
words.html

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Claim Chowder: The Apple Bubble Is Ready to Burst

post from Daring Fireball on 24 January 2012 09:04:25 PM. © Daring Fireball

Leonid Kanopka, writing for Seeking Alpha in November, two months ago:

Apple is a great company with wonderful products, but its run is up. It seems to me that innovation is beginning to run dry, and the stock price is overinflated. The stock has begun to fall already dropping from its $426 high. If the economy does not pick up and the company does not cushion its freefall, we could see new lows into 2012 — maybe $85. Whatever the case, I see a rocky future and a new bubble about to burst. My recommendation: Sell.

Nailed it.

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Why Apple TV is finally starting to matter

post from Apple on 24 January 2012 08:04:33 PM. © Apple

Hidden somewhere in Apple’s earnings call is this little snippet: According to CEO Tim Cook, the company sold 1.4 million Apple TVs during the holiday quarter. That’s notable because it’s about half of the devices that Apple had sold in the entire year prior, and one-third of the 4.2 million sold in total. In other words, sales of the second-generation Apple TVs are accelerating nicely after a (somewhat) slow start.

That’s worth noting for a few reasons:

Apple is clearly outselling the competition. Apple TV might be a hobby, but it’s already the top-selling device in its class. The next-best-selling Roku streaming boxes have sold 2.5 million units over the past three years, compared to Apple’s 4.2 million units in about half the time.
There’s pent-up demand for the mythical “iTV.” Apple is expected to introduce a connected TV soon — possibly later this year — and Apple TV’s sales show that users are already interested in the company’s user interface and services that would likely be available on it.
Users want Internet connectivity and access to streaming content on their TVs but might not be willing to buy a new set to get it. Last week, I wrote about how the latest batch of connected TVs from manufacturers like Sony, Samsung, Vizio and others probably won’t convince consumers to upgrade in the near term, but software improvements are likely to come soon. In the meantime, Apple TV is a good stopgap for those not quite ready to jump on the connected TV bandwagon.

All that said, let’s put things into perspective: The Microsoft Xbox 360 sold nearly a million units in one week alone during the holiday quarter. The Apple TV is far from a mass-market device, but its sales numbers show that even in a relatively small market, Apple dominates the competition.

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Where to watch the 2012 State of the Union
Address online

post from Apple on 24 January 2012 08:04:33 PM. © Apple

When President Obama makes his State of the Union address Tuesday evening at 9:00 PM ET/6:00 PT, his speech will be carried on all the major broadcast and cable news networks. And for all those away from the TV, the State of the Union will be available online and on multiple mobile and connected platforms as well.

ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC will all broadcast President Obama’s speech live, as will CNBC, CNN, Fox News and MSNBC. Many of those channels will also have live streams of their networks available; for instance, ABC News, CNN and CSPAN will all have make their feeds available online.

For the official online feed of the address, tune into the White House’s live stream at www.whitehouse.gov/sotu. In addition to the stream of President Obama’s speech, the White House feed will include an enhanced version of the broadcast that will include charts, stats and other data that will provide additional backing for how he makes and defends his policy decisions.

There will also be live streams for those on mobile and other devices. The Official White House iPhone app and Android app will broadcast the video live to mobile users. Viewers watching at home who might not have cable can also tune into the State of the Union live through WSJ Live’s connected devices apps, which can be accessed on the Apple iPad and Apple TV, Boxee Box, Roku, Vizio, Panasonic Connected TV, Samsung Smart TV, Sony Internet TV and Yahoo! Connected TV platforms.

Finally, for those looking for the Republican response to President Obama’s address, Speaker John Boehner will stream the rebuttal on his YouTube channel.

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Two years, 55M iPads later, Apple still rules
tablets

post from Apple on 24 January 2012 08:04:33 PM. © Apple

Just under two years since Apple introduced the original iPad, the company said Tuesday that it’s now sold a total of 55 million units. And in the last three months of 2010 alone, Apple sold 15.4 million. Not only is that a sales record for Apple, that’s far more than any other competitor. And for comparison’s sake, it’s three times as many as Macs the company sold during the same quarter, even though Mac sales also broke records.

Notably, this dominance of the field has continued even as Amazon and Barnes & Noble, as well as a handful of other companies, have poured into this market to sell tablets. Still, none have been able to dislodge Apple’s tight grip on consumers’ demonstrated preference here. And CEO Tim Cook basically dismissed Amazon and its Kindle Fire (and others) as true competitors. Here’s what Cook said on Tuesday during the earnings call for one of the company’s best quarters ever:

I think people really want to do multiple things with their tablets, so we don’t see limited-function tablets and e-readers as being in the same category. They?ll sell a fair number of units but people who want an iPad won?t settle for limited function.
Last year was supposed to be the year of the tablet … but most people would agree it was the year of the iPad, for the second year in a row. And we?re going to continue to innovate like crazy.

Data from Pew Research found that during December that both e-readers and tablet ownership nearly doubled, so clearly some people want e-readers. And sales estimates indicate Amazon, whose Kindle Fire is significantly cheaper than the iPad, may have sold around 5 million Kindle Fires between October and December 2011.

Not only is Apple’s tablet outselling all other competitors in its market, it’s taking down devices outside tablets too. On the call, Cook also noted that per NPD data, the iPad outsold desktop PCs last quarter. He also repeated, as he has for the past few quarters, that he does see the iPad taking away sales that would otherwise go to Macs as well. And he’s OK with that:

There is cannibalization of the Mac by the iPad but we continue to believe there is much more cannibalization of Windows PCs by the iPad. We love that trend, we think it?s great for us.

With growth among consumers, education (Apple sold 1.5 million iPads to schools last year, which was more than the number of Macs sold to schools), airlines, healthcare companies and a growing list of large enterprise companies in almost every field, Apple has very clearly covered its bases early, making it hard for competitors to beat it in any particular target market.

So can anyone loosen Apple’s grip on tablets? The company’s momentum here doesn’t look like it’s about to diminish any time soon. And let’s not forget it’s very likely that a new iPad model is just around the corner.

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Apple “actively discussing” what to
do with $98B cash pile

post from Apple on 24 January 2012 08:04:33 PM. © Apple

Steve Jobs wouldn’t hear of a dividend or share buyback as a way to make use of Apple’s famously large cash pile. And the company doesn’t do the big M&A deals often seen at other large cash-rich tech firms. But under the Tim Cook regime, it appears things might change.

I emphasize “might” because Cook hasn’t made plans public of what he’ll do with the $97.6 billion in cash Apple has on hand, but CFO Peter Oppenheimer hinted on Tuesday that the company is at least talking about a potential strategy.

Unprompted and during his scripted remarks during the company’s quarterly earnings call, Oppenheimer said Tuesday that the company is “actively discussing uses of our cash balance” but added that they had nothing to announce at the moment.

Then later in the call, when asked by an investor, Oppenheimer expanded slightly:

“We have always discussed internally our cash. We recognize our cash is growing for all the right reasons, and I would characterize our discussions today as ‘active’ with what makes the most sense with the cash balance. When we have something to announce we will announce. Again, we are actively discussing the best usage of our cash balance.”

Apple under Jobs was incredibly conservative — he clearly never forgot how close the company was to bankruptcy when he returned in 1997. Apple typically uses its cash to make big investments in components or for a few smaller acquisitions each year. You’d think your investors would be happy the company is swimming in cash and being disciplined about its use — but when the pile grows too big and it’s just sitting there in a bank account, it’s obvious that many investors would like to see that money put to work. There have been calls for share buybacks or investors dividends for years, but they never made much headway with Jobs at the helm.

There was a hint that things would be different under Cook during his first earnings call as CEO last quarter. At that time, when pressed on the cash issue, Cook told investors, “I?m not religious about holding cash or not holding it ? I?m religious about a lot of things but not that one.”

That, combined with Oppenheimer’s emphasis on “active” discussions is a good indication the company is at least more receptive to creative uses of cash in the future.

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I Clearly Believe That There Will Come a Day That
the Tablet Market in Units Is Larger Than the PC Market.

Tim Cook, as quoted in Macworld’s live transcript of Apple’s quarterly earnings call:

Last year was supposed to be the year of the tablet, and I thinkmost people would agree it was the year of the iPad for thesecond year in a row. We’re going to continue to innovate likecrazy in this area, and continue to compete with anyone that iscurrently shipping tablets, or that might enter in the future.

The iPhone is by far Apple’s biggest source of revenue and profit today. But if you’re thinking about future growth, keep in mind that the iPad is far ahead of where the iPhone was two years after its debut.

Also worth noting: Tim Cook says Apple sold 2.8 million Apple TVs in fiscal year 2011, and broke a record with 1.4 million in the just-ended quarter. They’re still calling it a hobby, and it’s only a $100 product, but in terms of units, it used to be that 1.4 million was a great number for Mac sales in a quarter.

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http://www.macworld.com/article/164953/2012/01/live_event_apple_first_quarter_ear
nings_2012_.html

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The Second-Most-Profitable Quarter in Any
Companys History

Another interesting bit of perspective on Apple’s numbers, from CNN:

It was one of the most profitable quarters ever for any U.S.company, trailing only ExxonMobil’s record-setting $14.8 billionquarter from the fall of 2008, when oil prices were at anall-time high.

It wasn’t just a historic quarter for Apple, or for a tech company. It was a historic quarter, period.

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http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/24/technology/apple_earnings/index.htm?on.cnn=1

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