Posts tagged: apple
It took iOS just 15 days to get the same percentage of users on the latest OS version as are currently on any single version of Android.
Needs no further elaboration.
But with Apple things are different. They don’t just use an ugly cardboard box with their logo and a few stickers slapped on it. They actually give a great deal of thought to the design of the box itself. They think about what it looks like on the shelf, how it presents the contents to the purchaser, and what the experience will be like when you open it.
This is how a company can prove that it’s meticulous.
Asymco:
Today Apple announced both a dividend and a share re-purchase plan which, when combined, will consume 45% of Apple’s current US cash reserves.
The dividend will be $2.65/share/quarter and the buyback will cost $10 billion over three years. The dividend will therefore cost about $2.5 billion per quarter (starting next quarter) and the re-purchase will cost about $833 million per quarter (starting next fiscal year).
However, note that Apple’s cash has been growing far more quickly. It increased by $16 billion last quarter or $37 billion over the last year. This rate of increase is itself increasing.
…
This means Apple’s total cash should still grow by more than $35 billion this year.
TL;DR—Apple’s cash inflow grows at an increasing rate, that even this cash dispersion strategy will not dampen.
So, it has come to this. They’re earning so much money that they can’t spend it anywhere else, and fast enough. While I’d think that Steve Jobs might disapprove of this measure, but after some thought, I think this move might actually take some pressure of managing such a huge cash-pile off the CFO’s back.
In fact, it is said that Apple’s CFO can probably be considered as a large hedge-fund manager.
Hopefully with this move, we would finally see the market value Apple’s stock appropriately, after so many years of undervaluing AAPL.
TNW:
“Customer response to the new iPad has been off the charts and the quantity available for pre-order has been purchased,” Apple told the publication in a statement. “Customers can continue to order online and receive an estimated delivery date.”
First, I’d would presume that Apple has increased its initial pre-order allotment, given last year’s backlogs, but it looks they did not over-provision.
Second, looking at the demand, it looks like the iPad market is far from saturation or even nearing it. It’s a huge market ahead, ripe for Apple’s picking.
The Verge:
A final analysis comes from the man whose company pulled the rug out from under RIM in 2007. Speaking in late 2010, he said, “They must move beyond their comfort area into the unfamiliar territory in trying to become a software platform company. I think it’s going to be a challenge for them to create a competitive platform and to convince developers to create apps for yet a third platform after iOS and Android. With 300,000 apps on Apple’s app store RIM has a high mountain ahead of them to climb.”
That man, of course, was Steve Jobs.
Great article on the history of RIM.
The Loop:
Apple on Thursday unveiled OS X Mountain Lion, the next generation desktop operating system. I’ve been using Mountain Lion for about a week now and it’s packed with new features that existing Mac users and iOS users will enjoy.
Exciting!
Zach Holman:
Apple commands their words exceedingly well. They aren’t the originator — or even the owner — of their particular voice, but they are the most visible.
Mechanically, The Apple Voice is characterized by short, declarative sentences that are informally and personally delivered to you with a hint of smugness.
An interesting article on “the voice” used in copywriting.
Fraser Speirs:
There are five sections to this video demonstrating:
- An app going from active to background to suspended
- Instacast HD requesting extra background time to finish a podcast download
- TomTom running indefinitely in the background
- Batman Arkham City Lockdown and Real Racing 2 HD competing for big chunks of device memory
- Batman Arkham City Lockdown forcing several smaller apps out of memory
Critical reading/watching for all “power” iOS users.
Tightwind:
Five years ago today, Apple introduced the iPhone. We haven’t quite seen a presentation like the one Steve Jobs gave that day before, we haven’t seen one since, and we may never see one on that same level again. Typically, we have a fairly good idea of what Apple will introduce. That day, we had no idea—and what they did introduce was so far beyond what we thought capable for mobile phones, it blew our minds, and shifted the entire mobile industry. And laid the foundation for the iPad, which is doing the same for computing generally.
Here’s a link to Apple’s video of the presentation. Here’s Ryan Block’s coverage of the presentation for Engadget.
I remember watching the keynote 5 years ago and though we know that it is something significant, the impact is not as clear as it is now, 5 years later.
Jonathan Christopher:
I’m not sure how I missed it, but a new feature to OS X Lion is a Preference Pane called Network Link Conditioner. This is a thing of beauty for Web developers the world over; built in network throttling on an OS level.
Great find!
InfoWorld:
iOS 5 version of online course covers nuts and bolts of building an iPhone/iPad program and getting it distributed through the App Store
Awesome! Stanford is truly on its mission to educate the world. Read their press release.
