Macworld UK September 2020

It’s hard not to find a bright spot in Apple’s third-quarter earnings. Not only did the company beat expectations with revenue of nearly $60 billion and an 11-per cent growth over last year, it also saw a sales bump across every product it sells. The Mac enjoyed the biggest leap, buoyed by work-from-home orders for many businesses around the world. Mac sales topped $7 billion for the first time in third-quarter history, an increase of more than 20 per cent, and the iPad also set a record for a non-holiday quarter. Numbers below are compared to last year’s Q3. iPhone: $26.4 billion versus $25.9 billion Mac: $7.1 billion versus $5.8 billion iPad: $6.6 billion versus $5 billion Wearables: $6.5 billion versus $5.5 billion The only somewhat muted performer was Services.…

Over recent months, pundits and analysts have gone back and forth on the question of when this autumn’s new iPhone models will be launched. But now – extremely unusually – we have confirmation from Apple itself that the iPhone 12 will be delayed. During the quarterly earnings report, Apple CFO Luca Maestri announced that the late-2020 iPhone will be released a couple of weeks later than usual. In other words, the new phones won’t be available in shops until October. The announcement comes as no major surprise, especially as Qualcomm’s chief financial officer Akash Palkhiwala announced as recently as 29 July that the “delay of a flagship mobile” will have a negative effect on results for the current quarter. We even suspected that this quarter’s report could contain hints about…

After more than 30 years at Apple, Phil Schiller is transitioning his role from Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing to Apple Fellow. Greg Joswiak will be promoted to fill that position. Phil Schiller has been a mainstay of Apple events for as long as anyone can remember. Apple’s press release quotes him as saying: “I first started at Apple when I was 27, this year I turned 60 and it is time for some planned changes in my life. I’ll keep working here as long as they will have me, I bleed six colours, but I also want to make some time in the years ahead for my family, friends and a few personal projects I care deeply about.” Schiller’s words make it sound as though he is getting ready…

Traditionally, Apple sells separate gift cards for its various departments: one for hardware in the Apple Store, one for software in the App Store and one for music and other media in iTunes. But that is all about to change. In the US, Apple has launched a universal gift card and “Apple Account Balance”, writes AppleInsider. It can be purchased and used for hardware products, software, accessories, apps, games, music, movies, TV series, iCloud storage and anything else purchased from or via Apple. If the scheme is a success in the US, the universal gift card may appear in other parts of the world.…

Apple unveiled an ambitious plan to make its entire business carbon neutral by 2030. Apple’s ‘corporate emissions’ are already carbon neutral, but the impact of its offices and data centres are small compared to all the products it makes and sells. This new goal encompasses the entire business, including the manufacturing and sale of all of its products, the supply chain for them and even product end of life. Given all the global companies involved in the supply of parts for Apple’s products, it’s a very ambitious goal to achieve in just a decade. However, it’s worth noting that carbon neutral is not the same thing as zero carbon. Carbon may be produced somewhere in Apple’s business, as long as the company makes up for it elsewhere. For example, if…

One of these quarters, Apple’s going to announce financial results that don’t result in some sort of record. Perhaps as soon as next quarter, even. But last month, Apple announced the results of its financial third quarter of 2020 – and they were an all-time third quarter record. Literally every measurable category went up, year over year. It was so sunny a set of results that Apple CEO Tim Cook seemed almost embarrassed to be reporting such huge growth amid a global pandemic and some powerful social upheaval in the United States. In any event, here’s what I gleaned from the results and Apple’s regular post-results conference call with analysts that might provide some insight about where Apple is and where it might be going next. Topsy turvy: Mac and…