Posts in news

Apple Q3 2011 Results: $28.57 Billion Revenue, 20.34 Million iPhones, 9.25 Million iPads, 3.95 Million Macs Sold

Apple has just posted their Q3 2011 financial results. The company posted record-breaking revenue of $28.57 billion, with 9.25 million iPads, 20.34 million iPhones and 3.95 million Macs sold. Apple reported record quarterly net profit of $7.31 billion, or $7.79 per diluted share. Wall Street consensus’ estimate was earnings of $5.80 per share and revenue of $24.92 billion. The company posted record quarterly revenue of $28.57 billion and record quarterly net profit of $7.31 billion, or $7.79 per diluted share.

In Q2 2011, the company said they expected revenue of about $23 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $5.03 in the third fiscal quarter of 2011.

From the results, iPhone is growing 142% year over year, and with 9.25 million units sold the iPad saw a 183% increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold sold 7.54 million iPods with a 20% unit decline. The third quarter has been the best non-holiday Mac quarter ever, best iPhone quarter ever, best iPad quarter ever. There are now 28.7 million iPads out there, including 14 million units shipped this calendar year.

In Q2 2011, the company posted revenue of $24.67 billion with 4.69 million iPads, 18.65 million iPhones and 4.69 million Macs sold. In the year-ago quarter, Apple posted revenue of $15.7 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.25 billion. The company sold 3.47 million Macs, 8.4 million iPhones and 3.27 million iPads, which began selling during the quarter.

Apple will provide a live audio feed of its Q3 2011 conference call at 2:00 PM Pacific, and we’ll update this story with the conference highlights. Full press release is embedded after the break. Read more

Due 1.6 Adds Natural Date & Time Parsing, We Celebrate With Another Giveaway

The ever popular reminder app Due has recently received another major update, 1.6. The newest version adds natural date and time parsing for reminders, much like Fantastical is doing for the Mac. This method lets you create reminders while the due date fills in automatically by typing into the title directly, i.e. “Wash the car in 20 mins”, “Leave for soccer at 3pm on Friday”, “Buy gift for Ticci’s birthday on July 30 at 1pm”, etc. Due also handles more than 64 reminders and timers as there was a limit before.

There were some tweaks and changes as well like interval on date picker now dynamically changing to accommodate due times that cannot be accurately displayed by a user’s preferred interval setting. Editing the value of a timer with an auto-generated label now updates the label to match the new countdown value. The app now hides any transient animation on quit to prevent jarring transition on next resume. Overdue and Today+Overdue badging is now faster when setting up a new repeating reminder and ‘Repeat from date’ follows the ‘Due date’ automatically.

There were a number of fixes as well and all the full change-log can be found on the Due’s blog. Read more

Official Google+ App for iPhone Now Available

Google has just released the official Google+ app for iPhone on the App Store. The app is free and available here, and at the moment of writing this Google hasn’t updated its Mobile webpage to showcase the new app yet.

The Google+ iOS app provides a native interface to access much of the functionalities of the website, such as the Huddle group messaging feature – which was exclusive to Android devices prior to the app’s approval. The dashboard of the Google+ app presents a grid of icons to access the Stream, Huddle, Photos, your Profile and Circles, as well as a Notifications tab at the bottom that will open a vertical list of all your incoming notifications. Whilst much of the navigation seems to rely on web views optimized for the iPhone and fetched by the device, the animations when switching between sections are quite snappy and fast on iOS 4. Just like on the desktop, the Stream provides recent updates from the people you follow and your Circles, allowing you to check for new posts with the popular “pull to refresh gesture” and comment or +1 others’s posts. You can’t +1 from the home page – you have to open a single post and hit the + button in the upper right corner, while a text field at the bottom will let you leave a comment. You can also “mute” or “report” a post. The app is capable of sending push notifications for new comments, shares, and so forth. Read more

Lion Signage Appears At Italian Retailer Ahead Of Official Launch

As reported by Italian website Macity [a Google translation is not possible as Macity seems to have pulled the article before we could generate a link, Google cache here] the first promotional material for OS X Lion has been set up in advance at Italian retail chain Euronics in Taranto, at the Mongolfiera shopping mall. Whilst recent rumors have pegged the new OS for a Wednesday launch (tomorrow), Apple hasn’t confirmed any official release date, nor did they authorize retailers to showcase signage ahead of the much anticipated launch. It appears, as Macity reports, that employees at Euronics wrongly set up the signage before the rumored launch date, as machines spotted in the electronics section of the shopping mall haven’t even been correctly updated for Lion (they’re still running OS X 10.6.6, whilst 10.6.8 is a requirement to update to the new OS).

The signage touts Lion’s biggest new features such as multi-touch gestures, Launchpad and Mission Control. The banners say “Now on every new Mac”, reinforcing speculation that new computers will be released shortly after the new OS, running Lion by default as a rumor previously claimed. The banners also encourage users to try out Lion, heavily promoting with photos the various multitasking gestures enabled in the OS.

According to recent reports, Apple has shipped hard drives containing Lion to retail stores so that employees can install the OS on store floor machines. Others also report “overnights” are planned later today to train retail staff on Lion, and change in-store promotional material for the (alleged) launch tomorrow morning. New MacBook Airs (as well as new Thunderbolt-equipped Cinema Displays) are expected to launch alongside Lion as well.

Reminder: Apple’s Q3 Earnings Call Today – 5 PM ET

Later today, starting at 5:00 PM ET (2:00 PM PT) Apple will hold its Q3 2011 earnings call to reveal their financial results, shortly after the market closes. Apple will, as usual be offering an audio-only live stream of the call that will be available here. Meanwhile here at MacStories, we will be following the earnings call with a post covering it live – this will be a post continuously updated with notes from the call.

As for what today’s earnings call will bring, AllThingsD has an article this morning quoting a JP Morgan analyst who believes Apple will exceed expected earnings “by a lot”. It is also helpful to note that for the last 13 quarters, Apple has beaten analysts’ financial expectations – many expect Apple could do it again for this quarter’s results.

Earlier this month some (non-Wall Street) Apple analysts from The Mac Observer’s Finance Board expected (on average) for Apple to have sold around 17.6 million iPhones, 8.3 million iPads, 8.3 iPods and 4.3 million Macs. The same analysts believe Apple could have seen 69% year-over-year growth in Q3 2011.

Be sure to tune in at 5 PM ET for a full breakdown of the Q3 2011 financial results from Apple’s earnings call. For those in other time zones, the earnings call is at:

2:00 PM – San Francisco

6:00 PM – Rio de Janeiro

10:00 PM – London

11:00 PM – Rome

1:00 AM (Wed) – Moscow

5:00 AM (Wed) – Beijing

7:00 AM (Wed) – Sydney

9:00 AM (Wed) – Auckland

For all other time zones, click here.

Apple Reveals One Billion Visitors To Retail Stores, Another 33 Stores Set To Open By September 25

Apple today revealed to an Australian site, Current, that it has seen over 1 billion customers through its retail doors since it opened the first Apple Store in Washington just over ten years ago in May of 2001. Current got the information from Apple after they had contacted them to confirm the opening of the eleventh Apple Store in Australia, which is set to open this Saturday in Penrith, New South Wales.

Apple Retail has been in business for 10 years. During this period, we have had over 1 billion visitors through our doors, many of whom are new to the Mac, as the Apple Store is the best place to learn about all the latest products from Apple.

Apple also revealed that by the end of Apple’s financial year (ending September 25th) they plan to have 363 Apple Stores open, worldwide. Given that Apple currently has 330 stores open that means Apple is planning to open another 33 stores in just over two months – effectively that is a new store roughly every three days averaged out.

Our retail offering continues to grow, with Penrith the 11th store in Australia, since we opened Apple Store Sydney just three years ago. Globally we are planning to have 363 stores in fiscal 2011.

Current also asked Apple representatives what made their retail stores so popular and got a response that referenced service as being the “hallmark of every Apple Store”. In particular they pointed towards the fact that the response from customers has been “overwhelming” with 1 million customers taking an advantage of the Personal Setup offering in the last quarter alone.

[Current via The Next Web]

Students Can Save Big With Amazon Kindle Textbook Rentals

As companies experiment with the idea of digital textbooks (look at Inkling for a perfect example on the iPad), new and affordable models for distribution will be thought of along the way. Amazon announced this morning that students will have the opportunity to save up to 80% on textbooks by renting them from the Kindle Store. The 80% discount applies to the initial 30-day renting period, which students can adjust to fit the length of their short or long semesters (normally eight to sixteen weeks at my community college). You can rent books for up to a year, but at that point I’d just buy the book.

What’s interesting to me is how Amazon is tackling the ability to retain your notes. My biggest fear with digital textbooks is that they aren’t cheap enough to buy (I can always sell a textbook back and get up to 60% back of what I initially paid), and that any notes I’ve taken will be lost if I’ve written in the margins. This same concern is expressed by Amazon, whom have tied these features in with Whispersync. All of your notes will be kept in the Amazon Cloud, where you can pull notes back down and read related passages even after the rental period of your textbook is up. I find this intriguing (particularly so if notes are easy to take in the first place).

I’ve always purchased textbooks from Amazon, but now they raise the question of whether I should rent a digital book. Textbooks are available to read across devices from the iPad, iPhone, Mac, and the Kindle itself (along other devices that support Amazon’s Kindle app). Students who want to remove a couple of six pound textbooks from their backpacks (and save their backs) might want to invest in a slim messenger back and an iPad instead, but with the Kindle you know there will the issue of finding pages (with its weird take on page numbers), and its unclear how well graphics and margin notes will be presented. Maybe one of you dear readers would be bold enough to take the dive? Have you purchased digital textbooks in the past? Let us know in the comments!

[Kindle Textbook Rental via Amazon Media Room & TUAW]

Apple Trialling Retina Displays From Samsung and LG For The iPad 3?

According to a report in the Korea Times, Apple has begun quality testing LCD displays from Samsung and LG for the iPad 3. A source claims that the LCD displays currently being tested are QXGA with a resolution of 2048 x 1536 – a resolution twice that of the current iPad display. Such a resolution for a 9.7” display would mean the display has roughly 260 DPI and would likely fit under the ‘Retina Display’ marketing term – despite the fact that for the iPhone it was specified to be above 300 DPI, this is because the iPad is normally held further away from the eyes, and thus the DPI requirement is lower.

Apple’s upcoming iPad 3 will feature an improved display to support quad extended graphics (QXGA), a display resolution of 2048×1536 pixels with a 4:3 aspect ratio to provide full high definition (HD) viewing experience, said a source close to the talks

A deal between the two display manufacturers and Apple is also supposedly close to being finalised. One source told the Korea Times “Apple has traditionally preferred to use the same providers of the same parts for the same device, even as they evolve to different versions. I don’t see any fundamental change to that approach”. That said, it comes at a time when the relationship between Apple and Samsung is strained amid ongoing legal battles between the two companies. In fact just last week it was rumoured that Apple may be shift production of an A6 processor to TSMC.

Although neither LG or Samsung would not comment on these suggestions, Samsung officials did stress that the chances are “very low” for the current legal battles to affect Apple’s relationship with the LCD manufacturing division of Samsung. LG, however, is reportedly “euphoric” about increasing LCD orders from Apple and other handset and tablet manufacturers amid a still slow global recovery. It should also be noted that just a few weeks ago, there was a rumor of an iPad HD that was set to arrive this fall that would feature an increased resolution display, just like the one described by this report, and be aimed at ‘pro’ users.

[Korea Times via The Next Web]

Iconfactory, Seesmic, Yammer, and Other Devs Sent Notices by Kootol for Patent Infringement

In another case of ‘patent troll with a terrible website design sues other companies’, Kootol Software LTD has sent notices to numerous companies who deal in making software around Twitter, whom happens to be at the center of the latest patent feud. Twitter itself has already been contacted according to Kootol’s news feed, detailing that they own products and services for, “A Method and System for Communication, Advertising, Searching, Sharing and Dynamically Providing a Journal Feed”. The patent revolves around being able to send and receive messages on a public feed by subscribing  to (following) other users in real time, which sums up Twitter in a nutshell. The patent includes being able to search for information in real time, which includes archival information.

Kootol has also announced that it has sent a [caution] notice to Twitter Inc, USA and has brought to their attention their accepted US patent application. They have also expressed concerns that Twitter Inc’s micro-blogging website ‘Twitter.com’, introduced around July 15, 2006 may violate their intellectual property. Kootol is in the process of examining this position and the purpose of serving this notice is to bring the fact to attention of Twitter Inc at the very earliest stage so that Twitter Inc gets a full opportunity to examine the matter.

Apple, Microsoft, Ford, Amazon, AOL, and smaller developers such as The Iconfactory, Yammer, Seesmic, and Ubermedia have all also been sent notices for patent infringement. Kootol has submitted around 60 patents related to real time communications, including news-feeds, ‘unified’ communication systems, and ‘service based’ social networks that are present in the US, EPO, Canada, and the companies home country of India. Though keyword is submitted: a lawsuit can’t take place unless these patents are granted, thus Kootol is trying to bank on early license deals.

Small developers have lately been targets of patent trolls looking to profit of their pool of patents — notably developers are currently dealing with the patent troll Lodsys for in-app purchasing, though Apple has motioned to intervene.

[Kootol via PR Newswire]

Note: While preparing our own post, FOSS Patents put out an elaborate post detailing the situation better than I ever could have. Florian Mueller also express the same worries as I for The Iconfactory in particular. I recommend checking out the post here:

Kootol (India-based troll with US and European patent applications) sends notices to many companies regarding Twitter/Facebook-style feeds