Nearly one-third of iOS users upgraded to iOS 7 in the first 16 hours!

Adoption of Apple’s new version of iOS is off to a fast start. Nearly a third of iOS device owners have already upgraded to iOS 7 just 16 hours after the software was released. According to Mixpanel, by Thursday at 10:28am ET some 31.8 percent of iPhones, iPads and iPods had adopted the new operating system, noted for its flat design and a number of new features. Apple officially released the software on Wednesday at 1pm ET…

The Mixpanel announcement can be found here.

Go here for the interactive chart of iOS 7 adoption

By comparison, 24 hours after iOS 6 was released just fifteen percent of iOS device owners had adopted the new OS. Rival platform Android is saddled with a reputation of being fragmented due to the slow pace of OS adoption.

Compare this to Google’s most recent snapshot of Android OS version distribution.

As you can see, less than half of Android devices (or 45.1 percent) were on Android Jelly Bean version 4.1.x or 4.2.x, per data collected during a seven-day period ending on September 4, 2013.

Keep in mind that Jelly Bean was released alongside Google’s Nexus 7 tablet in June 0f 2012. Also important: Google’s data only counts Android devices that access its Play store, excluding gizmos that use forked Android version such as Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablets and no-name Chinese cheapos.

In this week’s Bloomberg Businessweek cover story, Apple CEO Tim Cook mentioned both a NetAppliations survey that gave iOS devices a 55 percent share of all mobile web activity and an IBM research note saying iPads accounted for more than 88 percent of online shopping traffic from tablets during last Black Friday:

“For us, it matters that people use our products,” he said

And commenting on the widespread Google fragmentation, Cook said:

It will show up in developers. It will show up for people that no longer have access to certain apps. It will show up in security issues because if you’re not moving your customer base to the latest version, then you have to go back and plug holes in all of this old stuff, and people don’t really do that to a great degree.

Indeed, for developers, the solid support of iOS 7 means they can be assured apps written for the latest version of Apple’s mobile OS will be widely installed. While the vast majority of Apple’s user base quickly adopts the latest and greatest version of iOS, some people still use older hardware.

For them, Apple’s made it possible to download the last app version that was compatible with their hardware and iOS build. Also, the company today issued a note telling developers they can easily manage availability of apps’ previous versions using the iTunes Connect web portal.

Apple Is Once Again the World’s Most Valuable Company !

Apple keeps riding high, and it managed to regain its top spot as the world’s most valuable company. The Cupertino-based boys managed to out-Exxon the Exxon for the 1st place and we congratulate them (and their shareholders) for this major achievement. It’s much better to have a tech giant at the top than one of the companies that make Earth less livable place.

It’s interesting to note that back on August 10, 2011, Apple’s market cap was $337.17 billion, nowhere close to the new high of some $416 billion.

Apple’s market cap was around $414 billion during trading on Thursday, with the company’s stock up as high as $456.80 in the morning session. Exxon, meanwhile, saw shares slide more than 2 percent during the morning, sending its market cap to around $408 billion, following a disappointing earnings report.

The change made Apple, at least temporarily, once again the most valuable company in the world by market cap. It’s a title the company held throughout 2012, but ceded after its stock went tumbling late in the year and through the first half of 2013.

Over the last month, shares of AAPL have surged nearly $50. However, Apple is still off about $100 from the start of 2013, and remains well below its peak north of $700 reached last September.

Exxon overtook Apple’s market cap in late January of this year, amidst a continued selloff of AAPL stock. At the time, Apple was worth about $413 billion, not far from where it was as of Thursday afternoon.

After a few quarters with relatively flat growth, investors are hopeful that Apple can once again gain momentum this fall, particularly with the anticipated debuts of new iPhones and iPads. Among the products expected are a so-called “iPhone 5S,” a new low-cost iPhone, a thinner and lighter fifth-generation iPad, and a second-generation iPad mini.

Doctors in new survey choose the Apple iPhone and the Apple iPad to save and access patient files

While an apple a day might keep the doctor away, an Apple or two tells the doctors what to do. In a recent survey, physicians are choosing the Apple iPhone and Apple iPad as the devices they would prefer to use to save and access patient records. Doctors are demanding more medically-related apps and 83% of the healers are planning on using Electronic Health Records (EHRs) on mobile devices to analyze lab results, order meds, and update patient information.

Just as Airline pilots are replacing tons of paper with iPads loaded with special apps, doctors are replacing paper with iPads loaded with special apps that allow them to find specific information faster and more accurately. The financial aspects of this will amount to billions of dollars saved annually. But in terms of lives saved, that is a much more important metric that will show over time the importance of making this move.

59% of physicians who work out of an office already integrate a tablet into their office practice with the Apple iPad the top choice among these doctors. 68% of them choose the Apple iPhone over other smartphone platforms like Android, and both devices have found their way inside hospitals. One drawback right now is that the EHR’s on the iPad or iPhone resemble the paper based forms. 71% of the doctors surveyed say the forms need to be made more “touchscreen friendly” so that medical staff can more quickly find the information they need.

The good news is that this is coming. 122 vendors of EHR record keeping say that they have native Apple iPad versions of their product in the works. Another 135 vendors say that they plan on making the switch from paper to iPad. And while the smaller size of a smartphone screen compared to a tablet makes it harder to use for medical purposes, 89% of doctors carry a handset despite the size of the glass making it harder to use to read X-rays, for example.

Apple to cut shipments of the Apple iPad mini by 20% in advance of a new model?

According to a report by anonymous members of the industry supply chain who supply components to Apple, the Cupertino based firm could cut shipments of the Apple iPad mini by 10-12 million units in the second quarter. The drop in shipments of the 7.9 inch slate could be as high as 20% on a sequential basis in April as the tech giant wants to conserve parts for the production of the sequel model of the Apple iPad mini.

While the next version of Apple’s 7.9 inch tablet is expected to be launched in the third quarter, some of the sources believe that the reason for the shipping cut has nothing to do with a sequel to the iPad mini and instead has to do with increased competition in the low priced 7 inch sector by various Android tablets.

According to the sources, the Cupertino based tech titan has adjusted its 2013 shipping schedule to 33 million iPads and 55 million iPad mini units. One of the most expected changes on a new Apple iPad mini would be a replacement of the rather low resolution screen with a panel offering a Retina display.

Apple posts record breaking financial results for Q1 2013 and Shares fall nearly 10%!

Shares of Apple  tumbled sharply in after-hours trading Wednesday after the company reported quarterly iPhone sales that just missed Wall Street estimates.

Revenue of $54.5 billion was up 18% from a year earlier but also about $230 million less than expected. Earnings of $13.81 a share were down 6 cents from a year earlier but ahead of the Street estimate of $13.44.

The company said it sold 47 million iPhones in its fiscal first quarter, up 29% from a year earlier but down slightly from Street estimates of sales of 48 million units and hopes for sales of 50 million units.

Shares were down $50.52, or 9.8%, to $463.49 at the end of after-hours trading; it had traded as low as $457.30. It will weigh on markets on Thursday. Apple hasn’t closed below $460 since Feb. 3, 2012. The stock had closed at $514.17, up $9.40, in regular trading.

With Wednesday’s close, the shares were down 26.7% from their closing high of $702.10 in September. Some analysts see the stock headed sharply lower. Jeff Gundlach of DoubleLine Capital told CNBC that the shares could hit $425.

The big question in the report was iPhone sales, which accounted for 56% of total revenue. Reports had suggested sales had not been as robust as expected, perhaps as few as 44 million sold.

Sales were better than that. In fact, those 47.8 million units sold were a record. Traders, however, had hoped for more.

There were questions about whether Apple could get the phones produced fast enough. In addition, there were worries that the smartphone market was getting saturated, thanks to new devices hitting markets worldwide. Samsung has emerged as an intense competitor.

At the same time, Apple said it sold 22.9 million iPad tablets, up nearly 48.7% from a year earlier and 34% from the fiscal fourth quarter, which ended in September. But iPad Mini sales could have been much stronger except for problems getting them produced.

Meanwhile, sales of Macintosh computers were down 21.1% from a year earlier. Manufacturing constraints and cannibalization of sales by the iPad kept sales down, CEO Tim Cook said on the company’s conference call.

The iPad has also hurt sales of low-end computers that use the Microsoft  Windows operating system. Microsoft, the publisher of MSN Money, reports results after Thursday’s close.

Sales of iPod music players were off 17.5%.

Apple expects $41 billion to $43 billion in revenue in the fiscal second quarter and a gross margin of 37.5% to 38.5%. The margin, a key profitability measure, was 38.6% in the first quarter.

Apple’s board declared a cash dividend of $2.65 a share payable Feb. 14 to shareholders of record on Feb. 11. The dividend rate was unchanged.

The earnings came after what had been a decent day for stocks. The Dow Jones industrials and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index  closed at five-year highs. The Dow was up 67 points to 13,779, its best finish since Oct. 18, 2007. The S&P 500, up 2 points to 1,495, had its best close since Nov. 6, 2007.