Apple’s Q2 2015 earnings: 61.2M iPhones, 12.62M iPads, $58.01B revenue!

Apple has posted its [fiscal] second quarter earnings report for 2015 this afternoon, and they are impressive. The Cupertino company beat Wall Street estimates, recording $58.01 billion in revenue on the back of strong iPhone sales.

More than 61 million iPhones were purchased during the usually-slow, post-holiday second quarter. That’s over 4 million above analyst estimates, and it looks like the handset did particularly well in China—up 72% year-over-year.

Here is a breakdown of the numbers this year, vs. Q2 in 2014:

• Revenue: $58.01 billion vs. $45.6 billion last year
• iPhone units: 61.2 million vs. 43.7 million last year
• iPad units: 12.62 million vs. 16.35 million last year
• Mac units: 4.56 million vs. 4.1 million last year

And here are some comments from CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri:

“We are thrilled by the continued strength of iPhone, Mac and the App Store, which drove our best March quarter results ever,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re seeing a higher rate of people switching to iPhone than we’ve experienced in previous cycles, and we’re off to an exciting start to the June quarter with the launch of Apple Watch.”

“The tremendous customer demand for our products and services in the March quarter drove revenue growth of 27 percent and EPS growth of 40 percent,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “Cash flow from operations was also outstanding at $19.1 billion.”

There seems to be a trend developing in Apple’s recent earnings reports: the iPhone surprises with stronger-than-expected sales while iPad sales continue to dwindle. Mac sales still look good, especially in an overall-down PC market.

Source

Here’s what we’ve been Googling this year, Google’s Year in Search review 2014!

Google just released its annual retrospective on what the world was searching for in 2014. The company has apparently given up on calling its year in review the Google Zeitgeist and opted for the more humble “Year in Search .” The lists include everything from top trending overall searches to top trending GIFs.

The story behind the story: Although it’s stopped using the moniker, Zeitgeist was an entirely appropriate name for Google’s yearly top trending search lists. As the most popular search engine in the world, Google has a special insight into what the world is thinking about at any given time. Google has used this ability to track flu hotspots (albeit with reportedly mixed results ) and aid in disasters. At the end of the calendar year, it’s always interesting to see what the world was most fascinated with during the previous twelve months.

What topped the lists

The tragic death of Robin Williams, who took his own life in August, topped both the global and U.S. top trending searches for 2014. Williams was followed by the World Cup, Ebola, and the Malaysia Airlines disaster in both the U.S. and the overall global searches.

Once you leave the top four the global and U.S. search lists begin to diverge in placement, but not a whole lot on topics. Overall, Google’s global user base was fascinated with the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, Flappy Bird, ISIS, Frozen, and the Sochi Olympics. Conchita Wurst, the Austrian drag queen who won the Eurovision talent contest in May, was also a big search around the world.

Wurst and this year’s Winter Olympics weren’t top searches in the U.S., but Ferguson and the ongoing troubles in Ukraine were.

Things got a little more interesting when it came to tech.

The world was largely focused on smartphones in 2014. Seven of the top 10 spots were taken up by handset including the iPhone 6  (#1), Samsung Galaxy S5  (#2), Nexus 6 (#3), Moto G  (#4), Galaxy Note 4  (#5), LG G3  (#6), and Nokia X  (#7).

The U.S., on the other hand, was a little more interested in the Apple Watch (#4),Chromecast (#5), Xbox One (#6), and the Surface Pro 3 (#10). Smartphones were still a big chunk of top trending gadget searches in the U.S., however, occupying six spots.

The world was also interested in the Xbox One, which came in at number 7 on the global trending list. Sony’s PlayStation 4, however, did not crack the top 10 on either the global or U.S. trending lists. Sony’s console has led the sales contest between the two next-gen consoles, but the Xbox One recently won a small victory when it overtook the new PlayStation in terms of sales for the month of November.

It appears Sony may have had the sales for most of 2014, but the hearts of gamers and tech fans were still with Microsoft’s console.

The complete tech lists are below. Check out Google’s Year in Search site  to explore all the other lists for global results and a country-by-country breakdown.

Top Trending Searches, Global:

1. Robin Williams

2. World Cup

3. Ebola

4. Malaysia Airlines

5. ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

6. Flappy Bird

7. Conchita Wurst

8. ISIS

9. Frozen

10. Sochi Olympics

Top Trending Consumer Electronics, Global:

1. iPhone 6
2. Samsung Galaxy S5
3. Nexus 6
4. Moto G
5. Samsung Note 4
6. LG G3
7. Xbox One
8. Apple Watch
9. Nokia X
10. iPad Air

Apple releases iOS 8.1 with Apple Pay, iCloud Photo Library, SMS Relay & Instant Hotspot, bug fixes and improvements.

As promised, Apple on Monday released iOS 8.1 for public consumption. Users who have an older version installed on their iPhone, iPod touch or iPad can now update to the latest software over-the-air, by choosing Software Update under Settings > General.

iOS 8.1 flips the switch on Apple Pay in the United States on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, as well as the newly released iPad Air 2and iPad mini 3.

It also re-enables the missing Camera Roll album in Photos and beta iCloud Photo Library (in beta) while bringing additional Continuity features like Text Message Forwarding between iOS 8 devices and Yosemite Macs and more.

Apple Pay, a headline new feature in iOS 8.1 supports mobile payments in apps, on websites and at select brick-and-mortar locations. On devices that don’t have NFC, like the iPhone 5s, iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3, Apple Pay only works when you buy stuff online and through apps.

To recap, here are the supported devices for Apple Pay:

• iPhone 6 (in-app, online and in-store purchases)
• iPhone 6 Plus (in-app, online and in-store purchases)
• iPad Air 2 (in-app and online purchases only)
• iPad mini 3 (in-app and online purchases only)

Although Apple’s marketing materials don’t make the distinction between in-app and online purchases, Safari is technically and app. Moreover, company executives did say during the WWDC keynote that Apple Pay will be supported by participating online stores through a browser.

Apple Pay is also coming to Apple Watch early next year, extending Apple Pay to over 200 million owners of iPhone 5, iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s worldwide, Apple said in a media release.

Another cool new feature: Text Message Forwarding.

It lets you receive text messages in the Messages app alongside iMessages on Macs running Yosemite and iPads and iPod touches running iOS 8.1. Text messages are actually routed through a user’s iPhone, allowing you to both send and receive SMS directly from a Mac or iPad.

Text Message Forwarding requires that both your Mac and iOS device be on the same Wi-Fi network and have Bluetooth turned on for proximity.

iCloud Photo Library, a built-in service that puts your entire photo library in the cloud, is now available as a beta to everyone in iOS 8.1. Once enabled in Settings > iCloud > Photos, your device will automatically upload and store your photos and videos in iCloud and sync any changes between devices.

You can elect to “Optimize Storage” to keep device-optimized versions of photos on an iOS device or “Download and Keep Originals”, which stores full-resolution photos and videos on your device. Just to clear up any confusion, iCloud always keeps your snaps and videos in their original resolution.

Your iCloud Photo Library is also available via a brand new Photos app in iCloud’s web interface, depicted above, using any Mac or Windows PC running the latest version of Safari, Chrome or Firefox. And in early-2015, a Mac edition of iOS’s stock Photos app will launch allowing for the complete end-to-end photo-syncing solution between desktop, mobile and the web.

iCloud Photo Library is great, but you’ll quickly run out of space as every iCloud account includes a meager five gigabytes of free storage. Apple’s iCloud storage upgrade pricingisn’t the most competitive: the firm is offering 20 gigabytes for 99 cents per month, 200 gigabytes in exchange for five bucks per month, 500GB for $9.99 per month and 1TB for $19.99 per month.

Compare this to the $9.99 1TB Dropbox Pro plan (same as Google).

Microsoft is offering 1TB OneDrive bucket for seven bucks per month and they’re also throwing in Office 365 for that price. By the way, if you’re serious about iPhone photography you should consider Yahoo’s Flickr service, which includes one terabyte of free storage for your photos.

As mentioned before, iOS 8.1 also brings back the Camera Roll album which went missing in iOS 8. The Camera Roll album collates only the photos you’ve taken directly on the device or saved from Mail and other apps. The Camera Roll comeback makes the operating system compatible with applications that required it, such as WhatsApp.

The problem stems, as many have complained, from the fact that iOS 8.0 has removed the system-wide Camera Roll album for no apparent reason. In addition to these features, iOS 8.1 contains bug fixes, performance enhancements and several improvements listed below.

iOS 8.1 includes other nice-to-haves

A new Enable Dictation toggle in Settings > General > Keyboards (seen above) is now available. Moreover, you’ll notice slightly larger app icons when managing your widgets in the Notification Center. The iBooks icon has been slightly redesigned and there’s now an alternative way to access privacy settings on a per-app basis, through their respective pane in the Settings app, as pictured below.

Note that certain iOS 8 features are only available in select markets.

The operating system is compatible with:

• iPhone 4s
• iPhone 5/5c
• iPhone 5s
• iPhone 6/Plus
• iPad 2, 3 and 4
• iPad Air and iPad Air 2
• iPad mini and iPad mini 2
• iPod touch (fifth-generation)

iPhone 6 Plus Owners Report Bending Phones Just From Sitting Down!

Uh oh: Some unconfirmed iPhone 6 Plus owners are reporting that their new handsets are getting bent when they leave them in their front pockets. You know, as you sometimes do with a phone.

Per one enterprising new iPhone 6 Plus owner on the MacRumors forums:

Yesterday, I left at 10am with the iPhone in my left FRONT pocket of my suit pants. I drove 4 hours to a wedding, which also involved a lot of sitting during dinner etc but also 2-3 hours of dancing. I left at 2am and went to bed, driving home 4 hours back. So in total, the 6 Plus was about 18 hours in my pocket while sitting mostly. As I lay it on the coffee table and sat down on the couch to relax from the drive (yes, sitting again), I saw the reflection of the window in the iPhones slightly distorted. Now I lay it flat with the display side on the table, take a look. Maybe at 5.5″ it is too thin?

But the one wedding phone-bender appears not to be alone. Another user reported a friend bending his phone when it was in his front pocket and he was getting out of a car. It ended up like so:

Now it’d be one thing if these warps and bends were the result of back-pocket action. But both of these cases claim the front pocket is to blame. It’s easy to tell someone who sits on their phone to knock it off, but the front pocket is a pretty established location for these kind of devices. Assuming these are legitimate and not some painstaking well-coordinated Photoshop prank, that could be quite an issue.

Have you had any experience with your new iPhone 6 Plus acquiring a few new, unwanted curves? Tell us about below

Official Video testing this myth:

Apple announces record-smashing 10 million iPhone 6/Plus opening weekend sales!

When Apple sold 9 million iPhones in the opening weekend of iPhone 5S and 5C last year, it was assumed that would be the zenith; the cheaper 5C offered more opportunity, and launching in China for the first time offered untold opportunity. And then this year Apple sold 10 million iPhone 6 and 6 Plus units, with no China (yet) and a lot more cash at stake.

The report comes after Apple’s initial announcement that it had moved 4 million iPhone 6 and 6 Plus handsets the very first day. As it turns out, it almost kept that pace up through out the weekend. And that was with supply constraints. According to CEO Tim Cook:

“Sales for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus exceeded our expectations for the launch weekend, and we couldn’t be happier,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We would like to thank all of our customers for making this our best launch ever, shattering all previous sell-through records by a large margin. While our team managed the manufacturing ramp better than ever before, we could have sold many more iPhones with greater supply and we are working hard to fill orders as quickly as possible.”

What Apple didn’t reveal is the breakdown of unit sales between the 6 and 6 Plus, although it’s not clear how helpful it would have been if they had; the 6 Plus hit shipping delays far faster in a way that hinted more at severe supply constraints than overwhelming demand.

Still, 10 million is hugely impressive given that the phones are pricier and lack the scale of launch countries that the iPhone 5 and 5S did. We’ll see how the numbers fully shake out once Apple catches up to the demand. In the meantime, a record is a record, and it seems as though the company hasn’t lost any of its shine.