Mobile Phones
Apple delivers strong profits, but investors punish shares
SAN FRANCISCO: Apple has delivered blockbuster earnings, but saw shares punished after a disappointing holiday season forecast and word that it will stop reporting how many iPhones it sells.
The California-based technology giant makes most of its money from iPhones, and sales numbers have been seen as a bellwether of the company’s fortunes.
Apple shares dove 6.5 percent to 207.78 in after-market trades following the release of earnings figures for a record-setting September quarter.
The firm said net profit climbed 32 percent to 14.13 billion on revenue that was up 20 percent to 62.9 billion with help from growing sales of digital content and services to users and other Apple gadgetry.
“We’re thrilled to report another record-breaking quarter that caps a tremendous fiscal 2018, the year in which we shipped our two billionth iOS device, celebrated the 10th anniversary of the App Store and achieved the strongest revenue and earnings in Apple’s history,” said chief executive Tim Cook.
However, the market was disappointed that Apple fell short of expectations with sales of 46.9 million iPhones and a forecast for the key holiday season that was not as robust as anticipated.
The average sale price for the latest iPhones was 793, indicating that Apple was able to deliver more of its priciest handsets.
Apple offered no detailed breakdown of iPhone sales, but Cook said “the response has been powerful” to the new 10S models that sell for 1,000 and up.
Apple executives said that from now on, its earnings reports would no longer specify numbers of iPhones or other products sold. Instead it would focus on revenue, margins and cost of sales.
Apple chief financial officer Luca Maestri told reporters on an earnings conference call that the change stemmed from an increasingly diverse product line.
“It doesn’t matter how many units there are in there when it comes to the full value of the shopping cart,” Cook said, adding that “customer loyalty” was a more important metric.
Revenue in the quarter ended September 29 grew double digits everywhere Apple does business around the world.
“We set September quarter revenue records for iPhone and wearables and all-time quarterly records for Services and Mac,” Maestri said.
The world’s most valuable company saw its stock market value briefly dip below a dizzying 1 trillion based on share price.
Apple forecast that it would bring in between 89 billion and 93 billion in the current quarter.
Some analysts thought the estimate may have been conservative, with Apple being cautious about expectations as it works to balance supply and demand for a slew of freshly introduced products.
“This is a great set of results from Apple which underlines all of the innovation the company has put into its suite of products over the past year,” said GlobalData Retail managing director Neil Saunders.
The latest report offers some positive news for Apple in growing its services such as streaming music and Apple Pay, allowing the company to diversify its revenue stream in a saturated smartphone market.
However, the iPhone has been the key driver of revenue and profit for Apple, and also helps bring more consumers into the company’s ecosystem for apps and services.
Apple holds around 12 percent of the global smartphone market, with most of the rest sold by makers of Android-powered handsets.
Analyst Ben Bajarin of Creative Strategies said it is possible Apple failed to anticipate consumer demand and did not have the right mix of devices in the past quarter.
Another possibility, Bajarin said on Twitter, is that “Apple may be intentionally setting lower expectations for holiday.” The strong US dollar was a “headwind” to sales, particularly in markets such as Turkey, India, Brazil and Russia, according to Cook.
“In some cases that resulted in us raising prices, and those markets are not growing the way we would like,” Cook said.
He maintained that Apple has been talking with Indian officials about opening stores in that country and about duties on the company’s products.
Source: PTI/AFP
NEW DELHI: Global technology brand OnePlus on Friday announced its schedule of pop-ups across seven cities in India, which will take place on February 11, where attendees will be the first to get their hands on the newly launched products OnePlus 11 5G and the OnePlus Buds Pro 2, starting at 11 a.m.
At the OnePlus pop-ups, the first 11 people to buy the all-new OnePlus 11 5G will receive exclusive OnePlus 11 goodies, such as OnePlus products and merchandise.
In the seven major cities, the pop-ups will take place at OnePlus Experience Store, Phoenix Palladium, Mumbai; OnePlus Boulevard, Brigade Road, Bengaluru; Select Citywalk Mall, Saket, New Delhi; OnePlus Experience Store, JM Road, Pune; OnePlus Nizam Palace, Himayat Nagar, Hyderabad; OnePlus Experience Store, Phoenix Market City, Chennai; and OnePlus Experience Store, CG Road, Ahmedabad.
At the Cloud 11 launch event, OnePlus announced an array of its products — 11 5G, 11R 5G, Bus Pro 2, TV Q2 Pro, Pad, and 81 Pro keyboard.
The new line-up of products is distinguished by purposeful designs, industry-leading technology, and advanced interconnectivity, which is set to take the brand’s fast and smooth experience to all new heights.
The OnePlus 11 5G was launched at a starting price of Rs 56,999 which comes in two colourways — Titan Black and Eternal Green.
It features a 6.7-inch display that comes with a refresh rate of 120 Hz.
The smartphone comes equipped with the 3rd Generation Hasselblad Camera for Mobile with a “three-main-sensor” triple-camera system — 50MP+32MP+48MP.
The smartphone also comes powered by the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset with up to 16GB of RAM.
OnePlus has also designed the ideal companion to the OnePlus 11 5G — the OnePlus Buds Pro 2, which promises to deliver a full-bodied, stereo-quality audio experience with crystal clarity.
The Buds Pro 2 is the second generation of its flagship earbuds, which is priced at Rs 11,999.
Apart from the first 11 buyers, other buyers will get an instant discount of Rs 1,000 on the OnePlus 11 5G, on purchase through ICICI Bank Credit Cards and EMI transactions, and up to 12 months No-Cost EMI on purchase using major credit cards.
Source: IANS
NEW DELHI: Apple Inc has rolled out a beta programme to enable 5G on Apple devices as the upgrade lets users try out pre-release software.
This software upgrade enables 5G access on Apple devices, as and when service providers Jio, Airtel and Vodafone enable 5G network access, sources said.
Apple Users have to enrol for the Beta Programme on the website, install a profile and download the software.
Jio users using iPhone 12 and above, in cities where JioTrue5G has been rolled out, will be invited to the Jio Welcome Offer. Jio Welcome Offer provides unlimited 5G data at up to 1 Gbps speed to users at no additional cost. However, there is a condition that prepaid users must be on active Rs 239 and above plan. All Postpaid users are eligible for this trial.
Airtel is not providing any special 5G offer like Jio to their users. In the cities/areas in which the Airtel 5G network has been launched, users can trial 5G services as a part of their existing plan, once they have updated the latest Apple Beta software.
While an email sent to Apple did not solicit an immediate response, the firm had last month stated: “We are working with our carrier partners in India to bring the best 5G experience to iPhone users as soon as network validation and testing for quality and performance is completed. 5G will be enabled via a software update and will start rolling out to iPhone users in December”.
Airtel and Jio customers on iPhone 14, iPhone 13, iPhone 12 and iPhone SE (3rd generation) models can experience 5G as part of Apple’s iOS 16 Beta Software Program. The Apple Beta Software Program is open to anyone with a valid Apple ID who accepts the Apple Beta Software Program Agreement during the sign-up process.
If a user has an iCloud account, that is an Apple ID, it is recommended they use that. If they do not have an iCloud account or any other Apple ID, they can create one.
Customers who want to try the beta software should back up their iPhones before installing the beta software. It is recommended to install the beta software only on non-production devices that are not business-critical. Users can also provide feedback to Apple on quality and usability, which helps Apple identify issues, fix them, and make Apple software even better.
The iOS beta comes with the built-in Feedback Assistant app, which can be opened from the Home screen on the iPhone or iPad or from the Dock on the Mac.
Source: Press Trust of India
NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel, India’s premier digital communications solutions provider, today announced multiple new products in its cloud portfolio ahead of the 5G service launch. The new cloud offerings will fall under Edge Cloud Portfolio and will include Edge CDN. Airtel will utilise Qwilt’s Open Edge Cloud solution for deployment.
Airtel Cloud’s Edge content delivery network (CDN) accelerates web and video content delivery by using its edge network to bring content as close to users as possible. This reduces latency, costs and load on servers making it easier for enterprises to focus on app performance. This service is especially useful in OTT, Ed-Tech, Gaming and Healthcare sectors.
Airtel Cloud’s Edge CDN service is network optimised as it uses 120 edge locations, network strength and share of mobility handset to bring better customer experience to customers. Airtel is working with two of the largest OTT companies in India and others on this platform.
Speaking about Airtel Cloud’s Edge Portfolio, Mr Ajay Chitkara, Director and CEO, Airtel Business Said, said, “With 5G around the corner, businesses will leverage the low latency, high bandwidth and high device density of the 5G spectrum to solve critical problems using edge computing. Airtel has three key strengths to offer a differentiated set of cloud offerings – we have 12 large data centres and 120+ edge locations. We also have a network with comprehensive coverage across the country and to most locations across the globe. Finally, our GTM strength has direct relationships to all businesses in India small, medium or large.”
Speaking about the partnership, Mr. Alon Maor, CEO, Qwilt, said “Airtel is a tremendously exciting addition to our global ecosystem of service providers, and we are delighted to power a unique content delivery service offering in India. Our edge architecture provides a new economic model for streaming delivery, in which Airtel Cloud’s Edge CDN plays a central role in the end-to-end value chain. This announcement underscores the momentum we are gathering as we realize our ambition to build the world’s highest preforming edge delivery network.”
Airtel has been spearheading 5G throughout India. It recently became the first company to test a captive private network at the Bosch facility in Bengaluru. Airtel is also rolling out its Edge compute service to customers. This will bring 5G private network and edge computing in a single box with a view to target factories, warehouse and ports, airports who will need low latency and high bandwidth network, IOT devices to collect and computing prowess to process the data.
Airtel also announced that as we move ahead, there will be many targeted cloud solutions coming in for specific industry needs like Banking, 5G Edge, Developer and hybrid cloud requirements on an immediate basis.
