After strong holiday sales and the launch of the new iPhone 4S, allied to the much-delayed drop of iOS 5, we did indeed expect Apple’s earnings call to break records once again, and like clockwork, Tim Cook’s company did not disappoint shareholders.
With so many different ways of measuring how well both Apple's iOS and Google's Android operating systems are doing, it's almost impossible to work out just which is on the up and which is on the decline. If you throw enough figures at something then you can always make then read what you want them to.
If you take a journey back into the not-too-distant past, and ask people to give a breakdown of the makes and models of mobile devices they used before they made the leap across to a smartphone, I am pretty confident that a small number of handsets will appears in everyone's list who is of a certain age. If I go back approximately a decade, Nokia was probably the dominant handset manufacturer with the latest release being the must-have phone amongst school kids and business men alike.
Since the launch of the original iPhone nearly 5 years ago, Apple has prided itself on keeping customers coming back for more with every new release.
If anyone wondered whether Apple's entry into the world of digital textbooks was a good idea, then they should feast their eyes on this not inconsiderable number - users have downloaded 350,000 textbooks in just three days.
If the speculation is to be believed, then Apple has plans in place to adopt and support the new 802.11ac specification across Airport base stations, Time Capsules, Apple TV, Notebooks and potentially the company’s range of mobile devices.
Phil Schiller and associates took to the Guggenheim Museum in New York today to hold a special event which couldn't have been further away from the traditional format that we grace Apple product launches for. In a smaller, stripped down event, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing introduced a strategy which was all about education. No specifications, aesthetics or launch dates for the media to speculate and report on, instead we saw a straight to the point presentation which featured innovation, new applications and a vision to change the face of education across the world, not for profit, but for the good of change.
To coincide nicely with the impressive educational announcements made today in New York, Apple have also released iTunes 10.5.3 which adds synchronization support for the newly announced interactive books.
Phil Schiller took to the stage in New York to open the much anticipated Apple education event and took little time in introducing the first of the three new releases. One of the first concerns he addressed was the state of the US education system, stressing that even the lucky kids who graduate may find themselves unable to compete in the global business world.
Case manufacturers have a somewhat hazy past when it comes to predicting what upcoming Apple devices are going to look like. We had the iPhone 5 cases which promised a teardrop design for example, and we all know that didn't come to fruition.
