MacRumors

WhatsApp will soon require biometric authentication to link a WhatsApp account to a computer web browser or desktop app, reports The Verge.

The mobile app uses a QR code to link a user account to a web browser or desktop app, but the company wants to make the process more secure so that it can't be done by anyone who happens to gain access to your iPhone.

The new system will be enabled by default on iPhones running iOS 14 with either Touch ID or Face ID, meaning you'll have to authenticate to link your account unless you've disabled the biometric features on your device, in which case the account linking process will work as usual.

It's worth pointing out that the biometric authentication is an on-device process on iPhones, therefore WhatsApp (and Apple, for that matter) has no access to your biometric information. WhatsApp is simply making the change so that it's harder for someone else to link your account to a web browser or desktop app, which would allow them to see any messages you send or receive.

WhatsApp told The Verge that the new update will roll out for compatible iPhones in the coming weeks.

Thursday is Data Privacy Day, and Apple is marking the occasion in a few ways, including sharing a new "A Day in the Life of Your Data" document that details how third-party companies can track user data across websites and apps.

Apple says that, on average, mobile apps include six "trackers" from third-party companies for the "sole purpose of collecting and tracking people and their personal information," fueling an industry valued at $227 billion per year. "A Day in the Life of Your Data" aims to show what advertisers, data brokers, social media companies, and other entities can learn about a father and daughter who spend a pleasant day at the park.

One example is the father and daughter taking a selfie at the park, editing the photo with a filter app, and sharing it on social media, a seemingly innocent series of actions that still resulted in data being collected and tracked across multiple apps:

Later at the playground, John and Emma take a selfie. They play with a photo filter app, settling on adding bunny ears to the photo. The filtering app, however, is able to access all the photos on the device and the attached metadata, rather than only the playground selfie. John posts the picture on a social media app. The app links John's current online activity to a trove of data collected by other apps, such as his demographic information and purchasing habits, using an email address, a phone number or an advertising identifier.

The document goes on to list various Apple privacy features that would have given the father and daughter more transparency and control over their data, including the choice to give the filter app access to only their selfie, instead of the entire photo library.

The document also highlights Apple's four key privacy principles and provides more information about App Tracking Transparency, a privacy measure that will require apps to request permission to track users starting with the next iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and tvOS 14 betas. Apple says the software updates will be released in the early spring.

"Privacy means peace of mind, it means security, and it means you are in the driver's seat when it comes to your own data," said Apple software engineering chief Craig Federighi, in a statement shared today. "Our goal is to create technology that keeps people's information safe and protected. We believe privacy is a fundamental human right, and our teams work every day to embed it in everything we make."

Apple CEO Tim Cook will be speaking on data privacy today at the Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection conference, based in Brussels. Cook is scheduled to speak at 8:15 a.m. Pacific Time, and a live stream will be available on YouTube.

Apple today announced that its App Tracking Transparency privacy measure will be required starting with the next beta versions of iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and tvOS 14. Apple says the software updates will be publicly released in the early spring.

The requirement was originally set to go into effect last September, but Apple delayed to provide developers with more time to prepare.

With this change, all iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV app developers will need to receive a user's permission to track their activity across other apps and websites and access their device's random advertising identifier, known as the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA), for targeted advertising purposes or to measure how effective their campaigns were.

Users will be presented with a prompt with options to "Allow Tracking" or "Ask App not to Track" when opening apps that wish to track their activity. Developers have already been able to add the tracking prompt to their apps in prior versions of iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and tvOS 14, using the App Tracking Transparency framework, but it has not been required and few apps have implemented the prompt voluntarily.

If a user selects "Ask App not to Track," Apple will block the app's developer from accessing the user's IDFA. The developer is also required to respect the user's tracking preference in general, meaning that they cannot use other methods to track the user, or else their app may face removal from the App Store, according to Apple.

Users can manage their tracking preferences on an app-by-app basis in the Settings app under Privacy > Tracking on iOS 14.

A handful of ad networks and companies have criticized Apple's decision, including Facebook, which ran full-page newspaper ads and launched a website claiming that Apple's tracking change will hurt small businesses financially.

"We disagree with Apple's approach and solution, yet we have no choice but to show Apple's prompt," said Facebook. "If we don't, they will block Facebook from the App Store, which would only further harm the people and businesses that rely on our services. We cannot take this risk on behalf of the millions of businesses who use our platform to grow."

The non-profit Electronic Frontier Foundation called Facebook's criticism "laughable," claiming that Facebook's campaign against Apple is really about "what Facebook stands to lose if its users learn more about exactly what it and other data brokers are up to behind the scenes." Firefox maker Mozilla also backed Apple's decision, calling it a "huge win for consumers."

Google has not publicly attacked Apple's decision, but in a blog post yesterday, the company warned developers that they may see a "significant impact" to their Google ad revenue on iOS once the App Tracking Transparency requirement begins. Google also said it will stop collecting IDFAs across its iOS apps so that it does not have to present users with Apple's tracking permission prompt in those apps.

Apple's stance is that users deserve control and transparency.

"We believe that this is a simple matter of standing up for our users," said Apple, adding that "users should know when their data is being collected and shared across other apps and websites — and they should have the choice to allow that or not."

Apple's announcement is timed with Data Privacy Day. Apple has commemorated the day by sharing "A Day in the Life of Your Data," a PDF report that explains how third-party companies track user data across websites and apps, highlights Apple's privacy principles, and provides more details about App Tracking Transparency.

Apple CEO Tim Cook will be speaking on data privacy today at the Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection conference, based in Brussels. Cook is scheduled to speak at 8:15 a.m. Pacific Time, and a live stream will be available on YouTube.

Facebook today shared its earnings for the fourth quarter of 2020, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's opening remarks were focused on Apple's upcoming anti-tracking privacy changes that will impact the advertising industry and companies like Facebook that rely heavily on online advertising.

As highlighted by The Washington Post, Zuckerberg claimed that Apple is changing its privacy policy not to help people, but to further its own interests.

"Apple has every incentive to use their dominant platform position to interfere with how our apps and other apps work, which they regularly do," said Zuckerberg. "They say they are doing this to help people, but the moves clearly track their competitive interests."

Zuckerberg said that Facebook sees Apple as one of its biggest competitors, claiming that the privacy changes will help Apple services like iMessage and FaceTime that compete with Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.

"iMessage is a key linchpin of their ecosystem," said Zuckerberg. "It comes pre-installed on every iPhone and they preference it with private APIs and permissions, which is why iMessage is the most used messaging service in the U.S."

Zuckerberg also once again said that Apple's changes are going to impact small businesses, which is a claim that Facebook has been leaning on as it campaigns against Apple's planned changes. Facebook has previously published newspaper ads and shared blog posts explaining how Apple's iOS 14 ad-tracking changes will have a "harmful impact on many small businesses that are struggling to stay afloat."

Facebook has previously claimed that Apple's move is "about profit," and that it will leave apps and websites with no choice but to charge subscription fees or add in-app purchases to make ends meet, leading to increased App Store revenue.

Apple is not backing down despite Facebook's complaints and has plans to implement the new tracking rules in the near future. When made a requirement, apps that track usage through a random advertising identifier will need to ask users if they want to share their information for ad tracking purposes.

Advertisers use the random advertising identifier to serve up personalized ads and to track ad campaigns, but the ad industry expects that many people will opt not to share this information.

Apple says that users should be aware of when their data is being collected and shared across other apps and websites, and should have the choice to opt in or opt out. "We believe that this is a matter of standing up for our users," Apple has said in response to Facebook's claims.

The launch of the new iPhone 12 models that have all-OLED displays, edge-to-edge designs, 5G connectivity, and significant camera improvements, drove an increase in both switchers and upgraders year over year, Apple CEO Tim Cook said during today's earnings call covering the first fiscal quarter of 2021.

Cook said that while those switching over from Android and upgraders both increased, Apple saw the largest number of upgraders that it's ever seen in a quarter. "We're very thrilled about that," said Cook.

Apple today announced that it now has more than 1 billion active iPhones worldwide, up from 900 million in 2019, and 1.65 billion total active devices.

As people stayed away from travel and celebrated the holidays from their homes this December, Apple saw the highest volume of FaceTime calls ever on Christmas.

Apple CEO Tim Cook shared the tidbit during today's earnings call covering the first fiscal quarter of 2021, but he did not give specific numbers on how many ‌FaceTime‌ calls were placed.

Online video communication services like ‌FaceTime‌ and Zoom have seen major growth over the course of the last year as people aim to stay in touch with loved ones, friends, and coworkers while social distancing.

Cook also said that Apple saw a record number of device activations during the last week of the quarter as people received Apple products as gifts, and there were new retail records driven by the performance of the online Apple Store.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

During today's earnings call covering the first fiscal quarter of 2021 (fourth calendar quarter of 2020), Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked to provide a framework for how Apple evaluates product opportunities in new markets.

Cook of course declined to give specific information, but he did provide some insight into what Apple considers when making a decision on whether to develop a product.

The framework that we use is around 'Is this a product that we would want to use?' That's a pretty high bar. Is it a big enough market to be in? Unless it's an adjacency product, then it's about customer experience.

There's no set way that we're looking at it. No formula. But we take into account all of those things.

Cook said that Apple "loves to work on" products where there's a requirement that hardware, software, and services come together. "We believe that the magic really occurs at that intersection."

He also went to explain that Apple still has growth opportunities for its current portfolio of products.

I think that we have some really good opportunities out there, and if you look at our current portfolio of products, we still have relatively low share in a number of cases in very big markets. We feel that we have really good upside there and good upside in the services area too, which we've been working on for some time with coming online in the last year to year plus.

Though Cook gave no specifics, there are established rumors that indicate Apple is working on an electric self-driving vehicle and some kind of AR/VR headset, both of which are future products that will mark Apple breaking into new markets.

Apple's Wearables, Home, and Accessories category, previously known as the "Other" category, brought in record revenue in the first fiscal quarter of 2021 (fourth calendar quarter), hitting $13 billion, up from $10 billion in the year-ago quarter.

The 30 percent growth the category saw during the quarter was driven by demand for the Apple Watch, HomePod mini, and all of the AirPods models, including the AirPods Max.

According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, there were new revenue records for all three sub groups of the Wearables, Home, and Accessories category, with Cook saying that he's "excited for the road ahead for these products."

Apple CFO Luca Maestri said that Apple's wearable business is now the size of a Fortune 120 company. The Apple Watch in particular continues to extend its reach, and 75 percent of customers who bought an Apple Watch during the quarter were new to the product.

Maestri said that Apple is excited about the future of the wearables category thanks to Apple's integration of hardware, software, and services, which allows the company to provide great customer service.

Going forward, however, Apple expects wearables demand to fall somewhat compared to the first quarter as much of this quarter's growth was due to holiday sales.

Apple's services category, which includes the App Store, Mac App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, AppleCare, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple News+, Apple Fitness, and more, saw significant growth in the first fiscal quarter of 2021 (fourth calendar quarter of 2020).

According to Apple's latest earnings report, the services segment brought in $15.8 billion, up from $12.7 billion in the year-ago quarter.

Apple now has more than 620 million paying subscribers, reaching a goal that it set to have 600 million by the end of 2020. The ‌App Store‌, iCloud services, ‌Apple Music‌, ‌AppleCare‌ and payment services all saw all-time revenue records, with new services like ‌Apple TV+‌, ‌Apple Arcade‌, ‌Apple News‌+, Apple Card, Apple Fitness+ and Apple One also contributing to services growth, as has ‌Apple Pay‌. ‌Apple Pay‌ is now accepted at 90 percent of retail locations in the U.S.

Across 2020, the ‌App Store‌ grossed more than $64 billion according to a recent report from CNBC. That's up from an estimated $50 billion in 2019. Apple does not confirm ‌App Store‌ sales number, but Apple earlier this month said that $200 billion has been paid out to developers since 2008, a figure that's up $45 billion from the numbers provided in January 2020.

Late in 2020, Apple introduced its ‌Apple One‌ services bundles that pair up services like ‌Apple Music‌‌, ‌‌Apple Arcade‌‌, and ‌‌Apple TV+‌‌ at reduced prices, and it unveiled Apple Fitness+, a $9.99 per month service that provides guided home workout options to Apple Watch owners.

As people continue to work and learn from their homes, Apple's Mac and iPad sales during the holiday quarter have seen ongoing growth, with Apple reaching a new all-time quarterly revenue record for the Mac category thanks to 21 percent year-over-year growth.

During the first fiscal quarter of 2021 (fourth calendar quarter of 2020), Apple's Mac category brought in $8.7 billion, up from $7.2 billion in the year-ago quarter and up from the previous $7.4 billion quarterly record set in the first quarter of 2019. According to Apple CFO Luca Maestri, growth was driven by the new M1 Macs, which includes the MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini.

Apple's ‌iPad‌ category earned $8.4 billion, up from $6 billion in the year-ago quarter, marking growth of 41 percent. According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, ‌iPad‌ and Mac sales were constrained during the quarter, which may have held back sales.

Apple's ‌iPad‌ and Mac sales are expected to continue to see strong growth with multiple refreshes in the works. There are updated iPads that are rumored to be coming in the spring, and Apple has some major updates coming for the iMac and the MacBook Pro that could see sales accelerate.

New iMac models are expected to see a major redesign with slimmer bezels and a look that's similar to the Pro Display XDR, while future MacBook models will have slimmer bezels, more ports, MagSafe charging capabilities, and no Touch Bar. All new Mac models coming this year are expected to feature faster Apple silicon chips.

Apple's growing ‌iPad‌ and Mac sales along with strong iPhone sales resulted in a record breaking quarter, with Apple earning $28.8 billion profit on $111.4 billion revenue.

Alongside today's earnings release that saw Apple share record numbers thanks to strong iPhone, iPad, Mac, and services sales, Apple CEO Tim Cook told Reuters that Apple now has an active installed base of 1.65 billion devices, up from 1.5 billion devices in the year-ago quarter.

Apple has also hit an ‌iPhone‌ milestone, reaching more than 1 billion active iPhones, up from 900 million in 2019.

Apple's total active installed base includes ‌‌iPhone‌‌, iPod touch, ‌iPad‌, Mac, Apple TV, and Apple Watch models in use around the world.

Apple today announced financial results for its first fiscal quarter of 2021, which corresponds to the fourth calendar quarter of 2020.

For the quarter, Apple posted revenue of $111.4 billion and net quarterly profit of $28.8 billion, or $1.68 per diluted share, compared to revenue of $91.8 billion and net quarterly profit of $22.2 billion, or $1.25 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.

As expected thanks largely to the later launch of the iPhone 12 series that pushed it entirely into the first fiscal quarter rather than the traditional end of the fourth quarter, this was the best quarter in Apple's history in terms of revenue and profit, topping the first fiscal quarter of 2020 and easily breaking through the $100 billion mark in revenue.

Gross margin for the quarter was 39.8 percent, compared to 38.4 percent in the year-ago quarter, with international sales accounting for 64 percent of revenue. Apple also declared an upcoming dividend payment of $0.205 per share, payable February 11 to shareholders of record as of February 8.

“This quarter for Apple wouldn’t have been possible without the tireless and innovative work of every Apple team member worldwide,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re gratified by the enthusiastic customer response to the unmatched line of cutting-edge products that we delivered across a historic holiday season. We are also focused on how we can help the communities we’re a part of build back strongly and equitably, through efforts like our Racial Equity and Justice Initiative as well as our multi-year commitment to invest $350 billion throughout the United States.”

As has been the case for the past several quarters, Apple is once again not issuing guidance for the current quarter ending in March, as considerable uncertainty surrounding the global health situation's impact remains.

Apple will provide live streaming of its fiscal Q1 2021 financial results conference call at 2:00 p.m. Pacific, and MacRumors will update this story with coverage of the conference call highlights.

Apple earnings call recap ahead...

1:38 pm: Apple's stock is currently down about 1% in after-hours trading, following a nearly 1% drop in regular trading today amid broader market declines.

1:44 pm: Apple CFO Luca Maestri: "Our December quarter business performance was fueled by double-digit growth in each product category, which drove all-time revenue records in each of our geographic segments and an all-time high for our installed base of active devices. These results helped us generate record operating cash flow of $38.8 billion. We also returned over $30 billion to shareholders during the quarter as we maintain our target of reaching a net cash neutral position over time."

1:59 pm: The Q1 earnings call will likely take about an hour, opening with remarks from Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri. Then a question-and-answer session with market analysts.

2:02 pm: The call is beginning with standard disclosures about forward-looking statements.

2:04 pm: Tim starts by thanking the employees of Apple for working so hard, and is noting the all-time revenue records across numerous categories and geographies. "This result caps off the most challenging year any of us can remember."

2:05 pm: "We are doubly aware that the work ahead of all of us to navigate the end of this pandemic and to restore life... and to build back, with a sense of justice, is profound and urgent."

2:05 pm: Why we outperformed our expectations: We hit a new high watermark for installed devices at 1.6 billion devices worldwide.

2:06 pm: ‌iPhone‌ grew by 17 percent year over year, driven by strong demand for the ‌iPhone‌ 12 family. Active installed base of ‌iPhone‌ is more than 1 billion.

2:06 pm: Response has been enthusiastic even in light of COVID impact at retail locations. iPad and Mac grew by 41 and 21 percent respectively.

2:06 pm: Availability began for both iPad Air and first-gen M1 Apple Silicon Macs. Demand has been very strong.

2:07 pm: Efforts to bring latest iPads and professional support to educators, students and parents. Educational districts and governments worldwide are continuing major deployments.

2:07 pm: Wearables, Home and Accessories grew by 30% including demand for Apple Watch and AirPods lineup, and HomePod mini. Records for each subgroup.

2:09 pm: Touting Fitness+, and the deep integration of hardware, software, and services. Delivered all-time quarterly services record of $15.8 billion. First quarter of Apple One bundle. Optimistic about where we're headed. App Store ecosystem is so important as individuals, families and businesses evolve and adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic. This quarter, we took a significant new step to help smaller developers continue to experiment, innovate and scale the latest great app ideas. Latest program reduces commission on goods and services to 15%.

2:10 pm: Tomorrow is international privacy day. We set new standards to users' right to privacy, not just for our products but to be the ripple in the pond to move the industry forward. The winter holiday season is always a busy time for us and our products. We had a record number of device activations during the last week of the quarter. We saw the highest volume of FaceTime calls ever this Christmas. As always, we could not have made so many holidays special without our talented Retail team. Set new Retail records driven by high performance at our online store.

2:11 pm: We are focused on how to help in a moment of great national need. Hope for healing, unity and progress begins with and depends on addressing the things that continue to wound us. In our communities, we see how every burden... falls heaviest on those who have always faced structural barriers to equality and opportunity. New commitments through $100 million racial equity and justice initiative.

2:12 pm: Will help support next generation of leaders in ML, app development to entrepreneurship and design. Apple Developer Academy in downtown Detroit. We want to accelerate the potential of the app economy here, knowing there is no shortage of good ideas here.

2:12 pm: Since inception of Apple Giving program, Apple employees have donated more than $600 million and volunteered 1.6 million hours.

2:13 pm: Ahead of schedule on multi-year commitment to invest $350 billion throughout the American economy. Much more to be done.

2:14 pm: It will take a society-wide effort across public and private sectors, as individuals and communities, every one of us, to determine that what's ahead of us is not just the end of a disease. At Apple we have every intention to be partners in this effort and we look forward to working with communities around the world to make this possible.

2:14 pm: Luca coming on now.

2:14 pm: Started Fiscal 2021 with exceptional business and financial performance.

2:15 pm: "We are thrilled with the ways our teams innovate and execute." $111.4 billion in revenue, up $20 billion or 21% from a year ago. Grew strong double-digits in each product categories with records in ‌iPhone‌, Wearables/Home/Accessories, and Services, and Mac.

2:16 pm: Products revenue was $95.7 billion, up 21%. Unmatched loyalty of customers led 1.65 billion active devices.

2:16 pm: Services set record. New all-time records in most services categories and geographies.

2:16 pm: Company gross margin was 39.8%, up 160 bp sequentially. Leverage from higher sales and strong mix. Product gross margin was 31.5%. Services was 68.4 percent. Net income, diluted earnings per share and cash flow were all all-time records.

2:17 pm: ‌iPhone‌ revenue was up 17% year over year, with demand for ‌iPhone‌ 12 very strong.

2:17 pm: Active installed base of iPhones reached all-time high and surpassed 1 billion devices.

2:18 pm: Latest survey from 451 research indicates ‌iPhone‌ customer sat of 98% for ‌iPhone‌ 12 family.

2:18 pm: All-time revenue record for services, with all-time records in ‌App Store‌, cloud services, music, AppleCare and payment services.

2:18 pm: TV+, Arcade, News+, Card, Fitness+, ‌Apple One‌ bundle are also contributing to services growth and add users content and features.

2:19 pm: Installed base growth has accelerated and is at all-time high across every category. Transacting and paid accounts on digital content stores reached all-time high, with paid accounts increasing double digits across each geographic segment. Paid subs continue to grow nicely. Exceeded 600 million paid subs before end of calendar 2020. December quarter, we added 35 million sequentially and have more than 620 million paid subs, up 140 million from year ago.

2:19 pm: Improve breadth and quality of services offerings, and adding new services that we think customers will love. Apple Music released biggest product update ever. Listen Now, all-new search, personal radio stations, and autoplay.

2:20 pm: Payment services, we expand coverage with 90% of stores accepting ApplePay.

2:20 pm: Wearables, Home and Accessories: wearables business is now size of Fortune 120 company. Apple Watch continues to extend its reach with nearly 75% of customers purchasing Apple Watch being new to the product.

2:21 pm: Mac December quarter record. Strong double-digit growth in each geographic segment.

2:21 pm: Strong demand for new MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and Mac mini, powered by ‌M1‌ chip.

2:21 pm: ‌iPad‌ performance impressive, up 41%. Strong double digits in every geographic segment including all-time record in Japan.

2:21 pm: Both Mac and ‌iPad‌ are incredibly relevant products for customers in current working and learning environments.

2:22 pm: 93% customer sat for Mac and 94% for ‌iPad‌.

2:22 pm: Half of those customers in the quarter were new to the product.

2:22 pm: Enterprise, seeing many businesses shifting technology in response to COVID. Businesses handing in hundreds of millions of desk phones.

2:23 pm: To cash position: Ended quarter with $196 billion in cash plus marketable securities. Retired $1 billion in maturing debt. Total debt of $112 billion. $84 billion in net cash. $30 billion returned to shareholders. $24 billion through open market repurchases of 200 million Apple shares.

2:25 pm: March quarter: Given continued uncertainty around the world, we will not be guiding to a specific revenue range. Some directional insights, assuming covid-related impacts do not worsen from our current assumptions. We believe growth will accelerate on a year-over-year basis and in aggregate follow typical seasonality on a sequential basis. Product category level... during March quarter last year, we saw elevated activity in digital services as lockdowns grew. Tougher year over year comparison there. Year over year growth in wearables will decelerate in Q1. Chasing demand on AirPods last year from Q1 to Q2. This year, we plan to decrease AirPods channel inventory as is typical after holiday quarter.

2:25 pm: OpEx between $10.7 and $10.9 billion. Tax rate around 17%. Board of directors declared cash dividend of $0.205 cents per share.

2:25 pm: Q&A beginning.

2:28 pm: Katy Huberty w Morgan Stanley: Congratulations on a really strong quarter. Gross margin was particularly strong vs outlook, can you talk about whether you recognize the full impact of weaker dollar given typical currency hedges and how are you thinking about headwinds and tailwinds on GM?

Luca: GM was strong, better than anticipated. Reason for that was strong leverage from higher sales and mix was strong. Both mix within products and services. That was only partially offset by cost. Launched many new products during the fall and that comes with new cost structures. FX standpoint, really at the GM level, FX didn't play a role. Neither sequentially nor year-over-year for December quarter. Partially because of hedges but also because some currencies are still weaker against the dollar than a year ago, specifically in emerging markets in Latin America, Russia, turkey, and so on. If dollar weakens, that can become a tailwind for us. At current rates we expect some level of benefit around 60-70bp for the March quarter.

2:30 pm: Q: Challenges with valuing Apple is limited visibility into the roadmap and any new categories that you might enter over time. Without commenting on given opportunities, can you talk about the framework that you use internally to evaluate new markets and what you believe will determine your success as you look to enter new markets?

A: Thanks for the question and not asking any specifics. The framework that we use is around "is this a product that we would want to use?" That's a pretty high bar. Is it a big enough market to be in? Unless it's an adjacency product then it's about customer experience. There's no set way that we're looking at it. No formula. But we're taking into account all of those things. The kind of things we love to work on are those where there's a requirement for hardware, software and service to come together. We believe that the magic really occurs at that intersection. I think that we have some really good opportunities out there and if you look at our current portfolio of products, we still have relatively low share in a number of cases in very big markets. We feel that we have really good upside there and really good upside in services area too, that we've been working on for quite some time. With 4-5 new services just coming online in the last year plus.

2:32 pm: Q: ‌iPhone‌ growth exceeded expectations even with late launch. You referenced strong mix, how does this change your view on March quarter, can you share some color?

A: ‌iPhone‌ was one of the major factors why we exceeded internal expectations, we had a fantastic product lineup and we knew that and it's been fantastic to see customer response to the four new models particularly the pro models, Pro and Pro Max. Done well on units and pricing because of strong mix, and we've had some level of supply constraint particularly on Pro and Pro Max. As you said, we launched these products in the middle of the quarter, two after two weeks and two after seven weeks. Steep ramp that went very well. Products are doing very well around the world, particularly in China. Phenomenal customer response. Also some level of pent-up demand for 5G iPhones given that the market is moving very quickly to 5G. Look ahead, very optimistic. We believe we can be in supply-demand balance for all the models during the quarter. And the product is doing very well all around the world.

2:33 pm: Q: Strength of installed base performance, can you help us think through switcher vs upgrader activity across recent quarters?

A: Look at this past quarter, this is early going but we saw both switchers and upgraders increase on a year-over-year basis and in fact we saw the largest number of upgraders that we've ever seen in a quarter. We were very thrilled about that.

2:36 pm: Q: Shannon Cross w Cross Research: What are you seeing in China, significant sequential growth but from ‌iPhone‌ and other categories, what are you seeing and how back to normal is the Chinese market?

A: China was more than an ‌iPhone‌ story. ‌iPhone‌ did do very well there and sort of like the world if you look at switchers and upgraders, we were up year over year in China and a record number of upgraders there in a quarter. Probably some portion of this was that people probably delayed purchasing in the previous quarter as rumors started appearing about an ‌iPhone‌. 5G in China is well-established and the overwhelming majority of phones are 5G phones, so there was some level of anticipation for us delivering an ‌iPhone‌ with 5G. ‌iPhone‌ did extremely well. The other products did as well, we could not have turned in a performance like we did with only ‌iPhone‌. ‌iPad‌ did extremely well, far beyond the company average. Mac was above the company average, wearables, so if you really look at it, we did really well across the board there. In terms of COVID, I think they're for last quarter, beyond COVID. In the recovery stage. This quarter there are different reports about cases in some places, and lockdowns occurring, but we have not seen that in our businesses yet. Those cases are much smaller than ones in other countries.

2:38 pm: Q: Services... this is one of the first times that you talked about Apple TV+, Arcade, the smaller services moving the needle. You had stores closed during the quarter and that typically affects ‌AppleCare‌ revenue but that was a record.

A: Two businesses during covid that have been impacted negatively, one is ‌AppleCare‌. When stores are closed, it's tougher for customers to have that interaction with us and advertising which is in line with overall level of economic activity. For December, in-store traffic improved and ‌AppleCare‌ we grew — not as much as company average, but we grew in ‌AppleCare‌. Set all-time record there in spite of the fact that we started closing stores in US and Western Europe. In total we were able to support more customers than past quarters. But sequential growth in advertising, too. Clearly the strength was in digital services. ‌App Store‌, cloud, music. Those were the services that really delivered very strong performance and that's something that we've seen happen during the covid environment.

2:41 pm: Q: Can we probe a little bit more into ‌iPhone‌? You talked about a drawdown in channel inventory last quarter. Are iPhones at normal levels exiting Q1 and should we be thinking about above-seasonal growth with fewer selling days in Q1 and should we be thinking about above seasonal growth looking into Q2?

A: On the December performance, this was a very different cycle because we launched at a different time than usual. Initial part of the quarter without the new phones and then with the new phones, we had channel fill that typically happens in the September quarter. At the end of the quarter, demand is very strong and we've been constrained. At end of December, we had level of ‌iPhone‌ channel inventory which is slightly below a year ago. We still had a level of supply constraint that we believe we'll solve during the March quarter. In terms of sequential change that we talked about during prepared remark, we talked about company average and we expect that sequential progression to be similar to typical seasonality that you've seen in past years. Last year was not typical because of COVID, but go back to 17/18/19, that's our typical progression. We mentioned a few categories where we have slightly more difficult compare. Draw your conclusions around the ‌iPhone‌ though.

2:45 pm: Q: Comment on growth and sources for growth, well over $300 billion in revenue. Do you still feel confident that Apple has organic growth opportunities and that you don't believe acquisitions are an important source of growth? As you look over the next five years, what is a realistic revenue growth rate for Apple going forward?

A: As you know, we give some color on current quarter but not beyond that. In terms of growth rates, so I'll punt that part of your question. If you look at the ingredients that we have at this point, we have the strongest hardware portfolio that we've ever had. We have a great product pipeline for both product and services. We're still attracting a fair number of switchers and upgraders. We just set all-time services record, and we have that install base to compound that with added services over the past year. As they grow and mature and will contribute even more to services. On wearables, we've brought this thing from $0 to Fortune 120 company which was no small feat. But I feel that we're in the early stages of those products. Look at our share in other products, ‌iPhone‌ or Mac or ‌iPad‌, you find that the share numbers leave a fair amount of headroom for market share expansion and this is particularly the case in some of the emerging markets where we're proud of how we've done but there's a lot more headroom in those markets. India as an example, we doubled our business last quarter compared to year-ago quarter. But absolute level of business there is still quite low given the size of the opportunity. Other markets like that as well. The other thing from a market point of view, we've been on a multi-year effort in enterprise and have gained quite a bit of traction there. Some of the things in Luca's comments and we comment some on it each quarter. We're very optimistic on what we can do in that space. New things that we're not going to talk about that we think will contribute to the company as well just like other new things have contributed nicely in the past. We see lots of opportunity.

2:47 pm: Q: GM discussion... we haven't seen GM at this level since 2016. Can you step back, what has enabled this shift higher? What has enabled you to get there? Commodities, sourcing components, wondering about durability of GM at these levels?

A: When you grow like we grew, 21%, we have a certain level of fixed cost in product structure. High level of sales helps margin expansion. Probably the biggest factor to be honest. Across the board, in services, in every product category, we had a very strong mix of products. The ‌iPhone‌, Pro and Pro Max, that's pretty much the case in every product category. Mix has been very good. Commodity environment is fairly benign. One thing not affecting us is FX. It hasn't been a tailwind yet, but at the same time it hasn't been a negative. FX for us has been a negative for 5-6 years, almost every quarter. That has changed and that obviously makes a difference.

2:49 pm: Q: Growth rates for Mac and ‌iPad‌, how much of this is replacement cycle vs new folks coming into the ecosystem? What growth is more durable or predictable?

A: Look at switchers, new to Mac and new to ‌iPad‌, these numbers are still worldwide about half of purchases. Install base is still expanding with new customers in it. That's true on both ‌iPad‌ and Mac. If you look on Mac, ‌M1‌ gives us a new growth trajectory that we haven't had in the past. If Q1 is a good proxy, there's a lot of excitement to ‌M1‌ based Macs. A lot more to do there, early days of two-year transition but we're excited with what we see so far. Best ‌iPad‌ lineup we've ever had. Others are using them as complementary to desktop rather than laptop replacement. 41% growth is phenomenal. Part is work from home and part is distance learning, but wouldn't underestimate how much of that is the product itself in ‌iPad‌ and Mac. Share in Mac is quite low, for the total personal computer market, so lots of headroom there.

2:51 pm: Q: ‌iPhone‌ sales in general, China and North America have more robust 5G infrastructure. What do you see for customer engagement and velocity for 5G in Europe where they haven't rolled up robust 5G? Is that impacting customer interest in the latest lineup?

A: Look at 5G rollout in Europe, it's true that Europe is not in the place of or nowhere close to China or the US. But there are other regions that 5G is very good including Korea as an example. The world I would describe is more of a patchwork quilt. There are places where there's excellent coverage, and places within a country that are very good but not from a nationwide point of view. Then there are places where it hasn't gotten started yet. Latin America is closer to the last one, lots of opportunity ahead of us there. Europe has 5G implementations but most of that growth is in front of us there.

2:52 pm: Q: ‌Apple One‌ has been around for a couple of months. Any metrics for conversion rates or services in the bundle that are driving adoption?

A: It's really too early to answer some of those questions. Just got started into the quarter in Q1 so less than a quarter on this right now. What we wanted to accomplish was making our service very easy to subscribe to. Customers told us they wanted to subscribe to several services or all of our services so we've made that very simple. It's clear from the early going that it's working but we've just gotten started on it.

2:53 pm: Q: Talk about search and advertising business. What do you think about long-term growth opportunities there and are there applications in the fundamental search tech that can be used elsewhere?

A: Search advertising is going well. There's lots of intent from search and we do it in a very private kind of manner, observing great privacy policies and so forth. I think people see that and are willing to try it out. We're growing nicely in that area, it's a part of the advertising area that Luca spoke of earlier.

2:55 pm: Q: In the March quarter, you typically see a bump due to gaming downloads during Chinese New Year. Will we see that this year?

A: Typically in China, March is strongest quarter for services because of Chinese New Year. Last year we saw more activity because the whole country went into lockdown for several weeks so that propensity for playing games continued more than a previous cycle. Expect to have a great quarter in China, but need to keep in mind the compare is going to be particularly challenging because of what happened a year ago.

2:57 pm: Q: Asking about ‌iPhone‌ ASP. Are you confident that you can continue to improve mix on ‌iPhone‌ going forward?

A: ‌iPhone‌ revenue grew 17%. That came from unit sales and mix in the December quarter. It's very early because we launched the new product only a few weeks ago, but what we've seen so far is a high level of interest for Pro models and we've worked very hard to ramp up supply. We've had some supply constraints in the December quarter and we think we can solve them during the March quarter. Mix has been very strong on ‌iPhone‌.

2:58 pm: Q: Benefits to carrier actions with aggressive trade-ins on units or mix? What would be level of permanence to those actions to see if those subsidies were removed to be a headwind?

A: Subsidies always help. Anything that reduces the price to the customer is good for the customer and obviously good for the carrier and good for us as well. It's a win across the board. I believe that at least based on what I see right now that there will be continued to have competition in the market if you're talking about the US for customers as carriers work to get more customers to move to 5G. In outside the US, the subsidies are not used in all geographies and it really varies greatly by country. Some of them separate completely the handset and service, and in those areas we don't have subsidies.

3:01 pm: Q: Amazing how your company has pivoted and progressed through this uncertainty time in society. A lot of pushback we get on our view of Apple, everyone we know has an ‌iPhone‌ and the market seems saturated. But in India for example, you are much below. How should we think about your moves in India and you don't have full market share everywhere equally around the world.

A: Several markets, including India, where our share is quite low. It did improve from the year-ago quarter. Business roughly doubled over that period of time. We feel good about the trajectory. We have the online store there and the last quarter was the full quarter of the online store. That has gotten a great reaction to it and helped us achieve results that we got last quarter. Going in with retail in the future and we look to that to be another great initiative where we continue to develop the channel. Lots of things, not only in India, but several other markets that you might name where our share is lower than we'd like.

I would also say, even in the developed markets, when you look at our share, definitely not everybody has an ‌iPhone‌. Not even close. We really don't have a significant share in any market. There's headroom left even in developed markets where you might hear that.

3:01 pm: The call is concluded.

In an effort to diversify its supply chain and manufacture more products outside of China, Apple this year plans to ramp up production of iPhones, iPads, Macs, and other devices in India and Vietnam, according to a report from Nikkei Asia.

iPad production in Vietnam is set to start as early as the middle of 2021, and the shift will mark the first time that a large number of devices will be built outside of China.

At the same time, Apple is increasing iPhone production in India, and as soon as this quarter, factories in the country will begin manufacturing the new ‌iPhone‌ 12 models.

Production for smart speakers, earphones, and computers is increasing in Southeast Asia. Apple suppliers in Vietnam will expand production capacity for the HomePod mini, which is already being manufactured in the country, and some production of the Mac mini has been relocated to Malaysia. Apple last year also started assembling some of the AirPods Pro in Vietnam.

Late last year, reports suggested Apple was asking Foxconn to move ‌iPad‌ and MacBook assembly from China to Vietnam amid ongoing trade tensions between the U.S. and China, and Foxconn has now been granted a license to construct a $270 million plant in the northern Vietnamese province of Bac Giang.

Apple and other major tech companies have been aiming to reduce their dependence on China due to rising labor costs and trade tensions between the U.S. and China, plus the pandemic led to major supply chain issues that further sparked efforts to diversify.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Apple is now selling standalone ear cushions designed for the AirPods Max, allowing AirPods Max owners to purchase cushions in different colors.

The ear cushions are available in all of the ‌AirPods Max‌ colors - silver, black, red, sky blue, and green - and are priced at $69. ‌AirPods Max‌ ear cushions attach to the ear cups magnetically and can be popped right off, so making a swap to a new color is simple.

When the ‌AirPods Max‌ launched, MacRumors mocked up all of the AirPods Max color combinations, so if you're wondering how a particular color might look with your ‌AirPods Max‌, our color combos are worth checking out.

Apple's online store has listed the ‌AirPods Max‌ ear cushions since the ‌AirPods Max‌ launched, but until today, the cushions were not available for purchase. The store listing still says "coming soon," but the ear cushions are available. Ear cushion orders placed today will deliver for free on Monday, February 1, and Apple Store pickup is not yet available.

Apple yesterday released a new version of iCloud for Windows 10, and based on multiple reports and the update's release notes, it appears Apple is introducing an iCloud Passwords extension designed for Chrome, which will allow ‌iCloud‌ Keychain passwords to be used on Windows machines.

As noted by The 8-Bit and a few other sources, the update adds support for an "‌iCloud‌ Passwords Chrome extension." After installing version 12 of ‌iCloud‌ for Windows, there's a new "Passwords" section in the app with an ‌iCloud‌ Keychain logo.

When attempting to use the feature, though, the ‌iCloud‌ app prompts users to download a Chrome extension, but the extension is broken and clicking to install leads to a broken web page.

This is likely a bug that will be addressed in the near future, and it sounds like when it is functional, Windows users will be able to access their ‌iCloud‌ Keychain passwords on their Windows machines through the Chrome browser. It's not clear if Apple will offer this extension for Mac machines in the future as well, and it appears to be limited to Windows at this time.

AirPods held a disproportionately large share of the global wireless headset market in 2020, according to a new report by Strategy Analytics.

With sales of over 300 million units, the True Wireless Stereo (TWS) Bluetooth headset sales market grew by almost 90 percent last year. Apple's AirPods own almost half of the entire market, with the rest being made up of a large number of companies with individually small shares.

In spite of Apple's dominance, Strategy Analytics notes that its lead is shrinking as competition intensifies:

"Apple maintained a commanding lead in the TWS segment in 2020, but its commanding share is shrinking as competition intensifies. Strong competition is expected from Xiaomi, Samsung, and Huawei in 2021," said Ken Hyers, Director at Strategy Analytics. "The TWS headset market is already hugely overcrowded and despite a strong sales outlook, there will inevitably be consolidation in the years ahead."

It is expected that there is still "plenty of potential in the broader Bluetooth headset market," due to low penetration and an install base that remains small. According to Ville-Petteri Ukonaho, Associate Director at Strategy Analytics, "less than one in ten people own a Bluetooth headset globally, so there is still significant room for growth." In addition to this, as vendors move away from bundling wired headsets with new smartphones, Strategy Analytics foresees considerable growth potential in the market.