By Alex Brooks iPad with Retina Display (4th gen) | Image courtesy of Apple
Today Apple did something somewhat out of the norm for the company, despite being rumoured ahead of time Apple released a new model of the iPad. But it didn’t change anything apart from the storage capacity, offering a whopping 128GB of storage for a meaty $799 (£639) for the WiFi model or $929 (£739) for the WiFi and Cellular model. This new iPad will be available to buy on February 5th.
There are many questions as to why Apple released this iPad this week or why in the supposed era of cloud storage that a 128GB iPad is even required. However it’s not that hard to speculate as to why Apple announced the 128GB iPad (apart from to try and out do Microsoft’s release of Office 2013) today.
Thinking logically the iPad 4 which has been somewhat constrained through the holiday shopping season is now almost universally available for immediate shipping, suggesting that Apple has caught up with any assembly backlog and is in a strong position to add an additional bunch of units to inventory.
Price will also have been a strong factor, the 128GB iPad with Retina Display offers double the amount of storage to the model below it. Such a large amount of flash memory (NAND) isn’t cheap but the price is plummeting, clearly it has plummeted far enough for Apple to stick some in a sub-$800 iPad.
But in my mind the 128GB iPad sends a strong message about Apple’s intentions. It’s a subject I’ve touched on before over the years and will in more detail bring up again soon and that Apple’s new product cycle. The current iPad was unveiled alongside the iPad mini in October last year, notably it was the second model of iPad to be released in a single year. Apple had little choice but to bring out the iPad 4 just nine months after it had the iPad 3, the technology and graphics benefits of the A6X chip were on the table to be used and there was no way Apple was going to carry a flagship product through the all-important holiday shopping season that contained a now extinct connector on the bottom.
However there was one key distinction that I had seen before and that was the obscurity of Apple’s March release schedule for the iPad. With the iPhone being on a solid end of summer release cycle and iOS releases matching up closely to that it made no sense why Apple continued to release iPad models mid way through the iPhone cycle with out dated hardware (compared to the iPhone on the market) and not benefit from the latest software. In essence Apple used the Lightning connector and the advancements in the iPhone 5 as an excuse to double release in 2012 and land the iPad on a new annual cycle.
This is where the 128GB iPad comes in, the release sends a clear message that despite rumours to the contrary Apple will not release a new iPad in March or April and the next update to the iPad will come in October alongside the second iPad mini, iOS 7 and will ready Apple for another blockbuster year end.
I’ll pick up this subject in more detail soon but many have speculated that Apple will move to a twice-yearly update of iOS hardware. We only have to look at the beating that Apple’s earnings took over the quarter to realise that the ramp-up and production of these products is seriously capital intensive and even when carefully planned leaves Apple vulnerable to extreme demand and an inability to supply customers with the products they want. There’s no way Apple wants to spend three months catching up to only have to start the process again.
[And in answer to the question that is hitting my inbox a lot. What will Apple release between now and the second half of the year? Not a whole lot I suspect]
By Alex Brooks Chart of Apple’s Quarterly Revenue up to fiscal Q113
Apple today announced financial results for its first fiscal quarter of 2013 which ran from October 1 until December 31 2012. The Company posted revenue of $54.5 billion and net quarterly profit of $13.1 billion, or $13.81 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $46.3 billion and net quarterly profit of $13.1 billion, or $13.87 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter which had an additional calendar week. Gross margin was 38.6 percent compared to 44.7 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 61 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
For the first time Apple reported average weekly revenue which was $4.2 billion compared to $3.3 billion in the year-ago-quarter.
Apple reported the following number of shipments for its products during the quarter:
47.8 million iPhones compared to 37 million in the year-ago-quarter
22.9 million iPads compared to 15.4 million in the year-ago-quarter
4.1 million Macs compared to 5.2 million in the year-ago quarter
12.7 million iPods compared to 15.4 million in the year-ago quarter.
“We’re thrilled with record revenue of over $54 billion and sales of over 75 million iOS devices in a single quarter,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re very confident in our product pipeline as we continue to focus on innovation and making the best products in the world.”
“We’re pleased to have generated over $23 billion in cash flow from operations during the quarter,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “We established new all-time quarterly records for iPhone and iPad sales, significantly broadened our ecosystem, and generated Apple’s highest quarterly revenue ever.”
Apple provided the following guidance for its fiscal 2013 second quarter:
revenue between $41 billion and $43 billion
gross margin between 37.5 percent and 38.5 percent
operating expenses between $3.8 billion and $3.9 billion
other income/(expense) of $350 million
tax rate of 26%
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By brolloh Panarama
iOS 6 gave us a vast number of improvements, one of which is an ability that’s been a mainstay of the App Store for many years – Panorama. Even Microsoft brought panorama to the iPhone before Apple! As is now standard practise for Apple, it’s the integration and usability of Panorama which really sets it apart.
Found within the Camera app alongside the options to display a grid and HDR mode. Panorama instructs the user to swipe the iOS device from left to right. The instructional arrow also tells us when we go off-centre, a little bit like that famous helicopter game, Apple have made it a little bit of a mini-game.
When you’re mid-flow be aware that at it’s full width your panorama will be 28 Megapixels in total, taking in just under 180
By Alex Brooks Apple’s quarterly revenue estimate for the first fiscal quarter of 2013
You may recall that almost exactly one year ago I wrote a piece entitled The Forty Billion Dollar Quarter in which I riled in excitement about Apple’s upcoming announcement of what it had achieved in the previous fiscal quarter. I predicted dropped jaws across Wall Street and I wasn’t wrong. Apple eventually announced quarterly revenue for the first quarter of 2012 of just over $46 billion buoyed primarily by superb sales of the iPhone and iPad.
The first fiscal quarter of Apple’s year is always something special, it of course includes the holiday shopping season which these days stretches from around Thanksgiving in the US all the way up until the end of the quarter on December 31. But even if you go back and read my gushing piece about last years first quarter, nothing can prepare any of us for what Apple is likely to announce on January 23.
I’ll spare you anymore blathering about how incredible last year’s results and move right onto the cold hard facts. Let’s start right back at the start of the quarter, during Apple’s Q412 announcement on October 25 the company gave a forecast for the company’s forthcoming quarter which came in at $52 billion in quarterly revenue on an DEPS (diluted earnings per share) of $11.75. Considering Apple’s penchant for low balling its estimates and that the year-ago quarter was comparatively massive compared to any other and yet was smaller than this forecast it’s no surprise that once again all eyes are on Apple. Sorry, am I showing too much excitement again?
There’s a number of key factors that are going to make this quarter as massive as expected. Starting with the iPad we’ll get our first insight into how popular the iPad mini is, whilst it’s unlikely that Apple will break out sales as a separate figure we’ll get a rough idea. Apple of course also announced a new iPad just before the start of Q113 so the company entered the quarter with a new iPad and a whole new product in the iPad mini.
The rollout of these two new iPads was unprecedented. The WiFi models of both iPad rolled out to a mammoth 34 countries on at the start of November, just three days later Apple told us that it had shifted over 3 million units. Stock of the iPad mini and to some extent of the iPad 4 has been heavily constrained throughout the entire quarter but don’t expect that to dent the numbers too noticeably.
In a similar vein the iPhone 5 only really got started during the quarter and we’ve got some insight already into just how popular that has been. Once again Apple has been ramping up its rollout around the world, by early December the iPhone 5 was available in 47 countries. That number climbed to 102 countries by the time the quarter ended. More importantly Apple hit all of its major growing markets during the quarter including Brazil, Mexico, India and China in which the company announced that it had sold two million units in the opening weekend. Supplies of the iPhone 5 were also constrained across the world for the entire quarter something that probably will have affected sales noticeably.
Estimates are yet to be fully finalised and published and as ever I will give a more concise roundup of said estimates closer to January 23 but there are some out there that expect Apple’s quarterly revenue number to top $60 billion in quarterly revenue. Yes, sixty.
By brolloh Christmas has been and gone but hopefully you’ve got some iOS 6 based goodies to remember it by! We thought we’d share some relevant SquareCMD posts to help you master your iPad, iPod touch or iPhone.
There may be times when you’re using your iPad and resting it on your lap isn’t possible, on a cramped tube train perhaps? Holding it with one hand and typing on a full side QWERTY iPad keyboard isn’t natural at all!
iOS introduced a neat trick we’d like to introduce you to, the iPad split keyboard.
To invoke the split keyboard simply place two fingers on the keyboard and pull them horizontally toward the outer edges of the iPad. Now you’re able to type with your thumbs and hold the device with two hands! (It takes a bit of practise to type like this but keep it up, it’ll come!)
More soon!
The post SquareCMD: Post Christmas iOS Tips – iPad Keyboard appeared first on SQUARE.
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