Year: 2019

Apple COO Jeff Williams says he is ‘aware’ of iPhone and Mac price concerns

CompuScoop Staff February 25, 2019 0

Apple COO Jeff Williams delivered a brief speech at at Elon University where he touched on a variety of topics including the rising cost of the company's products and inaccuracy of analyst cost estimates.

The short speech took place Friday, February 22 at Elon University where he talked about Apple's incredible growth since he joined two decades ago. During a question and answer session following the speech, Williams was asked by a student regarding Apple's plans to lower product prices. The student also cited a recent report that claims an iPhone only costs $350 to manufacture.

"The stories that come out about the cost of our products [have been] the bane of my existence from the beginning of time, including our early days," said Williams. "Analysts don't really understand the cost of what we do and how much care we put into making our products."

The Times News, who covered the speech, describes the lengths Apple has gone to for its product development. Citing the Apple Watch as an example, instead of just mimicking fitness trackers that existed prior to Apple's wearable, the company built an entire physiology lab with 40 licensed nurses and enlisted the help of 10,000 participants to further study how calories are burned in various fitness exercises.

Williams did admit he understands the concern of Apple's rising price points — which has been especially noticeable on the iPhone models that now can sell for well over $1000.

"It's something we're very aware of," Williams said. "We do not want to be an elitist company. That's not — we want to be an egalitarian company, and we've got a lot of work going on in developing markets."

Via: Appleinsider.com

CNBC: Microsoft reveals an A.I. Camera for developers

CompuScoop Staff February 25, 2019 0

Microsoft announced the introduction of a new smart camera for business at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona on Sunday.

Microsoft is drawing on both its Kinect and Azure public cloud brands, as it sets off on the next phase in the company’s emphasis on artificial intelligence — an area Microsoft identified as a top priority in a recent annual report.

The Microsoft Azure Kinect is “new intelligent edge device that enables developers to create a wide range of AI-powered experiences,” Julia White, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for Azure marketing, said at the conference.

The system has a 1-megapixel depth camera, a 12-megapixel camera and a seven-microphone array on board. It will work with “a range of compute types,” White said.

The device will cost $399, and it’s now available for developers to pre-order, White said.

Yet other companies have their sights set on the AI camera market as well. Indeed, in late 2017, Amazon Web Services announced an AI camera targeted at developers. Google, another major cloud provider, doesn’t have an AI camera for developers, but it has announced Google Clips, which is aimed at consumers.

Microsoft first released the Kinect sensor hardware for use with Xbox game consoles in 2010, and in 2012 it introduced a version of the device for PCs running Windows. In 2017, Microsoft announced that it had stopped making Kinect systems, saying that it had sold 35 million of them.

Last year the company started talking about Kinect technology in the context of Azure. Now, the technology has a cleaned-up look. White said the new product is the result of a collaboration of Microsoft’s Azure cloud group and its devices team, which has previously created Surface Hub business devices, among other things.

Early users of the Microsoft Azure Kinect include AVA Retail, to enable self-checkout and “grab-and-go shopping,” as well as Ocuvera. The latter is working with Cleveland Clinic to predict when patients are about to fall, White said.

AT&T gives 3G cell service three more years to live

Dan Uff February 24, 2019 0

Cell services have decided - the days of 3G service in the United States are numbered.

AT&T said to the Gazett publication, that it plans to shut the 3G service down in early 2022 to make room for more powerful and faster standards. The decision was disclosed in a regulatory filing last Wednesday. The decision seems to come after rival Verizon warned customers that it too will stop 3G services at the end of 2019.

The ‘killing’ of 3G services was all but certain after cell companies spent billions of dollars expanding and blanketing 4G service in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Moving customers off 3G allows carriers to free up wireless frequencies for 4G signals over broader swaths of the radio spectrum. Verizon said in a recent filing it is “aggressively refarming 3G bands” for 4G but still needs more spectrum to keep up with its users’ demands.

Forbes: Apple begins to look like Microsoft

CompuScoop Staff February 24, 2019 0

When it comes to its stock performance, Apple is following Microsoft. It’s where Microsoft’s stock was at the end of Dot-com bubble.

A value play for conservative investors.

That’s according to Jeff Yastine, senior equities analysts at Banyan Hill Publishing. Apple’s “days of ‘hockey stick’ superfast growth might be over,” says Yastine. “But it's just beginning a far longer era of moderate, sustainable growth that makes it a core holding for more conservative-minded investors.”

Conservative investors can count on Apple’s cash, which can be used for dividend hikes. “With $66 billion in cash, strong consistent cash flow from its services operations, and a dividend payout ratio of roughly 25%, Apple is just beginning to be an income investor's favorite stock,” adds Yastine. “I expect Apple to once again raise its dividend sometime in late April or early May by another 5-10%.”

That’s not bad in a low inflation environment. Meanwhile, Apple’s momentum could be revived again once the next big thing comes along.

What might that be? 5G internet technology, according to Yastine.

“The key to Apple's next big gusher of profits is superfast 5G internet technology,” explains Yastine. “The rollout of 5G won't happen in earnest until 2020, so it’s just a little too far off the radar yet to make a difference to the stock right now. But as Americans begin to experience what it's like surfing the internet with 5G technology, I believe they will run not walk to their local Apple stores to buy a 5G-enabled iPhone, and Apple will start a whole new cycle of rising profits.”

Then there’s Apple’s potential in India, a country with a big fortune at the bottom of the pyramid, to use a term C.K. Prahalad a couple of decades ago. That’s the trillions in disposable income waiting in the hands of the masses of poor at the bottom of India’s income pyramid.

Tapping into this market could make it up for Apple’s shortfall in China. But it won’t be easy. It requires cheaper versions of iPhone, which will depress Apple’s margins.

Meanwhile, there’s Apple ID, the company’s vehicle for making the transition from a manufacturing to a service company. Apple’s service revenue jumped 27% in 2018 to reached $10 billion. And it has been highlighted on its recent financial reports.

This transition to services could set the stage for the adoption of SaaS (Software as a Service), Apple’s software distribution model in which a third-party provider hosts applications and makes them available to customers over its devices. SaaS has already been tested successfully in a number of high-tech companies, including Systems and Salesforce. It has provided them with steady revenue and earnings flow, attractingWall Street’s attention.

And it could do the same for Apple.