News on the margin the week of January 21-28

Unprecedented sales for Apple exceeding 100 billion last quarter, Apple regains the lead in brands, Europe calls technology leaders, WhatsApp supports the web footprint. Other news on the sidelines ...

Historic sales of Apple last quarter of $ 111 billion

Yesterday, Apple revealed unprecedented business results, as sales of all company sectors jumped to exceed the total revenues of $ 100 billion for the first time and reached $ 111.5 billion, and the most prominent results were as follows compared to the same quarter of the previous year:

• Revenue of $ 111.439 billion compared to 91.819 billion for the same quarter, i.e. a growth of 21.3%
• The appliances sector achieved sales of 95.6 billion compared to 79.1 billion in the same quarter, i.e. a growth of 20.9%.
• Services achieved 15.76 billion compared to 12.7 billion for the same quarter, i.e. a growth of 23.9%
• IPhone sales jumped to 65.6 billion from 55.95 billion, a growth of 17.2%.
• The iPad achieved the best growth rates, increasing to 8.4 billion compared to 5.9 billion, i.e. a growth rate of 41.1%
• The wearable devices and accessories sector achieved 12.97 billion compared to 10 billion, i.e. a growth of 29.58%.
• Apple's sales increased in all countries of the world, and the largest increase was in China, which increased 57% to $ 21.3 billion.

Apple is once again the most valuable brand in the world

A report by the Brand Finance Center revealed that Apple returned to the top of the most valuable brands in the world after achieving 87.4% growth during 2020 in the evaluation of the brand, bringing the value of the "Apple logo" to 263 billion dollars, followed by Amazon with 254 billion, Google 191 billion, then Microsoft 140 billion. Apple was previously achieving the first place, but it has lost it since 2016 to Amazon, but it has returned to its classification. The report showed that Tesla achieved the largest growth in brand value as a percentage, achieving 157%.

WhatsApp will support fingerprint for web use

A report said that WhatsApp will soon update to support privacy by requesting a FaceID fingerprint or a fingerprint, so when adding the account on the web, that is, when you want to use WhatsApp from the browser and scan the famous QR code, it is in order to protect your privacy and that you are really the one who is trying to add this You will need to authenticate the type of fingerprint on your device.

Apple is the most mobile company in the world in the last quarter of 2020

The Canalys Center published its analysis of sales in the fourth quarter of 2020 and said that Apple topped the list with 81.8 million devices, far behind Samsung in second place with 62 million, then Xiaomi in the third with 43.4 million, then Opo in the fourth with 34.7 million, thus Apple has sold more iPhones than Xiaomi and Oppo. together. Apple captured a 23% share of sales in the last quarter.

The European Union prepares the heads of Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon

Lawmakers in the European Union have sent a request to the heads of Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon to attend a hearing on a number of strict measures that will target them in order to deter them from exercising their monopoly as well as forcing them to work on combating fake news and harmful content spread on the Internet and Facebook. Legislators made it clear that the subpoena is for discussion about laws and the possibility of reaching a common understanding rather than issuing a mandatory binding decision for the companies without hearing their defense and suggestions to prevent the matters being criticized.

Significant increase in iPad assembly outside China

Several reports stated that Apple will open in the middle of this year a huge iPad assembly plant in Vietnam, making a large proportion of the assembled devices outside China. Reports said that, despite Trump's departure, Apple will continue the process of moving factories outside the Chinese dragon and distributing them to several production places, adding that the company is considering assembling its latest iPhone 12 phone also in India and Vietnam. Reports indicated that Vietnamese factories have already started producing a major part of smart speakers and the HomePod & AirPods headphones. In order not to repeat the mistake of focusing on one place, Apple is currently establishing a Mac mini factory in Malaysia, according to reports. Apple aims that over a few years, a large portion of production will take place outside of China.

IOS 15 will not support iPhone 6s and other devices

Leaks revealed the list of devices that will be supported by iOS 15, which will be announced at WWDC after less than 5 months; The list revealed that the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, iPhone SE, first generation, iPad mini 4, iPad Air 2 and iPad 5, which are devices operating with the A9 and A8X processor, have been stopped from updating.

Apple updates its basic and experimental systems

In conjunction with Apple's launch of the iOS 14.4 update, the company also updated its other systems, as follows:

◉ Mac Big Sur 11.2, which has reached the second beta version; The update comes in order to solve problems with bluetooth and connecting to external displays via HDMI To DVI adapters. Also fixed problems with editing ProRAW images and other fixes.

◉ The HomePod 14.4 speaker system came to support the hand off feature and various U1-based improvements.

◉ WatchOS 7.3 came to support the wake-up time feature and a number of new faces, the provision of an ECG app, and the application of breathing in Japan, the Philippines, Thailand and Mayotte Island, and fixed a number of problems.

◉ TVOS 14.4 No new features have been recognized yet, but only performance improvements.

Report: Apple AR glasses are pricey and niche

Bloomberg has revealed its latest report on Apple AR glasses that Apple plans to unveil in 2022 to compete with Facebook, Sony and HTC glasses. The report said that the Apple headset will be very expensive, which is an interesting term as its current competitors have a price ranging between $ 300 to $ 900, and this means that Apple's glasses will exceed a thousand dollars; The sources confirmed that the price is high, as they said that Apple stores may only sell 1 glasses per day. The glasses, according to reports, will have a processor that exceeds the current M1 because it will offer advanced functions. The report added that the glasses may need a fan for cooling, which is strange because Apple has started removing fans from the Mac, so will you add them in glasses!

AirPods Max disassemble

The iFixit team disassembled the popular Apple AirPods Max and awarded 6 out of 10 in Easy Repair where 10 is the easiest; The team's analysis of the stethoscope was as follows:

• There are 2 batteries in the speaker, each of them is located at the right end of the speaker and connected by one cable. The total capacity of them is 664mah, and they work at a power of 4.35 volts, which means a capacity of 2.53 watt hours.
• The left end of the speaker houses a large, bulky antenna.
• The speaker is charged by the famous Lightning cable, which is the same function that plays the audio by wired.
• The electro-mechanical hinge devices developed by Apple are overly complex. Apple also uses a large number of screws, or as the report described as "a huge amount", which may cause a problem and confusion.
• Attaching and separating the earbuds is easy, this is done magnetically and does not require any special tools as it can be removed with a simple click of any tool, even if it is a paper clip or a SIM ejector.
• The battery and speaker are bolted and use easy-to-repair connections.
• Some of the internal parts are protected by adhesive materials which makes repairing them complicated.

Miscellaneous news

◉ Apple has published the first integrated guide for designing its TV applications so that it is a comprehensive reference for everything related to the design of the device, whether icons or fonts, and the various elements and buttons.

◉ Apple has released a sixth-generation version of its watch designed to commemorate “Black History” and is designed to commemorate African Americans who have suffered persecution. The watch comes as part of an initiative that Apple is currently undertaking to combat racial discrimination.

◉ Amazon started selling the latest Apple AirPods Max after sales were only available through Apple directly.

◉ Microsoft has posted a commercial video for its Surface devices and mocked the MacBook Pro in it. Watch the ad

https://youtu.be/sdrus8zmRLc

◉ Apple announced that, starting with the upcoming iOS beta, it will start implementing its privacy regulations by forcing apps to show users a tracking request.

◉ A report by the CIRP Center indicated that the iPhone 12 family represented 56% of all iPhone sales in the last quarter of 2020 and the average price of the phone sold was $ 873, which means an increase in the proportion of more expensive phones.

◉ Google announced a redesign of search results on phones so that more details appear, similar to search results from the computer.

Apple has updated its Xcode developer tool to version 12.4 to support the latest operating releases it launched this week.

◉ Microsoft released the three beta versions (Canary, Developers and Beta) of its Edge browser on Mac with support for the M1 processor.

◉ According to press reports, Hyundai may assign Kia to manufacture new Apple cars, especially since Kia already has a factory in America. It is reported that Hyundai is in an alliance with Kia and owns 33.8% of it.

◉ Apple said that last quarter witnessed the largest upgrade rates in the history of the iPhone, meaning that there is a user who has an old phone and decides to buy the latest.

◉ Tim Cook said that Apple had the largest number of FaceTime connections in the company's history during the "Christmas" holiday season.

◉ Apple said it now has more than 1 billion active iPhones out of the 1.65 billion iPhones sold throughout its history.

◉ Apple has supported syncing passwords across Windows and Chrome with iCloud For Windows.

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