| From: Jon Koplik | 9/15/2023 12:07:44 PM | | | | | | Bloomberg / Apple Staff Urged to Stay Mum on iPhone 12 Radiation Issue ........................
Bloomberg
September 14, 2023
Apple Tech Support Staff Urged to Stay Mum on iPhone 12 Radiation Issue
The French government asked Apple to cease sales of the iPhone 12 because tests showed that the device emits electromagnetic waves that are too strong.
By Mark Gurman
Apple Inc., facing a controversy in France over the iPhone 12’s radiation levels, has advised tech-support staff not to volunteer any information when consumers ask about the issue.
If customers inquire about the French government’s claim that the model exceeds standards for electromagnetic radiation, workers should say they don’t have anything to share, Apple employees have been told. Staff should also reject customers’ requests to return or exchange the phone unless it was purchased in the past two weeks -- Apple’s normal return policy.
Customers asking if the phone is safe should be told that all Apple products go through rigorous testing to ensure that they’re safe, according to the guidance.
The French government asked Apple earlier this week to cease sales of the iPhone 12 because tests showed that the device emits electromagnetic waves that are too strong. The country’s digital minister told Apple it has two weeks to fix the issue via a software update.
Apple rebutted the claims and said it would engage with France to show that the iPhone 12 is compliant. The Cupertino, California-based technology giant said it provided officials with in-house and third-party lab testing to demonstrate that the product is within the legal range.
Apple was already phasing out the iPhone 12 just as the issue flared up. The model debuted in 2020, and Apple stopped selling it Tuesday with the announcement of the iPhone 15 line. But France’s stance threatens to spark concern among the millions of existing iPhone 12 users. Apple sold more than 100 million units of the device within its first seven months on sale, according to Counterpoint Research.
In the days since France’s initial statement, other countries in the European Union, including Belgium and Germany, have started to assess the iPhone 12’s radiation levels.
© 2023 Bloomberg L.P.
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| From: Jon Koplik | 9/21/2023 5:15:23 PM | | | | | | full text / WSJ / Inside Apple’s Spectacular Failure to Build a Key Part for Its New iPhones .................
WSJ
Sept. 20, 2023
Inside Apple’s Spectacular Failure to Build a Key Part for Its New iPhones
The company set out to design a silicon chip that would allow it to cut ties with Qualcomm, a longtime supplier and bitter foe
By Aaron Tilley and Yang Jie
The new iPhone models unveiled last week are missing a proprietary silicon chip that Apple had spent several years and billions of dollars trying to develop in time for the rollout.
The 2018 marching orders from Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook to design and build a modem chip -- a part that connects iPhones to wireless carriers -- led to the hiring of thousands of engineers. The goal was to sever Apple’s grudging dependence on Qualcomm, a longtime chip supplier that dominates the modem market.
The obstacles to finishing the chip were largely of Apple’s own making, according to former company engineers and executives familiar with the project.
Apple had planned to have its modem chip ready to use in the new iPhone models. But tests late last year found the chip was too slow and prone to overheating. Its circuit board was so big it would take up half an iPhone, making it unusable.
Investors had counted on Apple saving money with an in-house chip to help compensate for weak demand in the larger smartphone market. Apple -- which hasn’t publicly acknowledged its modem project, much less its shortcomings -- is estimated to have paid more than $7.2 billion to Qualcomm last year for the chips.
Engineering teams working on Apple’s modem chip have been slowed by technical challenges, poor communication and managers split over the wisdom of trying to design the chips rather than buy them, these people said. Teams were siloed in separate groups across the U.S. and abroad without a global leader. Some managers discouraged the airing of bad news from engineers about delays or setbacks, leading to unrealistic goals and blown deadlines.
“Just because Apple builds the best silicon on the planet, it’s ridiculous to think that they could also build a modem,” said former Apple wireless director Jaydeep Ranade, who left the company in 2018, the year the project began.
There were two reasons for the push, said former Apple executives and engineers familiar with the matter: Apple believed it could replicate the success of the microprocessor chips it designed for iPhones. Adoption of those chips fattened profit margins and improved performance for billions of devices. Second, Apple wanted to sever ties with Qualcomm, which it had accused in a 2017 lawsuit of overcharging for its patent royalties.
The companies settled the suit in 2019, and Apple, facing the expiration of its previous Qualcomm agreement, announced a deal last week to continue buying the company’s modem chips through 2026. Apple isn’t expected to produce a comparable chip until late 2025, people familiar with the matter said. There could be further delays, these people said, but the company believes it will eventually succeed.
Apple found that designing a microprocessor, essentially a tiny computer to run software, was easy by comparison. Modem chips, which transmit and receive wireless data, must comply with strict connectivity standards to serve wireless carriers around the world.
“These delays indicate Apple didn’t anticipate the complexity of the effort,” said Serge Willenegger, a former longtime Qualcomm executive who left the company in 2018 and doesn’t know the current state of the Apple chip. “Cellular is a monster.”
Apple’s push to build more of the various semiconductors used in its products stretches back more than a decade. In 2010, the company began using its own processing chips in iPhones and iPads. The chips helped Apple outperform many of its Android rivals, which relied on chips from Qualcomm, Taiwan-based
MediaTek and other makers.
The company in 2020 began replacing processor chips from Intel, used for years in Mac computers, with a proprietary chip that allowed its laptops to run faster and generate less heat, improvements that helped boost flagging Mac sales. The Apple chip also saved the company an estimated $75 to $150 on every computer.
Credit for the success of Apple processor chips brought praise and increased authority to Johny Srouji, the company’s chip leader. “After shipping the first iPhone, we decided that the best way to deliver the best experience to our customers is to own and develop and design our silicon in-house,” Srouji said this year at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, his alma mater.
Split screen
Apple code-named its modem chip project Sinope, after the nymph in Greek mythology who outsmarted Zeus. It began taking shape in 2018, following the directive of Cook, Srouji, and others for Apple to build its own wireless components, said Chris Deaver, a former Apple human-resources executive and co-founder of BraveCore consultants.
By then, Apple’s relationship with Qualcomm had turned ugly. The companies bickered and swapped accusations of lying, theft and monopolistic practices.
Rubén Caballero, Apple’s longtime head of wireless, supported the Intel chip partnership at the time, while Srouji, senior vice president of hardware technologies, backed the pursuit of a company-built chip, said people involved in the project. Caballero left Apple in 2019.
Many members of Caballero’s team who were versed in wireless chip design were placed under Srouji. Other employees engaged in complementary wireless work, such as antenna design, were split off into the hardware engineering group. One of the top project managers on Srouji’s team had no background in wireless technology, said people who worked on the project.
Apple, which had been poaching engineering talent from Qualcomm for years, stepped up those efforts in March 2019. The company announced a new engineering hub in San Diego, Qualcomm’s hometown, and planned to add around 1,200 local jobs. That summer, Apple announced the acquisition of Intel’s wireless team and a portfolio of wireless patents.
Srouji flew to Munich to greet Apple’s newly acquired Intel wireless employees in December 2019. He told a gathering that the modem-chip project would be a game changer for Apple, the next step in the company’s evolution, said people who watched the meeting. He said the chip would distinguish Apple devices, as Apple’s processors had done.
As Apple filled the project’s ranks with Intel engineers and others hired from Qualcomm, company executives set a goal to have the modem chip ready for fall 2023. It soon became apparent to many of the wireless experts on the project that meeting the goal was impossible.
Apple found that employing the brute force of thousands of engineers, a strategy successful for designing the computer brain of its smartphones and laptops, wasn’t enough to quickly produce a superior modem chip.
Tall order
Modem chips are trickier to make than processing chips because they must work seamlessly with 5G wireless networks, as well as the 2G, 3G and 4G networks used in countries around the world, each with its own technological quirks. Apple microprocessors run software programs designed solely for its iPhones and laptops.
Apple executives who didn’t have experience with wireless chips set tight timelines that weren’t realistic, former project engineers said. Teams had to build prototype versions of the chips and certify they would work with the many wireless carriers worldwide, a time-consuming job.
Executives better understood the challenge after Apple tested its prototypes late last year. The results weren’t good, according to people familiar with the tests. The chips were essentially three years behind Qualcomm’s best modem chip. Using them threatened to make iPhone wireless speeds slower than its competitors.
The company scratched plans to use the chips in Apple’s 2023 models, and the planned rollout was moved to 2024. Eventually, Apple executives realized the company wouldn’t meet that goal either. Apple instead opened negotiations with Qualcomm to continue supplying the modem chips. Apple’s licensing deal with Qualcomm expires in April 2025, though it can be extended for another two years.
Apple has the cash and the desire to keep pursuing its modem chip, according to people involved with the project.
“Apple isn’t going to give up,” said Edward Snyder, a managing director of Charter Equity Research and a wireless industry expert. “They hate Qualcomm’s living guts.”
Write to Aaron Tilley at aaron.tilley@wsj.com and Yang Jie at jie.yang@wsj.com
Copyright © 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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| From: Jon Koplik | 9/28/2023 1:45:41 AM | | | | | | WSJ / full text / iPhone 15 Pro Owners Complain About Overheating Problems ...................
WSJ
TECHNOLOGY
PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY
Sept. 27, 2023
iPhone 15 Pro Owners Complain About Overheating Problems
The issue could threaten Apple’s premium phones, a cash cow essential to its growth and profits
By Aaron Tilley, Joanna Stern, and Yang Jie
The new iPhone 15 Pro may be too hot for some to handle. Literally.
Apple’s priciest new iPhones are heating up in some scenarios, reaching high temperatures that make them difficult to touch at certain times, according to reviews, tests by The Wall Street Journal and social-media posts from buyers in China, the U.S. and Canada. Some iPhone 14 Pro owners have noticed similar hot temperatures over the past year.
The high temperatures in Apple’s newest 15 Pro models -- typically when charging and using intensive apps -- are prompting concerns that the company might need to address overheating in software updates that could impact performance. Premium iPhones have long been a critical cash cow for Apple as smartphone demand has slumped globally. The company is hoping the iPhone 15, especially its Pro models, will return its business to growth.
Thomas Galvin, a 23-year-old from Cleveland, says his iPhone 15 Pro Max has been “super hot” and that he is considering returning it. Apple customer support told him the heat was a result of setting up the new phone, but even a few days later, it is still “way worse than the iPhone 13 Pro Max,” he said.
Apple declined to comment on the reports.
Other users on X (formerly known as Twitter) and Reddit have had similar complaints about the heat, with some mentioning that the phone had become so warm it is difficult to hold.
The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern noted in her review last week that the iPhone 15 Pro Max hit 106 degrees Fahrenheit while charging. In further testing, the phone reached temperatures up to 112 degrees when simultaneously charging and doing processor-intensive tasks, such as gaming.
The iPhone 14 Pro Max hit similar temperatures in the same test. During typical everyday usage -- texting, emailing, scrolling through Instagram -- the temperatures have been in the normal range for both of our test phones.
Titanium troubles?
Ming-Chi Kuo, an influential Apple analyst at TF International Securities who follows the company’s supply chain, attributed the heat issues to the iPhone 15 Pro’s new lightweight design, which might not dissipate heat as well as past models. The new titanium frame found in just the Pro models is also likely an issue, Kuo said. Titanium is a poor conductor of heat, making it difficult to get heat out of the phone.
In a test of an iPhone 15 Pro Max by Chinese tech information platform DGtle, downloading the hit mobile game “Genshin Impact” on a 5G network caused the phone to heat up to around 122 degrees Fahrenheit. Playing the game in high-resolution mode for about 15 minutes kept the phone at a similar temperature.
On another popular Chinese social-media platform, a user identified as Zengzeng complained that her new iPhone 15 Pro frequently overheated. She said she was trying to charge the device while sending text and voice messages, which normally doesn’t put too much stress on a phone’s processor, but got a “charge on hold” warning because the phone was overheating.
The trade-off between weight and heat dissipation has long been a challenge for Apple. The company is considering using a new material for the phone’s printed circuit board next year, making it thinner and better at dissipating heat, according to people familiar with Apple’s supply plans.
In certain regions, including China, Apple includes a physical SIM card slot in its iPhones because of regulatory requirements and user habits. Adding a slot to the phone’s already-cramped interior creates additional challenges for heat dissipation, said people familiar with the iPhone’s design. This design isn’t new and hasn’t proved to be a problem in previous years, but it might contribute to the overheating problem, along with other factors such as the use of titanium, the people said.
‘The Icarus theory’
Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit, a popular iPhone repair website, also said that one potential reason for the hot iPhones is that the new titanium case design has less mass to absorb the heat.
“It’s the Icarus theory,” he added. “Apple flew too close to the sun, and the wings started melting off.”
September is usually a season when users discover challenges with new iPhones or the software that runs them. Last year, for example, some iPhone 14 owners set off Apple’s car-crash detection while on roller coasters. The company later released software updates to improve the feature.
Apple is facing a slowing smartphone market, making any problems with its latest models an issue for the company. Global smartphone shipments are expected to decline 6% annually to 1.15 billion devices by the end of this year, the lowest smartphone shipment figure in a decade, according to Counterpoint Research.
iPhone sales declined 2.4% to $39.7 billion in the company’s most recent earnings report for the quarter ended July 1, missing analysts’ expectations. The iPhone still takes up around half of Apple’s total sales.
Many of the social media postings indicate that problems mostly exist in the Pros versions of the latest iPhone. The more expensive Pro models are especially important to Apple, as it keeps sales moving upward even if the company is shipping less phone volumes.
Kuo said that Apple could address this heat issue with software updates, but improvements might be limited if Apple doesn’t lower the chip’s performance.
“If Apple does not properly address this issue, it could negatively impact shipments over the product life cycle of the iPhone 15 Pro series,” Kuo said.
Write to Joanna Stern at joanna.stern@wsj.com, Aaron Tilley at aaron.tilley@wsj.com and Yang Jie at jie.yang@wsj.com
Copyright © 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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| From: Jon Koplik | 12/12/2023 11:28:13 AM | | | | | | Bloomberg / Google’s Epic legal defeat threatens $200 billion app store industry .....................
Bloomberg
December 12, 2023
Google’s Epic Legal Defeat Threatens $200 Billion App Store Industry
-------------------------------------
Jury decision poised to accelerate crumbling of business model
Case takes aim at app store commissions of up to 30%
Google Loses App Store Antitrust Fight With Fortnite Maker Epic Games
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By Mark Gurman and Davey Alba
Google’s legal defeat at the hands of Fortnite maker Epic Games Inc. threatens to roil an app store duopoly with Apple Inc. that generates close to $200 billion a year and dictates how billions of consumers use mobile devices.
The loss -- handed down by a San Francisco jury on Monday -- is a blow to the two companies’ business model in apps, where they charge commissions of as much as 30% to software developers who typically have few other options. Google shares were down less than 1% in New York Tuesday morning at $132.62.
Epic has spent years railing against the practice and got a federal jury to agree that Alphabet Inc.’s Google unit had acted unfairly as a monopoly. The case is likely to accelerate the weakening of app store rules, which have already come under fire from regulators and lawmakers around the world.
“The dominoes are going to start falling here,” Tim Sweeney, chief executive officer of Epic, said in an interview after the verdict. “The end of 30% is in sight.”
Though Apple won a similar case against Epic in 2021, that ruling was made by a single judge. The nature of the Google suit -- where a jury sided unanimously with Epic -- let actual consumers weigh in on the world of smartphone apps. In under four hours of deliberations, they found that Google had engaged in anti-competitive conduct, harmed Epic and illegally forced its own billing system on developers.
There were other significant differences between the Apple and Google trials. During the current case, Epic highlighted agreements Google reached with top game developers, including Activision Blizzard Inc. and Nintendo Co., for smaller fees.
“Revenue sharing deals among Google, smartphone makers and game developers came to light during the trial,” Justin Patterson and other analysts at KeyBanc Capital Markets wrote in a note to clients. “We believe this was a key difference between the cases that contributed to Apple’s victory and Google’s loss.”
In Apple’s App Store, the same 30% take rate was applied evenly, while Google was attempting to steer traffic away from rival app stores on Android, analysts at Jefferies wrote in a note. “Meanwhile, Apple simply does not allow any rival app stores whatsoever.”
The battle began in 2020, when Fortnite was kicked off the Apple and Google Play app stores because the game developer installed its own payment system. The idea was to bypass the up-to-30% revenue share that the two tech giants take from in-app purchases and subscriptions on their platforms. In response, Epic sued both companies.
Google also has drawn criticism for making side deals with big developers like Spotify Technology SA where it offers lower commissions. In Monday’s decision, the jury found that Google shouldn’t require Android app developers to use its billing system for software sold through its store and that it shouldn’t offer custom agreements to certain developers.
“The immediate aftereffect is we will see a shift in the marketplace where big tech companies will have to make accommodations -- whether it is more access, better terms, more options for developers -- to stave off legal exposure,” said Paul Swanson, a partner at Holland & Hart who specializes in technology and antitrust law.
The case also underscores a sentiment among many consumers that major technology companies have gained too much power. Google also faced scrutiny from a Justice Department judge this fall over its power in search, though the outcome of that trial won’t be clear for months.
Epic’s Sweeney predicted that -- as Google starts making changes to its operations and public pressure mounts -- its app store peer will be forced to act as well. “The same thing will start happening with Apple,” he said.
And that will ultimately help consumers, Sweeney said. “The economics is real,” he said. “When you remove a 30% tax from an ecosystem, consumer prices will get better. Or quality will get better and selection will increase.”
There’s a fortune at stake for both Apple and Google. In-app spending is forecast to reach $182 billion next year and $207 billion in 2025, according to research firm Sensor Tower. Google will get about $10.3 billion in revenue from app sales and in-app purchases from the Play Store in 2023, according to analysts at Wells Fargo. For every 5 points that the Play Store fee rate decreases, Google loses about $1.3 billion in operating income or 9 cents of earnings per share, the analysts wrote.
Already, the Digital Markets Act in the European Union will spur changes. For the first time, Apple will need to allow third-party app stores and billing systems in the region. A ruling against Apple or requirements imposed by the EU’s DMA “represent more meaningful potential changes for the industry,” than the Google ruling alone, the KeyBanc analysts said.
Even before the DMA takes effect next year, the two companies have been making adjustments. Apple now lets so-called reader apps -- such as software for cloud storage, watching video and reading books -- link to outside websites to let users pay. That bypasses Apple’s revenue cut.
Both Apple and Google also have changed their policies to take a commission on subscription apps. And Apple has been forced to let dating apps in the Netherlands bypass its billing system.
Apple’s and Google’s aren’t even the only app stores that Sweeney has targeted. He has used Fortnite’s popularity to take aim at Valve Corp.’s Steam, the dominant video game marketplace, which also takes a 30% cut of sales. In 2018, Epic launched its own game store, offering exclusives to draw in audiences. Five years later, Epic’s game store isn’t profitable, according to Steve Allison, who runs the store, and Steam remains the market leader for video game apps. Valve is facing its own antitrust lawsuit from game developers angry about the 30% revenue split.
“In the long run, the cat’s out of the bag,” said Joost Van Dreunen, an entrepreneur and lecturer at NYU Stern School of Business who has expertise in video games. “The unanimous verdict from a jury -- which took only a short term to decide -- has the potential to cascade across other ecosystems considering how blatantly Google sought to optimize its interests.”
The Epic win against Google has the potential to bring major changes to the companies’ home country. That includes shifting internet software back to a more open environment, rather than the app stores’ closed ecosystems, according to Stanford Law professor Mark Lemley.
“The last two decades have seen a profound shift away from the open internet towards walled gardens,” Lemley said. “That is one of the things that has kept the internet market so concentrated. This verdict just knocked a big hole in the garden wall.”
Though Apple won nine out of 10 counts against Epic when that decision was made in 2021, one issue is still up in the air: whether Apple should let all third-party developers point customers to websites to pay for purchases, bypassing Apple’s fees. It may now be harder for the iPhone maker to avoid that fate.
Google, which plans to appeal its verdict, said it “will continue to defend the Android business model and remain deeply committed to our users, partners and the broader Android ecosystem.” Apple didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Apple has said it doesn’t have any side deals with developers, though it offers discounted rates to some video streaming partners like Amazon.com Inc. During the trial, Epic’s lawyers said Google also didn’t properly retain some internal records relevant to the case.
“I don’t think there’s much of a debate that the monopoly finding with Google holds true with Apple too,” said Jason Kint, CEO of Digital Content Next, a trade association for digital content companies. “The distinction that will be pored over is whether or not Apple abused that.”
-- With assistance from Leah Nylen, Malathi Nayak, Subrat Patnaik, and Cecilia D'Anastasio
© 2023 Bloomberg L.P.
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| From: Jon Koplik | 12/16/2023 1:55:30 PM | | | | | | Bloomberg -- China’s iPhone Ban Accelerates Across Government and State Firms ..........................
Bloomberg
December 15, 2023
China’s iPhone Ban Accelerates Across Government and State Firms
Agencies from Beijing to Tianjin instruct staff to go local
The formal directives follow a general mandate from months ago
By Bloomberg News
More Chinese agencies and government-backed firms across the country have ordered staff to stop bringing iPhones and other foreign devices to work, setting in motion an unprecedented prohibition that’s likely to block Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. from parts of the world’s biggest mobile market.
Multiple state firms and government departments across at least eight provinces -- including the prosperous coast -- instructed employees in the past month or two to start carrying local brands, according to people familiar with the matter. That’s a major step-up from around September, when a small number of agencies in Beijing and Tianjin began telling staff to leave foreign devices at home, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential orders.
The much broader, coordinated effort marks a dramatic quickening of Beijing’s campaign to wean itself off American technology, coinciding with the resurgent popularity of homegrown brand Huawei Technologies Co. Xi Jinping’s administration this year decided to expand a ban on foreign devices beyond the most sensitive departments -- a directive that had been in place for years -- to encompass many more government agencies and even state firms, Bloomberg News reported in September.
Apple shares dipped to a session low after Bloomberg reported on the widening bans. The stock fell less than 1% to $197.57 at the close Friday in New York and then declined further in after-hours trading. Apple had reached a record high earlier in the week.
While Chinese software and hardware have gradually replaced American products over the years -- from Microsoft Corp. software to Dell computers and Intel Corp. chips -- the edict threatens to deal a swift and direct hit to Apple’s market share.
This month, smaller firms and agencies in lower-tier cities have issued their own verbal directives, suggesting a much broader movement is kicking in, the people said. The orders originated from cities across at least eight provinces from prosperous Zhejiang, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Anhui to northern Shanxi, Shandong, Liaoning and central Hebei -- home to the world’s largest iPhone factory.
An Apple spokesperson declined to comment. The State Council Information Office and the Cyberspace Administration of China, which oversees online security, didn’t respond to faxed requests for comment.
The Chinese government has previously pushed back on reports about iPhone restrictions, while also raising concerns about the security of the device. “China has not issued laws and regulations to ban the purchase of Apple or foreign brands’ phones,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said during a press briefing in September.
It’s unclear how many government agencies precisely have issued directives, nor how widespread they’ve been. Different organizations will likely vary in how zealously they enforce internal edicts, with some forbidding Apple devices from the workplace and others barring their use entirely.
Collectively however, they present a major challenge for Samsung and Apple, which are both struggling to sustain growth in a key market. For Apple, which also uses China to produce the majority of its devices, the country yields about a fifth of its revenue.
Apple gets the majority of the world’s iPhones from sprawling factories run by suppliers like Foxconn Technology Group that together employ millions of Chinese. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook was the architect of the company’s strategy to outsource manufacturing to China two decades ago. He has worked hard since to maintain positive ties with Beijing, even as Apple has begun shifting more production capacity to other countries including India.
Independent data has indicated that the iPhone 15 is selling worse in the country than the previous model, prompting some analysts to scale back revenue projections.
Analysts believe that part of the slowdown stems from the August release of a Huawei smartphone that contained an advanced made-in-China processor. State media celebrated it as a triumph against US sanctions, while American lawmakers called for an investigation into possible violations of those curbs.
While Apple’s revenue from Greater China fell 2% in the fourth quarter, the company blamed the decline on the iPad and Mac. Cook said the iPhone 15 Pro did well in the region and that is is “very optimistic” about the company’s performance there. Apple still enjoys popularity in China and its devices remain common in both the government and private sector.
Chinese state firms like oil giant PetroChina Co. employ millions and still control vast swaths of a centrally planned economy. The state sector provides jobs for an estimated 80 million people and the figure could have grown by as much as 2 million on a net basis in 2022. Government agencies employ millions more.
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What Bloomberg Intelligence Says
The possibility of weak iPhone sales in China is a risk to Apple’s financial performance in 2024, but our analysis indicates that the $7.4 billion drop in consensus sales since fiscal 4Q23 results adequately accounts for that threat. We expect more press coverage of Huawei’s success in China versus Apple, which is supported by our own smartphone survey, but see little risk of more estimate cuts.
-- Anurag Rana and Andrew Girard, analysts
---------------------------------------------
Even with US-China ties fraying, the US company is highly dependent on the Asian country -- both as a manufacturing partner and a market for its products. Cook celebrated that relationship during a trip to China earlier this year, calling it “symbiotic.”
But the blockade on the devices is the culmination of a years-long effort to root out foreign technology in sensitive environments, and coincides with China’s push to become self-sufficient in critical areas.
In 2022, Beijing ordered central government agencies and state-backed corporations to replace foreign-branded personal computers with domestic alternatives within two years, marking one of the most aggressive efforts to eradicate key overseas technology from within its most sensitive organs.
-- with assistance from Steven Yang and Debby Wu
© 2023 Bloomberg L.P.
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| From: zax | 1/17/2024 3:42:29 PM | | | | | | Apple Watch imports banned in America - again
cnn.com
New York CNN — A federal appeals court has denied Apple’s motion to temporarily pause a ban on imports of advanced models of the Apple Watch and the ban will be reinstated on Thursday, according to a Wednesday court filing.
Apple had requested a stay on the ban while it appealed a US International Trade Commission ruling that went into effect last month. That ITC order prevented Apple from importing the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2, among other newer models, to the United States because they violate patents registered to another company.
Apple last month was granted an interim pause on the ban until a judge could rule on a longer stay that would last through the appeal process, which will likely take months.
... cnn.com |
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