Apple Inc. Ends Talks With Daimler

The tech giant has been having talks with the German automakers over the production of its secret electric car

According to German news site Handelsblatt, Daimler and BMW have ended the negotiations with Apple Inc. over the rumored electric car, dubbed as Project Titan. Although the tech giant hasn’t openly admitted about developing an electric car however the sources close to the matter has hinted about the ongoing project every now and then.

The tech giant had needed a reliable partner for working on the anticipated project of self-autonomous car and that is why it had been having talks with the German automaker giants. However, the negotiations ended in a deadlock over few disagreements between the automakers and the tech titan.

The disagreement sprung over the control of power and data. Where Apple wanted the vehicle to be built into its own cloud software, the German automakers had strong stance regarding the customers’ data protection.

Last year, representatives of Apple had visited BMW’s headquarters –situated in Munich –to tour the company’s factory –situated in Leipzig –to look at the procedures involved in creating the company’s i3 electric car. It was rumored then that the iPhone maker intended to use BMW i3 as the premise for its electric car project. But, subsequently, within few months, the Silicon Valley tech titan and BMW talks decelerated. Whereas, Daimler –the company involved in manufacturing the prestigious Mercedes-Benz –ended most recently.

Apple has not officially announced anything regarding this current ongoing process. But the company’s executives have never denied the possibility of an electric car. In fact, when the tech giant’s core product’s, iPhone, sales declined, the company urged the investors and analysts that it has other plans of generating the revenue. On Apple’s 40^th anniversary, Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak, in an interview to CNBC, had expressed that although the market for smartphones have been saturated the company can come a long way by adopting to the new technologies which include augmented and virtual reality and self-autonomous cars.

Moreover, Magna –a Canadian-Australian-based automotive manufacturer is actively involved in the development of Apple’s car. Rumors have it that few of the executives from Apple have visited Austria to hold talks with Magna Steyr and up till no such news of the talks getting disrupted have been come to the surface.

According to Frankfurter Allgemeine –a German publication –the Cupertino, Calif. firm has established a “secret lab” in Berlin where it has hired a small team of around 15-20 engineers who had previously worked in German car companies. Additionally, hundreds of employees in California as well are secretly working on the project.

The tech leviathan has also been searching for the car executives in the US as well. Recently, it poached former vice president of Tesla’s vehicle engineering, Chris Porritt. The move came after around four months the departure of Steve Zadesky from the company who had once been leading the Project Titan. When Zadesky was departing, sources familiar to the matter has said that the head was under immense pressure of speeding up the project which apparently couldn’t be completed in the given deadline. The tech giant is said to complete the project in 2019 or 2020.

Apple Inc. Employees Might Quite if They Are Forced to Create a 'Backdoor'

Apple might start to lose its employees if the government keeps pushing them to build 'GovOS'

F.B.I. has been on Apple, Inc.’s case for way too long even if the Federal Authority manages to win against the technology giant in the court fight, it’s safe to say that it won’t be able to win from the company’s engineers. Forcing a private organization to break its own security system might not be as easy as the FBI thinks it is.

As per a report by the New York Times, even if the authorities win at the court fight against the Silicon Valley organization, the engineer who will be working on the ‘backdoor’ software might quit or leave the company entirely – because they would rather leave their jobs than be forced into doing something that they don’t want to do. If all the employees associated with this task take action against it, it will be next to impossible for FBI to convince them otherwise.

As per a recent filing released by the iPhone maker, it will take up to two to four weeks to create a backdoor which they are calling ‘GovOS’ and six to ten engineers will be assigned to perform the devious task. This timeline is likely to fulfill provided the team is consistent and motivated to work on it. If anyone on that specific team lags, there’s a possibility that the creation of the software could take an indefinite time.

The CEO, Tim Cook has been constantly emphasizing on the fact that he or his lawyers are not anti-law; they are on the government’s side but they just don’t believe in creating a backdoor for something that could be destructive to millions of iPhone users all across the globe. Cook further explained that in the case of the San Bernardino suspect’s iPhone, he does not have the key to that iPhone and at this point, the government simply wants a key for iPhones to use for unknown purposes in the future. He added during an interview with the Time that he was not trying to annoying the FBI; he was simply trying to protect thousands of his customers.

Apple has mentioned in its legal documents that the government’s demands are taking speech freedom awake from the people by asking for something that is offensive for millions of iPhone users. A venture capitalist, Jean-Louis Gassee stated that the culture followed at the most valuable company in the United States is an independent and rebellious one. Jean once worked as an engineer at the technology company and says if the government forces the engineers to go forward with creating this software, they are pretty much on their own.

Tim Cook even mentioned in one of his telegraphs last month to its customers how the engineers are likely to respond to this request; he stated that these are the workers who create strong encryptions for the protection of its customers and now they are being ordered to go against their work and weaken those protections which would ultimately make users less safe.

Apple Needs To Adjust According To Smartphone Market Saturation

Apple has to enter the low-end smartphone manufacturing to avoid the high-end smartphone market saturation.

Over the past few months, Apple’s stock has been in the mid-$90 range which has risen few doubts among the investors and analysts, although the tech giant reported highly commendable profits and sales of its prestigious current generation iPhones last quarter. Industry experts have expressed that the Silicon Valley business is facing this year’s anticipated “marked slowdown in higher-end, higher-cost devices.” CEO Tim Cook confirmed the slowing sales forecasts. Many analysts believe that highly anticipated crunch of global smartphone market has already commenced.

Overall, year 2015 was not that bad for the iPhone sales. The Connecticut-based research firm, Gartner, reported that in 2015, the company sold 225.85 million iPhones that went up from 2014’s 191.43 million. Another glad tiding for the organization is that during last year, it increased its share in the global market to 15.9% from previous year’s 15.4%.

What is alarming in Apple’s sales is how the year ended for it. The sales estimates forwarded by Gartner do not reflect the units shipped by the tech giant to its large number of vendors. If the sales are examined on those parameters, then Apple’s devices have taken a substantial hit in calendar Q4. The tech behemoth noted, during the conference call that, it “sold 74.8 million iPhones in the quarter,” indicating a 300,000 units bump from previous year’s fourth quarter.

The data compiled by the research firm highlight that currently several million iPhones are placed on telecom providers and retailers. Apple, along with its partners, in fourth quarter 2015 sold around 71.5 million smartphones, which were down from the prior year’s 74.8 million. Apart from marking a year-over-year 3.3 million unit sales decline, the market share of the company came down to 17.7% in 2015 from prior year’s 20.4%.

The only smartphone manufacturer who posted a year-over-year improved sales was Apple’s South Korean rival, Samsung, which crawled up to 20.7% after the tech company sold 83.44 million smartphones. It is more than probable that Samsung is likely to fall prey to the growing smartphone market saturation but it has some better strategies for the future.

The edge for Samsung in the market is apart from offering a wide range of electronics is that it produces and sells low-cost smartphones as well. According to Gartner estimates, “basic and lower-end” variety will hold about “two-thirds” of the global smartphone sales in just three years.  

It is prudent for the organization if it even considers manufacturing iPhones, which are a bit lower in cost and affordable, so that it can easily enter the uncharted territory of low-end smartphones.

At the market which closed on Thursday, Apple Inc. stock stood at a price of $101.50. The 52-week range of the stock is expected to be between $92 and $134.54. 

Apple Expected To Release iPhone 7 In September and iPhone 7s in 2017

The tech giant might be bringing in some new technology to its platform; customers expected for the new features.

Apple, Inc. is expected to release its latest iPhone 7 sometime in September 2016. The Street has been mentioning some of the features that are likely to be seen in the latest smartphone y the Silicon Valley giant. The analysts and company are hopeful that the novel device will introduce some momentum in the slow year over year growth that has been happening in iPhone shipments.

According to Business Insider, a note was published by an analyst of Barclays stating that the technology giant might not be including ‘noise cancelling headphones’ with the new smartphone. This news was reported by analysts at Barclays, Blayne Curtis and Christopher Hemmelgarn. The tech organization is likely to use the basic digital codec in 2016 preparing the company to launch its lightning-connected headphones.

It is possible that Apple will completely eliminate its earphone jack due to which users will be forced to connect their headphones via Bluetooth to the device specifically through the iPhone maker’s Lightning connector. If the business were to ditch the traditional headphone jack, a number of companies as well as the organization’s suppliers would be able to benefit from it.

As per the note published by the two Barclay analysts, Apple Inc. will be including its Lightning connector headphones and give it away with the latest smartphone it will be launching in September; as for the Cirrus’ noise-cancelling technology, that will not be included in the in-box purchase till the iPhone 7s. The S series of the latest iPhone will be out sometime in 2017.

Additionally, it is expected to replace the headphone jack with a speaker, thanks to yet another of Apple’s suppliers, Cirrus Logic. After the ‘below expectations’ sales of the iPhone 6, the technology organization is going to try its best that it lives up to the expectations of its customers, investors and analysts with the launch of the 7 series.

In the upcoming year however the smartphone maker is likely to break a record with its latest noise-cancelling technology. It has managed to maintain a strong position in the market despite the fact that the smartphone market is at its saturation point now.

Presently, Apple stock is being traded at share price of $93.99 indicating an increase of 0.31% from its previous trading session. Furthermore, during the last trading session, the stock price of the tech giant was seen hit a high of $94.50 and a low of $93.01. The 52-week share price was reported to be $134.54 and the twelve month low was reported to be $92.00. The earnings per share reported by the Silicon Valley leader were $9.41 with price to earnings ratio of $9.98. The current market capitalization is of the once ‘most valuable company’ is at $522.75 billion.

Will Apple Remain The Most Valuable Company?

Analysts anticipate that the Silicon-Valley giant, Alphabet Inc. is all set to overtake Apple's position of most valuable company.

When the market closed on Friday, it gave both the investors and analysts on a hot topic for discussion –will Apple be dethroned by Alphabet Inc.? In the closing hours, the tech titan; Apple Inc. stood at the market capitalization of $540 billion while the internet search giant Google’s parent Alphabet Inc. showed the market cap of $524 billion. Both the companies are neck-to-neck with the latter being just $16 billion less.

More than a year ago, Apple had a bolstering market cap of $643 billion while then Google was way far behind at $361 billion. However, things didn’t go well for the Silicon-Valley’s iPhone maker. The last quarter report was the final blow on the company. When the company declared that it has the slowest growth in iPhone sales since its first release in 2008, all hell broke loose.

Not only did the company lose the investors and analysts trust however it is also on the verge of losing its tag of “the most valuable company.” Whereas Alphabet has impressed the investors with its humungous growth in ad market and Internet search. It is also working on other products like video, mobile, web browsing, email, and mapping. Hence, the company witnessed the stock growing up by 43% since the beginning of 2015.

Moreover, the analysts are not quite happy regarding CEO Tim Cook’s attitude towards the company’s performance. The conflict of ideas is widening between the two. While analysts are concerned about iPhone slow rate of sales, Cook boosts about the company’s strong profit. He also persisted that the high tech gadget maker is performing reasonably well in its other businesses. For example, Apple Watch –the luxurious watch –stood with the likes of Rolex. Its iTunes Store and other app store generate strong revenue for the company. Further, the proposed “iPhone 7” may also bring high revenue for the company.

Analysts argue that iPhone is company’s “core product” and the company’s other core products including iPad and Mac laptops are not having high sales either. Moreover, it is not only the “revenues” which are making the investors and analysts skeptical. The company has also adopted an unfavorable strategy of raising debt to meet its capital return activities. Raising debt to pay dividends doesn’t appreciate the value of the stock.

Amidst all this it looks like that Internet giant may overtake the innovative mobile phone developers soon. Alphabet’s stock is skyrocketing and many analysts are optimistic about its earnings –scheduled on February 1, 2016. Also, in the world of finance, a colossal earnings report can add billions to the value of the company in a single day. The diminishing demand of smartphones and growing market of digital advertising paves the way for Alphabet to stand tall in the Silicon-Valley.

Investors Pessimistic About Apple's Earnings for the Quarter

The technology giant is all set to make its earnings call tomorrow; analysts remain pessimistic.

Investors are anxiously waiting for Apple Inc. to release its earnings report for the holiday season. Analysts remain pessimistic about the financial results as they suggest that the technology giant will not be able to match or even come close to the sales of the iPhones reported in the same quarter last year. The shareholders are waiting for the million dollar question to be answered: Will the company be able to outperform its mark of 74.5 million this quarter?

Strategy Analytics along with researchers assume that the company will be report poor shipments this quarter which would be the first ever year over year decline reported by the smartphone manufacturer since 2007, when the iPhone was introduced.

The iPhone 6 and 6s have not performed comparatively well in the market; everyone would agree on that. In its effort to tap the market demand for big screens, the flagship smartphone maker has failed to give its best performance. Another reason for the poor performance of the 6 and 6s was because customers did not find any new or different features and realized that it was quite similar to the 5 series.

Apple Inc. majorly depends on the sales and performance of its iPhone as it accounts for two thirds of its revenue. This negativity can be seen in the company’s stock price; due to the demand for the product the stock has been under hot water. On Monday, Apple stock was being traded at a share price of $99.44 indicating a decline of 1.95% from a day earlier.

The latest earnings report will be the most important report that the company will release so far. The iPhone maker has seen its fair share of growth – turns out it was not there to last forever. Back in 2013 the company reported revenue generation of $57.6 billion and was expecting to report as much as $76.6 billion in revenue for the current year.

According to the estimations of financial experts, Cupertino, California based organization is expected to report revenue of $55.7 billion – the first ever decline in revenue – this could be of 4%. Because of these pessimistic predictions many investors have already sold the stock. However, the analysts, at this point say that as long as it managed to not underperform the expectations, the company should be fine.

The earnings call will be a chance for the business’s management to explain themselves and the sudden decline in the sales. Many are expecting this to be the ‘biggest event’ in the history for the technology giant. According to the analysts at Bloomberg, for the first quarter of the current fiscal year the earnings per share could be of $2.23 along with 75 million iPhone unit sales.

It could be a moment for celebration for Google Inc. if Apple reports its first year over year decline in sales as it will finally be able to take the trophy of the most valuable company. The technology corporation failed to achieve any milestones in the 2015. On the other hand, it was a shining year for the search engine giant Alphabet, Inc.  

Just a few hours left to see how the Silicon Valley leader did last quarter.

Apple Shifts Focus To Indian Market Now

The technology company is planning to take over the Indian market as it decided to open retail shops in the country and become the official distributor of iPhones.

Apple, Inc. has been smart enough to make decisions of entering the second most populous country in the world, India – as China faces slowdown due to economic conditions, the technology giant cannot afford to lose demand for iPhones. It has started to focus more towards one of the biggest countries of the world.

Although the technology giant has been discrete about the matter, it has been taking its piece of pie from India by investing in advertisements, improving its distribution system, making schemes on interest free phone loans and cutting prices. Presently, it sells its products in the Indian market through various distributors but now it wants to be the official seller in the market. To do so, it has filed a request on Wednesday with the Indian Government to run its own retail shops and start selling the devices online.

By the end of the previous fiscal year on March 31, the Cupertino, Calif. company had revenue generation of over $1 billion alone from the Indian market. Despite being so popular there, currently it only had a 2% chunk of the smartphone market. According to an analyst at Canalys in Singapore, Rushabh Doshi, India is a huge potential market for Apple to enter.

Previously, 118 million iPhones were sold in India and according to analysts’ estimations, this number is expected to rise to 174 million units by the year 2017. Initially, an Apple product would only be seen in the wealthy user’s hands in India but now, the company has decided to reposition itself in a way that it seems accessible to the middle class as well.

China has not started to show signs of saturation due to which Apple had to make this move and it could prove to be a smart one, as over 10 years, it could be one of the most important markets in terms of revenue generation. At this point, the company had declined to comment on its expansion plans but the chief executive officer, Tim Cook had initially stated that there has been progress in the country.

According to research by IDC, in a year’s time, India is likely to be above the United States smartphone’s market and second to China – since the market is growing and expanding rapidly. Around 35% phones being sold in the market are now smartphones, which leaves Apple with a huge chunk to conquer. The use of smartphones in the market is comparatively low because the people of the country tend to purchase and use cheaper phones.

Apple Inc. Stock Update

The iPhone making company is not expected to experience a massive growth in the total revenue generated for the full year, as compared to the previous year

Apple Inc and the strongest tech giant of all times, Alphabet have been compared on a lot of different platforms by the analysts of the industry. In a recent article published by the Motley Fool, it was seen that the software giant has proved itself in the course of the past decade that has made it good enough to be compared by the search engine giant on different levels. For the investors to know, the analysts have presented an analysis in which they have discussed the potentials both the companies have in the stock market and which one of the stocks the investors can opt for in the long term.

Even though Apple stock has been performing well as compared to the other tech companies in the industry, it has lately been failing to secure a stronger rating from the equity firms. Analysts are of the opinion that the stock seems to be at a much cheaper level if it gets compared to that of Alphabet. Currently, the price to earnings ratio that the iPhone makers are trading on is 13 whereas the average companies on the index are seen securing a higher than 19 ratio on a normal basis. This is something that is making the analysts believe that the giant could be getting undervalued in the market at some point.

On the other hand, Apple business did manage to amuse the investors by performing quite well in the last reported quarter of the year, in which it announced a growth rate of 22% for the sales of its products alone and the revenue turned out to be at $51.5 billion. As for the earnings that were made by the Mac producers per share, an increment was observed by 38% as compared to the same quarter of the previous year which is a jaw dropping rate for the EPS to grow.

However, things might not be as great for the giant by the end of the year, as the Wall Street Analysts are of the opinion that Apple products might only experience a growth of 3.6% in December not more than that, which is mainly due to the fact that the iPhone business has matured to a level on which sales are to decrease naturally. The expected revenue for the company for the full year of 2015 is to be reported in between figures of $75.5-77.5 billion as per the guidance made by the management. And this shows that the giant is not expected a lot of growth this year, as in the previous year it reported revenue of $74.6 billion.

Where Is Apple Stock Headed?

The software giant has shown great growth signs in China which can also help it to think about dividend growth as well

Apple stock has been behaving in a surprising manner for quite some time now and the most amusing fact that has been keeping the analysts at an edge about the company is how its share price on the index has not climbed up, despite the improvements it has reported in the last quarter. In the past three month fiscal period, the smart phone giant managed to release a strong report on how it not only attained a strong profit in the quarter but also how it also scored really high sales figures as well, which according to the analysts, was meant to give the share price a major boost in the stock market.

However, no such progress was seen in the stock value even after such strong sales and revenue figures. One more factor that cannot be denied is that Apple share value has been receiving an amazing feedback from China which has helped its stock to climb the ladder up high and it can clearly be seen that without the sales from the Asian country, the growth observed by the Californian company is not much to be taken into consideration.

Analysts are of the opinion that for investors who are looking for reasons to grow in the industry but are not too sure of investing in an emerging market just yet, they should definitely own some shares in the Apple stock as it seems to be gaining strength every day, coming in majorly from the Chinese sector. The growth that was seen in the Asian country in the last quarter only showed a colossal growth of 84 percent on a year over year basis, with the total revenue generated from the country alone coming around at $58.7 billion.

According to a recent report on the Apple business, it was reported that the giant could be experiencing a ‘China syndrome’, which is due to the excessive sales it seems to be making in the country without any signs of slowing down. News has it that the software giant is not only becoming popular even more each day in the country because of its new iPhones, but it has also been selling off iPhone 5 and 5s, which are comparatively much older versions of the phone given how the new ones have been around for some time now, and this shows that the company is enjoying a great time in the markets without a lot of hassles.

This growth in China has also made the analysts in the industry think about dividend growth as well, that the tech giant can observe in the near term future and which can make things better even for the investors.