Apple

Halo still in effect: Apple sees iPads as gateway to Macs

When the iPod first came out, Apple hoped it would help drive sales of the Mac. The reason was simple: at first, you needed a Mac to use the svelte little MP3 player. The phenomenon was dubbed the halo effect because customers would be expected to gravitate to Apple's other products.

Of course, what ended up happening instead was that Apple soon made iTunes and its music store available for Windows users, switched from Firewire to the more ubiquitous USB, and went on to sell millions of iPods, dominating both the digital music and MP3 player markets in the … Read more

Tim Cook leaves door open for larger iPhone

While Apple maintains that the iPhone 5's 4-inch display is the best around, the company hasn't totally ruled out making a device with a larger screen.

When questioned Tuesday about Apple's stance on a 5-inch screen, CEO Tim Cook didn't exactly expound on the virtues of a larger screen -- in fact, he did just the opposite -- but he never wholly rejected the idea of going bigger either.

"My view continues to be that iPhone 5 has the absolute best display in the industry," Cook said on a postearnings call with investors. "… Read more

Cook promises 'amazing' Apple products in the fall

Apple CEO Tim Cook said Tuesday that the company will announce some new products this fall but wouldn't offer any specifics.

"Our teams are hard at work on some amazing new hardware, software and services that we can't wait to introduce this fall and throughout 2014," he said during the company's earnings call Tuesday afternoon. But apparently, he can wait.

When asked by an analyst if this meant Apple won't release any other new products until fall, Cook wouldn't dish.

"I don't want to be more specific, but I'm just … Read more

Apple admits to middle age truth: It's finally slowing down

By any measure, Apple's supercharged 2012 is making this year pretty tough. So much so that CEO Tim Cook in effect cautioned Wall Street analysts against making comparisons.

"Fiscal 2012 results were incredibly strong, and that's making it difficult," Cook said on Apple's second-quarter earnings conference call, rattling off all that made last year so good: high growth, high demand, fatter gross margins, and historically low costs for components.

And yet that's what investors do: They make comparisons to prior years and make a bet on the stock based on what the future looks … Read more

Apple's iCloud jumps 20 percent to 300 million users

Apple's iCloud online storage jumped 20 percent in the most recent quarter, the company noted on its earnings conference call with analysts.

Apple chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer said the company now has 300 million iCloud users. In January, Apple noted that iCloud had 250 million users.

The service stores and syncs data from Apple customers, such as calendars, email, photos and more across the various Apple devices that users own. Last month, Strategy Analytics reported that Apple held 27 percent of cloud storage usage in the United States during the third quarter of 2012, leading rivals.

Apple's Q2: By the numbers

Wall Street will have to make up its mind about Apple's downbeat forecast for the next quarter. But the company came in ahead of estimates during its first second quarter. Here's how Apple fared in the quarter compared:<>uct:

iPhones: 37.4 million iPhones compared to 35.1 million year-over-year iPads: 19.5 million compared to 11.8 million year-over-year Macs: 3.95 million, compared to 4 million year-over-year iPods: 5.7 million compared to 7.7 million year-over-year iTunes revenue up 28% App Store now in 155 countries and 350,000 apps 91 million visitors … Read more

Apple profit slips 18%, but iPhone, iPad sales stay strong

Apple surprised Wall Street today with stronger than expected earnings in its second quarter, though the company came up short in its estimates for the next one.

Apple reported earnings of $9.5 billion on $43.6 billion in sales. That was right on target with the $9.5 billion in profit and just barely above the $42.3 billion in sales that Wall Street expected. It was also above Apple's own expectations, which were between $9.23 and $10.23 per share on sales of $41 billion to $43 billion.

By comparison, Apple tallied up a higher $11.… Read more

Apple boosts stock buyback, ups dividend 15 percent

Apple boosted its stock buyback and approved a 15 percent increase in its quarterly dividend.

With some $145 billion now in Apple's coffers, investors have clamored for management to return more cash to shareholders. Now the company is responding -- big time. Apple said Tuesday afternoon that it intends to use "a total of $100 billion of cash under the expanded program."

As part of the program, Apple increased its share repurchase authorization to $60 billion, up from $10 billion announced last year. The company said it was the largest single share-repurchase authorization in Apple's history. … Read more

Apple iTunes makes sweet music in online video market

iTunes tops the charts in online video sales, according to market research firm The NPD Group.

Apple claimed 66 percent of all TV shows sold and 65 percent of all movies sold online last year. In second place, Amazon took home 14 percent of all TV shows sold in cyberspace. Amazon and Xbox Video each grabbed a 10 percent chunk of all feature-length films sold over the Internet in 2012.

iTunes also scored the lead in the video-on-demand market, biting off a 45 percent share of all online movie rentals. Amazon Instant Video accounted for 18 percent, leaving Vudu with … Read more