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Apple Music, a Precursor to the Grammys?

February 18, 2020Elf

In December, Apple announced its first Apple Music Awards. Billy Eilish took top honors as artist of the year. Apple Music award winners went on to win big at the Grammy’s and Oscars.

Billy Eilish and Finneas performing in Los Angeles, 2019

On December 4th, Apple introduced its new Apple Music awards with a live celebration and global, live-streamed performance by Billie Eilish at the Steve Jobs Theater. Earlier in the year, Apple rebranded its beloved iTunes Store into Apple Music. The new Apple Music Awards celebrate music achievements across five categories. Winners are hand picked and selected by Apple Music editors based on originality, passion for craft with feedback from customer favorites all over the world.

“...artists who boldly defy conventions in the category and who embody a sense of humanity, where listeners are drawn as much to who they are as to their music.”

— Apple

Billie Eilish, first discovered by Platoon in 2018, took the top honor as Global Artist of the Year — something that was repeated when the young musician went on to win top awards at the Grammy’s and Oscars subsequently this year. The awards for both Album of the Year and Song of the Year were chosen based on streaming data and based on what Apple Music customers listened to repeatedly in 2019.

Eighteen-year-old Billy is easy to relate to and her debut album “WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?” that was co-written and produced by her brother, Finneas, became a worldwide favorite and the most played album on Apple Music in 2019. This led to sold out concerts at many festivals from Coachella to Glastonbury, appearing on “Saturday Night Live,” and going on to perform notably at the Grammy’s and Oscars. Billy’s distinctive style and boldness also appeals to a broad swath of people, inspiring new hair styles and outfits across generations. Billy and Finneas’ success is even more remarkable given that they composed and recorded their music at home.

“So 2019 has been one big birthday present.”

— Billy Eilish

“WHEN WE FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?” also won Apple Music’s Album of the Year as the most streamed album of 2019 with more than a billion streams on Apple Music. Billie and her brother Finneas, also shared the award for Songwriter of the Year.

Raking in the Grammy’s

Billy Eilish and her brother Finneas went on to rake five Grammy Award each for Best Album, Best Record, Best New Artist, Best Pop Vocal Album, and Best Song, along with Nominee for Pop Solo Performance.

Billy Elish and Finneas at the Grammy Awards

Lizzo Wins Breakthrough Artist of the Year

Rap and soul singer Lizzo joyful music had already received eight Grammy nominations, including Album of the Year for “Cuz I Love You” prior to her Apple Music award for Breakout Artist of the Year. She went on to win four Grammy awards — Pop Solo Performance, Urban Contemporary Album, Traditional R&B Performance, Song and was nominated for four more Grammy awards — Album, New Artist, Record and R&B performance

Lil Nas X Wins Song of the Year for “Old Town Road”

The most played single of the year on Apple Music, “Old Town Road” became a viral sensation and established Lil Nas X overnight. The artist went on to win two Grammy Awards for both Music Video and Pop Duo/Group Performance and was nominated for four more awards — Album, New Artist, Record and Rap/Sung Performance.

The Apple Music award itself is beautiful with Apple’s custom silicon wafer suspended between a polished glass sheet and a machined and anodized aluminum body.

categories Apple News
tags Apple News, Apple Music, Billie Eilish, Grammy's, music, Oscars, awards, talent

Apple Reports New Record in First Quarter 2020 Results

February 06, 2020Elf

With its Highest Quarterly Results, Apple Leads the way as iPhone, Wearables and Services Drive Sales

At the end of last month, Apple reported record first quarter results for 2020 ending December 28, 2019. With a quarterly revenue of $91.8 billion — a new record for Apple — the quarterly earnings show an increase in 9 percent from a year ago, with quarterly earnings at $4.99 per diluted share up as much as 19 percent. 61 percent of earnings came from international sales.

“We are thrilled to report Apple’s highest quarterly revenue ever, fueled by strong demand for our iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro models, and all-time records for Services and Wearables. During the holiday quarter our active installed base of devices grew in each of our geographic segments and has now reached over 1.5 billion. We see this as a powerful testament to the satisfaction, engagement and loyalty of our customers — and a great driver of our growth across the board.”

— Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.

Apple’s board of directors also offers a cash dividend of $0.77 per share of the Company’s common stock, payable on February 13, 2020 to shareholders of record as of close of business on February 10, 2020.

View Consolidated Financial Statements in PDF.

“Our very strong business performance drove an all-time net income record of $22.2 billion and generated operating cash flow of $30.5 billion. We also returned nearly $25 billion to shareholders during the quarter, including $20 billion in share repurchases and $3.5 billion in dividends and equivalents, as we maintain our target of reaching a net cash neutral position over time.”

— Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO

Warren Buffett’s Apple Investment Pays Big, Offsets Newspaper Losses

Apple’s emergence as an investment powerhouse is evident in the Oracle of Omaha’s investment. Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway has had a significant quarter himself, divesting himself of his beloved newspaper holdings entirely, which has operated at a loss while gaining big on his Apple investment. Buffett first invested $17 billion in Apple in 2012. Since then, he has increased his holdings. His latest investment raked in over $75 billion, recouping any losses from his newspaper investments. Buffett was committed to the newspaper industry despite declining sales and had been a paper boy, delivering Washington Post newspapers as a thirteen-year-old in Washington D.C. as a kid while his father served in Congress. The divestiture is significant as it reveals an acceptance of a changing publishing industry. At the same time, his increase in holdings in Apple also shows the veteran investor’s belief in the company, despite publicly acknowledging that he does not have a keen understanding of technology. Buffett shared that he valued the innovative products and recognized their profitability but was uncertain of how technology businesses would fare over a decade or more.

His perception of Apple is evident in the 2012 shareholder meeting for Berkshire Hathaway.

“I think Apple is much more of a consumer products business, in terms of analyzing the moat around it, and consumer behavior, and all that sort of thing. It’s obviously a product with all kinds of tech built into it. But in terms of laying out what their prospective customers will do in the future, as opposed to, say, IBM’s customers, it’s a different sort of analysis.”

— Warren Buffet, CEO Berkshire Hathaway

His support shows that Apple has succeeded in creating a reliable business model based on strong business fundamentals — a key factor for any investment according to Benjamin Graham’s “The Intelligent Investor,” a book that Buffett and many other notable investors considers his own personal guide to investment.

Both Warren Buffett and his long-time investment partner, Charlie Munger, expanded on this further more recently in the 2018 investment meeting.

Fiscal 2020 Quarter Guidance

“I think it’s extremely hard to find acquisitions that would be accretive to Apple that would be in the $50 billion, $100 billion, or $200 billion range. They do a lot of small acquisitions. And, I’m delighted to see them repurchasing shares. We own 250 million or so shares. They have, I think, 4.9 billion shares. We own 5% of it. But I figure with the passage of a little time we may own 6% or 7% simply because they repurchase shares. And I find that if you’ve got an extraordinary product and ecosystem, I love the idea of having our 5%, or whatever it may be grow to - 6% or 7% - without us laying out a dime. I mean, it’s worked for us in many other situations. But you have to have some very, very, very special product, which has an enormously widespread ecosystem, and the product’s extremely sticky, and all of that sort of thing. And they’re not going to find $50 billion or $100 billion dollar acquisitions that they can make at remotely a sensible price that really become additive to that ... As I look around the horizon, I don’t see anything that would make a lot of sense for them in terms of what they’d have to pay and what they would get. Whereas I do see a business that they know everything about, and where they may or may not be able to buy it at an attractive price when they repurchase their shares. That remains to be seen...From our standpoint, we would love to see Apple go down in price...So, we very much approve of them repurchasing shares.”

— Warren Buffett, CEO Berkshire Hathaway

For its upcoming fiscal 2020 second quarter, Apple provides the following guidance:

revenue between $63.0 - $67.0 billion
gross margin between 38.0- 39.0 percent
operating expenses $9.6 - $9.7 billion
other income/(expense) of $250 million
tax rate of approximately 16.5 percent

Apple offers live streaming of its Q1 2020 financial results at www.apple.com/investor/earnings-call/ available for up to two weeks after its announcement on January 28th. More information is also available at apple.com and its investors relations website, investor.apple.com.

categories Apple News
tags Apple, first quarter, 2020, apple news, services, apple watch, wearables, Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor

Apple Maps Get a Much Needed Overhaul

February 01, 2020Elf

Apple Redesigns Its Entire Map Ecosystem For Improved Road Coverage, More Detailed Land Cover, Precise Addresses and Pedestrian Data for Users in the United States

This past Thursday, Apple released its redesigned Apple Maps ecosystem. Apple overhauled all of its maps to offer more detailed insight for more precise searches for people to navigate and explore the world. The new app features a lot more detail — from homes to businesses, smaller bodies of water, landmarks and locations of note. This is a huge and dramatic improvement on its prior version available on iOS 12, bringing the mapping app on par with Google Maps.

Apple Maps today are in use more than ever as customers use maps on their digital devices and with Car Play. Maps are also integrated into many popular apps such as Messages, Calendar, Weather and Photos. MapKit is in use by third-party apps such as Instagram, Bank of America and Nike Run Club.

The new Apple Maps is based on years of work and addresses feedback and extensive criticism from users over the years. The company announced it was rebuilding the app previously and was gathering new data using its own fleet of sensor-equipped vans and by using anonymous data from iPhone users who voluntarily choose to share it. In order to provide users with turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps, Apple had to redesign Apple Maps from the ground up. Apple spent billions of dollars to update and rehaul its map ecosystem with new features and more precise data pulled from on-location tracking that are accessible by just a simple tap. The new Apple Maps also offer more insight into nearby landmarks. Apple Maps will rollout throughout Europe in upcoming months.

“We set out to create the best and most private maps app on the planet that is reflective of how people explore the world today. It is an effort we are deeply invested in and required that we rebuild the map from the ground up to reimagine how Maps enhances people’s lives — from navigating to work or school or planning an important vacation — all with privacy at its core.”

— Eddy Cue, Apple's Senior VP of Internet Software and Services

A Breakdown of New Features and Accessibility

Look Around: Street-Level Imagery with High-Resolution 3D Photography

Similar to Google's Street View, the new Apple Maps offers interactive street-level imagery with high-resolution, 3D photography through a new “Look Around” feature that explores cities such as New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Houston and Oahu in detail. Look Around is available in iOS 13.

Share Lists of Favorites Through Collections

You can build and share lists of your favorite restaurants or places you want to visit using Collections. This feature is available in iOS 13 and makes it easy to save directions for places you visit often. Additional improvements in Apple Maps include:

Real-time transit info, now in Miami, San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles
Share ETA to family, friends, or co-workers
Flight status info
Indoor maps for malls and airports
Siri Natural Language Guidance in the US
Flyover

Flyover Offers 3D Views

In response to much criticism over its previous mapping experience, Apple has redesigned its Apple Maps Flyover experience to now offer a view of select major metro areas with photo-realistic, immersive 3D views. Experience a city from above or explore in high resolution as you zoom, pan, tilt and rotate around the city and its landmarks. Flyover is available in more than 350 cities.

Three Benefits from Using the New Apple Maps

1. Plan Your Trips Better
By sharing your favorite locations or places you intend to visit through the ‘Collections’ feature, you can plan your trip more easily. You can research ahead using the Maps and save spots to visit, ranging from coffee shops and restaurants to art galleries and museums on to a list that you save and then share this list with other people as you wish.

2. Share your ETA

This practical feature helps you share your ETA with anyone with your estimated arrival and real-time updates. You will not have to text them as they will already have access to that information.

3. Get to where you are going — faster and more efficiently

Integrated with real-time transit information, the new Apple Maps helps you get to your destination faster as you will have access to more detailed transit time including any delays, traffic and more.

Commitment to Privacy

Apple is committed to privacy and keeping personal information safe. Hence, no sign-in is required for Maps and Apple Maps are not linked to Apple ID. On-device intelligence offers personalized features such as departure time.

“Any data collected by Maps while using the app, like search terms, navigation routing and traffic information, is associated with random identifiers that continually reset to ensure the best possible experience and to improve Maps. Maps goes even further to obscure a user’s location on Apple servers when searching for a location through a process called “fuzzing.” Maps converts the precise location where the search originated to a less-exact one after 24 hours and does not retain a history of what has been searched or where a user has been.”