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State of Apple union
There's a lot of good news in Apple's latest earnings.
Leander Kahney
January 31, 2025
Remember the “law of large numbers?”
After Steve Jobs died in 2011, there was a lot of discussion about the law of large numbers, and how it would impede Apple’s growth.
In a nutshell, Apple was already so big, it would take truly enormous numbers to grow it even further, and that was unlikely. Apple couldn’t buck statistics, a lot of pundits opined, and would inevitably stagnate.
But in the decade hence, Apple has continued to grow and grow, with only a couple of hiccups from global inflation and COVID-19-driven supply chain problems.
Apple’s latest earnings report shows that there’s no stopping Tim Cook’s unstoppable money train. With the exception of slightly lower iPhone sales, just about every segment of Apple’s business is up, and some of it enormously.
Not only did Apple see more sales and revenue than any previous quarter in its nearly 50-year history, but there’s lots of upside for future quarters.
The Cult of Mac team listened to the customary earnings call Thursday, during which Cook and Co. answered questions from a handful of Wall Street analysts. Here’s our summary of the most interesting points about the state of Apple’s business, which can be seen as a kinda state of the Apple union.
Also in today’s newsletter:
The Vision Pro headset is starting to become a trusted tool in advanced surgery — and some other areas of health care as well. However, Apple reportedly just pulled the plug on the development of lightweight AR glasses.
B&H Photo is running a pretty good sale on older but still high-end MacBook Pros, with savings of up to $1,200.
Need more connectivity? This new hub boasts more high-speed Thunderbolt ports than any other hub on the market right now.
At Macworld in the late 1990s, I remember witnessing a near-riot when Power Computing, a Mac clone-maker, chucked free T-shirts into a big crowd around its booth. Excitement about the company was so high, Macworld attendees almost killed each other in the scramble for shirts. Alas, the excitement wasn’t to last.
— Leander Kahney, EIC.
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Tweets of the day
JUST FINISHED SEVERANCE EPISODE 3
I HATE YOU APPLE JUST RELEASE THE WHOLE SHOW THIS IS BRUTAL
— Ian Zelbo (@ianzelbo)
4:13 AM • Jan 31, 2025
Essentially every reply so far agrees: Apple Intelligence is a half baked marketing strategy that was rushed in response to OpenAI and Google Gemini. Yes, Apple had no choice. They did exactly the right thing. But they shouldn’t have been in that position in the first place.
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman)
3:58 AM • Jan 31, 2025
Nothing, just Apple cooking the best transition of all time
— Apple Design (@TheAppleDesign)
3:08 PM • Jan 31, 2025
Yes one of my favorite books of all time. I think about it almost daily tbh. I used to read a chapter or 2 outside on this hill in SF and then go design in my office studio for a bit in the earliest days of Tab/Friend
— Avi (@AviSchiffmann)
2:55 PM • Jan 30, 2025
Wallpaper of the day
Star Wars Stormtrooper Wallpaper in 4K 📲🆕
Who’s next? 🤷🏼♂️
— Wallpapers in 4K 📲🪐 (@wallpapersin4k)
10:02 PM • Jan 30, 2025
One more thing ...
It comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don't get on the wrong track or try to do too much. We're always thinking about new markets we could enter, but it's only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.
Today’s poll
Are you using Apple Intelligence? |
Results from yesterday’s poll: Do you own Apple stock?
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