Apple

Apple Insider:

Trademark attorney Brian Conroy contacted AppleInsider on Tuesday with a list of trademarks that Apple is said to have filed internationally for what could be upcoming products. Amongst the trademarks are known Apple product names, like Siri, Breathe, the True Tone Display as found in the iPad Pro series, macOS Sierra with several associated spellings, and the phrase “designed by Apple in California” as seen on nearly every Apple product.

However, also listed in Apple trademark document are other phrases not immediately identifiable. Listed by Conroy as particularly notable are a mysterious “Iris Engine” and variants, plus registrations for a “Smart Button,” “Touch Bar,” “Progress Card”, and “Swift Lab.”

Also notable are “AirPod Case,” “Control Strip,” “Home Hub,” and “iBooks Storytime.”

I’d guess some of these will make more sense after today’s event, and more after (hopefully, fingers crossed) an early October event.

Lots of excitement today as Apple looks to be rolling out the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, perhaps without a headphone jack, perhaps with wireless headphones or headphones that plug into a lightning jack. There’s also likely to be an Apple Music relaunch with an improved interface and, as the bokeh invitation suggests, some dramatic camera improvements.

The event will begin at 10am PT, 1pm ET. You can watch the live stream here or on the Events channel on your Apple TV.

The Apple Store is down and presents this message:

Looking forward to seeing what Tim, Jony, and the gang have up their sleeves.

Juli Clover, writing for MacRumors:

[KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Ku] suggests Apple is working on its own Bluetooth-like communication chip and its own Bluetooth headphones.

And:

The chip may be included in the wireless earbuds Apple has in development, which are said to be Bragi Dash-style wireless Bluetooth earbuds that are entirely wire free. The earbuds will be called “AirPods,” based on trademark filings that have been discovered, and the product could be unveiled as early as September 7 alongside the iPhone 7.

And:

According to Kuo, Apple will sell its Apple-branded Bluetooth headphones alongside its Beats line of headphones, targeting the high-end market with the “AirPods” and the mid-range market with the Beats headphones. It is not clear if that means the AirPods will be priced higher than Beats headphones are at the current time or if Apple plans to lower prices on Beats going forward.

Sounds like Apple is positioning Apple branded headphones at the high-end and Beats in the midrange. To me, it does make sense to position each brand at its own unique pricing tier. Apple, traditionally, has not played at the audiophile level. If I encountered Apple headphones and say, Denon or Audeze headphones, my instinctive reaction would be to assume that the Denon/Audeze were the higher end product. Apple vs Beats might be more of a push. This means that Apple would have their work cut out for them presenting the Apple brand as an audiophile brand.

That said, Apple branded products have a high margin. Which means that if the product is better and reviews well, they’d have an easier time positioning the Apple brand at the high end. My 2 cents.

Jim Edwards, writing for Business Insider, brings together a story from The New York Times on Apple and agism with an anecdote about the engineer who got OS X to run on a PC:

“Bertrand walks in, watches the PC boot up, and says to JK, ‘How long would it take you to get this running on a (Sony) Vaio?’ JK replies, ‘Not long’ and Bertrand says, ‘Two weeks? Three?’

“JK said more like two hours. Three hours, tops.

“Bertrand tells JK to go to Fry’s (the famous West Coast computer chain) and buy the top of the line, most expensive Vaio they have. So off JK, Max and I go to Frys. We return to Apple less than an hour later. By 7:30 that evening, the Vaio is running the Mac OS. [My husband disputes my memory of this and says that Matt Watson bought the Vaio. Maybe Matt will chime in.]

“The next morning, Steve Jobs is on a plane to Japan to meet with the President of Sony.”

The tweet at the end of the story tells it all:

Wonder if Apple will finally give me callback on that genius bar interview.

I hope Apple does give JK a call back. He’s earned it, I think. And if his skills have fallen off, my guess is, he’d be happy to train up, and more than capable.

Greg Kable, writing for Autocar:

Ground zero for the iCar right now is the workshop at 960 Kifer Road in Sunnyvale. In this Silicon Valley suburb, which is also home to a long established Mercedes-Benz research and development centre among hundreds of ambitious start-up companies, Apple is rumoured to be developing elements of its newest product under the cloak of a shell company called SixtyEight Research.

And:

SixEight Research is named on documentation as being the importer of a 1957 Fiat Multipla 600 from the UK to the US in 2014 – a move that has led to rumours that the production iCar could take the form of an upright one-box MPV-style car similar in dimensions to the Volkswagen Budd-E revealed at the Consumer Electronics Show last January.

Here’s a picture of that car.

The article is full of little gems, a long thread of rumors and a sprinkling of cloak and dagger. Not sure how much, if any, of this is new information, but a fascinating read.

Great post from Andrew Leavitt. As John Gruber points out, there will be one more come tomorrow.

Tim Bajarin, writing for Tech.pinions:

One of the things that most consumers do not know about Apple is their supply chain and manufacturing is one of the best in the world. Tim Cook, when he was in charge of the chain, created one of the most efficient supply and manufacturing systems in the market. Cook managed this side of Apple’s business for over 10 years before he was elevated to the role of CEO. Even today he has an eagle eye on this part of their business and understands the supply chain better than any other CEO in the tech world today.

But what really makes Cook and Apple stand out is that, when they design hardware, they only marginally look at what type of equipment they will use to make this product. Creating a product that is great, easy to use, and extremely well designed is the first priority.

Once that is in place, they get serious about how they can manufacture the product in mass quantities and in the most cost-effective way. However, Apple stands above most in this area because, if they can’t find the right equipment to make a product, they actually invent and/or create the equipment, either with the help of a partner or they do it themselves.

This is innovation at a very sophisticated level. I think Walt missed this. Great read.

Nathan Olivarez-Giles, writing for The Wall Street Journal:

You’re going to have a lot more to talk about with Siri this fall. In iOS 10, Apple Inc.’s upcoming iPhone and iPad operating system, you’ll be able to control third-party app functions using the company’s voice-activated assistant for the first time.

Among the first apps to yield to Siri are big names like WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Square Cash and Slack, along with lesser-known ones including Looklive and The Roll.

I’ve tried out Siri’s new abilities in demos with developers over the past few days. After getting an early look at a more capable Siri, it’s clear that this long-overdue feature is important to making Siri more useful in everyday life. Still, controlling third-party apps is merely a first step toward Siri living up to Apple’s promise as a new way to control our devices.

We are at the cusp of a new age, an age that will see Siri play an ever-increasing role in our lives. Adding a basic ability for Siri to interact with 3rd party apps is foundational. I have no doubt that we’ll see those interactions become more and more sophisticated over time, and more and more valuable as a result.

Here’s a link to Apple’s updated iCloud storage pricing page. 2TB tiers added, across the board.

Mossberg:

Five years ago last week, the legendary Steve Jobs stepped down as Apple’s CEO after an amazing 14-year run that took the technology company from the edge of disaster to the heights of glory. He personally selected his COO, Tim Cook, as the new CEO, and passed away six weeks later.

So, how has Apple changed in the first five years of the Tim Cook era? How is it different from the peak of the Jobs era?

The short answer is that the company has surged financially to heights Jobs likely never dreamed of. It has also refined its popular product line and retained most of its senior talent.

But Cook’s Apple has yet to produce the kind of new, game-changing product Jobs was famous for launching. Or, if it has, we don’t know it yet.

I think a better title for this article would have been, “Jobs’ metric of success is different than Cook’s metric of success. Both were critical.”

I think Walt Mossberg’s analysis is interesting, worth reading, but I also think it is couched incorrectly. Steve Jobs ran Apple in a startup mode. Just as most startups need different leadership as they mature, in my opinion, Tim Cook is exactly the kind of leader Apple needed to crush the supply chain and build up Apple’s presence around the world, exactly the kind of leader Apple needs to navigate the choppy tax waters ahead.

And I have no doubt that Apple has plenty of innovation in the hopper, some of it extensions to familiar forms, some of it in the labs, still being shaped.

Follow this link, look at the picture. Typical Target merchandising. This approach works well for most Target merchandise, but it misses the mark in showing Apple products in the light in which they were meant to be seen.

Seems likely that’s a big part of why Target missed their Apple product sales projections.

From Tim Cook’s Message to the Apple Community in Europe:

Thirty-six years ago, long before introducing iPhone, iPod or even the Mac, Steve Jobs established Apple’s first operations in Europe. At the time, the company knew that in order to serve customers in Europe, it would need a base there. So, in October 1980, Apple opened a factory in Cork, Ireland with 60 employees.

At the time, Cork was suffering from high unemployment and extremely low economic investment. But Apple’s leaders saw a community rich with talent, and one they believed could accommodate growth if the company was fortunate enough to succeed.

We have operated continuously in Cork ever since, even through periods of uncertainty about our own business, and today we employ nearly 6,000 people across Ireland.

Apple has been in Cork since 4 years before the very first Mac was introduced. They’ve been in Cork through thick and thin. No possible argument there.

And:

Over the years, we received guidance from Irish tax authorities on how to comply correctly with Irish tax law — the same kind of guidance available to any company doing business there. In Ireland and in every country where we operate, Apple follows the law and we pay all the taxes we owe.

And:

The European Commission has launched an effort to rewrite Apple’s history in Europe, ignore Ireland’s tax laws and upend the international tax system in the process. The opinion issued on August 30th alleges that Ireland gave Apple a special deal on our taxes. This claim has no basis in fact or in law. We never asked for, nor did we receive, any special deals. We now find ourselves in the unusual position of being ordered to retroactively pay additional taxes to a government that says we don’t owe them any more than we’ve already paid.

And:

The Commission’s move is unprecedented and it has serious, wide-reaching implications. It is effectively proposing to replace Irish tax laws with a view of what the Commission thinks the law should have been. This would strike a devastating blow to the sovereignty of EU member states over their own tax matters, and to the principle of certainty of law in Europe. Ireland has said they plan to appeal the Commission’s ruling and Apple will do the same. We are confident that the Commission’s order will be reversed.

This is the essence of Apple’s argument. These are just a few excerpts from a much longer letter. Definitely worth a read.

Bloomberg put together an FAQ about the EU tax ruling. Here are a few of the questions and answers:

Q: Can Apple afford to pay the bill?
A: Easily. As of last month, Apple had $232 billion in cash, with about $214 billion of that being held overseas.

Q: Who receives the money if Apple ends up paying?
A: The money gets paid to Ireland, which puts those funds into an escrow account and leaves it there until any appeal process has fully concluded.

Q: Is the EU singling out Apple or forcing other companies to obey too?
A: It’s not just Apple. The EU authority has already ordered the Netherlands and Luxembourg to recover as much as 30 million euros ($33.3 million) apiece in back taxes from Starbucks Corp. and a Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV unit. Vestager is also probing Amazon Inc. and McDonald’s Corp.’s affairs in Luxembourg and has signaled she’s willing to add Google parent Alphabet Inc.’s 130 million-pound ($184 million) tax deal with the U.K. to her growing list of investigations.

Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. was ordered to repay a record 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) plus interest after the European Commission said Ireland illegally slashed the iPhone maker’s tax bill.

The world’s richest company benefited from a “selective tax treatment” in Ireland that gave it a “significant advantage over other businesses,” the European Union regulator said Tuesday. It’s the largest tax penalty in a three-year crackdown on sweetheart fiscal deals granted by EU nations.

And:

Apple and the Irish government have both vowed to fight the decision, which also risks stoking a fight with the U.S. over taxation policies — with the U.S. having already complained that Europe is unfairly targeting American companies and threatening global tax reforms.

And:

“I disagree profoundly with the commission’s decision,” said Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan. Ireland’s tax system is founded on the strict application of the law “without exception,” he said.

The commission left him with “no choice” but to move toward an appeal before the EU courts. “This is necessary to defend the integrity of our tax system; to provide tax certainty to business; and to challenge the encroachment of EU state-aid rules into the sovereign member state competence of taxation,” he said.

This will certainly add pressure to the unity of the EU, still working through Brexit terms. If the European Commission ultimately prevails, I can’t help but think it would impact Apple’s operations in Ireland.