Business

Fortune:

Ahrendts views the company’s newly redesigned retail outlets not just as stores, but as the company’s next big products…she and Apple view their stores as potential town squares within each of the cities they reside.

“The store is now the biggest product we produce and we have five new features [for iPhones and iPads]. Accessories are avenues, and the huge digital screen in each store is the forum,” Ahrendts said.

By the end of this year, 95 stores will be fully redesigned with this vision, the first of which were the San Francisco Union Square location and the London Regent Street outpost. The community aspect to each store is key, Ahrendts said, with these town squares serving as educational centers.

An interesting metaphor. It’ll be interesting to see how this is implemented.

Also interesting:

There are nearly 500 Apple stores worldwide, and retail sales are responsible for some 18% of the company’s $233.7 billion in sales, amounting to $42 billion in yearly revenue.

That 18% number is impressive, given the relatively small number of stores per consumer in the world.

Earlier this morning, I posted about Apple removing security tethers from devices in the Apple Stores.

One question I had was how this would impact shoplifting, how Apple was able to keep an eye on things.

From this 9to5mac post by Ben Lovejoy:

A source tells us that the current special OS images on demo devices include a software ‘kill switch’ which disables them when they go out of range of the store Wi-Fi. This means that Apple no longer has to use Find My iPhone to disable them manually.

Read the rest. Pretty interesting.

Mark Gurman and Alex Webb, writing for Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. has drastically scaled back its automotive ambitions, leading to hundreds of job cuts and a new direction that, for now, no longer includes building its own car, according to people familiar with the project.

Hundreds of members of the car team, which comprises about 1,000 people, have been reassigned, let go, or have left of their own volition in recent months, the people said, asking not to be identified because the moves aren’t public.

New leadership of the initiative, known internally as Project Titan, has re-focused on developing an autonomous driving system that gives Apple flexibility to either partner with existing carmakers, or return to designing its own vehicle in the future, the people also said. Apple has kept staff numbers in the team steady by hiring people to help with the new focus, according to another person.

The article is a fascinating behind-the-scenes on how this project slowly shifted direction to its current focus.

The Economist, on Apple opening an App Academy in a tough, but emerging, Naples neighborhood:

“We go to places nobody thought were possible”, explained Lisa Jackson, vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives at Apple, at the inaugural event. Naples lags far behind northern Italy for transport and digital infrastructure, and criminality is rife. The Camorra, a mafia gang, runs one of the biggest drug-trafficking enterprises in the world from the city. The neighbourhood in which Apple has opened the academy (it is located inside a new campus of Federico II University) used to be more dangerous. “We used to see our friends die on the ground,” recalls Davide Varlese, a cousin of Mr Ciarravolo. But things have improved over the past decade as authorities have clamped down. At least the Camorra doesn’t come asking for money in bars any more, locals say.

The draw for Apple is the engineering program at the university.

Nikkei Asian Review:

Cook, who was visiting Japan for the first time as CEO, said Apple will open a research and development base in Yokohama, near Tokyo, later this year. The facility — the first of its kind outside the U.S. — will develop AI and other technologies. Cook described it as a center for “deep engineering” and said it will be “very different” from the R&D base Apple plans to build in China.

And:

Some analysts say a sales slowdown in China has prompted Apple to shift back toward Japan, where the iPhone commands a large market share. Cook said Apple sees “kindred spirits” in Japan, since it has “a lot of partners, supplier partners, and the developer community here is so vibrant.”

Not particularly revealing, but interesting. One quote towards the end struck me:

On filling Jobs’ role, Cook said, “I never tried to replace him. I’ve just tried to be myself and do the best thing that I can do. … I think if he were here, I would have loved it, because I would have loved going through many of these things with him. But it unfortunately wasn’t to be.”

Imagine if Steve was still around, with Tim Cook running the company and Steve visioning new products to life. What kind of partnership would they have? What kind of person would Steve have become? Just a thought.

Stephen Hackett, writing for 512 Pixels:

Now that the iPhone 7 starts at 32 GB of storage, the constant juggling needed to avoid a full device has been left behind by more users than ever before.

So let’s talk about iCloud storage.

And:

5 GB often isn’t enough to back up an iPhone and an iPad, let alone store years worth of family photos.

Unlike One Drive or even Dropbox, iCloud storage is key to extending and improving the experience of using a Mac or iPhone. Dropbox may be a semi-magical folder that syncs data to other devices, but iCloud is the glue between Apple’s various platforms.

Great post, great point.

I can only imagine how cool this must have been for both sides. If you are unfamiliar with Shigeru Miyamoto, here’s a bit from his Wikipedia Page:

Miyamoto originally joined Nintendo in 1977, when the company was beginning its foray into video games, and starting to abandon the playing cards it had made since 1889. His games have been seen on every Nintendo video game console, with his earliest work appearing on arcade machines in the late 70s. Franchises Miyamoto has helped create include the Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, F-Zero, Pikmin, and Wii series. Noteworthy games within these include Super Mario Bros., one of the most well known video games; Super Mario 64; and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, one of the most critically acclaimed video games of all time.

I love that Nintendo changed their mind, allowing one of their biggest franchise characters to migrate to an iOS game. Looking forward to taking Super Mario Run for a spin. And hope that Link and Zelda follow soon after.

From Apple Insider:

In a note to investors obtained by AppleInsider, Daryanani notes Dialog pre-announced positive September quarter results on the back of mobile systems revenue, suggesting strong component orders from Apple. Dialog raised revenue expectations for the past quarter to about $345 million, up 13 percent from previous estimates between $290 million to $320 million.

OK, so far so good. Strong component orders indicate strong sales. Easy peasy.

Here’s the kicker:

Though Dialog failed to delve into specifics, it did say the revenue bump is in part the result of mobile systems orders being pulled forward into the third quarter to accommodate China’s National Day holiday on Oct. 1. Apple, which accounts for 75 to 80 percent of Dialog’s mobile systems revenue, traditionally builds iPhone approximately 60 days out, meaning the pulled-in orders are likely related to the December quarter, Daryanani writes.

The way I read it, this says that the builds for the holiday season were done early to accommodate China’s National Day holiday, which gave an early indicator of the unusual size of holiday orders. I found that kind of interesting.

By the way, according to this Wikipedia article, China’s National Day occurs every October 10th, not October 1. Not sure which is right.

When I asked Siri:

When is China’s national day holiday?

She replied:

National Day is on Tuesday, July 4, 2017.

Hmm.UPDATE: Thanks for the tweets and emails. turns out the holiday referred to above is the mainland Chinese holiday, not Taiwanese holiday.