Research archive for AAPL

The race for content continues. I bet the studios who own old but popular shows cannot believe their luck that these shows are still making money. Apple Buys Older Shows for TV+. Stepping Up Netflix Challenge. According to the article from Bloomberg, TV + has around 10 million subscribers but only half are regular users.

Apple had first quarter results out last week. The numbers were fine, and the stock price is above $300 again. The all-time high is $327.85. Not far to go!

Yesterday, Apple unveiled its second generation iPhone SE which will be selling for $399 . This is their cheaper range, which sells for around 40% less than a regular iPhone. The new iPhone SE is made from glass and aluminium with a 4.7 inch screen, has the new faster A13 Bionic processor, found in the iPhone 11 Pro, and the 12-megapixel cameras. However, it'll still have a home button with Touch ID, which sounds a lot like the old iPhone 8 but with a major performance boost.

Apple will open its first retail store in India next year. Wait, what? Surely the world's most valuable company has been trading for years in India, which is one of the most populous nations on Earth. Apparently not. For a decade, Apple has solely relied on third-party sellers, stores and marketplaces to sell its products in India.

According to new data from a research company called Omdia, the Apple XR was the world's most popular smartphone in 2019. Other notable smartphones in third and fourth place included the Samsung's Galaxy A10 and the Samsung Galaxy A50. That alone was so painful to write!

Apple results are always very exciting. It is a polarising company when it comes to analysts. Fortunately, we have been on the long side of the argument. Since 2006 the share is up 3 000%, I would say that the longs have been right so far?

Today marks 10 years since the birth of the iPad, Happy Birthday iPad! News is out that the top-end iPad, which is called the iPad Pro will be getting a massive update in the next few months. The next generation iPad Pro will have a Smart Keyboard that is out of this world, this is according to Taiwanese tech website Digitimes.

Apple have stepped it up a notch in the race for content. They have just signed former HBO boss Richard Plepler as a producer for Apple TV Plus for five years. Plepler spent 27 years at HBO which won 160 Emmys while he was in charge.

Apple is at all time highs with a share price of $303 and a market cap of $1.3 trillion. If you had bought the share one year ago you would have doubled your money. Just astonishing considering the size and scale of the business.

Globally the number of installed 5G networks is growing rapidly. In South Africa Rain has already launched its 5G network. To use the super fast network though will require a special cellphone or router, so your current iPhone won't cut it.

One could argue that Apple is the most important holding in Vestact New York portfolios. Although we have slightly more customers who hold Visa, we have held Apple for longer, and it is an easier company to understand. We started accumulating them November 2008 when Steve Jobs was still the CEO and they had just released the iPhone. Our first client purchase was at $13.70 per share. Believe it or not, we switched all of our clients then out of Nokia and into Apple.

According to Yahoo finance, Apple is back on top of the charts in terms of market capitalisation. It is often hard to tell because the companies are in the middle of big share buyback programs. The throne is currently changing hands between Apple and Microsoft.

This is why it is so important to have a closed ecosystem with over a billion loyal subscribers. How do you spell MOAT? Apple is reportedly considering a subscription bundle for Apple Music and its Streaming service Apple TV Plus.

I was interested to read recently about Apple's Advanced Manufacturing Fund which invests in partnerships with suppliers to support and develop key research projects in the US, at companies that make parts for Apple devices.

Ben Evans is a partner at Andreessen Horowitz (also known as 'a16z'), a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley that invests in software companies. His biography page says "I try to work out what's going on and what will happen next".