You know who had a great 2019? You guessed it.. Apple broke records and managed to not only overcome a market swoon, but get back to an all-time high stock price by the end of the year. Oh, and they managed to demonstrate that they really can deliver when it comes to new services and wearables. This is vitally important as iPhone sales level off and profits decrease.
The iPad Pro has some limitations when you compare it to a traditional laptop with a touchscreen and pen compatibility. I think any fan of the device who’s honest with themselves understands that. There are fewer of them than there used to be thanks to Apple’s efforts to beef up the iPad on the software side over the last three years. The release of iPadOS this summer was a another big step in this process, freeing the iPad from the hardware and software schedule of the iPhone.
A few days ago, I wrote about Apple’s rumored “event” on Apps and Media that was supposed to take place this afternoon, wondering what it would look like. It turns out this wasn’t a public-facing event at all, which actually makes more sense. Instead, this was a small gathering of press and developers at a New York apartment that Apple keeps for more intimate events and demonstrations.
Apple was dealt a setback today, as the US Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that individual purchasers do have the right to sue them for antitrust behavior. Today’s vote stems from a 2011 lower court case, Apple v Pepper, in which a group of individuals sued the company claiming they were using monopoly pricing power in the App Store. Apple contested the individual users’ right to sue them directly based on court precedent and the matter made it all the way to the highest court in the land.
I use my iPad Pro as a secondary/personal device, but there are many people who prefer to take the plunge and make it their so-called daily driver machine. More power to them. While I am not in a position to use an iPad as my primary computer at work, I know that it is capable of handling the majority of tasks for many kinds of jobs. I also know a few other who, like me, use an iPad of some kind as their primary home device.
In case you aren’t aware, Marzipan is a program at Apple that is working to merge aspects of the iOS and macOS code bases over time, making life easier for developers. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman first reported on this initiative in late 2017 and Apple unveiled the beginnings of the program at the 2018 edition of WWDC. Right now, Marzipan is still in its infancy and has only been used by Apple internally to port a few iOS apps over to macOS Mojave.
As we close in on Apple’s next event, there are tons of stories bouncing around about the company’s future growth being in services. Right now, everything is centered around their coming subscription services in video and news, but a smaller story from earlier this week points to another service that could dwarf all others. According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple and Goldman Sachs are getting ready to team up on a credit card.
I like the fact that Apple has taken a pro-privacy stance in recent years. Considering how the rest of the big tech giants treat users and their data, it is a positive to have some type of check against that power. However, I don’t have any illusions about what Apple is doing. It is very simple. They don’t need to monetize our data, while their primary competitors do, so their stance on privacy has nothing to do with any altruism on their part. It is a position of convenience. A bat they can swing at the high, hanging privacy fastball that companies like Facebook and Google hang right over the plate for them.
Apple has been both praised and criticized over their rigid standards for the App Store. Parents tend to appreciate knowing that porn and other indecent material will not be readily available via apps. The ones where it is able to be found can be restricted through parental settings, making parental control realistic and not too difficult for those who want to take advantage of it.
Today is the tenth birthday of Apple’s App Store, which is hard to believe. It makes me feel my age just a bit as I type this. On the one hand, it’s hard to remember the world of mobile devices and smartphones before it, because it is so much a part of everyday life today. On the other hand, I also remember the Summer of 2008 like it was yesterday.
In case you haven’t already heard, earlier this week Apple reversed an earlier approval of Steam’s Steam Link app for iOS and tvOS, and has now rejected it based on what was initially termed as “business conflicts with app guidelines.” Well, whoever in marketing or PR at Apple dropped that line should think before they speak, because most of the controversy surrounding this decision is based on that poorly-worded quote.