It’s no exaggeration to say that videoconferencing went mainstream during the pandemic. However, Apple’s FaceTime didn’t stack up well against Zoom and others due to its emulation of the telephone call experience, questionable interface decisions, and lack of cross-platform compatibility. However, with iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS 12 Monterey, Apple has nearly brought FaceTime […]

Read More

It may seem early to start thinking about the holiday shopping season, but with the global supply chain suffering pandemic-related slowdowns, there’s no telling how long it will take to get something you order today. Apple has generally done a good job of managing its supply chain issues, but even still, if you want to […]

Read More

Java is an active dog and quite the leaper.  We put an AirTag on his collar just so we could track him and because we wanted to get some experience with AirTags.   Another local dog whose owners let him run loose comes over to visit Java and they like to run and play.  The […]

Read More

I swore I was going to wait for the third developer beta to upgrade my Mac to Mojave but I could not resist. After carefully making sure I had back-ups, I downloaded Mojave. I have just started to play with it but I do want to caution you that, unlike me, you should NOT be […]

Read More

$50.6 Billion in revenue, $10.5 Billion in net profit and $235 Billion in the bank. Let’s get one thing straight, 99.9% of the companies in the world would love to have those kind of numbers. And while this fell into the range of Apple’s forward-looking guidance, it did fall short of the expectations of the analysts.

This was the first time in 13 years (!) that Apple posted lower year-over-year sales. Apple saw lower iPhone sales than last year at this time. However, keep in mind that was when the iPhone 6 was at its peak. Nevertheless, Apple sold 51.1 million iPhones and said they are having difficulty keeping up with the demand for the recently released iPhone 5se.

Mac sales and iPad sales also declined as expected with Apple selling a bit over 4 million Macs and 10.25 million iPads. On the bright side, Services revenue increased 20% to almost $6 billion and “other” products which include Apple TV, Apple Watch, Beats and iPod generated $2.189 billion which is 30% growth.

Apple’s board of directors both increased the dividend paid on Apple shares to $0.57 which is about a 10% raise and increased their share buy-back program. With Apple being so widely held, this dividend increase makes Apple one of the largest payers of dividends in the world. Since the start of their dividend and share re-purchase program, Apple has returned over $163 billion to shareholders, the majority of that being in the form of share buy-backs.

Apple’s guidance for the current quarter which ends at the end of June also projects a year-over-year decline in revenues. They forecast sales in the range of $41-$43 billion which is also lower than analysts predicted.

There is no sugar-coating these results which were for the most part, a miss. Forecasting demand, revenue and margin is tricky and there are a bunch of factors that enter into this calculation and a bunch more that are ready to blow up the forecast. International monetary trends, new product introductions are all a bit of a wild card.

There is some good news hidden in the report. Apple said that the iPhone enjoys an unprecedented 95% loyalty rate, Apple Pay is seeing 1 million new users a week, 13 million people subscribe to Apple Music and Apple’s installed base is 1 billion devices and growing.

Apple had a huge hit with the iPhone 6 and that did push sales to a peak level last year. It was an anomaly, however, and Apple’s business is still incredibly strong, just a bit more down to earth. You can’t hit home runs every time at bat! Tim Cook says the product pipeline is strong and I believe him.

Hey, I didn’t have to come up with a new adjective to describe what Apple did to the street this quarter. That’s a fringe benefit. Putting this all into perspective is important. It is not like Apple is losing money or losing customers. In fact, the opposite is true. In three short months, they made over $10 billion in profit and sold millions and millions of iPhones, iPads and Macs! Now, if Small Dog could just do a tiny fraction of that…

Read More

_Dear Friends,_

Don’s making the voyage home this week from Key West back to the Green Mountains. He’s in for a bit of a shock when he gets back. Mother Nature seems to have gotten a bit confused this week. I mentioned in the fall that I was taking a new stance on winter and was going to embrace it this year and I truly did my best though we didn’t see much snow. But when we get a snow in late April, I choose to just ignore it. I didn’t bother to shovel off my deck and I left the hose to water my horses just thrown on the ground. In the end both these decisions only made my life harder. I had to lug water buckets for my horses as my hose was not only frozen to the ground, but frozen itself because I didn’t take the time to drain the water out of it. All the slush and snow I ignored on my deck was a sprained ankle waiting to happen and my screen door only opened halfway once everything froze back up. Well, let’s just hope this was finally the last of it and spring will finally show up for real. It always looks a little funny when the trees are starting to bud and there is still snow on the ground.

The snow this week was a bit of a shock to many of us, and so was the latest financial report from Apple. For the first time in 13 years, Apple’s financial report showed lower than expected sales figures. iPhone sales showed their first decline since their release and iPad sales have been sluggish for several quarters now, but we’ll have more on this later in Kibbles.

This week’s Kibbles & Bytes exclusive is perfect for the on-the-run Mom on your list or anyone who is on the go and trying to fit time in for themselves between home and the office. This week only, save $40 on this perfect on-the-run bundle. Get the OutDoor Tech Kodiak mini, the BlueAnt Pump Mini headphones and the Belkin Slim-Fit Plus armband for “**$99.97**.”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002212 This bundle is perfect for ensuring the mom who does it all can keep can keep her phone going to capture those special moments or squeeze in an important call during her workout.

Read More