Why Apple, Inc. is keeping the identity of many of its 23 recent acquisitions a secret
Apple has acquired at least 23 firms over the last five quarters, but the purpose—and even the identity—of some of them remains a mystery. This is no accident.
Dan worked as a journalist covering the tech industry, and in particular Apple, for more than 15 years. He's contributed to AppleInsider since 2005. Prior to that, he managed Information Technology teams and handled technical operations ranging from startups to enterprise organizations including U.S. government, higher education, and healthcare research organizations.
Apple has acquired at least 23 firms over the last five quarters, but the purpose—and even the identity—of some of them remains a mystery. This is no accident.
Apple's chief executive Tim Cook sat alone onstage as he presided over the company's annual shareholder meeting, fielding questions and detailing various aspects of his company's business. Among the topics he discussed were sales of the latest iPhone models, Apple's pace of acquisitions, and the growth of Apple TV.
Apple is preparing to release a free software update designed to improve the fingerprint recognition experience of Touch ID, potentially fixing a "fade" issue that has been experienced by some iPhone 5s users, AppleInsider has learned.
Speaking at Mobile World Conference, Google's new Android chief Sundar Pichai admitted that security plays second fiddle to "freedom" in the design and implementation of Google's mobile operation system, exposing Android users to an overwhelming, disproportionate share of malware vulnerabilities.
Apple has joined American Airlines, Marriott hotels and other large firms in requesting Arizona Governor Jan Brewer to veto controversial bill SB1062 intended to legalize discrimination against gays and lesbians on religious grounds.
Slanted media reports targeting Apple appear to be directly connected to the company's failure to pay for more favorable coverage in the model of Samsung. It doesn't appear to be affecting Apple's sales or profits, however.
Apple's efforts to take advantage of irrational stock dips in order to buy back its own shares at a discount has transferred billions of dollars from panicked speculators to its long term investors.
Apple's next free iOS 7 update is expected to fix bugs and enhance a variety of user interface elements, but fresh rumors claim the release — supposedly coming in mid-March — will also include a major overhaul of the Mobile Device Management mass deployment system and will launch alongside a totally new "Volume Services" Web client.
Listening to the Google-enraptured tech media's echo chamber of fears, uncertainties and doubts about the world's most profitable and successful company, you'd never realize that there's an incredible bounty of low hanging fruit waiting for Tim Cook's Apple to harvest, and little but mobile scorched earth left behind Google.
Apple paid its shareholders another quarterly dividend on Thursday, although the total payout was reduced by millions due to billions of dollars worth of stock buybacks over recent quarters.
Seven years after entering the mobile computing market with iPhone, the Cupertino-based company has now reached a peak of building and selling more computers than all of Microsoft's Windows licensees put together.
Market research firm IDC has reported new figures seeking to explain why Apple, the most profitable smartphone vendor on the planet, is "underperforming the overall market" by not emulating the profitless manufacturing of low end phones by its competitors, most of whom are losing money.
Despite efforts seeking to portray Apple as having experienced a disappointing winter quarter, the reality is that Apple brutally dominated the slowing global handset market, syphoning off 87.4 percent of the industry's global profits.
Enterprise mobile services vendor Good Technology reported that Apple's iPad accounted for more than 91 percent of enterprise tablet deployments, while iPhone represented 54 percent of smartphones activated by the more than 2,000 companies using its services in the fourth quarter, giving iOS an overall 73 percent share of mobile devices in the enterprise.
Apple's newly-redesigned Mac Pro ships standard with dual GPUs configured via hardware to support AMD's CrossFire GPU-pairing technology, but only when running Microsoft Windows.
Samsung is giving a free Galaxy Note 3 to every athlete competing in the 2014 Winter Olympics, but those who receive one are reportedly required to ensure that the Apple logo is nowhere to be seen if they use an iPhone to record events at the opening ceremonies.
Next Thursday, Apple will pay "shareholders of record" the company's quarterly dividend of $3.05 per share, but investors needed to own the company's stock by the market's close today in order to qualify.
Market research firm Canalys reports that Apple achieved a 19.5 percent slice of global, combined PC and tablet sales in the fourth calendar quarter of 2013. That's a larger share of unit sales than Dell and HP together, and well in advance of second place Lenovo and third place Samsung.
While stopping short of announcing an comprehensively outlined strategy for facilitating mobile payments, Apple's chief executive Tim Cook linked the concept with iPhone 5s' Touch ID system.
Thirty years ago today, Steve Jobs presented the new Macintosh personal computer to a room of Apple investors. The machine has maintained its impact upon the world ever since, despite continually morphing into new forms while detractors voiced their disapproval.
Apple's revamped, fifth generation full-size iPad Air was the most popular iPad over the holidays, contributing to a end of the iPad's Average Sales Price erosion.
Apple is requiring that any patent settlement negotiations with Samsung include a provision that blocks the South Korean conglomerate from cloning its designs, a provision that was also key to the deal Apple forged with HTC in November 2012.
Expanding upon the "Life on iPad" video released at the launch of iPad Air, Apple has created a second spot profiling real use cases of its tablets, ranging from scientific exploration to medicine, music, filmmaking and sports.
Tech blogs and mainstream media reports in 2013 consistently presented Apple as beset by a series of unsolvable problems, from flagging sales and slipping market share to a generalized lack of innovation. In hindsight, the media was disastrously, egregiously wrong about the horses it chose to back in the technology market this year. Perhaps they'll do a better job in 2014.
Apple's iPhone and iPad represented the vast majority of U.S. online shopping and sales during Christmas, accounting for more than an 83 percent take of sales compared to Android.
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