While excitement for Apple Inc.'s new iPhones has helped boost the company's share price to record highs, a nearly 40-year-old workhorse with stagnating sales in recent years is notching impressive growth: the Mac.
Sales of the computer line rose 29% in the past quarter to a record $9 billion. Apple has seen huge interest in many of its products, from iPads to headphones, as students and workers stay home because of the coronavirus pandemic.
On Tuesday, the Mac lineup got its biggest jolt in years during a virtual event streamed online and filmed at the company's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters. Apple introduced a new M1 microchip that's supposed to give devices faster performance, better battery life and, maybe, bigger profits.
The new chip will go first into a new, super-thin MacBook Air laptop, starting at $999, a 13-inch MacBook Pro, starting at $1,299, and the Mac Mini computer, starting at $699.
Among the accolades listed during the Apple presentation, the company said the new chip would allow the MacBook Air to be 3.5 times faster than the previous generation and run silently because it wouldn't need a fan to keep it cool.
'Advancements of this magnitude only come from making bold changes,' Chief Executive Tim Cook said Tuesday. 'The M1 chip is by far the most powerful chip that we have ever created.'
Sep 15, 2020 This is a blog about Apple's Sept. 15 product event, where the company announced a slew of new gadgets and services, including a new Apple Watch and two new iPad models.
Mac App Store is the simplest way to find and download apps for your Mac. To download apps from the Mac App Store, you need a Mac with OS X 10.6.6 or later. Apple has so far been strict against this, among other things for ergonomic reasons, but a Mac that can run iPhone and iPad apps is probably the strongest argument so far to provide a Mac with a. 1 day ago That Apple TV option is new this year, by the way—now that Apple has its own streaming service, it also has a dedicated video app on mobile devices, Apple TV. Apple Watch Series 6. The star of the show was the Apple Watch Series 6. The newest model offers.
It marked the third virtual event held since September without a live, in-auditorium audience because of efforts to fight the coronavirus.
The success of the Mac lineup garnered new excitement from investors, such as Daniel Morgan, a senior portfolio manager who focuses on technology at Synovus Trust Co., which counts Apple among its largest holdings.
'A product that was once considered a dinosaur in the Apple product lineup has gained new traction after the pandemic hit with the work-from-home movement,' Mr. Morgan said. After years of flat sales, 'the Mac has become an important growth driver.'
The arrival of the new devices will mark a breakup in Apple's 15-year relationship with Intel Corp., which Apple co-founder Steve Jobs tapped in 2005 to improve performance in Apple computers, then the company's primary business. It is also the latest example of tech companies developing their own computing power.
Chief Executive Tim Cook announced the shift in June, saying the company would begin jettisoning Intel processors over the course of two years beginning by year-end. The chips are based on Arm Holdings technology, designed to improve battery life, speed and security, the company said at the time.
The change is in line with Mr. Cook's broader effort to bring more in-house designed components, following similar steps taken with the iPhone that allow the company to cut costs and bring special features to its products, such as image processing through machine-learning algorithms on the smartphones.
Custom Apple chips should allow the company to save $150 to $200 per computer, Mark Vena, an analyst for Moor Insights & Strategy, said. That savings could help fund more features in the new computers or boost profitability, he said.
The starting prices of both the MacBook Air and Pro remained the same as the previous versions while the Mac Mini was $100 cheaper.
Apple has sought to help software developers prepare for the switch, because the new computers will have a different central processing unit, which speaks a different language than existing Macs.
Software chief Craig Federighi has said the company would continue to support and release new versions of its operating software for Intel-based Macs for years to come. During the presentation, Apple described apps that would allow software to run on both the Apple Silicon and Intel processors and said the Mac's new operating system would allow iPhone apps to run on the computers, which holds the promise of a more seamless working environment between Apple devices.
The company's shift to its own chip design comes as the Mac business has seen renewed life in the past nine months. Megan Behringer, an academic in Tennessee, said she purchased a new MacBook Pro recently because she enjoys seamlessly moving from one device to another to do her work.
She said she was attracted to the laptop, in part, because of the Apple ecosystem that lets her easily move among different devices. 'Being able to drop a protocol or a journal article onto my iPad and then walk into the lab with it, or image something in the lab with the iPhone/iPad and then drop it on to the MacBook to analyze it, is incredibly convenient,' said Ms. Behringer, an assistant professor at Vanderbilt University.
The Mac's success, however, isn't just among returning customers. Mr. Cook told analysts in July that almost 50% of the customers were new. In China, it was three out of four buyers.
Apple completed its most recent fiscal year in September with Mac revenue rising 11% to $28.6 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet, on average, predict sales would rise 4.5% this year.
Apple turned to Intel in 2005 to help bolster its computers against more powerful rivals. Helped by popular designs such as the MacBook in 2006 and the halo effect of the iPhone, its share of global computers sales rose to 7.3% in 2017 before slipping to 6.6% in 2019, according to IDC. In recent years, the MacBook has been plagued with complaints about its so-called butterfly keyboard -- which were addressed in the past year.
The new growth comes as Apple has focused on growing its services business to augment falling iPhone sales. Investors are betting that the arrival in recent weeks of the iPhone 12, with the ability to connect to faster 5G cellular networks, will spark new interest in the device and possibly rival past records.
But in the quarter that ended in September, sales of the old iPhones fell 21% compared with a year earlier, worse than analysts had expected. Yet Apple beat Wall Street's overall sales expectations, in part, because of robust Mac sales.
In an interview, Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said he believed the Mac lineup could continue to see upbeat results in the new fiscal year. App is damaged and cannot be opened mac sierra. 'The demand continues to be very strong,' he said.
Write to Tim Higgins at [email protected]
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 10, 2020 14:26 ET (19:26 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.Apple doesn’t normally announce new products this late in the year, but this is a special occasion – for the first time in its 44 year history, the company’s new computers will be powered by a processor designed entirely by Apple. https://fortuneyellow913.weebly.com/blog/philo-app-for-mac.
Early Macintosh computers used Motorola CPUs, then in 1994 Apple switched to PowerPC (co-developed by Apple, IBM and Motorola) before moving to Intel x86 in 2006. And now in 2020 the Apple A-series chipsets are taking over, bringing both hardware and software under the same roof.
The official announcement is tomorrow and we will be covering all new products (there will be a live stream for you to watch too). For now, we’ve gathered all the rumors of what Apple has cooking in one place.
13-inch MacBook Air and MacBook Pro: very likely
While Apple has not officially confirmed anything, most sources agree that the company will unveil two 13” laptops to kick off the own-silicon era and those will be a new Air and a new Pro.
They will be powered by chipsets derived from the Apple A14 found inside the new iPhones and iPads. Apple aims to increase performance while reducing power usage. The new chips will also bring with them the security and machine learning hardware from the mobile gadgets to the laptop line.
The thin and light MacBook Air was a safe guess, but it’s interesting to see a new Pro too - these are Apple’s top-performing laptops, clearly the company is confident in the power of its new chipset.
macOS Big Sur: almost certain
There’s no Apple silicon powered Macs without Big Sur as Rosetta 2 and Universal 2 are key. The former allows x86 apps to run on Apple’s ARM chipsets, the latter will help developers build apps that run on both x86 and ARM (the transition will take several years, so Intel-powered Macs will be relevant for some time to come).
Big Sur will also enable developers to bring their iOS and iPadOS apps to macOS without any modifications. All of this ensures that the new Macs will have a rich selection of apps from day one.
It’s not just the new ARM-powered models, current Intel Macs will get major improvements as well. Big Sur was introduced in June and the public release is still pending. This version brings the biggest UI overhaul to macOS since the original Mac OS X launched and takes more than a little inspiration from iOS 14.
New in macOS Big Sur: Control Center • Notification Center • Revamped Messages app
This includes things like the all-new Control Center and Notification Center, as well as a major renovation of Messages and Maps, both of which get features that were first added to their iOS counterparts.
16” MacBook: maybe
Both Bloomberg and Ming-Chi Kuo agree that the 13” models are certain to be on stage, Bloomberg also marks a 16” MacBook Pro as a possibility (supported by the images found in a macOS beta). However, this may only get a mention rather than a full reveal as it is still earlier in the production cycle.
Images of 16' MacBook Pro found in a macOS beta
Next year Apple is expected to announce 14.1” and 16.1” MacBook Pros with mini-LED displays. The display technology will likely make its debut on iPad Pro before moving to Apple’s laptop line. Anyway, this release is focused on the new Apple chipsets, display upgrades will have to wait.
AirTags: unlikely
We’ve been hearing about AirTags for the better part of the year. They were supposed to be unveiled in October alongside the new iPhones, but that got delayed for some unknown reason (rumors claimed Apple started mass production in September).
The coin-shaped trackers leverage the direction finding capabilities of the U1 chip first added in the iPhone 11 (which uses Ultra Wide Band tech). Mouse locator app mac. While AirTags may be supported on Macs, especially now that the new laptops share hardware with the phones, this is really more of a phone accessory – you’re not going to walk around the house with a MacBook in your hands trying to find your keys.
![Apple Events Mac App Apple Events Mac App](https://img.zcool.cn/community/01af4d569a020b6ac725af23882956.jpg@2o.jpg)
AirPods Studio: unlikely
Another new product line that got delayed. The AirPods Studio will be the first over-ear headphones to have the Apple brand (there are already similar models from Beats), but issues with the headband reportedly caused their launch to be pushed back, probably to 2021.
The headbands were going to be interchangeable, allowing for easy customization. That feature has been dropped, according to inside sources. The ear pads will be interchangeable, though. Also, the touch controls on the side are being redesigned as well.
The headphones were supposed to come in two versions: $350 base model and a $600 premium option, both with active noise cancellation.
The same report that brought the bad news for the Studio launch also claimed that Apple is working on a mid-sized smart speaker, something to fill the gap between the $300 HomePod and the $100 mini. This speaker also gets filed under “unlikely” as we haven’t heard much more about it.
Reader comments
- nikojas
- 3xZ
Mac App Free
can't believe the 'new' Macbook Air looks just like my 2011 model. 9 years in tech is a LONG time.. and that Macbook of mine already died 3 yrs ago!
- g5f
Apple Mac App Store App
sadly im not ios fan, no lock down os and power from internet is better to me
Zoom App Apple Mac
- Anonymous
- 7kk
Mac iphone apps sync. Sure, the iOS apps won't be usable on these new arm macs but they are not the main focus, apple is providing the devlopers with various tools to help in making the software. They are serious about this arm thing, unlike Microsoft. I may be wrong..