Apple’s 2020 Product Plans For iPhones, Macs And More Outlined By Noted Analyst

When analyst Ming-Chi Kuo talks about Apple, it's worth listening. This time, Kuo has suggested that Apple has a mass of new products from a possible iPhone SE 2 to a possible AirPower device to unveil in the first half of this year.

This fresh crop of predictions was spotted by MacRumors and suggests an entire product lineup. The biggest of these predictions is a 4.7-inch LCD iPhone, which could be a potential followup to the beloved iPhone SE.

•     See what's up with 5G and the iPhone 12
•     Here's all we know about the iPhone 12
•     The iPhone SE 2 could be delayed by Coronavirus

You see, as Apple's devices have moved into an even more premium segment of the market, the idea of the iPhone SE and iPhone 5C has felt left behind. But, there has been no shortage of speculation that a successor to the iPhone SE would come. A model with an LCD would make sense, as Apple has reserved OLED displays for its higher-tier phones.

MacBooks and iPads may also be getting refreshes. Apple has already upgraded the 15-inch MacBook Pro to a 16-inch model, while also removing the contentious butterfly key switch mechanism. It's possible other MacBook Pro models will get the same treatment as Apple moves back to traditional scissor switches. Kuo had previously suggested Apple would abandon butterfly switches on this timeline. An iPad Pro 2020 refresh is reasonable to expect.
Less anticipated but no less exciting

Kuo has also suggested Apple would release a wireless charging mat, ultra-wideband tag, and "high-end Bluetooth headphone." These are all a little further off the regular warpath for Apple but are still expected in the same timeline as the other products Kuo suggested.

The ultra-wideband tags could be the long-rumored AirTag from Apple to compete with Tile trackers. So, as Apple delves into even more product categories, it may be coming up with a way to help you avoid losing your expensive items.

Aside from its Beats headphones, Apple's own headphone efforts have been limited to bud-style devices like the AirPods. There's a possibility that Apple has something like that in-store to go against Surface Headphones or our perennial favorites, the Sony WH-1000XM3.

Finally, a wireless charging mat from Apple could go a number of ways. It may be a simple wireless charger given the polish Apple is known for. It could be a multi-device wireless charging station. Or, it could be the AirPower that Apple previously canceled.

Whatever these products ultimately turn out to be (if they turn out at all), we may find out in the first half of the year.

https://www.apple.com/

https://www.dumpspedia.org/Apple.html

Apple updated maps app to compete with Google Maps

Apple is trying to catch up with Google when it comes to maps, thanks in part to a fleet of planes and cars it has deployed to take pictures of the Northeast.

The Apple Maps application, whose incorrect addresses and irregular information have been the subject of jokes since its launch seven years ago, released the biggest update so far on its map of New York City and nearby areas, increasing details on buildings, roads, parks and bodies of water.

Users looking at Central Park, for example, can now see individual baseball diamonds and more detailed trails. Buildings are also represented more accurately in 3D using flight technology to better represent elevations.

See "imitation" called "Look around", which allows users to drive through the city streets looking at 360-degree images captured by a fleet of cars equipped with cameras.

The application now has interior maps for shopping centers and airports, allowing you to give very detailed instructions.

Previously, Apple relied on third-party sources for its map data and, therefore, when Apple Maps debuted in 2013, the product was plagued with misidentified geographical errors, cities and towns, and occasionally could not locate addresses.

The shame led to the expulsion of the head of iOS, Scott Forstall, who had previously been a favorite of the late Steve Jobs, a failure that has remained in the minds of users despite the significant improvement of the application in recent years.

If Apple Maps can also compete with Google Maps in driving, bicycle and public transport directions, it could start attracting new users.

"The bar for Apple Maps is not incredibly high, it is simply" not stinky, "technology analyst Shelly Palmer told the Post. "I don't know anyone who uses Apple Maps on their iOS device," he said. "You will not find anyone who is a serious user of technology that has not replaced Apple Maps with Google Maps."

Apple has already released its updated maps to California and Hawaii, as well as parts of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Apple will disrupt the health sector as the iPhone did wireless, former CEO John Sculley says

The vision of health services from Apple CEO Tim Cook has been approved by a former director of the technology giant.

John Sculley, who led the company from 1983 to 1993, told CNBC on Thursday that Cook was considering "absolutely doing something" with his plan to inject Apple into the health sector and that "this could be the big legacy. We're talking about."

In an exclusive interview earlier this week, Cook told Mad Money's Jim Cramer that "Apple's greatest contribution to humanity" will be in health care, an area in which society is increasingly interested. more. in recent years.

"I think [it'll be] from curiosity to useful to the essential," said Sculley in "Squawk Alley". "And essential, it means that you have to do much better things in terms of health care and preventative care than we have today, with portable devices or things [that] allow people to do more. self-diagnosis, where the consumer can have a more important role, as they have done in other industries. "

Remembering how Apple's iconic former boss, Steve Jobs, turned to the camera and wireless industries a dozen years ago with the iPhone, Sculley said, "We're going to see something similar in health.

Sculley, whom the late co-founder Jobs has seduced from Apple to PepsiCo, said that the first generation of iPhone and the following have gradually become Blackberry, Nokia and Motorola cell phones and have revolutionized photography, which ultimately led to the bankruptcy of Kodak in 2012.

While Apple's shares have recently suffered from a series of news that has disrupted investor confidence, Sculley said that the public does not always see the "big" projects that the company's leaders are discussing. behind closed doors. Apple and other technology names, such as Amazon and the Google Alphabet subsidiary, are "at the beginning of the indispensable role of health technology", especially with mobile devices.

"We are about to move to a time when sensors ... (and) algorithms are becoming more and more powerful, technology and healthcare are moving away from an extremely unstable and extremely inefficient industry," did he declare. . "The big players in the health sector want to switch to platforms, they want it to be a horizontal model, as we have seen successfully in retail and in fintech and others."

Apple stocks are still in the bear market after a series of crushing falls that have caused a drop of more than 30% from that recorded after a peak of $ 233.47 in 52 weeks in October. More recently, stocks fell about 7% after the company reduced its forecast on the first trading day of 2019.

Since then, the capital has recovered from this fall, trading at about 152 dollars Thursday at noon.

9to5Mac: Here's How We Found Those iPhone XS And Apple Watch Photos

The world is not only expecting Apple to reveal three new iPhones, but specifically the iPhone XS*.

Why so sure? Because 9to5Mac's noted Apple leaker Guilherme Rambo was the one to bring us the picture you see above -- a picture that looks like it could have been pulled directly from Apple's marketing materials.

And because today, Rambo has revealed that he found the pictures at Apple's own website. Whoops!

Guilherme Rambo

So, about those marketing images: they came from the recap section of the special event website. I used the URL pattern from the last event and guessed the device’s names. Apple took them down immediately after we published.

just took the technique for a spin myself, and it might not have been that difficult a heist to pull off. Observe:

Here's Apple's Special Events website, where the company offers recaps of previous keynotes.

And here's the page for Apple's September 2017 event, where it announced the iPhone X, iPhone 8 and Watch Series 3:

Want to find out where Apple stores those product images? A tool like Chrome's Inspect Element does the trick. And if you compare a few such images, you quickly see Apple's URL format has been pretty consistent, making it ripe for URL hacks. Basically: month-year/productname/image.jpg, more or less. Rambo just followed the trail, started substituting "september-2018" for "september-2017" and "iphonexs" for "iphonex", and the rest is history.

Just don't expect Apple to make that mistake ever again. It might obfuscate the URLs -- or better yet, not put images on a publicly accessible server until after the products are announced.

With Apple's announcements just hours away, we'll soon find out if they'll opt to not use any of the now-leaked images, or otherwise change up their presentation of the products.

iPhone Profit At Risk As Apple Exploits Cobalt Mines

Apple's plans to approach its cobalt suppliers raise an interesting question. What happens when you no longer have easy profits in the supply chain and all the low profits on the iPhone are gone?

Tim Cook's reputation at Apple was based on the management of his supply chain. Highlights included reducing the time it ended, but unsold stocks remained on Apple's books, which increased the efficiency of Apple's shipping operations and oversaw significant resource coverage as Apple acquired technology and resources to block competing manufacturers.

Upon arrival, Cook had a lot of slack in Apple's systems, and the reduction of the slack increases the profits. In that sense, Cook's management of these problems was the biggest victory for the iPhone. Although sales year after year have declined sharply for the iPhone since 2015, Apple's revenues and profits have risen, due to the increased efficiency that drives margins and the market that accommodates higher prices per device.

But eliminating the slack is a one-time option, so you are left with a tense arc cord that is under increasing pressure to deliver. And the tense strings have the habit of breaking in difficult times.

Apple has implemented many new features in the software in recent years, but as the iOS package reaches maturity and obvious applications are resolved, it is not so easy to push the limits of the envelope. The easy gains, the slack, everything has been absorbed. The errors and failures that are infiltrating iOS that demand more time to resolve are a symptom of a system that needs more resources; either time, engineers or both. There is nothing left in the iOS department, so something has to be broken. That broken string is the annual tray of Apple treats at WWDC: the tray will be much smaller this year (but with fewer bugs).

The loss of control of Apple is also visible in the supply chain. Samsung Display is hired by Apple to supply the OLED panels for the iPhone X, so the reduction of orders in Q1 2018 from 40 million to 20 million leaves Samsung with an excess of production and stock. Apple is wrong with its sales estimates, which means that Samsung has an OLED overcapacity, which will probably mean that more mid-range Android phones will be sent with OLED screens for the remainder of 2018. Another key advantage of the iPhone was lost through a supply chain simply too tight to accommodate fluctuating orders.

Now we read that Apple is looking to shorten the supply chain related to the use of cobalt, a key ingredient of modern batteries. While there are legitimate concerns about the increase in cobalt prices due to the number of batteries required by electric vehicles, Apple is playing the same cards by reducing the distance of the supply chain and dominating a resource through the purchase of coverage. Once you have gone directly to the mines, there is nowhere else to go to make your savings. This part of Apple's empire is now as close as it can be.

Why is this important? It's a long-term sign that things are changing. When Apple announced its record numbers for the fourth quarter of 2017, the share price fell. Apple continues to be successful and remains one of the most successful companies in the world, but the potential to maintain its high profit levels is shrinking, business conditions are not improving, and times will be increasingly difficult.

Everything Apple Will Be Working On In 2018

Apple released a lot of things in 2017, and in typical Apple style, it made a lot of money by doing it.

Most of these things were not surprises. We have a new Apple Watch and an Apple TV that look and generally work like the previous models; an iPad Pro of different sizes; expanded the lines of the Mac computer (now it comes in black!); and two smartphones that are almost identical to the iPhone 7, and a third that costs $ 1,000.

In a word, the year was quite boring.

While nothing was particularly revolutionary, neither was anything particularly terrible. Analysts had expected the company's product launches to unleash a "supercycle" of sales during the year, but so far, it seems that Apple's earnings and earnings were broadly in line with recent years.

It remains to be seen if that will change with the iPhone X and Christmas sales, but what does Apple have for 2018? Will there be a new device with aluminum cladding that will inspire another technological revolution like the iPod or the iPhone, or will we see another year of iterative updates to the existing product lines? This is what could be to come in 2018.

HomePod

One thing that is almost certain to be released in 2018 is HomePod, the answer of Apple's smart speaker to Amazon's Echo and Google Home. When it was announced at Apple's developer conference in June, Apple expected to ship it in December. Since then, the company said the device will be shipped in early 2018. The $ 350 speaker, which is approximately $ 300 more expensive than Amazon's and Google's smart hub offerings, will focus more on playing music than controlling other IoT devices, answering questions such as Echo and Home in general. Apple has a lot of ground to catch up in the growing field; Estimates suggest that Amazon has already sold more than 15 million Echo devices. Apple has a lot to prove with a $ 350 device if it's going to match or beat Amazon and Google.

More phones

With the iPhone X, 8, 8 Plus and SE, Apple put more new models of smartphones on sale in 2017 than ever before. Reports suggest that this trend will continue in 2018 with three iPhone models that look like the current X, but in sizes that match 8, 8 Plus and X. There is also talk of a new SE model in miniature, which means that Apple could continue to attract a range of customers with new devices that start at approximately $ 350 and continue to more than $ 1,000.

New AirPods

Analysts expect Apple to release an updated version of its AirPods wireless headphones in the second half of 2018, according to 9to5Mac. There is not much information on how they will be different, but analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities suspects that Apple will ship more than 26 million units next year, twice as many as 2017. The new AirPods probably have a case that can load wirelessly, as Apple announced this at their iPhone event in September. What brings us to ...

Wireless everywhere

In September, Apple also showed a new type of wireless conductive charger that can charge multiple devices at once, including an Apple Watch, an iPhone and AirPods in a new case. Although Apple has stated that its new phones have backup glass because it is much easier to charge wirelessly through glass than through metal, we may be able to see more Apple products that can be charged wirelessly in the future. Many competing smartphones use plastic on their backs (which is also good for conductive charging), so perhaps we will see Apple incorporate wireless charges on their iPads and Macs in the near future, bringing it one step closer to its apparent objective. to produce glass and metal slabs perfectly hermetically sealed.

FaceID everywhere

Apple introduced the "TrueDepth camera system" in the iPhone X, which is essentially a series of cameras and sensors that map and recognize the face of a person with intricate details. He uses it for FaceID, his security technology that replaces the fingerprint-based TouchID that has been in the last generations of the iPhone. It does not always work perfectly, but it's often fast and would be a useful way to log in to other Apple devices, like iPads and Macs, all of which already have front cameras. Many experts have asked Apple to incorporate the technology in the next Apple products, and considering how TouchID proliferated to iPads and then to MacBook Pros, it seems very possible that this is something that Apple will do in some of its new products.

More wearables

Apple has hinted that it plans to delve into medical wearables, beyond its work with the current Apple Watch. Some have suggested that you intend to develop a separate device to provide more information and health monitoring in real time for people who need it. He has worked with the US Food and Drug Administration. UU (FDA) to better understand how to develop software for medical purposes. Third-party add-ons for Apple Watch, such as AliveCor KardiaBand, which tracks heart health through an EKG sensor, have already obtained FDA approval to send information from an Apple Watch to the user's doctor.

Next year may be when Apple goes from being an auxiliary player in the medical field to one that is creating a portion of the $ 2.7 trillion that EE. UU Spends annually on medical care. "There is much more in the area of ​​health, there are many things that I can not tell you about the ones we are working on, some of which is clearly a commercial business there," CEO Tim Cook told Fortune in September. "I think it's a big area for Apple's future."

CAROS?

Apple has been working on autonomy and cars for some years, without a discernible end goal. At one point, reports circulated that he was working on a rival car for Tesla, and then reports indicated that the project had been reduced. Apple has admitted that it is working on some autonomous technologies: it filed an application for registration as a freelance car testing company in California in April and published online investigations in November.

"It's a core technology that we consider very important," Cook said, calling autonomy "the mother of all AI projects," in an interview with Bloomberg in June. He confirmed, for the first time publicly, that Apple is working on "autonomous car systems," rather than automobiles themselves. While still tight-lipped, Apple has been more eloquent about its medical and autonomous research than about other technologies in the past. Maybe we are preparing for a world in which Apple carOS works with autonomous vehicles. We may learn more about your ambitions in 2018 as car companies extend their testing of autonomous vehicles throughout the year.

Glasses AR?

Apple has been working on smart glasses that superimpose information about the real world for a while, but with the exception of a few leaks of potential prototypes from its manufacturing facilities in Asia, very little information has been discovered. Like medical and self-contained devices, Cook has hinted that AR is a transformational technology. He also said that AR could be "a great business opportunity" for Apple, and reports suggest that the company could have an augmented reality product in the coming years. The signals point to 2019 or 2020, but maybe Apple will surprise us with a new piece of portable technology in 2018, as it did with its AirPods wireless headphones in 2016.

The company also announced the first Macs that are compatible with VR headsets and software in June, so maybe we can also see Apple dig into the world of virtual reality next year.

What about the business of Apple?

Beyond the new products, 2018 could be a crucial year for Apple's businesses. In 2016, the company recorded the first drop in revenue year after year in more than a decade. For 2017 (its fiscal year ends in September), Apple grew again, registering revenues of $ 229 billion, above the $ 216 billion generated the previous year. But it was still below the $ 233 billion it generated in 2015, which remains the best year of revenue and earnings to date. Apple will exceed those heights, or we have to play "Apple peak"?

There are some signals to analyze in the next year to determine how healthy Apple's business is:

China and India

 Cook has repeatedly considered China and India as growth areas for Apple's business, although neither has arrived. The company is launching low-cost phones, such as the iPhone SE, and investing in the regions, hoping to increase awareness and goodwill towards the brand. Cook has said he is "very optimistic" in India, and opened a center to help Indian developers get applications on their App Store in March. Similarly, Apple has invested in Chinese companies and Chinese energy, as well as research and development centers in the country. China is the third largest Apple market, after the Americas and Europe, but in 2015, it was the second largest. Unless Apple can show why its products - which have a premium over many Chinese models that do most of the same things - are superior to those of its competitors, it is likely to continue to face an uphill battle in these markets.

Services

Apple's service sector, which includes sales of music, games, applications and movies, as well as subscriptions from AppleCare, iCloud and Apple Music, and Apple Pay rates, has been on the verge of being depleted in recent years. It is now Apple's second largest business after the iPhone, generating almost $ 30 billion in revenue in 2017.

Apple invested in the original programming in 2017, presenting two (not very good) shows, Carpool Karaoke, based on the talk show segment of James Corden, and Planet of the Apps, an imbecile Shark Tank, but for applications. Fortunately, he hired two Sony TV veterans who worked on successful programs such as Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, The Crown and, ironically, Shark Tank, during the summer, and a British television executive in October. With any luck, what it produces in the future will be more visible and, in reality, could convince potential customers to subscribe to Apple's subscription services, rather than rivals such as Netflix or Hulu. Look to see what other offers of original content Apple works in 2018 to keep users locked in their ecosystem.

All that foreign income

Apple has more than $ 200 billion in offshore accounts of non-US companies that have not repatriated to avoid paying US taxes. The Trump administration has suggested a tax plan that would create a one-time "repatriation holiday," allowing companies to return money to US shores. UU To obtain a discounted tax rate. Trump has yet to specify what this rate would be, and Max de Haldevang, of Quartz, explained why he does it and whether it will work as planned:

 As Trump says, money can go back into the economy and "work, work and work". When Congress tried to do this in 2004, the money really went back to the US coasts. UU; $ 312 billion in gross revenue. The problem, however, was that most of it was returned to shareholders, rather than reinvested in the US economy.

Anyway, Apple would almost certainly take advantage of this opportunity to take much of its income in foreign currency to the US. UU For a low price. The company has already committed to invest in companies that manufacture products in the US. UU., Including the optical components company Finisar and glass manufacturer Corning, which will probably delight Trump and encourage him to announce those vacations sooner rather than later. If Apple actually spends more of its billions in new plants, stores or jobs in the United States, it is uncertain, but it would definitely free up funds for some of its most ambitious projects.

Apple Plans To Let Developers Offer Discounts On in-app Subscriptions

Apple plans to give developers more freedom on launch price levels of in-app subscriptions. Apple evokes the beta notes of iOS 11.2 rated by 9to5Mac. Apple plans to extend full pricing and free pricing options to include a new low cost option to entice new subscribers to sign up with an activated automatic payment. Prior to this date, developers were allowed to use only one-time free trials to encourage users to sign up for the automatic payment system. It is not clear exactly when iOS 11.2 will arrive, but this should be done in the very near future.

The change will not be too much felt by users, but it should be a win for developers if they can find a more comfortable middle ground between a free trial and a full-price subscription. Apple has already softened the deal for app makers selling subscriptions with a change in the App Store policy, introduced last year, which reduced subscription revenue by 30% to 15%, provided that a user has been paying for the subscription for more than 12 months.

Now, with more price freedom, Apple is encouraging even more developers to sell software subscriptions through the App Store. Considering the revenue from Apple's service division, which includes the App Store, is now larger per quarter than the iPad, Apple Watch and combined headsets divisions, it's easy to see why the iPhone maker wants to invest in fixed money in the long term to do business.