Apple reviewing its quarterly AirPod sales
Hey Snackers,
Tweet-alert from the San Miguel Sheriff's Office: "Large boulder the size of a small boulder is completely blocking east-bound lane..." Big hump day mood.
Markets recovered some of their losses from Monday (the worst day for US stocks since October) as corporate earnings-palooza outweighed coronavirus worries.
It's an iRecord plus... Apple just posted its biggest ever quarterly profit, and its first quarterly profit increase in over a year. And iPhone sales rose for the first time in a year, but a star has been born with AirPods. The branches of the Apple tree are growing:
An Apple a year... Apple shares have more than doubled over the past 365 days. That's right — over the course of 1 year, Apple has added over $725B to its value (that's more than Facebook's entire value). Apple's installed base of hardware devices — iPhones, MacBooks, iPads, etc — grew by 100M over the year to a total of over 1.5B. Plus, Apple is now worth $1.4T, #2 globally to Saudi Arabia’s oil co.
It's all about the self-serving ecosystem... Last year, Apple failed to report a record quarterly profit for the first time since the iPhone's 2007 debut. Now, with iPhone sales up again and wearables and services thriving, it's back in record-profit mode. And the success is circular. Apple's diverse products and services tie back to and benefit its core product: the iPhone (which could be 5G capable next year, likely driving another wave of upgrades).
Keeping Huawei away... might be harder than the US initially thought. The UK gov just gave Chinese tech giant Huawei the greenlight to build part of its next-gen 5G network, defying warnings from the Trump admin. And 5G is the critical wireless tech infrastructure for the next wave of the internet.
There's a lot going on... for the UK right now. Brexit is (finally) happening on Jan 31, so the UK is looking to keep its trade relations strong. The US is a key component of that, but so is not antagonizing China.
Kind of a big deal... The UK's decision is a big blow to American efforts to curb the reach of Huawei and China. It could also influence Germany and other US allies, who have to walk the line between two economic powerhouses. But the US and the UK have a long-running "special relationship" (#cousins). This decision is a thorn in its side.
Remember that low-tech, Razor scooter you loved as a 9-year-old?... Big-kid electric scooters are taking over now. Bird is the Santa-Monica based scooter pioneer that just scooped up Berlin-based competitor Circ, which scoots across 40 cities in 14 European countries (and the UAE). Here's the scoop:
An unprofitable ride... Major scooter operators like Bird, Lime, Uber, and Lyft all laid off employees recently — Circ fired 10% of its team before selling itself to Bird. Even though Bird's surged to a $3B valuation in less than 3 years of life, here's 1 key reason it's so unprofitable: Bird scooters in some cities only last for 23 days on average before they have to be replaced, according to Oversharing.
Just like delivery apps... We've talked about consolidation in the mafia-style food delivery wars. The heat is also turning up in the scooter market, where rivals like Spin, Jump, and Skip compete over sidewalk real estate. Food delivery and scooter startups similarly face little loyalty from app-comparing "promiscuous" customers, and low (to no) profits. So scooters are now merging to cut their growing costs to compete.
Disclosure: Authors of this Snacks own shares of Apple, Uber, and Tesla
ID: 1073240