LTA 128: April 2024

Panel:

• Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots

This solo show starts with some followups from last month before diving into just a few regulatory and legal stories, some HR and acquisitions news, and a few highlights from Apple’s services and original content. The three main stories are some nice changes to how Apple will facilitate repairs, the arrival of vintage game emulators on iOS, and Apple’s Q2 2024 earnings call. The show finishes with a rundown of some other quick Apple-related stories that made the news in April.

You’ll find detailed show notes below the fold, and if you enjoy this free show, please consider clicking on the donate button at the top of the left side bar – the show is free for you to listen to, but not for Bart to Produce!

Updates & Followup

Quick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

• The buzz around Apple & AI continues:

  • Apple’s Ferret-UI helps AI use your iPhone — www.cultofmac.com/…
  • Apple releases eight small AI language models aimed at on-device use — arstechnica.com
  • Apple has bought a French firm to help get AI processing on the iPhone — appleinsider.com/…
  • Apple has poached dozens of Google AI experts for its Zurich lab — appleinsider.com/…

• The work to diversify Apple's supply chain continues:

  • Apple Now Assembles 1 in 7 of iPhones in India, Numbers Only To Increase — www.macobserver.com/…
  • TSMC will build third Arizona fab after winning $6.6B in CHIPS funding — arstechnica.com
  • Tim Cook promises Indonesia that Apple will consider manufacturing there — appleinsider.com/…
  • Tim Cook visits Singapore as Apple invests in a $250 million AI campus expansion — appleinsider.com/…

• Apple's complex relationship with China continues: Apple Forced to Pull WhatsApp and Threads from China App Store — www.macobserver.com/…

Regulatory Rundown

• The Digital Markets Act (DMA) continues to drive Apple news:

  • Beta versions of iOS 17.5 include support for website-based app distribution in the EU, so we can now see how it works, developers are cranky at the amount of warnings screens users see, and one security researcher warns that it may inadvertently expose EU iOS users to cross-site tracking — appleinsider.com/…, www.macobserver.com/… & www.mysk.blog/…

  • The European Commission has ruled that because it is depended on by enough business users, iPadOS does fall under the DMA after all, giving Apple 6 months to comply, which Apple have confirmed they will do — www.macobserver.com/… & www.macstories.net/…

  • Apple announced their promised changes to the controversial Core Technology Fee (CTF) that applies to developers who opt for Apple's EU-only iOS app store terms — www.cultofmac.com/…

    • Zero-profit developers like hobbyists and charities are now completely exempted — it's not about the app, it's about the developer, and if you make money by putting ads in your apps you are definitely not zero-profit (this addresses the 'my kid made a great app that went viral and now I own Apple a small fortune' problem)
    • Small developers (<€10M annual revenue) get an on-ramp to the CTF via a three-year exemption, and if they poke over the €10M mark within those three years, the CTF is called at €1M

  • Reporting by Reuters and others suggests the iOS browser choice screen mandated by the DMA may be having an effect, users seem to be choosing privacy-focused browsers, and Opera is reporting 63% growth — arstechnica.com/… & www.macobserver.com/…

  • The first third-party app store in the EU goes live with the launch of Riley Testut's AltStore PAL — appleinsider.com/… & rileytestut.com/…

• The European Central Bank has sent and open letter to the European Commission arguing that Apple's proposed changes to address anti-trust concerns are not sufficient to facilitate its plans for the Digital Euro — appleinsider.com/…

• The EU's long-in-progress right to repair directive has finally passed, now each of the 27 member states must implement specific laws to implement it in their own nations — appleinsider.com/… (for the most part it looks like all Apple will have to do to comply is offer what they currently sell as AppleCare+ as their standard warranty within the EU)

Legal Latest

• Apple -v- Epic: Apple have responded to the suit Epic filed last month alleging Apple is not complying with the anti-steering ruling Epic managed to win against it, they insist they are in full compliance with the court's order — appleinsider.com/…
• “Batterygate” Strikes Again: Canadian Users Could Receive $150 From Apple — www.macobserver.com/…
• The UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal has denied Apple's request to have a class action suit on behalf of developers alleging Apple's app store fees are anticompetitive dismissed, so the case will proceed — appleinsider.com/…

Apple HR & Acquisition News

• Unionisation Efforts Continue: New Jersey Apple Store files to unionize — appleinsider.com/… (to date, 5 stores in the US have filed to unionise, 2 have completed the process)
• Apple bids farewell to Frank Casanova after pivotal 36-year tenure — appleinsider.com/…

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights

• Apple TV+:

  • Apple TV+ bags big British awards for Slow Horses and Silo — www.cultofmac.com/… (4 BAFTA Television Craft Awards, Slow Horses for editing & sound, and Silo for production design & original music)
  • Related: More than 60 IHG hotels in North America now have AirPlay-compatible TVs in-room — appleinsider.com/…

Main Stories

1. Apple expands its repair options — www.apple.com/…

   • Apple will allow reuse of iPhone parts for repairs, with a notable catch — arstechnica.com

     • Starting with new iPhones 'this fall'
     • Biometric sensors can be re-used
     • Calibration can happen on-device
     • No need to enter serial numbers when ordering replacement parts (other than main logic board)
     • The device's parts history screen will show users what parts have been replaced and what their provenance is
     • Parts from devices marked as stolen will be blocked from working by activation lock, so this change won't create a new opportunity for phone thieves

   • Apple hardware chief John Ternus insists parts pairing is not evil — appleinsider.com/…

2. After last month's App Store rules change, emulators for vintage games consoles start arriving on iOS:

   • Things get off to a rocky start with the very first emulator being a short-lived ad-riddled knockoff of Riley Testut's GBA4iOS — appleinsider.com/…

   • Things don't go much better for the second emulator, this time the app is legitimate, but the developer gets cold feet and pulls their NES emulator 'out of fear', presumably about being sued by Nintendo — First NES emulator for iPhone approved by Apple but pulled by developer — www.cultofmac.com/…

   • Third time would appear to be a charm, with Riley Testut's Delta emulator being the first to launch and stay launched — www.macstories.net/… (distribution in the EU is exclusively through the AltStore!)

     • Later in the month we learned Delta is coming to the iPad too — www.cultofmac.com/…
     • Related: How to Load Your Game Boy Games Onto the iPhone to Play in the Delta Emulator — www.macstories.net/…

   • Provenance plans to bring Sony & Sega console emulation to the App Store — appleinsider.com/…

   • Any many more … Retro gold rush: these emulators are coming to the App Store soon — appleinsider.com/…

   • Related: Why a GameCube/Wii emulator may not be possible on the iOS App Store — arstechnica.com/… (App Store rules ban Just in-time Compilation, AKA JIT)

3. Apple's Q2 2024 Earnings Call — www.apple.com/…

   • Investor Highlights:

     • Quarterly Revenue of $90.8Bn, down 4% YoY (Apple had guided that there would be a substantial revenue drop, so not a 'miss')
     • $23.6Bn quarterly profit
     • Quarterly earnings per diluted share of $1.53
     • Dividend of $0.25, up 4%
     • $110Bn stock buy-back

   • Product Highlights:

     • iPad revenue of $5.6Bn down 17% YoY to lowest level in 4 years

     • iPhone revenue of $46Bn, down 10% YoY (as expected by analysts)

       • Related: iPhone sales drop 10% as Samsung steadies and Chinese rivals grow — appleinsider.com/… (world-wide Q1 2024 from IDC)
       • Related: Apple's iPhone skid in China continues, with another big hit to start 2024 — appleinsider.com/… & After Losing the Top Spot Internationally, iPhone Sales Drop by 1/5th in China, Worst Since COVID — www.macobserver.com/… (Counterpoint Research comparing Q1 2023 sales revenue in China to Q1 2024, down 19%)
       • Related: New iPhone activations hit a six-year low in the US — www.cultofmac.com/… (US carrier activations for Q1 from CIRP, down to 33% from 40% YaQ)

     • Wearables etc. revenue of $7.9Bn, down 10% YoY

     • Mac revenue of $7.5Bn, up 4% YoY

     • Services revenue of $23.9Bn, up 14% YoY

   • The usual excellent graphs from Jason Snell — sixcolors.com/…

   • Transcript of Tim Cook's comments — sixcolors.com/…

     • Apple Vision Pro a big hit in enterprise — appleinsider.com/… (over half of Fortune 500 companies have purchased some)
     • Apple CEO Tim Cook bullish on China, thinking long-term — appleinsider.com/…
     • Apple believes in ‘transformative power and promise of AI’ — www.cultofmac.com/…

   • Analysis:

     • Apple blows away Wall Street earnings estimates, even with weak China iPhone sales — appleinsider.com/…
     • Apple charms investors with record $110B stock buyback, dividend hike — appleinsider.com/…
     • Apple’s Q2 2024 earnings reveal a drop in iPhone, iPad sales — arstechnica.com

Quick Stories

• Apple's program for notifying victims of state-level attacks has expanded to include victims of grey-market spyware apps, or as Apple calls them 'mercenary spyware', and users in 92 countries have received such warnings from Apple — techcrunch.com/…

  • Beware: scammers have started to send fake versions of these notifications — www.intego.com/…

• Apple has released three new sets of headphones under its Beats brand:

  • Beats Solo 4 headphones review: Great audio quality and features — appleinsider.com/…
  • New Beats Solo Buds offers budget-friendly audio in a tiny case — appleinsider.com/…
  • Beats launches new Beats Fit Pro edition in collaboration with Alo Yoga — appleinsider.com/…

• Apple Store’s ‘Shop with a Specialist over Video’ Now Available on iPhone — www.macobserver.com/… (was web-only feature, still US-only )

• Apple Watch is FDA's first-ever approved digital AFib history device — appleinsider.com/…

• Apple uses Earth Day to release it's latest environmental report and highlight some environmental progress — www.apple.com/… (PDF download)

  • Apple ramps up investment in clean energy and water around the world — www.apple.com/… (now 18GW of clean electricity, up 3x since 2020, and 12Bn gallons fresh water saved last year)
  • Apple cuts greenhouse gas emissions in half — www.apple.com/… (over 55% reduction since 2015)

• Apple Announces May 7th Let Loose Event — www.macstories.net/… (based on the art work, it seems obvious this is an iPad-centric event)

Legend

Note: When the textual description of a link is part of the link it is the title of the page being linked to, when the text describing a link is not part of the link it is a description written by Bart.