Let’s Talk Apple — Ep. 80 (April 2020)

Panel:

Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots
Chuck Joiner from MacVoices – @chuckjoiner
Gazmaz from the My Mac Podcast – @gazmaz
Simon Parnell from the Essential Apple Podcast – @serenak
Nick Riley from the Essential Apple Podcast – @spligosh

The show starts with a few followup stories (including the virus-shaped elephant in every room these days), two quick legal story, a few Apple staffing changes and acquisitions, and a quick overview of news related to Apple’s original content. The four main stories are Apple & Google’s COVID API, Apple’s Q2 2020 Earnings, the Magic Keyboard for iPad, and the new iPhone SE. The show ends with a quick rundown of some smaller 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!

Followup

Legal Latest

Apple HR & Acquisition News

Apple Original Content Update

Main Stories

Apple & Google join forces to develop a privacy-preserving iOS & Android API public health agencies can use to create apps to help track COVID–19 and warn people they may have been exposed — tidbits.com/…, arstechnica.com/…
- This API will be used by many different apps in many different jurisdictions. The exact operation of the apps will vary, and it will be up to each public health authority to decide how they will deal with the verification of positive tests before publishing the relevant anonymous keys to warn people — www.imore.com/…
- The API is being developed quickly, and has already been made available to select developers in the most recent beta version of iOS — www.imore.com/…
- It’s now up to individual countries to decide what they want to do:
  - 🇺🇸 The CDC’s guidance on contact tracing apps align with Apple and Google — www.imore.com/…
    - Related: U.S. Senators propose COVID–19 data privacy bill — www.imore.com/…
  - 🇩🇪 Germany reverses course, supports Apple/Google’s contact tracing approach — www.imore.com/…
  - 🇫🇷 France is not going Apple’s way and wants Apple to give it exceptions to iOS security, which Apple does not appear to be doing — France claims Apple’s privacy policy is blocking its contact tracing app — www.imore.com/…
  - 🇬🇧 The UK has rejected Apple and Google’s contact tracing program — www.imore.com/… & The NHS says despite not following Apple and Google, its contact tracing app will work — www.imore.com/…
  - 🇨🇦 Contact tracing stirs debate in Canada — www.imore.com/…
  - 🇮🇪 Irish government confirms it will use de-centralized contact tracing model — www.imore.com/…
- 🇺🇸 Apple sends letter to senators in response to privacy concerns about its coronavirus app — www.imore.com/…
- 🇺🇸 Related: Regarding the Washington Post’s Poll on Americans’ Willingness to Use Smartphone Apps for Exposure Notification — daringfireball.net/…
- Related: Cellebrite Pitches its iPhone Hacking Tools as COVID–19 Surveillance Solution — www.macobserver.com/…
- Good Explainers:
  - Contact tracing: A guide to one possible pandemic solution — www.imore.com/…
  - 🎧 RESET: Contact Tracing, Explained — overcast.fm/…
Apple’s Q2 2020 Earnings Call — www.apple.com/…
- Lynda Gousha’s thoughts:
  
  Here’s a couple of things I thought interesting:
  1. One of the analysts commented on Apple’s contributions to the effort Apple has put in to fighting COVID 19. That’s unusual, in my experience, they usually limit themselves to financial commentary, and/or questions.
  2. As you know, the market hates uncertainty, and all we have these days is uncertainty, with Apple being no different in that respect to any other company. Economists, and other financial types will make guesses, but most folks admit they really don’t know how long it’s going to take to recover from this situation from a health perspective, let alone economically.
  3. That said, Apple, because of its cash position, and perhaps because of the services business (and maybe wearables – due to health aspects of watch), is in a lot better shape than most other companies. Barring something totally extreme & unpredicted Apple will weather this storm just fine, and the stock is likely to do better than most others.
  4. FWIW, analysts did not expect Apple to do stock buybacks in this environment – perhaps because it can be politically frowned on these days, and also because holding onto cash might be especially prudent now. The fact that Apple did announce stock buybacks, though, is interpreted as management’s and the BOD’s confidence in the company’s ability to come thru the current situation just fine. Also, FWIW, years ago I remember Steve saying, in other very difficult circumstances, something to the effect of, “We will continue to invest through these difficulties”, meaning, continue to develop excellent research & development, and produce excellent products. (I don’t remember if that was the dot com bust in 2001 or so, or the 2008 fiasco.) But, what’s important is that that part of the company culture has not changed. Investors can expect the same excellent performance from the stock.
  
  I don’t have much to say about the numbers – they were better than expected, but the market will & has moved onto the future. The fact that Apple did not provide guidance’ for the next quarter is a negative, but hardly unusual in these circumstances. The market almost always prices stocks on what they expect to be the case 6 months to a year in the future, so the results for this past quarter are not considered important. And, of course, nothing is certain right now.
- Apple Q2 2020 results: $58B revenue, but no guidance — sixcolors.com/…
- Apple Earnings Call Transcripts: Apple CEO Tim Cook on the company’s 2020 Q2 earnings — www.imore.com/…
- Apple’s Q2 2020 Was a “Very Different Quarter” Than Expected — tidbits.com/…
- Apple says AppleCare and ads may be worst affected by COVID–19 — www.imore.com/…
- Apple reports 2M COVID–19 app downloads, 125M News users on earnings call — www.imore.com/…
- iPad app downloads have grown year on year for the first time since 2013 — www.imore.com/…
- Apple’s Tim Cook Talks About Corporate Responsibility to Community — www.macobserver.com/…
- Related:
Apple’s Magic Keyboard for iPad ships — www.imore.com/…
Apple have Launched an all new iPhone SE with the brains of an iPhone 11 in the body of an iPhone 8 — www.imore.com/… & www.macobserver.com/…

Quick Stories

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.

Emoji	Meaning
🎧	A link to audio content, probably a podcast.
flag	The story is particularly relevant to people living in a specific country, or, the organisation the story is about is affiliated with the government of a specific country.
📊	A link to graphical content, probably a chart, graph, or diagram.
💵	A link to an article behind a pay-wall.
📌	A pinned story, i.e. one to keep an eye on that’s likely to develop into something significant in the future.

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