Tech Thursday – Apple’s Big Week
July 21, 2011
This week has been an exciting week for Apple. It started on Tuesday, after the close of trading on Wall Street, when Apple released its Q3 earning report which exceeded everyone’s expectations. Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO was quoted in Apple’s third quarter results press release saying: “We’re thrilled to deliver our best quarter ever, with revenue up 82 percent and profits up 125 percent.” According to the press release the company sold 20.34 million iPhone (142 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter) and 9.25 million iPads (183 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter). The news sent Apple’s stock value up close to $400 the next day in the stock exchange market.
A day following this announcement Apple released a new and faster MacBook Air, and an updated Mac mini. One of the major upgrades included in both models is the integration of the next-generation Intel Core processors. Gizmodo.com reports that based on a benchmark test, the 13-Inch 2011 MacBook Air outperforms the fastest 2010 MacBook Pro, which has been considered, since it’s introduction in 2006, as the high-end of the MacBook family. To top it all off Apple ships these new computers with it’s new operating system OS X Lion. This new OS includes over 250 new features including Multi-Touch gestures, Mission control, full-screen apps, and Launchpad. Many of these features may remind some of the iPad. In fact, Jason Perlow of ZDNet calls the introduction of OS X Lion “The iPadification of the Mac“.
So now that Apple has released it’s new OS and refreshed some of its Mac models, the company is ready to focus it’s attention to a Fall season that is expected to be packed with new Apple products. iOS 5 and iCloud are two that have already been introduced in the recent Apple Developer conference by CEO, Jobs. Rumors, and there are always plenty of them when it comes to Apple, also claim that Apple is set to release new versions of the iPhone and iPad in the coming Fall/Winter. As always, we will simply have to wait and see about those rumors. With all these new products and the upcoming back to school and holiday seasons it would be pretty safe to assume that Apple’s financial success in the coming quarter will continue to be strong.
