Apple STILL Has It! (TechBytes)

TechBytes is a weekly dose of tech gathered into one post every Tuesday! I put the relevant tech news, podcasts, videos, and more that you need to know!  This week, it’s about the latest Apple earnings results and it shows that APPLE STILL HAS IT! Also, I check out how Chinese smartphone manufacturers dominated the industry last year.

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Headlines

Apple’s Quarterly Earnings

Apple released their Quarterly Earnings Results last Tuesday (Wednesday, PH Time) and they still managed to grow! Don’t worry, I won’t put all the numbers in here. (You can check them out here, if you so desire.) The takeaway from this is the fact that Apple STILL manages to sell 78.3 MILLION iPhones last quarter! It’s INSANE if you think about it. They sold 74.8 million of those bad boys a year prior. Despite the mostly under-the-hood improvements and the removal of the headphone jack, Apple STILL managed to sell MORE. (There’s also that assist from the Galaxy Note 7 debacle though. Thank you, Samsung?)

In other parts of Apple’s business, only the Mac and Services business grew from the same quarter of the previous year. iPad sales still went down (13 million compared to 16.1 million the past year) even though Apple has two iPad Pro models on sale. At this point, I really don’t know what to do with the iPad. (Maybe make the iPad lineup more affordable?)

They should also release better versions of the new MacBook Pro too. The Mac didn’t grow much and maybe a Kaby Lake processor update and the rumored new ARM chip could help.

Chinese Smartphone Domination!

In light of Apple’s recent release of their quarterly earnings, Strategy Analytics put out their Global Smartphone Vendor Shipment list. Because of Apple’s HUGE iPhone sales, it took the number one spot for the fourth quarter of 2016! Samsung still manages to sell more phones for 2016 as a whole, but still. It’s no small feat to beat Samsung even for at least one quarter.

There’s another story to be told here though, as Huawei, OPPO, and Vivo rounded out the top five smartphone vendors. Huawei even reached the double digit mark, making the smartphone market a three-horse race. Will this last? I don’t know. I’ll continue to look out for this in the months to come.

Nearly 100 Companies Sued Against Trump’s Executive Order!

In the last edition of TechBytes, I talked about Donald Trump’s executive order that essentially “bans” people from 7 Muslim-majority countries from entering the US. Now, nearly a hundred companies filed an appeal against this #MuslimBan. Most Silicon Valley companies, including Apple, Google, Snap, and Netflix, are part of this appeal. I didn’t know of another event that involved a lot of companies. There were some holdouts like Tesla, SpaceX, and Amazon but Tesla and SpaceX already joined the said appeal.

As some wrestler said, “Wish I could say it was just a bad dream.”

What’s Up on the Blog

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5 Reasons You Should Use Zalora!

If you’re looking for new clothes and you don’t wanna go to a mall just to buy them, check out the popular online shop Zalora!

New Podcasts!

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This week’s Blogger Banters episode is our Pre-Valentines Special! Check it out!

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The latest episode of Ctrl-Walt-Delete talks more and more about how US immigration and the tech industry go hand-in-hand more than ever.

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On the latest Vergecast, the crew talk about Snap Inc.’s IPO, Apple making another ARM chip for Macbooks, and the huge Apple earnings.

New Tech Videos!

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That’s all for this week’s TechBytes? Do you agree with the companies filing an appeal against Trump’s executive order? Are you even surprised that Apple had a huge quarter? Sound off in the comments section below!