Joe Jenkins is an assistant editor-in-chief at The National
January 28, 2022
Apple's earnings hit a record $34.6 billion net profit in the last quarter. What is most remarkable about that?
Is it the almost impossible to comprehend number - that is $34.6 billion of net profit, not even just sales?
Is it that the company continues to advance and consolidate its position as the world’s most valuable brand and a company by market capitalisation worth $2.6 trillion in the face of the disruption of on-off store closures, the pandemic affecting staff and customers, the global tech supply chain and distribution?
Is it that it defies what everyone has warned about for some years now, that a consumer market so saturated with devices would meanthere is less room to grow than in the heady days of five or more years ago?
Or is the real surprise here – and I leave myself wide open for a pummelling from Apple nerds – that the company continues to soar and outdo even its own outrageous success despite this admittedly a bold statement: Apple has launched just one major new product line in more than a decade.
Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook said that the quarterly results were made possible by the company’s “most innovative” line-up of products and services. If you are the CEO with oversight of all that a company is doing – and charged with selling it to the world – then of course the company is busy reinventing itself and its sources of revenue. That is how successful companies work, they evolve, they are breathless, there is always more to do and improve, there is no standing still.
But the reality for the consumer is a little different. After the iPhone came the iPad in 2010. I would argue that Apple’s only major new consumer product between 2010 and today was 2015’s Watch, which is now in its seventh iteration. Where are we with iPhone? It is on its 13th major iteration. That is famously what Apple does so well: iterations, not new products. Since its earliest days Apple has been about the next version of an already good or great product, less so about true innovation or being first. And it works! Get the product right then make the next one in that series just enough of an upgrade to be worth acquiring for those who are hooked or aspirational in what they carry around in their pockets. Leave the less profitable, more "out there" R&D to others and once that is perfected buy it, or adapt it, for Apple. Or so it seems.
I mentioned the excitement of a decade ago in the world of mobile. When I was consumed by all things mobile in my job at the time, smartphone launches seemed genuinely exciting, with Samsung and Google vying with Blackberry, Apple, HTC, Nokia – remember Eriksson? – and then the domestic Chinese giants entering the global market. Going to the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona back then seemed hugely glamorous given it was a trade show, and genuinely the cutting edge of many things that would help to shape our day-to-day lives in the years to come. It was ahead of its time, or perhaps we have just not caught up with that early promise. The Internet of Things was one of the big displays back in 2013 and we are still talking about it now one way or another, our lives gradually adjusting to the new technologies available in our homes, offices and cars.
There was genuine innovation in the industry: near-field communication, mobile payments, advances in cameras and all the features that Apple subsumed into its products after they had been rolled out in less glamorous handsets by companies with less focus on design – there is only one Sir Jony Ive – and less focus on marketing. But then the chin-strokers who have watched the mobile industry evolve have always had Apple down as a style over substance specialist, even if they love it. Its products are truly great, simple to understand, indeed essential now for many of us, as well as being lifestyle accessories. It is why Apple is the world’s biggest company and one can argue deservedly so. But its business model suggests that the field is wide open to competitors to introduce us all to the next big thing, which is unlikely to come from Cupertino, even as Apple's profits soar.
Indoor cricket World Cup:
Insportz, Dubai, September 16-23
UAE fixtures:
Men
Saturday, September 16 – 1.45pm, v New Zealand
Sunday, September 17 – 10.30am, v Australia; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Monday, September 18 – 2pm, v England; 7.15pm, v India
Tuesday, September 19 – 12.15pm, v Singapore; 5.30pm, v Sri Lanka
Thursday, September 21 – 2pm v Malaysia
Friday, September 22 – 3.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 3pm, grand final
Women
Saturday, September 16 – 5.15pm, v Australia
Sunday, September 17 – 2pm, v South Africa; 7.15pm, v New Zealand
Monday, September 18 – 5.30pm, v England
Tuesday, September 19 – 10.30am, v New Zealand; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Thursday, September 21 – 12.15pm, v Australia
Friday, September 22 – 1.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 1pm, grand final
How to donate
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
2289 – Dh10
2252 – Dh 50
6025 – Dh20
6027 – Dh 100
6026 – Dh 200
Syria v Australia
2018 World Cup qualifying: Asia fourth round play-off first leg
Venue: Hang Jebat Stadium, Malayisa
Kick-off: Thursday, 4.30pm (UAE)
Watch: beIN Sports HD
* Second leg in Australia on October 10
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
THE BIO
Ms Al Ameri likes the variety of her job, and the daily environmental challenges she is presented with.
Regular contact with wildlife is the most appealing part of her role at the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi.
She loves to explore new destinations and lives by her motto of being a voice in the world, and not an echo.
She is the youngest of three children, and has a brother and sister.
Her favourite book, Moby Dick by Herman Melville helped inspire her towards a career exploring the natural world.
Rock in a Hard Place: Music and Mayhem in the Middle East
Orlando Crowcroft
Zed Books
NBA Finals so far
(Toronto lead 3-1 in best-of-seven series_
Game 1 Raptors 118 Warriors 109
Game 2 Raptors 104 Warriors 109
Game 3 Warriors 109 Raptors 123
Game 4 Warriors 92 Raptors 105
The specs
Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
Power: 640hp
Torque: 760nm
On sale: 2026
Price: Not announced yet
The Pope's itinerary
Sunday, February 3, 2019 - Rome to Abu Dhabi
1pm: departure by plane from Rome / Fiumicino to Abu Dhabi
10pm: arrival at Abu Dhabi Presidential Airport
Monday, February 4
12pm: welcome ceremony at the main entrance of the Presidential Palace
12.20pm: visit Abu Dhabi Crown Prince at Presidential Palace
5pm: private meeting with Muslim Council of Elders at Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
6.10pm: Inter-religious in the Founder's Memorial
Tuesday, February 5 - Abu Dhabi to Rome
9.15am: private visit to undisclosed cathedral
10.30am: public mass at Zayed Sports City – with a homily by Pope Francis
12.40pm: farewell at Abu Dhabi Presidential Airport
1pm: departure by plane to Rome
5pm: arrival at the Rome / Ciampino International Airport
Brunch has been around, is some form or another, for more than a century. The word was first mentioned in print in an 1895 edition of Hunter’s Weekly, after making the rounds among university students in Britain. The article, entitled Brunch: A Plea, argued the case for a later, more sociable weekend meal. “By eliminating the need to get up early on Sunday, brunch would make life brighter for Saturday night carousers. It would promote human happiness in other ways as well,” the piece read. “It is talk-compelling. It puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings, it sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week.” More than 100 years later, author Guy Beringer’s words still ring true, especially in the UAE, where brunches are often used to mark special, sociable occasions.
We are bringing you the inside story from the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos, a gathering of hundreds of world leaders, top executives and billionaires.
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024. It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine. Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages]. The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts. With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians. Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved. Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world. The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
