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Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2011 first quarter ended December 25, 2010. The Company posted record revenue of $26.74 billion and record net quarterly profit of $6 billion, or $6.43 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $15.68 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.38 billion, or $3.67 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 38.5 percent compared to 40.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 62 percent of the quarter’s revenue. Apple sold 4.13 million Macs during the quarter, a 23 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter....

Verizon Wireless has posted their Apple iPhone 4 Frequently Asked Questions. Two of the FAQ's concern anyone who wasn't paying attention for the last few months or got a pretend iPhone as a "gift" this past holiday season: Q: I just purchased a new smartphone during the holiday season, but if I knew that iPhone 4 was going to be available soon I would have waited. What are my options now? A: Current Verizon customers who purchased and activated new smartphones, feature phones or certified pre-owned phones between 11/26/2010, and 01/10/2011, are eligible to receive up to a $200 Visa...

Apple will be fine, again, under veteran COO Tim Cook. But the day will inevitably come when the board will have to a find a permanent replacement for their iconic leader. Throughout the long, sad, information-deprived debate over the health of Steve Jobs, there have always been two parallel conversations about would happen if the Apple (AAPL) CEO were to leave his job prematurely. On the one hand is the question of what would happen to Apple in the near term. That matter was more or less laid to rest during the last two medical emergencies that saw Jobs take...

While awarding Apple's iPhone 4 its highest ratings across the board last summer, Consumer Reports is now warning users to wait, calling it "middle aged" and doubting whether Verizon will offer the unlimited data contracts it is said it would. In a blog posting, Paul Reynolds and Mike Gikas write that the Verizon iPhone 4 is "promising, but likely to be short-lived," saying that "it may be quickly replaced by a newer, cooler version more quickly than is customary even for the die-young life expectancy of most smart phones." Apple has historically rolled out a new iPhone model once each...

Earlier today, Apple officially launched its application store for Macintosh, with about 1,000 free and paid applications available. Snow Leopard users download the Mac OS X 10.6.6 update, and the store is included. But people using the software are in for a change. Consumers typically buy software by machine. Those people buying from the Mac App Store purchase by person. The software is attached to an identity. This is a dramatic departure from how consumer software is typically licensed. Licensing agreements typically restrict installation on one PC, sometimes two or even three...The Mac App Store changes the paradigm and usage...

Google isn’t a web application company—they’re an advertising company. That’s what they do best, and that’s what drives their company. Of Google’s $23.6 billion of revenue in 2009, all but $760 million of it was derived from advertising, and nearly 70 percent of it was from Google’s own websites. Everything Google does must be understood within this context. Google builds services like Google Maps, Gmail and Docs and gives them away for free not because they have a philosophical belief that web applications should be free, but rather because giving them away for free gives them a competitive advantage. Free...

The iPad is changing how folks read stuff online--no surprise if you think how different a gizmo it is to a PC. But a new study shows it's moving online reading into primetime TV hours, which is big news. Is evening reading coming back, just in a digital style? The study comes from internal data acquired by ReadItLater, a web service that lets users bookmark web content for perusal at a different time. Though you may think this slightly colors the dataset, the way this service works gives the company unique access to time-coded data on how iPad users (and...

"It is shocking to see how much head room Apple as a company has to continue to grow," Michael Shulman writes for SeekingAlpha. • The macro environment: Apple has grown in spectacular fashion through the worst recession since the Great Depression. For the last three fiscal years ending September 30, the company posted sales of $32.5 billion, $32.9 billion and $65.2 billion. According to Durban capital, in the calendar year 2010 up through October, 60%-65% of the entire growth in dollars spent by US consumers went to Apple. • The marketplace: Apple’s market share of laptops, desktops and of all smart electronic...

As of today, nearly 10 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store worldwide. Which is almost as amazing as the apps themselves. So we want to say thanks. Download the 10 billionth app, and you could win a US $10,000 iTunes Gift Card. Just visit the App Store, and download what could be your best app yet. There are two ways to enter the Promotion: • You will automatically be entered into the Promotion by downloading an app from the App Store. • Non-purchase method: Go to http://www.apple.com/itunes/10-billion-app-countdown/entry-form/ fully complete an online entry, including your name, complete mailing...

After announcing only one new iOS feature—a five-device cellular data sharing feature called “Personal Hotspot”—at the debut event for the CDMA version of the iPhone 4, Apple unexpectedly released the first beta version of iOS 4.3 for specific iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and Apple TV devices. Based on photos and details submitted by an anonymous source, we’ve compiled a collection of changes and improvements for your easy reference. Here’s what’s new and notable. General Discoveries About. All of the portable iOS 4.3 devices show “4.3 (8f5148b)” as their version numbers; the second-generation Apple TV shows 4.3 (8F5148c) as its iOS...

Microsoft is asking the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to deny Apple a trademark on the name "App Store," saying the term is generic and competitors should be able to use it. Apple applied for the trademark in 2008 for goods and services including "retail store services featuring computer software provided via the internet and other computer and electronic communication networks" and other related offerings. Apple launched its App Store for the iPhone that year along with its iPhone 3G. The store is now available on any device that runs the company's iOS software, namely the iPod Touch and...

Apple Is Granted Its First Liquidmetal Patent [Exclusive] 10 comments »By Leander Kahney (4:00 am, Jan. 05, 2011) A prototype fuel cell mobile phone by Hitachi. Apple may be working on similar technology for the iPhone and iPad. Photo: Slashphone Apple has been granted its first patent related to Liquidmetal, a space-age metal alloy. But the patent isn’t for a new iPad enclosure or iPhone antenna, as experts have predicted. Instead Apple’s Liquidmetal patent is for an internal component of a fuel cell.Apple’s new patent describes “amorphous alloy” collector plates for fuel cells, an electrochemical battery that uses hydrogen...

CES opens its doors officially tomorrow, and while Apple isn't there the event is already expected to see over 100 tablets from many different firms take their first (and, in some cases, last) bow. Meanwhile, Apple prepares iPad 2.0. While some hope CES will see the spark of a proper fight-back against the genre-defining Apple iPad tech titan, such optimism is misplaced. For iPad haters, CES will be a tragic tryst, a dooomed affair. Too little too lateThe mantra has to be "too little, too late", with even the world's biggest software manufacturer, Microsoft, playing catch-up this time around. Look...

On October 20, 2009, Apple introduced the wireless Magic Mouse (US$69), the first mouse to use Apple’s revolutionary Multi-Touch™ technology. Pioneered on iPhone, iPod touch and Mac notebook trackpads, Multi-Touch allows customers to navigate using intuitive finger gestures. Instead of mechanical buttons, scroll wheels or scroll balls, the entire top of Apple's revolutionary Magic Mouse is a seamless Multi-Touch surface. Yesterday Microsoft announced their new Touch Mouse which will be available - not immediately, of course, - in June 2011 for the estimated retail price of $79.95. Congratulations Windows sufferers: This time you're just 20 months late and only out...

For the first time ever, the U.S. Senate is allowing offices to ditch the PC and go Mac - and Sen. Mike Lee is totally going there. Lee, a Utah Republican and the youngest senator, has an iPhone and boasts a large Mac screen on his desk in his new temporary office, and the rest of his staff have embraced the Apple as well. "That's young and cutting edge," Lee's chief of staff, Spencer Stokes, joked. Before this year, the Senate system didn't allow Macs, I'm told, but maybe Steve Jobs has convinced the new, more youthful upper chamber to...

The Mac App Store has arrived and with it comes access to more than 1,000 different free and paid apps. While nearly identical in design to the iTunes App Store for iOS apps, the Mac App Store represents a big shift in Mac application discovery and development. We’ve already done a walkthrough of the new store. What follows is our analysis of the overall store experience after spending the last few hours exploring the store, downloading applications, comparing the release to initial expectations and ruminating on how it will change the developer ecosystem. If you’ve yet to experience the Mac...

Apple today released Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.6 which is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac. It also includes the Mac App Store, the best way to discover and buy new apps for your Mac. The Mac App Store, a new application you'll find in the Dock, includes the following features: • Discover Mac apps: Browse featured apps, top charts, and categories, or search for something specific. Read detailed app descriptions and user reviews, and flip through screen shots....

Apple is telling us that the apps' content is considered "likely to expose a group to harm" and "to be objectionable and potentially harmful to others." Inasmuch as the Manhattan Declaration simply reaffirms the moral teachings of our Christian faith on the sanctity of human life, marriage and sexual morality, and religious freedom and the rights of conscience, Apple's statement amounts to the charge that our faith is "potentially harmful to others."

InfoWorld - You won't find many businesses with a more complex, security-conscious environment than JPMorgan Chase. So when the huge bank decided to deploy iPads in its investment-banking arm -- following similar moves by Crédit Suisse and Citigroup -- it was more than just a straw in the wind. Apple, long rooted in education, creative endeavors, and (more recently) consumer electronics, is now an enterprise company.The most obvious trend driving the company's shift, of course, is its smashing success in consumer-oriented electronics. Because so many businesspeople use iPhones and now iPads, IT departments have been forced to accommodate them at...

Apple is the dream company we always wished for when we were children. The messiah of companies that we never thought would come to Earth in our lifetimes. Getty Images Steve Jobs When I was a kid the only thing I wanted in life was an Apple II+. When I finally got one, (my dad took one from his work and gave it to me for about six months) I did everything a young boy does with his computer. I programmed (in BASIC) the computer to type my name over and over again. I then went to the local computer...