Apple:

The Company posted record revenue of $15.7 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.25 billion, or $3.51 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $9.73 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.83 billion, or $2.01 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. […]

Apple sold 3.47 million Macs during the quarter, representing a new quarterly record and a 33 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 8.4 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 61 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 9.41 million iPods during the quarter, representing an eight percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter. The Company began selling iPads during the quarter, with total sales of 3.27 million.

Andy Zaky did pretty well in his predictions.

★ [From Apple Reports Third Quarter Results]

(…) Anyway, bottom line on the iPhone 4 antenna: it has a weak spot but there’s no evidence that it’s a significant, let alone catastrophic, problem in practice. It’s telling that the criticism surrounding this issue has shifted, quickly, from speculation about a technical defect in the iPhone 4 hardware to criticism over the tone of Apple’s response to it.

John also has more analysis in Antennagate Addendum: Regarding the Delta in Dropped Calls Between iPhone 4 and 3GS. I do hope that is the end of the media frenzy.

Steve Jobs has often cited this quote from Henry Ford: “If I’d have asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, ‘A faster horse!‘ “

Fun article in Fast Company, unless you can’t stand Apple or Steve Jobs.

On Wednesday, May 26, 2010, just after 2:30 p.m., the unthinkable happened: Apple became the largest company in the tech universe, and, after ExxonMobil, the second largest in the nation. For months, its market capitalization had hovered just under that of Microsoft — the giant that buried Apple and then saved it from almost certain demise with a $150 million investment in 1997. Now Microsoft gets in line with Google, Amazon, HTC,

(…)

{2} It’s Okay to Be King

Mike Evangelist (yep, that’s his name) still remembers one of his first meetings with Jobs. It took place in the Apple boardroom in early 2000, just a few months after Apple purchased the American division of Astarte, a German software company where Evangelist was an operations manager. Phil Schiller, Apple’s longtime head of marketing, put Evangelist on a team charged with coming up with ideas for a DVD-burning program that Apple planned to release on high-end Macs — an app that would later become iDVD.

“We had about three weeks to prepare,” Evangelist says. He and another employee went to work creating beautiful mock-ups depicting the perfect interface for the new program. On the appointed day, Evangelist and the rest of the team gathered in the boardroom. They’d brought page after page of prototype screen shots showing the new program’s various windows and menu options, along with paragraphs of documentation describing how the app would work.

“Then Steve comes in,” Evangelist recalls. “He doesn’t look at any of our work. He picks up a marker and goes over to the whiteboard. He draws a rectangle. ‘Here’s the new application,’ he says. ‘It’s got one window. You drag your video into the window. Then you click the button that says burn. That’s it. That’s what we’re going to make.’ “

“We were dumbfounded,” Evangelist says. This wasn’t how product decisions were made at his old company. Indeed, this isn’t how products are planned anywhere else in the industry.

The tech business believes in inclusive, bottom-up, wisdom-of-crowds innovation. The more latitude extended, the greater the next great thing will be. Nowhere is this ethos more celebrated than at Google, where employees are free to spend some of their working hours building anything that strikes their fancy. A few of these so-called 20%-time projects have become hits for Google, including Gmail and Google News.

Apple’s engineers spend 100% of their time making products planned by a small club of senior managers — and sometimes entirely by Jobs himself. The CEO appoints himself the de facto product manager for every important release; Jobs usually meets with the teams working on these new gadgets and apps once a week, and he puts their creations through the paces. “He gets very passionate,” Evangelist says. “He’ll say, ‘This is shit, we can do much better.’ “

How can it be wise for so few people to have the authority — not to mention the time — to make most of the creative decisions at a company as large as Apple? Bottlenecks do result. According to one former Apple engineer, a staff of about 10 “human interface” designers is in charge of the entire Mac operating system. With such a small group making decisions, Apple can put out only one or two new products a year.

But this approach works because Jobs and his team know exactly what they want. A more decentralized company like Google may launch dozens of products a year, but more of them fail. (Have you Waved much lately?) Apple hits for a high average. And Apple’s strong management keeps the troops focused. “Everybody knows what the plan is,” says Glenn Reid, a former Apple engineer who created iMovie and worked on several other iLife apps. “There’s very little infighting.”

“I still have the slides I prepared for that meeting, and they’re ridiculous in their complexity,” Evangelist says, remembering how everyone in the room understood, immediately, that Jobs’s rectangle was right. “All this other stuff was completely in the way.”

Read more »

(…) The moment came Wednesday when Apple, the maker of iPods, iPhones and iPads, shot past Microsoft, the computer software giant, to become the world’s most valuable technology company.

(…) Microsoft depends more on maintaining the status quo, while Apple is in a constant battle to one-up itself and create something new, said Peter A. Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook. “Apple is a bet on technology,” he said. “And Apple beating Microsoft is a very significant thing.”

As of Wednesday, Wall Street valued Apple at $222.12 billion and Microsoft at $219.18 billion. The only American company valued higher is Exxon Mobil, with a market capitalization of $278.64 billion.

(…) But Apple has the momentum. “Steve saw way early on, and way before Microsoft, that hardware and software needed to be married into something that did not require effort from the user,” said Scott G. McNealy, the co-founder and longtime chief executive of Sun Microsystems.

“Apple’s products are shrink-wrapped and ready to go.”

If you believe Net Market Share’s numbers, the iPad has surpassed both the iPod Touch and all Android devices combined in web traffic.

(…) There are a lot of things I like better about the iPhone than Android. The multitasking architecture, however, has been an Android advantage, and iPhone OS 4, I think, will pretty much put them on equal footing in this regard. There are technical differences, but they’re small differences, not big ones.

On both Android and iPhone OS 4, non-frontmost apps can run, but in limited fashions, in the background. It’s not like on Mac OS X or Windows where background apps continue to run exactly as though they’re in the foreground. On iPhone OS 4, apps in the background — those that support “fast application switching” in Apple’s parlance — are effectively paused. They’re still in RAM, but they can’t get large amounts of CPU time. What they can do, though, is use a limited number of APIs from the system to perform certain tasks — the two examples so far are play audio (Pandora) and receive/maintain VOIP calls (Skype).

(…) (Whatever you think of iPhone OS 4’s multitasking model, don’t make the mistake of thinking it’s simple; this is state of the art computer science.)¹ In the end, I suspect opinion on the differences between Android and iPhone multitasking will fall along the same lines of the general question of Android-vs.-iPhone — Android offers a bit more freedom to developers, iPhone is more controlled and orderly, and tries to guarantee a more responsive system for the user.

But the differences in multitasking between the two are arguments about fine details, not the big picture.

(…) The new model, exemplified by mobile systems like the iPhone and Android, is that apps are not quit manually by the user. You, the user, just open them, and the system takes care of managing them after that.

(…) On iPhone and Android, apps don’t decide when to quit. They must be ready to quit on short notice at any time. In current versions of iPhone OS, third-party apps are quit when the user hits the home button. The user is free to hit the home button at any time. The system effectively tells the frontmost app, “OK, you’re done” and the app has a few moments to save state or clean up. But after those moments, if the app is still busy, too bad — the system kills it.

And even with iPhone OS 4’s “multitasking”, apps must be ready to quit at any time on a moment’s notice. When the system runs low on free RAM, it will start quitting apps that are open in the background, and when it does so, it will not wait around for them to “do something”.² The same is true for Android. This is a fundamental change to how multitasking systems work. It works because the apps for these systems have been written from the ground up to embrace this model.

Please continue reading…

Andy Greenberg at Forbes has the fast-breaking news on the scandal:

(…) In one area, however, Alexander was more forthcoming: He mentioned, with no prompting, that he owns an iPad, and with very little prompting, that it is “wonderful.”

“I am a technologist. I love computers. I have a new iPad,” Alexander told the committee of Senators. A few minutes later, Democratic Senator Mark Udall of Colorado couldn’t help but bring it up again. From the Congressional Quarterly transcript:

Udall: I’m tempted to get a critical review of the iPad, but perhaps we can do that–

Alexander: Wonderful.

Udall: Wonderful. I will put that on — for the record.

Cringely, quoting Bill Gates from 1998:

“What I can’t figure out is why he (Steve Jobs) is even trying (to be the CEO of Apple)? He knows he can’t win.”

★ [From ‘He Can’t Win’]

Chrome uses the open-source WebKit engine — the same WebKit version as is used in Apple’s Safari 3.1. So there is a good chance they will make that release.

Up to date status reports here, where you can learn how to get the Mac Beta soon as it is available.

I like the slick interface, because all you have to do is start the app. When you want to do a search, just hold the iPhone to your ear. The iPhone’s accelerometer senses the movement and makes a “baBUM” noise to let you know when to talk. Then just say a query like [daffodil pictures] or whatever. It’s much smoother to experience than it is to write down. The net effect is as if you had some kind of Star Trek communicator device, except powered by Google instead of Spock and the rest of the crew.

…The last thing I like is subtle. This app has changed the way that I do queries. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a huge search geek. I’m hyperaware of when my query habits change, and I notice myself much more likely to do off-the-cuff queries such as [what's the average price per square foot for carpet?] or [how many miles per gallon do Audis get?] or [what is a softshell jacket?] or [what does the 11-99 foundation stand for?]. Marissa Mayer once kept a diary of all the searches she wanted to do during one day, and mentioned about 20 queries that came to mind. I feel like I had almost that many queries just driving into work. This app lowers the bar to doing searches. For a few days I was like a five-year-old just doing queries as they popped into my head. The easier/faster it is to search, the more I searched.

Not only have I started to do more queries, but I also say longer, more natural-language queries. Why? Because the more contextual clues I can give to the voice recognition engine, the better it will do. So a query like [mount everest elevation feet] might work, but [how high is mount everest] is more likely to be recognized (in my limited experience). The way you formulate queries is different when you’re speaking compared to when you type. I’m still pondering the implications of that.

Is the app perfect? Of course not. Right now it keeps a history of my last six queries. Personally, I’d like to keep all my queries so I can go back and find previous searches. And the voice recognition, while very solid, will continue to improve over time. I’d also love a way to add my own personal vocabulary of terms such as “PageRank” or “webspam” (which currently comes up as webcam). So the app will improve, but I still feel like I have K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider in my pocket a lot of the time.

The first time you hold a phone up to your ear and just say “18 percent of 33 dollars” and get a Google calculator answer back that it’s 5.94 dollars, it’s an epiphany. Now I don’t need a tip calculator application; I just talk to my phone and it tells me to leave a six dollar tip:

The iFund will also put KPCB in an advantageous position to build a network of iPhone innovators — a potential hothouse of innovation for follow on deals.

I wondered how KPCB will deal with the reality that many of the entrepreneurs won’t need much money. I.e., given the marketing boost provided by Apple’s App Store, I would expect angle investor size rounds to cover most of the startups. Well, the iFund will do deals from $100K up.

If you have an iPhone or iTouch innovation that needs some $$, start here. You can apply online.

KPCB’s iFund™ is a $100M investment initiative that will fund market-changing ideas and products that extend the revolutionary new iPhone and iPod touch platform. The iFund™ is agnostic to size and stage of investment and will invest in companies building applications, services and components. Focus areas include location based services, social networking, mCommerce (including advertising and payments), communication, and entertainment. The iFund™ will back innovators pursuing transformative, high-impact ideas with an eye towards building independent durable companies atop the iPhone / iPod touch platform.

“A revolutionary new platform is a rare and prized opportunity for entrepreneurs, and that’s exactly what Apple has created with iPhone and iPod touch,” said John Doerr, Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. “We think several significant new companies will emerge as this new platform evolves, and the iFund™ will empower them to realize their full potential.”

I liked this paragraph in the FAQ

Q: How much will the iFund™ invest in each startup company?

A: The iFund™ will invest anywhere from $100K of seed capital to $15M of expansion capital in mobile application and services companies.

Well, duh…

…the new American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) report …

Google was the number one brand among portals and search engines in terms of customer satisfaction, according to the index. It received a score of 86 out of 100, making it one of the highest rated service company in all of the ACSI. It rose 10 percent in the past year.

…Apple took the top brand in the personal computer category for the fifth straight year, as Tom Krazit of CNET notes. The company bucked the downward trend of the rest of the industry to rise to a score of 85, a new all-time high for the category.

…PC List (score out of 100):

Apple: 85

Dell: 75

HP: 73

Gateway: 72

Compaq: 70

Portal and Search Engine List:

Google: 86

Yahoo: 77

MSN: 75

Ask: 74

AOL: 69

More… [photo: flickr/william holtkamp]

Technorati Tags: Google

And then, on Saturday—well, knock me down with a feather. Apple performed a complete 180-degree reversal. The most opaque, uncommunicative tech company on the planet suddenly became transparent and informative.

At Steve Jobs’s direction, the company has launched a new blog that’s exclusively dedicated to the MobileMe mess.

In the first posting alone, Apple identifies the specific cause of the MobileMe problem (blockage from a bad mail server); what’s being done to solve it (24/7 coordinated efforts); current status (e-mail service restored, but e-mail older than Friday is still missing, and one-tenth of messages sent between July 16 and 18 may be forever lost); the severity of the original problem (70 bugs fixed); and estimated time of completion (end of the week).

More amazingly, the blog acknowledges, for the first time, the emotional toll of the experience. “It’s been a rocky road, and we know the pain some people have been suffering.”

I’ll bet good money that Apple has never before used the words “pain” and “suffering” to describe one of its products.

What made Apple change its stance? Was it the thousands of people on its support boards, clamoring for accountability? Did my column have anything to do with it? Or was it just Steve Jobs coming back from vacation?

There’s an RSS feed for the new Apple blog if you care to stay on top of progress.

1. AIM. Finally, a native iPhone program for accessing one of the world’s most widely used instant-messaging networks. It lacks some of the more rarified features of the PC or Mac versions, but does the basic text-chat thing quite well. One downside: because Apple isn’t allowing third-party programs to run constantly in the background, you can’t receive new messages in AIM while doing other things. This will supposedly be remedied by new Apple server technology due later this year.
2. MotionX-Poker. This is a simple poker game played with dice instead of cards. But it can be mesmerizing, because it makes full use of the iPhone’s graphics engine and motion sensors. You play each hand by shaking the phone to roll gorgeously rendered 3D dice, which even sound like dice. The $5 game comes from Fullpower, a company developing many motion-based programs that was founded by software industry pioneer Philippe Kahn.
3. TruPhone. This is an Internet phone-calling program that works over the iPhone’s Wi-Fi radio, potentially saving you big money over using the device’s regular cell phone capability, especially when calling internationally. Biggest downside in my initial tests: it sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t.
4. FileMagnet. One of the frustrating things about the iPhone is that it has no easy way for users to transfer files from their computers and store them on the phone, even though it is capable of viewing many types of files. FileMagnet, which costs $5, places a small program on your computer, and then wirelessly transfers any files you drag into it to the FileMagnet program on the phone. It works with Microsoft Word files, PDF files, images and more. Biggest downsides: it only works on Macs, but I’d bet a similar Windows program will come along soon.
5. SpeechCloud Voice Dialer. This free program allows you to dial anyone in your contact list by simply saying his or her name.
6. Movies. This is a free service that lets you find movies in your area, watch the trailers, buy tickets to them, and view a map to the theater.
7. Remote. This free program, written by Apple itself, allows you to control any copy of iTunes, on any Windows or Mac computer, over a local wireless network. It also works on Apple TV boxes.
8. Where. One of many new IPhone apps that attempt to provide information based on your location, Where, which is free, aggregates local content from services like Yelp and Eventful, which also have their own iPhone apps.
9. Pandora. The new iPhone version of the wildly popular Pandora music-streaming program, is also free. It creates personalized radio stations based on artists you like.
10. MLB.com At Bat. This $5 program lets you track games in progress, which is no big deal. The big deal is that you can actually watch video clips of key plays before the games are over.

If Apple designed a car, it might be like the Gina — Autoblog has commentary, including the BMW Museum video and 84 intolerably cool hi-res photos of the Gina design study [each hi-res image is accessed via the "Hi-res" button at upper right].

The BMW GINA Light Visionary Model that was seen via video being installed in the BMW Museum in Munich last week has finally been revealed, and the futuristic design study shows how BMW designers are thinking outside of the box when it comes to the materials that make up a car and also how the car relates to the driver. GINA stands for “Geometry and Functions in ‘N’ Adaptations”, which basically means that designers from both BMW and BMW Group DesignworksUSA were allowed to throw out the rulebook….

More at 37signals, with excellent photos emphasizing how dynamic the fabric skin is. Thanks to Charles for the heads-up!