On Tuesday , Apple will account its first - quarter net income , and fiscal analyst areexpectingdire solvent . Virtually every aspect of Apple ’s repute for innovation , tone , and desirableness has been tarnished in one style or another . And at a minute when it appeared to be building its brand as the choice for privacy , it ’s dead found itself tangle in anembarrassing privacy scandal .
The past few month have not been kind to tech stock as the securities industry began its unsettling cut . Unlike other tech giants , Apple does n’t have the weightiness of irregular regulations or fines hang over its forefront . But its gist business is still facing a band of uncertainty as a trade war with Chinahurts its salesand endanger its supply chains . Making its phones more expensive while adding nothing exciting is certainly not aid thing . While the company is still pulling in bucket - load of money , a great deal of damage is being done to its most valuable asset : its reputation .
In August , Apple fulfilled years of divination and became the first publicly traded caller with atrillion - clam grocery store crownwork . Earlier in 2018 , it at long last got a hugetax breakthat cleared the agency for it to land home an estimate $ 252 billion it was hide from Uncle Sam oversea . thing should ’ve been going great . But the holiday season was not so kind , and in other January Apple took the extraordinary step of temporarilyhaltingtrades of its stock to warn investors it would drop its revenue estimates by somewhere between $ 5 billion and $ 9 billion . On top of its trouble in China , Apple admittedthat a cheap shelling replacement it offered as an excuse for throttling old iPhones with degraded batteries had bruise sale because users suddenly did n’t sense like they necessitate a unexampled earpiece .
Of course , it did n’t help that Apple ’s new phones were n’t all that different from the old ones and came with a big damage bump . Sure , Apple always pretend the “ best iPhone ever , ” but the later batch of fashion model was so unimpressive that it almost immediately startedoffering dealsthrough a sweeten business deal - in promotion . That put CEO Tim Cook in the uncomfortable position of having totalk about profitswhen he was just in the thick of a big thrust to douse on Facebook and pose Apple as the tech company defined by its regard for user privacy and security , as a did withan overconfident ad campaignin Las Vegas duringCES .
Apple has a stellar repute for security . The iPhone has long deserved to be known as the most safe smartphone in the man . But it ’s ostensibly becomemore commonto find malware - riddled apps in the iOS app memory board , and itsstruggleto keep unwanted user from burst into the iPhone has become a neverending secret plan of whack - a - jetty . That ’s why it ’s loosely a bad estimate to brag about security . All computer software has hemipteran and yap , it ’s just a matter of time before someone incur them .
All of which brings us to Monday evening , whenword of a bugin Io spread across the net . The creepy flaw allowed exploiter to call someone via FaceTime and listen into their mike before they even answered . If the receiver of the call opt to hit the ability or intensity button to ignore it , the caller could evensee videowithout the recipient ’s noesis . While it ’s not the most elegant way of spy on someone , it ’s fantastically embarrassing for Apple . When you have the Governor of New York issuing acybersecurity warningand giving citizens IT advice on how to avoid a bug , you ’ve really fuck up . A fix wo n’t be quick until subsequently this week , and for now , Apple hasdisabledGroup FaceTime on the waiter side .
What really makes the FaceTime bug crying is that the latest iteration of Io was supposed to be all aboutfixing the problemsof Io 11 and putting new features on the back - burner . We got the addition of some raw emoji and the aforementioned Group Facetime that turned your speech sound into a potential eavesdropping automobile — otherwise , iOS 12 was mostly about making under - the - hood fixes . But hey , the iOS “ lineament ” thatthrottles the processoron honest-to-god simulation is apparentlystill working great .
These days , nice guy Tim Cook is busy doingphoto opswith Ivanka Trump andeating dinnerwith the homophobic psycho who runs Brazil now . It ’s a hard job get by with geopolitical crises and nationalist leadership when your ship’s company is the image of globalization . It ’s also tough position yourself as the anti - Google when Googlepays you billionsof dollar every yr to make its search engine the default on Apple devices .
However difficult those facets of the job are , Apple fans are really only interested with what the company will do next to blow their minds . regrettably , there ’s not a whole lot to appear forward to . We ’ll get some new iPhones and iPads , sure . The update Mac Pro is hypothesise to ship in 2019 if you ’re quick to spend the equivalent of a down payment on a house for a power machine . Its AirPower charging lustrelessness isrumoredto finally be come this twelvemonth . That ’s only noted because it was announced with iPhone X back in 2017 and is now very late . I do n’t know anyone who really gives a dirt about AirPower .
Other than that , Apple is focused on its services business . It ’s pour goggle box serviceis expectedto launch in the spring — it ’s also expected tototally suck . On Monday , Cheddarreported that Apple is do work on a “ Netflix for video game ” service . That will be proficient news program for the hoi polloi clamoring to pay a monthly fee to play Angry Birds on their Apple TV .
As far as moonshot projects go , it appears that Apple has two big things in the pipeline . Itsaugmented realism headsetcould certainly be a game - modifier if it follow where others have failed — i.e. making a utile augmented realness headset . And it ’s work on on some sort of secretive projection for ego - driving car . Last week , 200 peoplewere repose offfrom that division as Apple reportedly initiated what it called “ expect restructuring . ”
Apple ’s earnings today are expected to disappoint investors , and analyst areprojectingits 2d - quarter in 2019 to be lackluster as well . It will also be reporting something like $ 84 billion in gross this good afternoon . That ’s a prominent , successful company . Apple is n’t anywhere close to being on life-time support . It is , however , running a longsighted - condition peril that perplex a smashing threat than any craft warfare . It ’s becoming a dull fellowship that ’s throw off users ’ trustfulness .
Correction : An other translation of this clause incorrectly tell that Apple passed the trillion - dollar threshold in October . It in reality hit that market - cap in August . We repent the error .
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