By Brad Reed From BGR

One surefire way to draw attention to yourself is to come up with a “contrarian” take on current events. While it’s always good to try thinking against the grain, there are times when contrarian takes simply fly in the face of reality. Nowhere in the tech world is this more apparent than the pundits and analysts who have repeatedly predicted over the years that Apple is “doomed.” We decided to follow up on two prominent examples of this phenomenon from last year to see what they’ve had to say in light of Apple’s record-smashing Q1 2015 earnings.

First up is Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdry, who last March had a jaw-dropping interview with CNBC in which he said that Apple had a mere 60 days to unveil a smartwatch or the company would “disappear.”

“It will take years for Apple’s $130 billion in cash to vanish, but it will become an irrelevant company,” the analyst explained. “It will become a zombie, if they don’t come up with an iWatch.”

What has he had to say in the wake of Apple’s huge earnings report? We found him quoted in Benzinga talking about how Apple is so successful because it’s “a multi-year, multi-product, multi-geography, multi-services company” that also has “a device for every user behavior.” He’s also quoted by BostInno as predicting the Apple Watch will be a smash hit and will sell at least 40 million units this year.

This is certainly a long way off from Apple “disappearing” if it didn’t unveil an Apple Watch by mid-May 2014, although it doesn’t seem to have changed publications’ willingness to seek him out and quote him in their pieces. This is the beauty of tech punditry: It’s so expendable that most people will have forgotten what you said less than a day later.

Our second subject is Yukari Iwatani Kane, a longtime Wall Street Journal reporter who wrote a book last year called Haunted Empire that argued Apple has been in the midst of a downward spiral ever since cofounder Steve Jobs’ death. To hear Kane tell it, Tim Cook, Jony Ive, Phil Schiller and Eddy Cue have basically decided to mail it in for the past several years and are bringing Apple back to the dark days of John Sculley.

Unlike Chowdry, we found that Kane has been almost completely silent ever since the iPhone 6 launched in September. A Google News search of her name shows no recent interviews, she hasn’t posted anything on her Twitter account since September 16th and her Facebook page shows that she’s posted nothing Apple-related for months.

Kane, however, is a much smarter Apple observer than Chowdry’s ever been and she has a track record as an excellent Apple reporter. We’ll be interested in what she says when she pops her head up again to see if she’s changed her views on Apple’s future prospects.

For more on this story go to: http://bgr.com/2015/01/28/apple-is-not-doomed/

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Currency swings cost Apple more money than Google makes in a quarter

By Myles Udland From Business Insider

Apple just reported a record quarter.

The company sold more than 74 million iPhones and raked in more profit in the Holiday quarter than any company has in any quarter ever.

On the company’s conference call, however, the big thing Apple analysts wanted to know was how the strong US dollar was impacting, and would impact, the company’s performance.

In a post on Stratechery following Apple’s quarter, Ben Thompson put the impact currencies had on Apple’s quarter into some broader perspective.

Thompson here is criticizing those that think Apple is “doomed” or “hanging by a thread,” but its also a great look at just how big Apple is:

It’s difficult to overstate just how absurd this is, but here’s my best attempt: last quarter Apple’s revenue was downright decimated by the strengthening U.S. dollar; currency fluctuations reduced Apple’s revenue by 5% – a cool $3.73 billion dollars. That, though, is more than Google made in profit last quarter ($2.83 billion). Apple lost more money to currency fluctuations than Google makes in a quarter. And yet it’s Google that is feared, and Apple that is feared for.

Just staggering figures.

To boot, Apple recorded more revenue just from iPhone sales in the Holiday quarter — $51.18 billion — than Google and Microsoft are expected to report over that period. Combined.
For more on this story go to: http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-currency-losses-vs-google-2015-1#ixzz3QFIVLDZn

The 9 most important things we learned from Apple’s record-crushing quarterly report

By Zach Epstein From BGR

Apple reported results from its fiscal first quarter on Tuesday night and in case you somehow missed it, they were incredible. As we noted in our coverage immediately following the report, Apple’s December quarter was the most profitable quarter any company has ever posted. What’s even more incredible, perhaps, is that its feat is thanks largely to just two devices — the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus — as pent-up demand for larger iPhones sent sales soaring.

People are still digging through Apple’s filings for interesting tidbits, but all of the major takeaways from Apple’s fiscal first-quarter earnings are now out in the open.

You’ll be reading about Apple’s historic Q1 for quite some time to come, but The Guardian has done a good job of digging through everything and rounding up the nine most important things we learned from Apple’s results on Tuesday night.

First and foremost, the Apple Watch will launch in April. Nothing is more important than that. The Apple Watch marks Apple’s first foray into a new product category since the original iPad was released in 2010, and Apple’s ability to deliver here is hugely important.

Since rumors of a March release for the Apple Watch had been swirling, CEO Tim Cook used Apple’s earnings call as an opportunity to put them to bed. “Development for Apple Watch is right on schedule and we expect to begin shipping in April,” he said.

The second key takeaway is that Apple has now shipped more than 1 billion iOS devices. “On November 22nd we shipped our one billionth iOS device,” Cook said on the call. “One billion devices is an almost unfathomable milestone, and we are all incredibly proud to be part of it.”

Also important are the facts that the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are pulling business away from Android, and that Apple is still seeing iPad sales slow, as it was last quarter.

For more: http://bgr.com/2015/01/28/apple-q1-earnings-top-9-takeaways/