Apple's self-developed chips The results of the new fiscal quarter reached a record

This article is transferred from: China Business Daily

Compile the year double crossing

Apple Inc., which just finished its spring 2022 launch, has received bad news, and a group of British mobile network operators have officially urged the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to regulate Apple's iCloud Private Relay. iCloud Private Relay is a new service introduced by Apple in iOS 15 (Apple's mobile operating system), and when this option is enabled, the user's real IP address will not be displayed to third-party servers, and the service provider will not be able to track the user's information on the network. The mobile network operators say Apple's privacy services are detrimental to competition, can be detrimental to users and pose a threat to national security.

Apple's spring conference attracted a lot of attention - although its new products have caused a lot of controversy as always, but this does not prevent terms such as "iPhone SE" and "iPhone 13 Green" from appearing on the Internet after the conference.

In January, Apple reported fiscal first quarter 2022, with fiscal first-quarter 2022 revenue of $123.9 billion, up 11 percent from the same period last year, driven by increased demand for its latest iPhone and other device lines and the strength of its service-related business. After the earnings report, Apple's stock price rose more than 4% at one point.

As helmsman, Apple CEO Tim Cook said on a conference call with market analysts: "We've set historical records in both developed and emerging markets, with revenue growth across all of our products, with the exception of the iPad – which we think will be constrained by supply." ”

British operators suddenly attacked

The British mobile network operators collectively complained that Apple was suspected of unfair competition.

In response to a report by the UK Competition and Markets Authority on the mobile ecosystem, mobile network operators (including EE, Virgin Media O2, Three and Vodafone) industry association Mobile UK believe that Apple's iCloud Private Relay could have a negative impact on user experience, internet security and competition, according to The Economist.

Mobile UK believes that this feature will direct users to more Apple's service platforms, allowing users to access the Internet in the way Apple plans.

Mobile UK said iCloud Private Relay "affected competition for mobile browsers" and stressed that apple's WebKit browser engine restrictions have prevented competitors' browsers from avoiding iCloud Private Relay, reducing the incentive for users to change browsers; in addition, iCloud Private Relay poses a threat to national security because it "undermines the insight of government investigations." has an impact on law enforcement".

Mobile network operators in the UK believe iCloud Private Relay is suspected of breaching "content filtering, malware, anti-fraud and phishing protections provided by network providers".

For these reasons, Mobile UK urged the UK Competition and Markets Authority to implement remedies to "restrict the use of iCloud Private Relay" or prevent Apple from making iCloud Private Relay the default service. The complaint said that iCloud Private Relay is currently turned off by default, but a large proportion of Apple product users in the UK have already opted to turn it on.

In response to complaints from British mobile network operators, Apple has shown a tough attitude: it is impossible to change the ecology.

In a detailed 47-page response, Apple refuted the REPORT by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority, saying it ignored the benefits of Apple's ecosystem and "has no reasonable basis to either ignore them altogether or dismiss them based solely on speculation.". Apple said the UK Competition and Markets Authority's report was based on "unsubstantiated allegations and hypothetical concerns" from Apple's competitors.

Apple urged the UK Competition and Markets Authority to "conduct a more comprehensive analysis of the benefits that Apple's ecosystem brings to consumers and developers, and objectively consider the impact of any proposed intervention on consumers and market competition that will be restricted".

The chip becomes the protagonist

Without the collective complaint of British mobile network operators, the harvest of the spring conference would have made Apple happy for a while.

At the 50-minute press conference, apple's first half of the introduction of Apple TV+, the new color of the iPhone 13 series, iPhone SE and iPad Air took just over 20 minutes. For the next half an hour, Apple gave the focus of the whole conference - chips.

In October last year, Apple launched its self-developed chips M1 Pro and M1 Max, which caused an industry sensation. Less than half a year later, Apple released a new chip, the M1 Ultra, and applied it to desktop computers. At the same time, Apple also launched a new Mac Studio desktop computer and Studio Display display equipped with the M1 Ultra chip.

Before launching its own chips, Apple mainly used Intel's chips in computer products, and as a company that aims to create an ecological closed loop, Apple has always hoped to truly achieve "software and hardware integration". Cook once said: "At Apple, the integration of hardware and software is the basis of everything we do, and the chip is the core of the hardware." "Over the past decade or so, Apple has gradually applied its self-developed chips to mobile phones, tablets, watches, headphones, and computers are its last piece of the puzzle.

In the past year or so, Apple has released the M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max. With each chip upgrade, the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, and Mac mini in the Mac product line have also been updated. With the launch of the new chip M1 Ultra, Mac Studio has been added to the Mac product line.

The results are still impressive

Compared with the new product launch, Apple's harvest in the market has always impressed other manufacturers.

In the fiscal first quarter of fiscal 2022 released in January this year, apple's service products such as iCloud, music and Apple TV+ hit a record high of 785 million new users.

Apple's main product, the iPhone, generated $71.6 billion in fiscal quarter 2022, up 9.2 percent year-over-year, up from $65.6 billion in the year-ago quarter and also beating Wall Street analysts' $67.7 billion forecast. Revenue from the iPhone hit an all-time high, and Cook credited it to the launch of the iPhone 13 series. According to Cook, consumer and media reactions to the iPhone 13 series have "exceeded expectations" and exceeded all products.

Apple's services revenue for fiscal first quarter 2022, up 24 percent year-over-year, beat market expectations of $18.6 billion thanks to strong App Store, Apple Music, and iCloud subscription sales.

Revenue in Apple's Wearables, Home & Accessories division increased 13 percent year-over-year to $14.2 billion in fiscal first quarter 2022 and above market expectations of $14.2 billion.

The only one that fell short of expectations was Apple's iPad business, which generated revenue of $7.25 billion in fiscal quarter 2022, down 14.1 percent year-over-year.