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A24 TECHNOLOGY
Thursday 30 January 2020
Apple holiday season tops projections as iPhone bounces back

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE attraction. Boosted by the
AP Technology Writer release of the iPhone 11
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — heading into the holiday
Apple is still reaping huge season, the product gener-
profits from the iPhone ated sales of $56 billion, an
while mining more money- 8% increase from the pre-
making opportunities from vious year's disappointing
the growing popularity of showing.
its smartwatch, digital ser- Besides rolling out high-end
vices and wireless earbuds. phones with more cam-
That combination pro- eras and a starting price
duced a banner holiday of $1,000, Apple sold a
season for a company more basic model starting
whose fortunes appeared at $700 — a $50 drop from
to be sliding just a year ago a comparable version re-
amid declining sales for the leased in 2018.
iPhone, its marquee prod- The services division is feed-
uct for the past decade. ing into all iPhones, iPads,
Apple's fiscal first-quarter Macs and other Apple
results, released Tuesday, products already being
provided the latest proof used, which the company
that the fears hanging over said Tuesday now totals 1.5
the consumer electronics billion devices, up by 100
icon might have been un- A selection of iPhones are displayed an Apple store Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020, in suburban Boston. million from the previous
founded. Apple reports financial earns on Tuesday. Associated Press year.
Apple's profit and revenue "We see this as a power-
for the October-December Apple makes most of its like an even more prosper- cause fewer customers are ful testament to the satis-
period topped analysts' iPhones and several other ous road ahead for a com- shopping as virus worries faction, engagement and
projections, providing an- products. pany that turned a $55 bil- escalate. loyalty of our customers —
other boost to a stock that If the shares move similarly lion profit in its past fiscal "The situation is emerging and a great driver of our
has more than doubled in in Wednesday's regular year. and we're still gathering lots growth across the board,"
less than 13 months. trading session, they will flirt In a conference call Tues- of data points and moni- Cook said.
The shares surged more with a new all-time high for day, CEO Tim Cook said toring it very closely," Cook The Apple TV Plus video
than 1% to $322.14 in ex- the stock and further ce- the coronavirus outbreak said. streaming service, which
tended trading after the ment Apple's position as has already caused some Apple got off to a fast start Apple launched amid
numbers came out. That's the most valuable compa- of Apple's suppliers in Chi- for fiscal 2020, with a first- great fanfare in October,
up from $142 in January ny in the U.S., with a market na to delay reopening their quarter profit of $22.2 bil- is supposed to help that
2019 after Apple warned value of $1.4 trillion. factories closed for the Lu- lion, or $4.99 per share, on cause, but it may not be a
that consumers weren't A deadly viral outbreak in nar New Year holiday from revenue of $91.8 billion. huge contributor this year.
buying as many new China, which has curtailed the end of this month until Analysts polled by FactSet That's because Apple is ini-
iPhones as they once were, travel and threatens the Feb. 10. And some stores in had predicted earnings of tially selling it for just $5 per
especially in China, the world economy, looms as China selling Apple prod- $4.54 per share on revenue month to help drum up in-
company's biggest market a potential concern for ucts already have tempo- of $88.5 billion. terest. That's less than half
outside the U.S. and Eu- Apple. But investors for now rarily closed or reduced As usual, the iPhone re- the price of Netflix's most
rope. China is also where are focusing on what looks their operating hours be- mained Apple's marquee popular plan. q

Keeping 'Friends' for itself at

HBO Max dings AT&T profit

"The Office " from Netflix for "Friends," "Big Bang Theory" service is profitable start-
Peacock; Disney grabbed and "other popular shows" ing in 2025. HBO Max is
its movies for Disney Plus. for itself instead of licensing important to AT&T as an in-
Disney has said it lost about them to other streaming creasing number of people
$150 million in licensing rev- companies. WarnerMedia's cut the cable cord. AT&T,
enue in its 2019 fiscal year revenue fell 3.3% to $8.92 one of the country's larg-
from terminating deals with billion in the fourth quar- est video providers, has
Netflix and other services. ter, and the profit measure been hemorrhaging video
AT&T's WarnerMedia is dropped 7% to $2.6 billion. customers. In the fourth
launching HBO Max in "Obviously, this has an up- quarter, AT&T lost 945,000
In this Monday, July 29, 2019 photo an AT&T logo sits above an May and decided to keep front cost for us, but we DirecTV and cable custom-
entrance to a building, in Boston. "Friends" and "Big Bang The- see this as an investment ers. Its older streaming ser-
Associated Press ory" for itself to bolster the that makes HBO Max even vice, AT&T TV Now, which
By TALI ARBEL of income today will mean service as its traditional TV stronger and will pay off streams traditional chan-
AP Technology Writer more money rolling in from customers melt away. over the long term," said nels online in a bundle, lost
As entertainment compa- subscribers in the future. In The company said during AT&T CFO John Stephens 219,000 customers. For the
nies roll out new stream- its fourth quarter, AT&T said its earnings call Wednes- on the earnings call. year, AT&T lost 4.1 million
ing services, they're stock- that bet cost it $1.2 billion in day that WarnerMedia lost The company has said it ex- video customers, ending at
ing them with the goodies revenue. AT&T isn't alone $1.2 billion in revenue and pects to spend $19.5 billion 20.3 million. It says it hopes
from their own content ar- in doing this. Comcast's $500 million in a key profit through 2025 for HBO Max 2019 was the peak for vid-
chives, hoping that the loss NBCUniversal took back measure because it kept in the U.S., and it hopes the eo subscriber losses. q