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New hockey app TECHNOLOGY A23
debuts with help Wednesday 27 January 2016
of MLB baseball
Apple’s iPhone success may be reaching its peak
AP Technology Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Major BRANDON BAILEY ports Tuesday on Apple’s lysts are expecting around a similar cycle a few years
League Baseball is debut- AP Technology Writer sales for the last three 55 million. ago, when iPhone sales
ing a new website and SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — months of 2015, investors An estimated 500 million growth slowed to 7 percent
apps — for ice hockey. Apple could soon face will be watching closely for people own iPhones now, in the final months of 2013.
Under a deal reached last one of its biggest challeng- any hints about how Ap- which means Apple can The next year, Apple intro-
summer, baseball’s digital es to date: Peak iPhone. ple’s signature smartphone rely on a significant number duced new models with
business has taken over Most analysts believe Ap- is faring in the current quar- to upgrade each year. But significantly bigger screens.
streaming and app devel- ple surpassed its own re- ter. Sales usually fall some- some have put off buying a That sent sales skyrocketing,
opment for the National cord by selling more than what after the holiday new model because they especially in Asia, where
Hockey League. On Mon- 74.5 million units of its flag-
day, the NHL will start offer- ship product in the final Apple CEO Tim Cook discusses the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus at an event in San Francisco.
ing a cheaper subscription three months of 2015. But Most analysts believe Apple surpassed its own record by selling more than 74.5 million iPhones
package, NHL Premium, there are signs that iPhone in the final three months of 2015. But there are signs that iPhone sales in the first three months of
with six-minute recaps and sales in the first three 2016 will show an abrupt decline from the same period a year earlier.
live video for the final five months of 2016 will — for
minutes of most games, plus the first time ever — show (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
any overtime and shoot- an abrupt decline from the
outs. Premium will cost $3 a same period a year earlier. shopping season. But ana- didn’t see a strong reason consumers had previously
month, compared with $25 That could mark a pivotal lysts say it appears Apple to upgrade. flocked to buy big-screen
for full games. In both cas- moment for the Silicon Val- has cut production orders Despite some new features, phones from rival Samsung.
es, hometown games will ley giant. from key suppliers in recent “people are feeling like But there may no more
typically be unavailable to Apple is the world’s big- weeks, suggesting it’s low- there hasn’t been anything equally dramatic changes
preserve television rights. gest company, in terms of ered its own forecasts. that’s really new” in the lat- left to jump-start sales like
The NHL is also boosting vid- stock value, thanks to the Apple hasn’t commented est iPhone models, known that again. “Apple really
eo quality to 60 frames per iPhone’s surging popularity on iPhone sales since last as the 6S and 6S Plus, which pulled the big lever they
second, double the stan- around the world. In busi- fall, when Cook struck an came out last fall, said mar- had left un-pulled, up to
dard 30 frames, though ness terms, Apple makes upbeat tone. In part, Zino ket researcher John Feland then,” said tech analyst
you’ll need a streaming TV most of its money from and other experts say, the of Argus Insights. Jan Dawson of Jackdaw
device, a game console, iPhone sales. company is suffering from Apple will likely make sig- Research. “That was sort of
an iPad or one of the larger, But concerns about slow- its own success. Apple sold nificant changes in the a one-off event.”
Plus models of the iPhone. ing growth have sent the 61 million iPhones in the next major iPhone release, While iPhone sales may
Officials say that 60 frames stock into a months-long March quarter of 2015, or expected in September, be slowing, Apple has
will be ideal for fast-moving slump, fueling debate 40 percent more than it did which could fuel another launched other products
action such as hockey, as about what kind of com- a year earlier. To match surge in sales. Some tech and services tied to the
it will make puck move- pany Apple will be in the that growth rate, Apple blogs have reported a new iPhone — from the Apple
ment look smoother. Bob future. would need to sell more model might even be com- Watch to the digital pay-
Bowman, baseball’s presi- The iPhone contributed than 85 million in the cur- ing this spring. ments service known as
dent of business and me- nearly two-thirds of Apple’s rent period. Instead, ana- The company went through Apple Pay.q
dia, says he plans to bring $234 billion in revenue last
that to baseball, too. year. None of the other
Among other features: new products Apple has
— Beyond choosing a launched in recent years
team or two as favorites, have emerged as block-
you’ll be able to “follow” ri- busters. That’s led some
val teams. Those teams will critics to suggest Apple has
show up higher on league lost its innovative touch,
scoreboards, but you while others say it’s evolv-
won’t clutter the screen ing to depend on a broad-
with as much news about er base of related tech
those teams as you would products and services.
for favorites. One thing is clear, said
— Composite views will analyst Angelo Zino at S&P
mix the main action with Capital IQ: “Last year was
alternative angles, such as an unprecedented year
cameras looking straight for Apple and the iPhone....
down on each goalie. You’ll never see that type
Gone will be the ability to of growth from the iPhone
choose alternative angles again.”
individually, as video didn’t When CEO Tim Cook re-
always sync correctly. Of-
ficials are hoping to ad- Marvin Minsky, pioneer of artificial intelligence, dies
dress that by offering the
composite view with pre- CAMBRIDGE, Massachu- The university says Minsky and considered how ma- we know it today.”
selected angles as a single setts (AP) — A pioneer in died Sunday at Brigham chines might be endowed Minsky served in the Navy
stream. Although baseball the field of artificial intel- and Women’s Hospital in with common sense. during World War II, before
is now running hockey’s ligence at the Massachu- Boston of a cerebral hem- Daniela Rus, director of earning mathematics de-
digital services, you won’t setts Institute of Technolo- orrhage. MIT’s Computer Science grees from Harvard and
get the type of real-time gy who saw parallels in the Minsky viewed the brain as and Artificial Intelligence Princeton. He joined MIT’s
tracking available for functioning of the human a machine whose function- Laboratory, says Minsky faculty in 1958.
baseball. q brain and computers has ing can be studied, and “helped create the vision He is survived by his wife
died. Marvin Minsky was 88. replicated in a computer of artificial intelligence as and three children.q
