Apple shares close at all-time high weeks before iPhone 6 launch
Apple shares on Tuesday closed at their highest ever level as investors looked ahead to next month's iPhone 6 launch. The Cupertino, Calif., tech company's shares ended at $100.53, up 1.4 percent for the day, and the highest closing level ever when adjusted for June's 7-for-1 stock split. Apple's previous high closing price of $702.10, or $100.30 adjusted for the split, came September 19, 2012 -- two days before the iPhone 5 went on sale. Apple shares on Tuesday also neared their all-time high in regular trading. The stock hit its previous intraday high of $705.07, or $100.72 when adjusted for the stock split, on Sept. 21, 2012, the first day the iPhone 5 hit stores. Shares rose as high as $100.68 in midday trading Tuesday.The high comes less than a month before Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 6 on September 9. The smartphone, which contributes to more than half of Apple's total revenue, serves as the lynchpin to its overall growth, particularly as the market awaits the widely speculated iWatch and as the iPad struggles against lower-cost rivals and larger phones. Apple shares have tended to climb ahead of product launches as investors hope to get ahead of big sales numbers. See alsoApple posts solid Q3 profit, but iPhone sales don't wowWWDC set the stage. Now Apple needs to deliverDon't freak out. Here's why Apple's stock is below $100CNET's iPhone 6 rumor roundupApple shares had slid from their high in 2012 on worries that Apple CEO Tim Cook wouldn't be as successful as co-founder Steve Job at developing new blockbuster devices. Cook has promised several times over the past year that Apple would enter "exciting new product categories" in 2014. And in May, Eddy Cue, head of iTunes and the man behind Apple's $3 billion acquisition of headphone and streaming service Beats, upped the pressure by boasting that the consumer electronics giant is working on its "best product pipeline in 25 years."Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty earlier Tuesday recommended that her clients buy more Apple shares ahead of the iPhone 6 and iWatch product releases. "Apple shares do not price in upcoming hardware, software, and services innovation," Huberty said. She noted that the new iPhone should gain market share and reaccelerate sales, while the iWatch -- which Apple so far hasn't acknowledged -- is "an underappreciated market opportunity with the potential for up to 60 [million] shipments in the first year."Apple's stock closed at an all-time high Tuesday, when adjusting for its 7-for-1 stock split.Google FinanceMany market watchers expect Apple in September to introduce two new iPhone 6 models with display sizes of 4.7 and 5.5 inches, though some recent reports speculate one device could be released at a later date. Apple has asked manufacturing partners to produce about 30 percent to 40 percent more iPhones by the end of this year than it ordered for its initial run of last year's iPhone 5S and 5C, reports have said. Most analysts expect an iWatch to hit the market later than the iPhone 6. Apple in April said it planned to give investors six additional shares of stock for every Apple share they owned as of June 2. Because of the split, shares now trade at a much lower level than in the past, but it also makes the stock more accessible to investors. It's much cheaper to own a chunk of Apple at about $100 versus $600. The split went into effect in June, with shares trading at about $93.The stock split came as part of Apple's effort to meet the demands of current shareholders, as well as attract a new group of investors. Under the leadership of Cook, Apple started returning some of its massive cash hoard to investors. Shareholders, such as activist Carl Icahn, asked for even more, and Apple earlier this year revealed a big increase to its dividend and share repurchase program, along with the stock split. The companyat that time boosted the amount of cash that it's returning to shareholders by about $30 billion to more than $130 billion.Apple iPhone 5SSee full gallery1 - 4 / 9NextPrev
Maybe there's hope for the music industry yet
Maybe there's hope for the music industry yet
The big digital music companies, from Internet radio company Pandora to fast-growing startups like Spotify and Deezer, face huge business challenges because of the simple fact that the majority of the money they bring in -- either from ads or subscriptions -- goes to the big music labels and publishers. And that's starting to look pretty good for the long suffering music industry.A pair of reports published today on the music industry -- one from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, the other from research firm NPD -- highlighted the first glimmer of good news that the music biz has seen in a long time. First, IFPI said that global recorded music industry revenue edged up by 0.3 percent to $16.5 billion in 2012, marking the first year of industry growth since 1999. Granted, that's not a big jump up -- but the first since 1999? Not bad. Meantime, digital revenue saw accelerating growth for the second year running, up 9 percent, as all formats -- downloads, subscriptions, and ad-supported businesses -- are on the rise. In other words, it's not just about iTunes anymore.Second, as CNET reported earlier, piracy is falling -- the result, the studies conclude, of both legal attacks on sites like the once-popular LimeWire, and a rise of easy-to-use services such as Spotify, which let people listen to music for free if they're willing to put up with a few ads. Last year, according to NDP, the number of consumers using peer-to-peer services to download music dropped 17 percent compared with the prior year.Related storiesWith RealNetworks' influence waning, CEO departsFetus and mother's playlists join at the hipPortable games to take on your travelsFlipSync keeps iPod cable in reachSlicethepie scores first signing: Fan-financed band win major label record dealAll the data points around piracy have to sound good to the industry. The report found that P2P file sharing peaked in 2005, when one in five Internet users older than 13 -- around 33 million people -- downloaded music via services such as LimeWire. Last year, that number fell to 11 percent, or 21 million people. In addition, there was a 26 percent drop in the volume of music downloaded from P2P sites, and a 25 percent decrease in the number of files swapped from hard drives.At long last, it seems, the combination of improved services and a plentiful selection of legal music is pushing consumers to go the legal route. Frances Moore, chief executive of IFPI, said in a statement. It is hard to remember a year for the recording industry that has begun with such a palpable buzz in the air. These are hard-won successes for an industry that has innovated, battled, and transformed itself over a decade. They show how the music industry has adapted to the Internet world, learned how to meet the needs of consumers and monetized the digital marketplace. That's surprising talk from the industry perhaps hardest hit by the rise of the Internet. (You can check out the full IFPI Digital Music report here, in PDF form. The question that still looms, however, is whether Spotify and others can become thriving, standalone businesses. So far, that's proven a stadium-size challenge for digital music startups.
The big digital music companies, from Internet radio company Pandora to fast-growing startups like Spotify and Deezer, face huge business challenges because of the simple fact that the majority of the money they bring in -- either from ads or subscriptions -- goes to the big music labels and publishers. And that's starting to look pretty good for the long suffering music industry.A pair of reports published today on the music industry -- one from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, the other from research firm NPD -- highlighted the first glimmer of good news that the music biz has seen in a long time. First, IFPI said that global recorded music industry revenue edged up by 0.3 percent to $16.5 billion in 2012, marking the first year of industry growth since 1999. Granted, that's not a big jump up -- but the first since 1999? Not bad. Meantime, digital revenue saw accelerating growth for the second year running, up 9 percent, as all formats -- downloads, subscriptions, and ad-supported businesses -- are on the rise. In other words, it's not just about iTunes anymore.Second, as CNET reported earlier, piracy is falling -- the result, the studies conclude, of both legal attacks on sites like the once-popular LimeWire, and a rise of easy-to-use services such as Spotify, which let people listen to music for free if they're willing to put up with a few ads. Last year, according to NDP, the number of consumers using peer-to-peer services to download music dropped 17 percent compared with the prior year.Related storiesWith RealNetworks' influence waning, CEO departsFetus and mother's playlists join at the hipPortable games to take on your travelsFlipSync keeps iPod cable in reachSlicethepie scores first signing: Fan-financed band win major label record dealAll the data points around piracy have to sound good to the industry. The report found that P2P file sharing peaked in 2005, when one in five Internet users older than 13 -- around 33 million people -- downloaded music via services such as LimeWire. Last year, that number fell to 11 percent, or 21 million people. In addition, there was a 26 percent drop in the volume of music downloaded from P2P sites, and a 25 percent decrease in the number of files swapped from hard drives.At long last, it seems, the combination of improved services and a plentiful selection of legal music is pushing consumers to go the legal route. Frances Moore, chief executive of IFPI, said in a statement. It is hard to remember a year for the recording industry that has begun with such a palpable buzz in the air. These are hard-won successes for an industry that has innovated, battled, and transformed itself over a decade. They show how the music industry has adapted to the Internet world, learned how to meet the needs of consumers and monetized the digital marketplace. That's surprising talk from the industry perhaps hardest hit by the rise of the Internet. (You can check out the full IFPI Digital Music report here, in PDF form. The question that still looms, however, is whether Spotify and others can become thriving, standalone businesses. So far, that's proven a stadium-size challenge for digital music startups.
Apple's Newsstand raking in $70K a day, study says
Apple's Newsstand raking in $70K a day, study says
Just how much are people spending on digital editions of newspapers and magazines on Apple's digital Newsstand app? In a study of Apple's App Store for iPad during the month of February, market research firm Distimo says the top 100 publications brought in more than $70,000 a day. That metric -- which is just revenues from the United States -- is led by News Corp.'s The Daily, followed by The New York Times and The New Yorker magazine, the firm said.Apple launched Newsstand as part of iOS 5 in October, providing a way for users to view newspapers and magazines they've purchased or subscribed to. The app also doubles as its own storefront, where users can browse and purchase content, similar to Apple's App Store, iBooks, and iTunes apps.Related storiesiOS 5 Newsstand is one small, small step for digital magazinesFinancial Times Web app skirts subscriptions fracasApple unveils subscription service in App StoreApple does not disclose what individual app makers and content providers earn on its store. The company doles out 70 percent of each sale to content creators, taking a 30 percent cut for itself. Publishers can also let existing subscribers view digital editions of content to which they already subscribe, however they're not allowed to link to outside Web sites where subscriptions can be struck outside of the App Store.That model has had a mixed reception by publishers, some of which have sidestepped selling through Apple and opted to offer tablet-optimized subscription versions of their sites through the Web instead.Distimo's studies track Apple's App Store, the BlackBerry App World, GetJar, Google Play, Nokia's Ovi Store, Palm's App Catalog, and Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 Marketplace using "collected transactional data." Other noteworthy metrics from the study:China has outgrown the United States, when it comes to daily downloads of free applications. The country tallied more than 1.1 million daily downloads from within the top 300 most popular free apps. By comparison, the U.S. tallied "just below" 1 million daily downloads, Distimo said. The U.S. is still the top-grossing country, when it comes to iPad app spending. It is trailed by Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.The iPad has more apps with in-app purchase than apps built for the iPhone. Ten percent of the iPad applications on the App Store had in-app purchase, versus 6 percent for the iPhone. Downloads of iPad apps by category (click to enlarge).DistimoiPad users download lots of weather apps. One of the omissions from Apple's iPad version of iOS is a built-in weather app. That has led to some serious downloading, Distimo said. While the number of downloads is nowhere near the same class as things like entertainment, travel, or photography, the study found the number of downloads for weather apps to be considerably higher than how many such apps are available.
Just how much are people spending on digital editions of newspapers and magazines on Apple's digital Newsstand app? In a study of Apple's App Store for iPad during the month of February, market research firm Distimo says the top 100 publications brought in more than $70,000 a day. That metric -- which is just revenues from the United States -- is led by News Corp.'s The Daily, followed by The New York Times and The New Yorker magazine, the firm said.Apple launched Newsstand as part of iOS 5 in October, providing a way for users to view newspapers and magazines they've purchased or subscribed to. The app also doubles as its own storefront, where users can browse and purchase content, similar to Apple's App Store, iBooks, and iTunes apps.Related storiesiOS 5 Newsstand is one small, small step for digital magazinesFinancial Times Web app skirts subscriptions fracasApple unveils subscription service in App StoreApple does not disclose what individual app makers and content providers earn on its store. The company doles out 70 percent of each sale to content creators, taking a 30 percent cut for itself. Publishers can also let existing subscribers view digital editions of content to which they already subscribe, however they're not allowed to link to outside Web sites where subscriptions can be struck outside of the App Store.That model has had a mixed reception by publishers, some of which have sidestepped selling through Apple and opted to offer tablet-optimized subscription versions of their sites through the Web instead.Distimo's studies track Apple's App Store, the BlackBerry App World, GetJar, Google Play, Nokia's Ovi Store, Palm's App Catalog, and Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 Marketplace using "collected transactional data." Other noteworthy metrics from the study:China has outgrown the United States, when it comes to daily downloads of free applications. The country tallied more than 1.1 million daily downloads from within the top 300 most popular free apps. By comparison, the U.S. tallied "just below" 1 million daily downloads, Distimo said. The U.S. is still the top-grossing country, when it comes to iPad app spending. It is trailed by Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.The iPad has more apps with in-app purchase than apps built for the iPhone. Ten percent of the iPad applications on the App Store had in-app purchase, versus 6 percent for the iPhone. Downloads of iPad apps by category (click to enlarge).DistimoiPad users download lots of weather apps. One of the omissions from Apple's iPad version of iOS is a built-in weather app. That has led to some serious downloading, Distimo said. While the number of downloads is nowhere near the same class as things like entertainment, travel, or photography, the study found the number of downloads for weather apps to be considerably higher than how many such apps are available.
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