That's a lot of green.
This past week has been a big whirlwind of green, and it's kind of crazy that it's only been one month in 2021. Seriously, a lot has happened in January alone — it's been a roller coaster.
We had Apple's Q1 2021 earnings call last Wednesday, and if there's one thing that we learned, well, it's that Apple made a lot of money. In our Apple earnings call transcript, Apple made over $100 billion in revenue from the last quarter, which is an all-time high for the company. I suppose we shouldn't be surprised — even though almost all of 2020 revolved around a pandemic, there was a surge in device activations due to the fact that people needed to communicate with each other through FaceTime, especially over the holidays. And all of this despite a lot of Apple Stores remaining closed or even re-closing as cases surged.
Another surprise from the call was the fact that Apple services now has a quarterly record of $15.8 billion, with 24% growth over the past year. I still remember when Apple was in the MobileMe days, and I honestly never thought that they would have expanded the way they have now. It took me a while before I gave in and started subscribing to things like iCloud storage, but I'm now on the Apple One Premiere plan, so I get pretty much everything (iCloud 2TB, Apple Music, Apple News+, Apple Arcade, Apple TV+, and Fitness+). It's become integral to my everyday life and workflow (especially Apple Music and iCloud), so I'm glad to see that Apple's services are doing well.
Speaking of storage, there's a report that the next iPhone may come with up to 1TB storage. Honestly, this would be exciting to see. I have been going with the 256GB option for a few years now when I upgrade to the best iPhone, but to be honest, that space is getting a little long in the tooth at this point. I would definitely consider hopping on a 1TB option, considering that Apple has the ProRAW format for photos now.
In other news, the entire GameStop stocks thing has been all over my social timelines. Watching the drama unfold with everyone purchasing shares of GameStop, AMC, Nokia, and other "dying" businesses to "bankrupt" the hedge funders has been pretty entertaining, to say the least. It's also a little upsetting that the Robinhood app would go and manipulate the market in favor of the rich, which seems to be the opposite of what the name "Robinhood" actually means. But it seems that way more people are now aware of the stock market and how it works (including me), so there's that.
If you need some distractions for the weekend, make sure to check out Populus Run, which is one of the new games that launched on Apple Arcade recently. It's a new take on the endless runner genre, where you control not just one character but an entire group. You'll have to avoid various sweets and fast food while getting everyone to the finish line, but watch out for those boss battles. It's quite cute and fun, with plenty of references along the way.
See you on the flip side.
- Christine Romero-Chan
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