Stories of Apple » iphone

It’s just OS X

Nicola D'Agostino — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 07:57:18 +0000

At the World Wide Developer Conference of 2008 Apple made a small but significant move in the naming of its operating systems, removing the “Mac” prefix from Mac OS X. In its promotional material at the annual developers’ gathering Apple referred to the iPhone’s OS as “OS X iPhone” and to Mac OS X 10.5 as “OS X Leopard”.

The change was pretty much evident if one took a look at pictures of WWDC banners from 2006 and 2007

and compared them to the new 2008 ones featuring both the Mac and iPhone operating systems

This was clearly done to unify the branding since the OS was now running on a wide gamut of devices that included not only desktops and portables but also mobiles and the Apple TV set-top.

The change was also evident in a press release in May referring to the Developers’ Conference.

Altough the title “Apple Executives to Showcase Mac OS X Leopard and OS X iPhone Development Platforms at WWDC 2008 Keynote” still featured a distinction in the following text one could read

This year’s WWDC will showcase two revolutionary development platforms, the ground-breaking innovations of OS X Leopard® and OS X iPhone™, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system.

and also

WWDC 2008 will offer over 150 information-rich sessions and labs where Apple engineers will go in-depth on the innovative technologies that power OS X iPhone and OS X Leopard.

On the other hand the footer stating that:

Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications.

had been already Mac-less at least since the 7th July of 2004.

From 25 to 75 millions users

Nicola D'Agostino — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:36:34 +0000

At the WWDC 2009 Phil Schiller, Apple’s SVP of Product Marketing, announced thatthe Macintosh has experienced an explosive growth and even more did the number of OS X users.

While in 2007 the number of active users of Apple’s operating system was at 25 millions in 2009 it had suddenly risen to 75 million. How could this be?

The secret to Apple’s tripling its active user base in the past two years is the runaway success of the iPhone platform. During the keynote presentation Schiller produced a chart showing the number of actual active OS X users, not just of Mac OS X users. It’s very important to strike the difference between those two terms: OS X and Mac OS X.

The growth isn’t just about Macs but it ows a lot to the many iPhones and iPod touchs sold so far, to be exact around 40 millions of the devices. Both have a version of the former Mac OS X and of its technologies and have thus incremented the market share of Apple’s operating system and key programs such as the web browser Safari.

The birth of the iPod Division

Nicola D'Agostino — Wed, 20 May 2009 12:09:26 +0000

At the end of May 2004 Apple’s organization underwent a major shakeup. Three years after the introduction of its digital player, the Cupertino company created a new iPod division.

Jon Rubinstein was appointed Head and his role changed from “Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering” to the new “Senior Vice President iPod Division”.

The rest of Apple’s activities at the time were redirected into the Macintosh Division, with Timothy Cook at the helm.
Although Cook’s role was widened, his formal status didn’t change, at least according to the Executives Profiles page on the Apple website where he kept the old title of “Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Operations”.

The reorganization reflected the growing importance of the iPod at Infinite Loop, in particular after the introduction of the enormously successful iPod mini.

Five years later the iPod division came to an end when Apple’s digital walkmen joined the iPhone in the new “Devices Hardware” division, headed by new Senior Vice President Mark Papermaster

The screenshots of Jon Rubinstein are from cached versions of the Apple.com website on the Internet Archive and are “courtesy of Apple”

iPhone sales so far

Nicola D'Agostino — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 11:19:44 +0000

Let’s take a look at Apple’s Quarterly financial Reports on the iPhone, straight out of their press releases archive (I’ve put numbers in bold):

June 2007: Apple Reports Third Quarter Results

iPhone is off to a great start—we hope to sell our one-millionth iPhone by the end of its first full quarter of sales—and our new product pipeline is very strong.

October 2007: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

Quarterly iPhone™ sales were 1,119,000, bringing cumulative fiscal 2007 sales to 1,389,000.

January 2008: Apple Reports First Quarter Results

Quarterly iPhone™ sales were 2,315,000.

April 2008: Apple Reports Record Second Quarter Results

Quarterly iPhone™ sales were 1,703,000.

July 2008: Apple Reports Record Third Quarter Results

Quarterly iPhone™ units sold were 717,000 compared to 270,000 in the year-ago-quarter.

October 2008: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

Quarterly iPhone units sold were 6,892,000 compared to 1,119,000 in the year-ago-quarter.

January 2009: Apple Reports First Quarter Results

Quarterly iPhone units sold were 4,363,000, representing 88 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.

Let’s add those thousands: 1119+2315+1703+717+6892+4363

This brings us to a grand total of 17.109 millions of iPhones sold so far (at the end of January 2009) by Apple since its launch on 29 June, 2007.

Note: feel free to use this data analisys but please credit and link back to the Stories of Apple website.

More hands of Cupertino

Nicola D'Agostino — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 07:49:53 +0000

In “The hands Cupertino” it’s been stated that notwithstanding Apple’s long and heterogeneous output there is a constant in its promotional iconography: the use of hands.

To make the point more clear here are more examples, taken from a very wide spectrum of Apple products, strategies and eras.

The hands of Cupertino

Nicola D'Agostino — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:01:04 +0000

If you take a look at Apple’s output of information and promotional material there is one thing that stands out: the prominent use of hands.

During its’ thirty year the Cupertino company has conceived, produced and release an incredible amount of products and strategies but has been incredibly consistent in its imagery. Be it the need to explain the workings of the mouse, to show the very small footprint of its computers on the desktop or the reduced thickness of a player, the professional results one can get, the revolutionary interfaces or just how easy the networking is, Infinite Loop’s “hands on” and extremely personal approach is unmistakable and very clear from the iconography of Apple’s ads throughout its history.

Immages taken from Applicando, www.guidebookgallery.org and “courtesy of Apple”.