Impeccable iMessage Reliability and an Weird Snapshot: November 2023

Just as three other months in the year started, November 2 saw Apple reveal its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2023. In a word, the published results could be described as “mixed.” The headline number was that Apple had managed to report $89.5 billion in revenue, marginally down year-on-year from the Q4 2022 figure of $90.1 billion. Revenue for iPhone went up from $42.6 billion to $43.8 billion, but iPad dropped from $7.17 billion to $6.43 billion, and Mac plummeted from $11.5 billion to $7.61 billion. Wearables, Home, and Accessories stayed relatively static at $9.32 billion, and Services saw its revenue jump from $19.18 billion in the year-ago quarter to $22.3 billion.

During the call, Apple CEO Tim Cook tried to keep things positive, pointing to the “strongest lineup of products ever heading into the holiday season,” as well as highlighting the all-time revenue record for Services.

CFO Luca Maestri put Mac’s 34% drop down to a “difficult compare” of supply disruptions in mid-2022 where pent-up demand was fulfilled in the September quarter. However, he still had “great confidence in our Mac lineup” for the high-selling holiday quarter. The middling results were compounded by the revelations that Apple had reported year-on-year revenue drops for four consecutive quarters, and that its full-year results were similarly harmed.

The full-year revenue of $383.3 billion is down against the $394.3 billion it earned in the previous fiscal year. The first full-year results drop since 2019.

On the plus side, at least it beat Wall Street’s dour expectations.

During the call, Cook fielded queries about AI by calling it a “fundamental technology” that is “integral to virtually every product that we ship.” On Apple’s $8 billion increase in R&D spending, Cook clarified it was being spent on AI, silicon, and products like Apple Vision Pro.

Following the results, analysts offered their hot takes, ranging from enthusing about the company’s December quarter outlook and Apple’s portfolio resilience to claims of it being “muted” and “flat.”

Just as Apple was hauling in even more money, there became opportunities to lose some of it via the various legal systems around the world. Especially in Europe.

With the eventual introduction of the Digital Markets Act, the European Union expects Apple to open up its App Store to rivals, something the company doesn’t want to do. But even so, it admits that the change is inevitable.

In a Form 10-K filing, it mentions there will be changes to the business, such as those impacting the App Store when rules come into play in March 2024.

Apple may be firmly against allowing third-party app stores to exist on iOS, but it seems to be at least preparing for the opportunity.

More importantly, it’s also preparing to take the European Union disagreement over the Digital Markets Act to court. It’s s potentially costly endeavor to fight the EU on the matter, but one that could preserve literal billions in revenue.

After the lower General Court decided in favor of Apple, the Advocate General of the EU’s highest court recommended that the decision be ignored and reviewed again. Since there were legal errors that meant the EU hadn’t shown evidence to a required legal standard, and that the General Court failed to correctly assess the case, the Advocate General opined that the case should get a new assessment.

Luckily for Apple, the Advocate General’s opinion isn’t legally binding, but the court does tend to act on them.

Apple therefore may have an even longer wait before it can claw back the money held in escrow.

Elsewhere in the world of courts, Apple agreed to pay a $25 million settlement, ending claims made by the U.S. Department of Justice that it had illegally favored hiring immigrant workers over citizens or green card holders.

The Crash Detection feature of iPhones has repeatedly been raised in stories, both when it worked and saved lives, and when it falsely detected someone riding a rollercoaster. In November, one AppleInsider regular had a first-hand account about the feature working as intended.

Recounting an accident involving a rental scooter, Daniel Eran Dilger explained how Crash Detection called in an emergency response as he was “unconscious and bleeding on the sidewalk, alone, and late at night.”

After being unconscious for five hours and having no recollection of the accident at all, he was able to piece together what happened from his facial injuries, what he was told by healthcare professionals, and visiting the scene afterward.

The first-hand account serves as a reminder to keep safety features like Crash Detection enabled on your devices. It may seem like a waste of resources to keep it active, especially at the risk of false positives, but it’s certainly a feature that you don’t ever actually want to use, but will be thankful when it does.

An Instagram post from early in November suddenly gained traction later in the month, for an oddity in the image. The shot of U.K. comedian and actor Tessa Coates showed her trying on wedding dresses in two mirrors, except that it seemed like all three instances of the subject were in different poses.

Eventually, online sleuths rested upon the most likely answer. It was probably a Panoramic mode shot and movement of the iPhone was paused to allow for a change in hand position.

It remains to be seen if Weird Wedding Dress Photo sticks around in the internet’s consciousness for as long as other photo mysteries. But it’s safe to say it’s probably not a ghost in the machine trying to freak people out.