Lit Apple Mac, iPhone, iPad User Group

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AAPL has doubled its value in 21 weeks in ‘unprecedented’ tech giant rise

AAPL has doubled its value in just 21 weeks in what has been described as an “unprecedented” rise in value among five tech giants.

Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Facebook now jointly comprise a full 20% of the total value of the stock market, says a new report today.

The New York Times reports.

[The coronavirus crisis] has lifted [the five companies] to new heights, putting the industry in a position to dominate American business in a way unseen since the days of railroads.

A rally in technology stocks elevated the S&P 500 stock index to a record high on Tuesday even as the pandemic crushes the broader economy. The stocks of Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft and Facebook, the five largest publicly traded companies in America, rose 37 percent in the first seven months this year, while all the other stocks in the S&P 500 fell a combined 6 percent, according to Credit Suisse.

Those five companies now constitute 20 percent of the stock market’s total worth, a level not seen from a single industry in at least 70 years. Apple’s stock market value, the highest of the bunch, is nearly $2 trillion — double what it was just 21 weeks ago.

While many companies have been devastated by the pandemic, tech giants have benefited from people working and shopping from home and spending more time online.
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Database breach exposes profile data for 235M TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube accounts

A database breach has exposed profile data for nearly 235 million users of TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.

The data appears to have been collected by a practice known as web-scraping, where a company accesses the web interface of a service and then collates data automatically …

This is different from a hack, as that involves breaking into a system in order to access data that is not supposed to be publicly accessible. Web-scraping accesses only public data.

For example, an automated system can access a series of YouTube channels, collecting the username, photo, and follower count of the channel owner. A whole database of these records becomes a privacy issue even though the data itself is public-facing.

Once that data has been collated into a database, you’d normally expect it to be protected. But TNW reports that a database of 235M records was found on the web with no password protection.

The scraped data had four major datasets with details of millions of users from the aforementioned platforms. It contained information such as profile name, full name, profile photo, age, gender, and follower stats […]

Bob Diachenko, the lead researcher for security firm Comparitech, found three identical copies of the database on August 1. According to Diachenko and the team, the data belonged to a now-defunct company called Deep Social.

When they reached out to the company, the request was forwarded to Hong-Kong-based firm Social Data, who acknowledged the breach and closed the access to the database. However, Social Data denied having any links with Deep Social.

Comparitech said that each record contained some or all of the following:

• Profile name
  
  
• Full real name
  
  
• Profile photo
  
  
• Account description
  
  
• Whether the profile belongs to a business or has advertisements
  
  
• Statistics about follower engagement, including:

Number of followers

Engagement rate

Follower growth rate

Audience gender

Audience age

Audience location

Likes​

• Last post timestamp
  
  
• Age
  
  
• Gender

Additionally, about 20% of the records sampled contained either a phone number or email address. As TNW notes, this type of data can be used for spam, but also for phishing attempts.

Web-scraping is usually prohibited by the terms and conditions of the services concerned, but a California court last year ruled that it’s not illegal. That can, in many cases, be a good thing.

For example, CityMapper is a hugely popular app which works out how to get from A to B in a city by the quickest method, pulling in live traffic and public transit data to do so. These days, most public transit companies make that data available via an API, but in the early days it was only available on the web. Web-scraping by early forerunners to CityMapper offered a handy way to make the data more usable.

Web-scraping can still be useful today, when companies put useful data on the web but don’t make it available through an API. Price-comparison services, for example, often still rely on web-scraping.

But scraping personal data is another matter, and courts perhaps need to distinguish between the two types of use.
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Apple’s $2 trillion market cap: the achievement in 4 charts

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Just how impressive is Apple’s $2 trillion market cap? These 4 charts make it clear

Now the world’s largest company, the tech giant beat out Microsoft and Amazon to become the first in the U.S. to hit the milestone.

On Wednesday, Apple became the first U.S. company to hit $2 trillion in market capitalization, just over two years after it became the first U.S. company to reach $1 trillion.

Market capitalization, or market cap, is the total dollar value of all of a company’s outstanding shares of stock. In more colloquial terms, it’s the company’s market value or what it is worth. You calculate market cap by multiplying the share price by the number of outstanding shares.

Like other tech companies, Apple has benefited from stay-at-home orders and the increased reliance on technology. Revenue for the company’s third quarter, which ran from April through June, increased 11%. Apple’s share price has shot up 23% since it announced the better-than-expected earnings and a 4-for-1 stock split on July 30, and it has more than doubled from its recent low in March.

The day after the earnings announcement, Apple surpassed Saudi Aramco to become the world’s most valuable publicly traded company.


The first $2 trillion company
Apple became the first company to reach a $1 trillion market cap on August 2, 2018, almost 38 years after the company went public. It took just over two years for that value to double.

Apple’s market value really began to take off in the mid-2000s in response to the success of its new Mac computers. The release of the first iPhone in 2007 and iPad in 2010 propelled the share price higher. Apple’s market cap was just over $100 billion when the iPhone was announced.

While the 2010s were a historically successful decade for stocks, Apple far outperformed the overall market.


Apple dominated the past decade

Over the past 10 years, Apple has grown over 1,225%. The S&P 500 grew just over 210% in the same time.

In late 2011, Apple began dominating the market. For 89 of the 109 months since September 2011, Apple has been the most valuable company in the U.S.


Tech giants take over

At the beginning of the last decade, Exxon Mobil reigned supreme, but since 2013 Apple and other big tech companies have dominated the market.


Market cap of the largest company in the S&P 500

This latest achievement by Apple highlights just how much tech has ruled the market over the past few years. Microsoft, Amazon, and Google parent Alphabet also have valuations over $1 trillion.

Those four companies, plus Facebook, now make up more than a quarter of the total value of the S&P 500.


Big tech has a big influence

The five largest tech companies, which are thriving in the current environment, account for more than a quarter of the S&P 500′s value.


S&P 500 market capitalization

Note: Data as of August 20.

 

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iOS 14 Privacy Features

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There's a lot in here so going to segment in four posts.



iOS 14 Privacy Features: Approximate Location, Clipboard Access Warnings, Limited Photos Access and More

Recording Indicators

When an app is using either the camera or the microphone, a small dot appears in the status bar just above the WiFi and cellular signal bars. The dot is green when an app is using the camera, and orange when using the microphone.

If you close the app using the camera or microphone and then open the Control Center, there will be a camera or microphone icon along with the name of the app that was recently using the feature. Recording indicators prevent the camera or microphone from being accessed by an app in the background without your knowledge, so you can be sure that apps aren't sneakily recording conversations or videos.

Safari

Password Monitoring and Compromised Password Alerts

In iOS 14, the Safari app monitors passwords saved in iCloud Keychain, and lets you know if you have a password that's been compromised in a leak or is too weak so you can change it. The feature provides direct links to websites where you can change your passwords.

For this feature, Safari uses cryptographic techniques to regularly check derivations of your passwords against a list of breached passwords in what Apple promises is a secure and private way. Potential problems can be seen under the "Security Recommendations" heading in the Passwords section of the Settings app.


Privacy Report

A Privacy Report feature in Safari expands on Apple's Intelligent Tracking Prevention functionality that's designed to prevent websites from tracking your internet usage as you browse for ad targeting and analytics.

iOS 14's Privacy Report lists which sites are using trackers, how many trackers are installed on each site, and the most prevalent trackers that you encounter across multiple sites.

Privacy Reports can be accessed by tapping on the "Aa" icon in the URL bar and choosing the "Privacy Report" option. Cross-site tracking prevention needs to be enabled in Settings for Privacy Report to work, but it's on by default so most people shouldn't need to make adjustments.

For more on everything that's new in Safari, including the privacy features included in Safari for iOS 14, make sure to check out our Safari guide.
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App Store Privacy Reports

Later this year, the iOS App Store will include a new privacy section on each app page that will provide a summary of the privacy practices of an app before you download it. Apple when introducing the feature at WWDC compared it to a nutritional label for food.

Developers will self-report their privacy practices, letting you know what data is collected and how that data might be used to track you across companies. Apple plans to require developers to implement this feature in a simple, easy-to-read format that's similar to a nutrition label for food.

App Store privacy information won't be available right when iOS 14 launches, but Apple says it will be introduced in an update to the iOS 14 operating system.



App Tracking Controls

Apps that want to use tracking mechanisms that track your behavior across various apps and websites need to get permission from you before doing so in iOS 14.

Apps that use these features will have a popup asking you to enable tracking features, which are used for targeted advertising, data collection, and similar purposes. Most people are not going to want to tap accept on these kinds of requests, and declining tracking prevents an app from accessing a device's advertising identifier.

According to Apple, apps granted permission to track you can collect data that includes device ID, name, email address, and more, which is then combined with data collected by third parties. The combined data is often used for ad targeting or shared with data brokers, linking that data to publicly available and other information about you and your device.

You can turn off cross-app and cross-site tracking for apps entirely by opening up the Settings app, navigating to the Privacy section, and tapping "Tracking." From there, turn off "Allow Apps to Request to Track."

Developers are responsible for ensuring they comply with user choice, and there are some situations where a developer is not required by Apple to ask for user permission, such as when information is combined on device and not sent off in a way that is personally identifiable or when used for fraud detection or prevention.



Approximate Location

There are some apps that require your location to properly function, and in iOS 14, Apple has introduced a new feature that lets you share your location data in a more secure and less targeted way.

For apps that require location access, you can choose to share an Approximate Location, which is close to your location but not precisely spot on, making it harder for apps to keep track of where you're going and better protecting your location privacy.

Apps that ask for location access will pop up the Approximate Location option, but you can also get to these settings for each location using app by opening up Settings, going to the Privacy section, tapping on Location Services, and then tapping on each app that has requested location permission.

Toggle off "Precise Location" for any app that you want to use an approximate location instead. This is useful for weather apps, browsers, mapping apps, and more.
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Widgets

Widgets in iOS 14 must receive user approval to access location data just like apps. Under Location Services in the Privacy section of the Settings app, there are also options to allow or disallow location access while a widget is in use.

You can choose to allow both the app and its accompanying widget to access your location, or just an app. When given permission and in use, a widget can access location data for 15 minutes.

Widget location is subject to the approximate or precise location settings that are enabled for each app.



Clipboard Access

Whenever an app accesses the clipboard in iOS 14, Apple notifies you with a small banner that lets you know the clipboard was copied. There are plenty of legitimate reasons for an app to use the clipboard, such as when you're copying and pasting something from another app or through the Continuity based copy paste feature on another machine, but apps had also been abusing their clipboard access.

Apps like TikTok, Twitter, Zillow, and tons of other apps were reading the clipboard without user knowledge or permission in situations where clipboard access was not warranted. Many of these apps said that these were security features or bugs, and the warning banner from Apple has resulted in many apps making sure their clipboard access is above board.

Apps are not able to read the clipboard without you knowing about it, so you can be sure the contents of your clipboard are safe from unwarranted access.



Network Access

Apps that want to access devices on your local network need to ask permission in iOS 14, and there are some apps that ask that have no business accessing your local network, such as Facebook.

Some apps have a valid reason for accessing devices on your local network, such as those that control Bluetooth or WiFi-based devices, and you can tap to allow or disallow access. Local Network settings can also be controlled under Local Network in the Privacy section of the Settings app.




WiFi Tracking

When you're connected to a WiFi network, there's an option to "Use Private Address" to prevent network operators from tracking your phone across different WiFi networks.

You can find this option by opening up the Settings app, tapping the WiFi section, and tapping on one of the listed networks. Apple provides a warning when connecting to a Wi-Fi network that doesn't use the Private Address feature.

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Limited Photos Library Access

For apps that ask permission to access your photos, you can now choose to give access to your entire photo library or just a few photos at a time, which is useful if you don't want social networks like Facebook or Instagram seeing your entire camera roll.

If you use the limited photos option, you can continually change the photos that are shared, selecting just a couple at a time that you want to upload or edit, depending on the app. It adds another step to workflows involving photos, but it keeps your full library safe and inaccessible.

You'll be asked about limited photos access whenever an app wants permission to use photos, and you can control which apps have access to all of your photos, limited photos, or no photos in the Privacy section of the Settings app under "Photos."



New Sign in with Apple Features

New Sign in with Apple tools for developers will make it easier for them to enable functionality for transferring existing web accounts to Sign in with Apple, which could make new options available to iPhone, iPad, and Mac users who want to convert their logins to the more secure Sign in with Apple feature.

On-Device Dictation

Dictation is designed to improve over time so for accuracy and to customize to each person's usage needs. With on-device dictation, all processing is done offline, but dictation used in search still uses server-based dictation.



Contacts Autofill

Rather than sharing Contacts with third-party apps, Apple has added an autofill feature. When you go to type someone's name, it will fill in their phone numbers, addresses, email addresses, and other info that's stored in the contacts app. Autofill is done on device and prevents contact info from being shared with third-party developers.
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One sentence to summarise how well Warren Buffett has done from AAPL

Warren Buffett has gone from being an AAPL skeptic to a massive investor in the Cupertino company. As AAPL looks set to break $500 this morning, a new report today summarises just how successful that investment has been in a single sentence …

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has made more money on Apple in four years than either company was worth 20 years ago.

Here’s how that was calculated:

The famed investor’s conglomerate spent about $35 billion to acquire around 245 million Apple shares between 2016 and 2018. Its 5.7% stake in the tech titan was worth about $122 billion as of Friday’s close, meaning it has racked up an $87 billion investment gain to date.

Apple’s market cap plunged below $70 billion during the financial crisis, and only recovered to north of $87 billion in March 2009, according to YCharts. It has mushroomed more than 20-fold since then to a record $2.1 trillion on Friday.

Meanwhile, Berkshire’s market cap was less than $87 billion as recently as October 2000, compared to almost $500 billion today, YCharts data shows.

For a long time, Buffett didn’t invest much in AAPL because he said the company’s future was too unpredictable.

We held very few [AAPL shares] in the past and we’re likely to hold very few in the future. Coca-Cola is very easy for me to come to a conclusion as to what it will look like economically in five or 10 years, and it’s not easy for me to come to a conclusion about Apple.

He changed his mind in 2016, with a billion dollar investment. He later said that while he had originally thought of AAPL as a tech stock, he now simply sees it as a hugely popular brand with enormously loyal customers. Earlier this year, he said that Apple is ‘probably the best business I know in the world.’
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The road to $2 trillion — Tim Cook took charge of Apple on August 24, 2011

While he'd filled in for Steve Jobs before, August 24, 2011 was the day when Apple formally became Tim Cook's company and he began growing it to a $2 trillion firm.

At the start of August 20, 2011, Steve Jobs was still in charge of Apple and the company's products included the iPhone 4 and the iPad 2. Then by the day's end, Tim Cook was CEO, as Jobs stepped aside for health reasons.

He is the seventh CEO of the company and if seemingly he would've been happier to see Steve Jobs continue, the changeover was not as sudden as it seemed. From the outside, people had already seen the Chief Operating Officer fill in for Jobs during his health-related absences.

And we learned on that day that inside Apple there had been plans for this moment. Steve Jobs even explicitly referred to them in his resignation letter.

"As far as my successor goes," he wrote to Apple's board, "I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple."

That was officially an internal Apple memo, but it was soon followed by a public one from the company. Art Levinson, chairman of the board, issued an announcement.

"The board has complete confidence that Tim is the right person to be our next CEO," he said. "Tim's 13 years of service to Apple have been marked by outstanding performance, and he has demonstrated remarkable talent and sound judgment in everything he does."


Cook's track record

The board would say that, of course, as part of the job was to convince investors that Apple was going to be in safe hands. It was more than PR-speak, though, as the board had already had plenty of time to see Cook in action as CEO.

They'd also seen him in very successful action as the COO. Plus they already knew both how fortunate they had been to get him — and how close he'd come to refusing Steve Jobs's offer in 1988.

According to Cook, "any purely rational consideration" would have rejected the job offer from Apple in 1998. That's mostly because Cook was then at Compaq and looked to have a good future, but it was also because Apple was still only climbing up from its perilous 1990s state.

Tim Cook with Steve Jobs and Phil Schiller



"[However,] I was never going to find my purpose working some place without a clear sense of purpose of its own," Cook said in 2017. "I tried meditation. I sought guidance and religion. I read great philosophers and authors. In a moment of youthful indiscretion, I might even have experimented with a Windows PC. And obviously, that didn't work."

He also said that it only took minutes for him to know he wanted to join Apple. Then when he did take up the job, it seemed to take only minutes for him to make mass closures of factories and warehouses.

As much as the new iMac and later the iPod, though, Apple's turnaround began with those logistical moves. Cook made it so that Apple would only ever have a few days' worth of stock waiting in warehouses, instead of months' worth.


A different Apple

Cook has been accused of being less of a product person than Jobs, but he has also been in charge when Apple has needed to move into services.

Apple under Tim Cook has a broader range of products, going from the iPod touch to Apple TV+. He personally has become far more visibly political than Jobs ever was, even when that has brought him and Apple criticism.

He's not exactly popular at the FBI, for instance. Yet even has Apple stood up to the Feds until they stood down from pressing the company to unlock iPhones over the San Bernardino attacks, it's Cook who has expressed the most regret about the dispute.

Except his wish was not that Apple had changed its mind and given in to the FBI. Instead, he has publicly said that he thinks the case should have gone to court.

Then Cook has also been more visibly willing to support charities himself, and to have Apple donate to relief efforts such as helping with the aftermath of the explosion in Beirut.


Different but the same

Apple's current product line has moved on to the iPhone 11 instead of the iPhone 4. Instead of the iPad 2, it's on the seventh generation of the iPad, the fifth of the iPad mini, and the fourth of the iPad Pro.

Tim Cook



There is one thing that remains the same, however.

In 2020, Apple is America's most valuable company by all measures, and in 2011 it was America's most valuable company, according to some measures. The difference is that in 2020 that value is $2 trillion, and in 2011 Apple was worth $153.3 billion.



Cook has previously said that Jobs' DNA will always be the foundation of Apple, which named the Steve Jobs Theater after him in 2017.

https://youtu.be/KENk9AZNQzM

Apple's Tim Cook dedicates the new Steve Jobs Theater
At the first major event on Apple's new campus, CEO Tim Cook became emotional as he dedicated the theater to his predecessor.
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Apple unveils Final Cut Pro X update with workflow improvements, performance uprades

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Apple unveils Final Cut Pro X update with proxy workflow improvements, performance upgrades, more

Apple today has announced a significant update to Final Cut Pro X, bringing new editing features and workflow improvements. Apple says that Final Cut Pro 10.4.9 is available today as a free update for existing users.

Inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic and associated work from home changes, today’s update to Final Cut Pro X brings a variety of improvements to proxy workflows. Apple says that these changes make libraries more portable and help streamline remote work with large and high-res files:

For the first time within Final Cut Pro, video editors can create proxies in either ProRes Proxy or H.264 in dimensions as small as 12.5 percent of the original. They can also consolidate proxy media, images, and audio to an external or network-connected drive. A Final Cut Pro Library can even be relinked to proxies already created for added flexibility. Editors can now link to proxy media generated by third-party applications via XML. Examples include Frame.io, a cloud-based creative collaboration platform for review and approval, plus asset management tools like Keyflow Pro and PostLab. If proxy media is not available for some clips, users can adapt workflows to display either the original file or an optimized version.

Final Cut Pro 10.4.9 also makes a few changes specifically focused on social media content. Machine learning powers Smart Conform support for intelligently cropping videos to square, vertical, or other sizes. Apple says that these new features are perfect for content shared to Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat:

Using machine learning, clips in a project can now be automatically analyzed for dominant motion and intelligently cropped with Smart Conform to convert them into square, vertical, or any other sized video — perfect for popular platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter. Transform Overscan reveals media outside the crop boundary when adjusting scale, rotation, and position, which allows storytellers to easily reposition the crop. Video editors can also add a Custom Overlay to guide them when placing text and graphics within a non-landscape frame.

Apple also touts a series of editorial workflow improvements. ProRes RAW camera settings, such as ISO, color temperature, and exposure offset are exposed in the inspector for the first time, and editors can now apply audio crossfades on adjacent clips in one step.

There are also performance improvements with new Metal-enabled plug-ins for RED RAW and Canon Cinema RAW Light. Apple says that transcoding 8K RED RAW video to ProRes 422 is up to two times faster on Mac Pro, and up to three times faster on MacBook Pro. There is also support for playing and editing 8K Canon Cinema RAW Light for the first time, Apple says.

Finally, there are a variety of updates coming to Motion and Compressor today as well:

Motion now offers professionals a whole new range of possibilities for creating stunning effects and graphics. Creators can import third-party 3D models or choose from a built-in library of 3D models in the USDZ format for use in titles, generators, effects, and transitions. They can even use behaviors or keyframes to manipulate the position, rotation, and scale of a model, and take advantage of existing replicators, emitters, lights, and cameras for further creativity.

Also included in today’s Motion update is the new Stroke Filter, a tool that automatically outlines an object or text element using its alpha channel. Editors can customize outlines by animating their offset, applying multiple stroke filters to the same object, or using the gradient tools to create multiple strokes with different colors. This enables motion graphics artists to create dazzling animations and effects while avoiding the time-consuming work of outlining elements by hand.

Compressor is also updated today with support for custom LUT effects, the ability to use Camera LUTs to convert log-encoded footage to SDR or HDR outputs, and other workflow enhancements.

Read more in Apple’s full press release.
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Apple updates iMovie for iPhone, iPad, and Mac with new filters, soundtracks and more

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Apple updates iMovie for iPhone, iPad, and Mac with new filters, soundtracks, and more

In addition to a notable update to Final Cut Pro X, Apple has also announced updates to iMovie for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. iMovie for iPhone and iPad has added new filters, 25 new soundtracks, and more. iMovie on the Mac has also added new filters as well as improved integration with iMovie for iOS.

For iPhone and iPad users, iMovie has three new filters that give videos “a hand-drawn look.” There are also 25 new soundtracks to choose from and a variety of bug fixes and performance improvements. Here are the release notes for the iPhone and iPad update of iMovie:

• Give your videos a hand-drawn look with 3 new filters: Comic, Comic Mono and Ink
  
  
• Choose from 25 new soundtracks — in genres including action, chill, and sentimental — that automatically adjust to match the length of your movie
  
  
• Addresses an issue that could prevent the viewer from updating after duplicating a photo in the timeline
  
  
• Improves reliability of Redo when editing a trailer
  
  
• Includes performance and stability improvements

On the Mac, iMovie has added five new filters alongside support for importing iOS projects with the aforementioned new filters. Here are the release notes for today’s iMovie for Mac update:

• Add a hand drawn look to your movies with 5 new filters: Comic, Comic Mono, Comic Vintage, Comic Sepia and Ink
  
  
• Import iMovie for iOS projects with support for Comic, Comic Mono and Ink filters
  
  
• Improves overall stability

You can download iMovie for iPhone and iPad here for free and download iMovie for Mac for free right here.
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Top 5 Smartphone 2Q20 Worldwide

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Two different analyst notes (IDC July 31 and Gartner August 25) for Top 5 Smartphone Vendors Second Quarter Shipments, so their totals are different.

Want to mention, Apple historically not market their devices towards the low end of the market, where profits are thin, but instead concentrate on the high end and higher profit margins.



Friday July 31, 2020
Apple Smartphone Shipments Grow as Huawei Takes Top Spot in Q2 2020


Apple's iPhone shipments have grown in Q2 2020, as Huawei overtook Samsung as the world's largest smartphone vendor, according to new data shared by Canalys and IDC this week.

Though the global smartphone market contracted by 14-16 percent in Q2 2020, Apple was the only vendor to defy expectations and grow by up to 25 percent compared to the previous year. As Apple does not publicize exact shipment numbers, the estimated data varies between the two reports. Canalys places the number at 45.1 million, while IDC places it 37.6 million.

Both IDC and Canalys accredit Apple's growth to the success of iPhone SE, stating that the device accounted for around 28% of its global volume, while iPhone 11 accounted for almost 40%.

"*iPhone SE* will remain crucial to prop up volume this year, amid delays to Apple's next flagship release," commented Canalys Analyst, Vincent Thielke. "In China, it had blockbuster results, growing 35% to reach 7.7 million units. It is unusual for Apple's Q2 shipments to increase sequentially. As well as the new *iPhone SE*, Apple is also demonstrating skills in new user acquisition. It adapted quickly to the pandemic, doubling down on the digital customer experience as stay-at-home measures drive more customers to online channels."

Huawei toppled Samsung as the world-leading smartphone vendor, with 55.8 million shipments over Samsung's 53.7 million. Xiaomi came after Apple in fourth place with 28.8 million units, followed by Oppo with 25.8 million units. Huawei was also the standout leader in the world’s largest smartphone market, China, taking 44% market share. IDC cautions that the impact of the U.S. Huawei ban will continue to create uncertainty for the company in foreign markets.

Senior Canalys Analyst Ben Stanton stated that going forwards "geopolitical uncertainty also hangs over the global smartphone market. Countries are becoming polarized between the interests of the US and China. In India, for example, Chinese companies now face a wave of negative sentiment. Smartphone vendors need to act, and many are already directing funds to brand marketing to highlight their positive impact in a local region."

IDC expects the launch of four new potential models to allow Apple to effectively challenge Android 5G devices that have been out for more than a year. Apple no longer discloses *device shipments, which means that analyst estimates cannot be confirmed by specific sales data.
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Aug. 25th 2020
iPhone shipments prevail despite 20% decline of global smartphone market


A new analyst note from Gartner today estimates how the global smartphone market performed during the June quarter. While we already knew Apple’s iPhone shipments were likely close to flat based on the company’s reported quarterly revenue, today’s analyst note underscores how well iPhone performed relatively speaking as the global market saw a big 20% decline.

Apple had a record-breaking June quarter thanks to big growth in almost every product category except for iPhone where it just saw 1.6% revenue growth YoY. That painted the picture that iPhone shipments were probably close to the same YoY. In a normal year, that would be more concerning but that result came amid the global pandemic.

A new report today from Gartner highlights just how impressive iPhone shipments were during Q2 (Apple’s fiscal Q3) this year. While Samsung retained the top spot for shipping the most smartphones globally at just over 54 million, that was a 27% drop YoY for the June Quarter. Huawei shipped 54 million units as well and saw a 6.8% decline for the quarter.

Meanwhile, Apple shipped an estimated 38 million iPhones during the quarter and barely missed matching 2019’s performance for the period with a 0.4% decline according to Gartner’s numbers.

Coming in fourth was Xiaomi, shipping 26 million smartphones which was a 21.5% decline for the quarter.

Gartner estimates that Apple took 13% of the global smartphone market for the June quarter by shipping 38 million iPhones.

Gartner’s VP of research Annette Zimmermann gave credit to the iPhone SE and an improved business environment in China for helping buoy Apple’s smartphone shipments.

“Apple’s iPhone sales fared better in the quarter than most smartphone vendors in the market and also grew sales quarter-over-quarter,” said Annette Zimmermann, research vice president at Gartner. “The improved business environment in China helped Apple achieve growth in the country. In addition, the introduction of the new iPhone SE encouraged users of older phones upgrade their smartphones.”

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Facebook again criticizes iOS 14 privacy changes, warns of drastic effect on advertis

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Facebook again criticizes iOS 14 privacy changes, warns of drastic effect on advertising industry

Facebook continues to warn advertisers about the effects of the privacy and tracking changes that Apple has planned for iOS 14. While a pair of earlier reports indicated Facebook’s concerns, the company has now published a blog post detailing how advertisers will be affected by iOS 14’s new anti-tracking features.

In the blog post, Facebook explains that it and many advertising partners rely on the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) feature. This is what allows advertisers to track users across different apps and websites. With iOS 14, however, Apple is adding a new privacy protection such that developers will be required to ask for permission before tracking a user across apps or websites.

Facebook now says that it will not collect IDFA through its own apps on iOS 14 devices because of the changes to Apple’s policy. The company says that this is not a change it wants to make, but one that is “forced” by Apple’s iOS 14 changes and one that will have a drastic effect on its Audience Network ad platform for developers.

For developers and publishers using Audience Network, our ability to deliver targeted ads on iOS 14 will be limited. As a result, some iOS 14 users may not see any ads from Audience Network, while others may still see ads from us, but they’ll be less relevant. Because of advertisers’ reduced ability to accurately target and measure their campaigns, app developers and publishers should expect lower CPMs on Audience Network and likely other ad networks on iOS.

Facebook’s focus isn’t necessarily on how its own advertising business will be affected, but rather on the businesses that could be affected by a drastic change in Audience Network effectiveness. In testing so far, Facebook says that it has seen more than a 50% drop in Audience Network publisher revenue when personalization was removed from mobile ad install campaigns:

We expect these changes will disproportionately affect Audience Network given its heavy dependence on app advertising. Like all ad networks on iOS 14, advertiser ability to accurately target and measure their campaigns on Audience Network will be impacted, and as a result publishers should expect their ability to effectively monetize on Audience Network to decrease. Ultimately, despite our best efforts, Apple’s updates may render Audience Network so ineffective on iOS 14 that it may not make sense to offer it on iOS 14.

Facebook even points out that it expects “less impact” on its own advertising business, likely because it has such detailed profile information already on Facebook and Instagram users. “We understand that iOS 14 will hurt many of our developers and publishers at an already difficult time for businesses,” Facebook added in the blog post.

Going forward, Facebook said that it believes “industry consultation is critical for changes to platform policies, as these updates have a far-reaching impact on the developer ecosystem.” The company says that it is “encouraged by conversations and efforts already taking place in the industry.”

You can read more in the Facebook for Business blog post here and in the Facebook Audience Network blog post here.
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Someting a bit different for this thread, hope you enjoy it

Long before the days of iPhone Photo Walks, the future sites of New York City’s Apple Stores were captured on film as part of a citywide project. Eighty years later, the photos offer unique insight into the history and neighborhood changes of your favorite stores.

The New York City Municipal Archives maintains a vast collection of tax assessment photos taken between 1939 and 1941. The archive documents the majority of the buildings present at the time in all five boroughs of New York City. With nearly identical perspectives captured for Apple Maps Look Around, able to identify the city’s Apple Store sites as they appeared more than 35 years before Apple was founded.

The photos of each site’s 1940s look to modern times. Some of Apple’s historic storefronts appear nearly identical today alongside historical imagery. Other locations are unrecognizable, identifiable only by street address. What will these landmarks look like in another 80 years?

Apple SoHo

103 Prince Street

SoHo is home to Apple’s first store in New York City. The building was originally a United States Post Office. Apple and architects Bohlin Cywinski Jackson rebuilt the interior and opened it in 2002 as Apple’s largest store at the time. The store’s first major renovation came in 2012.

Apple Fifth Avenue

767 Fifth Avenue

Before the glass cube (all three versions), 767 Fifth Avenue held a sunken plaza at the foot of the GM Building behind it. Before the GM Building, the site was home to the Savoy-Plaza Hotel, pictured above still standing in the 1940s.

Bonus Perspective: 1980s

New York City’s Department of Finance commissioned a second set of tax photos shot between 1983 and 1988. The later images capture the site of Apple Fifth Avenue after the GM Building was in place.
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Apple West 14th Street

401 W 14th Street

Apple’s space in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan was restored in 2007. 1940s imagery shows the former warehouse still occupied with industrial activity. The towering tracks on the left were the 9th Avenue El, which ended service in 1940.

Apple Upper West Side

1981 Broadway

Apple Upper West Side was a project of entirely new construction, but the Victoria’s Secret store it replaced wasn’t around in the 1940s, either. The site’s north end was once home to the The Alden (later called The Regency,) a classic movie theater that closed in 1999.

Apple Grand Central

45 Grand Central Terminal

New York City’s tax photos didn’t capture building interiors, but Grand Central Station was photographed extensively in 1941 when the Farm Security Administration installed a gigantic defense bond photo mural across the terminal’s entire East Balcony. The staircase that leads to Apple’s space today was installed in 1995 to match the West Stairs on the opposite end of the station.

Apple Upper East Side

940 Madison Avenue

The United States Mortgage and Trust Company building at 940 Madison Avenue was completed in 1922. When the photo above was taken, the branch had become Chemical Bank & Trust Company. Prior to Apple’s extensive historic restoration, the building served as a VBH Luxury showroom.
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Apple Queens Center

90-15 Queens Boulevard

Queens Center Mall didn’t open until 1973, and the lots it stands on were mostly vacant in the 1940s. A small Sunoco service station first occupied the corner of 59th Avenue and 92nd Street.

Apple Williamsburg

247 Bedford Avenue

The site of Apple Williamsburg was once a nondescript warehouse that New York City’s tax cameras seem to have skipped over while assessing the city. The edge of the building is visible in a photo of a neighboring property, now demolished, at the intersection of North Third Street. Before Apple rebuilt the building, 247 Bedford housed The Bagel Store.

Apple World Trade Center

185 Greenwich Street

Hudson Terminal once occupied the space today home to the Oculus and Westfield World Trade Center. The terminal’s office buildings were demolished in 1972 to make way for the World Trade Center Complex.

Apple Downtown Brooklyn

123 Flatbush Avenue

The triangular plot bordered by Lafayette Avenue, Flatbush Avenue, and Ashland Place was once a collection of small shops covered in signage to take advantage of the highly visible intersection. The lot was eventually reduced to surface parking and later redeveloped between 2015 and 2017.

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Whew, you did not like yesterday's post. Perhaps you might enjoy tech giants fighting. Also working on putting together another post.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apparently had some choice words for Apple during a recent company-wide meeting. According to a new report from BuzzFeed News Zuckerberg used the company-wide meeting as a way to criticize the control Apple holds over the iPhone and App Store.

The report explains that Zuckerberg was specifically asked about Apple’s recent decision to block certain gaming applications from the App Store, including Microsoft xCloud and even the Facebook Gaming application. Apple has explained that its reasoning for rejecting these applications is that the App Store rules do not allow third-party apps to distribute games as a separate platform.

In response to the question, Zuckerberg said that Apple has a “stranglehold” on what’s allowed on the iPhone, giving it the ability to block innovation and charge “monopoly rents.”

[Apple has] this unique stranglehold as a gatekeeper on what gets on phones,” Zuckerberg said to more than 50,000 employees via webcast. He added that the Cupertino, California-based company’s app store “blocks innovation, blocks competition” and “allows Apple to charge monopoly rents.”

“That’s innovation that could really improve people’s lives,” Zuckerberg said on Thursday. “And Apple’s just balking at it.”

The report goes on to say that Zuckerberg also criticized the iOS 14 privacy changes that will make it harder for companies like Facebook to track users across different applications and websites. Facebook has also criticized this change in public and warned its advertisers of the potential effects.

Finally, Zuckerberg also gave his two cents on the battle between Apple and Epic Games. The Facebook CEO said Apple’s threat to block the Unreal Engine was “just an extremely aggressive move” that was “quite problematic.”

Earlier today, Facebook revealed that Apple had blocked its plans to add a “transparency notice” advising users that Apple would receive a 30% cut of in-app purchases made in the Facebook app. This decision came after Apple refused to waive its 30% commission on revenue from in-app events like livestreamed fitness classes and seminars.

The full report can be read at BuzzFeed News, including details on Zuckerberg’s comments and potential role in the potential United States TikTok ban.
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Publishers join Facebook in fearing advertising slowdown caused by iOS 14 privacy

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Publishers join Facebook in fearing advertising slowdown caused by iOS 14 privacy changes

Following Facebook’s multiple warnings including a recent public post about concerns over lost ad revenue due to the iOS 14 privacy changes, other digital publishers have shared similar fears. Like Facebook anticipating up to a 50% drop in revenue, one publisher estimates ad rates on iOS could fall as much as 40%.

Reported by the Wall Street Journal, a number of publishers are feeling the same as Facebook with concerns about how iOS 14 will change their ad revenue and as some point out, this comes during the difficulties of the pandemic.

The iOS 14 feature in question is one that will ask users whether they’re okay with being tracked across apps and websites. While many will welcome the privacy-focused feature, some feel it’s overly aggressive and will result in many opting-out of the tracking that provides experiences like more relevant ads.

Weather.com’s head of consumer business thinks iPhone ad rates could drop by 40%.

Sheri Bachstein, the global head of consumer business at the Weather Co., which operates weather.com, estimated that the price advertisers are willing to pay to advertise within iPhone apps could decline by as much as 40% as a result of the change. That is because advertisers generally pay a premium for ads targeted based on users’ interests and behavior on the web.

Meanwhile, the publisher of DMG — owner of Daily Mail said he believes Apple’s new iOS 14 prompt to ask users for tracking permission is “outrageous.”

“This seems aggressively aimed at getting people to opt out,” Mr. Clarke said. “For Apple to interject itself like this into our relationship with our readers is outrageous.” He said the Mail’s iPhone app draws about 1.2 million viewers a day of its total 16 million average daily users.

WSJ notes that a recent study showed Clarke’s concerns could come to fruition with the majority of respondents saying they’d opt-out of tracking, and that was based it being their “favorite app.”

In a survey by Tap Research Inc., 85% of respondents said that if they saw this message in their favorite app, they would select “Ask App Not to Track.”

Another publisher described the feature as scaring consumers to turn off ad tracking, while another is going to expect nothing from iOS ad revenue going forward.

Alex Austin, chief executive of Branch Metrics Inc., said the ad-tech company will assume Apple’s advertising identifier “is dead for everything we’re doing.”

However, among the fears and concerns, others interviewed like BuzzFeed’s CEO shared a different message.

Jonah Peretti, the CEO of BuzzFeed Inc., said while publishers may feel some effect in the short term, ultimately the industry will adjust.

“There are trade-offs for publishers. More direct, contextual advertising in the long run, but short term it could reduce the spending of some programmatic advertisers,” he said.

The prompt that users will see in iOS 14.



"You're almost scaring the consumer into saying, Wait a minute. Am I comfortable with this?'" said Mark Wagman, managing director at MediaLink. Clarke said that the prompt "almost seems aggressively aimed at getting users to opt out."

Apple says the privacy mechanisms don't block tracking. According to the company, the features simply increase transparency and allow users more control over which platforms can track them.








To me seems advertisers are upset that they're not able to track people and collect their date without user's knowledge or permission, and now after years of doing it that they're going to be victimized.
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Apple battles Mac malware disguised as Adobe Flash after accidental notarization

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While Apple’s devices are typically more secure than the competition, that doesn’t mean they’re immune to flaws. In the case of the Mac, a new report highlights how Apple accidentally approved one of the most common malware threats to run on recent versions of macOS. While the original flaw was quickly fixed, another similar one has popped up.

iOS is more locked down and naturally more secure than Mac overall because all apps need to be downloaded through the App Store. In contrast, Mac users can download apps from the App Store as well as anywhere on the internet.

Even though Mac apps downloaded outside of the App Store don’t go through the same review process, Apple still requires them to be notarized (as of last year), which puts software through a security review looking for things like malicious code. When approved, that gives the green light to the macOS Gatekeeper feature that an app is safe to run.

Reported by TechCrunch, security researchers Peter Dantini and Patrick Wardle discovered that Apple accidentally notarized a popular malware hiding inside a Flash Player update. Notably, the “Shlayer” malware was deemed by Kaspersky as the most likely threat for a Mac to experience in 2019.

Wardle confirmed that Apple had approved code used by the popular Shlayer malware, which security firm Kaspersky said is the “most common threat” that Macs faced in 2019. Shlayer is a kind of adware that intercepts encrypted web traffic — even from HTTPS-enabled sites — and replaces websites and search results with its own ads, making fraudulent ad money for the operators.

Wardle believes this is the first time malware like this was mistakenly approved by Apple during the notarization process and it affects recent macOS versions, even the Big Sur beta.

Wardle said that means Apple did not detect the malicious code when it was submitted and approved it to run on Macs — even on the unreleased beta version of macOS Big Sur, expected out later this year.

After Dantini and Wardle discovered the malware, Apple fixed the issue on August 28th. The security threat of this adware looks to be relatively low but of course, is still something Apple wants to prevent.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Apple told TechCrunch: “Malicious software constantly changes, and Apple’s notarization system helps us keep malware off the Mac and allow us to respond quickly when it’s discovered. Upon learning of this adware, we revoked the identified variant, disabled the developer account, and revoked the associated certificates. We thank the researchers for their assistance in keeping our users safe.”

However, the cat and mouse game continues, as Wardle detailed on his blog:

As noted, Apple (quickly-ish) revoked the Developer code-signing certificate(s) that were used to sign the malicious payloads. This occurred on Friday, Aug. 28th.

Interestingly, as of Sunday (Aug 30th) the adware campaign was still live and serving up new payloads. Unfortunately these new payloads are (still) notarized:

He explained further:

Both the old and “new” payload(s) appears to be nearly identical, containing OSX.Shlayer packaged with the Bundlore adware.

However the attackers’ ability to agilely continue their attack (with other notarized payloads) is noteworthy. Clearly in the never ending cat & mouse game between the attackers and Apple, the attackers are currently (still) winning.

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After a dizen years in exile, Steve Jibs retuned to the company he helped to create and became interim CEO, which began the greatest turnaround in the history of corporate America

His characteristic flair for marketing came back full force, and after “Think Different”, he tried James Bond

 

[Stillrandy]

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After a dozen years in exile, Steve Jobs returned to the company he helped to create and became interim CEO, which began the greatest turnaround in the history of corporate America
His characteristic flair for marketing came back full force, and after “Think Different”, he tried James Bond

Wonder if Connery became a Windows user...

 

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Since iOS14 privacy features gone public, and with those spying and stealing user’s info and activities without user’s knowledge, much less consent, having temper tantrums in the media, many people have been asking for the highlights.



How the next iPhone update will expose how companies try to track you

Widgets in iOS 14



Apple’s iOS 14 iPhone update will launch later this fall and add lots of features, like a redesigned home screen experience with widgets, picture-in-picture support so you can watch videos while you do other things and more.

Apple’s also boosting privacy features that make it harder for companies to track your movement around the web. It’ll alert you when apps are accessing your camera and microphone. You’ll be able to share your approximate location with apps instead of your exact location. In short: it should be a lot harder for apps and websites to track you without you knowing about it.

Here are some of the biggest privacy changes Apple’s making in iOS 14.



It’s harder for apps to target you with ads

It’ll be harder for apps to target you with ads, unless you purposefully turn on “Allow Apps to Request to Track” and then approve each app individually. It’s good for users, but may hurt businesses that rely on targeted digital ads. Facebook has warned that the change could impact its Audience Network advertising revenue by more than 50%, for example. While it may improve your privacy, Facebook says this could hurt advertisers that rely on that revenue, such as publishers and developers who earned $1.5 billion through the network in 2018. Facebook also warned its own revenue could be hurt by the feature after it launches.



Privacy Report in Safari

A sample Safari privacy report in iOS 14.



The Safari web browser has a built-in privacy tracker that prevents websites from tracking you as you surf the web. In iOS 14, you’ll see a new privacy report that tells you how many trackers have been blocked, the websites you visit that use trackers and the ones that have been blocked. You just tap the “AA” button in the URL bar and then choose “Privacy Report.”

Facebook, Google’s DoubleClick and Google Analytics are some trackers I see in my report, and mine shows that Apple has stopped 205 from profiling me in the last month. These aren’t always bad. Many can be used to tell publishers how many people are reading a story, for example. Others can be used to serve up ads that are relevant to you by creating a profile of the sites you visit. Apple uses DuckDuckGo, a search engine rival of Google’s, to spot known trackers and blocks them from using any information that identifies you.

Safari will also monitor your saved passwords and will let you know if they’ve potentially been compromised in a data breach. Apple says it runs your password against a database of passwords that have been collected in known data breaches.



A little green or orange dot on your iPhone will tell you if an app is accessing your camera or microphone

An orange dot on your iPhone shows you an app has used your microphone recently.



iOS 14 has a new tiny dot that appears on the top right of your screen above your cell signal. It’ll let you know if an app is using your microphone or camera. The dot is green if an app is or has recently used your camera. It turns orange if it’s using or has recently used your microphone. If you swipe down from the top of your screen, you’ll see the app that recently accessed your camera or microphone.

It isn’t meant to scare you. Lots of apps have your permission to use your camera. When I open Twitter, for example, and take a picture, an indication shows that Twitter recently accessed my camera. It’s just added transparency so that you know what apps are using those functions. And it’ll help you spot an app in case it uses your microphone or camera without you knowing it.



App privacy reports in the app store

Apple will show you the permissions apps will request before you download them.



Apple is adding new labels to each app in the App Store that shows you what information that app will collect. It’s sort of like the nutrition label on food. It’ll let you know if the app ties your financial information, location, contact information, browsing history, or purchases to you. Some apps will need this, especially if it’s an app like Uber or Lyft where they offer in-app purchases and require your location for services. But now you’ll know before you download an app if it’s going to track things like your location or contact information.



You can share your approximate location with apps instead of actual location

In iOS 14, you can share your approximate location with apps instead of your precise location.



Sometimes an app needs your location to provide a service. A weather app might need to know where you are so it can tell you accurate forecasts, for example. Or a TV service might need to know your location so it serves you local shows for your market. But those apps probably don’t need to know exactly where you are, the way an app like a car service that’s coming to pick you up might. That’s why Apple is adding new approximate location sharing.

In iOS 14, you can share your approximate location with weather apps and other services that need to know roughly where you are, but not exactly where you are. You’ll be able to choose to let the app track your approximate location in a pop-up asking you to share where you are.









note -

Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering. Craig Federighi oversees the development of iOS, iPadOS, macOS



iOS 14 is currently in beta testing with developers and public beta users, with Apple having released the sixth beta just last week. While beta testing is moving along nicely, and Apple recently switched from a biweekly schedule to a weekly schedule for releases, there is quite a bit of uncertainty about when Apple plans to release iOS 14 to everyone.

It’s no secret that iOS 13 was a rather disastrous release for Apple, plagued by bugs, performance issues, and the complicated release of iOS 13.1 and iPadOS 13.1. This year, iOS 14 is far more stable in beta testing than iOS 13

As part of a wide-ranging report on Apple’s 2020 roadmap, Bloomberg reports that iOS 14 is still scheduled for release in September, despite the iPhone 12 delays.
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Apple reportedly delaying iOS 14 advertising privacy feature bashed by Facebook

Just last week, Facebook and other major publishers heavily criticized Apple over the upcoming privacy changes in iOS 14 that are expected to cut down on mobile ad revenue. Now a new report from The Information says that Apple is planning to delay the new app and website tracking feature.



Update: Apple has confirmed the delay to The Information’s Alex Heath, including the detail that it plans to launch the privacy feature “early next year” along with a brief statement on why it made the decision. Here’s Apple’s full statement via Alex:

“We want to give developers the time they need to make the necessary changes, and as a result, the requirement to use this tracking permission will go into effect early next year.”

Facebook has criticized Apple several times over the new privacy feature in iOS 14 that it says could see ad revenue drop as much as 40%. Then shortly after, a group of publishers shared the same fears, with one expecting up to a 50% decline in ad revenue on iOS.

A new report from The Information today says that Apple is now planning to push back introducing the default feature that would ask users if whether they’re okay being tracked across apps and websites:

Apple has told some developers that it plans to delay the enforcement of a controversial change to its next mobile operating system that would upend how ads are targeted on iPhones and iPads, according to people familiar with the matter.

While the tension between Apple and developers/advertisers has grown to a boiling point in the last few weeks, concerns were raised almost immediately after Apple announced the new ad tracking privacy feature at WWDC in June.

Beyond Facebook and the other publishers who publicly criticized Apple, The Information’s sources believe the delay of the tracking requirement comes after hearing feedback from a number of third-parties, including some big game developers like Activision Blizzard.

There are signs that Apple has heard concerns from developers and advertisers. Since announcing the IDFA change in June, Apple’s App Store team has asked a handful of gaming firms, including Activision Blizzard, Tencent-owned Supercell, and N3twork, to share how the change will impact their businesses, according to people familiar with the talks.

The Information highlights $76 billion tied up in mobile ads annually and also how Apple could be affected by its own privacy feature as ad spend is often linked to freemium games that generate a lot of App Store revenue.

Spending on ads to drive mobile app downloads is expected to reach roughly $76 billion globally this year, according to the ad tech firm AppsFlyer, which made the estimate early this year before the coronavirus pandemic took hold and Apple announced its IDFA change. These ads particularly fuel free-to-play games that monetize through in-app purchases, which in turn provide revenue to Apple through the 30% cut it takes from such transactions through its store.

The reversal of requiring developers to abide by the new privacy feature with the public release of iOS 14 will certainly be a disappointment to many users and those who applauded Apple for the strong privacy move. And ironically, Apple just released a new privacy-focused iPhone ad today.

But Apple is still expected to launch the app tracking changes after giving developers and advertisers more time to adjust to the change. A specific timeline isn’t known but The Information suggests it could happen in 2021.
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Apple closes above $2T the day after tech industry sell-off

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Apple Lost $180 Billion In Market Value on Thursday. It’s the Biggest Loss For Any Company Ever.

Apple stock slid 8% on Thursday, a rotten day for technology shares. That translated to a loss of roughly $180 billion in the iPhone maker’s market capitalization. It’s the largest one-day loss in value for any company ever, but still leaves Apple with a market cap of well over $2 trillion. Big numbers are fun.

Apple on Friday regained a market valuation above $2 trillion after briefly losing it Thursday in a large-scale tech industry stock sell-off.

The AAPL share price closed at $120.96 at end of trading, up 0.066% on the day. Apple's stock price hit a low of $111.17 in intra-day trading on Sept. 4, representing a 7.44% bleed since trading began.

Apple's reclaiming of a $2 trillion valuation comes the day after it bled nearly $180 billion in market capitalization. On Thursday, Apple's share price was down nearly 8% in intra-day trading amid a broad sell-off of tech stocks. It marked the worst day of trading for technology stocks since a coronavirus plunge in March, in which Apple saw a 12.5% drop.

According to MarketWatch, Apple's plunge was the worst one-day loss in value for any company ever. Tech stocks led the self-off, and all three major indices showed major losses across other segments.

The dip Thursday follows several months of steady growth for the Cupertino tech company and several quarters of better-than-expected earnings. Apple became the first U.S. company to hit a $2 trillion valuation on Aug. 19, 2020. Apple's share price is still up nearly 113% since a coronavirus-sparked low on March 23.

Apple's current share price has been readjusted due to the recently completed four-for-one stock split on Aug. 31. The split gave each shareholder three additional shares for every one held, each at 25% of their original value.
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