TOPLINE Apple has agreed to make some changes to its App Store policy as part of a proposed lawsuit settlement which will enable developers to contact customers about alternate payment methods for in-app transactions that will allow them to circumvent Apple’s sizeable commission fee, a move that comes at a time when the iPhone-maker is facing major antitrust and legal challenges around the world.



<h2 id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Is a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/08/apple-us-developers-agree-to-app-store-updates/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">press release</a>, Apple says it will allow app developers to reach out to their iPhone and iPad customers via email or other communication channels to inform them about alternate payment methods that don’t carry Apple’s fee—something Apple previously did not allow.



One caveat to this allowance is that users will need to consent to the communication and they will have the right to opt-out of receiving such communications.



The proposed settlement also expands the number of price points that developers can charge for subscriptions, in-app purchases, and paid apps.



Apple has also agreed to create a $100 million fund for payouts to small app developers.



The iPhone-maker has also agreed to not raise its commission rate for small developers—which it slashed from 30% to 15% last year—for at least three years.



The proposed changes will have to be approved by a U.S. federal court judge who is also presiding over Epic Games’ lawsuit against Apple.



<h2 id="h-chief-critic">CHIEF CRITIC</h2>



The Coalition for App Fairness—a group that includes the likes of Spotify and Epic Games as its members issued a&nbsp;<a href="https://appfairness.org/coalition-for-app-fairness-statement-on-apples-sham-settlement-offer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a>&nbsp;dismissing Apple’s settlement offer as a “sham.” Meghan DiMuzio the executive director of the group said: “Apple&#8217;s sham settlement offer is nothing more than a desperate attempt to avoid the judgment of courts, regulators, and legislators worldwide… If this settlement is approved, app makers will still be barred from communicating about lower prices or offering competing payment options within their apps.”



<h2 id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



“We truly are proud that a case brought by two developers, standing in the shoes of tens of thousands of U.S. iOS developers, could help to bring about so much important change,” Steve Berman, a lawyer for the plaintiffs in the suit,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/27/technology/apple-settles-app-store-lawsuit.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a>&nbsp;the&nbsp;New York Times.



<h2 id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Apple’s settlement appears to be a rather minor concession from the world’s richest company as its App Store business practices face&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2021/08/25/south-korea-lawmakers-back-legislative-action-to-curb-google-and-apples-app-store-fees/?sh=7c082ba01813">increasing antitrust scrutiny</a>&nbsp;worldwide. Some app makers, like Spotify, already&nbsp;<a href="https://support.spotify.com/us/article/apple-payments/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">block new customers</a>&nbsp;from signing up for subscriptions inside their iOS app. In the past, the music streamer has also&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2015/7/8/8913105/spotify-apple-app-store-email" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sent out emails</a>&nbsp;urging existing subscribers to ditch Apple’s payment system for a discount. Apple’s new proposal will simply formalize this for all developers. The company, however, made no concessions about payment methods within iOS itself, and app developers are still forced to only use Apple’s payment system for all in-app transactions taking place on an iPhone or iPad. The proposed settlement comes at a time when Apple is awaiting a decision from a federal judge in a separate lawsuit filed by Fortnite-developer Epic Games which seeks to allow developers to circumvent Apple’s App Store commissions altogether.



<h2 id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



On Wednesday, a South Korean parliamentary committee&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2021/08/25/south-korea-lawmakers-back-legislative-action-to-curb-google-and-apples-app-store-fees/?sh=7c082ba01813">voted</a>&nbsp;to move forward a key legislative amendment that would ban Apple and Google from forcibly charging app developers a commission on all add-on purchases by requiring them to use their proprietary payment systems. Previously this month, a group of bipartisan U.S. senators&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-lawmakers-introduce-bill-rein-apple-google-app-stores-2021-08-11/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">introduced</a>&nbsp;a similar bill that would bar companies from forcing their payment system on app developers. Last year, the European Union&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2020/12/15/new-eu-rules-could-fine-us-tech-giants-billions/?sh=5db2712f6a54">unveiled</a>&nbsp;a set of proposals that would force the likes of Apple and Google to divest parts of their business if they fail to adhere to fair competition rules.



<h2 id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/27/technology/apple-settles-app-store-lawsuit.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Apple Settlement Gives App Developers a Way to Avoid Its Commission</a>&nbsp;(New York Times)



<a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/apple-will-change-app-store-practices-after-settlement-with-small-developers-2021-08-27/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Apple strikes App Store deal with small developers as it waits for &#8216;Fortnite&#8217; ruling</a> (Reuters)



By Siladitya Ray, Forbes Staff

American multinational technology company Apple store seen

Apple Agrees To App Store Policy Changes In Settlement With Small Developers As Antitrust Threat Looms

TOPLINE Amazon and Google are facing a formal investigation in the U.K. over concerns they are not doing enough to protect users from fake reviews, the competition watchdog announced Friday, adding to increasing regulatory efforts around the world to compel tech companies to take more responsibility for problematic content on their platforms.



<h4 id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h4>



The Competition and Markets Authority said it had opened an investigation to determine whether Google and Amazon had broken consumer law by failing to take sufficient steps to “protect shoppers from fake reviews.”&nbsp;



The probe follows a broader investigation into fake reviews last year that “raised specific concerns” the two companies were not doing enough to detect and remove fake or misleading reviews or to identify “suspicious patterns of behavior” among reviewers.



The CMA said it was also concerned that neither platform had done enough to discourage businesses or reviewers from posting bogus reviews and Amazon in particular had failed to prevent sellers from manipulating its product listings.&nbsp;



“Fake and misleading reviews have the potential to impact on businesses’ star ratings and how prominently companies and products are displayed to consumers, changing their whole shopping experience,” the watchdog said.&nbsp;



The companies face enforcement action should the investigation find they have broken the law, the CMA said, which could include formal commitments to deal with the issue or, should they fail to do so, court action.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Amazon and Google did not respond immediately to&nbsp;Forbes’&nbsp;request for comment.



<h4 id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h4>



Andrea Coscelli, the CMA’s chief executive, said the watchdog’s worry is “that millions of online shoppers could be misled by reading fake reviews and then spending their money based on those recommendations.” In addition, “it’s simply not fair if some businesses can fake 5-star reviews to give their products or services the most prominence, while law-abiding businesses lose out,” Coscelli added.



<h4 id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h4>



Online reviews are a powerful driver of consumer decisions, whether that be for what to buy, where to go or what to eat. Many people rely on them as a metric to determine quality and authenticity and reviews will shape what is shown to consumers. A 2015 study by the CMA&nbsp;<a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/436238/Online_reviews_and_endorsements.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">estimated</a>&nbsp;them to drive around £23 billion (around $32 billion) in spending a year in the U.K. alone. To seize upon this, an entire&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56069472" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">industry</a>&nbsp;has emerged trafficking in fake or misleading reviews. The CMA has previously&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jun/21/facebook-and-ebay-told-to-take-action-over-fake-reviews-cma" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ordered</a>&nbsp;Facebook and eBay to tackle the problem after it found “troubling evidence” of a thriving marketplace for fake reviews.



<h4 id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h4>



16,000. This is how many&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/apr/09/facebook-removes-over-16000-groups-trading-fake-reviews" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">groups</a>&nbsp;Facebook took down earlier this year after the CMA intervened for a second time after the platform failed to honor its promise to deal with fake reviews.&nbsp;



<h4 id="h-contra">CONTRA</h4>



Amazon recently&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/jun/16/amazon-blames-social-media-for-struggle-with-fake-reviews" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blamed</a>&nbsp;social media companies for a large chunk of its fake review problem, saying they are not doing enough to remove the “bad actors” coordinating or soliciting reviews from their platforms. “While we appreciate that some social media companies have become much faster at responding, to address this problem at scale it is imperative for social media companies to invest adequately in proactive controls to detect and enforce fake reviews ahead of our reporting the issue to them,” the company said.



<h4 id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h4>



<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/apr/09/facebook-removes-over-16000-groups-trading-fake-reviews" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Facebook removes over 16,000 groups trading fake reviews</a>&nbsp;(Guardian)



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/06/amazon-reviews-thousands-are-fake-heres-how-to-spot-them.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Amazon is filled with fake reviews and it’s getting harder to spot them</a> (CNBC)



By Robert Hart, Forbes Staff

In this photo illustrative Google, Amazon and Apple logos

Amazon And Google Face U.K. Investigation Into Fake Reviews

TOPLINE Apple reported a profit of $23.6 billion in its second quarter, up twofold from a year ago, on record sales of $89.6 billion, blowing past analysts’ expectations as iPhone sales remained strong after a record end to 2020.



<h3 id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h3>



<ul><li>Apple’s sales were up 53.7% jump from the same quarter last year, exceeding the $77.4 billion <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AAPL/analysis?p=AAPL" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">expected by analysts</a>.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Net earnings were $1.40 per share, also well ahead of the consensus analyst expectation of 99 cents per share.</li></ul>



<ul><li>iPhone sales totaled $47.9 billion, accounting for 53% of Apple’s total revenue, far surpassing the $29 billion reported in the first quarter of 2020 and the $41.7 billion predicted by Wall Street analysts.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Revenue from services like iTunes and the App Store grew 27% to $16.9 billion, and sales of Mac computers, iPads and accessories like AirPods and watches also increased from last year.</li></ul>



<h3 id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h3>



“Success was broadly distributed across our product categories,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a Wednesday evening conference call.



<h3 id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h3>



In the final three months of last year, Apple logged the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2021/01/27/apples-biggest-quarter-ever-all-the-insane-numbers/">best quarter</a>&nbsp;in its 45-year history, topping $100 billion in total sales and growing revenue for&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/27/apple-aapl-earnings-q1-2021.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">virtually every product line</a>. Over&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/pdfs/q4fy15datasum.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the last</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/pdfs/Q1FY17DataSummary.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">decade</a>, iPhones have served as the Cupertino, Calif.-based company’s largest driver of revenue. Some&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/timbajarin/2020/11/01/will-5g-kick-off-a-smartphone-upgrade-supercycle/?sh=9fcbe876fd2b">observers</a>&nbsp;expected iPhone sales to remain fairly strong at the start of this year, as consumers continue&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-aapl-2q-earnings-report-2021-11619572929" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">upgrading to pricier</a>&nbsp;5G-enabled smartphones. But the company has also&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/pdfs/Q1FY17DataSummary.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">rapidly</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/pdfs/FY21%20Q1%20Consolidated%20Financial%20Statements.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">increased</a>&nbsp;the share of its revenue from online services, and sales have grown for accessories like watches and AirPods.



<h3 id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h3>



It’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2021/04/28/the-two-most-important-numbers-in-apples-earnings-announcement/?sh=6df247e93b49">not unusual</a>&nbsp;for Apple’s revenue to drop significantly from the end of one year to the beginning of the next, as holiday shopping brings&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/01/apple-reports-first-quarter-results/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">consumers into stores</a>&nbsp;and drives&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/06/apple-app-store-customers-spent-record-540-million-on-new-years-day.html#:~:text=On%20top%20of%20that%2C%20Apple,for%20its%20Apple%20Books%20app." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">digital sales</a>.



<h3 id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h3>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2021/04/28/the-two-most-important-numbers-in-apples-earnings-announcement/?sh=6df247e93b49">The Two Most Important Numbers In Apple’s Earnings Announcement (Forbes)</a>



By Joe Walsh, Forbes Staff

Apple_announce-iphone12pro_10132020

Apple Profit Doubles On Record Revenue In Second Quarter As iPhone Sales Beat Expectations

TOPLINE Apple will introduce privacy features this spring limiting the ability of apps to track users—but while the change is applauded by privacy advocates, Facebook is staging an all-out offensive by announcing Monday it would send out its own notifications extolling the benefits of tracking.



<h4 id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h4>



<ul><li>Apple’s new privacy update will ask all users whether they want to be tracked across different apps, preventing third parties like Facebook from collecting data from other apps and using it to build profiles on individual users for targeted advertising.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Currently, if a user puts something into their cart on the Amazon app, for example, Facebook can access that data,  and users might see an ad for that same product on Facebook. </li></ul>



<ul><li>The new notifications that allow users to opt-out will pop up as soon as users open or download an app, making them more visible than Apple’s current system, which requires users to go into their settings to make that choice.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Facebook has been outspoken against the change because it threatens its lucrative advertising business, and could result in a 7% revenue dip, according to recent <a href="https://mobiledevmemo.com/facebook-may-take-revenue-hit-from-apple-privacy-changes/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">estimates</a>.</li></ul>



<ul><li>In its fiercest opposition yet, Facebook said Monday it would send out its own prompt directly countering Apple’s, telling users that collecting such data allows for more personalized ads and supports “small businesses that rely on ads to reach customers.”</li></ul>



<ul><li>Facebook argues that if users opt-out, they won’t see fewer ads, the ads will just be less relevant, and at the same time, small businesses would lose some of their ability to serve hyper-targeted ads, forcing some to raise prices or turn to a subscription model.</li></ul>



<h4 id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h4>



&nbsp;Facebook and Apple have been on a collision course since Apple made the App Tracking Transparency announcement over the summer. Facebook took out full page ads in several newspapers declaring it was “standing up to Apple for small businesses.” And last week Zuckerberg&nbsp;<a href="https://seekingalpha.com/article/4401479-facebook-inc-fb-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-on-q4-2020-results-earnings-call-transcript" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said&nbsp;</a>Apple is increasingly one of the social network’s biggest competitors. Meanwhile, Apple CEO Tim Cook fired back, saying “if a business is built on misleading users on data exploitation, on choices that are no choices at all, then it does not deserve our praise” during a speech in Brussels.



<h4 id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h4>



&nbsp;“This is a laughable attempt from Facebook to distract you from its poor track record of anticompetitive behavior and privacy issues as it tries to derail pro-privacy changes from Apple that are bad for Facebook’s business,”&nbsp; the Electronic Frontier Foundation&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/12/facebooks-laughable-campaign-against-apple-really-against-users-and-small" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said&nbsp;</a>in December. “Requiring trackers to request your consent before stalking you across the Internet should be an obvious baseline, and we applaud Apple for this change.”&nbsp;



<h4 id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h4>



Public polling has&nbsp;<a href="https://epic.org/privacy/survey/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">consistently&nbsp;</a><a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2019/11/15/americans-and-privacy-concerned-confused-and-feeling-lack-of-control-over-their-personal-information/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">shown&nbsp;</a>that users don’t like being tracked. It’s unclear just how many iOS users will opt-out when prompted, but dating app Bumble&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/15/bumble-ipo-filing-warns-apple-privacy-changes-could-harm-its-business.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">estimates&nbsp;</a>that only 0-20% will choose to be tracked.



<h4 id="h-what-to-watch-for">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h4>



Apple’s privacy update will go into effect early this spring, Apple says.



By Rachel Sandler, Forbes Staff

In this photo illustration the Apple and Facebook logos are

Apple Wants To Make It Harder For Apps To Track You. Facebook Isn’t Happy.

Apple hit a new milestone on Wednesday, becoming the first publicly traded U.S. company to reach a market capitalization of over $2 trillion and doubling in valuation over the last two years.



KEY FACTS



The iPhone maker’s stock is up almost 55% so far in 2020, and shares have rallied more than 106% since the market hit a low point amid the coronavirus recession on March 23 (compared to the benchmark S&amp;P 500’s gain of 51% over that period).



Now trading at nearly $470 per share, Apple’s stock is at an all-time high, and Wall Street analysts are still quite bullish that it can continue to rally: 61% give it a “buy” rating and 27% a “hold” rating, according to Bloomberg data.



Apple’s market cap now eclipses that of other U.S. tech giants, including Microsoft ($1.7 trillion), Amazon ($1.6 trillion), Google parent Alphabet ($1.1 trillion) and Facebook ($761 billion).



Apple was also the first U.S. company to reach a $1 trillion market cap, which it did just over two years ago, on August 2, 2018.



On July 31, 2020, after reporting strong&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/07/apple-reports-third-quarter-results/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">third-quarter earnings</a>, Apple surpassed Saudi state oil giant Aramco to become the world’s most valuable publicly traded company.



While Saudi Aramco&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/12/saudi-aramco-hits-2-trillion-market-cap-on-second-day-of-trading.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">surpassed a $2 trillion valuation</a>&nbsp;in December 2019, plunging oil prices amid the coronavirus pandemic have since hurt its stock.



SURPRISING FACT



At $2 trillion, Apple’s market value is now&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/charliebilello/status/1296095582533148674?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">higher than the GDP</a>&nbsp;of numerous developed countries, including Italy, Brazil, Canada, Russia and South Korea, to name a few.



WHAT TO WATCH FOR



Apple shares are about to get more affordable for investors, too. The company will finalize its four-for-one stock split at the end of August, which means a single share will be worth around $117. While the value of the company will remain the same, there will now be more shares available trading at lower prices.



KEY BACKGROUND



Apple has thrived during the pandemic, as many people were forced to stay at home. The company has benefited from work-from-home trends and strong online sales; It posted record third-quarter earnings in late July, with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/07/apple-reports-third-quarter-results/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">nearly $60 billion in revenue</a>, not to mention double-digit growth in its products and services segments.



FURTHER READING



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/08/13/competition-from-apple-wont-derail-peloton-analysts-say/">Could Competition From Apple Derail Peloton? Not So Fast, Analysts Say</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2020/07/24/apple-microsoft-amazon-google-and-facebook-make-up-a-record-chunk-of-the-sp-500-heres-why-that-might-be-dangerous/">Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google And Facebook Make Up A Record Chunk Of The S&amp;P 500. Here’s Why That Might Be Dangerous</a> (Forbes)



-Sergei Klebnikov, Forbes Staff

DOUNIAMAG-US-IT-APPLE-NEWS-FEED

Apple Becomes First U.S. Company Worth More Than $2 Trillion

Facebook on Friday became the latest major tech company to criticize Apple for taking a 30% cut of app purchases, adding to growing criticism over what companies say are Apple’s unfair and anti-competitive App Store policies that amount to a “shakedown” of competitors.



KEY FACTS



Apple&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apple.com/ios/app-store/principles-practices/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">takes</a>&nbsp;a 30% cut of all app purchases and requires developers use Apple’s payments systems so it can also charge a fee for in-app purchases and subscriptions.



Facebook said Friday it asked Apple to reduce the 30% fee for a new feature letting small businesses charge users for online Facebook events, but Apple “dismissed” their requests and as a result small businesses will only be paid 70% from transactions on iPhones, the company said.



Facebook’s rebuke comes a day after Fortnite owner Epic Games sued both Apple and Google over the 30% fee and launched a public relations blitz against the tech giants with the hashtag #FreeFortnite, arguing the “tax” forces companies to increase prices in order to pay for the fee.



Music streaming service Spotifty last year&nbsp;<a href="https://newsroom.spotify.com/2019-03-13/consumers-and-innovators-win-on-a-level-playing-field/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">filed</a>&nbsp;a complaint with the European Union’s Antitrust Commission over what it called the “Apple Tax,” arguing that it can’t compete with Apple Music—which isn’t subject to the fee—if it has to raise prices to cover the charge.



Though Airbnb and ClassPass don’t normally have to pay the fee because the fee doesn’t apply to physical services outside their apps, they did have to start paying when they began offering virtual classes and information sessions during the pandemic,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/28/technology/apple-app-store-airbnb-classpass.html?action=click&amp;module=Top%20Stories&amp;pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to the&nbsp;New York Times, drawing complaints from both companies.&nbsp;



In June, Basecamp founder David Heinemeier Hansson called Apple’s fee a “shakedown” and a “ransom” after the company’s email app was rejected from the App Store because it used a different payments system,&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/dhh/status/1273019513538314245?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">adding</a>&nbsp;that “Apple&#8217;s abusive behavior with the App Store has been an open secret in the developer community for years.”



CHIEF CRITIC



Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from&nbsp;Forbes, but CEO Tim Cook defended the company’s App Store practices at a House Antitrust Subcommittee hearing last month. “For the vast majority of the apps on the App Store, developers keep 100% of the money they make,” he said. “&#8230;Commissions are comparable to or lower than commissions charged by the majority of our competitors. And they are vastly lower than the 50-70% that software developers paid to distribute their work before we launched the App Store.”



KEY BACKGROUND



Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) asked Cook during the hearing if continuing to charge companies a 30% fee as they move their services online during the pandemic amounts to “pandemic profiteering.” Cook responded by saying Apple “would never do that,” and acknowledged he was working with companies to find a solution. But even as Cook said the fee applies to all developers and apps equally, emails released during the hearing show that Apple&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2020/07/29/apple-offered-to-reduce-its-fee-to-get-amazon-prime-video-on-devices-emails-show/#58889c313eae">offered</a>&nbsp;to lower its fee in order to get Amazon Prime Video on devices in 2017.



TANGENT



Google also charges a 30% fee for apps on the Google Play Store, but much of the focus has been on Apple, which is usually more lucrative for developers than Google.



-Rachel Sandler, Forbes Staff

Allen & Co. Holds Its Annual Sun Valley Conference In Idaho

Spotify, Epic Games, Facebook: Major Companies Take Aim At Apple’s App Store Fee

Topline: Apple will donate 9 million N95 protective masks to combat the coronavirus, Vice President Mike Pence said on Tuesday, making Apple one of several California tech companies pitching in as hospitals across the country report a shortage of protective gear.



<ul><li>Pence thanked Apple for agreeing to donate 9 million N95 respirator masks to healthcare facilities across the country during a press briefing on Tuesday.</li><li>Pence’s remarks come after Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted over the weekend the company was “working to help source supplies for healthcare providers fighting COVID-19” and “donating millions of masks for health professionals in the US and Europe,” but did not offer more specifics.</li><li>N95 respirators are masks that form a protective seal around a wearer’s mouth, filtering&nbsp; out at least 95% of particles in the air, according to the Centers for Disease Control, which makes them necessary to protect healthcare workers from being exposed to the disease from patients.</li><li>Facebook has also said it is donating its stockpile of 720,000 masks purchased during the California wildfires last year, which degraded the air quality in the San Francisco Bay Area.</li><li>Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;asking if all of the donated masks were stockpiled because of the wildfires or if the company got them from somewhere else.</li></ul>



Chief critic: Teddy Schleifer, a reporter at Recode, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/3/23/21191147/medical-masks-coronavirus-shortage-silicon-valley-donations-salesforce-apple-facebook-tesla" target="_blank">wrote</a> that health systems shouldn’t rely on the generosity of big tech companies to make up for the failures of the federal government. 



“But there is a risk in relying on corporate philanthropy—rather than the government—in solving this problem. For starters, it depends on the voluntary generosity of these companies to deal with an unprecedented emergency, an altruism that could vanish at any time,” he&nbsp;<a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/3/23/21191147/medical-masks-coronavirus-shortage-silicon-valley-donations-salesforce-apple-facebook-tesla" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wrote</a>.



Crucial quote: &#8220;And I spoke today, and the president spoke last week, with Tim Cook of Apple. And at this moment in time Apple went to their store houses and is donating 9 million N95 masks to healthcare facilities all across the country and to the national stockpile,” Pence said.



Key background: Apple is one of several California tech companies to give away N95 masks. In addition to Facebook, Salesforce, Tesla and IBM have also announced mask donations.



News peg: Doctors and nurses are sounding the alarm that they don’t have enough masks to protect healthcare workers. Not only does inadequate protective gear put important frontline health workers at risk, public health experts say, any situation endangering medical personnel may only further depletes the U.S. health system which already doesn’t have enough capacity to handle a surge in cases. State officials in New York and Illinois have criticized President Donald Trump for not stepping in to force companies to manufacture masks or allocate masks from private companies to ensure that states don’t <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-cuomo-says-states-are-bidding-up-cost-of-supplies-2020-3" target="_blank">outbid</a> each other for the same supplies. 



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/">Rachel Sandler</a>, Forbes Staff, Breaking News

gettyimages-1207642189-594×594

Apple Is Donating 9 Million Masks To Combat The Coronavirus

Facebook is hiring a small team of journalists to help curate breaking news and repair its strained relationship with news publishers, the social media giant announced Tuesday. 



The company says it will employ journalists to select breaking news and top stories that will appear in its soon-to-be-launched feature called News Tab, rather than using algorithms to determine what is shared with its vast network of users.



With the move, Facebook is part of a growing trend in the tech industry. Apple, Google, Twitter, LinkedIn and Snapchat have all employed journalists to help their companies sort through the news and cozy up to news organizations.



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Apple, for example, has used some form of human curation since its subscription Apple News app launched in 2015. In June 2017, the company hired former New York magazine executive editor Lauren Kern as the app’s editor-in-chief. Twitter has also employed some form of human news curation since 2015. 



Even with a team of in-house journalists, companies like Twitter continue to struggle in the fight against misinformation. On Monday, Twitter announcedit will no longer accept advertising from state-controlled media, in large part as a response to the discovery that China ran a misinformation campaign to combat Hong Kong protesters. 



Facebook, facing similar scrutiny for the same Chinese misinformation campaign, said that employing journalists will help “surface more high quality news.”



“Our goal with the News tab is to provide a personalized, highly relevant experience for people,” Campbell Brown, Facebook’s head of news partnerships said in a statement sent to Forbes. “The majority of stories people will see will appear in the tab via algorithmic selection. To start, for the Top News section of the tab we’re pulling together a small team of journalists to ensure we’re highlighting the right stories.”



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Facebook says the team will take into account user controls, pages and publisher as well as the news that users interact with or share,&nbsp;and other unnamed signals from its vast network to personalize content.&nbsp;



The company has been under pressure to mitigate its misinformation problem since it was revealed in 2016 that Russian operatives carried out a misinformation campaign in a “sweeping and systematic fashion” on the network, as it was described by special counsel Robert Mueller in his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.



The Mueller Report found that Russia spent $1.25 million per month on digital advertisements in an effort to sow discord in the U.S. and influence the presidential election. On Monday, Facebook came under fire for taking money from China to spread disinformation about Hong Kong protests.



The social media giant remains an important part of many Americans lives, much more than its rivals Twitter and Snapchat. According to Pew Research, about 69% of American adults use Facebook, and of those who use it, about 74% visit the site once a day. By comparison, only one in five U.S. adults (22%) use Twitter.



According to a survey conducted in 2018, about four in ten (43%) U.S. adults get at least some news from Facebook.



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In January 2017, Facebook hired Campbell Brown, a former television news anchor, to lead its news partnerships team. She remains a key figure in easing the tension between large national news outlets—those who have historically provided an endless trove of free content for the social media giant—and the company.



Publishing executives have slammed Facebook for siphoning advertising revenue away from traditional news publishers while also demanding that those same companies provide content for free. Following years of backlash, the social media company is now trying to work with publishers to create a more even relationship.



Facebook’s news partnership program involves deals that are potentially worth millions of dollars. The Wall Street Journal reports that several news outlets including the Washington Post, Bloomberg, Dow Jones, and the New York Times have discussed receiving as much as $3 million per year to license news content.



The News Tab, which has not been publicly viewed, is being positioned in stark contrast to the company’s Trending Topics news section, which shut down in 2016 following increasing pressure from users.



In 2016, the tech website Gizmodo published an article alleging contractors hired to curate the now-defunct Trending Topics feed were actively suppressing conservative news stories. In a letter to Congress, Facebook said, “We could not reconstruct reliable data logs from before December 2014, so were unable to examine each of the reviewer decisions from that period,” thus suggesting that it may have very well suppressed conservative news when the tool first launched.



-Michael Nuñez; Forbes

gettyimages-904274222-170667a

Facebook Joins Other Tech Giants In Employing Journalists To Curate News

Apple aficionados have learned to wait for the end of its product announcements for the most tantalizing news: the &#8220;one more thing&#8221; that Steve Jobs would toss off, almost as an afterthought, and send the audience into a frenzy.



This time, the finale of Apple&#8217;s long-anticipated announcement launching its Apple TV+ video subscription service Monday in Cupertino — the signature moment that brought some in the audience to their feet — took human form. Oprah Winfrey strode on stage wearing Apple-white and, as the applause died down, responded with a comically understated, &#8220;Hi.&#8221;



Winfrey talked publicly for the first time about her multi-year deal with Apple — a partnership CEO Tim Cook has referenced frequently, if vaguely, on earnings calls with the Wall Street analysts. 



The talk show host turned media executive said she&#8217;s working on a documentary dealing with the sexual harassment and assault in the workplace, currently titled&nbsp;Toxic Labor,&nbsp;and an untitled multi-part series exploring mental health issues.



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&#8220;The Apple platform has allowed me to do what I do in a whole new way — connecting people and taking it to a whole new level, because they have a billion pockets y&#8217;all,&#8221; Winfrey said, a reference to the 1.4 billion Apple devices in use around the world that some analysts believe give its streaming service a competitive edge over established rivals, such as Netflix.



Winfrey was the headliner at an event packed with Hollywood celebrities. Director Steven Spielberg took the stage for his inaugural appearance at an Apple event to talk about his revival of the anthology series&nbsp;Amazing Stories.&nbsp;



Actors Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston touted their new project,&nbsp;The Morning Show,&nbsp;which explores the power and gender dynamics of morning news shows — an opportunity so appealing, the&nbsp;Friends&nbsp;star said it brought her back to TV.



Director J.J. Abrams shared the stage with Grammy-nominated artist Sara Bareilles to tout their collaboration on&nbsp;Little Voice,&nbsp;a show about a young, flawed artist finding her voice. Kumail Nanjiani of the HBO series&nbsp;Silicon Valley&nbsp;will explore immigrant stories in the series&nbsp;Our Little America.&nbsp;Even&nbsp;Sesame Street&nbsp;staple Big Bird stepped into the spotlight to announce a children&#8217;s series called&nbsp;Helpsters.



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Apple spelled out its broad ambitions for the forthcoming streaming service, saying it had partnered with the most accomplished storytellers as it seeks to define Apple TV+ as a home for quality entertainment. The tech company did more showing than telling at the Steve Jobs Theater Monday — each celebrity presentation was notably devoid of trailers.



It&#8217;s possible that the marking impresarios at Apple are holding their promotional firepower until a date closer to the Apple TV+ launch. Today&#8217;s event serves as a placeholder, staking Apple&#8217;s claim on the TV landscape ahead of the Walt Disney Co.&#8217;s April 11 investor briefing to discuss details of the Disney+ streaming service, or the television industry&#8217;s Upfront presentations, showcasing the fall schedule.



The Apple TV+ service will launch sometime this fall — though pricing has not been announced. It will be available through an updated version of the Apple TV app that&#8217;s already on millions of iPhones, iPads and Apple TV streaming devices. A new version of the app, due out in May, will work like a cable-TV service, where users can choose which TV channels they want to pay for and watch, including HBO, Showtime and Starz.



On the same day as Apple&#8217;s big announcement for original programming,&nbsp;Bloomberg reported&nbsp;that Google has cancelled plans for big budget scripted shows on YouTube. Google&nbsp;denied claims&nbsp;from Bloomberg sources that said the tech giant stopped accepting pitches for original scripts, but confirmed plans to launch ad-supported programming alongside YouTube Premium, $11.99-per-month ad-free access to YouTube Music and original content.



-Dawn Chmielewski; Forbes Staff

Apple Holds Product Launch Event In Cupertino

Apple Brings Out Hollywood’s Heavyweights To Kick Off Its Apple TV+ Streaming Service

Software pirates have hijacked technology designed by Apple Inc to distribute hacked versions of Spotify, Angry Birds, Pokemon Go, Minecraft and other popular apps on iPhones.



Illicit software distributors such as TutuApp, Panda Helper, AppValley and TweakBox have found ways to use digital certificates to get access to a program Apple introduced to let corporations distribute business apps to their employees without going through Apple’s tightly controlled App Store.



Using so-called enterprise developer certificates, these pirate operations are providing modified versions of popular apps to consumers, enabling them to stream music without ads and to circumvent fees and rules in games, depriving Apple and legitimate app makers of revenue.



By doing so, the pirate app distributors are violating the rules of Apple’s developer programs, which only allow apps to be distributed to the general public through the App Store. Downloading modified versions violates the terms of service of almost all major apps.



TutuApp, Panda Helper, AppValley and TweakBox did not respond to multiple requests for comment.



Apple has no way of tracking the real-time distribution of these certificates, or the spread of improperly modified apps on its phones, but it can cancel the certificates if it finds misuse.



“Developers that abuse our enterprise certificates are in violation of the Apple Developer Enterprise Program Agreement and will have their certificates terminated, and if appropriate, they will be removed from our Developer Program completely,” an Apple spokesperson told Reuters. “We are continuously evaluating the cases of misuse and are prepared to take immediate action.”



After Reuters initially contacted Apple for comment last week, some of the pirates were banned from the system, but within days they were using different certificates and were operational again.



“There’s nothing stopping these companies from doing this again from another team, another developer account,” said Amine Hambaba, head of security at software firm Shape Security.



Apple confirmed a media report on Wednesday that it would require two-factor authentication &#8211; using a code sent to a phone as well as a password &#8211; to log into all developer accounts by the end of this month, which could help prevent certificate misuse.



Major app makers Spotify Technology SA, Rovio Entertainment Oyj and Niantic Inc have begun to fight back.



Spotify declined to comment on the matter of modified apps, but the streaming music provider did say earlier this month that its new terms of service would crack down on users who are “creating or distributing tools designed to block advertisements” on its service.



Rovio, the maker of Angry Birds mobile games, said it actively works with partners to address infringement “for the benefit of both our player community and Rovio as a business.”



Niantic, which makes Pokemon Go, said players who use pirated apps that enable cheating on its game are regularly banned for violating its terms of service. Microsoft Corp, which owns the creative building game Minecraft, declined to comment.



<h4>SIPHONING OFF REVENUE</h4>



It is unclear how much revenue the pirate distributors are siphoning away from Apple and legitimate app makers.



TutuApp offers a free version of Minecraft, which costs $6.99 in Apple’s App Store. AppValley offers a version of Spotify’s free streaming music service with the advertisements stripped away.



The distributors make money by charging $13 or more per year for subscriptions to what they calls “VIP” versions of their services, which they say are more stable than the free versions. It is impossible to know how many users buy such subscriptions, but the pirate distributors combined have more than 600,000 followers on Twitter.



Electronic Arts&#8217; new game challenges Fortnite



Security researchers have long warned about the misuse of enterprise developer certificates, which act as digital keys that tell an iPhone a piece of software downloaded from the internet can be trusted and opened. They are the centerpiece of Apple’s program for corporate apps and enable consumers to install apps onto iPhones without Apple’s knowledge.



Apple last month briefly banned Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc from using enterprise certificates after they used them to distribute data-gathering apps to consumers.



The distributors of pirated apps seen by Reuters are using certificates obtained in the name of legitimate businesses, although it is unclear how. Several pirates have impersonated a subsidiary of China Mobile Ltd. China Mobile did not respond to requests for comment.



Tech news website TechCrunch earlier this week reported that certificate abuse also enabled the distribution of apps for pornography and gambling, both of which are banned from the App Store.



Since the App Store debuted in 2008, Apple has sought to portray the iPhone as safer than rival Android devices because Apple reviews and approves all apps distributed to the devices.



Early on, hackers “jailbroke” iPhones by modifying their software to evade Apple’s controls, but that process voided the iPhone’s warranty and scared off many casual users. The misuse of the enterprise certificates seen by Reuters does not rely on jailbreaking and can be used on unmodified iPhones. -Reuters



-Stephen Nellis and Paresh Dave

Man hacking into computer

Software Pirates Use Apple Tech To Put Hacked Apps On iPhones

Apple Inc plans to cut the price of some of its flagship iPhones for only the second time in the device’s 12-year history, pegging its retail value to past prices in local currencies outside the United States instead of the rising U.S. dollar. 



The move is an attempt to stem weak sales of the iPhone, particularly in overseas markets such as China, where a 10 percent rise in the U.S. dollar over the past year or so has made Apple’s products &#8211; which already compete at the top end of the market &#8211; much pricier than rivals.



Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook disclosed the plan on Tuesday after the company reported the first-ever dip in iPhone sales during the key holiday shopping period. The company has only once before cut iPhone prices, shortly after it debuted in 2007.



Apple did not say in which countries it would adjust iPhone prices. Resellers in China already began cutting iPhone prices earlier this month after Apple lowered its sales forecast for the quarter ended in December.



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The company priced its new iPhone XS, which was released in September, at $999, the same price in U.S. dollars as its predecessor, 2017’s iPhone X.



That worked for U.S. consumers, but in countries such as China and Turkey the local currency had fallen so much against the surging U.S. dollar, it made the phone significantly pricier than its predecessor a year before. Apple had essentially asked the consumer to bear the cost of the strengthening dollar.



On Tuesday, Cook said Apple will adjust foreign prices in some markets by resetting them at or close to what they were one year before in local currencies. Effectively that means Apple will absorb the cost of the strengthening dollar.



“We’ve decided to go back to (iPhone prices) more commensurate with what our local prices were a year ago, in hopes of helping the sales in those areas,” Cook told Reuters in an interview.



<h4>RISING DOLLAR HURTS APPLE SALES</h4>



In the company’s quarterly earnings call on Tuesday, Cook also highlighted the impact of foreign exchange problems in Turkey, where he said the local lira had depreciated by 33 percent against the dollar and Apple’s sales were down by $700 million from the previous year. In November, Apple also cited currency pressure on its prices in Brazil, India and Russia.



Apple has not said when or how often it might reset its prices because of foreign currency changes.



Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said the price adjustments may not extend to its services business, which includes Apple Music and the App Store.



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While that unit beat analyst expectations with $10.8 billion in sales in the quarter ended in December, growth has slowed compared to previous years.



Apple posts revenue drop but optimistic on China



Maestri said slower growth was partly because prices rose for users in non-U.S. markets.



“Roughly 60 percent of our services business is outside the United States, and as you know, the U.S. dollar has appreciated in recent months,” Maestri said. “And in general, we tend not to reprice our services for foreign exchange on a very frequent basis.” -Reuters



-Stephen Nellis

gettyimages-1090831872-594×594

Apple Lowers Some iPhone Prices Outside US To Offset Strong Dollar

Apple Inc has dismissed more than 200 employees from its autonomous vehicle group, Project Titan, CNBC reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.



The dismissals are seen, internally, as anticipated restructuring under the relatively new leadership of Project Titan, CNBC said.



“As the team focuses their work on several key areas for 2019, some groups are being moved to projects in other parts of the company, where they will support machine learning and other initiatives, across all of Apple,” the company said in a statement.



However, Apple didn’t confirm or deny the layoffs.



Last year, the iPhone maker hired Doug Field, an Apple veteran and a Tesla engineering vice president, to lead the Project Titan team alongside Bob Mansfield. -Reuters



-Mekhla Raina and Rishika Chatterjee

Inside Sands China Resorts As The Company Reports Full-Year Results

Apple Dismisses Over 200 Staff From Autonomous Vehicle Group

Behind the bar of San Francisco&#8217;s Four Seasons Hotel last March, a set of doors led into an empty cafe room where an unknown, 25-year-old British-Nigerian entrepreneur named Silas Adekunle was about to meet a senior executive at Apple.
If he was nervous, Adekunle didn’t show it.
He smiled and opened up a large suitcase. It was filled with colorful robots that looked at first like toys. When he took one out and set it on the floor, it came alive.
Called a Mekamon, it raced, spider-like across a mat on four pointed legs, trotting daintily before bowing, and performing a dramatic death shudder. Adekunle took out his phone and pointed it at the Mekamon, and now on his screen it was surrounded by glowing lights, facing an animated opponent that it could shoot lasers at.
Apple’s head of developer relations, Ron Okamoto, carefully surveyed the other robots, then peppered Adekunle with questions about motors and articulations. “It’s got character,” he noted.
Their expected 15-minute chat went on for more than an hour. At the end, Okamoto said the words every young entrepreneur with a team of just nine staff dreams of hearing: “You need to come spend some time with us in Cupertino.”
A year on and Adekunle, who at 26 is part of <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2018/01/21/meet-europes-30-under-30-in-technology-2018/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Forbes’ latest 30 Under 30 list for European Technology</a> launched this week, is on course to sell plenty of Mekamon robots thanks to an exclusive distribution deal he signed in November 2017 after “spending some time in Cupertino” and meeting Apple&#8217;s retail executives.
Impressed by the quality of his robots and their ability to show emotion with subtly-calibrated movements, Apple priced his four-legged “battle-bots” at $300 and has put them in nearly all of its stores in the United States and Britain. Early customers skew towards male techies but a growing number of parents are buying the robots for their children to get them interested in STEM, Adekunle says.
What he hadn’t known during that first meeting at the Four Seasons: Apple was about to launch <a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/technology/2017/09/13/apple-not-google-facebook-will-define-future-augmented-reality/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ARKit</a>, its very first platform for augmented reality. AR is the cutting-edge technology that mixes digital animations with the real world, on smartphones screens, popularized by Pokemon Go and expected to go further with the face and object tracking technology in Apple’s latest iPhone X. With no track record, Adekunle and his team of nine were suddenly working with the world’s biggest brand.
Robots might already be <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2017/11/30/grocery-robot-hand-ocado/#7039ad3f1b53" target="_blank" rel="noopener">changing the nature of warehouse management</a> for retailers and other industries, but they’re gradually making their way into our homes too, helped along by people’s increasing ease with artificial entities like Amazon’s Alexa. Adekunle hopes his anthropomorphised robot-spiders will be as popular, say, as iRobot’s Roomba vacuum cleaner.
Trends point that way. Analysts at IDC <a href="https://idc-community.com/idc_futurescape_worldwide_2017_predictions/top_10_worldwide_robotics_predictions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">predict that in three years</a>, the market for consumer robots will have doubled. Next generation AI robots will be focused less on physical tasks, and more on teaching and interacting with family members, says Jing Bing Zhang, the research director of IDC Worldwide Robotics.
On a more recent Monday morning in January 2018, Adekunle is standing in the corridor of Reach Robotics in Bristol, UK, and staring at a hunk of wires and melted plastic. It’s the first prototype he made in his college dorm room, and is on display as a reminder of how far his start-up has come.
“Some of my fingerprints are still on there” he says. “It’s ugly as hell.”
The Mekamon today looks a lot more cutting edge, something like a cross between a crab and a spider, but unlike either of those animals, it has no features resembling a pair of eyes or mouth.
There’s a reason for that.
“When I went into robotics I really loved motion,” says Adekunle. “People are used to clunky robots, and when you make it appear to be realistic, people either love it or they’re freaked out.”
Adekunle decided that his robots could use motion to get an emotional reaction from humans. “I love motion,” he says. Back when he was first tinkering on a robotic prototype while he was at the University of West England, around 2012, several robotic pets like the Sony Aibo robot dog were already hitting the market. The trouble was that most of these personified gadgets cost a fortune. Sony’s <a href="https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/10/31/16588878/sony-aibo-2017-announced-price-release-date" target="_blank" rel="noopener">latest version</a> of the Aibo costs $1,700 plus a subscription fee.
The Mekamon costs $300, (or £300 in the UK) and future updates to its firmware will see it take on further characteristics. “It gets angry if you don’t play with it, and when it wins games, its behavior changes,” says Christopher Beck, co-founder and CTO of Reach Robotics.
The Mekamons will later this year become touch responsive, so that when their owners rub their heads they’ll show “happy” movements such as wagging from side-to-side like a dog. Adekunle’s research team drew inspiration from animal behavior, looking for instance at what horses do when they get nervous.
“A large part of our product is emotional,” says Beck.
Sharp movements and stamping feet, for instance, can show aggression, while a calmer movement would be slowly rising up and down to suggest breathing.
<iframe loading="lazy" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VPmxEVw1KCE?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Reach Robotics’ headquarters is part of a nondescript office complex just off Britain’s M3 motorway leading into Bristol. A few dozen engineers are sitting in front of iMacs in its open-plan office, and two rooms that serve as labs for building prototypes are currently empty save for machinery.
Adekunle walks into a meeting room toting a rolling suitcase. It’s the same one he used for his demonstration to Apple’s Ron Okamoto and within a few moments he’s taking two of his latest bots out of the case and snapping on some leg casings and a battery pack.
Once the battery goes in, each bot starts doing its own wake-up movements. One lifts a leg to “stretch” it before shaking it out, and then bowing down. “They can see each other,” he says, “but we’re not doing anything with that at the moment.”
Down the line, if one robot is winning battles on the Mekamon mobile gaming platform, it might strut when it meets another, less successful peer.
Adekunle has already come a long way from his early experiments as a teen, including a robotic hand made out of baked beans cans, and a robotic face (based on the Kismet robot of MIT’s Cynthia Breazeal) that had tennis balls for eyes and rolled up pieces of paper for ears.
Back in Nigeria, where Adekunle was born, he also inadvertently caused a power outage in his apartment block as a kid, when he took a battery and plugged it with some spare wires into the mains outlet. “I was lucky I didn’t get electrocuted,” he says.
He was fortunate to grow up in a relatively well-off family; his father was a school principal and his mother was a midwife. But he lacked the exposure to technology that many kids get today. He remembers how one day someone brought a computer to his primary school and the kids who wanted to see it up close had to pay a fee.
When Adekunle’s mother moved to Britain to work, times got tough. There was no email, and the family could only speak on the phone once every couple of months. If for some reason his mother couldn’t get access to a landline, Adekunle’s family would be waiting at the other end with no idea what was going on.
Two years later, when he was around 10, Adekunle moved to the UK and started going to secondary school.
At home he continued tinkering with amateur robotics, getting ideas from YouTube and dabbling in code as a script kiddie; then at university, he cut his teeth on programming in C++ to unlock a wealth of new possibilities. It was here that he started experimenting on the first moving prototypes for what would become the Mekamon.
In 2013 he met Beck, who was working on a Ph.D. and had experience in robotics, and asked if he could help develop Mekamon into something that would look like a product.
“Everyone told us it was too complicated and expensive and no one would buy it,” Beck remembers. “Toy manufacturers who were stuck in their ways were saying ‘You have to make it as cheap as possible. People will play with it for five minutes, then break it.’”
But Adekunle and Beck believed there was a market for a more complex product, a robot with 12 motors when most motorized toys had no more than five.
“Looking at the state of robots out there, they made fart noises or they burped, which is funny for the first month,” says Beck. “There’s no crossover between robot toys and high-end products which cost thousands and are aimed at hobbyists.”
No one, he adds, has dared to be this bold. “There’s a few legged robots but they scuttle and don’t walk,” says Beck. “Or they walk in a way you can’t animate. We animate this robot.”
Adekunle, who had previously left the room, now slides open the door to speak to Beck and let him know that some potential investors are about to turn up. Both later sit down for a meeting in their cozy cafeteria space.
For his next act, Adekunle is hoping to raise a new round of funds (having already raised $10 million for the company), and also strike some licensing deals with entertainment companies in Asia. Eventually, Mekamon robots might start to come out with branded versions &#8211; think Pokemon characters, for instance.
“Asia is going to be a huge market for them,” says one of Reach Robotics’ investors and the former CEO of Atari, David Gardner.
For now, Reach will continue to make money with direct sales to consumers and with that exclusive deal with Apple Retail.
“The partnership with Apple has been fruitful,” says Adekunle, adding that he’s looking to continue the relationship. “We have many more products to bring to market,” he adds. “It’s a watch this space situation.” &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Parmy Olson</a>, FORBES STAFF

Meet The Young Robotics Entrepreneur Who Got A Dream Deal With Apple

At Apple&#8217;s last annual developer conference in June, one new tool captured the attention of developers perhaps more than any other product or tool introduced that day. Called ARKit, the tool for iOS 11 enables developers to create augmented reality applications that place digital objects in the real world.
With a new set of iPhones announced on Tuesday &#8211; iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X &#8211; Apple now offers the best hardware and software platform for developing AR applications.
<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/miguelhelft/2017/09/12/live-blog-all-the-news-about-apples-new-iphones-watch-and-more/#8791c005f8e9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">(Read more: Apple News Wrap Up: IPhone 8, IPhone X, Face ID, Wireless Charging, Animated Emojis And More)</a>
Developers are jumping on board and spending a considerable amount of time, money and effort to take full advantage of ARKit. Ikea&#8217;s head of digital transformation, Michael Valdsgaard, said 70 employees at the retail giant spent nine and half weeks weeks toiling day and night on an ARKit app. The result, Ikea Place, allows customers to place digital versions of Ikea furniture in their homes before spending money on something that doesn&#8217;t work outside of a store setting.
Ikea starting toying with an AR tool in 2013, Valdsgaard told Forbes. But earlier versions required dedicated AR headsets, which lack the ubiquity of iPhones. That severely limited rollout. The experience was also never very solid. ARKit handles the complicated task of measuring the room and its dimensions to accurately place objects.
&#8220;We never had the vehicle or platform to make AR really good,&#8221; Valdsgaard said. &#8220;This is what ARKit does.&#8221;
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/entreprenuers/2017/09/11/battling-giants/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Battling Giants</a>
But placing furniture may not be ARKit&#8217;s most compelling use. The Machines, a multiplayer strategy game Developer Directive Games demonstrated at the Apple event, places a battlefield in the real world in which players direct combat by moving their iPhones.
Apple&#8217;s ARKit does have limitations. It can detect horizontal surfaces like floors and tables, but not vertical surfaces like walls. Valdsgaard predicts that Apple will soon add this function.
Although ARKit will support iPhones as old as the iPhone 6s, it looks like AR apps will really shine on the latest hardware announced on Tuesday. The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus will contain Apple&#8217;s latest chip, the A11 Bionic. It has a six-core central processing unit  &#8211; two high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores &#8211; Apple&#8217;s first custom graphics processing unit, and an image signal processor. The CPU core will handle the world tracking, the ISP will do real-time lighting estimation, and the GPU will generate digital images.
&#8220;It’s clear Apple is focused on AR as a platform and is building their phones with the hardware needed to enable great experiences,&#8221; said Scott Montgomerie, cofounder and CEO of Scope AR, an enterprise AR developer.
More important for AR hardware will likely be the iPhone X, Apple&#8217;s highest-end device. Inside the iPhone X is the A11 chip as well as a processor dedicated to neural network computing. The neural network models are supposed to more accurately track faces and the world around them, which could make for some more compelling AR experiences.
Google, Microsoft and Facebook all have competing AR developer platforms. At one point, Google was trying to push its own hardware platform with Project Tango, a depth-sensing camera system it offered to third-party phone makers. Only two phone makers &#8211; Asus and Lenovo &#8211; have adopted Tango, but the resulting phones have been lackluster. Tango received little developer support.
Now Google is trying a similar to approach to Apple ARKit, ARCore for Android. But like everything else in the Android ecosystem, Google has a hard time controlling what&#8217;s happening on the hardware side. Only Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy S8 will support ARCore at launch.
Valdsgaard says he is glad Google decided to move beyond Tango to support AR development, but Ikea has been just working with Apple&#8217;s AR platform for now.
&#8220;We&#8217;ve been focusing just on Apple,&#8221; Valdsgaard said. &#8220;Ikea is for many people. How can we reach many people? We need to focus on the biggest AR platform the world.&#8221; &#8211; Written by <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/aarontilley/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-ga-track="contrib block byline">Aaron Tilley</a>, FORBES STAFF
&nbsp;

Apple, Not Google Or Facebook, Will Define The Future Of Augmented Reality

When the iPhone emerged in 2007, it came with all the promise and pomp of a major Steve Jobs announcement, highlighting its user interface and slick design as key selling points. We know now that the iPhone transformed the mobile phone business, the internet economy and, in many ways, society as a whole. But technically speaking, the iPhone was not very innovative.
Its software and the interface idea were based on the iPod, which was already <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/itunes-10th-anniversary-how-steve-jobs-turned-the-industry-upside-down-20130426">reinventing the digital music industry</a>. Touchscreens had appeared on earlier phone and tablet models, including <a href="http://oldcomputers.net/apple-newton.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Apple’s own Newton</a>. And <a href="http://nokiamuseum.info/category/launching-year/2007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">top-line Nokia phones</a> had more memory, better cameras and faster mobile connectivity. What made the iPhone transformative was the <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/13/15782200/one-device-secret-history-iphone-brian-merchant-book-excerpt" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">shift in concept underpinning the entire iPhone project</a>: Its designers did not create a telephone with some extra features, but rather a full-fledged hand-held computer that could also make calls and browse the internet.
As a <a href="http://www.internationalinnovation.com/how-digitasation-is-changing-the-working-world/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">scholar of management, design and innovation</a>, I find it hard to predict what the next truly revolutionary technological development will be. In the 10 years since the launch of the iPhone, <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/when-iphone-met-world-7-years-ago-today/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">so much about modern life, commerce and culture has changed</a>. In part that’s because the iPhone, and the smartphone boom it spurred, created a portable personal technology infrastructure that’s almost infinitely expandable. The iPhone changed the game not because of its initial technology and cool user interface but rather as a result of its creators’ imagination and courage.
<h2>Inventing mobile apps</h2>
As the iPhone took shape, its designers found themselves <a href="http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/brian-merchant/the-one-device/9781478915836/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">torn between making a phone or a computer</a>. Engineers and marketing executives alike worried the new device would kill the iPod market that had <a href="http://business.time.com/2012/09/14/without-music-apple-would-be-nothing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">driven Apple’s corporate resurgence for five years</a>. Nokia, <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/263438/market-share-held-by-nokia-smartphones-since-2007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the biggest player in the cellphone market at the time</a>, had similar technologies and prototypes, and also <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304388004577531002591315494" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">feared outcompeting</a> its own successful mobile phone product lines that used a simpler and more old-fashioned software platform than that on which iPhone was built.
Apple took the leap, however, by installing a fully capable computer operating system on the iPhone, along with a few small application programs. Some were phone-related, including a program that handled making and receiving calls, as well as <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2007/01/09Apple-Reinvents-the-Phone-with-iPhone/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a new way to display voicemail messages</a>, and a system that kept different contacts’ text messages separate. Others were more computer-like, including an email app and a web browser. Of course, the music-playing features from the iPod were included too, linking the phone with the emerging Apple music ecosystem.
Initially, that was about it for apps. But <a href="https://www.cultofmac.com/164137/meet-geohot-guy-who-unlocked-the-first-iphone-and-hacked-the-sony-ps3/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">skilled computer engineers and hackers</a> knew they were holding a palm-sized computer, and set to work writing their own software and <a href="https://www.cultofmac.com/213904/how-far-weve-come-the-original-iphone-jailbreak-took-74-steps-jailbreak/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">getting it running on their iPhones</a>. That was the dawn of the now-ubiquitous app. Within a year, these apps were so popular, and their potential so significant, that <a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/1134503/iphone2update.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Apple’s second version of the iPhone operating system</a> made it easy (and legal) for users to install <a href="http://www.phonecruncher.com/features/00942/the-first-ever-apps-on-the-app-store-gone-but-not-forgotten/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">apps on their phones</a>.
<h2>Shifting priorities</h2>
The prospect of making a fully functional hand-held computer changed how users and manufacturers alike thought about mobile phones. For Apple and every other phone company, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-android-smartphones-2011-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">software became much more important than hardware</a>. What apps a phone could run, and how quickly, mattered much more than whether it had a slightly better camera or could hold a few more photos; whether it flipped open, slid open or was a bar-style; or whether it had a large keyboard or a small one. The iPhone’s <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-reaction-first-iphone-2015-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">keyboard was on-screen</a> and software-generated, making a function that had required dedicated hardware into one running on generic hardware and dedicated software.
At the time of the iPhone launch, Nokia offered about 200 <a href="http://nokiamuseum.info/category/launching-year/2007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">different phone styles to meet all the different needs</a> of its hundreds of millions of customers. There was just one iPhone model at the start, and in the ensuing decade there have been only <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_iOS_devices#iPhone" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">14 major styles</a> – though today they come in different colors, not just white and black as the original did. This is the power of software functionality and related simplicity.
The heightened importance of software on a mobile phone shifted the industry’s economy as well. The money came now not just from selling devices and phone services, but also from marketing and selling apps and in-app advertisements. <a href="https://www.recode.net/2016/6/8/11889298/google-apple-subscription-app-revenue-share" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">App developers must share revenue</a> with the <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/2/16/14634656/android-ios-market-share-blackberry-2016" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">companies that control smartphones’ operating systems</a>, providing serious earning power: Apple holds <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/2/16/14634656/android-ios-market-share-blackberry-2016/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">about 15% of the mobile phone market</a>, but reaps <a href="http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170308000345" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">80% of global smartphone profits</a>.
Whatever the next tech industry game-changer is, and whenever it arrives, it will likely have some connection to the smartphone and related infrastructure. Even today, <a href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/10/13/virtual_reality_is_made_o_smartphones/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">exploring virtual reality</a> requires only installing an app and connecting just a bit of additional hardware to an existing phone. Similarly, smartphone interfaces and cameras already <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2410889,00.asp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">monitor and control intelligent and automated homes</a>. Even as devices are developed to operate all around us, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/alphabets-new-plan-to-track-10-000-people-could-take-wearables-to-the-next-level-76620" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">even in our clothes</a>, many of them will be able to point to the iPhone as a conceptual ancestor and inspiration.  &#8211; Written by <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kalle-lyytinen-336943" target="_blank" rel="author noopener noreferrer">Kalle Lyytinen</a>, Iris S. Wolstein Professor of Management Design, Case Western Reserve University
Originally published in <a href="https://theconversation.com/africa" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Conversation</a>
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