This Week in Apps: WWDC goes online, coronavirus leads to more cancellations, sneaky spy apps exposed

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the Extra Crunch series that recaps the latest OS news, the applications they support and the money that flows through it all.

The app industry is as hot as ever, with a record 204 billion downloads in 2019 and $120 billion in consumer spending in 2019, according to App Annie’s recently released “State of Mobile” annual report. People are now spending 3 hours and 40 minutes per day using apps, rivaling TV. Apps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours — they’re a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a combined $544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus.

In this Extra Crunch series, we help you keep up with the latest news from the world of apps, delivered on a weekly basis.

This week we’re taking a look at several stories related to the coronavirus outbreak, including the cancellation of WWDC in San Jose, as well as other app industry events that are going online. We’re also discussing the iOS 14 leak, the exposure of Sensor Tower’s app network, a potential ban on TikTok for government workers and more.

Coronavirus Special Coverage

The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are continuing to play out on app stores and across the industry. This week, we’re leading with these stories followed by the other — and yes, still important — news.

Apple finally cancels its WWDC event in San Jose

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An Apple Store employee on leave has tested positive for COVID-19 in Santa Monica

An Apple Store employee who was on leave from the Third St. Promenade store in Santa Monica, California tested positive for COVID-19 late yesterday. The employee had been on leave to care for a relative since March 2nd.

Apple consulted health experts and deep cleaned the Third St. store which remains open. Apple says that it has also instituted additional deep cleaning protocols and taken measures to reduce density by cancelling Today at Apple sessions and spacing out Genius Bar appointments.

As of March 4, Los Angeles County had declared a local emergency and on March 11th CA Governor Gavin Newsom recommended against large scale events. The city of Santa Monica cancelled all public gatherings as of March 12. Apple’s home county of Santa Clara had announced 66 total confirmed cases of coronavirus as of yesterday and issued an order to cancel mass gatherings over 1,000 people for three weeks. Yesterday’s biggest closure news, though, came from Disney, which announced that Walt Disney World, Disneyland in California and Disneyland Paris would all close for several weeks.

We received a full statement from Apple regarding the employee as follows:

“Apple’s first priority — now and always — is the health and safety of our employees, customers and the communities we serve. An employee at our Third St. Promenade store in Santa Monica informed us they had tested positive for COVID-19 late yesterday. The employee has not been to the store since taking leave on March 2 to care for a relative.

In consultation with health experts, we’ve taken a number of steps to protect our teams and customers. All our stores around the world have increased deep cleaning protocols and we have actively reduced customer density in all stores worldwide by cancelling Today at Apple sessions and creating extra space for Genius Bar appointments. As a precaution, we also undertook an additional extensive deep clean overnight before reopening the Third St. Promenade store.

We recognize this is a challenging and ever changing time for our global community and our thoughts are with those around the world personally affected by COVID-19 and the heroic medical professionals and researchers fighting it.”

Many Apple Stores around the world remain open, while others have been closed in alignment with local regulations amid coronavirus concerns. The additional cleaning protocols have been in use since February at Apple Stores worldwide. In addition, Apple has closed its stores in Italy, which remains on lockdown. The last of Apple’s 42 stores in mainland China re-opened today with limited hours after closures.

Apple has extended additional sick time to all employees and any employee with symptoms similar to COVID-19 will be paid for sick time as long as they are out. I also understand that Apple Store managers are being as flexible as possible with concerned employees who are not yet sick though no official policies have been issued.

I asked Apple for comment on whether it was considering closing any retail stores in the US but it would not comment at this time. One would absolutely have to imagine that it was monitoring all of this very closely though. And given that it has proven willing to close every store in China and Italy due to conditions, it would probably do the same in the US.

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5G devices were less than 1% of US smartphone purchases in 2019

No surprise, really, that 5G smartphone sales are on the way up. Frankly, there’s really no other way to go, according to the latest numbers from NPD’s Mobile Phone Tracking. The firm noted that 5G handsets accounted for less than 1% of total sales in the U.S.

The hurdles are also what you’d expect: namely, pricing and the lack of 5G availability. There’s also the fact that for much of 2019, there simply weren’t that many phones to purchase. When the devices did start arriving from companies like LG, Samsung and OnePlus, the numbers started trending upward, with an increase of roughly 9x from the first to the second half of the year.

Awareness, too, increased notably. Some nine in 10 surveyed consumers in the U.S. had some familiarity with 5G in the second half of the year, up from 73% in the first half. Meanwhile, 65% expressed “interest” in purchasing the tech. How that translates to actual sales, however, is another question entirely.

That should improve as the price of manufacturing these devices comes down, thanks to lower-cost components from companies like Qualcomm. And in markets like the U.S., 5G coverage will be greatly expanded by year’s end, making it a much more appealing purchase. And, of course, never underestimate the impact of Apple’s first 5G iPhone.

Smartphone manufacturers have very much been banking on the increased interest in 5G to help correct the larger trend of flagging sales.

Of course, it remains to be seen how COVID-19 will impact sales. It seems safe to assume that, like every aspect of our lives, there will be a notable impact on the number of people buying expensive smartphones. Certainly things like smartphone purchases tend to lessen in importance in the face of something like a global pandemic.

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Apple makes WWDC online-only, amid COVID-19 concerns

Apple today announced that it would follow moves by other major tech firms by canceling the in-person element of its annual World Wide Developers Conference in June. Rather than holding the big event in San Jose as it has in recent years, the company will move to an online-only format. Apple cited “the current health situation” as the driving factor for the decision. 

“We are delivering WWDC 2020 this June in an innovative way to millions of developers around the world, bringing the entire developer community together with a new experience,” SVP Phil Schiller said in a release. “The current health situation has required that we create a new WWDC 2020 format that delivers a full program with an online keynote and sessions, offering a great learning experience for our entire developer community, all around the world. We will be sharing all of the details in the weeks ahead.”

Now entering its 31st year, the show has become a major event for developers and consumers alike, showcasing the latest developments for software like iOS and macOS, often accompanied by hardware releases. The official graphic features a MacBook, perhaps hinting at the arrival of new laptops. Beyond the opening keynote, the show consists of several days of workshops aimed at developers. Apple has long offered video of many of the workshops afterward, along with some live streamed elements. The announcement so far is light on the details of how it will approach them this June.

WWDC just the most recent in a long line of events that have been postponed, reformatted or canceled in the wake of the growing global pandemic, joining events like Mobile World Congress and Google’s I/O developer conference. Yesterday, San Clara County joined nearby San Francisco in banning gatherings of more than 1,000 people. The county, which houses San Jose, has reported 48 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and one death, as of the most recent report.

The county had declined to institute a ban a week prior. “Because our emerging data tells that we have more extensive community spread than was apparent to us even five days ago, we must take more actions to slow the spread of disease and to protect the public,” Santa Clara County health officer Sara Cody said in a news conference earlier this week. While it’s impossible to say what the situation will look like come June, Apple’s move clearly makes the most sense for all parties. Apple also promised to  commit $1 million  to San Jose-based organizations to help offset revenue lost from the event.

 

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Stocks sharply rebound as markets rally on expectations of government bailout, testing

As America’s fractured Congress inches closer to an agreement on a comprehensive bailout for the economic hardships businesses and workers are facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, stocks are poised for a big rally on Wall Street.

The move is more than welcome after stock markets recorded their worst day in over thirty years yesterday.

All the major indices (and bitcoin) were up in pre-market trading the morning after Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said that Republican and Democratic leadership had a deal in place to move forward with a financial stimulus package to support businesses hit by the coronavirus outbreak.

At the open markets went up:

• The Dow Jones was up 1,301.20, or 6.14% , to 22,501.82 at the open
• The Nasdaq was up 391.93 points, or 5.44%, to 7,593.73 at the open
• The S&P 500 was up 139.54 points, or 5.63%, to 2,620.18 at the open

In addition to the federal government’s agreement with congressional leadership to make it rain, the agencies tasked with overseeing the nation’s health are moving forward quickly to bring new testing capabilities online in an effort to get a clearer picture of the spread of the novel coronavirus in the U.S.

— THE FDA will create an around-the-clock hotline for labs if they can’t get authorized tests, need to process tests or have issues validating a test.

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) March 13, 2020

It’s a clutch of good news for people who don’t like bad news, and there’s been a lot of bad news lately. The seeds of a potentially more coordinated government response have borne fruit in a brighter outlook for tech darlings like Apple, which was up 7.45% or $18.49 per-share in pre-market trading. Tesla shares were up 7.75% at the market open to $604.01 per share. Microsoft is up over 7% as well.

Damage

Not all damage is set to be undone, however. At its current open, the Nasdaq is still off about 22%, leaving it not only far from recovered, but still firmly encamped in bear-market territory.

Similarly, bitcoin’s modest rally in the past half day is not a full recovery. This morning’s trading leaves the price of the most famous cryptocurrency down a little less than 50% down from recent highs (bitcoin traded for more than $10,000 in mid-February.) Other cryptos remain hard-hit, with XRP down more than 50% from its February highs, and Ethereum down a similar percent over the same timeframe.

But still, the day’s positive news is welcome. Hard-hit companies like Uber and Lyft are up sharply, providing some balm to investors who had wagered on recent technology IPOs. More when the markets close, of course, but keep an extra close eye on Slack, which fell after-hours yesterday when its earnings report failed to excite investors. This morning, however, it appears to have pared those declines.

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Yahoo Mobile is a $39.99 unlimited phone and data plan

As a cell phone plan, Yahoo Mobile seems pretty straightforward — there’s just one pricing tier, where you pay $39.99 per month for unlimited calls, data and mobile hotspot usage.

But you may be wondering why Yahoo is getting into the phone business. It makes more sense when you recall that Yahoo is owned by Verizon, as part of the Verizon Media business. (Verizon Media also owns TechCrunch.)

Verizon has also spun out a startup called Visible, which also offers unlimited cell service for the same price.

And Yahoo Mobile basically sounds like the Visible service, albeit with the additional feature of a pro Yahoo Mail account. It even offers Visible insurance plans and the same financing through Affirm for people who want to purchase a new Pixel 4, iPhone 11 or iPhone XS. And it includes the same caveats, namely being U.S.-only and coming with the possibility of throttling your data, plus a speed limit of 5 Mbps on the mobile hotspot.

In the official announcement, Verizon Media CEO Guru Gowrappan said:

With the launch of Yahoo Mobile, we are continuing to evolve our business by bringing a new, personalized Yahoo experience to the market that feeds our users’ passions, and also attracts new audiences. Combining the strengths of Verizon’s assets in wireless, technology, and media will enable us to deliver a valuable consumer offering and experiences that give people more of what they want.

Verizon’s unlimited data carrier Visible starts selling iPhones, announces Android compatibility

 

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Apple could announce new MacBook models with scissor-switch keyboards soon

According to a new report from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple could unveil new MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models with scissor-switch keyboards. MacRumors first noticed the report, TechCrunch obtained the research note as well.

Apple has already updated the big MacBook Pro in November. The company slightly increased the size of the display from 15” to 16” without any meaningful changes in overall size. Apple also abandoned the controversial butterfly keyboards. The 16-inch MacBook Pro now relies on a more traditional scissor-switch keyboards.

But Kuo thinks Apple will ship updated MacBook models with a scissor-switch keyboard at some point during the second quarter of 2020. So you can expect a MacBook Air and small MacBook Pro update in the near future. Apple could use this opportunity to increase the size of the display of the 13-inch MacBook Pro model as well.

In addition to those minor but important updates, rumor has it that Apple is already planning bigger changes for the MacBook lineup. The first laptop with an Apple-designed ARM processor could ship in the last quarter of 2020 or the first quarter of 2021.

This change will have wide implications for developers as they’ll need to recompile their apps to run on ARM processors. Apple will likely lay out a roadmap so that third-party developers have enough time before releasing an ARM-based laptop.

There could also be a brand new laptop design in Q2 or Q3 of 2021. But Kuo is a bit vague on this front. Apple plans could still change.

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