Apple says next iPhones will launch later than usual

Users gearing up to buy the latest iPhones are going to have to wait longer than they did last year.

In a call following the release of Apple’s Q3 earnings, the company’s CFO Luca Maestri shared that compared to the September 2019 release of iPhone 11 models, Apple is expecting this year’s supply of new iPhones “to be available a few weeks later.” It’s an exceedingly rare move for the company, which generally refuses to even acknowledge its timeline for releasing new products, even the iPhone, which refreshes annually.

It is not unprecedented for the iPhone’s release to be delayed; in 2017, Apple’s iPhone X was not released until November. The company also often releases different iPhone models on a different release cadence in the weeks following the device announcements.

Apple is expected to release several new models this year integrating 5G network support.

On Thursday, Apple shared quarterly earnings results from the third-quarter which smashed Wall Street expectations, delivering revenue of $59.69 billion, up 11% year-over-year. The coronavirus pandemic hasn’t knocked Apple’s share price or revenue growth, but the admission is one sign that it did halt momentum in its product pipelines in delivering another September release.

Apple smashes Q3 revenue expectations despite pandemic

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Daily Crunch: Apple beats Q3 expectations

Apple has a strong quarter despite coronavirus, Impossible Foods is coming to Walmart and NASA launches a new Mars rover. Here’s your Daily Crunch for July 30, 2020.

The big story: Apple beats Q3 expectations

Apple’s latest earning report suggests that the company is thriving despite COVID-19, with revenue of $59.69 billion in the third quarter of its fiscal year. That’s significantly higher than the $52.25 billion expected by analysts, and it reflects 11% growth year over year.

This isn’t the first time Apple has reported earnings since coronavirus became a part of our lives, but Q3 was its first quarter to occur entirely during the pandemic.

The company also announced a four-for-one stock split scheduled for the end of August, through which Apple investors will receive three more shares for each share they already own, with single shares becoming correspondingly more affordable.

The tech giants

Amazon says police demands for customer data have gone up — The figures show that in the first half of 2020, Amazon received 23% more subpoenas and search warrants compared to the first half of 2019.

PayPal and Venmo QR Code checkout is coming to 8,200 CVS stores in Q4 — CVS will become the first nationwide retailer to allow customers to pay using either their PayPal or Venmo QR code at the register, without fees.

Google is making autofill on Chrome for mobile more secure — The new autofill experience on mobile will use biometric authentication for credit card transactions.

Startups, funding and venture capital

Impossible Foods starts selling in Walmart and expands distribution of its new sausage product — Impossible Foods will now be available at more than 2,000 Walmart stores across the country.

Rocket launch startup Astra readies for orbital test flight as early as Sunday — The startup only incorporated three years ago, and it’s building its rockets in Alameda, California.

We’ve updated The TechCrunch List with 116 new VCs ready to write first and lead checks into startups — Thanks to reader response and recommendations, the list keeps growing!

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch

Six leading investors assess the remote-work startup landscape — In our latest VC survey, we try to understand if SaaS fatigue is real and where open-space still exists in the remote-work world.

Four keys to building your startup — Insights from Sequoia’s Jess Lee, Initialized’s Garry Tan, Floodgate’s Ann Miura-Ko and Neo’s Ali Partovi.

Jesus, SaaS and digital tithing — Part 1 of a series on “church tech.”

(Reminder: Extra Crunch is our subscription membership program, which aims to democratize information about startups. You can sign up here.)

Everything else

NASA successfully launches its Mars 2020 Perseverance rover using an Atlas V rocket — The Perseverance rover is equipped with sensors specifically designed to help it find evidence of ancient, microbiotic life on Mars.

CBS All Access adds 3,500 new episodes before rebranding in 2021 — ViacomCBS had previously announced plans to launch an expanded and rebranded version of CBS All Access this summer, to better compete against streaming offerings like Disney+ and HBO Max.

Just 48 hours left on early-bird passes to Disrupt 2020 — Less than 48 hours now!

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 3pm Pacific, you can subscribe here.

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Apple says next iPhones will launch later than usual

Users gearing up to buy the latest iPhones are going to have to wait longer than they did last year.

In a call following the release of Apple’s Q3 earnings, the company’s CFO Luca Maestri shared that compared to the September 2019 release of iPhone 11 models, Apple is expecting this year’s supply of new iPhones “to be available a few weeks later.” It’s an exceedingly rare move for the company, which generally refuses to even acknowledge its timeline for releasing new products, even the iPhone, which refreshes annually.

It is not unprecedented for the iPhone’s release to be delayed; in 2017, Apple’s iPhone X was not released until November. The company also often releases different iPhone models on a different release cadence in the weeks following the device announcements.

Apple is expected to release several new models this year integrating 5G network support.

On Thursday, Apple shared quarterly earnings results from the third-quarter which smashed Wall Street expectations, delivering revenue of $59.69 billion, up 11% year-over-year. The coronavirus pandemic hasn’t knocked Apple’s share price or revenue growth, but the admission is one sign that it did halt momentum in its product pipelines in delivering another September release.

Apple smashes Q3 revenue expectations despite pandemic

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Apple smashes Q3 revenue expectations despite pandemic

COVID-19 isn’t keeping Apple down.

The company smashed Wall Street expectations, delivering Q3 revenue of $59.69 billion, beating down the $52.25 billion analysts had expected. The company also announced earnings per share of $2.58 compared to Wall Street expectation of $2.04 EPS.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, Apple’s overall revenue was up nearly 11% year-over-year, reflecting the boom that broader tech stocks have seen as of late. The company’s year-over-year revenues were up in every geography it measures and every product category it measures.

Apple’s stock was up as much as 5% in after-hours trading as investors reacted to the earnings release.

“Apple’s record June quarter was driven by double-digit growth in both Products and Services and growth in each of our geographic segments,” said CEO Tim Cook in a statement accompanying the release. “In uncertain times, this performance is a testament to the important role our products play in our customers’ lives and to Apple’s relentless innovation.”

Alongside the news, Apple detailed that they would be doing a four-for-one stock split, indicating that investors who already own one share of Apple stock will receive three more. This doesn’t materially change much for investors, but does ensure that single shares of Apple stock will be more affordable when the stock split is carried out toward the end of August. This isn’t a first for the company; they’ve done it several times, most recently back in 2014.

This was Apple’s first quarterly earnings report that fully felt the damage of COVID-19 and worldwide changes to in-person retail amid wide shelter-in-place mandates by governments. These seismic shifts have clearly not damaged Apple’s stock, which hit an all-time high this month and already appears on its way toward breaking through a $2 trillion market cap.

The company had its first fully remote developer conference earlier this summer, where they debuted the next wave of their device operating systems. The company is expected to release a flurry of new mobile devices in upcoming months, as per their historic device release schedule.

Yesterday, CEO Tim Cook was Zoom-summoned to an antitrust hearing in Washington, D.C. where he was questioned about anti-competitive practices alongside other Big Tech CEOs.

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Big tech crushes Q2 earnings expectations

Today after the bell, Apple, Alphabet, Facebook and Amazon reported their earnings results. Each bested expectations, and all but one are up sharply in after-hours trading.

Coming on the heels of a day’s worth of congressional hearings in which the four companies highlighted competition and downplayed their market position, the results are loud. The group’s collected earnings beats are especially impressive given that they came during a quarter in which the economy contracted, meaning that their combined, relative share of the U.S. economy went up sharply during the period.

Let’s chat about each to collect high-level results, and check in on Apple’s stock-split news that is sure to keep Wall Street talking for days to come.

Apple

Image Credits: TechCrunch

Apple reported Q2 2020 revenue of $59.7 billion, up 11% from the year-ago period. This was ahead of expectations, with the street anticipating $52.25 billion, according to Yahoo Finance averages.

The hardware-and-software giant also reported earnings per share (GAAP, diluted) of $2.58, up 18% from the year-ago quarter. This also beat expectations, with investors expecting a slimmer $2.04, again, according to Yahoo Finance data.

And Cupertino announced that it will split its stock four for one, something that Apple said that will make its “stock more accessible to a broader base of investors.” In the age of fractional-share investing, the move feels somewhat meaningless. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, however, is price-weighted, and Apple is a component, so perhaps that has something to do with the choice.

Apple shares are up 4.7% in after-hours trading, after gaining more than a point during regular hours.

Why is SAP spinning Qualtrics out via an IPO?

Alphabet

Image Credits: TechCrunch

Alphabet is a slightly more complicated story, with the company actually shrinking on a year-over-year basis, though still besting expectations.

The search giant reported $38.3 billion in revenue in Q2 2020, ahead of an expected result of $37.36 billion. As Alphabet reported $38.9 billion in the year-ago quarter, Alphabet was smaller this year than the last.

The company’s earnings per share also fell, from $14.21 in the year-ago quarter to $10.13 per share (GAAP, diluted). Again, however, that was ahead of an expected result of $8.34. Shares of Alphabet are roughly flat after its report.

Why is its stock down despite beating expectations? Because shrinking is not great, and perhaps because its “Other Bets” business collection posted negative operating income of $1.12 billion in the quarter, a worse result than it recorded in Q2 2019. That’s a big expense.

Amazon

Image Credits: TechCrunch

Amazon had a killer quarter, including revenue of $88.9 billion, up from $63.4 billion in the year-ago quarter, and ahead of an expected result of $81.53 billion.

The company also managed to earn $10.30 per share (GAAP, diluted), far ahead of an expected result of $1.46, per Yahoo Finance figures.

The only possible mark against Amazon was that AWS, the company’s cloud computing service, only grew 29% in the quarter. That was slower than the 33% it recorded during Q1 2020, and, as CNBC notes, was dramatically slower than what Microsoft’s competing Azure product managed when it reported recently.

Still, shares of Amazon are up around 4.9% in after-hours trading, after gaining 0.6% during regular trading.

Facebook

Image Credits: TechCrunch

Facebook’s quarter was a single, extended finger at those trying to nudge the social giant into shaking up its content policies. The company reported $18.7 billion in revenue, up 11% from its year-ago result of $16.9 billion. Investors had expected just $17.4 billion in top-line.

Unsurprisingly, off the back of that revenue beat, Facebook bested earnings per share expectations, reporting $1.80 in per-share profit, up nearly 100% from its year-ago result of $0.91 per share, and far ahead of an expected $1.39.

Facebook shares are up nearly 6.5% in after-hours trading, after gaining about half a point during regular trading.

Summary?

Hot damn, is tech doing better than the rest of the economy as millions are out of work, and Congress can’t figure out if supporting its own population during a global pandemic and economic crisis is, you know, a good idea. These results will do precisely nothing to dampen concern that Big Tech is too big.

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Google is making autofill on Chrome for mobile more secure

Google today announced a new autofill experience for Chrome on mobile that will use biometric authentication for credit card transactions, as well as an updated built-in password manager that will make signing in to a site a bit more straightforward.

Image Credits: Google

Chrome already uses the W3C WebAuthn standard for biometric authentication on Windows and Mac. With this update, this feature is now also coming to Android.

If you’ve ever bought something through the browser on your Android phone, you know that Chrome always asks you to enter the CVC code from your credit card to ensure that it’s really you — even if you have the credit card number stored on your phone. That was always a bit of a hassle, especially when your credit card wasn’t close to you.

Now, you can use your phone’s biometric authentication to buy those new sneakers with just your fingerprint — no CVC needed. Or you can opt out, too, since you’re not required to enroll in this new system.

As for the password manager, the update here is the new touch-to-fill feature that shows you your saved accounts for a given site through a standard Android dialog. That’s something you’re probably used to from your desktop-based password manager already, but it’s definitely a major new built-in convenience feature for Chrome — and the more people opt to use password managers, the safer the web will be. This new feature is coming to Chrome on Android in the next few weeks, but Google says that “is only the start.”

Image Credits: Google

 

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Microsoft’s new Family Safety app offers parental controls across phones, PCs and Xbox

Microsoft’s new screen time and parental controls app, Microsoft Family Safety, is today launching publicly on iOS and Android, following a preview of the experience which had arrived earlier this spring. The app is designed to help parents better understand children’s use of screen time, set limits and create screen time schedules, configure boundaries around web access and track family members’ location, among other things.

The app competes with other parental control technologies, including those built into iOS and Android — the latter of which is also available as a standalone app, called Family Link. Like its competitors, Microsoft Family Safety will work best for those who have already bought into the company’s own ecosystem of products and services. In Microsoft’s case, that includes Windows 10 PCs and Xbox devices, for example.

Also like many screen time apps, Family Safety displays an activity log of how screen time is being used by kids. It can track the hours spent on devices, including Windows computers, phones and Xbox, as well as across websites and apps. It can also show the terms kids are searching for online.

Image Credits: Microsoft

A weekly report is emailed to parents and kids, with the hopes of encouraging discussions around healthy use of screen time. This was already a complicated subject before the pandemic. But now, with kids attending school at home and filling summer downtime with hours in games while parents still try to work without childcare, it has grown to be even more complicated.

Initially, parents may have just given up on screen time altogether, grateful for anything that gave them moments of peace. But with staying at home becoming a new normal, many families are now reconsidering what amount of screen time is healthy and how much is too much.

With the new app, parents can set screen time limits that apply across devices — including Xbox. These limits can be narrowly configured to allow for access to educational apps that facilitate online learning, while limiting other types of screen time — like gaming, for instance. When kids run out of time, they can ask for more and parents can choose whether or not to grant it.

Meanwhile, the web filtering aspects of the new app take advantage of Microsoft’s newer browser, Microsoft Edge, across Windows, Xbox and Android. The app will allow parents to set search filters and block mature content. Other content controls will notify parents if the child tries to download a mature game or app from the Microsoft Store, as well.

Image Credits: Microsoft

Parents also can control purchases by granting approval to kids’ requests, so there won’t be surprise bills later.

Plus, the app’s built-in location sharing means families can skip downloading additional family locator apps, like Life360, for access to basic location-tracking features — like those that show family members on a map, and lets you save favorite locations, like “Home.”

Image Credits: Microsoft

Since its preview period, Microsoft has expanded the app’s capabilities to include a handful of new features, including one that lets you block and unblock specific apps, a location clustering feature and an expanded set of options for granting more screen time (e.g. 15 or 30 minutes, 1, 2 or 3 hours, etc.). Accessibility options were also updated and improved, including improved visual contrast for low-vision users and additional context for screen readers.

You’ll note, however, that some of Family Safety’s experiences don’t fully extend to iOS and Android, like purchase controls and web filtering. On iOS, the app can’t even track screen time usage, as Apple makes no API available for this, even after launching its own screen time service and shutting down competing apps.

That’s due to how other platforms have their own operating systems and ecosystems locked down to encourage customers to only buy and use their devices. Unfortunately, that means families that have devices from a variety of vendors — like iPhone users who also game on Xbox, or Android users whose computer is a Mac, for instance — don’t have simple tools that let them manage everything from one place.

Microsoft says it will soon roll out two new features to Family Safety following its launch. These include location alerts and driver safety (e.g. aimed at teen drivers), and will be a part of a paid Microsoft 365 Family Subscription.

The new Family Safety app is rolling out now for iOS and Android as a free download. You may not be able to immediately access the app due to its phased rollout, but should sometime this week.

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