Numbers

iTunes Radio now the third most popular streaming music service in US

A new report from Edison Research says that iTunes Radio has become the third most popular streaming music service in the US. The marketing research firm says that Apple's Radio service, which is less than 6 months old, just surpassed Spotify to take the #3 spot.

According to the data iTunes Radio now sits behind Pandora, who has 31% of the US streaming music market, and iHeartRadio, which has 9%. Then it comes in at 8%, Spotify at 6% and both Google Play All Access and Rhapsody come in at 3% and 2% respectively...

Apple: ‘several billion’ iMessages sent daily, Apple TV raked in $1 billion last year

As expected, Apple held its 2014 shareholders meeting on its Cupertino campus this afternoon. Apple executives were on hand, as were the company's board of directors, to reassure investors that things are on track for another successful year, and to field shareholder questions.

Most of the meeting was filled with the usual dreck: approving and rejecting proposals, reelecting board members, and so on, but things began to liven up when Tim Cook began dropping numbers. Keep reading for a roundup of some of the most interesting points from the meeting...

Apple sold more Macs and iOS devices than all Windows PCs combined last quarter

Apple may not have impressed Wall Street with its holiday quarter, but it did reach a major [symbolic] milestone. During the 3-month period, the Cupertino company sold more Macs, iPhones, iPads and iPod touches than the total number of Windows computers combined.

According to data gathered by analyst Benedict Evans, this is the first time Apple has surpassed the PC market in hardware sales. Now this doesn't include Windows Phone. If you add that in, the two are more or less exactly equal, though Apple still wins in average selling price...

Apple top target for patent trolls, sued 92 times in 3 years

Apple has taken much criticism over the years for its patent litigation efforts, for going after Samsung, Motorola and other companies for violating its intellectual property. But what many don't know is that the iPad-maker defends itself against just as many lawsuits.

In fact, according to some recently filed FTC documents, Apple has been litigated against by PAEs (or Patent Assertion Entity, commonly known as a patent troll) 92 times during the past 3 years. And that's just the number of cases that actually made it to a courtroom...

What an iPhone would have cost in 1991

As inexpensive and powerful as technology is today, it's easy to take it for granted. You can buy a smartphone today that could outperform desktop machines from 20 years ago, at a fraction of the size, for a fragment of the price.

To really put things in perspective, analyst Bret Swanson decided to do a rough calculation of what the iPhone would have cost to build in 1991. And to give you an idea of how pricey it gets, a 1GB HD cost around $10K back then...

Popular ‘Flappy Bird’ game earning $50k per day in ad revenue

While discussing the latest mobile gaming craze that is Flappy Bird on our recent Let's Talk iOS podcast, I wondered out loud how much money the developer was making from his newfound success. The game, which is free with ads, has enjoyed a spontaneous reign at the top of the App Store.

Apparently he's doing rather well for himself. In a recent interview with The Verge, developer Dong Nguyen says that Flappy Bird is earning an average of $50,000 per day from ads. It's been download over 50M times, and has been sitting atop iOS and Android app stores for nearly a month...

Tim Cook: we’ve known for some time that ‘iPod is a declining business’

Apple posted some huge sales numbers for the holiday quarter earlier today. During the 3-month period, the company sold 51 million iPhones, 26 million iPads—both records—and a surprisingly high 4.8 million Macs. But not all of its device sales were impressive.

iPod sales decreased by more than 50% since last year's holiday quarter, with Apple selling just 6 million units during the time frame. And during the company's earnings call, Tim Cook admitted that it has known for some time that the iPod is a declining business...

Apple says iOS 7 is now installed on 80% of compatible devices

Apple has updated its App Store support page for developers this week to reflect new information regarding iOS 7 adoption. According to the company’s usage data, the new OS is running on 80% of iOS devices accessing the App Store.

That’s just a small jump from December of last year, when it was reported that iOS 7 adoption had hit 78%, but Apple said on its earnings call just a few moments ago that it's enough to make iOS 7 the most popular OS in the world...

15 interesting points from today’s earnings call

Apple just announced its earnings for its September quarter, and despite all of the ‘doom’ talk and lowball analyst predictions, the numbers are actually pretty good. In fact, the company set records for iPhone and iPad sales, and revenue.

We’re just finishing up the conference call, where Tim Cook and his CFO Peter Oppenheimer talked about Apple’s performance, and offered some insight into its future. And as usual, we’ve rounded up the 15 most interesting points for you…

New features added to Keynote, Pages and Numbers for iOS/OS X, iMovie gets bug fixes

Apple is on a roll today in terms of software updates. The company has just seeded the third OS X 10.9.2 beta to its registered Mac developers and revamped Pages, Keynote and Numbers on the web (excuse me, iCloud) with a slew of new capabilities, including - finally! - password protection for your iWork documents. Earlier in the day, Apple has managed to post a minor Podcasts app refresh and a bug fix focused update to iMovie for Mac.

And now, new versions of Pages and Numbers for iOS and OS X have arrived plus an enhanced version of Apple's presentation software Keynote with new transitions, improved presenter display options, better Microsoft PowerPoint and iCloud compatibility and more.

These software updates allow for a nice feature parity across Apple's iWork suite of apps on the web, iOS and OS X platforms...

Apple may have sold record 55 million iPhones last quarter

Wall Street analysts have been foaming at the mouth since Apple announced it would be discussing its Q1FY14 financial results on January 27. Record holidays have become the norm for the company, but with two new iPhones released last fall, this one is expected to be over the top.

How much over the top? Well Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty says she believes Apple may have sold between 54 and 55 million iPhones last quarter. That would be a new record for the company, and a nice jump from the 47.8 million handsets it sold over the holidays last year...

Apple ships 1.4 million iPhone 5s units to China Mobile ahead of Friday’s launch

After several years of negotiations, and following months of rumors, Apple announced in December that it had finally inked a deal with China Mobile. The carrier will officially start offering the company's smartphone on January 17.

And it looks like they're expecting a big turnout. According to a new report from The Wall Street Journal, Apple supplier Foxconn has shipped roughly 1.4 million iPhone 5s units to China Mobile ahead of Friday's historic launch...