Thanks to iPhone, Apple now beats Microsoft in most metrics, including profits

When Apple was chasing Microsoft last year in market capitalization, a lot of people were pointing out that the software maker would continue beating the Cupertino company in terms of profitability. Well, Microsoft just posted their quarterly earnings yesterday. Despite record first-quarter numbers, their profits were significantly below the nearly $6 billion in net quarterly profit Apple posted. More precise, Microsoft reported $5.23 billion profit versus $5.99 billion for Apple.

In terms of revenue, Microsoft reported $16.43 billion versus $24.67 billion for Apple. Apple's annualized revenue makes them a $100 billion company while Microsoft is yet to join this club. The only area where Microsoft is ahead of Apple are profit margins. Considering net profit as a percentage of revenue, Microsoft's 32 percent margin beats Apple's 24 percent. Of course, Windows maker makes most of its revenue selling highly profitable software products that yield high margins.

This significant milestone comes as Apple surpassed Microsoft in market valuation nearly a year ago, in May of 2010.

A few months later, in the third quarter of 2010, Apple went on to surpass Microsoft revenue-wise and now it beats them in profits as well. Apple's meteoric rise stems from their highly lucrative iPhone business.

Depending on who you ask, the average selling price of the iPhone is an estimated north of $600 per unit. Apple sold an astounding 18.65 million iPhones in the last quarter and the handset now accounts for half of their revenues.

A5 iPhone 5 prototype released in earnest, but you can't have one (yet)

Here's a bizarre move which will only up the ante when it comes to the up-in-the-air release date of the iPhone 5: Apple is already circulating an A5-equipped iPhone 5 prototype in an iPhone 4 body to trusted app developers for the sake of ensuring said apps are able to take full advantage of the more powerful A5 architecture by the time the iPhone 5 launches. It all makes one wonder just how near or far away the iPhone 5 really is, and whether the developer model being circulated is merely retaining the iPhone 4 body type in order to keep the appearance of the iPhone 5 a secret, or whether the iPhone 5 will in fact look just like the iPhone 4 from the outside after all. Either way, one thing's for sure: you can't have one. Yet.

The kicker, of course, is that Apple is being awfully trusting of third parties, considering that last year an iPhone 4 prototype ended up being sold to the highest bidder and paraded around on the internet as a trophy. Apple's hopes of keeping the original iPhone 4 design a secret were dashed, houses were raided, and the expectation was that the already secretive and paranoid Apple would become even more so after the incident, heading into the iPhone 5 release. And yet here's Apple distributing a quasi-next generation iPhone before its unveiling. It's assumable that at least one of the prototypes will be lost, stolen, photographed, or otherwise before it's all said and done. And while it may look just like an iPhone 4 from the outside, there have to be details inside which, if torn apart, would reveal more information than Apple wants – or maybe not.

In fact the term "iPhone 5″ is something that we outsiders have made up to describe what we suspect Apple's fifth generation iPhone will be, without any knowledge of what the product will be or even whether it will carry that name. The fifth generation iPhone could be a complete external overhaul from the iPhone 4, or it could in fact be the developer prototype being circulated. Either way the move raises more questions than it answers. All it tells us for sure is that the next iPhone will have an A5 processor in it. But then again, on the heels of the A5 iPad 2, that was one of the few iPhone 5 details which was already assumable. Here's more on the iPhone 5.

iPhone Won't Have 4G Until At Least 2012

Speculation has been that Apple could possibly introduce an LTE/4G iPhone in the coming year. Some even thought that Apple pushed back the iPhone5′s announcement to wait for LTE saturation in the U.S.

Will we see an iPhone 4G this September? According to both Apple and the LTE industry, it doesn't look hopeful…

 

The chips needed to equip the iPhone with 4G/LTE capability don't exist yet. And they won't exist until at least early 2012.

Forbes reports,

"Rumor has it the next-generation iPhone won't arrive until September. If so, it won't offer the crazy fast data speeds promised by next-generation 4G wireless networks.

That's because access to the turbo-charged networks that make Verizon's Thunderbolt handset crazy fast require a combination of chips Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook said Wednesday Apple won't use."

Apple has previously shown interest in LTE, but Apple's own Tim Cook made no bones about Apple's current stance on LTE in yesterday's earnings call.

Apple's COO, Tim Cook,

"The first generation of LTE chip-sets force a lot of design compromises with the handset, and some of those we are just not willing to make."

The chipset industry and U.S. network infrastructure just can't handle iPhone-level saturation when it comes to LTE. 4G devices in the U.S. market like the Verizon Thunderbolt rely on two chips to deliver lighting fast speeds and communication between Verizon's 4G and 3G signals.

Apple doesn't like the design compromises that would need to be made to accommodate two chips for 4G in the next iPhone. And the type of chips that would appease Apple won't be available to the market until at least next year.

"Those chips won't appear in handsets until next year, says Will Strauss, president of wireless chip tracker Forward Concepts. "They're right that there's nothing out there that fits the bill, and likely nothing will until the fourth quarter of this year," Strauss says when asked about Cook's remarks."

Don't hold your breath for an iPhone 4G this fall. The sixth generation iPhone will probably be LTE-capable, but September's device will most likely run on good old 3G.

What do you think? Is Apple just blowing smoke? Will we be surprised with an iPhone 4G this year?

iPhone 5 Specs: Thinner, Larger 3.7-Inch Screen, Home Button With Gesture Area & More

Joshua Topolsky, former Engadget Editor has just revealed some interesting information about Apple's next generation iPhone – iPhone5, which is rumored to be released in September.

According to Topolsky who writes at This is my next, the 5th generation iPhone will be completely redesigned and it will look like iPod Touch 4G rather than iPhone 4.

Topolopsy reports that according to their sources, iPhone 5 will be thinner than the iPhone 4, and have a "teardrop" shape, which goes from thick to thin like MacBook Air.

He has revealed that the home button will be enlarged and will double up as the home button and also a gesture area:

this falls in line with testing we've seen for gestures on the iPad, and our sources say that gestures are definitely coming in a future version of iOS. The home button will likely be enlarged, but not scrapped altogether.

He also confirms that iPhone 5 will come with a larger 3.7 inch screen (compared to the 3.5 inch screen), which will occupy nearly the entire front of the phone while keeping the same resolution.

The sketch supplied to them by a source indicates some form of inductive or touch charging but their sources have not been able to confirm it.

You can also checkout the mockup of what the next generation iPhone will look like based on information they've received.

We really like the idea of the home button doubling up as a gesture area and though we like the design of iPhone 4, will love to see a completely redesigned iPhone, which is thinner and comes with a larger Retina display.

What about you? Please share your views in the comments section below.

Unity: Verizon iPhone 5 faces smaller twindom to iPad 2

As the months evaporate on their way to the iPhone 5, Apple's efforts to bring unity to its products are more clear than ever: nearly every one of its desktop and laptop computers is made of brushed metal. And the iPad 2 has taken a similar tack. While it's clear that the Verizon iPhone 5 and AT&T iPhone 5 will be twins to each other, if not literally the same hybrid model, there's new buzz that the iPhone 5 could also find itself collapsing into the now of Apple's brushed metal ethos. And while that buzz is sketchy for now, there have been previous hints that Apple wants to go there in terms of, one way or another, bringing visual unity to the product line.

Consider the launch of the original iPad and then the iPhone 4, both inching close to having been a year ago. Both devices opted for a brushed metal band running around the entire outside of the device, covering the top, bottom, and sides. While other design elements of the two products remained disparate, most notably their rear surfaces, it was an early sign of where Apple truly wants to go with its product design. And it's nothing new, of course. At the height of the popularity of the classic white iPod era, Apple redesigned the iMac, which had at that time looked more like a lamp, into an all-white flat panel computer with many observing that it resembled a giant iPod. Now Apple sees itself launching its two biggest known products of the year, the iPad 2 and the iPhone 5, and it's merely a question of just how much further Apple is willing to go in its long running quest to visually unite its product line.

Are a three inch product like the iPhone 5 and a ten inch device like the iPad 2 really meant to look and feel exactly like each other, right down to the physical shaping and even the buttons? These are questions Apple has been asking itself for some time. And now that the iPad 2 is a done deal, its design sealed and revealed for all the world to see, Apple must choose just how far down that road is wants to pursue things when it finalizes the external design of the iPhone 5. The AT&T and Verizon iPhone 5 will be one and the same whether they literally are or not. But will they become shrunken head versions of the iPad 2 in the process? Here's more on the iPad 2. Here's more on the iPhone5.

Apple Building Two iPhone 5 Models for Release This Fall

Apple is reportedly building two iPhone5 models for a scheduled fall release.

According to an employee of an Apple part supplier, there is reason to believe that the iPhone 5 will actually be two devices: a 'standard' and 'pro' model.

Previous rumors have said that the iPhone 5 would be a significant redesign of its predecessor, and we've also heard rumors that the iPhone 5 will end up being only a slight evolution of the iPhone 4.

Due to the extensive amount of NDAs our source had to sign to work with Apple, he could not give us very many details. He does believe that Apple is going to build two iPhone models, which he referred to as a 'normal' and a 'pro' version.

Our source says that Apple is ordering components of similar function, but some of them are the very best of what you can get right now.

While the rest of the ordered components are just the standard versions, Apple is also ordering better quality components of the same function. Our source says that both types of components wouldn't go in one device together, which makes him believe Apple is up to something with a 'pro' version.

We believe our source is reliable regarding this information. On top of that, we have also heard from an inside source at Apple that the iPhone 5(s) will definitely not be released until Q2 of this year. Apple's internal revenue forecast for the next business quarter is the lowest it's ever been, which means no new iPhone(s) until at least August or September.

According to our inside source at Apple, the company is making plans for the next iPhone announcement in the fall after the "Back to School" season. The next iPhone announcement will take place in the exact same time frame as Apple's music and iPod event has in the past.

This isn't the first time that we've heard about a fall iPhone announcement, and we believe our source has only helped confirm that news.

Recent rumors of an iPhone 4S have suggested that the next generation iPhone will only be a slight redesign and focus more on internal hardware. We've heard that the next iPhone (whether it be two devices or one) will be a global device capable of running on all carriers.

Perhaps Apple will keep the 'normal' version of the iPhone 5 as a carrier-specific device, and introduce a global phone with upgraded specs as the 'pro' version.

[The above image is merely a concept and not the real iPhone 5.]

iPhone 5 design secrets revealed by rounded, white, A5 iPad 2

The iPhone 5 come in white and employ the A5 processor, and it'll lose the bezel of the iPhone 4 and feature rounded edges throughout, unless the entire iPad 2 was merely one big head-fake. Those looking for the skinny on the design secrets of the forthcoming fifth generation iPhone ahead of its still-unknown release date are looking in the wrong places, if they're looking anywhere other than the second generation iPad as a starting point. When the first iPad launched back in early 2010, few realized at the time that it was a partial blueprint for what could be expected from the then-forthcoming iPhone 4. From the hefty brushed metal silver side bezel to the A4 processor inside, the iPad 2 gave generous hints that spring as to what could be expected from the next iPhone that summer. And now, thanks to the iPad 2, we now have a blueprint for the iPhone 5. So just what are we looking at?For starters, say goodbye to that fat perpendicular bezel. Apple's attempts at squaring off the iPhone and iPad resulted in the thin devices looking and feeling like they were thicker (and heavier) than they really were. Apple wisely dumped that particular design flair with the iPad 2, and while the new model is only fractionally thinner and lighter, the most common response among upgraders is that it looks and feels significantly thinner and lighter. In other words, by simply (re-)rounding off the iPhone's corners, Apple can get more public credit for making the iPhone 5 thin than it did for having shaved an actual twenty-four percent of the iPhone's thickness away with the iPhone 4. Perception trumps reality in these matters, and Apple has presumably learned its lesson: the appearance and illusion of thinness is just as important as actual thinness.
The iPad never came in white, so the inclusion of a white iPad 2 was gratuitous enough that Apple could easily have left it out of the company were trying to make consumers forget that the whole white iPhone 4 ever happened. Instead, by offering a white iPad 2, Apple is making clear that it wants consumer demand for white Apple products to remain in place, which is a hint that there will indeed be a white iPhone in the near future. The iPad 2′s use of an A5 processor means the iPhone 5 will certainly do the same. The intriguing part is whether the lone gaping chasm between the iPad 1 and the iPhone 4, namely the use of radically different materials for the rear surface, will resolve itself in 2011 with the iPhone 5 adopting the same brushed metal backside as the iPad 2. But them some details will merely need to be watched for. Here's more on the iPhone5. Here's more on the iPad 2.