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1 millionth iPhone has been sold
You can't rush excellence, but sometimes you can speed it up just a smidge. Apple reports that it sold iPhone #1 million on September 9th, just 74 days after the product introduction (and 4 days after the price drop). As Steve notes in the press release, it was two years before the iPod reached the million mark.Apple COO Tim Cook announced Apple's forecast of 1 million phones sold by "September, 2007" earlier this summer, and that's what Apple has done. If my personal experience is indicative if the phone's popularity - people still stop me in my tracks so they can see it - this should be a very good holiday season for Apple.Thanks, Tim!
Apple CFO Fred Anderson settles for $3.5mil
Well, it looks like the stock options issue that has been pestering Apple for months now may be over. AppleInsider is reporting today that Apple's CFO Fred Anderson has settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission to the tune of three and a half million bucks. Mr. Anderson denies any wrongdoing in the settlement.Ok, now that all of this is (probably) over, let's re-focus on Leopard, shall we?
Apple jumps in Fortune 500 ranking
Apple made a big leap in their Fortune 500 ranking for 2006 when the list was released earlier this week. Previously, they were at number 159. Now, they've jumped 38 spots to number 121. By the end of March 2007 the company's market value was 80.602 billion dollars (put your pinky to the corner of your mouth when you say that). Other tech companies in the top 20 included HP (number 14) and Verizon (number 13). The number one spot went to the monolithic Wal-Mart.[Via MacDailyNews]
Stock Options continue to haunt Apple
With the Macworld keynote still on the horizon, the last thing Apple needs is a few more lawsuits and federal investigations. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Apple faces a new shareholder lawsuit along with twin investigations by the San Francisco's US Attorney's office and by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Apple's internal investigation, led by movie star, former Veep and all around green guy Al Gore, cleared Steve Jobs and his executive team. Apparently the lawsuit names about a dozen complaints including backdating stock options and "spring loading", where options are granted in advance of releasing news likely to drive up prices. The bottom line is that this controversy looks like it will be around for a while longer. Is there a "there" there? It's hard to tell. We're not lawyers and this whole thing looks like it rests on lots of technicalities.
Internal Apple probe concludes. Executive team cleared
BusinessWeek reports that Apple has cleared both Apple management and CEO Steve Jobs himself of any wrongdoing after concluding its internal probe about backdated stock options. "The special committee, its independent counsel and forensic accountants have performed an exhaustive investigation of Apple's stock option granting practices," said Al Gore, former VP of the United States and chair of the special committee, and Jerome York, chair of Apple's Audit and Finance Committee. "The board of directors is confident that the Company has corrected the problems that led to the restatement, and it has complete confidence in Steve Jobs and the senior management team." As Scott posted earlier today, Apple has finally filed its SEC forms 10-Q and 10-K for the 2006 fiscal year. So what does this mean to the Apple user community at large? Probably nothing much. Jobs' hiring of personal counsel looks like simple business-as-usual.
Boot Camp boosts Apple's stock 8%
It seems that the geeks like you and me aren't the only ones excited about Apple's release of Boot Camp. This morning, Wall Street demonstrated a bit of support, too, as Apple stock rose 8% in early trading. True, it's just the beginning of the day, but we'll see what happens. I'm going to guess that, when this is built into the OS, it means increased Mac sales. This year's World Wide Developer's Conference should be a good one.
Apple to webcast quarterly earnings call today
We don't get to watch the Macworld keynote live anymore, buy you can still watch the quarterly conference call. Apple will webcast this report today at 2pm PT (5pm EST) here. We know that things are going well, based on what Steve said at Macworld earlier this month, but it's still fun to hear those enormous numbers.[Via MacDailyNews]
