by Summary of Apple Hardware Show
The annual Apple hardware show happened this week and it did not disappoint. Not only did they release a the new iPhone 11 (which also included the iPhone 11 Pro/Pro-Max), Apple also announced they were moving into streaming services with Apple+. The service will be released November 11th and will only be $4.99 a month, undercutting competitors such as Netflix and Disney which both posted losses on the day. As time goes on we’ll see how much of the streaming market Apple+ takes from other streaming companies and what other companies may join in on what seems to be a growing market
.Some interesting things that this event showed was Apple’s focus on the photography features on the new iPhones, taking the opposite direction of their competitors who are moving towards the development of 5G phones. The companies drive for better photographic technology seems to be brought on from the long outlook of full 5G and says that the focus should be images and not increasing bandwidth. We’ll see in the near future whether this strategy plays off for them or whether sales of the iPhone are drastically low because of the anticipation for a release of the first 5G iPhone.
Google Faces Legal Battles
This week, Alphabet’s Google has popped up in the news quite a bit with multiple legal battles. It seems like the company has had a rocky road in the past couple of months in the legal system so we’ll see how it effects their business operations and financials within the coming months. To start the week off, google has to settle with the French government officials for the companies infringement on the countries tax laws. Google had to pay over one billion dollars for the settlement but for a company the size of google, it wasn’t much. Later on in the week Google also settled a case with the National Labor Relations Board stating that from now on, the company will allow their employees to speak freely on workplace issues. The interesting part to this is why the company settled in the first place. The thought behind settling was to avoid another drawn out court case and to also avoid any longterm problems with employees such as strikes or any other actions that could disrupt business.
The main matter that Alphabet’s Google will have to face which definitely will be a grueling court battle against general attorneys from 50 different states and territories. The claim being made is that Google is becoming a monopolistic company of the ad industry. The main point of these general attorneys is that Google is creating ways where no matter what a consumer does on the web, they will end up on a google site seeing their ads. The problem here is that the size of Google’s internet presence on the web has made it seem like they are the ones controlling the rates at which advertisers use. In this circumstance advertisers won’t want to go to smaller ad sourcing companies not only because of pricing but also the smaller amount of exposure you get with a smaller company rather than Google. Earlier in the year, European regulator’s fined Google for $1.7 billion dollars for unfairly inserting contracts with advertisers and putting competitors at a disadvantage.