The big story yesterday afternoon was Tim Cook’s surprise letter to investors announcing that Apple’s Q1 2019 revenue would come in far below the $89 to $93 billion guidance that it issued back on November 1st of 2018. Tim rattled off numerous factors that promoted Apple to issue a revenue warning one month prior their first earnings call of 2019. The most prominent factor – China.
Category: Business Strategy
World Internet Conference 2018: Key Takeaways
neXt Curve attended the World Internet Conference 2018 in Wuzhen, China’s premier conference on the digital economy and policy, which took place from the 6th to the 9th of November. This year’s conference was sparsely attended by U.S. tech giants such as Apple and Google, but their absence didn’t put a damper on the global scope of the event and its continued promotion of the Digital Silk Road.
Tech Insight: Apple’s Not-So-Slow-Moving Coup of The Personal Computing World
While industry sages prognosticated the diminishing relevance of the tablet device category for the past three years as iPad and tablet sales slowed, Apple quietly amassed an installed base of over 400 million active iPads thanks to extended iOS device support. The newly announced iPad Pro is poised to bring about an inflection point in personal computing by changing the way we think of portable computing.
The Digital Gap: Boardroom Leadership & Governance
Corporate boards of today are challenged with understanding the opportunities and the risks and threats presented by “Digital”. As cybersecurity incidents and privacy issues from the Sony hack to the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica debacle increase in number and severity, board rooms cannot afford to not know. neXt Curve hosted a discussion with USC Marshall School of Business professor, Bob Zukis on the urgency for digital savvy and competency in the board room.
Tech Insight: iOS 12 Gave Apple a Massive Ecosystem Advantage
When the latest series of iPhones are released, we love to see how they measure up to the competition. The comparative evaluations are typically based on specs – number of cores, processor clock speed, RAM, removable storage – and increasingly on performance benchmark scores. But what about the value that customers receive over the life of the device. iOS 12 is enabling Apple to do something no other mobile device manufacturer is remotely able to do – keep your six-year old iPhone up to date and relevant.
The Democratization of 5G Everything
The original telco central offices of the past had legacy mainframe-like telephone switches with legacy voice features, which was ideal in the 1980’s and 1990’s but are archaic today. With VoIP over LTE in the cloud, these local offices can be re-architected into 5G nano-datacenters that provide very low latency fixed and mobile access and distributed edge computing that will enable new and innovative hyperconverged IT/CT applications and services that avail new business models and network monetization opportunities for operators.
Transforming The Healthcare Industry with Blockchain
Special guest, Anca Petre, COO of 23 Consulting joins neXt Curve to discuss how the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries are applying Blockchain technologies to create new value and reshape their industry model. What is the Blockchain promise and what is possible versus hype?
Industry Insight: What Facebook Got Wrong About Privacy And What You Should Learn From Their Mistake
While GDPR raises global concerns about enterprise use of consumer personal data, the media and consumers continue to confuse privacy with security and vice versa. Can consumers effectively advocate for and protect their digital privacy when privacy and security are so easily and readily confused?
Industry Insight: What Wall Street Does Not Understand About Apple
Yesterday, Apple hit a major valuation milestone becoming the first $1 trillion public company. Many Wall Street analysts and market pundits are calling it an important milestone. Well, apparently Tim Cook doesn’t think so. But it is a time to reflect on how the investor community and Wall Street have gotten Apple wrong consistently for quite some time. And they continue to get Apple wrong as they continue to characterize Apple as an iPhone company or a consumer product company, or a hardware company.
The Alpha Organization: Preparing to Succeed in a Digital Future
Agile, Adaptable, Innovative, and Efficient – these are key attributes of organizations that will thrive in the rapidly changing, highly competitive environment that is the digital economy. Sustaining this kind of continuous reinvention requires a well-conditioned organization that is comfortable being uncomfortable. The question for today’s leaders is, what does it take and how can you ensure your organization – and workforce – is up to the challenge?