The year 2015 was great for Apple. The 12-inch MacBook, the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, Apple Pay, Apple Music, Beats 1, Apple Watch, gave the world plenty to talk about. And App Store rings in 2015 with new records. In this text we look at the complete list of what Apple did back in 2015.
History of the Apple Computer
Apple History 2015
January 8, 2015: Apple announced that the first week of January set a new record for billings from the App Store with customers around the world spending nearly half a billion dollars on apps and in-app purchases, and New Year’s Day 2015 marked the single biggest day ever in App Store sales history. These milestones follow a record-breaking 2014, in which billings rose 50 percent and apps generated over $10 billion in revenue for developers. To date, App Store developers have earned a cumulative $25 billion from the sale of apps and games. The introduction of iOS 8, the most significant iOS update ever, gave developers the ability to create amazing new apps and offers innovative features which proved wildly popular with App Store customers around the world. During the holiday season App Store customers helped make history with their support of Apps for (RED), a special initiative on the store with exclusive content where all proceeds went to the Global Fund to fight AIDS. Apple donated a record-shattering $20 million this quarter, and since partnering with (RED) has donated over $100 million.
February 23, 2015: Apple announces a €1.7 billion plan to build and operate two data centers in Europe, each powered by 100 percent renewable energy. The facilities, located in County Galway, Ireland, and Denmark’s central Jutland, will power Apple’s online services including the iTunes Store, App Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri for customers across Europe. Apple supports nearly 672,000 European jobs, including 530,000 jobs directly related to the development of iOS apps. Since the App Store’s debut in 2008, developers across Europe have earned more than €6.6 billion through the worldwide sale of apps.
February 26, 2015: Apple Watch gets a 12-page spread in the March issue of Vogue, part of the run-up to the device’s launch in April. Rate-card value: north of $2.2 million. All three versions of the watch—the luxe 18-karat gold model, a sports watch and the leather-bound standard edition—are featured in the magazine’s “Spring Fashion Blockbuster,” and the images we’ve seen so far look appropriately stylish. The sleek, angular devices are tastefully displayed in classic Apple style against plain white backgrounds. In one shot, the watch’s face appears to rise from a milky mist, the muted hues of its app icons signaling its time has arrived. More than anything, these arty abstractions resemble jewelry advertising, with the Apple Watch cast as the latest shiny bauble for the tech-crazed masses.
March 9, 2015: Apple announces ResearchKit, an open source software framework designed for medical and health research, helping doctors and scientists gather data more frequently and more accurately from participants using iPhone apps. World-class research institutions have already developed apps with ResearchKit for studies on asthma, breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease. Users decide if they want to participate in a study and how their data is shared. ResearchKit turns iPhone into a powerful tool for medical research. When granted permission by the user, apps can access data from the Health app such as weight, blood pressure, glucose levels and asthma inhaler use, which are measured by third-party devices and apps. HealthKit is a software framework Apple introduced with iOS 8 to provide developers the ability for health and fitness apps to communicate with each other. ResearchKit can also request from a user, access to the accelerometer, microphone, gyroscope and GPS sensors in iPhone to gain insight into a patient’s gait, motor impairment, fitness, speech and memory.
March 9, 2015: Apple updates the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display with the all-new Force Touch trackpad, fifth generation Intel Core processors and Intel Iris Graphics 6100, two times faster flash and longer battery life, bringing even more performance and capabilities to our pro customers. Apple also updates the 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air with fifth generation Intel Core processors, Intel HD Graphics 6000, and Thunderbolt 2, and added up to two times faster flash to the 13-inch MacBook Air, making the perfect everyday notebooks even better. The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display features the all-new Force Touch trackpad that brings a new dimension of interactivity to the Mac. The new trackpad features built-in force sensors that allow you to click anywhere and haptic feedback that provides a responsive and uniform feel. You can even customize the feel of the trackpad by changing the amount of pressure needed to register each click. The Force Touch trackpad also enables a new gesture called Force Click, a click followed by a deeper press, for tasks like pulling up the definition of a word, quickly seeing a map or glancing at a preview of a file.
March 9, 2015: Apple unveils the all-new MacBook, a new line of notebooks reinvented in every way to deliver the thinnest and lightest Macs ever. Every component of the new MacBook has been meticulously redesigned to create a Mac that weighs just two pounds and is 13.1 mm thin. The new MacBook features a stunning 12-inch Retina display that is the thinnest ever on a Mac, an Apple-designed full-size keyboard which is dramatically thinner and highly responsive, the all-new Force Touch trackpad that brings a new dimension of interactivity to the Mac, an incredibly compact USB-C port for data transfer, video out and charging in a single connector, and a new battery design that maximizes every millimeter of space to deliver all-day battery life. And, for the first time, MacBook is available in three gorgeous aluminum finishes – gold, silver and space gray. Measuring just 13.1 mm at its thickest point, the new MacBook design is an amazing 24 percent thinner than the 11-inch MacBook Air®. With a new precision-milled unibody enclosure featuring integrated Wi-Fi antennas and a top case with polished stainless steel Apple logo, MacBook is available in three elegant finishes – gold, silver and space gray—and is the first MacBook with an all-metal enclosure.
March 9, 2015: Apple reduces the price of the third generation (Rev A) Apple TV to $69.
March 2015: CNN, Tastemade, TED and Young Hollywood are added to Apple TV.
April 10, 2015: Pre-orders for Apple Watch begin. On launch, the new device is not available at Apple Store. Customers however can receive appointments for demonstrations and fitting, but the watch is not in-stock for walk-in purchase. It has to be reserved and ordered online. Selected Apple Watch models are available in-store at a limited number of luxury boutiques and authorized Apple resellers in limited quantities.
April 13, 2015: Apple updates Final Cut Pro X, Motion and Compressor with new features for motion graphics and key enhancements to accelerate video editing, packaging and delivery. Final Cut Pro 10.2 introduces stunning 3D titles that are easy to use, improved masking for color grading and effects, and native support for more camera formats, as well as GPU-accelerated RED RAW processing. Motion 5.2 extends the power of 3D titles with the ability to create custom materials and environments and instantly publish them to Final Cut Pro X. Compressor 4.2 makes it easy to package a movie for sale on the iTunes Store. Final Cut Pro 10.2 lets video editors create gorgeous 3D titles with drag-and-drop ease and ships with simple templates to get started quickly, as well as cinematic templates with built-in backgrounds and animations. Users can choose from a set of text styles to customize the look of their titles with hundreds of combinations of materials, lighting and edges, and instantly convert 2D titles to 3D and see changes in real time. Final Cut Pro 10.2 also lets editors view up to four video scopes simultaneously, for more precision when color grading, and includes improved Shape masks on any effect that can be saved as presets for quick access later. In addition, Final Cut Pro 10.2 natively supports even more video formats, including Panasonic AVC-Ultra and Sony XAVC-S, and makes working with RED RAW files faster than ever with GPU-accelerated transcoding, playback and rendering—including support for dual GPUs on Mac Pro.
April 14, 2015: Apple announces that it will hold its 26th annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) June 8 through June 12 at San Francisco’s Moscone West, with more sessions than ever before streamed to developers. At WWDC, Apple’s renowned developer community will come together to learn about the future of iOS and OS X, helping them continue to create the most innovative apps in the world. WWDC will feature more than 100 technical sessions, over 1,000 Apple engineers, hands-on labs to help developers integrate new technologies and fine tune their apps, as well as the Apple Design Awards which showcase the best new apps in the last year.
April 24, 2015: Official release of Apple Watch.
April 27, 2015: Apple announces that its Board of Directors has authorized an increase of more than 50 percent to the Company’s program to return capital to shareholders. Under the expanded program, Apple plans to utilize a cumulative total of $200 billion of cash by the end of March 2017. As part of the revised program, the Board has increased its share repurchase authorization to $140 billion from the $90 billion level announced last year. In addition, the Company expects to continue to net-share-settle vesting restricted stock units. The Board has also approved an increase of 11 percent to the Company’s quarterly dividend, and has declared a dividend of $.52 per share, payable on May 14, 2015 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on May 11, 2015. From the inception of its capital return program in August 2012 through March 2015, Apple has returned over $112 billion to shareholders, including $80 billion in share repurchases.
April 2015: HBO Now is added to the Apple TV as part of HBO’s exclusive partnership with Apple. NBC Sports is also added.
May 19, 2015: Apple updates the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display with the new Force Touch trackpad, faster flash storage, longer battery life and faster discrete graphics, delivering even more performance and capabilities to the MacBook Pro line. Apple also introduces a new $1,999 configuration of the 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display featuring a 14.7 million pixel display, quad-core processors and AMD graphics, and lowered the price of the top-end iMac with Retina 5K display to $2,299. The updated 15-inch MacBook Pro features the amazing Force Touch trackpad that brings a new dimension of interactivity to the Mac. With built-in force sensors and a Taptic Engine that delivers haptic feedback, the Force Touch trackpad allows you to click anywhere with a uniform feel and customize the amount of pressure needed to register each click. The new trackpad supports a range of new gestures, including the new Force click, and APIs are available for third-party developers to incorporate Force Touch capabilities into their apps. The updated 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display also features up to 2.5 times faster flash storage than the previous generation, with throughput up to 2GBps, and offers an additional hour of battery life, with up to 9 hours of wireless web browsing and up to 9 hours of iTunes movie playback. In addition, MacBook Pro with Retina display discrete graphics deliver up to 80 percent faster performance using new AMD Radeon R9 M370X graphics for editing video in Final Cut Pro X, rendering 3D images in pro graphics apps or playing high-resolution games.
May 2015: USA Now and CBS Sports are added to Apple TV. Besides, significantly more content for international viewers is added. The content include Viaplay for Scandinavia, Stan for Australia, the WWE Network for the UK, and Bandai for Japan.
June 3, 2015: Apple announces a voluntary recall of Beats Pill XL speakers, including a refund for customers. Apple has determined that, in rare cases, the battery in the Beats Pill XL may overheat and pose a fire safety risk. The recall does not affect any other Beats or Apple products. Because customer safety is the company’s top priority, Apple is asking customers to stop using their Beats Pill XL speakers. Customers who purchased a Beats Pill XL speaker have been invited to visit www.apple.com/support/beats-pillxl-recall for details about how to return their product to Apple, and how to receive an Apple Store® credit or electronic payment of $325. The Beats Pill XL can be identified by the Beats “b” logo on the speaker grille and the words “beats pill XL” on the handle. The product is sold in five colors: black, metallic sky, pink, titanium and white. The Beats Pill XL was introduced by Beats by Dre in November 2013. Apple acquired Beats in 2014.
June 4, 2015: Apple announces its plan to stock Apple Watch models at its retail locations.
June 8, 2015: Apple previews watchOS 2, the first major software update for Apple Watch, giving developers the tools to build faster and more powerful apps running natively on Apple Watch. Starting today, developers can take advantage of innovative hardware features of Apple Watch including the Digital Crown, Taptic Engine and heart rate sensor, along with software APIs to build new app experiences. Available to Apple Watch users this fall, watchOS 2 also includes new watch faces, third-party app information as watch face complications and new communication capabilities in Mail, Friends and Digital Touch.
June 8, 2015: Apple today unveils iOS 9, giving a preview of new iPhone, iPad and iPod touch software that will be available this fall. In this upcoming release, iOS devices become more intelligent and proactive with powerful search and improved Siri features — all without compromising users’ privacy. New multitasking features designed specifically for iPad allow you to work with two apps simultaneously, side-by-side or with the new Picture-in-Picture feature, to keep watching a video while browsing the web, composing email or using any other app. Built-in apps become more powerful in iOS 9 with detailed transit information in Maps, a redesigned Notes app with new ways to capture ideas, and an all-new News app for the best news reading experience on any mobile device.
June 8, 2015: Apple unveils Apple Music, a single, intuitive app that combines the best ways to enjoy music – all in one place. Apple Music is a revolutionary streaming music service, a pioneering worldwide live radio station from Apple broadcasting 24 hours a day and a great new way for music fans to connect with their favorite artists. Apple Music combines the largest and most diverse collection of music on the planet with the expertise of world-class music experts who have programmed playlists for your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, PC, Apple TV and Android phones. Apple Music will be available starting on June 30 in over 100 countries.
June 2015: Nat Geo TV is added to the Apple TV.
July 15, 2015: Apple introduces a new iPod touch model and unveiles a new lineup of colors for all iPod models, including space gray, silver, gold, pink and blue. The ultra-portable iPod touch features a new 8 megapixel iSight camera for beautiful photos, an improved FaceTime HD camera for even better selfies, the Apple-designed A8 chip with 10 times faster graphics performance for a more immersive gaming experience, and even better fitness tracking with the M8 motion coprocessor. With the newly launched Apple Music service, members can enjoy playlists curated by the most talented music experts from around the world, stay in-the-know on music culture with a global 24/7 broadcast on Beats 1 radio, and comment on or like backstage photos and videos shared directly by their favorite artists on Connect.
July 21, 2015: Apple announces financial results for its fiscal 2015 third quarter ended June 27, 2015. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $49.6 billion and quarterly net profit of $10.7 billion, or $1.85 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $37.4 billion and net profit of $7.7 billion, or $1.28 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 39.7 percent compared to 39.4 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 64 percent of the quarter’s revenue. The growth was fueled by record third quarter sales of iPhone and Mac, all-time record revenue from services and the successful launch of Apple Watch. “We had an amazing quarter, with iPhone revenue up 59 percent over last year, strong sales of Mac, all-time record revenue from services, driven by the App Store, and a great start for Apple Watch,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The excitement for Apple Music has been incredible, and we’re looking forward to releasing iOS 9, OS X El Capitan and watchOS 2 to customers in the fall.” In the third quarter our year-over-year growth rate accelerated from the first half of fiscal 2015, with revenue up 33 percent and earnings per share up 45 percent,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. We generated very strong operating cash flow of $15 billion, and we returned over $13 billion to shareholders through our capital return program.
July 2015: An Irish firm Probendi sues Apple Inc. for trademark infringement, arguing that through keyword advertising on the Google search engine Apple Watch appears on search results pages when users search for the trademarked term iWatch.
July 2015: Showtime is added to the Apple TV, as well as the support for a new standalone Showtime service that does not require a cable subscription to use and is available for $10.99/month. This app is different than the Showtime Anytime application which requires a cable subscription to use.
August 18, 2015: Apple announces that Pharrell Williams, One Direction, Florence + The Machine and Disclosure are among the headliners at the 2015 Apple Music Festival at London’s Roundhouse this September. Apple will broadcast performances to music fans around the world for free, which can be viewed live and on-demand on Apple Music. The Apple Music Festival lets fans get even closer to their favorite performers with coverage on Beats 1 alongside backstage news and footage straight from the artists on Apple Music Connect. “We wanted to do something really special for music fans this year,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “The Apple Music Festival is a greatest hits set of ten unbelievable nights featuring some of the best performers on the planet appearing live and interacting directly with their fans on Connect and Beats 1.”
August 24, 2015: Best Buy, T-Mobile and Sprint announce plans that it would begin stocking Apple Watch at its retail stores by the end of September.
August 31, 2015: Apple and Cisco today announced a partnership to create a fast lane for iOS business users by optimizing Cisco networks for iOS devices and apps, integrating iPhone with Cisco enterprise environments and providing unique collaboration on iPhone and iPad.
September 9, 2015: in Apple’s Special Event, Apple launches a new collection of Apple Watch in a collaboration with Hermès. This new collection, Apple Watch Hermès, comes in stainless steel body with finely crafted leather bands in distinctive styles from Hermès, including the Single Tour, Double Tour and Cuff models. Initially, this model Hermès was available only in selected retail stores of Apple and Hermès. It became available for purchase at Apple’s website on January 22, 2016. Apple announces new colors for Apple-designed bands in various colors along with a release date for watchOS 2 update.
September 9, 2015: Apple and Hermès introduce Apple Watch Hermès, a new collection of Apple Watch in stainless steel with finely crafted leather bands in distinctive styles from Hermès, including the Single Tour, Double Tour and Cuff, while respecting the design and functionality of the Apple Watch. The collaboration merges Apple’s unparalleled product innovation with the heritage, iconography and craftsmanship of Hermès, creating a unique expression of Apple Watch. “Apple and Hermès make very different products, but they reflect the deep appreciation of quality design,” said Jonathan Ive, Apple’s chief design officer. “Both companies are motivated by a sincere pursuit of excellence and the desire to create something that is not compromised. Apple Watch Hermès is a true testament to that belief.”
September 9, 2015: Apple introduces new Apple Watch cases and bands, available starting today, including new gold and rose gold aluminum Apple Watch Sport models. Since its release, Apple Watch has helped users receive and respond to notifications, interact by simply speaking to Siri, conveniently use Apple Pay and track their health and fitness activity. watchOS 2 arrives as a free update on September 16 and further enhances this groundbreaking experience with new features and native third-party apps. watchOS 2 makes apps faster and more fluid by running natively on Apple Watch, and introduces new watch faces, the ability for third-party apps to display information on the watch face as complications, and an innovative way to see future events, past headlines and more with Time Travel. watchOS 2 also includes new communication features such as the ability to respond quickly to Mail with dictation, Smart Replies or emoji, and Digital Touch enables more creativity with multiple sketch colors.
September 9, 2015: Apple introduces the all-new iPad Pro, featuring a 12.9-inch Retina display with 5.6 million pixels, the most ever in an iOS device, and groundbreaking performance with the new 64-bit A9X chip, rivaling most portable PCs. The new larger iPad Pro is thin and light and provides all-day battery life. There are more than 850,000 apps in the App Store designed specifically for iPad, and the new iPad Pro will enable a new generation of advanced apps for everything from productivity, design, illustration, engineering and medical, to education, gaming and entertainment. Apple also introduces Apple Pencil for iPad Pro, a precision input device available for purchase separately, which makes drawing and sketching feel remarkably fluid and natural. The touch subsystem of the Multi-Touch display in iPad Pro has been redesigned to work with Apple Pencil to reduce latency and deliver accuracy for activities like fine art illustration and detailed 3D design. Advanced sensors in Apple Pencil measure both pressure and tilt for a fast and fluid drawing experience, while a built-in Lightning connector makes for quick and easy pairing and charging. Apple Pencil also works with popular apps like Mail, Notes, Procreate and Office 365 for iPad, offering new levels of creativity and productivity. Apple’s new Smart Keyboard further extends the utility of iPad Pro, offering a full-sized keyboard in a thin, durable design so you can take it anywhere. The Smart Keyboard, available for purchase separately, attaches to iPad Pro’s innovative Smart Connector port, eliminating the need for a separate battery, on/off switch or Bluetooth pairing. The Smart Keyboard is covered in custom woven fabric and features keys that provide the accuracy, stability and satisfying key feel of standard keyboards, but is also easily foldable and can transform into a Smart Cover. The Smart Keyboard also works seamlessly with new QuickType features in iOS 9 to make typing even faster and easier.
September 9, 2015: Apple classifies the first generation Apple TV as being obsolete/vintage. This announcement means that owners of first generation Apple TV will no longer be able to get service for their old devices after this date.
September 9, 2015: Apple announces the fourth generation Apple TV (to ship in October). It is the first major update to the platform since the release of the second generation Apple TV in 2010. Tim Cook takes the stage and says “The future of TV is apps”. He adds that the Apple TV needed a modern OS. While following the form factor of the previous 2nd and 3rd generation models, the 4th Gen Apple TV is slightly taller in size, and featuring a new touch remote allowing swipe-to-select functionality instead of the old remote’s arrow button, it has an integrated Siri support with a built in microphone and an accelerometer (IMU). The Siri button on the remote allows several functions, including searching across providers for content, accessing additional metadata, and video/audio controls.
September 9, 2015: Apple announces the all-new Apple TV, bringing a revolutionary experience to the living room based on apps built for the television. Apps on Apple TV let you choose what to watch and when you watch it.The new Apple TV’s remote features Siri, so you can search with your voice for TV shows and movies across multiple content providers simultaneously. The all-new Apple TV is built from the ground up with a new generation of high-performance hardware and introduces an intuitive and fun user interface using the Siri Remote. Apple TV runs the all-new tvOS operating system, based on Apple’s iOS, enabling millions of iOS developers to create innovative new apps and games specifically for Apple TV and deliver them directly to users through the new Apple TV App Store.
September 9, 2015: Apple announces iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, the most advanced iPhones ever, adding a powerful new dimension to iPhone’s revolutionary Multi-Touch interface. The new iPhones introduce 3D Touch, which senses force to enable intuitive new ways to access features and interact with content. iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus feature Retina HD displays made from the strongest glass on any smartphone and 7000 series aluminum, the same alloy used in the aerospace industry, in gorgeous metallic finishes that now include rose gold. iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus also introduce a transformative new approach to photography called Live Photos, bringing still images to life by capturing a moment in motion. Live Photos, 3D Touch and other advancements in the new iPhones are powered by the Apple-designed A9 chip, the most advanced chip ever in a smartphone, delivering faster performance and great battery life.
September 28, 2015: Apple announces it has sold more than 13 million new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus models, a new record, just three days after launch. iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus will be available in more than 40 additional countries beginning October 9 including Italy, Mexico, Russia, Spain and Taiwan. The new iPhones will be available in over 130 countries by the end of the year. “Sales for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus have been phenomenal, blowing past any previous first weekend sales results in Apple’s history,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Customers’ feedback is incredible and they are loving 3D Touch and Live Photos, and we can’t wait to bring iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus to customers in even more countries on October 9.”
September 29, 2015: Apple announces that OS X El Capitan, the latest major release of the world’s most advanced desktop operating system, will be available on Wednesday, September 30 as a free update for Mac users. El Capitan builds on the groundbreaking features and beautiful design of OS X Yosemite, refining the Mac experience with updates to window management, built-in apps and Spotlight search, and performance improvements to make everyday activities – like launching and switching apps, opening PDFs and accessing email – faster and more responsive. “People love using their Macs, and one of the biggest reasons is the power and ease-of-use of OS X,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “El Capitan refines the Mac experience and improves performance in a lot of little ways that make a very big difference. Feedback from our OS X beta program has been incredibly positive and we think customers are going to love their Macs even more with El Capitan.”
October 1, 2015: Apple announces that James A. Bell, former chief financial officer and corporate president of The Boeing Company, has been elected to Apple’s board of directors. Bell brings more than four decades of experience in finance, strategic planning and leadership in complex organizations. During his 38-year career at Boeing, he also oversaw Boeing Capital Corporation and Boeing Shared Services, and was interim CEO of The Boeing Company in 2005. “James brings a wealth of global, financial and industrial experience from his successful career at Boeing as corporate president and CFO,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “I am thrilled to welcome him to Apple’s board of directors and I look forward to working with him.” “We look for outstanding individuals to strengthen our board’s breadth of talent and depth of knowledge, and we are very happy to have identified a fantastic person in James Bell,” said Art Levinson, Apple’s chairman. “I’m confident that he will make many important contributions to Apple.” “I am an avid user of Apple products and have a tremendous respect for the company’s ability to innovate,” said Bell. “I am delighted to join the Apple board and look forward to contributing to its continued success in any way I can.” Bell is a member of the board of directors of JP Morgan Chase, Dow Chemical Company, CDW, and a Trustee of Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center. He has also worked with New Leaders for New Schools to help develop talented teachers and principals, and served on many community-based boards. Bell attended California State University, Los Angeles where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Accounting.
October 1, 2015: Apple starts shipping of Apple TV 4th generation, which uses a new operating system tvOS with an associated app store. The new tvOS allows to download third-party apps for video, audio, games, and other content. These apps and games must must include interfacing with the new touchpad-enabled Siri remote to be used. tvOS is 95% based on iOS 9 with the interface and APIs being tweaked to support the big screen. However, upon launch, there were several issues which included incompatibility with Apple’s Remote app for iOS and WatchOS (see also December 2015).
October 13, 2015: Apple updates the entire iMac family, bringing a new Retina 4K display to the 21.5-inch iMac for the first time and the Retina 5K display to every 27-inch iMac. The new Retina displays make photos and videos more immersive and true-to-life thanks to a wider color gamut and spectacular image quality. The updated iMacs also feature more powerful processors and graphics, two Thunderbolt 2 ports and new storage options that make the high-performance Fusion Drive even more affordable. Apple today also introduced a new lineup of wireless accessories including the all-new Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse 2 and Magic Trackpad 2. The Magic devices have been redesigned to feel more comfortable than ever, and feature rechargeable batteries that completely eliminate the need for disposable batteries. The new Magic Trackpad 2 also brings Apple’s revolutionary Force Touch interface to the desktop, adding a new dimension to the iMac experience. A new version of the 27-inch iMac’s main feature is a Retina 5K display at a resolution of 5120 x 2880 pixels. Designed with professional photographers and video editors in mind, iMac 27-inch Retina 5K allows 4K video to be played at its native resolution in Final Cut Pro, with room for toolbars on the side.
October 15, 2015: Apple announces that ResearchKit is enabling new research studies on autism, epilepsy and melanoma. ResearchKit turns iPhone into a powerful tool for medical research by helping doctors, scientists and other researchers gather data more frequently and more accurately from participants using iPhone apps. With ResearchKit, study participants can review an interactive informed consent process, easily complete active tasks or submit survey responses, and choose how their health data is shared with researchers, making contributions to medical research easier than ever. Researchers and developers have already contributed to ResearchKit, with more than 50 researchers adding to the open source framework. “We’re honored to work with world-class medical institutions and provide them with tools to better understand diseases and ultimately help people lead healthier lives,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s senior vice president of Operations. “In just six months, ResearchKit apps studying everything from asthma and diabetes to Parkinson’s disease, are already providing insights to scientists around the world and more than 100,000 participants are choosing to contribute their data to advance science and medical research.”
October 27, 2015: Apple announces financial results for its fiscal 2015 fourth quarter ended September 26, 2015. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $51.5 billion and quarterly net profit of $11.1 billion, or $1.96 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $42.1 billion and net profit of $8.5 billion, or $1.42 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 39.9 percent compared to 38 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 62 percent of the quarter’s revenue. The growth was fueled by record fourth quarter sales of iPhone, the expanded availability of Apple Watch, and all-time records for Mac® sales and revenue from services. “Fiscal 2015 was Apple’s most successful year ever, with revenue growing 28% to nearly $234 billion. This continued success is the result of our commitment to making the best, most innovative products on earth, and it’s a testament to the tremendous execution by our teams,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We are heading into the holidays with our strongest product lineup yet, including iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, Apple Watch with an expanded lineup of cases and bands, the new iPad Pro and the all-new Apple TV which begins shipping this week.” “Apple’s record September quarter results drove earnings per share growth of 38% and operating cash flow of $13.5 billion,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “We returned $17 billion to our investors during the quarter through share repurchases and dividends, and we have now completed over $143 billion of our $200 billion capital return program.”
November 6, 2015: Apple Watch goes on sale in India, Chile, the Philippines, and South Africa.
November 11, 2015: iPad Pro is available to order online and will arrive at Apple’s retail stores, select carriers and Apple Authorized Resellers. Apple Pencil and Apple’s new Smart Keyboard, also available to order on Wednesday, bring breakthrough levels of precision and utility to iPad Pro. “The early response to iPad Pro from app developers and our customers has been incredible, and we’re excited to get iPad Pro into the hands of customers around the world this week,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “iPad Pro is the most powerful iPad we’ve ever made, giving users the ability to be even more creative and more productive with the epic 12.9-inch Retina display, powerful 64-bit A9X chip and groundbreaking Apple Pencil and new Smart Keyboard. We can’t wait to see what they do with iPad Pro.” The new, larger iPad Pro features a stunning 12.9-inch Retina display with 5.6 million pixels, the most ever in an iOS device, and groundbreaking performance with the new 64-bit A9X chip, rivaling most portable PCs. It is thin, light and delivers all-day 10-hour battery life that users have come to expect from iPad. Apple Pencil for iPad Pro makes drawing and sketching feel remarkably fluid and natural, and delivers incredible accuracy for activities like fine art illustration and detailed 3D design. A built-in Lightning connector on Apple Pencil makes for quick and easy pairing and charging. Apple’s new Smart Keyboard further extends the utility of iPad Pro, offering a full-sized keyboard in a thin, durable design so you can take it anywhere. The Smart Keyboard attaches to iPad Pro’s innovative Smart Connector port, eliminating the need for a separate battery, on/off switch or Bluetooth pairing.
December 3, 2015: Apple announces that its Swift programming language is now open source. As an open source language, the broad community of talented developers – from app developers to educational institutions to enterprises – can contribute to new Swift features and optimizations and help bring Swift to new computing platforms. Introduced in 2014, Swift is the fastest growing programming language in history and combines the performance and efficiency of compiled languages with the simplicity and interactivity of popular scripting languages. Apple today also launched the Swift.org website with detailed information about Swift open source, including technical documentation, community resources and links to download the Swift source code. “By making Swift open source the entire developer community can contribute to the programming language and help bring it to even more platforms,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “Swift’s power and ease of use will inspire a new generation to get into coding, and with today’s announcement they’ll be able to take their ideas anywhere, from mobile devices to the cloud.” Swift is a powerful and intuitive programming language that gives developers the freedom and capabilities they need to create the next generation of cutting-edge software. Swift is easy to learn and use, even if you’ve never coded before, and it’s the first systems programming language that is as expressive and enjoyable as a scripting language. Designed for safety, Swift also eliminates entire categories of common programming errors.
December 4, 2015: Apple Watch becomes available in Indonesia.
December 17, 2015: Apple announces that Jeff Williams has been named chief operating officer and Johny Srouji is joining Apple’s executive team as senior vice president for Hardware Technologies. Phil Schiller, senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, will expand his role to include leadership of the revolutionary App Store across all Apple platforms. Apple also announced that Tor Myhren will join Apple in the first calendar quarter of 2016 as vice president of Marketing Communications, reporting to CEO Tim Cook. “We are fortunate to have incredible depth and breadth of talent across Apple’s executive team. As we come to the end of the year, we’re recognizing the contributions already being made by two key executives,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Jeff is hands-down the best operations executive I’ve ever worked with, and Johny’s team delivers world-class silicon designs which enable new innovations in our products year after year.”
December 17, 2015: Apple’s One to One service ends. The service was gradually retired during the year with the final renewals ending on December 17. One to One Membership was a scheme Apple offered that enabled users to get personal training with a new iDevice. For a fee, training typically took place in Apple Retail Stores, in the form of an individual metting with an Apple Genius.
December 2015: Apple fixes unexpected serious issues with incompatibility of the Apple TV 4th generation with Apple’s Remote app for iOS and WatchOS.
December 2015: Amazon.com declines to develop an application for the Apple TV as Amazon is in direct competition with Apple with Amazon’s Fire TV. Amazon thus declines to develop an application for the Apple TV and begins to stop selling Apple TVs in their Apple products section of their online store. Amazon chooses to remove all Apple TV SKUs.
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