World of Apple

AppleInsider has published a “private communication” from last week in which Steve Jobs “acknowledged the beating his company’s shares have taken during this time of economic uncertainty, but remained confident that investors would inevitably recoup their losses and then some.”

Steve Jobs attached this stock performance chart onto his private internal email

“Wow… what a remarkable last few days,” he wrote in an email to employees. “Our stock is being buffeted around by factors a lot larger than ourselves.”

“As you can see, we have outperformed many other blue-chip tech companies, including Google,” he wrote, attaching a stock performance comparison chart for illustration. “I continue to believe that our fundamentals – our remarkable people, our clear and focused strategy, our new product pipeline, our 200+ retail stores, our $18 billion of cash in the bank with no debt, etc., will serve us well in the coming months and years.”

At the end of the email Jobs expressed his confidence that those who remain loyal to their positions in Apple would reap the benefits in the long run.

“I believe that investors who stay with us will be rewarded as the market’s confidence is restored over time,” he wrote. “Hang in there.”

Apple’s stock which hovered around $200 towards the end of 2007 has dropped as low as $130 recently.

Yesterday Apple filed a 14A (PDF download) with the SEC, the details of the 14A document show the compensation given to company executives during 2007.

Steve Jobs continues to be paid a $1 salary and received no stock options during 2007. The CEO does however own 5.5 million shares in AAPL and is yet to sell any since rejoining Apple in 2007.

Chief Operation Office Tim Cook was paid $700,014 in salary, earned a $700,000 bonus and received $6.943 million in stock awards. With other compensation (a $13,750 401K contribution and $250 iPhone credit), Cook earned $8,357,190 in 2007.

Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer was paid $600,012 in salary, earned a $600,000 bonus and received $4.946 million in stock awards. With other compensation (a $13,750 401K contribution, $250 iPhone credit, and $584,973 reimbursement for tax liabitity), Opppenheimer earned $6,745,345 in 2007.

Senior Vice President of Retail Ron Johnson was paid $600,012 in salary, earned a $600,000 bonus and received $4.946 million in stock awards. With other compensation ($379 iPhone credit), Johnson earned $6,147,001 in 2007.

The final executive officer to be detailed in the report is Tony Fadell, Senior Vice President of the iPod Division who earned $500,009 in salary, received a $500,000 bonus and was awarded $3.706 million in stock. With other compensation ($6,750 in patent bonus, $13,500 in 401K, $379 iPhone credit, $73 iPod credit), Fadell earned $5,355,171 in 2007

After yesterdays Keynote presentation Steve Jobs joined CNBC for a short interview, of course Jobs talked about the MacBook Air but also the relationship between Intel and Apple.

Possibly the most interesting point to come out of the interview was the fact that Apple is not in a contentious relationship with China Mobile.

In an interview with The New York Times Steve Jobs expressed his opinions on Android, Bill Gates and the Amazon Kindle but also spoke about Apple’s latest innovation the MacBook Air.

Jobs sat down with David Pogue and John Markoff for half-an-hour, when speaking of the MacBook Air Jobs said;

“I’m going to be the first one in line to buy one of these,”…”I’ve been lusting after this.”

According to the Apple CEO, designers went through around 100 design prototypes to find the right “form.”

He and Jonathan Ive were worried that they’d be unable to “fit the computer into the package that they came up with.”

When talking of Amazon’s Kindle Steve Jobs simpl stated that it was floored due to the fact that people simply don’t read anymore.

It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore,” he said. “Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.”

On Google Android Jobs stated;

“Having created a phone its a lot harder than it looks,” he said. “We’ll see how good their software is and we’ll see how consumers like it and how quickly it is adopted.”

Finally when talking of Bill Gates and his imminent retirement from Microsoft this Summer Jobs said;

“Bill’s retiring from Microsoft is a big deal.” “It’s a significant event, and I think he should be honored for the contributions he’s made.”

After the Macworld 2008 keynote presentation Steve Jobs showed of the MacBook Air to press and we caught some celebrities on film.

View the gallery

Wired magazine has published a lengthy and very interesting article about the conception and birth of the iPhone.

The 4 page article entitled “How the iPhone Blew Up the Wireless Industry,” reveals previously unknown details surrounding the development of the iPhone.

Sources disclosed to the publication that up to $150 million was spent of the research and development of the iPhone.

“To make sure the iPhone didn’t generate too much radiation, Apple built models of human heads — complete with goo to simulate brain density — and measured the effects,” wrote Wired’s Fred Vogelstein. “To predict the iPhone’s performance on a network, Apple engineers bought nearly a dozen server-sized radio-frequency simulators for millions of dollars apiece.”

The entire story began after the failed partnership with Motorola, the ROKR handset was the first iPod and phone convergence but was branded a disaster, at this point, Apple CEO Steve Jobs knew what was required.

Jobs reportedly met with Cingular in February of 2005 to discuss a Motorola-free partnership, during the meeting Jobs laid out three key points to Cingular chief, Stan Sigman.

- Apple had the technology to build something truly revolutionary, “light-years ahead of anything else.”
- Apple was prepared to consider an exclusive arrangement to get that deal done.
- But Apple was also prepared to buy wireless minutes wholesale and become a de facto carrier itself.

Jobs was reportedly confident of his promises as Apple hardware engineers had spent over two years working on touchscreen technology for a tablet PC and had convinced him that they could build a similar interface for a phone.

Through the entire process the highest level of secrecy was being kept with the project being known as P2, P1 reportedly being another iPod phone project.

The article continues to write about how hardware and software engineers never met, most not knowing what they were working on. “Whenever Apple executives traveled to Cingular, they registered as employees of Infineon, the company Apple was using to make the phone’s transmitter,” Wired claims.

In January 2007, Jobs announced the iPhone at Macworld, only 30 or so of the most senior people on the project had seen it.

Fortune magazine has ranked Apple CEO, Steve Jobs most powerful person in business in its annual ranking of 25 business persons. In addition to the rankings Fortune has written an article entitled The Power of Steve Jobs.

Fortune supports their claim by attributing Jobs’ deep influence on the computing, music and retail industries as well as Hollywood.

Apple has recently published its annual report for the 2007 financial year (PDF) to the end of September.

The report reveals the company’s concerns over new suppliers, component supply concerns, major retail expansion and rising rewards for executives.

The report goes into detail about Apple’s record-breaking year as well as warning that CEO Steve Jobs may see his annual compensation rise.

“Because Mr Jobs’s continued leadership is critical to Apple, the Compensation Committee is considering additional compensation arrangements for him,” the filing states.

Jobs’ private jet worth $46 million

Jobs is famously paid a $1 salary but Apple also pays for the maintenance and running costs of his private Gulfstream Jet which was gifted to him in 1999. Apple paid out $776,000 in maintenance on the jet in the financial year, up from $202,000 in 2006 and down on the $1.1 million spent in 2005.

Also of note, Steve Jobs did not received a free iPhone from the company unlike every other Apple employee, the chief did receive an iPod but it is unknown whether it was a gift or reward.

Steve Jobs remains Apple’s second largest share holder with 5.5 million shares, the report states that Jobs has never sold any of them.

Jobs took advantage of a 30,000 share grant provided to him shortly after his return in 1997, but appeared to only do so as the grant expiry date was approaching. The surge in Apple’s share numbers and stock value since the options were granted a decade ago gave the executive 120,000 new shares worth more than $14.6 million.

At the end of Apple’s fiscal 2007 year it had opened a total of 197 Apple Retail Stores across the US, UK, Canada, Japan and Italy.

Apple’s employee base also shot up by around 4,000 employees; jumping from 17,787 to 21,600, most of the new hires in the retail operation.

The company’s hold on the flash memory market remains strong, the report reveals. Apple paid its flash suppliers a $1.25bn advance in 2006, but as of 29 September 2007, just $208m of the advance had been spent – despite the growing demand for flash.

Apple generated $24b in revenue for 2007, returning $3.5bn in net profit. It generated $19.3bn in revenue and $2bn in profit in 2006.

The report also confirms the company invested $782 million in research and development and $467 million on advertising during the 2007 financial year.

Steve Jobs has posted an open letter to iPhone owners today after Apple announced yesterday that it had slashed the price of the iPhone. The move caused much ruckus amongst early adopters of the iPhone.

Jobs is keen to defend the drop in price in his letter but sees the need to take care of early adopters:

even though we are making the right decision to lower the price of iPhone, and even though the technology road is bumpy, we need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price. Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these.

Therefore, we have decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. Details are still being worked out and will be posted on Apple’s website next week. Stay tuned.

Apple has posted the QuickTime stream of today’s special event on its website. Lets just recap on today’s news:

• Refreshed iPod shuffle
• New iPod nano
• New iPod classic
• Introducing iPod touch
• Price drop for iPhone
• iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store
• iTunes now with iPhone ringtone support
• Apple and Starbucks partnership
• iPod Hi-Fi discontinued

iPod touch

Apple has also posted a few further prices of interest:

• iPod nano advert
• iPod nano Gallery
• iPod touch Guided Tour Video
• iPod touch gallery
• iPod classic gallery