After several weeks of fake news about iPhone X sales, Apple revealed the truth. It was the company’s best-selling smartphone every single week it was on sale over two quarters. This is the first time Apple’s most expensive model achieved that level of sales.

This comes after all the fear-mongering that people wouldn’t pay for a mobile handset costing $999 and more, depending on the configuration. There were surveys demonstrating that a majority of potential customers would reject the costlier models, which is understandable. But with iPhones starting at $349, it only demonstrated that different people have different priorities and different budgets.

But the iPhone X still led the pack among iPhones. I’m sure this is clear to you.

Now I suppose some of you might be skeptical of Apple’s claims about revenue, profits, and the number of items shipped. But the company is following SEC requirements. Filing false reports could get them in a heap of trouble. Look up companies who have run afoul of that agency.

In short, it’s fair to say that Apple is reporting the truth, whereas some members of the media who have repeated the fictions about poor sales are clearly mistaken, or perhaps deliberately lying.

Some of the fake news about poor iPhone X sales allegedly originates from the supply chain. But Apple CEO Tim Cook has said on several occasions that you can’t take one or a few supply chain metrics and assume anything about sales. Apple will routinely adjust supply allocations among different manufacturers and, in some cases, manage inventory in different ways that will impact total shipments.

What’s most disturbing about the iPhone X is that false reports of poor sales are only the latest in a long stream of falsehoods published about the product.

Even when the iPhone X was referred to as an iPhone 8, there were claims that Apple had to make a critical last-minute design change because they couldn’t find a way to make a front-mounted Touch ID work embedded or beneath an edge-to-edge OLED display. The rumors were based on the alleged reason that Samsung put its fingerprint sensor at the rear of the unit.

Sure, Apple went to Face ID, but that feature was supposedly under development for several years. Regardless of the alleged limitations of an OLED display, Apple may have switched to facial recognition anyway. Indeed, there are reports it may ultimately replace Touch ID on all gear.

Once the rumors about facial recognition became more credible, the next effort at fear-mongering suggested it would present potential security problems, or maybe not even work so well. After all, Samsung has a similar feature that can be readily defeated with a digital photo, at least on the Galaxy S8 smartphone. I’m not at all sure at this point whether there are similar limitations on this year’s Galaxy S9, which supposedly has improved biometrics.

Even after Face ID proved to be extremely reliable — nobody claims perfection — there were the inevitable complaints that the iPhone X would be backordered for weeks or months, and thus, after it was introduced early in November of 2017, you wouldn’t be able to get one in time for the holidays.

Over the next few weeks, Apple managed to mostly catch up with orders. So in the days before Christmas, you still had a good chance of getting one on time.

That’s when the critics began to suggest sales had been underwhelming. Apple’s great experiment in fueling an alleged — and never confirmed — iPhone “super” upgrade cycle had failed.

When Tim Cook announced that the iPhone X was the best-selling iPhone and the best-selling smartphone on the planet for each week it was on sale in the December quarter, the next rumor had it that sales collapsed after the holidays, and March quarterly numbers would be perfectly awful.

It got to a point by mid-April that Apple’s stock price, which had approached $180 per share, plummeted to near $160. You can see the trend over at Yahoo Finance and similar sites.

After this week’s news from Apple that all these unfavorable reports were false, the stock price soared. It closed at  $176.57 on Wednesday.

So is that the end of the latest cycle of spreading fake news about Apple? I doubt it. There were similar rumors about previous iPhones, using alleged supply chain cutbacks to fuel such claims. In each case, the rumors turned out to be false, only to return months later in full force.

One would think that, after this keeps happening, the reporters, bloggers and industry analysts who keep spreading this nonsense would learn a thing or to. Then again, if some of it is designed to talk down the stock price, and thus allow the instigators to buy the stock at a lower price before it increases again, you can expect it won’t stop.

I suppose some of these rumors may also have been started by Apple’s competitors. I would hope that the media won’t be fooled by such antics anymore.

But don’t bet on it.

For months, we’ve been hearing about an alleged “iPhone Super Cycle.” The introduction of a premium model, the iPhone X, was supposed to be so compelling that scads of people were expected to upgrade, far more than in the usual cycle. Thus sales would soar, and, until things died down, or unless a new super cycle was launched, Apple would sell far more iPhones.

Now this claim has been repeated over and over again, and has been used as leverage by some of Apple’s critics to claim that the iPhone X was thus a failure for failing to meet such unrealistic expectations. Add to that the persistent claims that the most-expensive iPhone was a big fail, not matching Apple’s alleged inflated expectations whatever they were.

Of course, these outsiders no doubt haven’t a clue how many units Apple expected to sell, beyond the usual quarterly earnings guidance. The claim about an alleged super cycle never had anything to do with reality. It was just a made up story, a product of someone’s imagination that caught a wave and was given a level of credibility it did not deserve.

But before I get to the sales numbers that many of you have probably read about already, consider that the smartphone market is highly saturated. Manufacturers are finding it more difficult to convince you to upgrade. After all, the better models are good enough already. Take a nearly three-year-old iPhone, such as the iPhone 6s. Unless damaged beyond repair, they still work just fine. Well maybe it needs a new battery. But Apple continues to sell them. Even an iPhone 6 works pretty well with iOS 11, and if the one you have is in good shape, do the new models offer enough compelling new features to convince you to buy the latest and greatest?

Apple’s apparent solution to this dilemma is to sell several lines of iPhones, dating back to 2015 models. So if the iPhone X is too rich for your blood, way too rich, consider the iPhone 6s. Or the 2016 iPhone SE, for $349, if you don’t mind a smaller display.

Despite that, during the March quarter, the iPhone X remained Apple’s largest selling iPhone. You can’t do much better than that, and this happened despite all the stories about collapsing sales, huge supply chain cutbacks and so forth and so on.

During Tuesday’s quarterly conference call with financial analysts, Apple CEO Tim Cook remarked, “It’s one of those things where a team wins the Super Bowl. Maybe you want them to win by a few more points, but it’s a Super Bowl winner and that’s how we feel about it. I could not be prouder of the product.”

In its March quarterly financials, Apple reported sales at the higher end of its guidance and in line with some analyst expectations. So total sales were $61.1 billon, an increase of 16% over last year. Apple sold 52.2 million iPhones, a unit increase of 3% over last year, where some 50.8 million units were sold. The average iPhone sales price was $728.30, compared to $655 last year. While down from the $796.42 number during the December quarter, it’s still clear the iPhone X continued to make a substantial difference.

So iPhone sales are flattening, but earning more money per sale surely compensates.

Obviously, the claim that Apple is having trouble convincing people to pay $999 and up for an iPhone is false. And despite rumors of falling sales in China, Apple reported 20% growth in “Greater China and Japan.”

Sales of other products and services mostly increased too. Apple’s wearables business, for example, has become as large as a Fortune 300 company, and the Apple Watch remains number one in its market. Don’t forget how it was denigrated year after year, as the rest of the smartwatch market collapsed around it.

iPad sales increased slightly to $4.1 billion, compared to $3.9 billion last year. Sales came in at 9.1 million, up from 8 .9 million last year.

The Mac, however, had a slight dip, from 4.2 million down to 4.1 million. This is in keeping with an overall flatness of the PC market, although Cook said that some 60% of purchases were made by people new to the platform. This may indicate the fact that people are keeping their Macs for longer periods, while more people in the enterprise, when given a choice of which personal computer to place on their desks, choose Apple.

For this quarter, Apple is expecting revenue between $51.5 billion and $53.5 billion, and gross margins between 38% and 38.5%. This appears to be at the higher end of Wall Street expectations, so the volume of the fear mongering has been quieted.

For now.

If you want to know more about Apple’s March numbers, you can check its press release.

I am not going to bother writing about the stock buybacks and increased dividends. If you’re already invested in Apple you know about it, and if you’re not able to afford the price of Apple’s stock, no sense in worrying about it. It’s just typical of what’s been happening in greater frequency since the 2017 tax cut was passed. Rather than give large wage increases to employees, companies are focusing mainly on stock buybacks and other money games that seldom enrich anyone but investors and executives.

Meantime, fears about iPhone X sales will temporarily abate — until the next time.

It’s well-known that printer makers earn most of their profits from the consumables, not the purchase of the original product. Indeed, during a normal lifecycle, you’ll pay the hardware’s price over and over again to keep it going. But there have been efforts to reduce the cost of consumables, such as Epson’s Eco-Tank printers, although your upfront price is far higher in exchange for cheaper ink.

Some suggest that printer ink can cost more than an ounce of gold, but that might be pushing it. But consider just one example of overpriced ink. So the usual going rate for an OEM, or factory-built ink cartridge for a printer may be over $30, if you buy the “extra capacity” version. For my all-in-one, Epson’s Workforce WF-3640 printer, which has been out of production for a while, the 252XL cartridge is $34.99 at most mainstream dealers, such as Staples. Add a similar amount for each of the remaining three colors.

Now most of my printing is handled by a cheap Brother laser. From the day that the original factory toner cartridge was spent, I bought remanufactured cartridges. I am guided by the combination of high ratings and a low price at Amazon in choosing what to buy. Of late, I’ve used the INK4WORK brand, which costs $14.98 for its replacement for Brother’s TN-850 High Yield Toner Cartridge. Brother’s version is $106.99 after discount.

Continue Reading…

I remember when the first Apple AirPort was announced. I was seated in an auditorium at the Macworld Expo in New York City when Steve jobs displayed the company’s first Wi-Fi gear. I must admit I paid little attention to a wireless networking system, since my home was littered with Ethernet cables to keep me connected.

It didn’t take long for me to see the value of keeping a notebook computer wireless, especially when traveling, as hot spots became more ubiquitous. But throughput was dreadful in those days, and the files that took a minute to copy over on my Macs took far far longer to copy without the cables.

Over time, as Wi-Fi standards evolved, the speed difference was sharply reduced. These days, you’d barely notice it unless your wireless network is clogged with a number of active devices.

Apple’s AirPort lineup expanded, with the Express tailored to music servers, and the Time Capsule for network backups. Working with Time Machine, Time Capsule, which came with an alleged “server grade” hard drive built in, was supposed to ease the process on a small network.

Using AirPort Utility, Apple made it pretty easy to set up your router. Compare that to other companies that relied on a browser-based setup scheme with an obtuse interface. Indeed, I read stories that the router was once the most frequently returned device at a consumer electronics store, because so many customers couldn’t figure out how to use it.

These days, many of these products have wizards that guide you through the initial setup process, doing the basics behind the scenes. But not all of them assist you in using a strong password. The combo cable modem/router supplied by Cox, the largest local ISP, configures its gear with “password.” At least CenturyLink, second in the market and still relying on aging DSL technology, includes a strong default password to set you up in good fashion. My only concern is that each unit’s password is unique, so your neighbor, or the drive-by hacker, doesn’t have the same login credentials.

Over the years, AirPort tended to be slightly more expensive than top-of-the-line gear from other companies, but always kept up with the latest standards.

Until 2013, when the 6th generation AirPort Extreme arrived. I actually had one until I was exposed to much better products embracing enhanced versions of the 802.11ac standard. As my network expanded with wireless connections from iPhones, an iPad, the family TV, an Apple TV, and the Blu-ray player, something had to give.

Apple stopped upgrading AirPort except for firmware releases. More and more ISPs now lease or sell you a cable or DSL modem with a built-in router. Some are decent enough to very much eliminate the need to buy a separate box. The arrival of mesh routers, designed to easily extend a network to improve coverage, especially in a larger home, also helped to make AirPort less significant.

Nearly two years ago, it was reported that Apple has disbanded its AirPort engineering team and shuffled the workers to different departments.

Even if Apple had updated AirPort, would it have made sense with so much cheap competition, and the availability of routers direct from your ISP?

But as I’ve already written in a previous column, the router your ISP provides may not be up to the task, particularly with more congested networks. When I had Cox, they supplied me with an Arris Panoramic that bundles the cable modem, a router, and a two-line connection for Cox’s VoIP-based telephone system.

The router was more than powerful enough to sustain a connection throughout my apartment, even at the far ends of the unit.

But after I moved into a new apartment, I couldn’t use Cox anymore. The new place had been wired by CenturyLink for its broadband and phone service, plus DirecTV. The cheapest Internet connection offers decent speeds, starting in the 20 megabit range, and a guarantee of the same price for life. But, as I wrote, the supplied DSL modem/router, a Zyxel C3000Z, delivers subpar Wi-Fi coverage.

Having a review product from Amped Wireless to test gave me the chance to try something that was more suited for my setup. Configuration of such a system requires shutting off the Wi-Fi radios on the ISP’s router (usually a couple of clicks or taps on a Wi-Fi settings screen), and attaching an Ethernet cable from it to your external router.

The long and short of it is that AirPort was a great way to introduce millions to Wi-Fi. There are so many routers out there now that Apple hasn’t been able to make a credible argument for its own solution, although it continues to improve Wi-Fi performance on gear that embeds the technology.

But if you’re still interested in buying a legacy AirPort Extreme, AirPort Express or Time Capsule, look for closeout pricing. Apple is selling off its inventory, but the price hadn’t changed last time I checked.