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You’d be forgiven for being skeptical about the iPhone 12’s stellar performance this past quarter. It’s been a rough couple of years for smartphones — a phenomenon from which not even Apple was immune.
Frankly, after staring down these macro trends over the last couple of years, it seemed like the days of phone-fueled earnings reports were behind the company as its expanding services portfolio started to become its primary financial driver.
For the final quarter of 2020, Apple earnings surpassed $100 billion — a first.
I capped off my mobile coverage last year with an article titled, “Not even 5G could rescue smartphone sales in 2020.” Among the figures cited were two year-over-year drops of 20% for the first two quarters, followed by a global decline of 5.7% for Q3. As we noted at the time, a mere 5.7% drop constituted good news in 2020.
The straightforward premise of the piece was that COVID-19 subverted industry expectations that 5G would finally reverse declining smartphone sales, even if only temporarily. That all came with the important caveat that Apple’s numbers would likely have a big impact the following quarter.
Ahead of yesterday’s earnings, Morgan Stanley noted, “In our view, the iPhone 12 has been Apple’s most successful product launch in the last five years.” Such a sentiment may have seemed like hyperbole in the lead-up to the news, but in hindsight, it’s hard to argue, with five years having passed since the launch of the first Apple Watch.
The iPhone X was more of a radical departure for the company, but the 12 is proving to be a massive hit. The recent launch of Apple Silicon Macs juiced sales in that product category rising 21% year over year, but ultimately the company’s computer business is a drop in the bucket compared to phone sales.
Cybersecurity startup CybSafe, a ‘behavioral security’ platform, has raised $7.9 million in a Series A funding round led by IQ Capital with participation from Hanover Digital Investments (HDI) GmbH and B8 Ventures. The investment round will be used to focus on expanding its enterprise and mid-market client base. CybSafe is a SaaS product with a per-user-based, subscription licensing model.
As most people in tech know, the big concern with security isn’t so much the system as the people. Indeed, 90% of UK data breaches are generally due to human error, for instance.
CybSafe’s ‘behavior-led’ platform manages these people-related security risks using behavioral science and data analytics by delivering personalized cyber support for users. The company already has 350 clients in 15 countries, including Credit Suisse, Air Canada, HSBC and NHS Trusts.
Launched in 2017, the company was founded by cyber resilience and intelligence expert, Oz Alashe MBE, a former Lieutenant Colonel in the British Army and UK Special Forces who was the first black officer to serve in the Parachute Regiment and UK Special Forces. The team includes former UK Government cybersecurity specialists, behavioral scientists, data scientists, and software engineers.
CybSafe
Alashe says the platform helps users develop security skills and habits through “accredited microlearning content, adaptive support material, and personalized nudges. The combination of contextualized, just-in-time, and on-demand content ensures people get the help they need. They get it whenever they need it. And they get it in the way that is most likely to help them.” The platform is available in 9 different languages.
CybSafe is delivered via a mobile application or within a browser, showing ‘bite-sized’ guidance, alerts, and notifications.
CybSafe’s competitors include KnowBe4, Wombat Security and Infosec, but Alashe says CybSafe’s strength is that it addresses security awareness for the average person: “Security awareness is dead. It’s ineffective. It’s inefficient. And it’s broken. CybSafe uses behavioral science and data analysis to deliver security behavior interventions that work. It has efficacy rates of over 90% for some behaviors to prove it.”
The team includes Jonathan Webster, CTO who previously worked on Her Majesty’s Government Digital Services; Dr John Blythe, Head of Behavioural Science, and a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society.
New numbers from Canalys show a slowing in the major smartphone decline we saw for 2020. The past year was, of course, a major blow to an industry already suffering a slide. Hope that the arrival of 5G would right the ship were dashed by Covid-19.
Things are looking up, fueled in large part by a killer quarter for Apple. The company posted its earnings last night, putting much of its success at the feet of the iPhone 12. In spite (or perhaps because) of pandemic-fueled delays, the handset arrived in a perfect storm – the beginnings of a “supercycle” that see customers upgrading devices in a kind of critical mass.
Numbers are still down for the fourth quarter of 2020 – but they’re down by only 2% per the firm. That’s due in no small part to what amounted to the iPhone’s best quarter, as the company introduced four 5G-sporting handsets. Canalys shows a 4% increase for Apple, as the device arrived to a wider 5G rollout just in time for the holiday season.
The company snagged the global number one spot, with Samsung taking number two in spite of a 12% decline. Chinese manufacturers Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo rounded out the top five, all seeing double digit increases, y-o-y.
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The category is expected to see a rebound this year, after suffering declines due first to supply chain concerns and then larger economic issues, stemming from the pandemic.
“The introduction of COVID-19 vaccines is also boosting business confidence for 2021, allowing them to plan and invest,” analyst Ben Stanton says of the figures. “Going forwards, there will be obvious economic ripple effects as government stimulus fades, and there are ongoing concerns around new virus strains. Overall though, sentiment in the industry is positive, and 2021 will see the smartphone market rebound after a 7% decline in 2020.”
Another report from Canalys notes more positive news for the PC market, showing a 35% y-o-y increase, courtesy of tablet and Chromebook sales.
General Motors has announced plans to be carbon neutral by 2040 — removing emissions from all of its products and global operations or offsetting those emissions through carbon credits or carbon capture within the next two decades.
The company also committed to have a fully electric fleet of vehicles by 2035.
It’s a big step for a company whose products are responsible for a large percentage of the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global climate change and comes on the heels of a pledge to launch a massive fleet of new electric vehicles and a $27 billion commitment to electrification late last year.
The auto giant said that it would work with the Environmental Defense Fun on its vision for an all-electric future and will work toward eliminating tailpipe emissions from light-duty vehicles by 2035.
GM’s also getting into the charging business too. The company said it would work with “governments, partners, and suppliers around the world too build out the necessary charging infrastructure and encourage the use of renewable energy n electric vehicle charging.”
To power the company’s operations, GM said it will use only renewable energy power at its U.S. facilities by 2030 and by 2035 all of its operations worldwide will use renewable power.
These commitments are also going to extend to its supply chain over time as the company works with its suppliers to reduce their emissions, increase transparency and source sustainable materials.
“While electric vehicles do not produce tailpipe emissions, it is critical that the impact associated with production and charging is incorporated in our plans. By working with utility companies to provide access to more renewable energy sources, GM hopes to address the entire production cycle of future EVs, with benefits that will extend far beyond our own vehicles and operations,” the company’s chief executive Mary Barra said in a statement.
This commitment is going to require a massive transformation that encompasses more than GM alone, Barra wrote, because “making the transition to an EV is simply not possible right now – either because the appropriate vehicles do not exist or because access to charging is limited where [people] live and work.”
