Neil Cybart Neil Cybart

Meta Connect 2024, Meta’s Orion Prototype, Mark Zuckerberg Is Gaslighting Us

Hello everyone. My notes from Meta’s Connect 2024 came out to a few daily updates worth of discussion. After much editing, today’s update does a good job of capturing my views and perspective. There’s a lot to cover, so let’s jump right in.

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Neil Cybart Neil Cybart

The Design Story Behind AirPods 4, Google Stresses Antitrust Long Game

Hello everyone. Tomorrow’s update will be dedicated to discussing Meta's Connect 2024 event. What took place at Menlo Park marked a new kind of low for the consumer tech industry. We will discuss it all tomorrow.

For today’s update, we are going to focus on AirPods. The discussion will then turn to a quick update on the Google antitrust front.

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Neil Cybart Neil Cybart

The Sonos App Fiasco, Sonos Earnings, YouTube Premium Is Having A Moment

Hello everyone. We will begin today's update by focusing on the Sonos app fiasco. Our attention will then shift to Sonos earnings. The update concludes with an observation regarding YouTube Premium, YouTube's ad-free subscription offering.

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Neil Cybart Neil Cybart

Unpacking and Decoding the NYT’s Jony Ive / LoveFrom Profile

Hello everyone.

This past Saturday, The New York Times published a profile on what Jony Ive has been up to since leaving Apple in 2019 and starting his LoveFrom design consultancy.

While a fair amount of the information found in the piece had been previously known, such as Airbnb and Ferrari being LoveFrom clients, there were new disclosures regarding some of Jony’s business dealings involving San Francisco real estate. The piece seemed to be timed with an upcoming fundraising effort for a new company Jony is involved in with OpenAI.

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Neil Cybart Neil Cybart

Apple’s Philosophy on Photography, Why Memory Protection Is a Big Deal, Snap Unveils Spectacles 5.0

Hello everyone. We begin today's update with Apple drawing a line in the sand regarding photography and generative AI. It’s fascinating how much of a Big Tech outlier Apple is on this photography versus generative AI debate. We then turn to my thoughts on Snap unveiling its fifth edition of Spectacles smart glasses.

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Neil Cybart Neil Cybart

Addressing iPhone Pessimism

In today’s update, we will take a closer look at some of the iPhone pessimism that materialized following Apple’s “It’s Glowtime” event. Let’s jump right in.

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Neil Cybart Neil Cybart

More on Apple’s New Devices, What’s Next for iPhone?, What’s Next for Apple Watch?

Hello everyone. Yesterday, we finished our review of Apple’s event. There are a few additional topics worth visiting that aren't so much about Apple's event but rather what comes next. Where does Apple take the iPhone and Apple Watch from here? Let’s discuss.

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Neil Cybart Neil Cybart

Deconstructing Apple’s Product Event (iPhone)

Hello everyone. We will conclude our Apple event review, focusing on the iPhone segment of the presentation.

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Neil Cybart Neil Cybart

Deconstructing Apple’s Product Event (AirPods)

Hello everyone. We will continue our Apple event review, focusing on the AirPods segment of the presentation. Yesterday’s update was focused on Apple Watch. Monday will be focused on everything iPhone.

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Neil Cybart Neil Cybart

Deconstructing Apple’s Product Event (Apple Watch)

Hello everyone. We will continue our Apple event review.

Yesterday’s update was focused on the big picture. 

My preference is to go deep into one section (Apple Watch, AirPods, iPhone) before moving on to the next section. For today, we will focus on the Apple Watch part of the presentation. Tomorrow, we will talk about AirPods. That discussion will end up including something of a State of AirPods section that extends behind just what was announced this week. There has been a lot going on with AirPods sales. Monday will be focused on everything iPhone.

Let’s jump in. 

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Neil Cybart Neil Cybart

Apple Just Held Its Strongest September Event in Years

Hello everyone. Today’s update will go over my initial impressions from Apple’s “It’s Glowtime” event. The discussion will have more in the way of big picture takeaways. We will get to the specifics, including my thoughts on the features, on Wednesday and possibly Thursday.

Let’s jump right in.


Apple Just Held Its Strongest September Event in Years

Apple’s “It’s Glowtime” event was jam-packed with HW updates.

  • The Apple Watch Series 10 marked one of the more significant year-over-year improvements for a flagship Apple Watch in years. We will likely see a bump up in the non-Ultra to Ultra sales ratio.

  • All four iPhone flagships contained notable upgrades including A18 (for non-Pro models) / A18 Pro (for Pro models), Camera Control (touch-capacitive area with sensors and haptic motors), and improved battery life across the line.

  • The entire AirPods line saw updates for the first time since the line expanded to three models, with AirPods receiving a H2 chip along with fit and comfort enhancements, AirPods Pro becoming a clinical-grade Hearing Aid, and AirPods Max receiving its first change in its four-year life (USB-C and new colors).

  • Apple sneaked in a non-HW Apple Intelligence feature, Visual Intelligence, tied into Camera Control. Visual Intelligence provides iPhone users context for their surroundings.

After looking back at prior September events, it’s fair to say yesterday’s event was the strongest Apple September event since at least 2017 (iPhone X unveiling). That is not meant to belittle or

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Neil Cybart Neil Cybart

Disney Earnings, Roku Earnings

Hello everyone. Given Apple’s event on Monday (1 pm ET / 10 am PT), the next update will go out on Tuesday.

As you watch the event, if you have questions or observations that you would like addressed in the daily updates, send them my way. This includes any specific questions regarding the products themselves as there will be some demo time on Monday.

Today’s update will have a video streaming theme as we circle back to cover a few remaining CY2Q24 earnings releases from last month. For both Disney and Roku, the discussion will extend a bit beyond just what was found in their respective earnings.

Let’s jump in.

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Neil Cybart Neil Cybart

ESPN Launches “Where to Watch” Feature, A Sports App Arms Race, U.S. Judge Blocks Venu Sports Launch

Hello everyone. We begin with my thoughts on ESPN’s new “Where to Watch” app feature. The discussion then goes over how ESPN designers must have a liking to Apple’s Sports app. We conclude with a U.S. judge blocking Venu Sports, a JV involving Disney, Fox, and Warner from launching.

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Neil Cybart Neil Cybart

Amazon Alexa to Be Powered by Claude, Charging for AI, Apple Rumored to Invest in OpenAI

Happy Tuesday. Welcome to September.

One very quick follow-up to last Thursday’s discussion involving Apple Watch. We talked about my wish for Google to be more original with smartwatches. It’s easy to be different. A much harder goal is to be better.

Today’s update will have an AI theme as we begin with Amazon, move over to AI monetization, and then conclude with Apple / OpenAI. Let’s jump in.


Amazon Alexa to Be Powered by Claude

Here’s Reuters:

“Amazon's revamped Alexa due for release in October ahead of the U.S. holiday season will be powered primarily by Anthropic's Claude artificial intelligence models, rather than its own AI, five people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Amazon plans to charge $5 to $10 a month for its new ‘Remarkable’ version of Alexa as it will use powerful generative AI to answer complex queries, while still offering the ‘Classic’ voice assistant for free, Reuters reported in June.

But initial versions of the new Alexa using in-house software simply struggled for words, sometimes taking six or seven seconds to acknowledge a prompt and reply, one of the people said.

That's why Amazon turned to Claude, an AI chatbot developed by startup Anthropic, as it performed better than the online retail giant's own AI models, the people said.”


Last October, Amazon announced a $4B investment in Anthropic (owns Claude). The news was positioned by Amazon as a “strategic collaboration to advance generative AI.” Anthropic said it would use AWS as its primary cloud provider, which means a portion of that $4B will find its way back to Amazon, while making future foundation models accessible to AWS customers with some features coming to AWS first. It’s not clear if this rumored Alexa/Claude integration was in the works last year and was tied with Amazon’s $4B investment.

As for motives, Amazon is becoming nervous of missing the boat on whatever remaining generative AI buzz and mania is left to squeeze. A year ago, Amazon held a product event where it gave its take on generative AI. As we discussed at the time,

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Neil Cybart Neil Cybart

My Thoughts on Google’s “Made by Google” Event, Google’s Apple Watch Copying, Project Astra and the Future

Hello everyone. We are going to change directions and talk about hardware (and AI).

Apple Event. Earlier this week, Apple sent out invites to a September 9th product event at Steve Jobs Theater (Apple Park).

 
 

The invite is giving off major Apple Intelligence vibes. New iPhones (with Apple Intelligence) and Apple Watches are expected to be the major news.

My expectation is for Apple to use the same general game plan that was used for the September 2023 event. A taped presentation would be shown at Steve Jobs Theater, followed by some time with the new products. It’s sort of like the tech version of a Hollywood movie premiere.

For today’s update, we will focus on Google’s product event that took place two weeks ago at its Mountain View campus.

For those of you who are newer Above Avalon members, my approach in reviewing these events is to look at the big picture surrounding the products and features, in addition to what the company wants the public to focus on. What is the broader narrative being pushed? How does that differ from other companies?

Let’s jump in.

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Neil Cybart Neil Cybart

Grading Luca Maestri’s Performance as Apple CFO, Where Can Kevan Parekh Add His Touch?, More on Maestri Staying at Apple

We will continue our discussion involving the Apple CFO transition. Let's jump right in.


Yesterday’s discussion put something in my head – how would one go about grading Luca Maestri’s tenure as Apple CFO? Do we look at revenue? Margins? Product portfolio?

Selecting the right metrics for grading is crucial. For example, products like iPhone and Apple Watch can’t be graded on unit sales since Apple doesn’t chase market share. We need to make sure that the items being used to grade Maestri align with the metrics that have guided his work and attention.

After assessing Apple’s business and the various obligations that fall to the finance team to manage, three metrics jumped out at me:

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Neil Cybart Neil Cybart

Luca Maestri to Step Down as Apple CFO, The CFO Position at Apple, Apple Succession Planning

For today's update, we will focus on the Apple CFO news. The email begins with my thoughts on Apple’s announcement that Luca Maestri will be stepping down as CFO. It’s a good time to recap the unique role finance and the CFO play within Apple. We conclude with an observation regarding how Apple seems to be handling succession.

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Neil Cybart Neil Cybart

Microsoft 2Q24 Earnings, Ranking Big Tech’s 2Q24 Performance

For today’s update, we will examine Microsoft’s CY2Q24 earnings. This will wrap up our Big Tech 2Q24 earnings reviews. We will then recap Big Tech earnings season by ranking the companies from best to worst reports.

While there are 2Q24 earnings from a few additional companies worth checking out, we will do that after going over several Apple news items.

Just a few hours ago, Apple announced that CFO Luca Maestri will be stepping down as CFO on January 1st, 2025. He will be remaining at Apple to lead Apple’s IT, information security, and real estate portfolios. Kevan Parekh, who has been at Apple for 11 years and is currently VP - Financial Planning and Analysis, will become Apple's new CFO. There is more to say about this in the next update.

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Neil Cybart Neil Cybart

Meta 2Q24 Earnings, Thoughts on Meta HW Sales

We will continue our 2Q24 earnings reviews with Meta. Within Big Tech, Meta may be the most interesting from a competitive standpoint relative to Apple. Let’s jump in.

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Neil Cybart Neil Cybart

Amazon Earnings, Amazon in the Home

Prior to heading off for vacation, we went over my thoughts on the U.S. v. Google verdict (Part 1 and Part 2). The two updates covered quite a bit. On social media, there continues to be a surprising number of people claiming default distribution contracts are under attack. Considering how the judge explained such arrangements are legal, it’s clear many people didn’t bother to read the verdict.

Earlier in the month, we took a deep dive into Apple’s 3Q24 earnings. While anticipation always rises heading into September thanks to the iPhone and Apple Watch rumor mill, expectations regarding what Apple will unveil remain in check. The same can be said for Apple Intelligence. There is growing acknowledgment that the rollout will be measured and gradual.

At this point, we will circle back to reviewing CY2Q24 earnings from some of Apple’s competitors. We already went over earnings releases from:

It makes sense to begin with the remaining Big Tech companies and then work our way down into certain verticals (i.e. streaming video). Today’s update will focus on Amazon’s earnings. It’s been six months since we talked about Amazon earnings (we skipped Amazon’s 1Q24).

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