Lukáš Gondek The success of Apple Pay, YouTube abandons Flash, millionaires like Apple in China and security safes are coming to Apple stores...
Apple Pay accounts for two out of three contactless payments (January 27)
It looks like Apple Pay will be Apple's next big success. Tim Cook at reporting financial results Californian company announced that their payment system is behind every two out of three contactless payments at Mastercard, Visa and AmEx. According to Cook, 2015 will be the year of Apple Pay, and he certainly has many reasons to believe so. Not only have more than 750 banks committed to allowing Apple Pay, but the payment service has been celebrating success since its launch.
In the first 72 hours, it recorded more than a million activated cards and has accounted for 1% of all digital payments since November. It is most popular in the Whole Foods grocery store - it is from here that up to 20% of transactions using Apple Pay come. It is also very often used in the Walgreen pharmacy chain and the well-known McDonald's. The service is expected to expand to Canada, Europe and Asia in the coming months.
Source: MacRumors
YouTube completely abandons Flash and switches to HTML5 (January 28)
YouTube announced last week that all videos on its server will now be played using HTML5, including visits from the Safari browser. With the expansion of YouTube content to televisions and game consoles, the relaxation of Flash became inevitable. HTML5 will guarantee a better and faster stream. The joke is that Steve Jobs, who wrote an open letter in 2010, listed all the reasons why he would never allow Flash on Apple's mobile devices, to be proven right. According to Jobs, Flash consumes too much power, is unreliable, insecure, slow and too closed to serve the devices of tomorrow.
Source: MacRumors
Apple has taken over the number one position in the luxury gift market in China (January 29)
Apple can boast of another nickname, because it has become the most luxurious brand in China. For a long time, this position was occupied by the French fashion brand Hermés. But according to a survey that maps what Chinese millionaires spend on, Apple has become the biggest symbol of luxury. Apple is therefore more luxurious for the Chinese than, for example, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Chanel, which are placed below it in the ranking. With the advent of the Apple Watch, one can expect that the Californian company will only consolidate its place at the top.
Source: 9to5Mac
Gold Apple Watch will be stored in safes in stores (January 31)
Like high-end gem stores, Apple Story will be equipped with safes that will house gold versions of the Watch from the start of Apple Watch sales. The safes will hold both watches for purchase as well as demonstration models that will be stored in them overnight. MagSafe chargers will be available in the safes, which will charge the watches overnight so that they are ready to go to the exhibition counters again in the morning. The Apple Story should change with the arrival of the new product: Apple plans to reorganize stores to find enough room for the watch, and Angela Ahrendts sent employees new collared shirts that she says are more suitable for selling fashion goods. Some employees will also have to undergo training in Cupertino and Austin, Texas, where they will learn how to work with the new watches.
Source: 9to5Mac
Another Apple Store opened in China (January 31)
The new store in Chongqing, China, like the one on Fifth Avenue, is entirely underground. The above-ground part is dominated by the entrance in the shape of a glass cylinder standing on a round staircase. The ceilings in the underground are made of aluminum and have long strips of lights running through them. In Chongqing, an Apple store opened this Saturday, and Apple plans to open a total of 40 new stores in China by mid-2016.
Source: AppleInsider
A week in a nutshell
Last week was marked by big numbers for Apple. Its indisputable success was confirmed by the financial results for Q1 2015, sold namely an incredible 74,5 million iPhones and with this quarter stole historically the most profitable of all companies.
With Samsung shares the position of the most successful smartphone seller, but Motorola she acknowledged, that Touch ID is now uncompetitive and that Apple holds all the trump cards. Another huge number is the total number of iOS devices sold in November exceeded 1 billion.
We officially learned from Tim Cook that we will have to use the Apple Watch wait until April. What can shorten the wait for us Czechs is a map of Brno, as the first Czech city got from Apple the Flyover function. And despite the fact that we have been informing you about the filming of the new Steve Jobs movie for several weeks, only now has the shooting officially begun confirmed.
