News

The iOS 8 installation rate continues to tick upward ever so slowly. Upgrades have slowed since late last year, with 69 percent of compatible devices currently running iOS 8.0 or later. Two weeks ago the number stood at 68 percent, which points towards a plateau in updates to iOS 8 amongst iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users.

Apple's App Store Distribution page illustrates current iOS usage in a pie graph, with iOS 7 at 28 percent and previous versions comprising just 3 percent of the total. All of the statistics were collected as of January 19th, 2015.

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) shares opened last week on Tuesday morning at $107.84 and made gains for the rest of the week, closing at $112.98 on Friday. Apple will announce its Q1 FY15 earnings tomorrow at 5 PM ET. Most analysts expect very positive numbers from the holiday quarter, and for that success to continue into Q2, as the iPhone 6 is still in very high demand, especially in China.

Ming-Chi Kuo, of KGI Securities, expects record breaking sales of 73 million iPhones over the holiday quarter. He also estimates 61.3 million sales for Q2, which would be up from last year's second quarter. He believes the Apple Watch will launch in March and will sell just under 3 million units before the end of that quarter. He expects a 12-inch MacBook Air with Retina display to hit the shelves sometime before the end of April.

Smash Hit was one of our favorite iOS games of 2014, and its developer is back with a new "strategic driving" title. Mediocre Games last week posted a video titled "new project teaser" to YouTube. The official description reads, "a strategic driving game where you are your own worst enemy".

The untitled project doesn't look anything like Smash Hit. The goal of the new game seems to be not to hit yourself. As you can see from the video above, you must avoid the car you previously just drove. Each time you avoid a past version of yourself a new car is added to the board, until there are so many cars driving around that things becomes pure chaos. Hopefully, Mediocre plans to give a better explanation soon because they definitely have our attention.

Targeted search advertising firm, Chitika, last week released the results of an iPhone usage study that showed a positive correlation between iPhone usage and education level - states with a higher percentage of the population holding a Bachelor's or higher degree had a higher percentage of iPhone users. No geographic correlation was uncovered, but the study also showed a positive correlation with population density.

Apple last week released its executives' 2014 earnings. Newcomer Angela Ahrendts topped the list with $73.3 million, with the majority of it coming from a $70 million stock award. Tim Cook received a compensation increase and more than doubled his earnings from the previous year, going from $4.2 million to $9.5 million. To be clear, Tim Cook is the better compensated of the two. He received a $70 million stock award in 2013, and when he took over as CEO, he received a $378 million payout package plus $373 million in stock options.

The oft-quoted and usually reliable KGI Securities analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo, released a research note in which he forecasts record breaking iPhone sales for Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) during the holiday quarter, a March launch for the Apple Watch and a 12-inch MacBook Air sometime before April.

Ming-Chi estimates in his note, which was obtained by AppleInsider, that Apple has sold 73 million iPhones in the holiday quarter, including 43 million iPhone 6 handsets and 16 million iPhone 6 Plus models. This would be a record breaking number for Apple and would surpass the average estimate of around 69 million sales. He believes the success will continue into Q2 FY 2015, amounting to another 61.7 million sales.