Apple to close shops during Jobs memorial
Computer firm Apple is to close its shops while it holds a memorial service for employees to celebrate the life of company co-founder and former chief executive Steve Jobs.
The service, announced to Apple employees in an email by new chief executive Tim Cook, is scheduled for 10am local time (5pm Irish time) today at company headquarters in Cupertino, California. It will also be webcast to employees worldwide.
Apple plans to close its shops for several hours so employees can watch the service online.
The service will take place in the campus’s outdoor amphitheatre, according to Mr Cook’s email.
The celebration is for employees to “take time to remember the incredible things Steve achieved in his life and the many ways he made our world a better place”, Mr Cook wrote.
The event follows a memorial at Stanford University on Sunday for friends and family.
That service, at Memorial Church, attracted hi-tech giants including Oracle chief Larry Ellison and Microsoft’s Bill Gates, as well as politicians including Bill Clinton. U2 frontman Bono and Joan Baez performed at the service.
Mr Jobs died on October 5, aged 56, after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Apple failed to set an all-time revenue record in the last three months of Mr Jobs’s life. Its financial results came in below expectations yesterday – a rare miss for the company.
After several quarters of record earnings, the July-to-September period saw Apple treading water, with no new iPhone or iPad releases.
Earnings and revenue rose from last year at rates that would be the envy of any large company, but investors had expected the seemingly unstoppable company to do even better.
Net income in the fourth quarter was 6.62 billion US dollars, or 7.05 dollars per share. That was up 54% from 4.31 billion dollars, or 4.64 dollars per share, a year ago. Analysts had been expecting 7.28 dollars per share.
Revenue was 28.3 billion dollars, up 39%. Analysts were expecting 29.4 billion dollars.
Mr Cook told analysts that China continues to be the fastest-growing market for the company. In the latest quarter, sales were up nearly four times from last year and made up one-sixth of Apple’s overall sales.
“It’s an area of enormous opportunity. The sky’s the limit in there,” Mr Cook said.
Apple sold 17.1 million iPhones in the quarter, which ended September 24. That was well below analyst expectations and the 20.3 million sold in the third quarter.
IPhone buyers had been waiting for a new model, which launched on Friday after the quarter had ended.
But compared with the same period last year, iPhone sales were up 21%.
Laptops were Apple’s strongest category in the quarter, with sales up 30% from the previous quarter thanks to the release of a new operating system, Lion. Total Mac sales set an all-time record at 4.9 million.
Apple’s figures are bucking the trend for the PC market in general, which is seeing anaemic growth.
Apple’s forecast for the current quarter was more pleasing to investors. It said it expects earnings of 9.30 dollars per share and revenue of 37 billion dollars.
In the full fiscal year, Apple earned 25.9 billion dollars, or 27.68 dollars per share. That was up 85% from the previous year. Revenue was 108 billion dollars, up 66%.
