Tuesday, July 28, 2015

The Ben MACnigo Clan: Biting the APPLE


My barber jokingly calls my immediate family the Ben MACnigo clan. This is because every member possesses and owns an APPLE device with all the most popular and useful apps.

My daughters Dr. Traci and Craft Kombucha CEO Tanya always manage to get the latest gadgets. Not only do they have either the iPhone 6 or the iPhone 6 Plus, but they and their respective spouses are also owners and users of the APPLE Watch. In fact, Dr. Traci woke up in the middle of the night just to register as one of the first to order the watch for her and her hubby Jason.

My only son Raul who is an Information and Systems Engineer working for the Department of Justice, is not far behind but a little more practical. He is currently contented with his iPhone 5s and waiting for the next and more useful iPhone. He probably knows something we don’t.

All have iPAD and the MacBook Pro.

Tina (my loving wife) has an iPAD Mini, a MacBook Air, and the iPhone 5s. She still has an unused APPLE gift certificate from our kids for Mother’s Day. The truth is, she has never spent a single cent for her APPLE gadgets. They are either gifted or hand me down.

I currently have an iPhone 6 Plus, an iPAD, and a MacBook Pro which has both Mac OS and Windows OS. I was one of the first users of Quadra, which had DOS, Microsoft OS, and Mac OS at the same time.

Most importantly, Tina and I are owners of APPLE stocks. We are happy that the members of our family support the APPLE products and reflect the sentiments of the buying public.

We monitor the stocks daily and its performance quarterly and yearly. I also check out the latest and most popular apps registered at the APPLE Store.

“Apple posted quarterly revenue of $49.6 billion and quarterly profit of $10.7 billion at $1.85 per diluted share. Gross margin was 39.7% compared to 39.4% in the year ago quarter. Apple reported that its operating expenses were between $5.85 billion and $5.95 billion. A $0.52 per share cash dividend of Apple’s common stock has been declared, which is payable on August 13th.

The “Other” category — which includes the Apple Watch, Apple TV and Beats headphones — hit $2.6 billion in revenue. That figure is up from $1.7 billion last quarter. Apple sold 10.9 million iPads, 4.7 million Macs and 47 million iPhones in the third quarter compared to 12.6 million iPads, 4.5 million Macs and 61.1 million iPhones in the last quarter.”

According to Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, “We had an amazing quarter, with iPhone revenue up 59 percent over last year, strong sales of Mac, all-time record revenue from services, driven by the App Store, and a great start for Apple Watch,”

I am particularly impressed by the Cash Reserve of APPLE as I write this column - $203 Billion. As commented by a financial news anchor, “APPLE could single-handedly bailout a whole nation like Greece.”

Worth mentioning are the Top Apps. Let me list them as registered by the App Store Official Charts for the week ending July 20, 2015:

Top Paid iPhone Apps:

1. Minecraft: Pocket Edition, Mojang
2. Goat Simulator, Coffee Stain Studios
3. Heads Up!, Warner Bros.
4. Facetune, Lightricks Ltd.
5. The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Gameloft
6. Pixelmator, Pixelmator Team
7. Akinator the Genie, Elokence
8. THE GAME OF LIFE Classic Edition, Electronic Arts
9. Trivia Crack (Ad Free), Etermax
10. Geometry Dash, RobTop Games AB

Top Free iPhone Apps:

1. Agar.io, Miniclip.com
2. Messenger, Facebook, Inc.
3. Facebook, Facebook, Inc.
4. YouTube, Google, Inc.
5. Instagram, Instagram, Inc.
6. Snapchat, Snapchat, Inc.
7. musical.ly - make music videos for instagram and for facebook messenger, Jun Zhu
8. Layout from Instagram, Instagram, Inc.
9. Pandora Radio, Pandora Media, Inc.
10. Google Maps, Google, Inc.

Top Paid iPad Apps:

1. Minecraft: Pocket Edition. Mojang
2. Goat Simulator, Coffee Stain Studios
3. Don't Starve: Pocket Edition, Klei Entertainment
4. This War of Mine, 11 bit studios s.a
5. Mods for Minecraft, JK2Designs LL
6. Plague Inc., Ndemic Creations
7. Red Ball 4, FDG Entertainment
8. Terraria, 505 Games (US), Inc.
9. Mods for Minecraft Pocket Edition, JK2Designs LLC
10. Heads Up!, Warner Bros.

Top Free iPad Apps:

1. Agar.io, Miniclip.com
2. YouTube, Google, Inc
3. Despicable Me: Minion Rush, Gameloft
4. Colorfy: Coloring Book for Adults - Free, Fun Games For Free
5. Cartoon Network App - Watch Videos, Clips and Full Episodes of Your Favorite Shows, Cartoon Network
6. Hungry Shark Evolution, Future Games of London
7. Skype for iPad, Skype Communications S.a.r.l
8. Pinterest, Pinterest, Inc.
9. Messenger, Facebook, Inc.

10. Netflix, Netflix, Inc.

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