What 1 Billion Means to Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook
One billion. A thousand millions. To you and me, it’s just a really big number. A 1 followed by a whole lot of 0s (9 to be precise).
What does the same number mean to big name companies like Apple, Microsoft and Facebook? Let’s find out.
Focusing on the iPhone alone, on July 27, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple sold the billionth iPhone.
"iPhone has become one of the most important, world-changing and successful products in history. It's become more than a constant companion. iPhone is truly an essential part of our daily life and enables much of what we do throughout the day," said Cook. “Last week we passed another major milestone when we sold the billionth iPhone. We never set out to make the most, but we’ve always set out to make the best products that make a difference. Thank you to everyone at Apple for helping change the world every day."
The announcement comes during a period of decreasing iPhone sales. Apple reported decreasing revenue, income and sales for the past three quarters. In Q3 2016 for example, Apple sold 40.39 million iPhones. A lot less than Q2 and Q1 2016.
"People use Messenger to connect with the people and businesses they care most about," said Facebook. "They make plans, share dreams, send payments, tell jokes, play games, let their loved ones know they’re thinking of them and much, much more. Today we are announcing that more than 1 billion people now use Facebook Messenger every month, making Messenger one of only a handful of apps worldwide that touch so many lives."
The thing that annoys me about Messenger is that Facebook forces it on its users. Not all of them, just those who use Facebook on a mobile device. You could use Facebook to message your friends. But no, Facebook had to come up with a separate Messenger app.
In related messenger news, did you know that Yahoo has a brand new Yahoo Messenger to offer? Available for desktop, mobile, and the web, it replaces the old Yahoo Messenger which is getting discontinued on August 5 and will stop working on August 31, 2016.
Speaking to ZDNEt’s Mary Jo Foley, Microsoft acknowledge that it won’t be able to meet its goal of getting Windows 10 on a billion devices by 2018.
"We're pleased with our progress to date, but due to the focusing of our phone hardware business, it will take longer than FY18 for us to reach our goal of 1 billion monthly active devices. In the year ahead, we are excited about usage growth coming from commercial deployments and new devices -- and increasing customer delight with Windows," said Microsoft.
Microsoft isn’t doing very well on the phone market. It sold its feature phone business for $350 million (and thus helped Nokia re-enter the smartphone market), and it sold just 1.2 million Lumia phones last quarter (that’s Q4 2016).
What does the same number mean to big name companies like Apple, Microsoft and Facebook? Let’s find out.
- For Apple, it’s the number of iPhones it sold so far
Focusing on the iPhone alone, on July 27, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple sold the billionth iPhone.
"iPhone has become one of the most important, world-changing and successful products in history. It's become more than a constant companion. iPhone is truly an essential part of our daily life and enables much of what we do throughout the day," said Cook. “Last week we passed another major milestone when we sold the billionth iPhone. We never set out to make the most, but we’ve always set out to make the best products that make a difference. Thank you to everyone at Apple for helping change the world every day."
The announcement comes during a period of decreasing iPhone sales. Apple reported decreasing revenue, income and sales for the past three quarters. In Q3 2016 for example, Apple sold 40.39 million iPhones. A lot less than Q2 and Q1 2016.
- For Facebook, it’s the number of active Messenger users
"People use Messenger to connect with the people and businesses they care most about," said Facebook. "They make plans, share dreams, send payments, tell jokes, play games, let their loved ones know they’re thinking of them and much, much more. Today we are announcing that more than 1 billion people now use Facebook Messenger every month, making Messenger one of only a handful of apps worldwide that touch so many lives."
The thing that annoys me about Messenger is that Facebook forces it on its users. Not all of them, just those who use Facebook on a mobile device. You could use Facebook to message your friends. But no, Facebook had to come up with a separate Messenger app.
In related messenger news, did you know that Yahoo has a brand new Yahoo Messenger to offer? Available for desktop, mobile, and the web, it replaces the old Yahoo Messenger which is getting discontinued on August 5 and will stop working on August 31, 2016.
- For Microsoft, it’s a Windows 10 dream that will not come true
Speaking to ZDNEt’s Mary Jo Foley, Microsoft acknowledge that it won’t be able to meet its goal of getting Windows 10 on a billion devices by 2018.
"We're pleased with our progress to date, but due to the focusing of our phone hardware business, it will take longer than FY18 for us to reach our goal of 1 billion monthly active devices. In the year ahead, we are excited about usage growth coming from commercial deployments and new devices -- and increasing customer delight with Windows," said Microsoft.
Microsoft isn’t doing very well on the phone market. It sold its feature phone business for $350 million (and thus helped Nokia re-enter the smartphone market), and it sold just 1.2 million Lumia phones last quarter (that’s Q4 2016).
