What's Up With Apple: PC Sales Rise 20%, a Win in Court, Buying Bitcoin, and More

Technology

Published: July 13, 2021 7:41 am

Worldwide personal computer sales rose by 4.6% year over year in the second quarter to 71.6 million units. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) posted the largest gain, up 19.7% on shipments of 6.1 million units.

That total was good enough for fourth place on the second-quarter rankings. Lenovo ranked first with shipments of 17.3 million, units while HP (14.3 million) and Dell (12.3 million) were second and third, respectively. Apple PCs accounted for 8.5% of global shipments in the second quarter.

The data from research firm Gartner also noted that Apple PC shipments in its home U.S. market rose by 4.4% to 2.4 million units, for a 16.1% share. HP (4.3 million) and Dell (4.2 million) ranked first and second, respectively.

The cryptocurrency world was aflutter for a while Monday on the rumor that Apple has purchased more than $2 billion in bitcoin. Here are a couple of samples:

Rumors that #Apple have purchased more than $2B in #Bitcoin 😳

— GalaxyTrading (@GalaxyTrading_) July 12, 2021

https://twitter.com/JoshRoomsburg/status/1414551884698898441

An announcement was not forthcoming, alas. In a later tweet, Mr. Roomsburg wrote, “It’s a joke people relax.”

A U.S. District Court judge tossed out a lawsuit brought by email app maker Blix charging that Apple’s single sign-on (SSO) feature stifles competition. The judge dismissed the claim, with prejudice, according to Reuters, “for failing to show that an Apple policy requiring developers to offer the feature when they offer any SSOs on its iOS mobile operating system restricted competition.”

Taiwan-based DigiTimes Asia reported that Apple is considering manufacturing batteries for its rumored Apple Car and may choose to work with Taiwanese battery makers rather than Chinese manufacturers. Either iPhone assembler Foxconn or Advanced Lithium Electrochemistry (Aleees), both of which are planning to build plants in the United States, “stand a chance of working with Apple on car batteries,” according to Digitimes’ sources.

China-based battery makers CATL and BYD (in which Warren Buffett owns a stake of about 8.5%) have been mentioned as possible partners for Apple, but “Apple’s insistence on using US-made batteries for Apple Car is making such partnerships seem unlikely.”