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Apple’s Record Quarter and a $2B Bet on Wearable AI · Connecting the Dots

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  Today's tech news moves fast, but understanding
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  it shouldn't be hard. That's why Snarful Solutions
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  Group brings you Connecting the Dots, where we
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  break down what's happening in tech and why it
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  matters to you. Now, let's dive in with your
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  hosts. Good morning, everyone, and a very happy
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  Friday to you. You are listening to Connecting
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  the Dots. I'm Alex. And I'm Morgan. We are coming
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  to you live from the Snarful Solutions Group
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  headquarters right here in Sacramento. It is
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  Friday, January 30th, 2026. We finally made it
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  to the end of the month. We did, barely. Though,
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  looking out the window this morning, I'm not
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  sure I can see the end of the driveway. It is
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  thick out there. For our locals, just a heads
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  up, we are under a dense fog advisory until noon
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  today, so, you know. Take it slow out there.
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  Definitely. But honestly, a little fog feels
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  like a luxury when you look at the national map.
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  Oh, absolutely. The East Coast is getting hammered.
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  Yeah. A massive Arctic blast is moving through.
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  We're talking record low temperatures all the
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  way down to the Gulf Coast. And a big snowstorm
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  is brewing for the Carolinas and Virginia this
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  weekend. So if you're out there, please stay
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  safe. It's a chaotic end to the month, for sure.
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  And the financial markets, well. They seem to
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  be feeling that same energy. A very mixed bag.
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  The Dow managed to close up yesterday, but just
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  barely. About 0 .27%, sitting at 49 ,071. And
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  not a great start to the day bitcoins pulled
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  back trading down almost 2 % It's having right
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  Let's get into the SNARFUL Tech article, Report
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  the Morningstar. And today it's really all about
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  one company. The fruit company. The fruit company.
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  Apple dropped their Q1 earnings and uh... Calling
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  it a beat feels like a bit of an understatement.
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  Oh, demolition is probably a better word. They
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  just crushed Wall Street's expectations. Revenue
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  came in at $143 .8 billion. Which is up 16 %
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  year over year. Right. And analysts were expecting
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  something like $5 billion less than that. That's
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  a huge miss for the analysts. And the engine
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  behind all this, it has to be the iPhone 17,
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  right? It is. iPhone revenue alone jumped 23%,
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  over $85 billion. The new lineup is just flying
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  off the shelves. Okay, but this is where it gets
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  interesting because we've spent months hearing
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  analysts worry about China. Right, the narrative
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  was sales are slowing. Competition is fierce.
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  Nationalism is hurting them. And then what happened?
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  And then Apple just drops the mic. Sales in Greater
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  China didn't just grow. They exploded, up 38
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  % to $25 .5 billion. 38 %? In a market that's
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  supposed to be saturated? How? Well, two things.
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  One, a record number of people upgraded their
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  old iPhones. But the really important number,
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  the one that has competitors sweating, is the
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  switchers. People coming from Android exactly
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  right double digit growth in people switching
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  from Android to iPhone in China It just completely
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  flips the script on that whole narrative It really
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  suggests that the premium product is winning
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  regardless of all the geopolitical noise its
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  flight to quality for sure but selling that many
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  phones Comes with a you know a physical reality
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  check you have to actually build them right and
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  that's the friction point Cook was pretty open
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  about it They're constrained on chips from TSMC,
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  and there are some serious shortages of memory
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  chips from Samsung and SK Hynix. Which makes
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  sense. All the data centers for the AI boom are
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  eating up the high bandwidth memory. It's a resource
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  war. So while demand is through the roof, actually
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  getting the phones into people's hands might
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  be a little tougher this quarter. Now, before
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  we move on, there was another note that came
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  out with the earnings. A bit more of a somber
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  one. There was. Amidst all this, CEO Tim Cook
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  sent a memo to employees about the recent events
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  in Minneapolis with ICE agents. It's been a very
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  tense situation there. It has. He said he was
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  heartbroken by what happened and mentioned he'd
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  spoken directly with President Trump to call
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  for de -escalation. It really just shows the
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  kind of tightrope these modern CEOs have to walk.
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  For sure. Part business leader, part diplomat.
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  Okay, so story number one. The iPhone is back
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  in a huge way. and China is buying. And the only
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  thing holding them back is how fast they can
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  build them. All right, let's move to our second
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  story. Because you don't just buy the phone,
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  you use it. And that brings us to the ecosystem.
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  The sticky factor. This is Apple's superpower.
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  Services revenue hit 30 billion dollars this
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  quarter, up 14 percent. 30 billion just from
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  services. That's bigger than many Fortune 500
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  companies entire annual revenue. And the scale
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  is just. It's hard to even comprehend. They gave
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  us a new number for their active installed base.
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  What is it now? It has officially surpassed two
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  and a half billion devices. Wow, 2 .5 billion.
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  That's a lot of screens. And once you have the
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  screen, you subscribe, you download, you watch.
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  Speaking of watching, Apple TV is really having
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  a moment. A big one. Viewership jumped 36 % in
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  December alone. I think I know why you're excited
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  about that. Oh, you know it. Ted Lasso is officially
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  coming back for season four this summer. I thought
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  they wrapped that up perfectly. But I guess you
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  can't keep a good coach down. Never. And it's
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  not just that. The drama Pluribus is doing huge
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  numbers and they just got a best picture nomination
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  for that Brad Pitt F1 movie. Which is huge validation
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  for a streamer. But this is the flywheel effect
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  we always talk about. You buy the iPhone, then
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  you sign up for Apple One to watch the shows.
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  Then you need iCloud storage. And suddenly you're
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  paying them every month forever. And now they're
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  making the core of that even smarter. I saw the
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  news about the Google partnership. Yes, this
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  is a big strategic shift. They're partnering
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  with Google to use the Gemini model to power
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  parts of Siri. So they're finally admitting they
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  need help with AI. It seems like they're prioritizing
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  user experience over pride, you know? Use the
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  best tech available to make Siri better, which
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  keeps people locked into the ecosystem. Which
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  is a perfect segue to our third story. Because
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  while they're partnering on the software brains,
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  they're buying up tech to change how we physically
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  interact with it. This is the sci -fi part of
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  the show. My favorite story of the day. Mine
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  too. Apple just made its second largest acquisition
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  ever. They spent about two billion dollars on
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  an Israeli AI startup called QII. Two billion!
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  That's a massive bet, so what do they do? Silence
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  speech interpretation. Okay, explain that. So
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  the technology analyzes the micro -movements
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  in your facial muscles to understand what you're
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  saying without you making a sound. Wait, wait,
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  so I just mouth the words and it knows what I'm
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  saying? Exactly. It's like super -powered lip
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  reading. They also specialize in cleaning up
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  audio in really noisy places. Let's untack this.
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  First, the Who. The founder is a guy named Eviyad
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  Mazels. That name should ring a bell. I feel
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  like I know that name. He founded a company called
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  PrimeSense. Apple bought them back in 2013. Ah.
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  That became FaceSight. Ringo! So this guy has
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  already fundamentally changed how we use our
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  phones. Now he's back to do it again. Okay, so
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  the application here. Think about... AirPods.
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  Right. I'm on a crowded train. I want to dictate
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  a reply. Right now I have to be that guy talking
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  into the air. Which no one wants to be. It's
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  so awkward. No one. But with this tech, I just
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  mouth it. Nonverbal discussions. You can be in
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  a quiet library or at a loud concert. It doesn't
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  matter. The system reads your face. This connects
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  directly to the Vision Pro headset, too. 100%.
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  You don't want to be shouting commands when you're
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  wearing a headset. You want it to feel, you know,
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  almost telepathic. This gets us closer. It's
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  also a direct shot at the competition, right?
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  Metta with their Ray -Ban glasses. For sure.
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  If Apple can solve the input problem. If they
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  can make talking to your AI not socially awkward
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  because you don't actually have to talk, that's
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  a huge advantage. It takes the weirdness out
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  of wearable tech. And it locks you into that
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  hardware ecosystem even tighter. So, to recap
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  the morning. Apple's making more money than ever.
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  China loves the iPhone. Ted Lasso is coming back
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  to keep us subscribed. And soon we'll all be
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  silently mouthing commands to our glasses like
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  we're wizards. It is a brave new world. It certainly
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  is. Now, before we wrap things up, we have one
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  deal. So looking at everything we talked about
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  today, what's the one big takeaway? I think it's
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  convergence. We talk about hardware and software,
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  but the lines are blurring completely. The success
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  of the iPhone, the growth in services, this Q
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  .II purchase. It's all about creating one seamless,
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  almost invisible experience. The companies that
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  nail that invisible integration are the ones
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  that are going to win. And right now, Apple seems
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  to be winning pretty hard. $143 billion, says
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  you're right. I'm still stuck on that silent
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  speech thing, though. I feel like my wife would
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  love that feature for me. Just mouth the words.
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  Don't actually say them. I think a lot of spouses
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  would pay extra for that. You are probably right.
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  Well, that is it for us today. Thank you so much
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  for starting your morning with us. Stay warm,
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  watch out for that fog, and have a great weekend.
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  We're here to help at Snarful, so reach out on
• 10:31
  our website if you have any more questions. That's
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  a wrap on today's top stories. Remember, tech
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  doesn't have to be complicated and we're here
• 10:42
  to help connect the dots. If you've got questions
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  or want to learn more, visit us at snarful .com.
• 10:48
  Thanks for listening and we'll catch you next
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  time.