 Apple: Mo Money, Mo Problems

^{“Those who never make mistakes lose a great many chances to learn something.”}

— Mary Pickford

👋 Friends, Rallie here. The newsletter climbing into your week with the latest in crypto, finance, and tech.

On the menu:

•  Apple: Mo Money, Mo Problems

• 🗞️ Headlines That Hit

• 📈 Refresh: Economic Moats

• ✌️ Trivia Tuesday

• 💯 Top Tweets

The Rallie Recap

📈 Last week, Apple hit a major market value milestone. But their problems may also be getting bigger. Here’s the slice of some big tech news:

• If you didn’t already know, Apple is one of the most valuable companies in the world with widespread usage of its products globally. And last Friday, the company hit a milestone valuation of $3T USD — the only company to ever hit that number.

• It’s a big deal for Apple, but with security concerns, investigations, and legal battles, the company has been finding itself in some hot water. Here’s a breakdown of some of the issues Apple is currently dealing with:

• 🔒 Privacy & Data: 

  • For years, Apple has aimed to be a trailblazer in terms of privacy for big tech. For example, Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) update made companies like Meta re-invent its ad business because of a shift to more data privacy.

  • Apple recently introduced a feature called Private Relay, which is designed to obscure users’ browsing data and protect their privacy and prevent breaches from other apps and tech vendors. 🔍

  • However, user data may not be as secure as it sounds. 👾 Reports of massive security fixes from Apple, Android, and Google were released in late June after several successful hacks, attacks, and spyware implants occurred.

• 🧰 Repair restriction:

  • Apple is dealing with legal troubles from France 🇫🇷 for supposedly pushing their products to be outdated by restricting its smartphones repairs.

• 💭 Patent fight:

  • A MedTech billionaire is in a patent fight with Apple over the Apple Watch, a key product for Apple, as it currently holds 56% of the $33B smartwatch market. ⌚ Both allege that the other side is copying the original idea for the Apple Watch and are getting ready for a long fight ahead.

• ⚖️ Supreme Court battle:

  • And finally, Apple is headed to the Supreme Court. 🤨 The iPhone maker is looking to appeal a previous judgement in favour of Epic Games (the company behind Fortnite) that could force the App Store to change its payment practices.

  • 🧐 Apple was ordered that it can’t stop developers from giving links and buttons to payment options in their apps, which often takes consumers outside of the App Store… meaning less profit for Apple. 

Headlines That Hit

• 👩🏻‍⚖️ To the courts! Coinbase looks to counter SEC’s legal action against crypto by forcing the U.S. to clarify the legal status of digital assets.

• 😩 Musk’s greater good. Twitter caps the number of Tweets users can see in an effort against AI data scraping; many argue it’s a push to get more users on the paid side of the platform.

• ☢️ Radioactive water? Japan is expected to release 1.3T tons of extremely diluted water infected by the nuclear Fukushima plant’s meltdown.

• ⚓ Labour peace at stake. B.C’s port union warns federal government to stay out of its business with employers after negotiations have currently failed.

• 🚫 Oh no Canada! Google plans to remove Canadian news links from its search, Google News, and Google Discover platforms soon.

• ₿ The crypto team. BlackRock has refiled it’s Bitcoin ETF application with the SEC, naming Coinbase as its ‘Surveillance-Sharing’ partner.

Rallie Refresh: Economic Moats

🏰 Critical for all businesses to have, the term is not just for medieval times. Here’s how you might already have an economic moat:

 🚧 What are economic moats?

• Economic moats refers to a business’s ability to stand above its competitors by having a certain advantage allowing it to maintain its market position and earn sustainable profits over an extended period of time. 

• The term was popularized by Warren Buffett, and is critical to protect long-term profits and market share.

• Companies create economic moats in various ways such as generating advantages in size, price, brand strength, intellectual property, high switching costs, and niche appeal.

• These moats allow an organization to outperform its competitors who provide similar products.

🌟 What are the two types of economic moats?

• A narrow economic moat is a limited competitive advantage of a company over its rivals, and is not very reliable long-term.

• A wide economic moat implies a more sustainable outlook on a brand’s established position, profits and market share in comparison to its competitors.

❗Watch out!

• Remember, competition will eventually wear down any competitive advantages a company grows. So never get too cozy.

🌉 Economic moats are employed every day, so it is important to keep in mind, what does this company bring to the table that others don’t?

✌️Trivia Tuesday✌️

😲 The answer for Thursday’s newsletter (what does FUD stand for?) is fear, uncertainty, and doubt! Tune in next time for today’s fun fact answer.

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That's all for today. Stay hungry & we'll catch you next time. ✌️

DISCLAIMER: This is not financial or legal advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions.