Apple

SAN FRANCISCO - When Apple held a corporate retreat in California's Carmel Valley about five years ago to discuss its next major product, Jony Ive, its longtime design chief, captivated a room of the company's 100 top executives with a concept video as polished as an Apple commercial.

Apple enjoys a "symbiotic" relationship with China, CEO Tim Cook said on March 25, as the iPhone giant looks to move production out of the country.

Cook, who is in China to attend the high-profile China Development Forum, said "Apple and China grew together," during an interview on the role of technology in education.

Facebook owner Meta announced a fresh wave of job cuts on March 14, part of what CEO Mark Zuckerberg called the company's "year of efficiency" as the U.S. tech sector continues to downsize.

In an email to employees, Zuckerberg said Meta would shed 10,000 jobs over the next few months, targeting middle management, and that 5,000 other roles would remain unfilled.

Saudi Aramco reported yesterday that profits jumped 46 percent last year, highlighting how a surge in oil prices after Russia invaded Ukraine spurred growth in the world's biggest crude exporter.

Apple on March 9 said it will start streaming classical music from a stand-alone app on March 28 as it seeks to distinguish itself from rivals Spotify and specialist platforms.

The iPhone giant said Apple Music Classical will offer "the world's largest classical music catalog," with exclusive albums and an advanced search functionality not seen on other apps.

Facebook and Instagram owner Meta on Feb. 1 reported its first annual sales drop since the company went public in 2012, but the fall was less brutal than expected, sending its share price soaring.

The social media giant said sales dropped one percent to $116.6 billion in 2022, while it also announced that the number of daily users on Facebook hit two billion for the first time.

Apple plans to increase the share of its products manufactured in India to 25%. This was reported by Reuters, citing a statement by India's commerce minister on January 23.

Apple managed to boost both its sales and profit during a summertime quarter that depressed the fortunes of most other major tech companies, but that doesn't necessarily mean the iPhone maker will be immune to a potential recession.

Google has been fined more than $160 million by India's anti-trust watchdog after a probe found the tech behemoth was abusing its commanding position in the local smartphone market.

The company's Android mobile operating system is by far the dominant player in India and is run on 95 percent of all the country's smartphones.    

Global smartphone sales have slumped this year amid a "gloomy economic outlook," prompting people to spend money on essentials instead of the latest gadgets, according to a market tracker.    

Smartphone sales in the recently ended quarter were nine percent less than in the same period a year earlier, hitting a low not seen since 2014, according to research firm Canalys.