Apple’s chief design officer Jony Ive and and industrial designer Marc Newson are designing a new, exclusive project in time for the holidays: a Christmas tree.
The tree is part of London hotel Claridge’s seasonal celebration, the hotel announced on its website. Since 2009, different designers have created a unique tree to commemorate the holidays. Ive and Newson’s work will be unveiled on November 18; the two join previous designers such as Dolce & Gabbana, McQueens’ Kally Ellis, and Christopher Bailey of Burberry.
Ive has played a major role at Apple over the last two decades, but more recently it has taken a step back and occasionally worked on odd, outside projects with Newson. Their past work includes a one-off desk and a one-off Leica camera for charity.
Speaking of Apple, For the first time since 2001, their annual revenue has declined year over year, falling from $233.7 billion in 2015 to $217 billion in the 2016 fiscal year. That 9 percent decline marks the first annual revenue drop since 2001, largely due to the continued decline in iPhone sales, down 5 percent year over year.
iPad sales are also down from last year (6 percent) and Mac sales took a huge hit (down 14 percent) after a strong 2015, thanks to a lack of serious hardware updates which looks like it's about to change. The one bright spot for Apple is Services, which includes iCloud, iTunes, and Apple Music.
Services grew 24 percent year over year, and shows that Apple's attempts to boost its Services division as hardware tapers off is working. With $24.3 billion in revenue this fiscal year, Services has cemented itself as Apple's second biggest revenue driver, outpacing the iPad. But despite that growth Services still only makes up 11 percent of Apple's annual revenue — the only thing that can turn Apple's revenue boat around is the iPhone.
