Tim Cook’s cash card

THERE was no timetable for an iWatch or for an iTV. There was, however, the promise of perhaps the biggest share buyback in American corporate history. Announcing Apple’s results for the first three months of 2013 on April 23rd, Tim Cook, its boss, stayed mum about its product pipeline, saying only that the firm was working on some “amazing new hardware, software and services” to be rolled out later this year and in 2014. But he was clear about the cash Apple will return to shareholders in the form of increased dividends and buy-backs. Altogether, it plans to fork out $100 billion by the end of 2015.

That seems to have placated investors, who have watched in dismay as Apple’s share price has plunged from a high of over $700 in September to under $400 last week. On April 24th the firm’s shares closed at $405.

Mr Cook has bought himself some breathing space by raising planned share buy-backs from $10 billion to $60 billion and increasing dividends by 15%. However, he still needs to produce new blockbuster offerings to bolster future growth. Ever since he replaced Steve Jobs at Apple’s helm, speculation has mounted that the company has lost some of the magic that produced the iPhone and iPad.

Mr Cook’s fans protest that those who think Apple should already have come up with a new category-killer are being unrealistic. A few years between big ideas is nothing to worry about polished tiles. And they note that the iPad and the iPhone are still minting money. In the first quarter of 2013 Apple reported revenue of $43.6 billion: an 11% increase compared with the same period in 2012, and a figure that exceeds the combined sales of Google and Microsoft.

But Apple’s margins are being squeezed by the introduction of the iPad mini, which is less lucrative than bigger iPads. In its latest quarter the firm’s gross margin shrank year-on-year, from 47.4% to 37.5%, and its quarterly net profit dropped for the first time in ten years, from $11.6 billion to $9.5 billion.

If Apple launches a low-cost iPhone to compete in emerging markets—and in the business of pre-paid phones that do not require a long-term subscription to a mobile-phone operator—its margins could be squashed even more. That could affect its share price. Ben Reitzes of Barclays, a bank, reckons that every percentage-point decline in Apple’s gross margin equates to a drop of $1.40 in earnings per share.

Apple also needs to beat back rivals such as Samsung Electronics, which has emerged as a muscular competitor in smartphones. Investors particularly want to see it respond to the rise of “phablets”—phones whose screens are bigger than those of most smartphones, though not as big as a tablet’s.

Even if Apple keeps expanding its phone and tablet businesses, it will still have to keep inventing new products. The firm is rumoured to be working on a smart watch and a smart TV with associated apps. It is also looking at mobile payments. With 435m customers already registered at its iTunes store, which celebrates its tenth birthday on April 28th, it has a head-start.

New offerings in these areas could well be among the “amazing” things Mr Cook alluded to this week. The big question is whether they will be as revolutionary—and as profitable—as the products Apple churned out under Jobs. Mr Cook has played his cash card. Now he needs to turn up trumps on the innovation front, too.

Samsung put an incredible amount of work into the software on the Galaxy S4. It runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with Samsung’s custom user interface on top. For some reason the company isn’t calling it Nature UX or TouchWiz, so far as we can tell, but it’s basically a new version of that skin. Oddly enough, we can’t really even call it a skin anymore, it literally takes over Android and almost feels like its own complete environment. Whether you’re a fan of pure Android or not, there’s no ignoring that Samsung added a ton of features.

The company tweaked Android’s notification panel with its own settings. You can quickly access Bluetooth, WiFi, NFC, Air Gesture, Voice Control, Smart Stay and tons of other controls right from the panel. You can also customize what’s visible at all times at the top by dragging and dropping the icons around.

Speaking of cool things Samsung added to Android, the Galaxy S4 now, like the Galaxy Note II, supports Air View. That means you can hover your finger over an email, a calendar date, a photo and even in Flipboard, which was custom built for Air View on the Galaxy S4. It works really well, especially if you have a crowded day on a calendar and want to hover over a few days to see appointments without opening each date and closing it.

Air View is different from another really cool feature called Air Gestures. This sounds like a gimmick—people keep calling it that—but it really isn’t: you can scroll down a website simply by hovering your hand over the screen. Think about that for a second: you can still read your phone while you’re elbow-deep in buffalo wings. That’s amazing. Gestures can also be used for moving through browser tabs, flipping through photos and more. If you hover your hand over the screen while it’s locked it will also display “Quick Glance” information, such as the battery life and any notifications you may have received.

Group Play is also included on the Galaxy S4 and allows you to share music, photos and more while you’re on the same Wi-Fi network. We tested it with a group of people and found it compelling, but we really doubt it’s going to be used often. The most compelling use case scenario would be to share documents in a classroom or office space. Samsung wants to believe a group of friends are going to sit at a party and listen to the same song with each Galaxy S4 acting as a controlled speaker, but there’s probably a 0.1 percent chance of that ever happening. In other words, just because consumers can do it, doesn’t mean they necessarily will.