Apple became the first U.S. public company to reach a $1 trillion market capitalization, fueled by the iPhone and stock buybacks. How to get to $2 trillion? That will be tricky. Apple will need to identify and lead one of the next major paradigms of computing — augmented reality glasses? — and figure out a business model nearly as good as the iPhone’s. Good luck! [Dan Frommer and Rani Molla / Recode]
Recode Daily: Apple’s path to $2 trillion
Plus, Kara Swisher’s first New York Times column; Cisco acquires Duo; Google Maps neighborhood naming conventions wreak havoc and Blue Apron stock tumbles.
Before Apple, Chinese oil company PetroChina reached the $1 trillion milestone in 2007, listed in Shanghai and Hong Kong. But the global financial crisis and a collapse in oil prices wiped out 75 percent of its value by the end of 2008. [Fred Imbert and Peter Schacknow / CNBC]
In her first New York Times opinion column, Recode Editor at Large Kara Swisher argues that Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg have become “digital arms dealers.” “All these companies began with a gauzy credo to change the world. But they have done that in ways they did not imagine — by weaponizing pretty much everything that could be weaponized.” [Kara Swisher / The New York Times]
Congress passed legislation that would force tech companies that sell software to the U.S. military to disclose if they allowed foreign adversaries to view source code. The bill follows a Reuters investigation that showed software makers “allowed a Russian defense agency to hunt for vulnerabilities” — an obvious red flag. President Trump is expected to sign the law, which was bundled with a broader Pentagon spending bill. [Joel Schectman / Reuters]
As Google Maps has become the world’s atlas, the way it labels neighborhoods — sometimes bizarrely — can have broader effects and incense longtime residents. The company’s cartographers, for example, labeled an area called “Midtown South Central” in Manhattan and changed the name of San Francisco’s Rincon Hill neighborhood to the “East Cut,” which has spread beyond the Google app. “The East Cut sounds like a $17 sandwich,” an Uber engineer said. [Jack Nicas / The New York Times]
Blue Apron stock tumbled further as it announced that its customer base decreased 24 percent year-over-year in the second quarter. Blue Apron has struggled with logistical issues and increased competition, both from other meal kit makers like HelloFresh and deliveries from grocery stores like Amazon-owned Whole Foods. The company’s stock has declined 70 percent over the past year, including a 24 percent drop yesterday. [Heather Haddon / WSJ]
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This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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