• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
TechApple

Apple iPhone X Improves Availability as iMac Pro Launches

By
Don Reisinger
Don Reisinger
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Don Reisinger
Don Reisinger
Down Arrow Button Icon
December 16, 2017, 9:00 AM ET

For Apple customers looking to buy the latest and greatest tech from the company, it’s been a good week.

Over the last several days, some of Apple’s most important products have either been released or were made more readily available. Apple’s iMac Pro, for instance, hit store shelves on December 14 and will begin shipping to customers who purchased online later this month. The iPhone X, which began shipping to customers last month, is now getting to customers in just a couple of days after their order. Even the Apple TV is now easier to find, thanks to Amazon starting to sell it again after a two-year hiatus.

But it wasn’t just about hardware. Apple’s week was punctuated by news that the company has acquired music-discovery service Shazam in a deal rumored to have cost the tech giant $400 million. Add that to a $390 million investment in one of its suppliers, and Apple had an awfully costly week.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter

Read on for more on those topics and others in this week’s Apple news roundup.

This is Fortune’s latest weekly roundup of the biggest Apple news. Here’s last week’s roundup.

  1. Good news for prospective iPhone X owners this week: Apple has been able to reduce shipping delays. If you order an iPhone X right now from any major carrier or unlocked, so it can be used on different carrier networks, you should be able to get the handset delivered to your house in just a couple of days. That stands in stark contrast to the weeks-long delay Apple customers dealt with last month after the iPhone X’s release.
  2. In a move that was tipped last week, Apple confirmed on Monday that it has acquired music-discovery service Shazam. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Apple said that it wants to integrate Shazam’s features, including the ability to identify what song is playing over the radio by using your smartphone’s microphone to “listen” to the music, into its Apple Music streaming app.
  3. Always a good source for sound bites, Apple senior vice president of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller said that his week that there’s a big difference between the iPhone X’s face-scanning feature Face ID and alternatives bundled in devices from Samsung and others: Apple’s option is better. In fact, Schiller used even more colorful language to describe the face scanners in Android alternatives, saying they “all stink.” Face ID lets iPhone X users scan their faces to open the handset and access its software, as well as verify purchases through the company’s Apple Pay mobile-payments service.
  4. As promised, Apple on Thursday released its iMac Pro desktop. The computer features a 27-inch screen and components that sit behind the display, making it an “all-in-one” computer. Apple has called the iMac Pro its most powerful computer ever. The iMac Pro starts at $4,999, but if you really want the most powerful experience possible, you can customize the components inside the device, including the processor and video card, and boost its price to more than $13,000.
  5. Apple this week said that it will invest $390 million in a laser company called Finisar. Apple said that Finisar will use its investment to build a factory in Texas and build laser technology the company uses in its Face ID scanner. The investment was made from Apple’s Advanced Manufacturing Fund, a $1 billion initiative by Apple to boost strategically important manufacturing efforts to benefit its products. Apple previously invested $200 million into Corning for its glass smartphone screen development.
  6. If the iMac Pro isn’t powerful enough for you, Apple confirmed this week that it’s working on a new version of its Mac Pro desktop. Apple said that the Mac Pro will be designed specifically for “pro users” and will likely retake the crown of Apple’s most powerful computer that the iMac Pro currently holds. No release date has been announced.
  7. Apple will make its Swift programming language available to students in Chicago starting in spring 2018. The Chicago schools will use Swift to teach students to how to code apps that could be used on iPhones, iPads, and Macs.

One more thing…Looking for an Apple TV set-top box but want to buy it on Amazon? After a two-year hiatus, Amazon this week began selling the Apple TV again.

About the Author
By Don Reisinger
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

Man with glasses wearing a black collared shirt
LawDonald Trump
‘Attempted corporate murder’: Judge calls on Anthropic and Department of War to explain dispute over supply chain risk 
By Amanda GerutMarch 24, 2026
4 hours ago
Woman holding a yellow umbrella that has become inverted in the wind.
NewslettersEye on AI
AI agents are getting more capable, but reliability is lagging—and that’s a problem
By Jeremy KahnMarch 24, 2026
9 hours ago
Khosla gestures with both hands
AIElections
Billionaire OpenAI investor Vinod Khosla thinks 80% of jobs could vanish by 2030, and that ‘fear of AI’ put American politics in a chokehold
By Jacqueline MunisMarch 24, 2026
11 hours ago
Aravind Srinivas, wearing a white sweater, lifts both of his arms in front of him.
Future of WorkLabor
Perplexity CEO says AI layoffs aren’t so bad because people hate their jobs anyways: ‘That sort of glorious future is what we should look forward to’
By Sasha RogelbergMarch 24, 2026
13 hours ago
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink
EconomyInequality
Billionaire Larry Fink says you’re wrong to think that AI stealing your job is the big problem—it’s really about what it’s doing for his class
By Tristan BoveMarch 24, 2026
13 hours ago
boardroom
AIJobs
CFOs admit privately that AI layoffs will be 9x higher this year—and still a fraction of ‘doomsday’ predictions
By Jake AngeloMarch 24, 2026
13 hours ago

Most Popular

Commentary
The Treasury just declared the U.S. insolvent. The media missed it
By Fortune EditorsMarch 23, 2026
2 days ago
Magazine
The youngest-ever female CEO of a Fortune 500 company is fighting Trump's cuts to keep Medicaid strong
By Fortune EditorsMarch 24, 2026
21 hours ago
Economy
It took 200 years for national debt to hit $1 trillion. Annual interest alone now exceeds that—a 'crushing legacy we must reverse,' says budget chair
By Fortune EditorsMarch 23, 2026
2 days ago
Personal Finance
Current price of gold as of March 23, 2026
By Fortune EditorsMarch 23, 2026
2 days ago
Energy
Nobel laureate Paul Krugman calls it 'treason': $580 million in suspicious oil futures traded minutes before Trump's Iran reversal
By Fortune EditorsMarch 24, 2026
11 hours ago
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of March 24, 2026
By Fortune EditorsMarch 24, 2026
17 hours ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.