Apple Earnings: 5 Things Partners Are Itching To Hear More About

Apple Earnings Blitz

Partners are expecting a lot from Apple, which will post its third-quarter earnings Tuesday night. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company has beat Wall Street estimates its past two quarters in 2015 so far due to its better-than-expected iPhone sales.

However, in the coming earnings call, Apple partners want to hear more about what progress the smartphone vendor is making with its newer products, such as the Apple Watch and the newly upgraded iPod Touch.

On the software front, partners also want to hear about any future productivity developments in Apple's operating system and with its tablet devices.

Following are five things partners hope to hear more about from Apple's third-quarter earnings call.

A Future Tablet To Reap iOS 9's Benefits?

On the heels of rumors about a new, more business-friendly 12.9-inch iPad, which Bloomberg reports will be released in the second half of the year, partners are hoping to hear anything more about Apple's initiatives in the tablet space.

Apple in June announced significant productivity features for tablets through its newest iOS 9 upgrade, such as QuickType, a virtual keyboard for iPads, as well as a multitasking feature that allows iPad users to utilize two separate apps on the screen at the same time.

The company's iPad shipments have slumped due to a struggling tablet market, as sales declined 23 percent year-over-year for the ninth quarter of decline in the first quarter of 2015, according to Apple.

iPhone Sales -- Can Apple Keep It Up?

Apple posted record-breaking iPhone sales during its first quarter in 2015, with 74.5 million shipments, on the heels of the company's release of its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Those smartphone shipments continued to skyrocket, as 61.7 million posted last quarter broke a record for second-quarter smartphone sales.

Now partners are wondering if the company's smartphone shipments will continue to power forward in the third quarter, particularly after Samsung debuted its strikingly similar smartphone, the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, in April.

Outlining Apple's Dip Into Cloud Services

Bloomberg in June reported that Apple is building a high-speed network and upgrading how it assembles data centers in order to match leading cloud service vendors such as Microsoft and Google.

For example, according to Bloomberg, one product Apple is working on is a top-of-rack switch to boost the company's next-generation data center infrastructure.

Partners are hoping to hear more about how Apple is planning to invest in its network and data center divisions, as well as how this investment will impact the smartphone company's content-centric products, such as the Apple TV or its new music service, Apple Music.

A Revamped iPod Touch -- What It Means For Apple Music

Partners hope to learn more about Apple's spiffy new iPod Touch, which the company revamped last week for the first time in three years.

The new iPod Touch contains a six-times faster, 64-bit A8 SoC with an M8 Motion coprocessor, as well as better cameras that contain features like burst mode, time-lapse video and high-resolution panorama.

Partners will be carefully watching to see what this new upgrade means for Apple's iPod product line, but also how it helps boost Apple's new streaming music service, Apple Music.

What's Going On With Apple Watch?

During its second-quarter earnings call, Apple remained notably mum on its newest product -- the Apple Watch -- sparking rumors and reports that the company's flagship wearable was not doing as well as CEO Tim Cook had hoped.

Partners hope to hear specifics on the watch, which was released in March and was available April 24 for purchase, as well as how the Apple Watch app ecosystem has grown over the past few months.

The Watch has been sold in two sizes, 38mm and 42mm, and ranges in price from $349 for the sports model to more than $10,000 for the high-end gold model.