Daily Tech Snippet: Wednesday, February 1

• Apple defies Wall Street with strong revival in iPhone sales: Apple Inc reclaimed the throne as the world's top smartphone seller for the first time in five years on Tuesday, beating out rival Samsung in units shipped for the holiday quarter and boosting revenues with a strong showing for its new, top-of-the-line iPhone 7 Plus. The iPhone sales numbers, and a profit of almost $18 billion, both handily beat Wall Street expectations, sending its shares up 3 percent in after-hours trading.Apple is heavily dependent on the success of iPhones, which account for more than two-thirds of its total revenue. Revenue in the services business - which includes the App Store, Apple Pay and iCloud - jumped 18.4 percent to $7.17 billion, helped by the popularity of games, including Pokemon Go and Super Mario Run, and increased revenue from subscriptions.Cook, who met with lawmakers in Washington last week, said he was "optimistic, given what I am hearing" that there would be changes to the corporate tax reform this year that would allow Apple to bring more than $200 billion in offshore cash back to the United States. Apple's revenue from the Greater China region fell 11.6 percent to $16.23 billion for the quarter. Overall, For the holiday quarter reported on Tuesday, net income fell to $17.89 billion from $18.36 billion the year before.  Revenue rose 3.3 percent to $78.35 billion, compared with the average analyst estimate of $77.25 billion. More analysis: Apple sees business in mainland China picking up, but Hong Kong not so much and Apple’s services are buoying its return to growth as its iPhone engine stalls

• Trump’s Next Immigration Move to Hit Closer to Home for Tech: After the new president banned refugees and travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries, Google, Facebook, Salesforce, Microsoft and others railed against the move, saying it violated the country’s principles and risked disrupting its engine of innovation. Trump’s next steps could strike even closer to home: His administration has drafted an executive order aimed at overhauling the work-visa programs technology companies depend on to hire tens of thousands of employees each year. If implemented, the reforms could shift the way American companies like Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. recruit talent and force wholesale changes at Indian companies such as Infosys Ltd. and Wipro Ltd. Businesses would have to try to hire American first and if they recruit foreign workers, priority would be given to the most highly paid. Wipro, Infosys and TCS shares all tumbled Tuesday along with other Indian tech services companies, pulling down the NSE Nifty Index. Wipro fell the most in nine months, while Tech Mahindra Ltd. dropped the most in almost two years. Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., a New Jersey-based company that is one of the heaviest users of the H-1B program, saw shares fall 4.4 percent Monday, the most in four months.