Axios

Apple hasn't given a figure for Apple Watch sales, but it did give a way to figure out a ballpark estimate. On a conference call with analysts, CEO Tim Cook said that if the Apple Watch, along with Beats and AirPods headphones, were a stand-alone business, they would have revenue roughly equal to that of a Fortune 500 company.

That means that the business is likely greater than $5 billion, since the No. 500 company on the most recent Fortune 500 list had revenue of $5.1 billion.

Cook also noted that Apple Watch sales last quarter were double those of a year earlier. As for how many Apple Watches that amounts to, Creative Strategies analyst Ben Bajarin estimates Apple sold about 3.2 million last quarter.

Why it matters: That's the clearest look yet we've had at the size of the Apple Watch business.

Update: Later in the call, Cook said that the business would be "well into" the Fortune 500, suggesting the watch and headphone business could be even bigger than $5 billion.

Earlier: Apple posted quarterly earnings that topped expectations, but iPhone sales were less than expected.

Apple reported quarterly earnings that exceeded expectations, however its sales of 50.7 million iPhones was down slightly from last year and somewhat less than many analysts were expecting.

Overall, its quarterly revenue matched expectations, at $52.9 billion roughly matched what analysts were expecting. Net income topped $11 billion, or $2.10 per diluted share, ahead of expectations of around $2.01, according to Zacks.

Greater China was the geographic weak spot, with revenue down 14 percent from a year ago, with all other regions showing growth (and double-digit growth except for Japan).

Here are some other key stats for the quarter:

• Mac sales (units): 4.2 million
• iPad sales (units): 8.9 million
• Services revenue: $7.0 billion

For the current quarter, Apple said to expect revenue of between $43.5 billion and $45.5 billion and gross profit margins between 37.5 percent and 38.5 percent. Analysts had been targeting revenue of around $45 billion, according to Zacks.

The bottom line: Even though iPhone sales didn't meat the rosiest of projections, Apple had a pretty good quarter overall with other products and services revenue picking up the slack. However, it wasn't a blockbuster and shares traded slightly lower in initial after-hours trading after the report.

Facebook is grappling with potential bias against its female engineers' work, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal on two studies of the code submitted by female employees at the social network.

Last fall, an unnamed female engineer analyzed internal data and found that women received 35% more rejections of their code than men. This prompted Jay Parikh, Facebook's head of infrastructure, to conduct his own study, though he attributed the gaps to ranking and experience, not gender. Facebook told the Journal that the engineer's study used incomplete data.

What this means: Even assuming that Parikh's study and conclusion are more accurate, it's not good news for Facebook as it suggests that women aren't rising up the ranks at the same rate as men and that there aren't enough female senior engineers. And this isn't isolated to Facebook—women and underrepresented minorities across the tech industry still only make up a very small number of technical and senior roles at companies.

United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz testified in front of the House Transportation Committee during a hearing on airline customer service that was largely prompted by the forced removal of Dr. David Dao from a United flight last month, which Munoz called "a serious breach of public trust." Munoz promised repeatedly that the company would do better in the future:

• "If we break it, it is incumbent upon us to fix it."
• "We had a horrible failure three weeks ago. It is not who we are. It is not this company."
• "Our actions will speak indefinitely longer than our words. We will do better."

Microsoft used a New York event Tuesday to launch a new salvo in the battle over classroom computing. It debuted a more constrained version of Windows, known as Windows 10 S, that focuses on new-style Windows apps and aims to some of the fast boot-up and easy maintenance that have made Chromebooks so popular in schools.

Why it matters: The school market, while highly price competitive, has long been strategically important as it serves as the introduction to a new generation of computer users. Those who use a Mac or iPad may grow up with a lifelong Apple affinity, while Chromebooks teach students they can get most of what they need from the cloud. It's just as important to Microsoft for Windows to have a healthy future.

In many ways this tends to be one of Apple's least telling quarters. The new iPhones are still several months out and the old ones have been on the market for a while. Nonetheless, here's our cheat sheet for Apple, which reports earning after the close on Tuesday.

The numbers: Apple tends to exceed estimates. Here's what Wall Street is expecting, according to Zacks Investment Research.

• Per-share earnings: $2.01, unchanged from last year (Zacks)
• Revenue: $52.6 billion (Zacks)

What I'm looking for: The main thing I am looking for is "the one sentence." By that, I mean that one line Apple sometimes gives on a new area. "TV is a hobby," was an early example of this. I want to know what Apple has to say, for example, about cars.

Twitter announced over a dozen new live-streaming and original video content partnerships Monday, making it clear that their business strategy moving forward will be to expand ad-funded video content — the area where they saw the most revenue growth last quarter.

Why it matters: Until Monday, it seemed that Twitter was far behind the other social platforms in the race to win the $70 billion US TV ad market. Now, it's clear that Twitter could be giving them all, and particularly Snapchat, a run for their money.

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has canceled his appearance at Recode's annual Code Conference in a month — one of the first guests to do so in the 15 years founders Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg have been running the event (and its predecessor). Kalanick will need to be at the company's office when the delayed report about Uber's sexist culture finally comes out, a spokesperson told Recode.

With two exceptions for sudden and serious family illnesses, no executive has bailed on the conference regardless of any company crisis, Swisher noted in a blog post about the cancelation.

Subbing in: Uber board member Arianna Huffington, who has been helping with the investigation, will appear on stage, possibly joined by the company's new HR chief, Liane Hornsey. "In other words, replacing Kalanick and manning up to address serious gender issues at Uber when the men could not bring themselves to, could be two women," writes Swisher.

Apple likely has more than $250 billion in its famously-large cash reserve, per the Wall Street Journal.

One fun stat: The Journal says that in late 2016 the company was accruing cash "at a rate of about $3.6 million an hour."

Why it matters: Washington may be on the verge of a debate on tax reform, and that's going to include questions about how to handle corporate cash that, like Apple's, is largely held overseas.