Jaguar Land-Rover (JLR) sold a record 583,312 cars last year, a 20% increase on last year.

These three things are going to have an impact on the wider world.

1. Apple’s iPhone turns 10

Exactly 10 years ago today, Steve Jobs, the co-founder and former Apple chief executive unveiled the iPhone in San Francisco, revolutionising the technology landscape.

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The iPhone offered consumers three products in one, “a widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone and a breakthrough internet communications device,” said Jobs in 2007.  

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Since its launch, more than a billion iPhones have been sold worldwide and the number of devices running Apple’s iOS operating system is only now beginning to level off.

This is now causing a crisis within Apple over how it is going to continue to drive sales growth without its reliable cash cow that propelled it to the position of world’s most valuable company over the last 10 years.

Its legacy lives on

The iPhone also inspired a variety of other Apple products including the iPad in 2012 and the Apple Watch in 2015.  In 2016, the technology giant, with a market cap of $586bn, came eighth on the Forbes Global 2000 list, a database of the world’s biggest public companies.

There have been eleven different versions of the iPhone since 2007. The most recent iPhone 7 is water resistant, boasts a new camera, and a wireless audio system. It smashed sales expectations, defying Apple’s critics. The next version of the iPhone will be unveiled in September.

2. Pound at lowest since October following May’s Brexit comments

Sterling is at its lowest level in two months after British prime minister Theresa May told Sky News that the government would push for a so-called hard Brexit that would mean leaving the European Union’s single market.

“Often people talk in terms as if we are leaving the EU but we still want to keep bits of membership of the EU. We’re leaving; we’re coming out,” she said in the interview yesterday.

Sterling is down 1.1 percent against the dollar to $1.2153, ts lowest level against the dollar since 1985. It is also down 0.89 percent against the euro. The pound could plunge even further later this month, when  the UK’s Supreme Court is expected to make its ruling on parliament’s involvement in the triggering of Article 50.

Economists have warned of rising inflation as imports become more expensive.

“Resilience to Brexit shocks is unlikely to continue in the first half of 2017 as uncertainty weighs on investment”, said David Folkerts-Landau, chief economist at Deutsche Bank.

May has promised she will trigger the official EU exit clause by the end of March.

3. Record car sales for Jaguar Land-Rover

Britain’s biggest carmaker Jaguar Land Rover sold a record 583,312 cars last year, equivalent to more than one vehicle a minute, and up 20 percent from 2015. Europe was the carmaker’s biggest overall market.

Rolls-Royce also had a good year, announcing its second highest sales record in over a century. Sales in the US increased by 10 percent, in China by 23 percent and in Japan by 51 percent. Despite economic uncertainty in the aftermath of the Brexit vote, the company saw a 26 percent sales spike in its UK home market.

“Success for Rolls-Royce is success for Great Britain and we reaffirm our commitment to maintaining the home of Rolls-Royce in the UK,” said Rolls-Royce Motor Cars CEO Torsten Muller-Otvos.