Like probably 95% of other smart phone owners, I have a case around the phone and a screen protector on the front. The only time I see the case is when I swap the batteries in 15 seconds. At that point, I thank the stars for having a removable back cover, as opposed to plugging it into a wall for 3 hours like a iPhone.
Regarding gimmicky software, there's something called "Siri" introduced to great fanfare by Apple. How many people use it still? And I note that the same "gimmicky" software when introduced 3 years later by Apple is greeted with cries and screams of adoration. And in the fourth year Apple will be suing Samsung for the said "gimmicky" features claiming that those are Apple "innovations".
"While competitors are still working on early versions of their phones, Apple has advanced and polished their designs. "
There is a company called Samsung. Please check out the early versions of their phones called Samsung Galaxy S4. If this is what Samsung is producing while still working on the early versions of their phone, Apple should shudder when an advanced and polished Samsung version appears.
Apple iPhone 5: What Are The Implications From AT&T And Verizon? [View article]
I wonder about the implications for Sprint and the huge commitment to purchase $15B worth of iPhones. If iPhone sales start to lag, Sprint would be deep trouble.
Why Analysts Missed The Apple Correction [View article]
It seems there are two dissonant notions in your article. First there is the idea that access to analyst opinion is now universal and simultaneous even for the retail investor.
Secondly there is the notion that people in the know "feel when the wind is about to change and will have called his client base before the news hits the wire". Which may be a polite way of saying that the said analyst hears the non public verbal chatter and tips and passes it along to his clients. Naturally only high net worth individuals and hedge funds and the like have analysts calling them, not Joe Schmoe in Kalamazoo. A perfect example was analysts telling large investors of Facebook's slowing growth verbally while leaving retail investors in the dark, just before the IPO.
After reading your article I'm even more inclined to think inside information is the gasoline that drives the Wall Street engine and leaves retail investors for roadkill.
Margin Pressures Likely To Hurt Apple Over Time [View article]
And you can walk into any retail store (Best Buy, carrier etc) and walk out with zero wait. Just because some people put a low enough premium on their time to go and waste it waiting in line in an Apple store for things they can get without waiting in line else where, the line at the Apple store means nothing at all.
There are n number of devices including the Samsung Galaxy SII and later that can wirelessly stream content to the TV. I am typing this on a 3 year old laptop with intel wireless display that lets me mirror my computer screen on a TV wirelessly. So can pretty much stream anything I like directly to the TV. Why is this ability which will arrive (as usual) several years late on i-whatever such a big deal? Also check out the capabilities of a $50 Roku box.
Apple: How Much Damage Will Its Latest Foxconn Incident Cause? [View article]
Slaves were confined and worked for subsistence. What Apple has done for Americans conscience is merely moved the overseer and the slaves from the plantation itself to another continent so that there are no sights, sounds or smells. Unfortunately for Apple, the internet is bringing the sights and sounds of slavery back.
The direct labor component is less than 10% of the cost of making a iPhone. Apple could very well afford to pay a living wage and stop ill treating the slaves it owns via the overseer Foxconn.
79,000 "workers" huh? Perhaps Apple may be the biggest slave owner of all time...
Without Steve Jobs, Apple Is Without A Map [View article]
Apple may be also playing the Serbei Bubka/Usain Bolt strategy. Sergei Bubka was the pole vaulter who deliberately never vaulted as high as he could...he raised the world record centimeter by centimeter so that every few months he could set a new world record and all the attendant publicity. I also believe Usain Bol never has run flat out as fast as he could, just runs fast enough to win.
I believe with many of Apple's products that they run just fast enough. For instance, I have no doubt that the next iPhone will have a 4.8" display *and* a better maps. What more reason would a fanboi need to upgrade? As they say in the TV infomercials "But wait, there's more...."
Without Steve Jobs, Apple Is Without A Map [View article]
I disagree with your comments that a map so lacking in quality wouldn't have made it past Steve Jobs. For instance Jobs shipped a phone which had a glaringly obvious antenna design problem (as you noted). The iPhone lacked a cut and paste for the longest time, a basic mistake. Remember MobileMe?
There's really no incentive to ship flawless products when your customers will still line up to buy your products...Cook is just continuing the tradition of Jobs (he who made the fatal mistake of trying to heal cancer with pomegranate juice).
Apple's Victory Over Samsung Marks A New Era For The Smartphone Market [View article]
Tthe jury found trade dress infringement i.e. the jury decided that the iPhone and Samsung galaxy looked so similar that a reasonable person could not tell them apart. Interesting that you feel differently.
I agree with you, that a reasonable person could read "Samsung" on the front, feel the alleged cheap plastic, see the large alleged oversaturated screen, or see "Galaxy SII" on the back, or see the large Apple on the back of the iPhone, or see the four Android virtual buttons on the front, or note the difference between a 3.5 inch device and a 4.8 inch device.
But Apple's witnesses testified that they could not tell one device from another even when they were holding them side by side in their hands. Apple claimed people were buying Samsung Galaxy SII's thinking they were iPhones. That was the trade dress infringement claim.
And the wise jury agreed with Apple. Now do you really believe your own eyes or a jury that awarded 1,000,000,000 dollars to Apple?
Apple's Victory Over Samsung Marks A New Era For The Smartphone Market [View article]
I believe that Judge may not be fully in sympathy with the jury's decisions and may overturn a few of the findings esp. with the trade dress and the pinch to zoom patents.
Samsung's motions to overturn will be given a shot in the arm by the jury foreman's interviews with the media in which he has shown himself comically inept at understanding IP law and precedent. One single example is this from Groklaw when the man expounded on why he disregarded all the prior art submitted by Samsung on the software patents
"The software on the Apple side could not be placed into the processor on the prior art and vice versa. That means they are not interchangeable. That changed everything right there."
By the same coin the software on the Apple couldn't be placed on Samsung's Exynos processor. He seems to be saying you can patent prior art if you write new software that won't run on older processors! Leaving that aside, these kinds of ludicrous statements of the jury deliberations have seriously undermined the verdict. And the foreman has made a lot more statements like this. Another example is saying he and the jury wanted to punish Samsung when the jury instructions clearly prohibit any damages intended to punish.
I believe that the effect of this verdict is vastly overstated. I simply don't believe it'll stand scrutiny. Hence all these breathless projections of Apple is going to take over the entire US market is extremely premature and unwarranted.
Apple Solved Its First Problem [View article]
Regarding gimmicky software, there's something called "Siri" introduced to great fanfare by Apple. How many people use it still? And I note that the same "gimmicky" software when introduced 3 years later by Apple is greeted with cries and screams of adoration. And in the fourth year Apple will be suing Samsung for the said "gimmicky" features claiming that those are Apple "innovations".
Apple Solved Its First Problem [View article]
Apple Solved Its First Problem [View article]
There is a company called Samsung. Please check out the early versions of their phones called Samsung Galaxy S4. If this is what Samsung is producing while still working on the early versions of their phone, Apple should shudder when an advanced and polished Samsung version appears.
Apple: Learn From Andy Zaky's Mistake [View article]
Apple's Secret Weapon Will Yield All-Time Highs [View article]
http://bit.ly/ZiA5Bm
Is Apple Just Boring? [View article]
Apple iPhone 5: What Are The Implications From AT&T And Verizon? [View article]
Why Analysts Missed The Apple Correction [View article]
Secondly there is the notion that people in the know "feel when the wind is about to change and will have called his client base before the news hits the wire". Which may be a polite way of saying that the said analyst hears the non public verbal chatter and tips and passes it along to his clients. Naturally only high net worth individuals and hedge funds and the like have analysts calling them, not Joe Schmoe in Kalamazoo. A perfect example was analysts telling large investors of Facebook's slowing growth verbally while leaving retail investors in the dark, just before the IPO.
After reading your article I'm even more inclined to think inside information is the gasoline that drives the Wall Street engine and leaves retail investors for roadkill.
Margin Pressures Likely To Hurt Apple Over Time [View article]
Apple's Positive Uncertainty: Universal Remote iPad [View article]
Apple: How Much Damage Will Its Latest Foxconn Incident Cause? [View article]
The direct labor component is less than 10% of the cost of making a iPhone. Apple could very well afford to pay a living wage and stop ill treating the slaves it owns via the overseer Foxconn.
79,000 "workers" huh? Perhaps Apple may be the biggest slave owner of all time...
Without Steve Jobs, Apple Is Without A Map [View article]
I believe with many of Apple's products that they run just fast enough. For instance, I have no doubt that the next iPhone will have a 4.8" display *and* a better maps. What more reason would a fanboi need to upgrade? As they say in the TV infomercials "But wait, there's more...."
Without Steve Jobs, Apple Is Without A Map [View article]
There's really no incentive to ship flawless products when your customers will still line up to buy your products...Cook is just continuing the tradition of Jobs (he who made the fatal mistake of trying to heal cancer with pomegranate juice).
Apple's Victory Over Samsung Marks A New Era For The Smartphone Market [View article]
I agree with you, that a reasonable person could read "Samsung" on the front, feel the alleged cheap plastic, see the large alleged oversaturated screen, or see "Galaxy SII" on the back, or see the large Apple on the back of the iPhone, or see the four Android virtual buttons on the front, or note the difference between a 3.5 inch device and a 4.8 inch device.
But Apple's witnesses testified that they could not tell one device from another even when they were holding them side by side in their hands. Apple claimed people were buying Samsung Galaxy SII's thinking they were iPhones. That was the trade dress infringement claim.
And the wise jury agreed with Apple. Now do you really believe your own eyes or a jury that awarded 1,000,000,000 dollars to Apple?
Apple's Victory Over Samsung Marks A New Era For The Smartphone Market [View article]
Samsung's motions to overturn will be given a shot in the arm by the jury foreman's interviews with the media in which he has shown himself comically inept at understanding IP law and precedent. One single example is this from Groklaw when the man expounded on why he disregarded all the prior art submitted by Samsung on the software patents
"The software on the Apple side could not be placed into the processor on the prior art and vice versa. That means they are not interchangeable. That changed everything right there."
By the same coin the software on the Apple couldn't be placed on Samsung's Exynos processor. He seems to be saying you can patent prior art if you write new software that won't run on older processors! Leaving that aside, these kinds of ludicrous statements of the jury deliberations have seriously undermined the verdict. And the foreman has made a lot more statements like this. Another example is saying he and the jury wanted to punish Samsung when the jury instructions clearly prohibit any damages intended to punish.
I believe that the effect of this verdict is vastly overstated. I simply don't believe it'll stand scrutiny. Hence all these breathless projections of Apple is going to take over the entire US market is extremely premature and unwarranted.