KenC

How Apple's Market Share Will Propel Stock to $500, Part 1

Alot of the revenue increase is due to the decline in the USD. I would love to see Apple become a $500 stock, and be worth double MS, but it's going to take alot of hard work on Apple's part. We all know enBallmer is an idiot.

Android, iPhone Ride Rising Tide

You wrote, "The US carriers will eventually run out of people who want to permanently increase their phone bills $600 a month"

Strangely, noone so far has commented upon your math. Presumably, above, you meant year, but even the, you are implying that data plans are $50 a month, which they are not. They are $20 to $30 a month.

I have an iPhone 3G, and my data plan is $20 a month. Why? I live in an EDGE area, with 3G 100 miles away. I pay the EDGE rate even though when I'm in 3G-land, I get 3G speeds.

So, data plans are not as outrageous as you seem to believe.

Microsoft vs. Apple - Which Is Worth More?

You're long MS and short Apple? Justice is served.

Customer Survey Notes Microsoft's Brand Revival

You wrote, "The Windows brand revival story is a pretty clear one". Hmmm...for $300M you'd think they'd have gotten more bang for their buck.

Smartphone Operating Systems: The Market Share, Usage Disconnect

Actually if you have been studying AdMob's stats over time, you'd realize they undermeasure the iPhone's net usage. It measures MOBILE web, ie, mobile website use. It does NOT measure if the iPhone goes to a normal website, which it does all the time.

Microsoft Q3: Revenues Miss, Earnings in Line

How does G&A expense go from $2.3B to $900M, in one year? Something looks odd about that.

Mobile Ad Market Share: Android Catches Up to Palm, iPhone Still King

What the last chart implies is that since these modern smartphones are showing real internet pages, not JUST mobile internet pages, their numbers of requests are far lower than their their actual internet usage. Just something to keep in mind, because not all of the smartphones in their analysis are so good at going to real internet pages as the iPhone and G1. Thus those other phones that go ONLY to mobile websites would get a disproportionate number of mobile ads, as measured by AdMob.

For example, looking at the last chart, and at the iPhone's numbers. They are saying that July 08, the iPhone got 20M ad requests, and by Nov 08, was getting 12x more, at 238M? Clearly, the iPhone number looks small in July 08, as the iPhone was avoiding mobile websites and going to the real websites, where AdMob's ads were not being served. Once the dedicated apps were launched, AdMob could then serve their ads in those apps.

Skype for iPhone: Beginning of the End For Mobile Phone Revenue Growth?

Actually, Oleg brings up a good point. With my iPhone, I can logon to AT&T's wifi network quite quickly. There's even an App to manage that login process, Easy Wifi, to make it easier. Apparently, lots of people didn't get the memo that AT&T's wifi is free to iPhone users.

What I didn't remember when the Skype app came to the iPhone and touch is that the touch can't log onto AT&T's wifi network for free, while the iPhone can.

At least the iPod touch has a browser so that you can go to a wifi "terms" page. This has been the weakness of those wifi enabled skype handsets by Linksys, Belkin, and Panasonic. They don't have that capability.

The Ongoing Smartphone Revolution

"The second buyout should be Nintendo buying RIM. Once again a perfect fit. "

Please explain the "perfect fit" in detail.

You know, the less you write, the less likely people are to think you a fool.

The Ongoing Smartphone Revolution

Bruce said, "Apple (highly profitable) should buy Sony (currently making massive losses). This is such a brilliant fit at so many levels that you wonder why it hasn’t already happened. Apple would bring their software and sexy design to Sony products. And in return Apple would become a world class consumer electronics company overnight. "

Wow, are you just trying to save Howard Stringer's bacon, or what? Sony already has "sexy design", and Apple is already a "world class consumer electronics company". Can you explain any of the technological or product mix "fit" that makes you think this is "brilliant"?

The Ongoing Smartphone Revolution

Bruce says, "But they have the potential to steamroller over everyone. The Zune is a great bit of kit but, relatively, it is a commercial failure. What gives Microsoft the capacity to come out of their corner fighting is Xbox Live, a mobile version of this would give AppStore more than a run for the money. And if I know this then so does Microsoft. Meanwhile they are still third overall in the smartphone market with 12.5% of handsets, so they have something to build on."

Oi, there's that word "potential" again. Wow, someone thinks the Zune is a "great bit of kit". Wow. Boggles the mind. Oh, sure, specs look good, but execution was lousy. Oh, just what we all need, more points. And, are you so sure a mobile version of X Live will give the AppStore "more than a run for the money", I mean, just about every MS backed music service killed the iTunes Music Store, right?

As for MS's market share. You do realize that their share is falling rapidly, and will fall even faster when Palm goes WebOS, and HTC continues to gravitate to Android, and Motorola goes toward Android. I mean, if Android is so great, how can that be good for MS? I mean, didn't they pay a huge amount of money to get LG on board? I thought they were supposed to get paid for their mobile OS, not pay!

The Ongoing Smartphone Revolution

Bruce said, "Android has more potential in that it is already better and it is open source (unlike the proprietary Apple) so could very well be taken up by the big Chinese, Korean and Taiwanese handset manufacturers"

Can you backtrack and provide the evidence that Android is "already better", and what exactly is so great about open source, and how is that benefitting users? I mean how is Linux doing on the desktop? Why isn't LiMo doing better then? Symbian has gone open source, and they have a head start with its existing relationships with 3 of the largest mfrs already.

The Ongoing Smartphone Revolution

Bruce wrote, "If I were in the market right now, I would want a Google Android device. The combination of features and benefits puts it at the top of the heap. Unfortunately Google, for all their technical brilliance, are very bad at marketing. So Apple, who are absolutely brilliant at marketing, continue to outperform with their inferior iPhone. But such is the intensity of this war that Apple are playing catch up with a downloadable upgrade for existing iPhone users that brings in 100 (yes 100) new feature"

So, we have a HTC G1, and other Android devices rumored to be coming. What is it about the buggy G1 that "puts it at the top of the heap?"

Oh, btw, are you a marketing consultant, because the above implies that perhaps, you are fishing for a marketing job with Google. Google has shown some brilliance in the area of search software. They have not shown any hardware brilliance.

Please recite all those things that are "inferior" about the iPhone, and please do not mention the camera. Noone buys a cell for its camera.

You write as if you believe Apple's latest OS is somehow a response to Google's Android? How do you know this? Do you mean that Apple held an unusual presentation that it has not held exactly at this time last year? Do you mean that Apple has offered to release a new OS in the Summer, something it has never done before? Where is there evidence that Apple's latest release is anything but what they planned years ago in their approach to the smartphone market?

The Ongoing Smartphone Revolution

Bruce said, " And they are developing at a frightening pace where something six months old can easily be obsolete."

The beauty of the new model in smartphones, as epitomized by the iPhone is that it's a blank canvas. It can constantly be updated. An EDGE iPhone that is 20 months old can still have all the application goodness that the latest 3G iPhone has. It is not obsolete in any way.

The Ongoing Smartphone Revolution

Bruce said, "Like anywhere I am on the face of planet earth I can use my phone to record events as a movie (in full colour and with sound) and within just a few seconds I can make that movie available to the whole world’s population"

Wow, are you in marketing, cause you know hyperbole, like it's going out of style. One, you can't do this "anywhere..on the face of planet earth". Two, a video clip is NOT a "movie". Three, what do you define as "full colour", because no one would describe the color gamut of a cellphone clip anywhere near the color gamut of a "movie". Four, "within just a few seconds", are you kidding? Uploading video over a cell network takes more than "just a few seconds". Five, sadly, the "whole world's population" does not have net access.

That was just the beginning of this long bit of gibberish.