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The Consumer Spending Slowdown Catches Apple

I find this article has NO PROOF of the title. First the charts are missing many data points where is June 08, July 07.... I have to agree with papita, the number of users that were in the mall last weekend in the Apple store was incredible and they were buying computers!! Also consider the back to school effect, this last quarter is traditionally high and Oct should have a lull in spending (where is october in the data charts?) as a normal seasonal effect.

Five Trends to Watch in Mobile Devices

devices are already field upgradable, operators dont want you to have this capability on the cheap phones. it takes up too much ota bandwidth.

You can already replace themes etc.... on just about every phone on the market.

the big guys can build out ecosystems but they still have to get operators to agree to let them be accessible on operator versions.

Consolidation is happening on platforms, google, symbian!! whats new in the article?

phones are already lifestyle devices ... else why would the refresh rates be so high?

Apple's iPhone: Home Court Advantage

This move serves several needs:
- the deals being made by apple are in countries where 2G is dominant, Apple has to milk its cow and make greater profits by selling older phones to countries where 2G prevails for now. 3G may be deployed in a coule years in India/China but today its all 2G.

- sell the 2G phones in counties where there are big grey markets (India, China, Philipines). It could help reduce the "grey market for a 3g" handset and thereby keep the profits for Apple and AT&T in the US

- Plant the seeds to get people to buy Mac's and iTunes, the Vista problems are global, I wonder when Apple start's selling Mac's in emerging markets, this is a huge opportunity for Apple.