RK

Separating Apple Fact from Fiction

No argument with your article, Mr. Schwarz. I was a bit surprised to read that Droid bombed. I have not heard that. MOT share price should have dipped if that was reported. MOT is still between $8-$9, a level reached since mid Sept.

Apple vs. Nokia: Did Nokia Miss the Boat?

Sir, Nokia losing market share is not news. Try google 'nokia losing market share': 94,900 hits are found.


On Dec 11 04:12 PM Stockpikr wrote:

> Everyone is always assessing Nokia in context of the American market.
> Nokia purposely pulled out of U.S.A. market awhile back to concentrate
> on world markets. So far, it has not hurt them there, only here in
> U.S.A. Give me a world assessment for a global company like Nokia!

Is Nintendo the Apple of Steve Jobs' Eye?

Apple is likelier to buy a gaming company than Nintendo, which is simply too large. Steve Jobs owned Pixar before. He is comfortable owning game creation. Many game companies (especially emerging) can be bought for under $1 billion, but most of these are not public.

Apple Results Bode Well for Lithium Ion Battery Makers

I thought most Apple notebooks have switched to using Lithium Polymer and Lithium Ion. Does this difference matter to your analysis? Just curious.

With Apple, There's a Fine Line Between Paying a Premium and Being a Sucker

I have tried many mice: logictech, microsoft, apple, many other no name brands. I have never really liked any of them. Too heavy, too slow, too big, too curvy, too difficult to click. My point is that a mouse is a very personal thing. For people who work a lot of with a mouse (like me), a good mouse will be worth $70. Conversely, a $1 mouse that gives you carpal tunnel would be way too expensive. I am going to order one.

Reading Palm: Pre Sales and the Secondary Offering

I agree. Palm just said on the earning call that the majority of the shipment was Pre, but it refused to give the # of Pre sold to Sprint when pressed by an analyst. If the number exceeds analysts' expectations, we would think Palm would give the number.


On Sep 17 10:47 PM FreeRange wrote:

> The author's comment below is very misleading and grossly inaccurate:
>
> "Palm answered investors' concerns about growth and unit shipments
> for the Pre. Palm said that they shipped about 832,000 as of this
> quarter..."
>
> Reading through the transcripts Palm stated no such thing. They would
> not break out Pre numbers. That number they gave was in fact for
> their FULL product line which includes the Treo and Centro phones
> which still have a substantial sales and distribution base with MULTIPLE
> carriers. While the overall NET increase from PREVIOUS quarters probably
> included mostly Pre phones, the estimates of 400-500,000 Pres sold
> can most certainly be accurate. And for certain, all 845k units were
> not Pres.

The iPhone's Remarkable Early Penetration

One major difference between the PC market and mobile device market is the former was enterprise driven while the latter is driven by customer demand. The PCs were too expensive early on and only enterprises could afford them. They desired uniformity and scale: WinTel was the right combo at the right time.

Mobile devices are selected by consumer tastes and preferences (RIMM devices are an exception). Like other consumer electronic devices, these markets do not have the winner take all characteristics: e.g. consumer audio, TV, camera, video game markets. Already, we are seeing cameras incorporating GPS and social network integrations. The proliferation of mobile devices will continue. Something akin to wintel taking over 90% of the mobile device market is extremely unlikely.

FCC's Sternly Worded Letter to Apple

The problem with the mobile broadband market is that the frequencies were not free. This is true all over the world. Telcos spent billions of dollars winning the licenses. They have to recoup that money somehow. It seems unlikely that FCC would require ATT to let other voice application vendors to come in to elbow ATT or Verizon out of the way.

I could see one scenario in which telcos would agree to open their mobile data networks to all apps in exchange for guaranteed revenue. This would be the utility model like water and electricity. This model does not work if the telcos have to compete with each other. But technology is changing too fast for this scenario to pan out in next 5-10 years.

Apple Sold Twice as Many iPhones as Macs Last Quarter; Closing the Gap on iPod Sales, Too

The next 5 - 10 years will be a golden period for mobile devices, with manufacturers trying to outdo each other in form factor, cost, accessories, niche capabilities (nee Kindle), etc. This space is going to be a lot more exciting than desk tops or laptops. Traditional computer makers will have to join this space otherwise they will become irrelevant: think Dell, HP, Lenovo. If these companies do not step up, we will see a change of the guards from American computer makers to Asian based mobile device makers like Samsung, LG, and maybe Acer. Apple would be the lone American standout.

Microsoft Gets Its Edge Back

I am not an investor in MSFT except in my S&P index. The company is like IBM in the early 90's competing at every front and in technology imaginable. It focuses on everything. It competes against IBM and Oracle on server technology, against Oracle and SAP on ERP systems, against Google on search, against Apple on Mobile OS, OS, and MP3, against Sony and Nintendo in gaming consoles, against Pandora in music streaming, against Amazon in cloud infrastructure, against Adobe in web programming environment, and against Logic Tech in keyword and mice. I am sure I am missing a few more. Is it possible for one company to do all these?

New iPhone Set to Continue Apple’s Quest for Dominance

I am always amazed by how uneven IT security policies are. On the one hand, they are concerned about mobile device security. On the other hand, they are rather blase about USB devices. How many companies disable USB ports on their computers? Employees can attach a USB drive and put gigabytes of data on the drive and take the data anywhere they go. Another example: how many companies prevent employees from adding 3rd party software on their blackberry or win-mobile machines? Those can be malicious or pose security threats also. I would content that in the big picture, iphone is no worse than many other phones.


On Jun 15 08:59 PM Frank Castle wrote:

> Actually being an IT person and having the oversight over 3k+ mobile
> devices the security is established by our Compliance and Security
> groups - it's not enforced for the heck of it and the fact is iPhone
> is not secure no matter the EAS policies (which were in OS 2.0 -
> there is nothing new with EAS in 3.0) as anyone can easily spend
> 15 mins and JAILBREAK the phone and circumvent any security policy!!
>
>
> I'm sorry but the "encryption" policy Apple is deploying (only for
> the 3GS btw) is USER controlled and said users can disable the encryption
> if they so choose so what good is that? Why didn't they use the EAS
> policy to enforce it? Considering MA has a new encryption regulation
> set to go in force 1/1/2010 this is something enterprise has to take
> seriously and not assume users listen to your instruction.
>
> You cannot compare iPhone with it's whopping handful of EAS policy
> support to a BES with full management of the Blackberry. If Apple
> wants the enterprise that have to adhere to regulatory oversight
> they need to step up their security.
>
> You also touch on another issue on personal liable vs. corporate
> liable mobile devices - personal liable is just a nightmare and should
> not connect to any corporate data other then web based. Why even
> open that door and deal with that headache to save a on some CAL?
> If you ever have to provide discovery its just more work to detain
> as well users annoyed while they own the device the corporate data
> synced to it is not.

New iPhone Set to Continue Apple’s Quest for Dominance

In this day and age, people still expect companies to pay for their mobile device? Really? I know of no one who becomes phone-less after they leave a job or get laid off.

Consumers are beginning to enjoy much better computing infrastructure outside of work than at work. Think of the great mobile devices, cloud infrastructure (whether in terms of file storage, productivity software, fast broadband (DOCSIS and Fibre), and social networking tools.

Enterprises will not be the main driver of technology in the whole in the next decade. The consumer is. Apple and other companies better serve the consumers or risk losing their leadership.

Microsoft: Silverlight Installed More than Firefox, Safari and Chrome - Combined

Is it possible the Silverlight is downloaded automatically as part of the regular Windows update? If so, that would explain the large number. Do I have Silverlight on my Windows machine? To be honest, I have no idea. I have never downloaded it on my own. But Windows automatic updates automatically downloads and installs stuff.

Apple: Creating the Device the Netbook Wants to Be

My guess is: 10 inch screen kindle like competitor with backlit color display, keyboard less, no phone, just wifi connection: a big ipod touch. Real thin with aluminum body, can view HD movies, a portable multimedia entertainment device. The only thing not clear in my mind is what it does with existing iphone apps. Does it just scale the screen up? It will make a lot of existing apps ugly. It can take the easy way out by not running any of the iphone apps --- hard to imagine.

If this is true, it does not eat into laptop sale (because most people cannot do a lot of typing on the touch keyboard without dying of frustration --- unless a third party comes out with a keyboard-stand combo). Still as others have said, this device would appeal to the installed base who may want to have this and a laptop. I am one of those. I like the Kindle form factor a lot, but I am holding out for a color display to browse the web and watch video also.

Apple's Media Tablet Will Cause the Stock to Rocket

In my office, I am called the apple fanboy as I have 2 iphones and 3 macs. But I think I am quite sober when it comes to evaluating Apple business prospects. The pluses for Apple are: continued growth of its iphone/itouch and mobile app business. The market is still very young. The next 5 years will tell us how big this market can be. Apple is likely to have a competitor to Kindle in 12 months whether that comes out in June is open to question. But a device for media and entertainment bigger than a phone and smaller than a laptop makes hugh sense. Apple can hit a home run here --- or it may not.

The negative is the computer line of business. Computers are commodities. The application is moving to the cloud. Yes, Mac computers are nice (that is why I have them) but the cloud makes computers commodity items. I do not see mac as key growth driver even if macs takes market share out of Windows. The market just is not going to grow much.

All said, I would rather own Apple than Microsoft. I also own Amazon, Google, and ATT to hedge my bets. They are my plays on the cloud.