GSlusher

Will The Federal Trade Commission Have an Issue with Apple and Google?

1. The DOJ under Clinton did think that Microsoft was a monopolist. It was when Bush came into office that the executive branch backed off and drastically reduced the requested penalty.

2. It wasn't a "guilty verdict," but a decision by a judge. A verdict is a decision by a jury. There was no jury in the Microsoft antitrust case.

3. In this case, the Federal agency involved is not the Department of Justice, but the Federal Trade Commission, an independent agency.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...



On May 08 09:49 AM brewer wrote:

> DOJ apparently thought Microsoft was NOT a monopolist (contrary the
> federal courts GUILTY VERDICT, and what any rational person would
> know to be true if they had any interest in computing jor knowledge
> of the industry whatsoever.)

RIM Beats Apple in One-Hit Wonder Quarter. What's Next?

On May 05 09:51 AM jmmx wrote:

> 1- IT'S THE PRICE!!!
> 2- BB BOLD IS NOT A SMARTPHONE!

The Bold is not on the list. The top smartphone was the Blackberry Curve.

However, despite .crazylegs sneer, it's hard to tell what the overall impact is.

Also, in the article, the author uses words like "smash" and "skyrocketing" without any data. The only numbers given are for overall market share for each manufacturer, NOT the sales of the Curve. There's no way to tell if it's just 0.0000000001% higher than the iPhone, for example.

How Apple Will Continue to Surprise Investors

For the author: One minor point. Apple calls their device the "iPod touch," not the "iPod Touch." They do not capitalize "touch." You can fix that in your spell checker, I expect, though it may be one of those errors that wood knot bee cot ore flogged buy ah spool chucker.

At least you didn't write, "iTouch." That's like calling the car a "Toyrolla."

How Soon Can Apple's Market Cap Surpass Microsoft's?

On Apr 24 01:00 PM GaryZ10 wrote:

> Yes there are Mac viruses...suggesting that you don't truly understand
> the product you are writing about.

Name three Mac OS X viruses that exist in the wild, not "concepts."

As for the basic article, I agree with Foris, to wit, "So what?" Apple passed GM in market capitalization a long time ago, but that's not the only nor even the most important measure of a company's financial position.

Betting Apple's New Netbook Is a Big iPhone

On Apr 22 12:27 PM UrbanBard wrote:

> I'm less inclined to think a big iPhone is coming than a pocketbook
> addition of the iTouch.

What "iTouch"? There is no such thing. Apple sells the iPod touch (note the lowercase "t"). If you want people to take your comments seriously, at least get the device's name correct.

Also, you should have "edition," not "addition."

> in a very acceptable devise ...

It's "device," not "devise," which is a verb.

Apple: The Street Celebrates a Strong Quarter

Sounds like an awful lot of "me-too-ing" going on. Apple's situation didn't change by 0.0001% from 4 PM to 8 PM on Wednesday. The fact that "analysts" changed their estimates so much shows two things:

1. They don't know what they're writing about.
2. They are as bad about fads as anyone in the infamous tulip craze. (Remember that few "analysts" thought that Bear Stearns was going to go under, either.)

Ergo, the analysts' opinions are pretty worthless, even for entertainment value.

For Apple, Upside Remains

SLOW? Jobs came back to Apple in December 1996 (or January 1997, depending upon the source). That's **12 BLINKING YEARS**. In January, 1997, Google didn't exist. Amazon had been online for less than 2 years. Since January, 1997, Apple has introduced:

- The iMac (4 generations)
- The iBook (several generations)
- G4 & G5 processors
- Intel-based Macs (iMac, Mac Pro, MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac mini)
- OS 7.6, 8, 8.5, 9, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5
- Cinema displays
- Rack servers

not to mention
- iPod
- iPhone
- Apple TV
- Airport-series routers/base stations, etc

Apple has STOPPED making:

- Printers (remember that the LaserWriter was one of the first successful laser printers, starting in 1985)
- Newton MessagePad PDA
- QuickTake digital camera (forgot that one, I'll bet!)
- QuickTime Video Conferencing Camera

and they got rid of the authorized Mac clones.

If "Apple observers" haven't learned to differentiate as mollytjm suggests, they will never learn--plus, they're not really "Apple observers," as they haven't been observing anything.

On Apr 18 10:14 AM mollytjm wrote:

> Apple observers have been slow to differentiate today's Apple
>from the one that Jobs had to come back to save.

RIM: Letting the Chart Talk

The chronology is a bit off. You make it sound like the Mac didn't come out until AFTER Jobs was kicked out. The Macintosh came out in January 1984. Jobs wasn't ousted until May 31 of the next year. The Mac was Jobs' "child"--he headed the development team.

On Apr 17 11:33 AM JamesApple wrote:

> I remember when John Sculley ousted Steve Jobs on the basis of poor
> sales of the Apple Lisa. Subsequently the Lisa was downscaled to
> the Macintosh and sales went up, execution ruled over innovation,

Apple: New iPhone Rumors Heat Up

On Apr 09 11:57 AM Techtrader10 wrote:

> Interesting thoughts Steve. I agree with you that the iPod market
> is saturated. My fanatical friends, that usually buy anything Apple
> puts out, didn't even mention the new model.

Shows the danger of using personal anecdotes as a source of data. Instead, check Amazon's "Bestselling" list for Electronics (not just MP3 players), as of right now:

1. Kindle 2
2. Flip camcorder
3. Western Digital portable HD
*4. iPod touch 8GB
5. Canon SD1100IS camera
6. Garmin Nüvi 760 GPS
7. Magellan Maestro 4250 GPS
8. Logitech webcam
9. Garmin Nüvi 255W GPS
*10. iPod Classic 120GB
*11. iPod touch 16GB
12. Flip camcorder
13. Western Digital HD
14. Garmin Nüvi 360 GPS
*15. iPod Nano 8GB black
16. Garmin Forerunner GPS
17. Western Digital portable HD
18. Linksys router
19. Canon SD880IS camera
20. Western Digital HD (no enclosure)
*21. iPod touch 32GB

Take out the computer hardware and it's:
- Kindle: 1
- Flip: 2, 10
- iPod: 3, 8, 9, 12
- cameras: 4, 14, 15
- GPS: 5, 6, 7, 11, 13

If one looks at MP3 players, alone:

- iPod: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21, 23, 25
- Sansa: 11, 20, 21
- Zune: 17
- Pyrus: 24

Doesn't look like a "saturated market" to me. The change from a year or so ago is how high up the list the more expensive models (touch & Classic) are. (That does NOT say that they outsell the Nanos, overall, as Amazon tracks by SKU, so each color and size of the Nano is considered a separate item.)

Defense Spending: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

What "Iranian nuclear-tipped missiles" are you referring to? You're beginning to sound like Bush.


On Apr 07 08:35 AM john s. gordon wrote:

> how many additional nuclear aircraft carriers (excellent targets
> for iranian nuclear tipped missiles) do we need anyway?
> the admirals gotta have their new toys.

Cramer's Mad Money - Is the Game Over? (4/6/09)

"In spite of Monday's market decline, the worst is over, declared Cramer."

Didn't he learn ANYTHING from the thorough rip-up Jon Stewart did on The Daily Show?

Microsoft Vista: Home Market Share Grows, But Businesses Stick with XP

This is ***NOT*** "market share." Market share has to do with sales; this is merely traffic at a very small number of sites (those whose owners pay StatCounter to count hits). Using this data to measure "market share" is like measuring vehicle "market share" by counting vehicles going by on an Interstate highway.

Apple Is Still Apple Even without Steve Jobs

One difference is that, in 1985, Jobs was FORCED out--fired, in essence. Another is that, with that experience, it's unlikely that Apple's management will repeat those mistakes. Yet another is that the upper management team at Apple was essentially all hired by Jobs: those who were involved with the "Jobs-less" period are essentially gone.


On Mar 23 12:25 PM Alex Filonov wrote:

> I wish you were right. Unfortunately, last time Jobs left Apple (1985),
> it was a total disaster. Not immediately, eventually. There is a
> chance that the same thing can happen again.

Is Cisco Going to Compete with Apple in the Living Room?

Interesting, as they are almost the same size in market cap. Cisco is 92.87B, Apple 90.31B. Revenue means essentially nothing. A company can have huge revenue but be losing money rapidly.

On Mar 22 02:41 PM techseer wrote:

> Apple's not in the same league as Cisco in terms of revenue and market
> dominance (oh, except for a little music player, sorry). Cisco could
> crush Apple in anything if it wanted to.

Discovery Hits Amazon with Infringement Suit Over Kindle

raytayzmd wrote: "well, uhh -- a laptop is "book-shaped"...so are netbooks...so, in other words, Discovery COULD claim to own a patent on any method of electronically transferring text and graphics to laptops and netbooks??"

I'm not an attorney, but, since laptops were around before the patent was filed, the patent couldn't cover them. (I bought my first Mac, a PowerBook 100, in 1992--and it was being phased out at the time.)

I expect that the more important parts of the patent may be those relating to the distribution system.