David H Dennis

The Real Danger to Microsoft

I like to have paper manuals for my software, so I will buy it from the Apple Retail Store, which still has boxed versions.

However, when I bought iWork, I ripped open the package, checked out the manual and typed in the serial number to activate the demo I had already downloaded.

I will be doing that with Aperture, too.

Guess it's time for a MacBook Air, if it only didn't have a tiny screen. I wonder what the new MacBook Pros will be like.

D

Microhoo: Tech Megamergers Rarely Work Well

Those who promote this merger do it with fizzy generalities. The truth is these companies have virtually no chance of working together successfully. If I were Ballmer, there's no way I would ever even think of contemplating doing such a crazy, cruel destructive act as taking over Yahoo.

I'd like to see antitrust considered. Microsoft and Yahoo overlap in a huge number of businesses and there's no question this is a highly anticompetitive move.

I'm normally very much against antitrust enforcement, but desperate times call for desperate measures :-(.

D

Apple's Deferred Revenues Revisited: This Was a Blow-Out Quarter

Almost all of the costs have already been incurred, because the iPhones and AppleTVs have been manufacturered and handed over to customers.

The software development costs to maintain existing iPhones is currently also being done to make new iPhones more attractive. So you could argue that the software development could be expensed against the revenues from future iPhones, or from the royalty payments from AT&T for its exclusive sale of iPhones.

If you think about it, to support this deferred revenue model, the profit on an individual iPhone or even AppleTV has to be phenomenal ... otherwise they would show a loss on the phone by selling below cost in the first year and then making up the deferred revenues in subsequent years.

D

Defending Apple's MacBook Air

I agree with most of what you've said, but want to add that the Air is plenty powerful for what most people want to do. It wasn't too long ago that people were editing video and doing advanced special effects on PowerMac G5s, which are about the same speed as the Air.

Any web, email, word processing or spreadsheet user is not going to notice a difference in performance between the Air and even a current MacBook Pro.

I think the fuss is mainly about jealousy and desire. Those of us who will buy MacBook Pros will be unhappy there's a system in Apple's line that will produce more admiring glances. Those of us who will buy MacBooks miss the cool lines of the Air.

But if there are people who are jealous of this thing, and its price is not miserable, I'm sure there are even more people who will buy it. I need the big screen of the MacBook Pro, but it it wasn't for that I might well get one. I last used my PowerBook's optical drive a couple of months ago, and for that I could easily use remote drive, and I strongly suspect many others are in the same boat.

D

iPhone: Europeans Wary of Apple's Attempt to Maintain Network Control

I believe CPW is an independent dealer. In the USA, Apple is only allowing Apple's retail stores and AT&T's company owned stores to sell the iPhone.

If they do the same in the UK, CPW might be frozen out.

D

Five Reasons Why Apple's iPhone is Better Than the Rest

The iPhone's marketing package is pretty slick. It contains elaborate demos of exactly how the phone is used. I think that after viewing that material, you would have a pretty good idea of whether the iPhone is highly impressive or just another me too device.

True, it would be better to have it in our hands, and I'd insist on having it in mine and playing with it before signing a two year contract. If it has SSH available, for me it's a done deal because the design is just plain brilliant. The only other factor that could change my mind is the possibility that it might be painful to type on the on-screen keyboard, which I think is a highly individual decision. It's not like the buttons on a Blackberry or Treo are that easy to type on either.

That aside, if you look at the typical phone with its cryptic, often unlabelled buttons, that are often in awkward places, I don't think there's any question that the iPhone is an enormous improvement in design over earlier phones.

Check out the material and by all means let us know your reaction to it.

D