sleepy

Dell Aims to Diversify Away from PCs, But How?

According to the slides, Dell actually says it is "without legacy profit pools to constrain our thinking".

Bean-counter-in-denial speak for "we don't actually know why anyone buys anything from us, and it's beginning to look like we're going bust".

The EU Sticks A Knife Into Apple

Catchy headline, but a non-story.

Contrary to many people's ideas, Apple supports standardisation and relies on innovation and design skills to create its place in the market and on ADDITIONAL proprietary IP to protect that place. The iPhone already charges via USB, and iPod and iPhone chargers have delivered their power from a USB connector for years.

The dock connector isn't going away; USB connectors will be replaced by a micro connector. Apple will comply with the standard, and the solution will be well designed.

Non-iPhone users might be buying Apple chargers if they are better designed or made, but more likely there will still be scope for proprietary fast-charge algorithms that make a matching charger a better choice. Let's wait and see.

If You Think Steve Jobs' Health Is Not a Material Event...

"The fact this saga is still dragging on and being handled improperly is a sign of some kind of board governance issue."

This is drivel. It has been handled perfectly. His medical records are a private matter. Any likely impact of ill-health on the company's operation has to be disclosed. It was: The company disclosed the expectation of a 6 month absence, confirmed it after the operation, and he's back at work now. What more can a shareholder expect?

rrtmzd: Where is your evidence that there is any "denial of mortality", that SJ did not accept the original diagnosis, that the cancer is terminal, that that the original surgery was merely "palliative". You're the one living in a make-believe world, not Steve Jobs, who by my reckoning is frighteningly logical in everything he does, including the handling of his cancer.

Apple: Is the iPhone OS Upgrade Too Good?

Even purchasers of the 2-year old original iPhone get this upgrade free. Giving them (and new customers) a good feeling about buying an Apple product at any time. Selling more iPhones, not less.

Apple Sours: Analysts Doubtful of iPhone's Prospects

Analysts never imagine more than 6 months ahead. Steve Jobs is executing (spectacularly well) a whole lifetime business plan to create the world's standard personal information appliance, which started with the Macintosh in 1984 and developed further with Next. Next management and OS then took control of Apple, and that OS is the foundation of the iPhone.

Handset features had been hijacked by the government-mandated carrier cartels, and Apple is in the process of breaking that down. Expect major fluctuations in iPhone shipments as Apple moves from phase to phase of its plan. The fluctuations aren't relevant and are expected, so Apple has deliberately invoked subscription accounting over 2 years so these fluctuations aren't reflected in quarterly earnings.

Twitter Acquisition Mania: Google Rebuffed, Is Apple Trying Now?

Twitter may never make money on its own, but it can be a multiplier for business models that do work. Just a matter of time before someone figures out how to do it. Why not Apple?

RIM Grabs More Smartphone Share from Apple

Well - sort of. But maybe Apple's happy to be making more dollars than RIM from half the number of phones while RIM and others do the hard work of advertising, margin cutting and general pushing to convert the planet to using mobile computers instead of PC's or dumb phones.

Apple's hugely greater margins are driven by technical leadership. I find it unlikely that Apple will repeat Sculley's mistakes with the Mac, or that the market will remain static.

Can Dell Succeed in Smartphones?

Dell's true competitors are companies like Wallmart, Ingram and Amazon, and they are pretty weak even there. To compete with Apple, RIM or even Nokia - it's a joke - but they probably won't find a carrier willing to pay a subsidy, so it will come to nothing.

Jobs' Integrity: A Reason to Buy Apple

Thanks for writing this. It's what many Apple admirers think, but can't say without being written off as "fanbois", "mactards" etc. Steve Jobs is a simpler guy than is generally made out. He has plenty of money for all personal purposes for the rest of his life, and he knows it.

Why Apple Belongs in Every Portfolio

iPhone revenue and costs are booked straight-line on a daily basis over two years, not ten years. When a software update has been announced but not shipped, the start (but not the end) of the two years is delayed until the software update ship date (exploiting Sarbanes-Oxley). Because of this, when Apple ships a large number of iPhones and/or a preannounced update in the last 2-3 days of a quarter, those iPhones make only a negligible contribution to revenue and earnings for the quarter. By aligning product launches near quarter boundaries, Apple denies competitors access to sales figures for the maximum amount of time.

Amazon Gaining Share on iTunes

Joel, I really think you have got this back to front. DRM over which Apple has absolute control, even if/when it is cracked by hackers, is what enabled Apple to negotiate at the outset very flexible terms of use for iTunes downloads that match CD terms of use, and allow an iPod to continue playing DRM'd music in perpetuity without being "re-authorized" regularly by a global DRM mother ship. Everyone else offered the end user a horrible deal and their download services have successively folded, usually leaving customers with nothing. The labels so desperately want music sold through other channels than iTunes that they almost certainly directly breached a "most favored nation" contract clause, making Apple wait over a year before being allowed to match Amazon's DRM free terms of use that the labels gave in a last ditch attempt to stay relevant to music distribution. (In fact, Steve Jobs lost his patience with their delaying tactics after a year: “They’re trying to create a competitor to iTunes by denying us D.R.M.-free music”)

OPTi Up on Favorable Patent Ruling Against Apple

Another pathetic US patent on the obvious? File and sue the company with the most cash. Downside zero, upside huge payoff.

For those blinded by jargon, here's a real world analogy for “Predictive Snooping of Cache Memory for Master-Initiated Accesses”:

Preparing for your turn at the cash machine, having spontaneously decided to get some cash ("master initiated access"), by looking at ("snooping") the queue ("cache memory") to see how many are in front of you, and taking the card out of your bag just before ("predictive") you're at the machine, instead of just after, thus saving a few seconds.

Maybe there's something miraculously clever about the implementation, but probably not.

Palm: Dead Company Walking

If you think iPhone isn't able to multitask, you're rather naive; it's a choice for third party apps that can be reversed at any moment by Apple if it ever looks like a good idea. Just one reason why it's not a good idea - battery life. Apple told us about iPhone battery life at the unveiling in Jan '97 but Palm hasn't told us about Pre battery life.

If you think Pre's performance is due to superior software - you're wrong. It's due to having a CPU 3 times as fast as current iPhones. That's an option available for the next iPhone, out around the same time as Pre, probably.

Pre effectively doesn't have native apps; they're all just web apps. iPhone has web apps. With the latest CPU and javascript engines, this year's iPhone will probably be at least as fast as Pre for web apps, and much faster than Pre for native apps, which Pre lacks.

Pre is a very nice product, but as Apple and Next learned over the past twenty years, that's not the first consideration of the market.

We also don't know the price for Pre. Does Sprint have deep pockets to subsidize it? I'm not sure.

This article is spot on. Palm make great products. They don't make money.

Is the iPhone SDK 3.0 Really All That?

In-app purchases are nothing less than the first shoots of a new economy. That alone makes this a major release, and deeply significant for Apple's future growth and stock value.

Apple's Proprietary Tendencies on Display Again

It's silly to criticize an apple for not being an orange. This is a new innovative spot in the iPod product line. It's ideal for audiobooks, or exercising. Firing off "it won't work" broadsides presumes Apple are stupid enough not to test the design and that you are a better designer than the world's best. Wait and see what the market thinks. I think I'll get one. I think it's a better compromise than the old shuffle. Finally, I won't have to look at all at the iPod at all to know what's playing or adjust the volume. Thanks Apple.