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185 Comments
- amprather, on 11/13/2009, -17/+72Why do so many "ANALyst" think that the only way Apple can truly be successful is that it must overcome Microsoft or Dell or whoever and become the dominate player in the software or hardware sector?
Apple has a strangle hold in the personal music player with the iPod and iTunes. They have a large chuck of the smartphone market, a market that they were not even in a few years ago. And finally, they get millions of consumers to pay the well known - "Apple Tax" - without a problem. How many businesses do you know that have been able to pull that off?!?
Apple when through this past recession with very much a "What Recession" balance sheet that other business would have killed for. Blown opportunities? Pleazzzzeee.... - michaelpinto, on 11/13/2009, -20/+70If you look at the value of Apple stock when put next to Dell you'll see that the market believes that they are doing the right thing. Also frankly the iPhone is a Mac — it's running OS X, it's just that it happens to fit into your pocket. The idea that Apple has to take revenge on Microsoft by bringing the Mac back to glory days of the Apple ][ is missing the point a bit (not that I wouldn't mind seeing that).
- wonderchemist, on 11/13/2009, -14/+48Only an analyst would think a company making billions in net profit is missing the boat.
- jamshid, on 11/14/2009, -3/+26Well of course the iPhone OS is a "version" of OS X, just like Android is a version of Linux (plus the Android runtime environment).
They're both very different from Windows Mobile, which is not based on the same code as desktop Windows.
The fact that Apple was able to port OS X (the underlying Darwin system) to a pocked-sized computer, reusing most of the Mac's APIs and development tools, is a big part of why it has been so successful in revolutionizing the mobile space. - MattBlackCat, on 11/13/2009, -7/+29"If you look at the value of Apple stock when put next to Dell you'll see that the market believes that they are doing the right thing."
It's hardly a ringing endorsement to measure your performance against a sinking ship.
If you want a true indicator of the market 'believing' in you, then you compare your performance to the whole market not just one supplier.
Apple may not be sinking but the certainly are not steaming ahead of the fleet to the new world. - zaren, on 11/14/2009, -14/+341) This article is on msn.com. So, it's FUD right off the bat.
2) How does a company blow their chance when they double their market share in their primary market, gain an 80+% market share in secondary markets, and CREATE other markets?
3) Apple is sitting on, I believe, around $40 billion in cash, and they are debt-free.
If that's blowing your chance, then please let me be as big a failure as Apple. - jrm125, on 11/13/2009, -7/+26Obviously Mac isn't going anywhere, but I do feel like a lot of the momentum they were gaining a few months ago has started to settle. Apple definitely spurs competition, but invariably the competition catches up and Apple needs to market some new innovation. And that sort of thing takes time.
- MattBlackCat, on 11/13/2009, -3/+19I thought he said it runs 'a version' of OS X
So you're both right now kiss and make up and go outside and play. - rudedogdhc, on 11/14/2009, -2/+17iPhone runs essentially the same mach kernel that OS X does. If you compare the low-level iPhone APIs to the low-level Mac OS X APIs, you'll see that they're almost identical. In fact, the only APIs that are different on iPhone are the UI elements (Cocoa Touch vs. Cocoa). So you've pretty much got it completely backward.
- BullBearMS, on 11/13/2009, -5/+20If the function of a corporation is to make a profit and increase the value of its stock for the stockholders, then how is Apple failing at anything?
- mkriss5681, on 11/13/2009, -8/+22"Apple Settles for nothing less than making things as perfect as possible"
Didn't Snow Leopard erase people's data as well have compatibility issues with printers and other devices. I would call that far from perfect. There are also reports of AppleTV doing the same thing. - Crimeodial, on 11/13/2009, -0/+14Well, Apple TV was pretty much a miss.
- 6minuteabs, on 11/14/2009, -3/+15Jesus H Christ, I hate digg sometimes. Actually, I guess I hate people. Regardless of the topic, there's always 1 or 2 zealots that hop on and derail a perfectly reasonable conversation with an unreadable manifesto filled with half truths, omissions, and ignorance.
Hey JohnnySoftware- do you practice your ***** speeches in front of the mirror before clicking submit? - bigsheldy, on 11/13/2009, -2/+13I would say there aren't a lot of computer companies making software and settling with "good enough". The real difference is that Apple only has to support the few types of hardware that they specifically designed the software for, whereas M$ is stuck making software for pretty much every type of hardware that's ever been built.
- mbraynard, on 11/14/2009, -4/+14That's all old news.
Windows 7 is here and it slaughters. Even here on Digg, the favorability towards this OS is unlike anything I've seen for any software, especially from "Micro$oft."
And I've been picking up a similar vibe on Zune and the upcoming WinMo7. - mbraynard, on 11/14/2009, -1/+11I stopped reading after the first sentence.
MSFT's debt is primarily taking advantage of low interest rates and them taking 6bil in debt is a good thing - it preserves and increases shareholder value by putting that new capital to work without the dilliutions that come from equity offerings. You wouldn't expect such a mature company to be able to utilize capital at such a high rate but MSFT apparently can.
APPLE, however, has a ton of cash on hand at the moment which is a bad sign (they are sitting on it rather than putting it to work - because they have no place to put it to work?)
Also, you're wrong about anything 'shrinking significantly.' Apple is worth 184bil, MSFT is worth 263bil, so 6bil isn't going to shrink anything 'considerably.' Besides, apple is at it's peak, MSFT is certainly not.
All of the market share analysis - that's old news. Apple's OS has actually fallen in the last period and the rest of what you say is mostly baseless. - JohnnySoftware, on 11/13/2009, -15/+25There is no Apple Tax.
Apple gives its software development tools away free to developers. Half its system is open source - both accepting and giving improvements to/from developers at their companies or working on their own.
Apple's open source innovations like WebKit are found in other companies' browsers and cell phones now - Google Chrome and Google's Droid cell phone being just two examples.
Apple's system API is truly modern and object-oriented, unlike Win32 which is like the first API for Apple's in the early 1980's and MS-Windows in the late 1980's. You don't have to buy expensive tools in order to program with objects and stuff on a Mac and other Apple platforms. You don't have to buy any tools, in fact - it's all free with the Mac.
Microsoft nickels and dimes everybody to death. Developers. Users - you even have to pay more money ($199) for a full blown version of the OS. Apple's OS is cheaper so upgrades cost less and, Apple does not charge a per user fee for its OS X server - Microsoft does for Windows server.
There is no middleman markup for its OS. Apple certainly does not charge itself a "Microsoft tax" for use of its OS. Anyone who buys any Intel or AMD motherboard or computer from a Microsoft OEM _must_ pay a Microsoft Tax even if they get it with no Windows - bare or with Linux, in other words. With Apple, you get what you pay for - you don't pay Apple for stuff you don't get. With Microsoft, millions do it every year.
The Apple tax is a myth. The Microsoft tax is a reality, and if anything - it is understated. - mrsteveman1, on 11/14/2009, -1/+11XNU kernel, check. Launchd (an init system), check. Objective-C runtime, check. What exactly is it that defines OS X as an operating system, that is not on the iPhone?
- ftc08, on 11/14/2009, -1/+10tl;dr, Mac Fanboy vehemently defends his favorite gigacorporation against their failures.
- GregR, on 11/14/2009, -3/+11Dell had huge market share but couldn't maintain that without entering into the vicious cycle of cutting costs and corners to keep the market share.
Apple says they won't make junk and they go for a quality product. Sure it costs a little more but quality always does. Just because they don't have a huge market share doesn't mean they aren't meeting their targets and being the most profitable handset maker after just 2 years is impressive by any standard. - gtluke, on 11/14/2009, -0/+8I ask if you have passed english 101?
- Orbital101, on 11/14/2009, -4/+12...with record earnings in the latest quarter.
I was going to post something similar to what you said, but you summed it up just fine. - eatrains, on 11/14/2009, -3/+10He's absolutely right. Xcode comes with every Mac and is available as a free download online: http://developer.apple.com/technology/xcode.html
- phathampstah, on 11/14/2009, -0/+7Apple had a bigger than 25% share of the education market in the 90s yet still lost and nearly went under. The education market has never set trends.
- knute5, on 11/14/2009, -4/+11Short-sighted pundits keep "freezing" technology, as if the Patent Office has closed, and Apple has no new tricks up its sleeves and has to resort to standard tech strategies to win the tech battle.
It's this global lack of imagination that's allowed Apple to scoop the industry on the hardware/software design, retail, media player, smartphone and online market fronts. - BullBearMS, on 11/14/2009, -5/+12Apple more than doubled it's PC market share in the States in the last couple of years. That's not too bad. The company also set all time sales and profit records overall.
Apple's major growth has come from the major ass kicking it has done in the smart phone market. Going from zero to over 17% of the market in just a couple of years is incredible performance. Especially when you take into account that it is the single most profitable smart phone maker on the planet already.
What pundits are saying APPL is overvalued? I've been seeing targets up towards 280 bucks a share. - specialK16, on 11/14/2009, -1/+7I'm sorry Johnnny, but if anything, MS should be worrying about Chrome OS more than OS X. Windows' marketshare trend will go up again thanks to Windows 7.
- lnxfi, on 11/14/2009, -1/+7Except that a lot of companies invested in MS and don't have the budget to switch to MAC. Also, I priced out comparable systems recently. I can get a computer with basically the same specs at $1500 for Mac and $900 for PC. The choice is clear.
- lnxfi, on 11/14/2009, -11/+17Ok asshats. Stop this fanboy *****! Who cares! Linux, Windows, Mac... they all do the same *****... just in a different way.
- tnoy, on 11/14/2009, -0/+6So, Apple TV was a success because it got people to buy a Mac mini?
- Murrabbit, on 11/14/2009, -7/+13Apple is now and always has been happy being a mere niche product in the world of home computers. If they wanted a larger market share then they'd need to price their locked own software and sub-par hardware a bit more comparatively, but instead they price it double that of comparable systems. So long as they maintain that business model, don't expect them to be a really huge player in the industry or ever achieve any more than 10% of the market share (roughly double what they've got now).
- wyrdness, on 11/14/2009, -2/+8I've already figured that out. But I've also figured out that Macs hold their value very well and total cost of ownership for a Mac is actually less than for a PC. And, most importantly to me, OS X is a better desktop *nix than Ubuntu.
- roxgod666, on 11/14/2009, -2/+8Well BullBear, unlike Apple, Microsoft had a pretty popular beta program so problems like these don't ship with the final release...and they didn't.
- swiftheart, on 11/14/2009, -8/+14This is like asking "has BMW blown its big chance to dominate the car market, when GM was in the toilet?"
Different markets, different strategies. - shinepdx, on 11/14/2009, -0/+5fair enough
- ohplease, on 11/14/2009, -4/+9This guy is a real idiot.
One of the main reasons people didn't upgrade to Vista is that they simply didn't need to, XP was fine,
That being said, with XP being just peachy, I don't see why anyone would be pressed to switch to Mac. Just because MS comes out with a new OS doesn't mean your two choices are to upgrade or switch. - MattBlackCat, on 11/13/2009, -7/+12Again Johnny you bring MS into an equation where they do not belong - The comparison made in the article was between PC manufactures NOT Operating systems vendors.
And yet again you fill your comments with stats and unsupported claims pulled out of your ass in an attempt to muddy an other wise clear article and conflate a sound analysis into a apple v MS debate.
Grow up - MattBlackCat, on 11/13/2009, -6/+11Again you missed the point of the article and decided to make it an apple v Microsoft battle again
How childish! - inactive, on 11/14/2009, -0/+5"If Windows suffers an insurmountable setback or a serious of debilitating breakdowns, it is going to hurt Dell. "
Well, then, they are in pretty good shape. Because regardless of what Apple or Linux fanboys want to believe, Microsoft os not dropping market share. - 6minuteabs, on 11/14/2009, -2/+6If you took half the energy you seem to invest in worshiping this company and instead invested it in your own life, maybe you could have your own apartment someday and your parents could finally move to Florida like they've always wanted.
- VitriolAndAngst, on 11/14/2009, -2/+6The only way Apple could have increased market share would be to produce low-cost and CHEAP Macs -- which of course, would have hurt their brand and put them in the same market as Dell and HP.
Sure, they could have ticked up a few more notches -- but then they'd be fighting the same trench warfare as the rest of the lowest-common denominator net books.
And they would have LESS profit than they do now.
It's really a good thing that Apple did NOT follow this advice -- and as someone pointed out, the iPhone IS A MAC. They are fighting the next battle ground instead of a dead end turf war of the last product. It's amazing that hindsight cannot be 20/20. - supermanred, on 11/14/2009, -2/+6Despite what the nice man from the MICROSOFT web site says, Apple hasn't "blown" anything. While they are only in 10% of homes, their revenue for last year almost equals Microsoft. They are full of cash right now, and spending it on expanding stores.
Apple doesn't appear to be interested in making 300 dollar cheap plastic computers that fall apart 3 years after you buy them. Such items usually bring about 50 bucks to the manufacturer. Great. They'd rather be making high end gear.
These people don't get it, especially the idiot (who works for MICROSOFT) who wrote this article.
You don't write an article that says Ferrari has "blown its big chance" by not making $4,000 cars. - MrSparkle666, on 11/14/2009, -0/+4I think they are perfectly happy to continue to develop their niche market. They have a brand, and they know how to use it. It's the same reason you don't see BMW trying to sell cars to blue collar americans. Who ever said apple was trying to take over the entire market? I think if they wanted to sell computers to bargain hunting college students, they would have done it.
- xedd, on 11/14/2009, -1/+5It's been like that for about 20 years. Apple has always been big in the education market.
The thinking goes: Kids get used to using them, so that's what they will insist on getting later.
"Daddy, I wanna iPod/iPhone/Macbook... PLEEEASE..."
But most, when they grow up, get a PC. - jamshid, on 11/14/2009, -3/+7Fred you really don't seem to know what you're talking about in these comments. How about google'ing a bit first? iPhone 3GS, Palm Pre, and Droid are all priced roughly the same without a contract: $550-$600.
- Sinistersloth, on 11/14/2009, -6/+10Zune? are you kidding me? It's just too late. Everyone will continue to use the ipod regardless of what microsoft offers, for the exact same reason people continue to use windows in spite of what mac offers in the OS department: because they're used to it.
... also the Zune is a joke. - chevriley, on 11/14/2009, -0/+4any application in the store can be run on the phone.
i'm sick of this argument being thrown around by people who don't understand how Android uses storage.
i have a HTC Magic which also comes with 256MB of internal storage. I have got the core OS installed and about 50 applications of various sizes. I still have 185MB storage left...
for applications that take up alot of space only the executable is stored on the internal memory. my RSS reader caches a hundred megs of articles on the SD card. games can do the same. download all the maps, sound effects etc etc on the card, which can be unmounted and swapped if needed without interrupting the core functionality of the phone. - rssej, on 11/14/2009, -3/+6This guy clearly doesn't get why Apple is in the good position it is now. The strategy he describes doesn't work for Apple making it compete in a way it can't win in. Apple strategy is one that fits its philosophy.
- rolf, on 11/14/2009, -3/+6You have an excellent point. Also, people tend to discount other parts of the Mac experience, simple stuff like the construction quality and aesthetics. I guess it depends on your priorities, which everyone has a right to a different set without getting upset that the next person won't be identical either.
My Microsoft tax was different in the before Vista - it was just wasting my time. I was constantly being asked by friends and family to fix their computer becaue it was infested with crap and malware. They refused to run anything but administrator because many things would refuse to install and subsequently work in a lower priviledge account. Etc. At the end, I insisted they either run Ubuntu or buy a Mac, which saved me my time.
With Vista, having UAC on all versions, and now Windows 7, that improved. The registry is still there, unfortunately, but while it required administrator password to install, everything runs fine on a normal account. Also, with 7, you can take internet explorer completely out of the equation, which is nice.
Whatever happens, the only true tragedy would be competition to disappear, for one company or another to become a monopoly again, and having things stagnate again which Microsoft did the latter part of the 1990s. - VitriolAndAngst, on 11/14/2009, -0/+3I have an old model iTouch -- I've filled up all 11 panels with applications. NOT ONE has not worked. Occasionally, a game will go back to the launch screen -- that's about it. 14 of 16 Gigs in use.
Really stable.
The memory management and storage seem to be capable of performing up to the tasks, like 3D first person shooters or checking maps.
So if the HTC Magic or some other platform "just works" then that is fine. Caching on an SD card is OK -- but that card is behind the battery, so it's not like people swap it in and out. Seems like it is too dependent on that cache to move files around casually. It would be nice if the iPhone had an SD card slot -- but it's not as if most people are missing it. -
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