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What you're saying is that Apple isn't doing as well as Android on the world stage. What I'm saying is that Apple is solidly regaining its lead in the United States. Both statements are correct.

No he didn't he said "iPhone sales are actually growing again, and now exceed Android phone sales. Worldwide, the numbers are also trending back in that direction." its just a lie the reality Apple’s global market share is plummeting.

Android still has a healthy margin over Apple in the US .This is a nice article that states how it is http://bgr.com/2013/05/06/smartphone-market-share-us-q1-2013-comscore/ "Android is eating everyone’s lunch in the U.S. – except for Apple’s"...and that is Apples strongest market. But the idea that Apple is regaining a lead...because the market shifted 2-3% is a bold statement ;)

Yeah, bleeding money. Like 2.5B profit in 2010, 3.4B in 2011, , 1.1B in 2012.

I dunno about you, but I wish I were bleeding money like that. 7 Billion dollars is a lot of blood.

Most of the big US corporations don't make sound business decisions. They are good at shenanigans and not much else. Shady accounting, corruption, price fixing, wage theft, etc.

Besides, for Zuckerberg, Gates and company, this isn't a business strategy, it's ideology. It's like the use of stack ranking at Microsoft or always online single player games at Electronic Arts.

A group of peasants (workers, consumers, etc) who must be "kept in their place" is designated, the policies designed to keep them in their place are followed. If they can get government enforcement, so much the better, but if not they can use cartel or monopoly behaviour to try to enforce it. The idea that this is based on rational behavior is nonsense. It's not even naked self-interest. it's as dumb as the old Soviet "inheritance of acquired characteristics" nonsense and possibly even more destructive.

Qu'un sang impur, Abreuve nos sillons!

Uhhh...so don't buy games from their shitty live service? There, problem solved. I know several people who don't even have Internet and their X360 plays just fine, you stick in the disc and it goes which is why they bought a console instead of a PC.

But we'll see who is right, personally I'm predicting this will be another Windows 8 megabomb (if you haven't seen the figures PC sales went from going down 9% a year to 18% last year which most are blaming Win 8 for) but as I said it fits nicely into my theory that the ONLY time you see MSFT gain is when the sentence is preceded by "And then the other guy did something REALLY dumb" because barring a moron for a competitor MSFT is so full of PHBs and are so focused on Wall Street instead of making good products that they end up shooting themselves in the foot.

Since most people can't move to where Google Fiber is being deployed they have to wait for it to come to their current location. This might not ever happen. So the ISPs in that area only have to react IF Google announces a move into their market. They don't have to do anything before because they have an absolutely trapped and captive customer base. People can't shop around for ISPs because that would involve changing residence, and few people have the means to relocate on such a whim as internet speeds.

So unless Google announces a country wide deployment, and means it, the ISPs are just going to keep sitting on their hands, claiming customers don't want faster speeds, or that it would simply cost too much to deliver it to them.

As it happens, Office 2008 for Mac ends support after this next Patch Tuesday. But there has been only one exploit that I know of that affect x86 Office 2008 for Mac, and none affecting any PowerPC version.

1. To implement Blu-ray there are all sorts of secure video and audio paths you have to implement.

Yeah... HDCP.
Something Apple has had to support in OSX since they started selling HD video on iTunes (otherwise the studios would have never agreed to let them carry high-def movies from them).

2. If Apple cared that much about protecting its measly video sales from iTunes, why would they go out of their way to support Hulu and Netflix on the AppleTV?

Feel free to post a source for the "measley" comment. Apple traditionally doesn't separate the revenue figures for individual products and the iTunes Store combined revenue was $6.3 billion for 2011.

The reason they support them is because Netflix, and to a lesser extent Hulu, are must-have features on a streaming device. In 2011 Neflix became the largest online movie provider by passing the previous largest provider -- Apple (yes, the same year Apple made that $6.3 billion in iTunes content).

Compare feature sets on different brands of blu-ray players, Roku, etc. Even the lowest-end devices support at least Netflix streaming even if they don't support every streaming service and DLNA sharing like the upper tier players do. Apple would have sold hardly anything without those services being present on their box, because lots of Apple die-hards are Netflix users (Apple has no subscription all-you-can-watch video service, remember?). If the Apple TV didn't have Netflix those people would have still need a second set-top box (or third if you want to count the cable converter) and that device would have likely been a BD player or Roku, the devices AppleTV is in competition with, regardless of what Apple wants to say about it just being a "hobby" for them.

APPLE DEVICE THEFT DRIVES NYC CRIME RATE UP FOR FIRST TIME IN 20 YEARS http://bgr.com/2012/12/26/iphone-theft-nyc-crime-rate-269057/

Um, that's a BIT of scaremongering... Did this idiot somehow confuse Google with Facebook? Yes, Google has had some minor screwups (and some, such as the Street View mess, could barely be considered a screwup but more of FUD from clueless users who don't understand that ANYONE can see the MAC address of a wifi AP...), but nothing as major and spectacular as Facebook's routine privacy screwups.

And yes, overall - I trust Google, as do MANY other people.

Google has admitted to collecting from peoples WiFi networks “URLs of requested Web pages, partial or complete email communications, and any confidential or private information being transmitted to or from the network user while the Street View cars were driving down streets.” One of many sources on this.. They call it an accident, but this data they have admitted to collecting is quite a bit more than MAC addresses.

Some people - especially here on Slashdot -- also seem to believe Google came clean on this on their own. When in fact they first guaranteed the German authorities (the first to pressure them on this) that they were not collecting anything. And first after the German authorities despite this assurance still demanded a full audit of the data anyway, did Google do their disclosure. This sequence of events was covered extensively in European press (one of many sources), and I don't know how mostly US geek sites ended up with an alternative impression.

It still can perfectly well be ascribed to a screw-up on Google's part (although in the FCC investigation report it is claimed the Google engineer who wrote the code knew about the collection and told colleguages about it). I'm not even sure how major I think it is, but it shouldn't be downplayed and described inaccurately either.

Dude if you HAVE to use the keyboard in an OS that ironically MSFT is pushing for tablets? Then its broken, end of story. I can remove the keyboard from any Windows 7 PC and you'll be just fine, the fact that only "keyboard commanders" can tolerate that flaming turd known as Windows 8 should be all the proof one needs that its broken.

You know, touching and mousing are different things. I don't have a touchscreen. I dislike the modern ui, and I am considering switching to some kind of classing start menu program. [*] But you are missing my point. See below.

But if you didn't like the video perhaps you'll like Infoworld or ZDnet which even has a picture of Wily Coyote, kinda like that one,or maybe Consumer Reports and while they highlight different things the final verdict? Windows 8 suuuuuuccccckkkkkssss, its crap, its the wrong direction, it doesn't work, its just a bad OS.

While there's lots of bitching about the modern ui apps, Infoworld does mention: "There are few user-noticeable changes in the Windows desktop programs; as best I can tell, the changes are almost entirely cosmetic." The point: If you don't use the modern ui apps [**], you can use the 8 the same way as 7. Which was my original question: How did they break multitasking? Well. They didn't. They broke the start menu. And yes, I think you do need a keyboard to use it if you don't have a touchscreen. I guess I'm lucky that I got an advanced model with a keyboard....

[* The main problem in desktop use is that the start menu gets cluttered by the non-modern-ui programs (and I don't use others) as they [** To be more clear: Do NOT install and use the modern UI apps on desktop. Well... except perhaps Netflix, you get 5.1 sound and pausing playing with windows+tab, allowing you to alt-tab normally between other programs at the same time]

Dude if you HAVE to use the keyboard in an OS that ironically MSFT is pushing for tablets? Then its broken, end of story. I can remove the keyboard from any Windows 7 PC and you'll be just fine, the fact that only "keyboard commanders" can tolerate that flaming turd known as Windows 8 should be all the proof one needs that its broken.

But if you didn't like the video perhaps you'll like Infoworld or ZDnet which even has a picture of Wily Coyote, kinda like that one,or maybe Consumer Reports and while they highlight different things the final verdict? Windows 8 suuuuuuccccckkkkkssss, its crap, its the wrong direction, it doesn't work, its just a bad OS.

Simply put, customers already are voting with their wallets.

How's that working out for you?

Here: http://bgr.com/2013/01/24/nokia-earnings-q4-2012-304661/

Until the Android ecosystem can handle an issue as basic as providing it's users with OS and security updates, Android is not ahead at all.

Over half of the Android devices out there are still running variants of version 2 of the OS and lower while the last three Android releases are version 4 and higher.

Android needs to be rearchitected so that carriers provide drivers for the hardware, while Google takes full responsibility for updates to the OS. This approach has been working with Windows for decades.

The biggest install base for iOS is always "the latest version". The biggest install base for Android is what, Honeycomb? Shit.

Even worse, it's still Gingerbread.

http://bgr.com/2012/12/04/android-version-distribution-december-2012/

suing Android out of existence

Apple has no intention to do that

Then what's this about the late Steve Jobs's "thermonuclear" anger? And was Apple v. Samsung about core functionality present in AOSP or about TouchWiz?

Then they bought the wrong thing, and will need to spend money to correct that mistake.

This hurts people who aren't in a position to spend any money, such as a child whose parents "already bought you an iPad" and don't appreciate the difference.

Yes, many people will gladly limit their software options if it means no malware

Define "malware". According to the App Review Guidelines, Apple treats all these as malware: video games with realistic violence, roulette (whether chat or Russian), satire of an identifiable organization, card counting apps, apps that let the user log locations of seen Wi-Fi hotspots, apps that "download code in any way or form" such as a game maker, web browsers that implement HTML features that Apple has left out of Safari, launcher replacements, and more. Would "many people" agree with Apple's assessment?

third party updaters

Android apps are updated through the store from which they're downloaded. Apps downloaded from Google are updated through Google, those downloaded from Amazon are updated through Amazon, etc.

intrusive programs, etc.

Like iOS, Android limits an application's ability to steal focus or place pop-ups. Applications are expected to gain focus through the notification bar.

The iPad's sales figures prove it.

Nexus 7 by ASUS is beating the iPad and iPad mini combined. What does that prove?

Any deal with Microsoft in the title is destined for failure. Just ask Nokia how that's worked out for them so far.

Frankly the end users have been confused as hell since the HDD manufacturers switched from base 2 to base 10 when they were racing to 1GB. Hell even with this, is it 23GB in base 2 like the OS, or is it base 10 like the manufacturers?

But lets face it we all know this is gonna go over like a fart in an elevator, I mean MSFT is making it obvious they don't even understand their own fricking customers with this crap. Does Ballmer think people buy Windows because of the branding like Prada or Nike? Nobody is gonna want this because nobody buys Windows because the brand gives them a warm fuzzy, hell most folks can't even tell you which version of Windows is on their devices!

No the bottom line is people buy windows because of all the X86 Windows software they have to run which makes Surface RT less than pointless, they aren't like Apple where the biggest programs are written by Apple themselves so having Windows on ARM makes absolutely ZERO sense. The fact that MSFT had to cut their Surface order in half should be a surprise to nobody, who is gonna want a Windows that doesn't run Windows programs?

So the fact it doesn't come with 64GB of space, be it base 2 or 10, really isn't gonna make a bit of difference when it comes to sales, its all those people getting home and finding none of the Windows software they've accumalated for years will run on the damned thing, THAT is what is gonna make this into a megaflop. Never before in all my years in tech have I seen a company just blow their own brains out like this, they would have a better ROI if they let some chimps throw poo at stock page and buy what has the most poo on it than they will off their "new flagship", its just got the stench of death and failure pouring off it.

But again its total flamebait as there has been ZERO word or indication to state a position by MSFT one way or another when it comes to the issue.

Personally I think old Ballmer has too damned much on his plate to give a shit about Linux one way or another ATM, he has pretty much bet the farm as well as his own rep (for what little that is worth) on a strategy that might as well be written in crayon on the back of a napkin, namely "Become Apple" which he is learning, just as HP and RIM learned before him, that such a goal is a hell of a lot easier said than done.

So let's wait until someone has actually done something to be all pissy about, yes? With the company fighting the OEMs and trying to convince a public that honestly doesn't give a fuck that slapping a paint job on a Pinto means it can compete with Porsche I truly believe that Ballmer and Co isn't paying a lick of attention to Linux, hell they would probably be happy if Linux hackers were to make any decent number of WinTabs sales as they have had cut their order for Surface units in half to keep from ending up with a warehouse full of the damned things.

BTW as a final note if everyone wants a reason for Linux guys to get their panties in a twist I'll be happy to give you a topic that will do just that: Everyone is cheering the flaming out of Ballmer's folly but why isn't anybody speaking up when it looks like Google is gonna be just as douchey as MSFT and it some ways even worse? Have you SEEN the new Acer ChromeBook? You have an X86 CPU, hard drive, RAM, etc that are so bog standard it hurts yet is so locked down you can't even run Linux X86 on the damned thing! Even MSFT specified that SecureBoot was to be able to be turned off on X86 so you can take any new X86 Windows machine and be booting any standard Linux LiveCD/USB in moments but the ONLY way to do so with a Chromebook is to pour in a page and a half of CLI gobbledygook and do a lot of finger crossing as you have to wipe the hard drive and nobody knows if doing so will void the warranty or not!

So you want something to get pissed over there ya go, if Google were to take over from MSFT tomorrow things would be WORSE not better. Personally I think if everyone doesn't stand up and have a raging shitfit the future is gonna be game consoles all the way down, you can give up on DIY or on having X86 be a general purpose platform as its gonna be as tightly locked down and controlled as any cellphone and will be just as worthless when the corporate owners abandon support for a model.

While I'm all for getting rid of the MSFT monopoly on X86 I don't want to do so at the cost of what made X86 great in the first place.

And now we know the date we can all pop some popcorn and watch MSFT score a hat trick of fail, Win 8, Surface, and now Surface Pro.

They have already had to cut the order for Surface RT in half because the things are piling up, Win 8 is a failure yet do they listen to the public? Nope Ballmer is going full retard by building their own phones and PCs just so there can be NO doubt that Ballmer only knows how to copy Apple.

But simply ripping off Apple just isn't gonna work, Windows 8 is a fundamentally broken UI and is so user UN-friendly that you need a Win 7 PC to Google how to use the Win 8 PC, and folks just aren't gonna put up with it. I support a lot of SMBs and not a single one has expressed any interest in Win 8, not the OS, not WinRT, and not Surface Pro, they are sticking with Win 7 for their X86 needs and using an Android or Apple tablet when they need that level of portability.

Never before in all my years in tech have I seen a company just completely ignore all the indicators and throw money away like that, MSFT does not have a single positive indicator with Win 8, not the desktops and laptops, not the phones and the tablets, seriously how much money does Steve Ballmer have to take a match to before the board wakes up and fires his dumb ass? I think Forbes need to name the MSFT board the worst board to go with Ballmer's worst CEO as they obviously are asleep at the wheel.

And now we know the date we can all pop some popcorn and watch MSFT score a hat trick of fail, Win 8, Surface, and now Surface Pro.

They have already had to cut the order for Surface RT in half because the things are piling up, Win 8 is a failure yet do they listen to the public? Nope Ballmer is going full retard by building their own phones and PCs just so there can be NO doubt that Ballmer only knows how to copy Apple.

But simply ripping off Apple just isn't gonna work, Windows 8 is a fundamentally broken UI and is so user UN-friendly that you need a Win 7 PC to Google how to use the Win 8 PC, and folks just aren't gonna put up with it. I support a lot of SMBs and not a single one has expressed any interest in Win 8, not the OS, not WinRT, and not Surface Pro, they are sticking with Win 7 for their X86 needs and using an Android or Apple tablet when they need that level of portability.

Never before in all my years in tech have I seen a company just completely ignore all the indicators and throw money away like that, MSFT does not have a single positive indicator with Win 8, not the desktops and laptops, not the phones and the tablets, seriously how much money does Steve Ballmer have to take a match to before the board wakes up and fires his dumb ass? I think Forbes need to name the MSFT board the worst board to go with Ballmer's worst CEO as they obviously are asleep at the wheel.

You would think the link text "how poorly it is selling" would link to an article about Windows 8 Adoption Rates.

It doesn't, don't click it.

Apple has serious competition now. Back when they were the only game in town they could do as they pleased

The iPhone marketshare right now is highest in Apple history with >53% of the US market. They were never the 'only game in town'.

http://bgr.com/2012/12/21/apple-market-share-u-s-262731/

Apple sells iPhones outside of the US. What is their global marketshare?
(Hint: It's lower than you want it to be, and it's falling.)

Hint: Only Samsung is selling more smartphones than Apple worldwide, and they sell almost 50% more than the third.

Apple has serious competition now. Back when they were the only game in town they could do as they pleased

The iPhone marketshare right now is highest in Apple history with >53% of the US market. They were never the 'only game in town'.

http://bgr.com/2012/12/21/apple-market-share-u-s-262731/

Apple sells iPhones outside of the US. What is their global marketshare?
(Hint: It's lower than you want it to be, and it's falling.)

Apple has serious competition now. Back when they were the only game in town they could do as they pleased

The iPhone marketshare right now is highest in Apple history with >53% of the US market. They were never the 'only game in town'.

http://bgr.com/2012/12/21/apple-market-share-u-s-262731/

Actually its such a failwhale I seriously doubt it'll even get third, more likely a distant fourth. first will be either iOS or Android 4, next will be the one of those two who doesn't have the top spot that week, followed by Android 2.x which while starting to finally die out still has a pretty good share, and finally MSFT WinRT. Honestly if you count the Symbian units still being sold most likely MSFT would make fifth since the sales of Surface are so bad they had to cut their order in half and it looks like they sold less than a million units for the fourth quarter, that is just terrible numbers.

Seriously how many negative indicators is it gonna take for the board to put down the crack pipe and fire the Ballmernator? The man has wasted something like 40 BILLION in the past 6 years on failed ventures, his few successes certainly haven't even wiped all the red ink from his bad moves, much less made a profit, honestly they would have had a better return with no strategy at all, just putting the money into T-Bills or blue chip stocks. When even Forbes is calling the 00s "MSFT's lost decade" and naming the Ballmernator worst CEO, how much more proof do you really need? the man is an unmitigated disaster and I bet if you compared how much money the Pepsi guy lost for Apple with what Ballmer has blown on harebrained ideas like Zune, Kin, Sidekick, Bing, etc Ballmer would make the Pepsi guy look like Steve jobs, he is THAT bad.

"Ok, tablet == iPad. None of those other "tablets" are selling that well."

http://bgr.com/2012/12/05/tablet-market-share-2012/

Not only does tablet not equal iPad. iPads look to have a smaller marketshare than Android in the near future.

Odd that your source doesn't say that at all.

Because adopting Android worked out so well for everyone but Samsung, right?

Oh, the exact opposite of that? I guess being a "me too" player isn't a smart strategy. Probably even worse for premium brands.

RIM made a smart move by buying QNX. It's (quite possibly) the most advanced mobile OS on the market. It instantly gave them a presence in new markets, which they're leveraging well, and an easy way to maintain their legendary security.

Their new UI is stunning (thanks to great acquisitions like TaT and smart hires like former Apple designer Don Lindsay) and from what we've see so far, clearly not something you could achieve by slapping a skin on top of Android. Features like Balance would also be a clunky mess (like running a VM on your phone).

For developers, there's nothing attractive about Android -- from the tools to the ROI, it's painful. RIM, in contrast, has dramatically improved developer relations and the quality and variety of the tools available to developers. This includes true native development, not just a few "essential" parts. From Google's What is the NDK page: "In general, you should only use native code if it is essential to your application, not just because you prefer to program in C/C++".

In short: Adopting Android would have been the single worst move RIM could make. They'd be just another Android phone is a sea of unprofitable competitors, they'd lose every advantage that they currently have (their edge in security and MDM, for example), they'd be left out of other markets instead of expanding in to new ones, and they'd be unable to provide the same innovative new features for end users and developers (balance, peak, flow, etc.)

RIM made some mistakes, that's not in question, but skipping over Android was not one of them. Their transition was painful, sure. However, their new products are very impressive and, in many ways, well ahead of the game. Even BGR is singing their praises -- that takes some doing!

They could still fail in the market, I'll grant you that, but that won't be because they've produced an inferior product.

"Ok, tablet == iPad. None of those other "tablets" are selling that well."

http://bgr.com/2012/12/05/tablet-market-share-2012/

Not only does tablet not equal iPad. iPads look to have a smaller marketshare than Android in the near future.

Did you not look at the article you linked to? They estimate Android tablets' market share will still lag 10% behind iPads' in 2016.

"Ok, tablet == iPad. None of those other "tablets" are selling that well."

http://bgr.com/2012/12/05/tablet-market-share-2012/

Not only does tablet not equal iPad. iPads look to have a smaller marketshare than Android in the near future.

Fishy? Not really. Your facts are just poorly aggregated.

For instance, you only accounted for iPhone sales, but Apple also sells the iPad, iPad mini, and iPod Touch, all of which are also iOS devices that can download and run these apps. Through March 2012 they had announced 365M iOS device sales, and by the end of the next quarter (i.e. the quarter when iPhone sales were winding down before the iPhone 5 and iPad mini rumors were rampant, thus slowing sales) they still managed to sell 35M units, bringing them to over 400M iOS devices by the end of June. So, already we can tell that you're off by 150M units at a minimum, and that still leaves the following six months of sales unaccounted for.

Going forward past June, Apple has since then released the iPhone 5, a new iPod Touch, the iPad mini, and the 4th gen iPad. Whether the mini is cannibalizing larger iPad sales or not will be revealed soon, since Apple is set to do their earnings announcement for the holiday quarter in about two weeks. Even if it is, however, its sales are estimated to be in the 8-10M range. Meanwhile, the iPhone 5 represented over 50% of smartphone sales as we got towards the end of the year, so it's safe to say that it's been selling well so far. Not to mention that iPad and iPod sales have traditionally picked up during the holiday season since they're not tied to contracts.

As such, 450-500M is a perfectly reasonable expectation for where they are today, given that it's six months since their last announced numbers and they've updated every single product line that's relevant right before the biggest sales time of the year.

And if we assume just 450M devices, then that would mean 40B/450M, which is around 89 apps on average, which is extremely reasonable, given that they're doubtless including all of those apps that people download, check out for five minutes, and then delete because they aren't what they're looking for. I did a quick sanity check, and I have 84 third-party apps currently installed on my smartphone, not to mention a few more on my tablet, and that doesn't include the dozens I've installed and deleted over the years. I wouldn't even classify myself as a heavy user; I actually think my usage is pretty close to typical for most users, since I don't use it as a geek tool or like a power user would.

Fishy? Not really. Your facts are just poorly aggregated.

For instance, you only accounted for iPhone sales, but Apple also sells the iPad, iPad mini, and iPod Touch, all of which are also iOS devices that can download and run these apps. Through March 2012 they had announced 365M iOS device sales, and by the end of the next quarter (i.e. the quarter when iPhone sales were winding down before the iPhone 5 and iPad mini rumors were rampant, thus slowing sales) they still managed to sell 35M units, bringing them to over 400M iOS devices by the end of June. So, already we can tell that you're off by 150M units at a minimum, and that still leaves the following six months of sales unaccounted for.

Going forward past June, Apple has since then released the iPhone 5, a new iPod Touch, the iPad mini, and the 4th gen iPad. Whether the mini is cannibalizing larger iPad sales or not will be revealed soon, since Apple is set to do their earnings announcement for the holiday quarter in about two weeks. Even if it is, however, its sales are estimated to be in the 8-10M range. Meanwhile, the iPhone 5 represented over 50% of smartphone sales as we got towards the end of the year, so it's safe to say that it's been selling well so far. Not to mention that iPad and iPod sales have traditionally picked up during the holiday season since they're not tied to contracts.

As such, 450-500M is a perfectly reasonable expectation for where they are today, given that it's six months since their last announced numbers and they've updated every single product line that's relevant right before the biggest sales time of the year.

And if we assume just 450M devices, then that would mean 40B/450M, which is around 89 apps on average, which is extremely reasonable, given that they're doubtless including all of those apps that people download, check out for five minutes, and then delete because they aren't what they're looking for. I did a quick sanity check, and I have 84 third-party apps currently installed on my smartphone, not to mention a few more on my tablet, and that doesn't include the dozens I've installed and deleted over the years. I wouldn't even classify myself as a heavy user; I actually think my usage is pretty close to typical for most users, since I don't use it as a geek tool or like a power user would.

This is what is blowing my fucking mind...you have PC sales down 13% over the same 4th quarter year before last, even though the economy was worse which clearly indicates the reason that sales are plummeting is Win 8 is a DO NOT WANT. I can tell you as a little shop owner I've had people calling me up going "I don't like that funky new Windows, can you sell me a (insert desktop/laptop) with the old Windows?" so its even worse than Vista on the bomb scale. Then you have the Surface, which they spent over a billion and a half marketing mind you, selling less than a million units and in fact sales were so bad they called their supplier and halted production so the warehouse wouldn't be overflowing, what does that tell you?

It tells me that this is the WRONG MOVE, hell Ray Charles could see its the wrong move, but what does Ballmer do? He goes full retard and by doing so is pretty much putting the final nail in the coffin of the Windows X86 business, their largest fricking money maker! I mean do you think the OEMs are gonna put up with his price gouging, knowing that every dime they give MSFT is gonna be used to try to put them out of business? Oh hell no, they are probably talking to Google even as we speak to start ramping up ChromeTops and ChromeBooks!

I don't get it, I really really don't. sure MSFT wasn't making Apple money but they were still making billions of dollars with Windows, to just completely fucking destroy what Bill took nearly 30 years to build....and for what? NOBODY is gonna pay Apple money for a MSFT Laptop or desktop, they'll just buy an iMac or a Macbook Air! He is destroying the company for NOTHING, WinPhone has flopped twice, Win 8 is a megaflop, and they can't even sell enough Surface units to keep the product line rolling...WTF?

Never before in my 25+ years of tech have I ever seen a billion dollar company just up and commit suicide like that. I mean do you realize that just the past 7 years MSFT has blown something like 40 billion fricking dollars on failed ventures? 40 billion dollars! Now is NOT the time to do something stupid, the economy is bad, their competitors are firing on all cylinders, so they kill their relationship with the OEMs to become a more expensive Apple? Does ANYBODY think that will work?

What a fucking trainwreck, if the board doesn't get his fat stupid ass out of the big chair and do a 180 but quick they are gonna end up like RIM, with nothing but legacy business customers and even they will be looking for an exit.

This is what is blowing my fucking mind...you have PC sales down 13% over the same 4th quarter year before last, even though the economy was worse which clearly indicates the reason that sales are plummeting is Win 8 is a DO NOT WANT. I can tell you as a little shop owner I've had people calling me up going "I don't like that funky new Windows, can you sell me a (insert desktop/laptop) with the old Windows?" so its even worse than Vista on the bomb scale. Then you have the Surface, which they spent over a billion and a half marketing mind you, selling less than a million units and in fact sales were so bad they called their supplier and halted production so the warehouse wouldn't be overflowing, what does that tell you?

It tells me that this is the WRONG MOVE, hell Ray Charles could see its the wrong move, but what does Ballmer do? He goes full retard and by doing so is pretty much putting the final nail in the coffin of the Windows X86 business, their largest fricking money maker! I mean do you think the OEMs are gonna put up with his price gouging, knowing that every dime they give MSFT is gonna be used to try to put them out of business? Oh hell no, they are probably talking to Google even as we speak to start ramping up ChromeTops and ChromeBooks!

I don't get it, I really really don't. sure MSFT wasn't making Apple money but they were still making billions of dollars with Windows, to just completely fucking destroy what Bill took nearly 30 years to build....and for what? NOBODY is gonna pay Apple money for a MSFT Laptop or desktop, they'll just buy an iMac or a Macbook Air! He is destroying the company for NOTHING, WinPhone has flopped twice, Win 8 is a megaflop, and they can't even sell enough Surface units to keep the product line rolling...WTF?

Never before in my 25+ years of tech have I ever seen a billion dollar company just up and commit suicide like that. I mean do you realize that just the past 7 years MSFT has blown something like 40 billion fricking dollars on failed ventures? 40 billion dollars! Now is NOT the time to do something stupid, the economy is bad, their competitors are firing on all cylinders, so they kill their relationship with the OEMs to become a more expensive Apple? Does ANYBODY think that will work?

What a fucking trainwreck, if the board doesn't get his fat stupid ass out of the big chair and do a 180 but quick they are gonna end up like RIM, with nothing but legacy business customers and even they will be looking for an exit.

First of all, are you 12 years old? if not then you should probably be informed that the SECOND you start typing "M$" the first thing 90% of the people that read these posts will do is say "douchebag" and pass right on by, so you could have the most insightful post in the world but nobody will give a fuck because you just labeled yourself as this guy aka "basement loser troll".

Second if you would have read my GP post I had already answered that this is NOT the "Star Trek Rule" as the Windows Blue memo makes it clear that as long as Ballmer is in charge there will be NO going back, its gonna be full retard ahead with MSFT making MSFT hardware running MSFT software sold in MSFT stores for a higher than Apple markup, because "God damn it we're better than Apple and we need to get the stock price up!"

Finally you are again wrong if you are referring to Win 7 over Vista, they did a complete gutting of most of the Vista code, new kernel, new memory subsystem, new driver subsystem, even the few things they kept from Vista like Readyboost and UAC got pretty big rewrites. Comparing Vista to 7 is like saying "Well Win98 and 2K3 Server are the same, its made by the same company so anybody who bought it was a sucker" while ignoring the incredible number of changes under the hood. Vista in many ways was WinME, where they had a couple of good ideas that were executed poorly and ultimately ended up with a broken mess whereas 7 like XP took those few good ideas and a bunch of major under the hood rewrites and rebuilds to make a truly solid product. In fact the only other MSFT product I can compare Win 7 to is 2K3 X64 workstation, aka WinXP X64, because in both cases you have a product that is just so much more rock solid than anything they had previously released it just isn't even funny. I have seen plenty of Vista BSODs working on customers machines because Vista screwed itself up but only with XP X64 and Win 7 have I never seen a BSOD that wasn't related to a hardware failure.

Sorry but you are wrong and here is why: when looking at the numbers and comparing them to the previous year at the exact same period, which just FYI had an even worse economic outlook than we did this year, computer sales are down by more than 13% and I'm sorry but you don't have THAT big a drop, especially during the run up to Xmas, unless something is REALLY wrong or you have a product people don't want to buy. Even the OEMs are flat footed saying that Win 8 units just aren't selling which is why you see more and more places like Tiger showing Win 7 machines for sale, nobody wants Win 8.

So frankly it doesn't have a damned thing to do with ME or MY opinion, honestly if I wanted to i could put up with the bullshit or just hack the shell, i just don't see enough benefits to put up with bullshit like tying everything to a MSFT Live account or hacking the shell to make it worth fooling with. Nope what this is about is the simple fact that this is the typical user reaction to Windows 8 only she doesn't get frustrated as badly or curse like many of those trying it at the shop did. Hell I got people calling me I haven't heard from in years going "You still got that shop? Yeah see i went to look at Best Buy for a laptop and all they had was that 'weird new Windows' and I REALLY don't like it. Is there any way you can get me one with the 'good Windows' on it?"

It has NOTHING to do with opinion, or taste, it has to do with the fact MSFT put out a Frankenstein mess of an OS, designed for an interface that less than 2% of ALL computers made or even sold in stores even has, and which is NOT intuitive, or discoverable, or in any way easier or friendlier than the product that came before. I'm not the one writing articles like "Windows 8..Yes it is THAT bad" I'm simply pointing out the reasons WHY it is THAT bad, just as I did with Vista. Sadly by SP2 they had pretty much fixed the problems with Vista but people had already moved on, I honestly don't think they can fix Windows 8. Even if they kill the Metro UI you still have everything being tied to a MSFT account, ads in the OS, and a mish mash of ribbonized and non ribbonized programs. Not to mention there are SOME controls you can only get to through control panel in desktop mode and SOME that you can only get through metro so unlike some here I don't think they can just "patch metro away" as they moved too much crap into it already.

Like it or not there isn't gonna be a Windows anymore, you are gonna have Apple and ersatz Apple, MSFT is even announced they are building their own hardware and Surface was just the start, you'll have MSFTPhone and MSFTDesktop and MSFTLaptop, all probably priced even higher than Apple just to cement the fail like they did with Surface pricing compared to iPad.

So while you ARE correct that not as many are buying and NO its not that they are replacing them with cellphones like the press keeps harping about, or with tablets, but the average user just can't stress out even a first gen Core Duo or Phenom X4 you just don't have numbers drop THAT bad unless you have a product that the customer is turned off by, and that is Win 8 in a nutshell.

"I didn't say that, I said the goal is not to make profit. In fact how about "preserve future profits".

So you didn't say the goal of a company is not to make a profit but you said it is not to make a profit?

And strangely enough, they seem to be growing profitabilty,,,,Are you suggesting that Apple won't see year over year growth in 2013? 2014? 2015?

"Your right growing revenues "unprofitably" is not a recipe for success [its not true]"

So, if they grew revenue by adding MMI and MMI is losing money, what is that if not growing revenue unprofitably?

"The fact that it is affecting third party development support is a simply another sign."

http://www.idownloadblog.com/2012/12/20/google-play-grows-app-store-king/

" Because right now I see Google investing in their future"

You obviously haven't looked at Apple's long term capital expenditures,,,,

"The Motorola deal cuts their tax bill because Google is vastly profitable :)"

You get "tax breaks" on losses. Losing money to pay less taxes is not a "strategy".

"Since when did selling one million devices a month become a bad thing :"

http://allthingsd.com/20120711/googles-nexus-7-costs-152-to-make-ihs-isuppli-teardown-finds/

And it sells for $199. Of course Asus doesn't make the whole $58 per device, they sell it at a discount to wholesellers.

"The reality is companies make massive profits from Android phones...don't pretend otherwise"

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/04/us-google-motorola-idUSBRE8930L020121004

"Google Inc raised its estimate of the cost of job cuts at its money-losing Motorola Mobility unit in the third quarter and warned of "significant" additional charges from further restructuring."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444897304578043782276831090.html

"HTC Profit Falls 79% Amid Competition "

http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/23/sony-mobile-to-lay-off-off-1000-people-as-part-of-restructuring/

"Today, Android OEM Sony announced that its loss-making mobile handset division Sony Mobile Communications would be laying out 15% of its workforce "

LG's profit is far from massive....
http://bgr.com/2012/10/24/lg-q3-2012-earnings-138-6-million-dollars/

So where are all of these Android manufacturers that are making tons of profits?

Apple accounts for 60% of the profit in the mobile industry.

http://www.intomobile.com/2012/11/14/asymco-apple-and-samsung-account-99-smartphone-profits-q3-htc-and-lg-only-other-profitable-companies/

"You need to make up your mind what you are arguing with Apples store. I have one point, Apples pursuit of Profits over market share is stupid, "

So, if it were stupid, then how does it make 60% of all mobile profit?

"It also means less money from its store."

Facts are your friends.....
http://www.idownloadblog.com/2012/12/20/google-play-grows-app-store-king/

"Apple does not make an awful lot of money from the computer market."

So which PC company makes more money selling computers than Apple makes selling Macs?

" I notice that the Chromebook is the best selling device on Amazon."

Yes and Amaz

Which is why I just don't get why the FOSS zealots, or FOSSies as i call 'em, had such a shitfit over the surface...how many FOSSies were gonna be buying a fucking MSFT tablet? try NONE, so WTF was the point of bitching? It would be like me bitching about the looks of a Hummer...am I EVER gonna buy a Hummer? Not a chance in hell so why in the hell should I care?

Lets face reality okay? the surface is overpriced, underfeatured compared to the competition, and has practically no apps...so who gives a rat's ass if you can run Linux on it when you can buy an Android tablet for less than half the price with multiple cores and more features? hell even MSFT had to cut orders from the supplier in half because they can't move the damned thing, so bitching that an overpriced flop can't run a niche OS that the users of said niche OS would rather scratch their balls with a running chainsaw than give the company making the flop a dime MAKES NO DAMNED SENSE and is the biggest waste of fucking time and energy for no damned purpose I've seen in awhile.

Just let the fucking thing die already, along with the WinPhone and the "LULZ I Iz A Cellphone" disaster that is Win 8 and move the hell on already. Sheesh the FOSSie faction has never had it so good, Android devices are fricking everywhere and you can add whatever you want to the damned things, yet even after all these years they are STILL bitching about a company that frankly is becoming less relevant by the day thanks to the PHB at the helm. What's next, wanna bitch about how Commodore didn't do to suit ya either?

I did RTFA but they fucked up by splitting them, that would be like giving one slot to laptops and another to desktops, it made no fucking sense. the Lumia/Surface/Win 8 trio of fail was all under ONE umbrella and that was Ballmer's "high prices and cellphone UIs equal Apple"" delusion. All three were advertised by the same marketing groups, I don't know how many ads I saw pushing the three as a coherent strategy, lets face it it was three sides to the same die and that was the whole "We're hip now so buy our overpriced shite!" mantra.

And if that were me I probably would have told her the truth on the last day of the contract, no point in letting the poor thing get her hopes up only to end up sitting all alone like the ugly girl at the prom. I would tell people that were foolish enough to buy Vista "I'm sorry" with a tsk tsk and shake of my head, i knew that was a bomb from the beta, same as I knew after fighting Win 8 for a month and a half that the thing was gonna be a trainwreck. And who in the fuck thought people would want to buy a Windows that don't run X86 programs? That would be like saying "How do you like this new iPad copy? It doesn't actually run any programs, but it does look just like an iPad" well what fucking good is that? Did they honestly think people buy Windows because they LIKE the brand? That they get hard or moist from seeing the WinFlag? Talk about a fucking disconnect with reality.

But I do apologize, I should have made my position more clear as I don't think you can judge any of those as a separate device as its all part of Ballmer's "master plan" to have people using a WinPhone while playing with a WinTab and going home to their WinPC, if you look at their roadmap for next year you will see I'm right in this belief. after all they are gonna try to fuck all the OEMs so you'll have to go to a MSFT store where you'll have MSFTPhone with MSFTTab next to MSFTDesktop and MSFTLaptop thereby finally putting any last shreds of dignity or differences with Apple to rest, it'll be "Welcome to MSFTWorld!" with nothing but overpriced shite in stores that look like ghost towns, truly pathetic and this is coming from somebody that has sold and serviced Windows system since 3.x and even I'm looking at exit strategies.

Meh the list sucks, no Lumia, no Surface, no Windows 8. When you look at how much money has been shat right down the drain launching those 3 products its just insanity and its pretty much agreed by most that all 3 are megabombs. Just look at the figures of the Surface, as low as 500k after massive advertising and with Windows 8 the finger pointing has begun with OEMs coming out of the woodwork to say Win 8 is a poor product (the latest is Fujitsu, I'd provide a link but its on Yahoo Finance which creates insanely long URLs) and Ballmer proving he's not afraid to go full retard by basically giving the finger to the OEMs and deciding to make overpriced laptops, phones, and desktops so that if anybody doubted Ballmer's MSFT was just a poorly built Apple those doubts are over.

I don't see how this could be anything but the #1 spot, we are talking billions of dollars wasted on products nobody wanted, retailers can't move the things and in fact the sales from Oct-Dec were down 13% over the same period last year and so far every indication is its Win 8 that kept those shoppers away, we are talking HP buying Palm levels of uberfail here folks. I believe history will look back on this and say this was when we saw that marketing droids simply can't shovel overpriced shit down the throats of consumers and get them to buy based on nothing but flashy ads, because 4 billion in flashy ads couldn't keep Lumia and Win 8 from being another Vista. Talk about a trainwreck, this deserves the "WTF were they thinking?" award of 2012, no competition came even close to this level of fail.

Meh the list sucks, no Lumia, no Surface, no Windows 8. When you look at how much money has been shat right down the drain launching those 3 products its just insanity and its pretty much agreed by most that all 3 are megabombs. Just look at the figures of the Surface, as low as 500k after massive advertising and with Windows 8 the finger pointing has begun with OEMs coming out of the woodwork to say Win 8 is a poor product (the latest is Fujitsu, I'd provide a link but its on Yahoo Finance which creates insanely long URLs) and Ballmer proving he's not afraid to go full retard by basically giving the finger to the OEMs and deciding to make overpriced laptops, phones, and desktops so that if anybody doubted Ballmer's MSFT was just a poorly built Apple those doubts are over.

I don't see how this could be anything but the #1 spot, we are talking billions of dollars wasted on products nobody wanted, retailers can't move the things and in fact the sales from Oct-Dec were down 13% over the same period last year and so far every indication is its Win 8 that kept those shoppers away, we are talking HP buying Palm levels of uberfail here folks. I believe history will look back on this and say this was when we saw that marketing droids simply can't shovel overpriced shit down the throats of consumers and get them to buy based on nothing but flashy ads, because 4 billion in flashy ads couldn't keep Lumia and Win 8 from being another Vista. Talk about a trainwreck, this deserves the "WTF were they thinking?" award of 2012, no competition came even close to this level of fail.

Might want to look at the Win 8 figures again friend, Its clear that Windows 8 is a failure and sales are down more than 13% compred to this period last year and the OEMs are putting the blame squarely on win 8 and the new upscale marketing strategy. Also MSFT themselves are cutting surface orders in half because they can't move what they have. Is Ballmer gonna look at the numbers and wake the fuck up? Nope instead he is going full steam ahead in making their own PCs and phones proving that Ballmer is fully prepared to go full retard.

I'd say the numbers are clear as a bell and the consumer has spoken, given the choice of a $1000 Apple ripoff and the real thing they are gonna choose Apple, its better branding makes Windows a non starter in that market. Again its like slapping a coat of paint on a Pinto and expecting it to compete with Porsche, its just not gonna happen. Mark my words if they don't fire Ballmer and bring somebody in who has actual vision that consists of more than "What is Apple doing? We'll do that" then in 5 years MSFT is gonna be in the same boat as RIM, with a dwindling legacy base and no growth. The OEMs aren't gonna jump off a cliff to please MSFT, they'll crank out Chromebooks and Android units before closing the doors and Google will be more than happy to take that business. History will put Ballmer right next to the Pepsi guy as "worst CEOs ever" and MSFT will be just another footnote in history. Either you listen to your customers or you die, simple as that.

Might want to look at the Win 8 figures again friend, Its clear that Windows 8 is a failure and sales are down more than 13% compred to this period last year and the OEMs are putting the blame squarely on win 8 and the new upscale marketing strategy. Also MSFT themselves are cutting surface orders in half because they can't move what they have. Is Ballmer gonna look at the numbers and wake the fuck up? Nope instead he is going full steam ahead in making their own PCs and phones proving that Ballmer is fully prepared to go full retard.

I'd say the numbers are clear as a bell and the consumer has spoken, given the choice of a $1000 Apple ripoff and the real thing they are gonna choose Apple, its better branding makes Windows a non starter in that market. Again its like slapping a coat of paint on a Pinto and expecting it to compete with Porsche, its just not gonna happen. Mark my words if they don't fire Ballmer and bring somebody in who has actual vision that consists of more than "What is Apple doing? We'll do that" then in 5 years MSFT is gonna be in the same boat as RIM, with a dwindling legacy base and no growth. The OEMs aren't gonna jump off a cliff to please MSFT, they'll crank out Chromebooks and Android units before closing the doors and Google will be more than happy to take that business. History will put Ballmer right next to the Pepsi guy as "worst CEOs ever" and MSFT will be just another footnote in history. Either you listen to your customers or you die, simple as that.

The iPhone is unsuccessful? Apple has 53.3% of the smartphone market: http://bgr.com/2012/12/21/apple-market-share-u-s-262731/

If you look at desktops Windows ended up with about 91.3%. OS-X has about 7.3% and Linux has 1.25%

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems

Now it's plausible you've got three natural platforms

1) A mass market/default one - Microsoft Windows

2) A premium one - Apple's OS-X

3) An 'other' one - Linux

Probably the market share of the premium one is a compromise - you can have 7% market share with relatively high margins. If Apple made cheaper computers they'd sell more of them but that might not necessarily be in their best interest because it would eat into their margins and destroy the exclusiveness that makes people covet their goods.

I.e. the premium brand is a Verblen good

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good

Some types of luxury goods, such as high-end wines, designer handbags, and luxury cars, are Veblen goods, in that decreasing their prices decreases people's preference for buying them because they are no longer perceived as exclusive or high-status products.

Now look at phones and tablets. Apple have once again own the premium section. Android own the mass market one. And I think Windows Phone will be the 'other' one.

In fact Apple are doing quite a bit better in phones and tablets than this analysis would suggest.

http://bgr.com/2012/11/27/iphone-5-market-share-october-2012/

Following the successful launch of the iPhone 5, sales of iOS devices have overtaken Android in the U.S., according to Kantar Worldpanel. The research firm found that in the past 12 weeks, sales of Apple (AAPL) smartphones accounted for 48.1% of the market compared to Android's 46.7% share. Apple loyalty remains high as the majority of iPhone 5 sales, 62%, came from existing iPhone owners while 13% switched from Android, 6% from BlackBerry devices and only a âoesmall number of first time smartphone ownersâ bought iPhone 5 handsets. An impressive 92% of existing iPhone owners, additionally, noted that their next upgrade will be an Apple device.

Most Android devices sold are much lower margin than iOS ones. In fact there are no 'cheap' iOS devices whereas there's an absolute load of cheap Android devices.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100337335

STILL yet others (Thanks Hairyfeet):

http://bgr.com/2012/12/18/consumer-reports-windows-8-criticism-257728/

http://bgr.com/2012/12/05/microsoft-surface-sales-q4-2012-est/

http://www.tech-thoughts.net/2012/11/windows-8-sales-weak-microsoft-blames-oems.html

---

PART of that is "hard times" economically though, which makes folks "make do" with what they have, & what they have, nowadays? SPEEDSTERS... ever since the Core series came out by Intel?? VERY fast. More than adequate.

Personally?

Well - I cannot BELIEVE the MS folks didn't see it coming, & especially from the 'business men' there, AND, more especially from an ECONOMIC point of view.

(NOW was not the time for "changes"... sure, develop that unified codebase, but don't "piss off" your PC desktop + laptop using public & force them into unfamiliar territory... especially not now!)

Damn dumb actually of them, to be blunt about it.

* However, MS can afford to make a mistake now & then, especially a silly easily replaced one like a desktop shell!

(Though Mr. Sinofsky is the one who REMOVED the ability to hack the registry & replace the 'metro' shell with one users know & like, Explorer IE shell, what we've been using essentially since 1995 onwards to present).

APK

P.S.=> Bottom-line? Ok - THIS is WHAT YOU GET, when you put "money men" @ the helm & whose ENTIRE EXISTENCE is "the holy dollar", when @ the wheel of companies, rather than techies who are also businessmen who UNDERSTAND their target markets (ala "King Billy"/Mr. Gates, whom I call that out of RESPECT)...

That type? Hey... they don't know their target market, & are out of touch in that regards, & again: YOU JUST CAN'T SELL SOMETHING TO PEOPLE THEY DID NOT WANT, & that's cardinal RULE of sales you'd *think* that THAT type of man, would @ least understand - apparently? They don't...

... apk again:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100337335

STILL yet others (Thanks Hairyfeet):

http://bgr.com/2012/12/18/consumer-reports-windows-8-criticism-257728/

http://bgr.com/2012/12/05/microsoft-surface-sales-q4-2012-est/

http://www.tech-thoughts.net/2012/11/windows-8-sales-weak-microsoft-blames-oems.html

---

PART of that is "hard times" economically though, which makes folks "make do" with what they have, & what they have, nowadays? SPEEDSTERS... ever since the Core series came out by Intel?? VERY fast. More than adequate.

Personally?

Well - I cannot BELIEVE the MS folks didn't see it coming, & especially from the 'business men' there, AND, more especially from an ECONOMIC point of view.

(NOW was not the time for "changes"... sure, develop that unified codebase, but don't "piss off" your PC desktop + laptop using public & force them into unfamiliar territory... especially not now!)

Damn dumb actually of them, to be blunt about it.

* However, MS can afford to make a mistake now & then, especially a silly easily replaced one like a desktop shell!

(Though Mr. Sinofsky is the one who REMOVED the ability to hack the registry & replace the 'metro' shell with one users know & like, Explorer IE shell, what we've been using essentially since 1995 onwards to present).

APK

P.S.=> Bottom-line? Ok - THIS is WHAT YOU GET, when you put "money men" @ the helm & whose ENTIRE EXISTENCE is "the holy dollar", when @ the wheel of companies, rather than techies who are also businessmen who UNDERSTAND their target markets (ala "King Billy"/Mr. Gates, whom I call that out of RESPECT)...

That type? Hey... they don't know their target market, & are out of touch in that regards, & again: YOU JUST CAN'T SELL SOMETHING TO PEOPLE THEY DID NOT WANT, & that's cardinal RULE of sales you'd *think* that THAT type of man, would @ least understand - apparently? They don't...

... apk again:

Can you imagine if a similar system was in place on desktops? the iOS platform is a MONOPOLY.

http://bgr.com/2012/11/27/iphone-5-market-share-october-2012/

"Following the successful launch of the iPhone 5, sales of iOS devices have overtaken Android in the U.S., according to Kantar Worldpanel. The research firm found that in the past 12 weeks, sales of Apple (AAPL) smartphones accounted for 48.1% of the market compared to Android’s 46.7% share."

I wonder how of those people feel that way because they believe that the higher cost means it must be the best product they could have purchased.

While you are correct that there is a tendency for some people to rationalize a poor buying decision, and certainly agree about the rampant insanity of many "audiophiles", you would be equally incorrect to assume that is the main reason why Apple has been so wildly successful.

In the end, people have to use these things, and I can assure you that there would have long ago been a mass-exodus away from Apple products if there was something fundamentally wrong with them.

And "cachet" might get you the first Apple sale for a particular customer; but for most of them, it wouldn't go past that, and that's not the typical pattern.

I have used plenty of brands of computer and consumer-electronic equipment in my nearly 40 years' experience with same, and with absolutely zero exceptions, in those areas where Apple competes, their products are consistently head-and-shoulders above the others in terms of build quality, attention to detail, longevity, and overall "user experience".

Apple has the top sellers in the U.S. in the product areas of notebooks and (consumer) desktops, music players, tablets and (relative to any other single brand) smartphones. Do you really think they got there, especially in this weak economy, on cachet?