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TFA says they use CDMA 1x, aren't those networks being shutdown around the world, since they're getting quite old. New Zealand and Australia have already shut theirs down, replaced by WCDMA.

How long till USA follows suite? This website says it's starting in 2015.

Is this going to make every single OnStar system useless without a hardware upgrade?

The selection of "free" movies for Prime members is comparable to Netflix's selection

Shirley, you must be joking.

Then what damages does Apple deserve for what Samsung did?

Should it be ok for one company to do this to another?

http://bgr.com/2012/08/08/apple-samsung-patent-lawsuit-internal-report-copy-iphone/

I'd be angry if some company did that to me. Google warned them:

http://allthingsd.com/20120725/apple-google-warned-samsung-against-copying-us/

What justifies, "and rightfully so?"

There are more Android phones in the wild yes, but not by that much.

http://bgr.com/2012/07/02/android-market-share-us-smartphone-iphone/

In the US it's 50% VS. 31%.

But Android still has 1000%+ more malware. It's not a 'popularity' issue, it's a basic OS security one.

And WTF do I need Office on a tablet for? That's why my notebook and PC are for, and in a pinch my netbook.

It's for carrying around with you instead of a netbook. And it's for using once your netbook breaks. With no mention of Microsoft making available a special cheap OEM version of Windows 8 for netbooks the way it did for Windows XP (ULCPC licensing) and Windows 7 (Starter Edition), I've read that netbooks won't be sold in stores anymore. Even the maker of the Eee PC, which launched the netbook category, has discontinued its line of netbooks.

Don't forget that Android makes several billion dollars a year for Microsoft in the form of patent royalties.

He hasn't been all puppy dogs and ice cream, wrt Apple devices.

http://bgr.com/2012/10/26/microsoft-executive-sinofsky-interview-ipad-mini-criticis/

In response to Apple calling Surface, "a car that flies and floats [but doesn't] do any of those things particularly well", he called the iPad Mini, "a ripoff", and "a seven inch recreational tablet".

Apple is already losing significant ground to Android in the 7 inch tablet space

Color me shocked that a company was losing ground in a market they weren't even competing in!

While I don't doubt that the 7" Android tablets have been making inroads, I don't think that Apple has been ceding any sort of significant ground in the overall tablet market just yet. Amazon has consistently refused to provide actual sales numbers for their Kindle line (though they've somewhat hilariously provided all sorts of numbers that sound big but are actually impossible to use as a source of comparison *eyeroll*). We do, however, have some analyst's figures for the Nexus 7. To cite the numbers I posted earlier in this thread, Apple sold 16M full-size iPads at $500 to $830 during the Nexus 7's debut quarter, in which the Nexus sold 3M units priced at $200 to $250. As a quick note, it was not a debut quarter for the iPad, and I think it's safe to say that the Nexus 7 was probably the best-selling Android tablet during that time period, likely by a large margin.

As for volume, while Steve Jobs famously said that Apple's biggest mistake after his departure in the '80s was that it sat on its laurels instead of going for volume when it had the chance, Apple has consistently shown that if it has to choose between profit and volume, it will choose profit. That's why Apple makes roughly 3/4 of the profits in the mobile sector, despite accounting for far less than that in terms of volume. Likewise for the PC market, where they are far-and-away the most profitable PC manufacturer (35% profit share as of 2010, but likely higher now), despite only having a VERY low double-digit share of the market. They'll happily let companies run each other out of business by competing on volume, which is exactly what's happening in the mobile sector, where the only companies actually making a profit are Apple (with 77% of the market's profit), Samsung (22%) and HTC (about 1%), while the rest are in the red as they fight for volume.

That likely won't happen in the tablet space, since Amazon gets money from content sales while Google gets money from advertising, but Apple's strategy of focusing on profit over volume seems to have worked pretty well for them so far, given that they're the largest company in the world at the moment. If that's what you define as "the opposite of smart", I hope I'm an idiot. ;)

NFC technology and PassBooks' technology are orthogonal to each other.

In other words, NFC can work with, or without, Apple's PassBook, and Apple's PassBook can work with, or without, NFC. And no, you don't even need to take my word for it, you can just take Apples' words instead.

Apple has recently won patents for using NFC on an iPhone to control home appliances, using NFC to control iWallet transactions with parental controls, and using NFC for checking-in with an airline (at the time, it called it iTravel, but that same airline ticketing information can be found within PassBook).

Errr... right.

Except we should actually review what a tablet is used for. Mostly viewing things; documents; emails; films; etc. in situations where you don't have a table to put a computer on.

iPad - 652 grams
Surface - 676 grams
Nexus 7 - 340 grams
Advantage - Nexus 7 - Loser Surface

iPad - 2592 x 1944 pixels
Surface - 1280 x 720 pixels
Nexus 7 - 1280x800 pixels
Advantage iPad - Loser Surface

iPad - 10 inches (approx - 241.2 x 185.7 x 9.4 mm)
Surface - 10.60 inches
Nexus 7 - 7 inches
Advantage Nexus - Loser Surface

iPad - 10 hours
Surface - estimated 7.5 hours Nexus 7 - 10 hours web browsing
Advantage iPad/Nexus - Loser Surface

iPad - Lots of good apps
Surface - no tested apps at all; a reasonable number of pretty bad WP based apps (not all "fart apps" nowadays)
Nexus 7 - Lots and lots of apps and plenty of good ones
Advantage iPad or Nexus depending on opinion and interests - Loser Surface In the things which matter we have a consistent loser.

Who do you suppose runs the factory in Brazil?

http://www.bgr.com/2011/04/12/ipad-maker-foxconn-could-spend-12b-on-new-plants-in-brazil/

Yep, clearly Apple is doing everything right and Microsoft has no idea. That's why the market share is so in favor of Apple over Microsoft.

http://www.bgr.com/2012/09/03/windows-os-x-market-share-august-2012/

Congratulations, they passed the one version of Windows even Microsoft can't recommend to anyone.

No, you didn't disprove him. The posting to which you were replying said "Microsoft is trying the walled garden technique the Apple has going, but I don't foresee it being as effective or foolproof as Apple's." and "Sometimes I feel like Microsoft si kind of flopping around like a fish on land when it comes to tablets.", neither of which are referring to desktop/laptop machines (where neither Windows nor OS X offer a complete walled garden - no, Mountain Lion and Lion 10.7.5 aren't walled gardens unless you crank up the Gatekeeper level to "App Store only" and never left-click to override it) and "The current release cycle of good > bad > good > bad will most likely continue and Windows 8 will flop. At least I hope it does and it will force them to rethink their stupid Start menu removal, amongst other things.", which I suspect is thinking of W8 going like Vista where most users with W7 sticking with W7 rather than upgrading, and perhaps hardware vendors offering W7 as well as W8, not thinking that OS X will have a bigger market share than Windows.

Yep, clearly Apple is doing everything right and Microsoft has no idea. That's why the market share is so in favor of Apple over Microsoft.

http://www.bgr.com/2012/09/03/windows-os-x-market-share-august-2012/

Congratulations, they passed the one version of Windows even Microsoft can't recommend to anyone.

If Google had a mapping app ready now, they could have got a significant percentage - say 10-20 percent - of them back as Google Maps users.

Yes, but what's the use of those 10% to 20% if most of those people couldn't act as data points for up-to-date real-time traffic information. It's silly. Isn't it? Apple allows Waze to crowdsource its iPhone users for better map and traffic information, but it doesn't let Google Maps Navigation do the same.

Longer term Apple will be able to use a large number of people to rapidly improve map quality.

Yes, a large number, but not as large a number as Google's.

Longer term people will find that apps are providing better transit guidance than Google is able to give, and third party transit apps are integrated into Apple maps in a way that Google is unlikely to follow with since Google is trying to gather data about what you want to do, and they are blind if you go into a third-party app for transit.

Actually, Google currently sees into most third party apps on Android since most third party apps use Google Maps APIs, or at least, they use AdMob SDKs. Plus, Google Maps and Google AdMob try to be OS-agnostic, so you'll find them on as many other mobile platforms as they can be on.

Also, Android is also pretty good about letting other apps share location information with them, to save on battery life, and to make the experience better for android users. In other words, it's a company that's well known to play with others with their APIs, and unfortunately, Apple doesn't have the same kind of mindset, or expertise, in this area.

Spoken like someone who's probably never picked up an iPhone in his life. Select contact. Click-Hold address. Select Copy. go to whatever maps app or webisite you like and click paste.

It's really that simple. The whole maps 'disaster' is so overblown it's hilarious. If you live in any larger city, chances are you will never notice an issue that impacts you in any meaningful way. About the only useful info that's lacking are bus routes/times.

http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/gadgetbox/apple-maps-furor-overblown-1B6071011

The rest of the issues are cosmetic. Is it perfect? No. Am I getting 'fucked' because of it? No. Hell, even Motorola's own commercial had to fake a bad address to do their commercial.

http://www.bgr.com/2012/09/27/apple-maps-motorola-criticism-fail/

The first link breaks it down into a little more 'sane' dialog.

A) There are flaws in Apple's Maps database.

B) These flaws very likely do not affect you in any way.

C) These flaws will be fixed and served up without you updating any software.

D) There is a lack of public transit information, which may or may not affect you, but is partially remedied by apps.

E) You now get free turn-by-turn navigation and instant links to Yelp pages â" and no ads.

F) GPS-enabled Google Maps are still available on iPhones and iPads for free, through the Safari browser.

G) A Google Maps app for iOS will likely be here soon, too.

the smartphone market has grown by 38.8% in the past year.

Even when the US becomes saturated, there are still international markets.

and finally, even though you are right: stagnation does not necessarily mean the end.. stagnation often does mean exactly that.

The problem is, when a company does not grow, it is essentially sitting in limbo until one of it's competitors kills it ... either by finding the next big product; or by growing large enough to enable economies of scale that the ungrowing company cannot match; or when tastes of consumers adjust, etc. It is essentially sitting still while the world and its competitors move forward.

That does not mean the company will fail... RIM could create the next great new product, and everything will be fine for the company.

Does that sound hard? It should. Which is exactly why stagnation OFTEN means eventual death.

RIM's main problem is that enterprise companies have started moving away from the platform. People don't want to carry around several smart phones and are much more eager to choose either iPhone or WP7 phones. Microsoft is known for being the office centric company and therefore has fantastic support for Exchange server and office apps. RIM lost the audience it had when Windows Phones were introduced (while Windows Mobile also had many work users, WP was a major improvement)..

While you present an interesting theory, reality is that noone is using Windows Phone. They had a market share of 3% of smartphones shipped. iPhone in particular and Android are the ones eating Blackberry's lunch. To make this even worse, this quarter Windows Phone is currently only sold on known obsolete phones. I'm glad I didn't get suckered into buying a phone that obsolete immediately, unlike Nexus Phones and iPhones.

If you mean increased by 80% as slipping away.
http://www.bgr.com/2012/05/01/apple-samsung-idc-market-share/

No I mean the year on year drop worldwide from 18.8% to 16.9% and yes my link is to IDC figures. Perhaps you should be a less US centric...the internet has been around for sometime. FYI Androids Market share grew from 46.9 % to 68.1% in the same period.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/worldwide-market-share-for-smartphones-a-market-dominated-by-apple-and-android/2012/09/11/c3e683d2-fc38-11e1-98c6-ec0a0a93f8eb_story.html

There is no possible way that 1.3 million android phones are sold every day.

World wide units shipments;1st Quarter 2012.

Vendor: Unit Shipments
Samsung: 42,400,000
Apple: 35,100,000
Nokia: 11,900,000
HTC: 6,900,000
Others: 39,100,00

Now assuming that every smart phone sold by Samsung, HTC and other is an android phone, that makes 88,200,000 total Android phones sold in the quarter.
365/4=91.25 rounded up 92 days.

88,200,000/92 ~ 960,000 phones sold per day rounded up.

Source

"Let's keep some perspective here. They only sell one model at a time. All of the other vendors sell multiple models at the same time. The implication is that this is somehow the leading phone ecosystem or some such thing. In reality Apple doesn't even sell as many smart phones as Samsung alone, never mind all of the other vendors."

If you want to talk "ecosystem", let's compare app sales....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/appsblog/2012/jun/10/apple-developer-wwdc-schmidt-android

"In March 2012, Flurry crunched data from developers using its tracking tools in their apps, and claimed that given the same number of users per platform, a developer who got $1 on the iTunes App Store would get $0.23 from Google Play."

Web usage....
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/02/mobile_web_stats/

"Apple's iOS devices account for 65 per cent of mobile web traffic versus Android's 20 per cent, or the two operating systems are neck-and-neck at about a quarter of all mobile web traffic apiece."

Or you can even talk profit....

http://www.bgr.com/2012/08/06/apple-mobile-industry-profit-share-q2-2012/

So which ecosystem is better for Apple, developers, and advertisers?

1% is "common" now?

Admittedly I think they're higher than 1% here in the UK, but I've wanted them to die for about 8 years now. I'm happy to see them go. Steam is due out on Linux soon-ish, and MS look like they're going to pull a Vista with Windows 8. All in all, things in the world of technology seem to be heading in a good direction :)

Let me just Google that for you... http://www.bgr.com/2012/08/14/mobile-phone-q2-2012-market-share-sales/

Utter nonsense.

http://www.bgr.com/2012/06/12/apple-ios-fragmentation-iphone/

Take off those Apple Blinders.

After all, much of the world can't upgrade to IE 9 and they may not be willing to install a non-MS web browser. Might as well let them keep using Google Apps until Microsoft pulls the plug on XP support.

On the other hand, if Google's goal was to help push people off of Windows XP or at least off of IE8, they shouldn't wait until November.

So, it's okay to give credit to him until facts collide with RDF??

BGR has a pretty good historical analysis here:

http://www.bgr.com/2012/04/05/is-the-iphone-fragmented-ios-adoption-measured-against-android/http://www.bgr.com/2012/04/05/is-the-iphone-fragmented-ios-adoption-measured-against-android/

I've heard rumors that the new phones won't support BES natively, but be part of a new overall BES architecture. Where the "new" BES will be a management console for the "old" BES that you all know and love, and a VPN like service for the new phones/playbook.

IMHO this will help kill BB. The one solid thing you could count on was BES, now you're adding complexity with multiple BES servers, multiple UIs, and hoping it all gels together while you're trying to keep your head above water. That, and the consumer market is shut out as people with Galaxy S3s and iPhone 5s are locked up on 2 year contracts.

RIM is toast.

Why don't you ask the local governments that MAKE them monopolies. Them being monopolies is NOT NATURAL.

How do you figure? It was never illegal to start a new ISP. Like all infrastructure, it does naturally become a monopoly. After all, it doesn't make sense to have multiple companies each running cable to your house so you can choose your favourite. In fact, a few local governments have been sued by ISP's for trying to break their monopolies.

And it was MARKET FORCES that stopped Comcast, when they were found out they shut that down.

Not quite. In fact, the opposite. Granted, Comcast appealed the decision, and won, but it was the FCC that stopped them, not the market.

What has yet to be shown to any reasonable degree is why it is preferable to let the government dictate what goes over a network.

Ideally, net neutrality legislation wouldn't dictate what goes over a network. It would instead prevent ISP's from dictating what goes over their networks.

That's rich since they're already paying Microsoft due to IP infringement (only after being sued, of course), as does Samsung and a host of other companies :

"Trefis cites earlier reports in noting that HTC pays Microsoft $10 per Android device and Samsung, which sold as many as 52 million smartphones into distribution channels last quarter, reportedly pays between $12 and $13 per device."

The PC is dying. The most recent quarterly results confirm it, as Apple alone announced 12 M iPad tablet sales, overwhelming Dell's mere 9 M PC sales. The consumer market is especially bad as laptop prices continue to fall to record lows without stimulating sales. Intel's Ultrabook initiative has already been declared a failure. If not for third-world markets, the PC would be in complete freefall.

Meanwhile, the retail segment continues to collapse. Best Buy reports record losses while laying off hundreds of Geek Squad technicians, the lifeline of consumer PC support. Soon it may be impossible to purchase a PC from a major name brand retailer. Consumers wanting a PC will need to enter shady inner-city shops selling off-brand merchandise.

Worse, the outlook for the PC looks especially foreboding with Microsoft's poorly-received Windows 8 OS on the horizon. Leading PC game developer Gabe Newell is convinced that Windows 8 will devastate what remains of the PC industry and force major OEMs to close shop. Massive discontent about Windows 8 fomenting on the Internet will only further push consumers into the tablet market.

The situation in Enterprise is even more grim. Most large businesses have standardized on Windows XP, Internet Explorer, and applications built on obsolete frameworks such as VisualBASIC. As far as business is concerned, the PC is as mortified as a Selectric Typewriter. No major PC upgrades will likely occur ever again. Meanwhile, nearly all major corporations are experimenting with tablets and developing modern mobile applications.

Hewlett-Packard has already publicly expressed serious doubts about the future of the PC market. IBM wisely abandoned it years ago. Margins are already below zero as PCs are loss-leaders for IT outsourcing and other services. Second-tier CPU builder AMD is reportedly close to bankruptcy. In a few years, Chinese conglomerates will control all manufacture and distribution.

While the Amazing Kreskin may predict the future, most computer nerds are too myopic to grok the obvious conclusion. They blindly cling to beige turbo-buttoned clones while debating the latest window manager advancements. Soon, they too will be seen as relics, just like the seldom-used PCs pushed into dusty cubical corners, much like the dumbterms which preceded them. Ding dong, indeed the PC is already dead. The new era has begun.

You appear to be under the impression that the SIII is part of this lawsuit.

Why do you believe that?

The Galaxy SIII was part of THIS lawsuit.

This lawsuit was about the Galaxy line of phones, all of which have a larger screen than the iphone.

Seriously the best and only use for old smartphones is to try and break the world record for throwing smartphones:

http://www.bgr.com/2012/08/20/phone-throwing-contest-2012-finland/

From the BGR article: "Well, the Finns have to do something with all those Symbian devices, don’t they? Parity News reports that Finnish citizen Ere Karjalainen smashed the world record for phone-tossing last weekend when he chucked his handset 101.5 meters (333 feet) during his country’s annual mobile phone-throwing contest."

I'm going to enter the Trebuchet class... pretty sure I can get one of those Nexus phones out to at least 200+ meters.

On the other hand the potato canon gun is an attractive option.

Have you ever seen one?

It wouldn't matter if I've seen 500 of them or if I've seen not a single one. That's pure anecdote and proves nothing. The fact that it is believed by some to have outsold the iPhone is a much stronger testament to its popularity and relevance. Also note it's current number one status on Amazon which is a huge smartphone sales channel.

It is obvious that Samsung has indeed copied Apple

obvious to whom? other judges have already ruled that samsung did not copy apple, even going so far as to force Apple to publicly admit that Samsung never copied them... http://www.bgr.com/2012/07/18/apple-patent-ruling-judge-samsung-copy-ipad/

this is hardly the clear cut case that iDiots would have you think it is.

The iPhone has never been more than 20-30% of total smartphone sales.

Perhaps, but what I actually said was that Apple fans *claimed* it was higher, and they would link to some page like this as evidence ("If you look at this January 2009 data, The iPhone was actually less than half of a percentage point away from owning 70 percent of the mobile browsing market.") or "iPhone grabbed 72% of smartphone market share in Japan" or "iPad owns 96% of enterprise market and iPhone share climbs to 53%". And even now we are seeing stuff like "Apple's iPhone Has Staged A Monster Comeback, Android Is Now Dead In The Water". Yes, a platform that with almost a million phones being activated every day is apparently now "dead in the water". Those Apple marketing guys are good at getting their message broadcast.

Apple's share has never amounted to a large percentage of computing device sales.

According to this, Apples market share in 1980 was 15%. Okay, that is "huge" on the scale of all PC clones combined, but it beats out the market share of individual manufacturers like Dell and Lenovo today. This article says "In 1984, the Apple II had 15% of the market, Apple's best showing ever. (When combined with the Mac, Apple had over 20% of the market that year.)". The same page says that Apple's low point in 2001 was 2.3%. So from a high of 20% to a low of 2.3%... that's a big fall, losing 88.5% of the market, which was my real point.

>Nokia was profitable!

True, like RIM was profitable last quarter.

>Nokia had increasing sales! Including increasing sales of "smartphones"!!

Everyone with half a brain cell knew Symbian was not sustainable. Apple and Android were just taking their time in Asia and Europe.

>Nokia had a huge cash mountain (> 5Billion Dollars!!)

That doesn't mean anything really, without data on debt, assets, bonds etc.

>If you had just taken Nokia's spare money, put it into a separate company and started building a mobile phone based on Android, recruiting people from scratch, you would have had a very good chance of getting into a major position in the market.

You mean like HTC that's suffering horribly now?

http://www.bgr.com/2012/08/09/htc-criticism-2012-apple-samsung-competition/
http://www.bgr.com/2012/08/07/htc-q3-2012-earnings-guidance-market-cap/

>Symbian sales only started going down after the "Eliop Effect" made everyone think they were a dead end

Symbian had to be dropped like a hot potato to save the company. The Nokia execs working on Symbian did everything they can to kill Meego/Maemo for their personal benefit thus making Nokia suffer hugely even before Elop was hired.

>Nokia was profitable!

True, like RIM was profitable last quarter.

>Nokia had increasing sales! Including increasing sales of "smartphones"!!

Everyone with half a brain cell knew Symbian was not sustainable. Apple and Android were just taking their time in Asia and Europe.

>Nokia had a huge cash mountain (> 5Billion Dollars!!)

That doesn't mean anything really, without data on debt, assets, bonds etc.

>If you had just taken Nokia's spare money, put it into a separate company and started building a mobile phone based on Android, recruiting people from scratch, you would have had a very good chance of getting into a major position in the market.

You mean like HTC that's suffering horribly now?

http://www.bgr.com/2012/08/09/htc-criticism-2012-apple-samsung-competition/
http://www.bgr.com/2012/08/07/htc-q3-2012-earnings-guidance-market-cap/

>Symbian sales only started going down after the "Eliop Effect" made everyone think they were a dead end

Symbian had to be dropped like a hot potato to save the company. The Nokia execs working on Symbian did everything they can to kill Meego/Maemo for their personal benefit thus making Nokia suffer hugely even before Elop was hired.

Not sure if MS filed a patent for theirs, and if they did, when.... But apple's isn't a direct response to it.

The surface was supposed to be so ultra top secret that a lot of ms execs didn't know about it until the unveiling (... http://www.bgr.com/2012/06/21/microsoft-surface-apple-like-secrecy/) so it's unlikely that apples patent FILED LAST YEAR but only made public on 8/2 is a "copy"

FTA: A patent application submitted by Apple last year — and made public just this morning — describes a flexible, magnetically attached cover for a tablet device. It’s similar to Apple’s existing smart cover for the iPad, except that this cover can also function as an input and display device. And one of the concepts described by Apple in the patent filing is an idea for using the cover as a keyboard.

And if you look at the patent, apples is a display, and writing surface, plus keyboard, whereas the surface is just a keyboard.

See what happens when you read?

You're not done reading. When you prevent yourself from reading all the information, you end up forming opinions based on incomplete information. This leads to the forming of a faulty premise.

You are not done reading.

Not sure if MS filed a patent for theirs, and if they did, when.... But apple's isn't a direct response to it.

The surface was supposed to be so ultra top secret that a lot of ms execs didn't know about it until the unveiling (... http://www.bgr.com/2012/06/21/microsoft-surface-apple-like-secrecy/) so it's unlikely that apples patent FILED LAST YEAR but only made public on 8/2 is a "copy"

FTA: A patent application submitted by Apple last year — and made public just this morning — describes a flexible, magnetically attached cover for a tablet device. It’s similar to Apple’s existing smart cover for the iPad, except that this cover can also function as an input and display device. And one of the concepts described by Apple in the patent filing is an idea for using the cover as a keyboard.

And if you look at the patent, apples is a display, and writing surface, plus keyboard, whereas the surface is just a keyboard.

See what happens when you read?

>>>And they wonder why iOS stays on top.

Might want to update your belief system:
Androids sold - ~900 million
iOS gadgets sold - ~100 million

Might want some actual facts to back that up with:
June 27th, Google I/O:
"Google during its annual I/O Developer Conference in San Francisco on Wednesday unveiled that 400 million Android devices have now been activated and a total of one million new Andro
id devices are activated each day. "

March 7th, Apple Event
"While we wait for the new iPad to officially take the stage in San Francisco, Apple CEO Tim Cook has just taken the opportunity to rattle off some impressive numbers for the company’s iOS devices. The company has sold a total of 315 million iPads, iPhones, and iPod Touches, with a full 62 million of those iOS-powered devices being sold in Q4 2011 alone."

So Google is winning...? Maybe? Depends what Apple rattles off at the next IOS fanboy rapture event. Apple is certainly winning in profitability, although Samsung isn't doing so badly either.

In the entire mobile phone market (a somewhat different market than Android VS IOS) in 2011, Apple made ~70% of the profit, while Samsung made ~20%.

IOS device stats: http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/07/tim-cook-talks-ios-device-stats-315-million-sold-62-million-in-q4-alone/
Android device stats: http://www.bgr.com/2012/06/27/1-million-android-devices-activated-each-day-400-million-total/
Profits in mobile phone market: http://www.asymco.com/2012/05/03/the-phone-market-in-2012-a-tale-of-two-disruptions/

I payed $399 for my 64gig Acer Iconia Tablet

Good for all 3 of the owners!

http://www.bgr.com/2011/06/24/acer-cuts-2011-tablet-sales-forecast-in-half-to-2-5m-units-citing-poor-sell-through-competition/
http://www.bgr.com/2011/12/26/acer-to-stick-with-tablets-despite-poor-sales/

I payed $399 for my 64gig Acer Iconia Tablet

Good for all 3 of the owners!

http://www.bgr.com/2011/06/24/acer-cuts-2011-tablet-sales-forecast-in-half-to-2-5m-units-citing-poor-sell-through-competition/
http://www.bgr.com/2011/12/26/acer-to-stick-with-tablets-despite-poor-sales/

Apple only has 30% of the Mobile OS market share compared to Android at 51%. If you want to go off a different graph Apple is at 29% so it's still pretty close despite two separate studies.

Furthermore, the top mobile OEMs are Samsung and LG. Apple is bringing in a measly measly 14%. Yes, Apple took no time at all in getting profitable in the last five years, but that's in stark contrast to global market dominance where things aren't so hot for Apple. I know it's hard to fathom but the rest of the world (not the US) doesn't seem to prefer the Apple glitz.

You have a lemonade stand A on one corner making $20 a week, and a lemonade stand B at the opposite corner making $80 a week.
Mentioning that A is pouring 2x - 6x as many glasses is just rubbing salt in the wound.

A child running either stand gets a pat on the back and a "good job", but since you're old enough to know what a % is, you should know what failure smells like.

Apple only has 30% of the Mobile OS market share compared to Android at 51%. If you want to go off a different graph Apple is at 29% so it's still pretty close despite two separate studies.

Furthermore, the top mobile OEMs are Samsung and LG. Apple is bringing in a measly measly 14%. Yes, Apple took no time at all in getting profitable in the last five years, but that's in stark contrast to global market dominance where things aren't so hot for Apple. I know it's hard to fathom but the rest of the world (not the US) doesn't seem to prefer the Apple glitz.

Facebook is making a phone because Facebook is a huge brand and people will buy it just because it has the Facebook logo on the case.

The thing about that is that mobile phones are incredibly difficult products. You can easily make a good in shop demo. The first few people may well buy the phone and try it. However, as Microsoft is finding out with Windows Phone, once the early adopters find they have a dud, no amount of marketing can fix that.

Look at Justin Bieber and Hello Kitty, do you think the owners of that merchandise give a flying fuck about what other people think? BTW, you might want to check how WP sales are going outside your group of friends. last I read WP are outselling iPhone in the biggest phone market in the world

Why not? If Apple's claims are quashed, Sprint sells the phones as normal. If not, HTC gets them back and refunds Sprint.

Actually, HTC has already removed the offending features.

sell these to Sprint knowing they would be held up at customs and possibly not be able to sell them in the US?

Actually MILLIONS already entered the country and were sold by AT&T and independent retailers. Only when this phone started taking
serious sales away from Apple did they start complaining.

HTC has long ago removed the offending patent item. (And Apple ultimately lost on all other claims in this particular suit.) A single item in the '694 patent was upheld, namely having a url sent in a text message be treated as a real url and launching the browser when tapped. (My ancient Razr feature phone did that - sans the tapping part).

from the Age police may deploy spy drones
 
But what should be news for the US is that both stories point out that US police will start using drones this week. The only indication I have seen about this is things like: US police agencies to begin using drones within 90 days

Microsoft says Xbox hacking claims are ‘unlikely’.

"A report emerged last week from a security researcher claiming Microsoft’s Xbox lacked important security features that might protect owners who sell used consoles from having personal information stolen. Ashley Podhradsky of Drexel University claimed to have purchased a used Xbox console and used readily available hacking tools to recover the prior owner’s credit card number and other personal information. “Microsoft does a great job of protecting their proprietary information, but they don’t do a great job of protecting the user’s data,” Podhradsky said at the time.

Microsoft has since responded to the researcher’s claims, stating that they are likely inaccurate."

"Security-by-Obscurity"/lack of usership + marketshare allows for this from you, but, nothing more:

"That's because they generally *don't* get VIRUSES (see what I did there?)." - by ilsaloving (1534307) on Thursday April 05, @10:00AM (#39584241)

See my subject-line, & realize something: Today's 'hacker/cracker' isn't using TRADTIONAL VIRUSES (the type that attach to an executables' "tail" & alter its jump tables for functions used, and increases an executable's size in doing so).

They're instead using things like ADOBE products flaws, &/or JAVA known flaws in security issues.

That's what MOSTLY everyone who is "hit" by malware is hit by from today's "malware makers" (script kiddies mostly using tools for automating creation of exploits no less).

These malware makers are JUST LIKE THE PICKPOCKET - they will NOT spend efforts targetting a least used platform.

On less used computing platforms of ANY kind?

There's just NOT enough "ROI" for said effort in malware creation, AND, not enough users to target for monetary thieving returns (and yes, they are after your monies &/or personal information like credit card #'s... it's not a kid's game anymore, but REAL crime).

Just like pickpockets do? They go to where the CROWDS ARE on any computing platform (more on THAT below, with a *NIX variant no less)... to the "crowded malls, train & bus stations, & city streets" of Windows on PC's &/or Servers combined... this is where the "easy meat" noob users who are simpler to victimize, are.

Period/Point-blank.

---

"The security settings on unix based systems are usually more strict than on windows machines." - by ilsaloving (1534307) on Thursday April 05, @10:00AM (#39584241)

Tell that to the ANDROID folks... Android IS a Linux variant (it uses a Linux kernel/core, but isn't as secured for 'ease of use' by end users) on another computing platform: THE SMARTPHONE!

There, Android (a linux variant) is "king"... what happens to it? Ok, some examples (from reputable security sites etc.):

3,325% increase in malware targetting ANDROID:

http://blog.webroot.com/2012/02/17/report-3325-increase-in-malware-targeting-the-android-os/

Security firms: Android malware set to skyrocket @ The Register:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/15/android_malware_skyrockets/

Android Malware May Have Infected 5 Million Users - Slashdot

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/01/28/0431251/android-malware-may-have-infected-5-million-users

More than $1 million stolen from Android users in 2011, mobile threats to increase in 2012:

http://www.bgr.com/2011/12/14/more-than-1-million-stolen-from-android-users-in-2011-mobile-threats-to-increase-in-2012/

Android bug lets attackers install malware without warning @ The Register:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/20/google_android_vulnerability_patching/

APK

P.S.=> Would you like MORE such examples? I have, oh, roughly another 100++ or thereabouts... apk