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Avoiding BlackBerry's Fate: How Apple Could End Up In a Similar Position (marco.org)
It's almost unbelievable today that BlackBerry ruled the smartphone market once. The Canadian company's handset, however, started to lose relevance when Apple launched the iPhone in 2007. At the time, BlackBerry said that nobody would purchase an iPhone, as there's a battery trade-off. Wittingly or not, Apple could end up in a similar position to BlackBerry, argues Marco Arment. Arment -- who is best known for his Apple commentary, Overcast and Instapaper apps, and co-founding Tumblr -- says that Apple's strong stand on privacy is keeping it from being the frontrunner in the advanced AI, a category which has seen large investments from Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon in the recent years. He adds that privacy cannot be an excuse, as Apple could utilize public data like the web, mapping databases, and business directories. He writes: Today, Amazon, Facebook, and Google are placing large bets on advanced AI, ubiquitous assistants, and voice interfaces, hoping that these will become the next thing that our devices are for. If they're right -- and that's a big "if" -- I'm worried for Apple. Today, Apple's being led properly day-to-day and doing very well overall. But if the landscape shifts to prioritise those big-data AI services, Apple will find itself in a similar position as BlackBerry did almost a decade ago: what they're able to do, despite being very good at it, won't be enough anymore, and they won't be able to catch up. Where Apple suffers is big-data services and AI, such as search, relevance, classification, and complex natural-language queries. Apple can do rudimentary versions of all of those, but their competitors -- again, especially Google -- are far ahead of them, and the gap is only widening. And Apple is showing worryingly few signs of meaningful improvement or investment in these areas. Apple's apparent inaction shows that they're content with their services' quality, management, performance, advancement, and talent acquisition and retention. One company that is missing from Mr. Arment's column is Microsoft. The Cortana-maker has also placed large bets on AI. According to job postings on its portal, it appears, for instance, that Microsoft is also working on Google Home-like service.
"Where Apple suffers is big-data services and AI, such as search, relevance, classification, and complex natural-language queries"
Yeah, because Siri is absolutely the worst AI on the planet... (despite the fact that she's better at human interpretation than anything anyone has ever put in a consumer platform, of course...)
If AI becomes the next big thing, they will just buy their way into the game with acquisitions. Or they'll buy their way into a whole new market.
Blackberry never had anywhere close to the money Apple does, it's like comparing apples to prime rib.
Why would Apple ever care about your privacy more than their profits? They probably just don't think it's going to be that big of a thing. I tend to agree. All this stuff kinda reminds me of VR 30 years ago. It's neat, but kinda gimmicky. It's all supposed to be in the 5-10 year future? Try 30-50, and even then, as the article points out, it's a big maybe.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
We were fresh off a seven-night cruise in New Orleans, with a lot of dirty clothes to wash, and our hotel did not have laundry facilities for the guests.
So, I said to my Nexus 6p, "OK, Google: I need a f***ing laundromat."
I never imagined there was so much laundromat pr0n in the world...
The point of these data services isn't to provide information to the users, it's to extract it from them. They only need to be good enough to keep people using them and feeding the machine.
This sounds just like a write up by an investor activist demanding monetization of peoples information for increased revenue.
There are many reasons for Blackberry's fade from market and it took no great effort to see they were on their way out.
It happens to nearly all companies.
Once on top of the world, the next moment hanging on to survive.
Who have we got?
Motorola
RIM
Palm
braodcom
yahoo
AOL
Nokia
Sony. Remember when everyone wanted SONY gear?
Hell, it has even happened to Apple before.
People are fickle. If some hot new thing comes along with a better way of doing things, then people will generally follow the trend. If the old guard is too slow, then they get left in the dust, living off their cash reserves until eventually, the die. Apple is no exception. Innovate or die.
Why would some one who is content to have how and where their media purchases can be used dictated to them by the company they're buying from care about privacy?
In other words, there is probably a strong cross over between those who care about consumer rights and those who care about privacy. Why would anyone who cares about corporate encroachment dictating how they use their media go with Apple because they supposedly care about privacy? Meanwhile, the bulk of the public could care less about either issue.
I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
If AI becomes big it will be in the background, making our lives easier, not as a digital friend.
Barring the Apple doom that has been incorrect for decades, the presumptions in this piece are ludicrous. I don't have time to poke holes in all of them, but the assumption that big data based on the caprice of human moods is a useful measure of anything but the moment in which it transpired and justification to trample people's privacy are good places to start. The underlying assumption here is profit, not utility, and THAT is what is unsustainable, particularly when it takes the stance of such linearity. People are not algorithms, folks.
The title implies that Apple "rules" smartphones today...but Google's share is 80% of the market. Logically, the reaction to a future "oh nos Apple is dead" should be "meh - another second-tier player will move in and secure that niche"
Sure seems plausible, but decades in this business have taught me it's all about timing. And I would assert that having watched Apple over the decades its biggest advantage other than design is ... timing. At least timing getting into any particular game. When to get out of a game? That's even tougher.
Tablet computing was always perfectly plausible. Microsoft got into the game early back in 2000 with it's Microsoft Tablet PC. Almost nobody remembers it now because it was way too early. By the time the iPad rolled around a combination of processor power, low battery life, and ubiquitous wireless Internet had created the opportunity for a killer tablet app: media streaming.
It's all those bits that go around an idea that transform it from an attractive pipe-dream into a practicality.
Now as for this "AI" business... Very early in my career I became aware of a schism in software design philosophies. Some people (like me) had a tool-making orientation. We saw software as a tool which supported people in some particular task, whether it was balancing their checkbook, finding some piece of information they used to have, or playing a game. But others were far, far more ambitious. They wanted to create intelligent agents that would relieve the user of the burden of thinking for himself. But we were so far from being able to create anything like that that by in large this philosophy produced badly designed tools.
It was a pipe dream when I got into this business back in the '80s, but we're much, much closer now, close enough that it's worth building AI into software tools. I consider Siri an example of this; "she" doesn't actually think for you, but she understands your requests pretty well.
The general notion of Big Data + AI on the handset is more plausible than ever now because it looks like we have a lot of the pieces in place. But it's a huge leap of faith to conclude a killer AI app will automatically emerge, and by "killer" I mean one that destroys an existing healthy market segment. Nobody can say it will or won't happen, but vague hand-waving allusions to big investments in intelligent agents don't impress me. That's nothing new.
You know how you know when things are going to change? When someone gives a demo and people stand up and cheer. Cynics attributed the rock concert like atmosphere of those old Apple product introductions to Steve Jobs' svengali-like powers, but that's a huge over-simplification. A lot of the enthusiasm was for Apple's timing. They were just about never the first to do anything, but they were often the first to do some things once it became possible to sell a lot of that thing.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
I've been reading how Apple won't survive, it will go out of business, no one will buy their products, etc. Of course now, over 30 years later, it just recently was the highest valued company on the planet and they are still in the top ten.
Every time there is some hiccup in their earnings or some other business launches to compete against them, out come all the doomsayers with the same old crap.
Give it a fucking rest. Apple is just as viable as any other big technology company. The Fan Boys you speak of are they ones who pine for Apple's failure day after day and for some reason feel slighted by its success.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
G+ being a classic example of the privacy problem Google faces. Technically it was excellent, yet who wants to give Google yet more private information!
So Google's new messaging app will listen in on the conversation and suggest restaurants and nearby bars if you talk about meeting up etc. it will look at photos you send each other and interdict with recipes and themes connected to the content of those pictures....
WHO THE FOOK WANTS THIS? And to do this, they can't support end to end encryption because they'd be cutting themselves out of the conversation! GOOD! They were never invited INTO the conversation in the first place! Can you imagine talking about medical problems with a friend, knowing that Google is listening in? And by Google I mean people, because Google's engineer can access your data [ Quack for "David Barksdale" ].
Blackberry's big selling point was privacy, but as they bent over backwards to get their phone into third world markets like India and Pakistan, so it became clear they'd backdoored the encryption. Then there was the phones, an excellent keyboard messaging phone becomes an awful android copy with a backdoor.
This has been going on for 30 years.
Apple has always followed their own muse; for better or worse.
They have made some big mistakes in the past; some of which have dealt near-fatal blows to the company (Can you say "Copeland"? DOWN AND GIMME 50, PRIVATE!). Some of which were annoying, but not crippling (Can you say "OpenDoc"?).
However, they have also called the right shots many times, and, as a result, have gone from laughing stock to "Who's laughing now?" (Can you say "iPhone"?). Remember all the folks that sneered at the iPhone?
We'll have to see where this goes.
Android is so fragented it is frustrating for everyone. Carriers and Manufactureres are allowed to screw it up and Google does not care.
Pure android is awesome, the Crap that HTC and Samsung does to it makes it suck, then the carriers add on their crap to make it suck more.
Google needs to say, "NO" you ship a clean android and your add on crap is in the application world that CAN BE UNINSTALLED by the end user. They also need to demand that at least all updates to the OS be pushed to phones within 30 days of release, none of this bullshit like AT&T pulls with security updates showing 6-12 months later.
Please google Force these companies to stop making android a steaming turd.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Much depends on how data is is used and shared. As for Apple losing out that assumes they take Blackberry's stance of "they are not a threat since we rule so why should we do things differently?" R&D is like sex. Just because you don't talk about in public desn't mean you aren't doing in private. Just because Apple isn't rolling out more advanced features doesn't mean they aren't spending on R&D privately. As long as they can react when they see the market and their tech is ready they'll be fine.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
Blackberry's or formerly RIM's QNX operating system is going to rule the world, very quietly, underneath everyone.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
One could also argue a major decline in BlackBerry's brand started in ~2008 with the Indian government encryption key debacle.
Privacy matters. I will continue to buy iPhones even for no other reason than the principled stand that Tim Cook took against the FBI.
I suspect I am not alone.
..don't panic
Apple has $305 billion in cash assets. There is no way to blow $300 billion.I mean they could fuck up more than few times and take big risks until they hit a payoff.
They could send their whole executive team on a roundtrip to Mars and still have more money left over than Microsoft.
Or they could not.
If AI becomes the next big thing, they will just buy their way into the game with acquisitions. Or they'll buy their way into a whole new market.
Not if Alphabet (Google) or Microsoft buy it first. Microsoft and Google have comparable amounts of cash to Apple. Facebook may become a player as well and they're pretty cash rich. Amazon's biggest problem will be that it doesn't have as big a war chest as the others but it's still not a competitor to overlook.
Blackberry never had anywhere close to the money Apple does, it's like comparing apples to prime rib.
True though back ten years ago when Blackberry dropped the ball, Apple didn't have anywhere close to the amount of cash it does today either.
They're fine. It's less a chat app and more a social network with how users approach it. When I see folks migrating off that I might believe.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Google needs to say, "NO" you ship a clean android and your add on crap is in the application world that CAN BE UNINSTALLED by the end user. They also need to demand that at least all updates to the OS be pushed to phones within 30 days of release, none of this bullshit like AT&T pulls with security updates showing 6-12 months later.
I'm pretty obviously no Google fanboi; but I've been saying this for several years now.
But the FOSSies keep saying that "Android is Open Sores! Google CAN'T Control it!"
Bullshit. You can put ANYTHING into an OEM Contract you want, and believe me, those handset makers and Carriers will sign-off on it; because the alternative is that they actually have to MAINTAIN a Fork of Android THEMSELVES, and not even Slamdung wants THAT headache!
So, the only conclusion to be drawn is that Android is the steaming pile of fuck that it is, PRECISELY because that's the way Google wants it.
Think about it before you try to defend the indefensible.
There's a difference between private data and public data, and it should be recognized in the business rules.
That doesn't mean you cannot query all the available data sources where data is posted publicly and use them in AI. There's already a ton of information out there. You don't have to dump your users' info into the open, and in fact, that would be a bad business decision.
The encryption / code signing could be a LOT easier and better documented. I think that's the next thing Apple should be working on.
So Apples competitors are investing in AI, and Apple is going to lose because it too is spending in AI?
Yes please. Also, make it so that the entire OS can be updated with a newer version. Having everything locked down is a mistake.
This submission must be from the, No Shit, Sherlock department.
A. Pick Market Leader.
B. Market Leader Could Fail by not X!
C. Profit!
IMHO the reason Blackberry failed, was that they tried to monetize the whole Blackberry ecosystem, from their Server Platform to each device, while at the same time, not providing enough improvements to their products that they quickly became 2nd tier phone manufacturer when Apple iPhone was released. This lead to people ditching the more expensive, less functional Blackberrys for iPhone and when Android finally took off, nailed the coffin shut.
FWIW, I owned a Blackberry, and my biggest complaint was that they tried to make me pay $5 / mo for turning on the GPS chip in the phone. That is, until it became clear that iPhones and Androids had such a feature for free. And then it was too late, for me, and for them. It was the classic case of trying to milk a dying cow, until it became clear that doing so would finish the cow off.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
I know a lot of you think the iPhone's introduction was like the second coming of Christ, but RIM/Blackberry increased in market share from 2007 to 2009 immediately after the iPhone was released. RIM's decline actually correlates closer with Android's rise in popularity.
The big losers in the early smartphone days were Nokia (Symbian was dated and badly needed an overhaul, which never happened) and Microsoft (who started off with a good lead from Windows Mobile on PDAs, but squandered it).
As for privacy, Apple has shown they're more than happy to violate their users' privacy when it's in their self-interest. When Apple ditched Google Maps, they didn't have their own database of SSID locations, so they couldn't locate you if you had the GPS turned off. The first year they paid for a wifi database from Skyhook. The next year, they used their own database. How did they mysteriously generate this database without sending around Apple street view cars to record the SSID and location of every hotspot on Earth like Google did? By secretly logging iPhone owners' locations and nearby SSIDs, and having the phones send the info back to them. Essentially, Apple turned all iPhone owners into unpaid contractors who scoured the Earth recording the locations of every SSID, and used a chunk of their data plan to transmit this data back to themselves.
Timmy is fast to put Johnny's tactics from the late 80s to work in the 10s by driving off the team that created Siri.
They are now well and growing as Viv, while Timmy plans to move "Apple Inc." to Abbottabad, Pakistan. Ha ha
Through a Siri spell-check error Timmy thought "Autobadh" was in India!
Ha hahahah hahhahah hahahha
Did BB at its peak even have an app store? I thought it was just a featurephone with a keyboard and email.
The higher resolution screens aren't as necessary PC laptops because Windows uses subpixel rendering (MS calls it ClearType) to effectively triple the horizontal resolution of the screen.
While a nice technology modern screens render text much better using Apple's technique than most PC's with poor screens do. To quote yourself, most PC laptop text looks like "blurry crap" compared to Apple laptop screens. Even with ClearType...
On PC laptops, there are vent holes placed underneath the hottest parts, so fresh cool air contacts those parts first maximizing heat transfer to the air (heat transfer rate is proportional to temperature differential). Also, if you spill liquid into the laptop
Since you just said there are no vents on top of the Macbook, just how pray tell would the liquid get inside?
The bottom vents on the PC nicely let in liquid too you know, as it flows under a laptop. With a mac you don't have to worry if something flows under it.
As for the venting being inferior I can't see how that's true in reality, since the MacBooks I've used have all been comfortable on the lap and don't overhead.
You were aware that having a large metal body acts to dissipate heat much more efficiently than a plastic body with a few vents, right? Right??
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I think your comment misses the point of why Apple is so attractive. It's not simply the form factor of the macbook, but its the entire ecosystem. That's why a lot of people are so loyal to it; one of Apple's great strengths is their ability to seamlessly integrate the different pieces of their hardware universe into a clean, unified experience. There are plenty of products with better form factors or raw technical stats for more affordable prices, but Apple commands their premium because if you're inside their ecosystem, you can move between devices with little trouble, especially compared to other alternatives, particularly Windows and Linux.
Having owned both an iPhone and Android, I have to agree. iPhone "experience" is just overall cleaner and has better-coordinated common tools/apps.
If Apple is cautious in order to reduce breaches, it may just well benefit them. A couple of high-profile Android breach(es) will send customers back to Apple.
Perhaps Windows versus Mac is a better comparison than Blackberry versus iPhone. Macs are more expensive, but are more reliable, less vulnerable to malware, and have a cleaner UI. A lot of Mac users were former Windows users who got hacked or had the OS choke on them.
Apple didn't need a large market share to make Mac's viable and profitable; it only needed roughly 10% of the market to have sufficient 3rd-party software support for the common applications used by most consumers.
Maybe some "cool" AI will come to Android first, but it will probably be choppy and inconsistent like early trends and fads usually are. Apple will then copy only the good aspects and include it in iOS.
The Wild West may seem fun and cheap UNTIL you get all shot up.
Table-ized A.I.
Actually, the opposite is happening: Chinese (and others, like Amazon) companies are just forking Open-Source Android and slapping their own apps, app-stores etc. on top of it.
Support? Updates? Who cares, right?
You vastly overestimate the amount of influence Google has on what people do with Android. They have some influence on the source-code, of course - but once it's published, everybody can do with it whatever he wishes. And that's exactly what is happening now.
Also, as Google seems to come up with a new "winning" strategy for Android/ChromeOS every year, can you really blame any company for not getting resources behind this year's initiative (to be killed off next year)?
Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
I've been saying this ever since Google Apps and watching a Google IO a few years back and seriously thinking of doing a career change once again, because if it weren't for 20 year old historically grown LAMP stack technology that needs hands on fiddling to this very day I'd long be out of a job.
Among all Megacorps it's Google whos strategy is the most future safe.
There's a good reason Apple started offering subscription plans for iPhones a few months back. Google and its serious focus on the web is an ongoing effort that is gradually pushing everybody else aside. MS only still exists because of its serious mind share and peoples unwillingness to change habits. Once that generation of users has died of, MS will be history. Same with Apple. There's an abundance of Hardware floating about and in the long run Apples walled garden will actually make things less attractive once services and convergence devices are a dime-a-dozen.
Google isn't really about search, never has been. It's about building an AI, a Brave New World Utopia Intelligence Machine, and as far as I can tell they are right on schedule with that, if not even perhaps a bit ahead.
If Google plays its cards right, it will be the only Megacorp of today that will still be standing in a generation from now, that's pretty much a given.
If I'd be asked to bet these days, all my money would be on Google.
And it's because they are *not* about selling hard- or software. It's that simple.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Go to any Best Buy, you can see that in fact MOST PC screens are poorer today, even when they have somewhat high resolution.
If you have enough pixel density ClearType does nothing for you. That's why if you search for "Apple Clear Type" the first results are from 2012 and earlier, because no-one cared after that. It is interesting for historical context but he was trying to present it as if it mattered today, which it does not.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I've been reading this doom about Apple garbage for 30 years.
Go find something productive to do, and my bad for clicking.
Can we sideload the Amazon App store like on Android?
Apple is at hardware and services company first. Selling your data is not their primary business goal.
Google's business model depends on violating your privacy. They subsidize the development of hardware and software services to gain more access to more data.
One of the biggest innovations of the iPhone was to strong-arm the carriers to allow an app store outside their control. This was so bad in Canada that it took nearly a year before any carrier would agree to sell them. http://www.cnet.com/news/iphone-coming-to-canada/#!
Before the iPhone, the *customer* was the carrier. The *features* were being able to lock people out of their phones and make them pay to download their photos, upload ringtones, tether, etc, etc. The more you could lock out and frustrate the customer into buying a new phone or paying for things which should be free, the more attractive the phone was.
I had to torrent updates for my BB from sketchy sources because the carrier didn't want to see me update... ever. It might mean I'd wait to sign another contract. None of my problems with BBs was ever fixed in any of the updates I found, and the phone never did half of what was advertised. (anyone remember wishing a "battery pull" could be mapped to a convenience button?)
That crap which makes the Android phones suck is the same old business model. Why would they discount these phones and allow you to update it if it means you might sign a new contract for a new phone instead? Why would Google interfere with this shady business model between manufacturers and telcos? Either way, Google gets your data, which is all they want.
Products which are abandoned is what the carrier wants.
They also need to demand that at least all updates to the OS be pushed to phones within 30 days of release
I'd argue two things:
1.) The update debacle is just as much Google's fault as the carriers, because the updates aren't properly modular. A whole lot of people are losing their s!!t right now because their Windows 7 or Windows 8 machines became Windows 10 machines this past weekend. The general Slashdot consensus is that Microsoft is wrong for updating computers without meaningful consent, and rightly so...but like clockwork, Samsung/HTC/Motorola/AT&T/Verizon/T-Mobile are terrible for *not* rolling out OS updates fast enough.
2.) Android is not designed to allow users to update when they want to; updates are downloaded automatically and if an option is given, it's either "install now" or "remind me in four hours", with no opt-out. While Google is at least somewhat helping the situation by keeping the APIs current with Play Services on older Android releases, the fact is that the security updates and OS patches that don't massively change the UI (never heard a non-slashdotter be happy about the Lollipop upgrade) or kernel (to remove the requirement of new drivers and baseband communication) should be separate. Windows has had this for twenty years. There's no reason for Google to compound the problem by making everything as monolithic as it is. I want to run KitKat until I replace my phone. Why? Because f'k you, that's why. The present situation is the worst set of swinging doors - either users who want to update can't, or users who don't want to update are forced to, but the technical community seems to only assume one side to be appropriate.
I don't disagree that Google isn't handling the Android update situation properly, but I'd similarly argue that it's largely because no one agrees on what the 'right way' is. Wake up one morning and realize my phone is on a new version of Android that either installs without consent or nags me six times a day until I do? Have Google/Samsung/HTC make a desktop application explicitly for managing/backing up/updating the firmware? Have new phones with the new OS pre-loaded and let users swap out their old ones for free at their local Verizon store, letting Aunt Google move all of their data over through The Cloud(tm)? Foundationally re-write Android to adopt the Windows model of updates independent of the OS?
Yes, the update situation should be worked out much better than it presently is. No, forcing carriers to send the MD5's over the air isn't the be all and end all solution to the problem.
We are impressed that you know so much about Android and can lend your wise and impartial opinion to this discussion.
"It's almost unbelievable today that BlackBerry ruled the smartphone market once."
wat
We are impressed that you know so much about Android and can lend your wise and impartial opinion to this discussion.
Funny that you didn't bitch about the GP. Why's that?
Technically and legally, yes, though they may claim that it voids your warranty.
Another fool who doesn't know what he's talking about.
Apple is a hardware company, a media company. It's not a software company or an Internet company. It has little incentive to invest in AI research. It can happily sit this one out and simply buy whatever startup comes up with something promising.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
RIM suffered from a big disruption in their network that caused all their customers to lose confidence in their ability to provide services going forward when their entire network was down for over a week, resulting in their customers also being off-line. This mean that C-level execs (CEOs, COOs, CTOs, etc - their real customers) did not have access to their email in the convenient form they had become accustomed to, and resulted in the immediate move from RIM's services to other services. It just so happened that iPhone and Android had solutions that didn't carry the same risk and provided nearly equivalent security (via webmail, and later direct Exchange synchronization).
What RIM did would be nearly impossible for any other medium to large company to do, especially one the size of Apple. A small business? Happens all the time. People need to stop using RIM as a comparison.
Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
How cute, anyone who says anything in defense of apple is now ostracized when such a blanket statement was made that's unsubstantiated by anything realistic. wonderful.
This is why I don't give two shits what other people think.
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Thank you, that's what I've been saying.
In fact, Android was the very reason I broke down and bought an iPhone at first. I went from flip phones to an android and after 2 days I gave that phone to my brother and bought an iPhone. It's an appliance to me, nothing more. I have servers and desktops to administer/program/learn/etc. I'm not wasting my time on a phone that requires me to go through that much effort to keep it functioning properly, or use it correctly.
-- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
It is?
Just this morning... my HTC ONE M8 got the Android M (6.0) update... it is FILLED with baked in crap from AT&T Plus the added feature for me of ADS!!! I now get advertising notifications because fucking AT&T baked into it a com. android service that shovels adverts at me.
allowing any carrier to call it android and not ship a pure clean un-raped android is ruining it. Let the carriers do what they want, tell them they can not call it android in any way or use any of the branding.
They will suddenly stop being scumbags overnight as users want android, not HappyAT&T OS that is compatible with a popular phone OS.
Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOGL), Cisco Systems (CSCO) and Oracle (ORCL) are sitting on $504 billion, or 30%, of the $1.7 trillion in cash and cash equivalents held by U.S. non-financial companies in 2015,
http://www.blacklistednews.com...
Casteism
It is?
Just this morning... my HTC ONE M8 got the Android M (6.0) update... it is FILLED with baked in crap from AT&T Plus the added feature for me of ADS!!! I now get advertising notifications because fucking AT&T baked into it a com. android service that shovels adverts at me.
allowing any carrier to call it android and not ship a pure clean un-raped android is ruining it. Let the carriers do what they want, tell them they can not call it android in any way or use any of the branding.
They will suddenly stop being scumbags overnight as users want android, not HappyAT&T OS that is compatible with a popular phone OS.
I'm sorry, but you're either stupid or completely deluded. People who buy Android-phones (apart from the minuscule fan-base that trolls Apple forums) don't care what OS their handset runs. They don't even know. They don't even know what an "OS" is, to begin with. They also don't "buy" them, they get them for free when they renew a contract.
Android is almost exactly where Google wanted it to be. They wanted it to be dirt-cheap, on phones that even the poorest can afford, so they can deliver ads to these people, too. And that's what you've got today. The only thing that didn't exactly turn-out as they hoped is that Apple is still raking in almost all the profits in the industry and is slowly pushing them from the one platform that makes them decent money.
They thought Apple would be priced out of this race-to-the-bottom market, but that hasn't happened so far. At least not to the extent Google had obviously initially hoped to achieve.
Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
If Facebook does become big in AI, how does that hurt Apple? It's not like Facebook would try to produce their own phone (again). They will still need to partner with someone for distribution. Even Google is not going to ignore the wealthiest segment of smart phone users by ignoring iOS devices.