It's pretty clear one of two things is going on here: Elop is trying to drive the stock value down to a level a hostile takeover becomes feasible, or Elop is trying to drive the company bankrupt so Microsoft can buy just the parts it wants at auction.
No, it's not that, because Microsoft would still need to bid against Google and others to pick up the pieces. It would seem that the Elop strategem is no deeper than an attempt to force Windows Phone into the market.
It's hard to imagine Nokia ditching the market of normal cellphones. There's still a huge market there for them, even if those phones are not as sexy and headline-grabbing.
Microsoft would view that as competing with Windows Phone.
They had the dominant smartphone OS AND the dominant dumbphone OS. They had an experimental high end, Linux-based OS that was almost ready to retake the top spot in mindshare. They had the best development tools, which would allow one to target those 3 OSs simultaneously. And they were developing this new Linux-based dumbphone OS that would be created around those tools.
Now they have Windows Phone.
Amazing to think that was little more than a year ago.
Most of the games on Steam will be DirectX, not OpenGL.
You mean, most are DirectX now. Well that's going to change, isn't it? Any game shop pursuing a DirectX-only strategy while the entire non-Microsoft world is OpenGL is going to be road kill on the information superhighway.
If you extrapolate from this one fact, that Apple does extremely well but is said to "miss" and the stock price goes down because their profits didn't grow faster than before, if you extrapolate from this one fact, you can understand why the economy - the whole economic system - is collapsing under its own greed. Enough is never enough.
It's not as arbitrary as you think. The price of a share today is always based on the expectation that the share will eventually pay dividends equal to the price of the, plus a risk premium (even if the company does not pay dividends... retained earnings are considered equivalent). Roughly speaking, a P/E in the 17 ranges requires a high degree of certainly that earnings will increase about 5% per year for about 30 years. Do you or do you not think that Apple will probably manage that? If not, you are in good company.... most analysts are skeptical about that too. Which is why Apple has not been able to break much about P/E of 17, even with spectacular annual growth. Or to put it simply, the market views Apple as a rocket that is likely to fizzle out in a few years.
Negative news for Apple will always hit their stock price hard since all the institutionalized holders know very well how over valued that company is.
To be honest, Apple is more than fairly valued... assuming high margins hold up and revenue continues to increase at least 10% per year. Problem is, both those assumptions are looking doubtful from where we stand today.
This year is different. Apple is surrounded by Android handsets that outperform it with more features and better prices. Even if Apple manages to spec the iPhone 5 higher than Samsung's current offering, by the time it hits distribution you can be sure there will already be several new Android phones in the same form factor with higher specs and lower prices.
Apple's earnings miss has little to do with the iPhone 5 per se, and everything to do with a slow release schedule and lack of compelling new features and products.
I appreciate how simple it is to use a iPhone, and what I learned 5 years ago is still largely applicable to using one today, but with some incremental additions... There are a gazillion "Android" phones out there... how do I know if I want 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.0?, what do the different processor names mean?, can I actually compare "GHz" to get a reasonable idea of what is best (no)?, what apps will or won't run on this?
I checked, just for you. I see two contacts online where there used to be a couple dozen a few years ago. From those two contacts... zero answers. Seems about normal for Skype these days. Back in the day Skype was like a social network, now it's more like a ham radio set.
Anything transmitted online - whether it be VOIP or cleartext or whatever - can be tapped. Even when you tunnel your channel, even when you employed all the evading/security technologies that you can think of, if TPTB wants to know what you do, they could find ways to _CAN_ tap you
I would say you're overestimating the capabilities of your friendly neighbourhood spooks just a tad. Perhaps what you really meant to say is, anything you transmit online using Windows can be tapped. That's probably pretty accurate. See, security starts at the endpoints.
Skype used to work fine. Lately it drops a lot of calls on me and sound quality seems to be going downhill, lots of stutters and outright strange garbage. And lag on the presence notifications has gone through the roof. Now I really can't trust what I see when Skype tells me somebody is on or offline. And it's not my network, Google talk works just fine including video.
Another thing that's gone downhill on Skype: nobody seems to hang out there any more. It used to be, I'd see all my contacts whenever they are online, now it seems like most of them don't bother to start Skype or they switched computers and just didn't bother setting it up. Nowadays, if I want to "Skype" someone I find myself needing to send an email first, or call them on their home phone, which kind of defeats the purpose.
Exactly. The correct thing to say in an exit interview is: nothing, except facts that are strictly required. Such as the manner in which your personal effects are to be returned to you. Above all, do not sign anything. Nothing. You have no obligation to, and nothing you sign will do you any good.
Let's recap: say nothing. Sign nothing. Smile. Shake hands. Leave and get on with life. If you were treated unfairly, the time for redress is later. Meanwhile, you can at least take solace in the fact your HR friends will be feeling distinctly uncomfortable about the fact you didn't sign.
Exit interviews are pointless for you. For the company they make a whole lot of sense. An exit interview is an opportunity to get you to say stupid things that can later be used against you, should you decide to pursue a legal action for better separation terms or wrongful termination (good luck with the latter, you will need it). Basically, exit interviews are for HR to cover their collective butt and nothing more. If you feel the need to explain all the unjust things that happened to you, explain them to your dog, not HR.
In any case if it's a game you're writing, bear in mind that adding support for Windows phone will cost significant extra development to support the as-yet-untested DirectX for Windows Phone, while increasing market coverage by, um, roughly 0%. OpenGL ES on the other hand covers both Android and Apple, plus can easily be ported to a number of consoles.
If you want to get an idea of what this looks like in practice, just look at Brazil. The rich live in heavily-secured opulence, the poor live in abysmal poverty.
For what it's worth, poverty in Brazil may be declining after trending up for a couple of decades.
Staple's has a huge selection of Android tablets on display and one lone Windows tablet (Acer W500) that looks especially clunky sitting next to all the skinny little Android units.
The litigious scam company, known as "Apple" certainly deserves to lose market share.
Apple was caught with its proverbial pants down in the 7 inch tablet space. Epic stumble. Now Google has set the bar so high on specs that Apple's belated 7 inch offering is going to lack magic, no two ways about it. What are the only weaknesses of the Nexus 7? No back facing camera; no microSD. That's about it. Apple probably had their design completely frozen when the Nexus 7 came out and blindsided them. No doubt they are now frantically scurrying around buffing it up, and that most probably means the roll out date will slip. And its already way late. When it finally does arrive it will be up against two very strong incumbents.
You can pretty much count on Apple's 7 inch having with a back facing camera, which means Google's refresh will have it too. Amazon will probably introduce with a back facing camera, one of the few ways available to differentiate against Nexus 7, and they might well pull that off before Apple gets out the door, yet another buzzkill for Apple. Oh my. Well, at least Apple will have 16/32 GB flash, and they might up the ante to 32/64 GB. But it's a practical certainty that Amazon will offer 32 GB in its new line up, and possibly external flash. Which would present another big problem for Apple because it's "full size" product doesn't have it.
See, the real issue is, Apple is now forced to introduce a 7 inch tablet that beats the specs of its current 9 inch offering. Now... why would anybody want to buy the big tablet with lower specs? Effective Osborne effect. Ouch.
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It's pretty clear one of two things is going on here: Elop is trying to drive the stock value down to a level a hostile takeover becomes feasible, or Elop is trying to drive the company bankrupt so Microsoft can buy just the parts it wants at auction.
No, it's not that, because Microsoft would still need to bid against Google and others to pick up the pieces. It would seem that the Elop strategem is no deeper than an attempt to force Windows Phone into the market.
he has entire board over him, including ex-nokian CEOs and finnish politicians, for oversight, were they asleep?
Asleep or bought.
It's hard to imagine Nokia ditching the market of normal cellphones. There's still a huge market there for them, even if those phones are not as sexy and headline-grabbing.
Microsoft would view that as competing with Windows Phone.
They had the dominant smartphone OS AND the dominant dumbphone OS. They had an experimental high end, Linux-based OS that was almost ready to retake the top spot in mindshare. They had the best development tools, which would allow one to target those 3 OSs simultaneously. And they were developing this new Linux-based dumbphone OS that would be created around those tools.
Now they have Windows Phone.
Amazing to think that was little more than a year ago.
Go down, go down Nokia, thrall of Microsoft.
Most of the games on Steam will be DirectX, not OpenGL.
You mean, most are DirectX now. Well that's going to change, isn't it? Any game shop pursuing a DirectX-only strategy while the entire non-Microsoft world is OpenGL is going to be road kill on the information superhighway.
If you extrapolate from this one fact, that Apple does extremely well but is said to "miss" and the stock price goes down because their profits didn't grow faster than before, if you extrapolate from this one fact, you can understand why the economy - the whole economic system - is collapsing under its own greed. Enough is never enough.
It's not as arbitrary as you think. The price of a share today is always based on the expectation that the share will eventually pay dividends equal to the price of the, plus a risk premium (even if the company does not pay dividends... retained earnings are considered equivalent). Roughly speaking, a P/E in the 17 ranges requires a high degree of certainly that earnings will increase about 5% per year for about 30 years. Do you or do you not think that Apple will probably manage that? If not, you are in good company.... most analysts are skeptical about that too. Which is why Apple has not been able to break much about P/E of 17, even with spectacular annual growth. Or to put it simply, the market views Apple as a rocket that is likely to fizzle out in a few years.
But still insane profit.
Whoa, you mean "just like Microsoft", the previous holder of "world's most valuable company" title?
Negative news for Apple will always hit their stock price hard since all the institutionalized holders know very well how over valued that company is.
To be honest, Apple is more than fairly valued... assuming high margins hold up and revenue continues to increase at least 10% per year. Problem is, both those assumptions are looking doubtful from where we stand today.
EVERY YEAR Apple has the same issue.
This year is different. Apple is surrounded by Android handsets that outperform it with more features and better prices. Even if Apple manages to spec the iPhone 5 higher than Samsung's current offering, by the time it hits distribution you can be sure there will already be several new Android phones in the same form factor with higher specs and lower prices.
If the iPhone 5 doesn't sell as anticipated, what will they blame it on?
EPEAT.
Apple's earnings miss has little to do with the iPhone 5 per se, and everything to do with a slow release schedule and lack of compelling new features and products.
I appreciate how simple it is to use a iPhone, and what I learned 5 years ago is still largely applicable to using one today, but with some incremental additions... There are a gazillion "Android" phones out there... how do I know if I want 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.0?, what do the different processor names mean?, can I actually compare "GHz" to get a reasonable idea of what is best (no)?, what apps will or won't run on this?
Short summary: "I'm so glad I'm a Beta"
I checked, just for you. I see two contacts online where there used to be a couple dozen a few years ago. From those two contacts... zero answers. Seems about normal for Skype these days. Back in the day Skype was like a social network, now it's more like a ham radio set.
Anything transmitted online - whether it be VOIP or cleartext or whatever - can be tapped. Even when you tunnel your channel, even when you employed all the evading/security technologies that you can think of, if TPTB wants to know what you do, they could find ways to _CAN_ tap you
I would say you're overestimating the capabilities of your friendly neighbourhood spooks just a tad. Perhaps what you really meant to say is, anything you transmit online using Windows can be tapped. That's probably pretty accurate. See, security starts at the endpoints.
Our families all use Skype and it works fine.
Skype used to work fine. Lately it drops a lot of calls on me and sound quality seems to be going downhill, lots of stutters and outright strange garbage. And lag on the presence notifications has gone through the roof. Now I really can't trust what I see when Skype tells me somebody is on or offline. And it's not my network, Google talk works just fine including video.
Another thing that's gone downhill on Skype: nobody seems to hang out there any more. It used to be, I'd see all my contacts whenever they are online, now it seems like most of them don't bother to start Skype or they switched computers and just didn't bother setting it up. Nowadays, if I want to "Skype" someone I find myself needing to send an email first, or call them on their home phone, which kind of defeats the purpose.
So, you expect me to lie?
Exactly. The correct thing to say in an exit interview is: nothing, except facts that are strictly required. Such as the manner in which your personal effects are to be returned to you. Above all, do not sign anything. Nothing. You have no obligation to, and nothing you sign will do you any good.
Let's recap: say nothing. Sign nothing. Smile. Shake hands. Leave and get on with life. If you were treated unfairly, the time for redress is later. Meanwhile, you can at least take solace in the fact your HR friends will be feeling distinctly uncomfortable about the fact you didn't sign.
Easier headline: exit interviews are pointless.
Exit interviews are pointless for you. For the company they make a whole lot of sense. An exit interview is an opportunity to get you to say stupid things that can later be used against you, should you decide to pursue a legal action for better separation terms or wrongful termination (good luck with the latter, you will need it). Basically, exit interviews are for HR to cover their collective butt and nothing more. If you feel the need to explain all the unjust things that happened to you, explain them to your dog, not HR.
Somewhat i doubt that the game "Angry Ballmers" get approved.
Ahem, I believe that would be "Angry Chairs".
When I imagine Steve Ballmer wife, I imagine him with a blond wig and some ugly makeup.. scary thoughts...
Actually, they make a very nice couple.
I'll fill them in:
1) Write for Android
2) Write for Apple
In any case if it's a game you're writing, bear in mind that adding support for Windows phone will cost significant extra development to support the as-yet-untested DirectX for Windows Phone, while increasing market coverage by, um, roughly 0%. OpenGL ES on the other hand covers both Android and Apple, plus can easily be ported to a number of consoles.
If you want to get an idea of what this looks like in practice, just look at Brazil. The rich live in heavily-secured opulence, the poor live in abysmal poverty.
For what it's worth, poverty in Brazil may be declining after trending up for a couple of decades.
People will be freed up for creative jobs, jobs that involve human intelligence which can't be done by machines.
And what are the non-creative idiots going to do for a living?
Did you see Soylent Green?
Staple's has a huge selection of Android tablets on display and one lone Windows tablet (Acer W500) that looks especially clunky sitting next to all the skinny little Android units.
The litigious scam company, known as "Apple" certainly deserves to lose market share.
Apple was caught with its proverbial pants down in the 7 inch tablet space. Epic stumble. Now Google has set the bar so high on specs that Apple's belated 7 inch offering is going to lack magic, no two ways about it. What are the only weaknesses of the Nexus 7? No back facing camera; no microSD. That's about it. Apple probably had their design completely frozen when the Nexus 7 came out and blindsided them. No doubt they are now frantically scurrying around buffing it up, and that most probably means the roll out date will slip. And its already way late. When it finally does arrive it will be up against two very strong incumbents.
You can pretty much count on Apple's 7 inch having with a back facing camera, which means Google's refresh will have it too. Amazon will probably introduce with a back facing camera, one of the few ways available to differentiate against Nexus 7, and they might well pull that off before Apple gets out the door, yet another buzzkill for Apple. Oh my. Well, at least Apple will have 16/32 GB flash, and they might up the ante to 32/64 GB. But it's a practical certainty that Amazon will offer 32 GB in its new line up, and possibly external flash. Which would present another big problem for Apple because it's "full size" product doesn't have it.
See, the real issue is, Apple is now forced to introduce a 7 inch tablet that beats the specs of its current 9 inch offering. Now... why would anybody want to buy the big tablet with lower specs? Effective Osborne effect. Ouch.