Apple makes more money from its smartphone than every other smartphone manufacturer in the world combined.
I often hear that said by Apple admirers as if it were a good thing. But is spending too much on a consumer item really a good thing? Perhaps more to the point, if consumers somehow become unwilling to pay that premium in droves, perhaps because more cost effective alternatives exist, what will happen to that revenue stream, and consequently, Apple's share price?
OpenCL could be any language, but, what is necessarily is the ability to make changes which affect how data is laid out in memory, and how that data is being read/written.
In short, when the end goal is nothing more or less than optimization, it helps to know what you're doing.
The iPhone, the iPad, Android phones, and Android tablets rely exclusively on touch input.
Nonsense. I have a bluetooth keyboard on mine, as many do. And the Transformer, one of the most popular Android tablets, is entirely oriented to this configuration. Watch out for that denial things, it's a killer.
The majority of games from now on will be created for iPhone and Android, shifting to the latter over time. Simply because of the accessibility factor. You don't need to sit on your sofa to play games any more.
Even the sofa gamers, a diminishing but still important breed, will be playing a lot more idie games over the coming years, there is no question about that. Indie games are moving upscale in terms of production values. Its fun to build one, and building a game is an end in itself. It is now feasible to build at least a B list title entirely with volunteers and A list is within sight. I know it is in my sights.
As for indie gaming, that's pretty much limited to PCs and phones because console makers tend to discriminate against home-based family businesses
Excuse me, but there is an indie scene even on PS3. Not big yet, but it will go exponential in due course. And you left out tablets, which will have a huge indie scene if not already. And what is limited about PCs and phones? Sorry I missed your point.
In any case, see "do whatever it takes" above. And are you with me?
Does anyone else have a nagging feeling that Nintendo is doomed in the next console cycle?
Sure, me. And Sony and Microsoft too. I think that last generation was the last hurrah for "big console" and that the next console generation will be a monumental fizzle, as this one very nearly was. Mobile gaming and Indie gaming will take its place. And I am willing to do whatever it takes to help make that happen, anybody with me?
I am with those who maintain that a Microsoft certification is not Computer Science, and that the wikipedia article is erroneous, misleading and should be corrected. Perhaps by changing the heading from "Computer Science" to "Systems Administration". An impressive achievement for a nine year old to be sure, but not to be ranked with science. Attempting to mischaracterize her achievement that way only sullies it.
Openness and Google and other geek-factors don't enter into it.
On your planet, maybe. On my planet, every single person on the street knows Google, uses it, and generally respects it as a brand. And while openness may not be the first thing they think of when they get a phone, it quickly jumps in priority as soon as words like "how would you ever know if your phone is spying on you?" enter the conversation or "you can get so much more free stuff". Free? Deal.
I don't always agree with Eric, but in this case I do. Speaking as a long time open sourcer, Android is not fragmented, it is built around a clear, central core. Whether the project is actually open is entirely another question. I would be interested to hear Eric's opinion on that.
Right, sorry about the number skew. The point remains the same: Red Hat wanted to maintain a forked kernel but it proved impractical. Wisdom prevailed.
I doubt that. The last analysis I read says the division is profitable over time, including the time value of money. Not hugely profitable, but they're in a pretty good position to make money going forward. It's been, what, three or four years since they started making money on the hardware?
Google hasn't made much of anything off Android. It wasted $12 billion on Motorola for ripping off iOS instead of doing cheap licensing deals.
You don't get it. Google stopped Apple from grabbing the entire smart phone landscape and fencing it off with toll booths. It's about who gets the advertising dollars.
Huh? Somebody doesn't get that they don't get it? Or are we just dealing with evil Apple cultists with mod points?
Google hasn't made much of anything off Android. It wasted $12 billion on Motorola for ripping off iOS instead of doing cheap licensing deals.
You don't get it. Google stopped Apple from grabbing the entire smart phone landscape and fencing it off with toll booths. It's about who gets the advertising dollars.
Samsung could annoy Google enough that Google gets into the mobile business...
In which it has no competence whatsover. Google's previous complete failure to operate an online market in phone hardware is enough proof of that. Not going to happen.
Open Source software has a tradition of ending up this way...
Sure, just like Linux ended up "this way" and GCC ended up "this way" and Apache ended up "this way". Wow, Google could use some more of "this way". The solution for Google is obvious: open up more and let it be a true community project instead of Google's lapdog. That way, Samsung could never hope to keep up with the pace of development, even if they try it for a while. Historical note: Red Hat once forked Linux (2.4.9) and only managed to maintain the fork for a few years, even with about half the highest contributing coders on staff. Samsung could not even come close to that kind of effort, and in the end Red Hat failed to create a compelling business case for its fork, let alone a compelling case for Linux users in general. Google has already accomplished its purpose with Android. The handset market is now blown wide open and nobody will be running a tollbooth on that highway. Now the smart thing is to consolidate this victory by removing the value proposition for a fork.
So long as Google fails to let the baby grow up and be a grownup, yes, there is clear and present danger of forking. And after that, toll booths.
Slashdot Mirror
The number of iOS devices (iPhone and iPod Touch) sold last quarter exceeded the number of Android units
Just barely, and only if you believe that overtly biased analyst's estimate. And why would you count the Touch as a phone? Apples to apples please :-)
More to the point, there is no guarantee of a repeat next quarter, far from it.
Apple makes more money from its smartphone than every other smartphone manufacturer in the world combined.
I often hear that said by Apple admirers as if it were a good thing. But is spending too much on a consumer item really a good thing? Perhaps more to the point, if consumers somehow become unwilling to pay that premium in droves, perhaps because more cost effective alternatives exist, what will happen to that revenue stream, and consequently, Apple's share price?
My crystal ball, tuned to the year 2025, says that this quarter will in fact prove to be the most profitable quarter of Apple's entire history.
OpenCL could be any language, but, what is necessarily is the ability to make changes which affect how data is laid out in memory, and how that data is being read/written.
In short, when the end goal is nothing more or less than optimization, it helps to know what you're doing.
A GPU is just another computer.
Why don't you write some GPU code, then come back and tells us that again ;-)
You're drifting way off topic.
The iPhone, the iPad, Android phones, and Android tablets rely exclusively on touch input.
Nonsense. I have a bluetooth keyboard on mine, as many do. And the Transformer, one of the most popular Android tablets, is entirely oriented to this configuration. Watch out for that denial things, it's a killer.
The majority of games from now on will be created for iPhone and Android, shifting to the latter over time. Simply because of the accessibility factor. You don't need to sit on your sofa to play games any more.
Even the sofa gamers, a diminishing but still important breed, will be playing a lot more idie games over the coming years, there is no question about that. Indie games are moving upscale in terms of production values. Its fun to build one, and building a game is an end in itself. It is now feasible to build at least a B list title entirely with volunteers and A list is within sight. I know it is in my sights.
As for indie gaming, that's pretty much limited to PCs and phones because console makers tend to discriminate against home-based family businesses
Excuse me, but there is an indie scene even on PS3. Not big yet, but it will go exponential in due course. And you left out tablets, which will have a huge indie scene if not already. And what is limited about PCs and phones? Sorry I missed your point.
In any case, see "do whatever it takes" above. And are you with me?
OK, well do a whois on gloriousthegame.org
Does anyone else have a nagging feeling that Nintendo is doomed in the next console cycle?
Sure, me. And Sony and Microsoft too. I think that last generation was the last hurrah for "big console" and that the next console generation will be a monumental fizzle, as this one very nearly was. Mobile gaming and Indie gaming will take its place. And I am willing to do whatever it takes to help make that happen, anybody with me?
I am with those who maintain that a Microsoft certification is not Computer Science, and that the wikipedia article is erroneous, misleading and should be corrected. Perhaps by changing the heading from "Computer Science" to "Systems Administration". An impressive achievement for a nine year old to be sure, but not to be ranked with science. Attempting to mischaracterize her achievement that way only sullies it.
Hmm, I agree, provided the hardware is decent (that means Asus Transformer, Samsung Tab 10.1, or similar) and that the interface is QT, not Unity.
If it's Unity or Gnome, I'll just say thanks for playing, but Android is fixable.
Openness and Google and other geek-factors don't enter into it.
On your planet, maybe. On my planet, every single person on the street knows Google, uses it, and generally respects it as a brand. And while openness may not be the first thing they think of when they get a phone, it quickly jumps in priority as soon as words like "how would you ever know if your phone is spying on you?" enter the conversation or "you can get so much more free stuff". Free? Deal.
I don't always agree with Eric, but in this case I do. Speaking as a long time open sourcer, Android is not fragmented, it is built around a clear, central core. Whether the project is actually open is entirely another question. I would be interested to hear Eric's opinion on that.
Hi Eric ;)
I'm skeptical the massive losses will ever be recovered.
Right, sorry about the number skew. The point remains the same: Red Hat wanted to maintain a forked kernel but it proved impractical. Wisdom prevailed.
I doubt that. The last analysis I read says the division is profitable over time, including the time value of money. Not hugely profitable, but they're in a pretty good position to make money going forward. It's been, what, three or four years since they started making money on the hardware?
Show me that analysis please.
Google hasn't made much of anything off Android. It wasted $12 billion on Motorola for ripping off iOS instead of doing cheap licensing deals.
You don't get it. Google stopped Apple from grabbing the entire smart phone landscape and fencing it off with toll booths. It's about who gets the advertising dollars.
Huh? Somebody doesn't get that they don't get it? Or are we just dealing with evil Apple cultists with mod points?
Microsoft didn't have any competence in the console market either.
And lost billions, which are unlikely to ever be fully recovered.
Google hasn't made much of anything off Android. It wasted $12 billion on Motorola for ripping off iOS instead of doing cheap licensing deals.
You don't get it. Google stopped Apple from grabbing the entire smart phone landscape and fencing it off with toll booths. It's about who gets the advertising dollars.
The part I'm missing is why Samsung and Google would want to have an antagonistic relationship?
Wanting someone else's money does not necessarily make you antagonistic.
Samsung could annoy Google enough that Google gets into the mobile business...
In which it has no competence whatsover. Google's previous complete failure to operate an online market in phone hardware is enough proof of that. Not going to happen.
Open Source software has a tradition of ending up this way...
Sure, just like Linux ended up "this way" and GCC ended up "this way" and Apache ended up "this way". Wow, Google could use some more of "this way". The solution for Google is obvious: open up more and let it be a true community project instead of Google's lapdog. That way, Samsung could never hope to keep up with the pace of development, even if they try it for a while. Historical note: Red Hat once forked Linux (2.4.9) and only managed to maintain the fork for a few years, even with about half the highest contributing coders on staff. Samsung could not even come close to that kind of effort, and in the end Red Hat failed to create a compelling business case for its fork, let alone a compelling case for Linux users in general. Google has already accomplished its purpose with Android. The handset market is now blown wide open and nobody will be running a tollbooth on that highway. Now the smart thing is to consolidate this victory by removing the value proposition for a fork.
So long as Google fails to let the baby grow up and be a grownup, yes, there is clear and present danger of forking. And after that, toll booths.
Nokia already said that they won't sell their smartphone division several hours ago...
Why would Microsoft buy it when they already got it for free?