I believe it was Tim Cook who stated âoeWe pay all the taxes we oweâ. As a long term Apple shareholder (1997), I think itâ(TM)s time Apple actually commits to the sentiment in that statement. Letâ(TM)s see some corporate responsibility and have Apple pay taxes back to the society that is fair and reasonable; stop letting the tax advisors silly games ruin your reputation.
Fundamentally I don't believe Apple's issue is if there is a button on the front of the phone or not. Think back to the presentation of the iPhone in 2007 and how this leapfrogged any other mobile device on the market. Apple's frustration with Android is that it "shamelessly copies" the core concepts and user interface that they introduced when re-inventing the mobile phone. This is the achievement that they are defending. They have seen once too many how, a couple of decades ago, a competitor started taking their Mac OS UI concepts and almost killed their revenue streams.
I'm personally impressed with the pace in which Google has managed to build an OS that catch up with this innovation. It proves they have a tremendous development team behind Android. I am also very sceptical around the current patent system and the way it can prevent small, innovative and independent new players (as apple / google once was) from competing in the market, not to mention the wider macro-economic effects it has preventing developing countries catching up with the industrialised world.
Having said all this, at the end of the day it should be clear to all that Apple is the breakthrough innovator in the mobile phone business and as long as the patent system is as it is then Apple needs to protect itself / shareholders where these (patented) innovations are being infringed.
Might I add that the Nokia Windows Mobile phones are bringing a new and fresh UI which clearly brings innovation to the market demonstrating that there are clearly more than one way to build a great mobile UI. I will leave that as a thought to anyone believing that Google did not copy the iPhone UI and as a thought for the hard working, brilliant engineers at Google: try to 'think different' - it matters.
Agree with the posts about patents often being restrictive to innovation rather than promoting it.
However, when thinking about how one could improve things, the route towards campaigning for patents as a whole being abandoned appears futile given the considerable commercial interests. Now, how about taking advantage of one of the pillars of the patent system, prior art. Imagine a website which would allow anyone to describe an idea at a high level and would certify the entry with a timestamp. This would presumably prevent anyone from being able to patent a similar idea in the future, but allow anyone from picking up the idea, implement it, and profit from it. Think of it as a 'open ideas' repository. Would that actually work? Has it been done? -if not, here's your chance, but you can't patent it;-)
I was travelling around the world 2005-2006 and originally left the uk without a laptop thinking I'd use Internet caffe's to stay in touch with family etc. I quickly realised I spent too long time getting my camera connected, photo editing software installed, cd's burned etc so the time I arrived in Thailand I bought a lovely Sony vaio tx laptop at a bargain prize. It was a great travel campanion and lasted all the way around the planet. In it's sleeve it fitted in a small daypack so I could always bring it with me (when I didn't feet comfortable leaving it in the hostels). I was doing glacier climbing, liveaboard diving, 5 days inca trail walk/climb, downhill cycling in Bolivia etc... Always carying the laptop with me...and avoiding letting too many people see it when in transit.. I did treat it with care but i'm still amazed how well it lasted. I'd buy the same again today - highly reccomended! Enjoy your trip!
This is the coolest device I've ever seen. Was looking for my wallet during the presentation... too bad I can't have it tomorrow, would have paid a grand!
The movie studios still haven't been as severely hit by illegal downloads/copies as what forced the record companies into iTunes. I guess that explains why they out-price their digital offerings.
I trust most people believe in fairness and deals accordingly. $19.99 is stupid money for a digital copy, I mean, come on it's more than the studios make on a DVD! Why is it that every time a new distribution format is out, the studios have to make more? It appears that pricing is reversely proportional to the cost of production. I.e. the cheaper it get for the studios to manufacture, the higher the retail price ends up for the consumer. Now why is that?
Perhaps we need to get further down the line and have a higher percentage of movies downloaded on the 'black market' before they wake up?
Don't get me wrong here I buy premium priced DVD's from Amazon and even HMV, and I'm happy to pay when I feel value is being offered. But I'm getting a bit fed up with paying premium prices for my favorite movies every time a new media format is out. First VHS, then DVD, BlueRay around the corner and now a digital version costing the studios 0 cents per copy. They are charging $19.99 and for that price I can't be allowed to burn it on a DVD so I can play it in the living room TV? Get real!
Call me an anarchist, but as long studios are behaving like this, I support bittorrent downloads. The market forces will eventually give us fair prices.
Oh boy, these guys in Redmond...do they actually believe their flagship product is providing competitive advantages? Someone needs a reality check.
Clearly no version of Windows since, shall we say, 2k have given companies any form for cost savings, productivity improvements or the like. The only European companies in competitive disadvantage is the IT implementors, who might have to wait a bit in getting hold of their upgrade service fees.
But then again, show me a successful corporation who installs OS'es imediately after releases. Way too big a risk! At least for the banks it's a cycle of easily 1-2 years delay before they are going to install it company wide.
And who knows, by then we might even be able to install OS X on non-Apple boxes.
As a European, I feel rather relieved!
There's an interview in Billboard with Microsoft's new GM of marketing on this Quote:
...music industry executives have expressed frustration at [Apple's] my-way-or-the-highway tactics. Competition means more opportunities to sell digital music in ways Apple won't allow. For instance, Microsoft is more open to variable pricing, whereas Apple is not.
Variable Prices? Hmm...wonder if that would mean higher or lower cost! Would someone please tell the labels that their market have changed and they need to be happy to be around at all? Higer prices might just get some of us back to the popular, fixed price, market contenders known as P2P. Support independent artists!!
One for private use that could be encrypted and one 'public' that the parasite neighbours and mobile laptop users could enjoy. Bring an end to the telco's overpriced WiFi zones. Encourage and support free information access - reject enforced 'secure' WiFi!
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I believe it was Tim Cook who stated âoeWe pay all the taxes we oweâ. As a long term Apple shareholder (1997), I think itâ(TM)s time Apple actually commits to the sentiment in that statement. Letâ(TM)s see some corporate responsibility and have Apple pay taxes back to the society that is fair and reasonable; stop letting the tax advisors silly games ruin your reputation.
Fundamentally I don't believe Apple's issue is if there is a button on the front of the phone or not. Think back to the presentation of the iPhone in 2007 and how this leapfrogged any other mobile device on the market. Apple's frustration with Android is that it "shamelessly copies" the core concepts and user interface that they introduced when re-inventing the mobile phone. This is the achievement that they are defending. They have seen once too many how, a couple of decades ago, a competitor started taking their Mac OS UI concepts and almost killed their revenue streams.
I'm personally impressed with the pace in which Google has managed to build an OS that catch up with this innovation. It proves they have a tremendous development team behind Android. I am also very sceptical around the current patent system and the way it can prevent small, innovative and independent new players (as apple / google once was) from competing in the market, not to mention the wider macro-economic effects it has preventing developing countries catching up with the industrialised world.
Having said all this, at the end of the day it should be clear to all that Apple is the breakthrough innovator in the mobile phone business and as long as the patent system is as it is then Apple needs to protect itself / shareholders where these (patented) innovations are being infringed.
Might I add that the Nokia Windows Mobile phones are bringing a new and fresh UI which clearly brings innovation to the market demonstrating that there are clearly more than one way to build a great mobile UI. I will leave that as a thought to anyone believing that Google did not copy the iPhone UI and as a thought for the hard working, brilliant engineers at Google: try to 'think different' - it matters.
Agree with the posts about patents often being restrictive to innovation rather than promoting it. However, when thinking about how one could improve things, the route towards campaigning for patents as a whole being abandoned appears futile given the considerable commercial interests. Now, how about taking advantage of one of the pillars of the patent system, prior art. Imagine a website which would allow anyone to describe an idea at a high level and would certify the entry with a timestamp. This would presumably prevent anyone from being able to patent a similar idea in the future, but allow anyone from picking up the idea, implement it, and profit from it. Think of it as a 'open ideas' repository. Would that actually work? Has it been done? -if not, here's your chance, but you can't patent it ;-)
I was travelling around the world 2005-2006 and originally left the uk without a laptop thinking I'd use Internet caffe's to stay in touch with family etc. I quickly realised I spent too long time getting my camera connected, photo editing software installed, cd's burned etc so the time I arrived in Thailand I bought a lovely Sony vaio tx laptop at a bargain prize. It was a great travel campanion and lasted all the way around the planet. In it's sleeve it fitted in a small daypack so I could always bring it with me (when I didn't feet comfortable leaving it in the hostels). I was doing glacier climbing, liveaboard diving, 5 days inca trail walk/climb, downhill cycling in Bolivia etc... Always carying the laptop with me...and avoiding letting too many people see it when in transit.. I did treat it with care but i'm still amazed how well it lasted. I'd buy the same again today - highly reccomended! Enjoy your trip!
This is the coolest device I've ever seen. Was looking for my wallet during the presentation... too bad I can't have it tomorrow, would have paid a grand!
Btw - apple site updated with details: http://www.apple.com/iphone/
The movie studios still haven't been as severely hit by illegal downloads/copies as what forced the record companies into iTunes. I guess that explains why they out-price their digital offerings.
I trust most people believe in fairness and deals accordingly. $19.99 is stupid money for a digital copy, I mean, come on it's more than the studios make on a DVD! Why is it that every time a new distribution format is out, the studios have to make more? It appears that pricing is reversely proportional to the cost of production. I.e. the cheaper it get for the studios to manufacture, the higher the retail price ends up for the consumer. Now why is that?
Perhaps we need to get further down the line and have a higher percentage of movies downloaded on the 'black market' before they wake up?
Don't get me wrong here I buy premium priced DVD's from Amazon and even HMV, and I'm happy to pay when I feel value is being offered. But I'm getting a bit fed up with paying premium prices for my favorite movies every time a new media format is out. First VHS, then DVD, BlueRay around the corner and now a digital version costing the studios 0 cents per copy. They are charging $19.99 and for that price I can't be allowed to burn it on a DVD so I can play it in the living room TV? Get real!
Call me an anarchist, but as long studios are behaving like this, I support bittorrent downloads. The market forces will eventually give us fair prices.
Oh boy, these guys in Redmond...do they actually believe their flagship product is providing competitive advantages? Someone needs a reality check. Clearly no version of Windows since, shall we say, 2k have given companies any form for cost savings, productivity improvements or the like. The only European companies in competitive disadvantage is the IT implementors, who might have to wait a bit in getting hold of their upgrade service fees. But then again, show me a successful corporation who installs OS'es imediately after releases. Way too big a risk! At least for the banks it's a cycle of easily 1-2 years delay before they are going to install it company wide. And who knows, by then we might even be able to install OS X on non-Apple boxes. As a European, I feel rather relieved!
There's an interview in Billboard with Microsoft's new GM of marketing on this Quote:
...music industry executives have expressed frustration at [Apple's] my-way-or-the-highway tactics. Competition means more opportunities to sell digital music in ways Apple won't allow. For instance, Microsoft is more open to variable pricing, whereas Apple is not.
Variable Prices? Hmm...wonder if that would mean higher or lower cost! Would someone please tell the labels that their market have changed and they need to be happy to be around at all? Higer prices might just get some of us back to the popular, fixed price, market contenders known as P2P. Support independent artists!!
One for private use that could be encrypted and one 'public' that the parasite neighbours and mobile laptop users could enjoy. Bring an end to the telco's overpriced WiFi zones. Encourage and support free information access - reject enforced 'secure' WiFi!