Tag Archives: Apple

Android seen as long-term threat to iPhone? Numbers Don’t Add Up.

by thomasfitzgerald on 30. Jul, 2010 in Mac

From Electronista

The analyst points out that Android phones are already trumping the iPhone on a daily sales basis, moving about 160,000 units versus the iPhone’s 95,000. Around 120,000 of RIM’s BlackBerries are being sold each day.

there’s something about these numbers that don’t add up. Google’s been trumping that number (160,000 per day) for some time now and yet they haven’t overtaken Apple or RIM in terms of sales for the last two quarters, and if these numbers are accurate they should have by now, and yet market share numbers don’t put them any where near Apple yet. So what gives?

Could it be that the 160,000 number is “Activations” and not sales. I don’t know how it works on Android, butI’ve activated my iPhone at least 5 times since I bought it. Something is clearly not right here as those figures just don’t add up.

(Read Android seen as long-term threat to iPhone | Electronista.)

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If Phones Were Cars

by thomasfitzgerald on 13. Jul, 2010 in Apple, iPhone

Here’s an imaginary situation to ponder:

Imagine that some car company, let’s say Ford announces a new car. It’s a newly designed low cost sports car for the general public. It has numerous innovative designs but Ford is keen to publicise the new low profile tyre and wheel design designed to improve fuel efficiency. The car receives a generally good reception from the industry and before its release, Ford sends review models to the major Car magazines and Newspapers. The car gets a glowing report and reviewers consider it one of the best cars they’ve ever driven.

When the car goes on general release however a popular car enthusiast blog, lets for the sake of argument call them Carzomo, receives a you tube video from a reader showing that if you drive over nails the tyre bursts. Upon seeing this, other readers of the blog who have also just bought the car decide to try it for themselves, and sure enough, if you drive the car over some nails the tyres burst. Carzomo declares that this is a design flaw with the new sports car’s low profile tyre design and the story is quickly picked up by other blogs and media outlets. A newspaper contacts Ford for a comment and they respond that all cars run the risk of having their tyres burst if you drive over nails, and that customers should avoid driving over nails.

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Did Gizmodo Get Revenge on Apple?

by thomasfitzgerald on 13. Jul, 2010 in Apple

A while ago the popular gadget blog Gizmodo had a story about a new cellphone with which some customers were having reception problems. Complaints from customers were “overflowing” the manufacturer’s support forums. Does this sound familiar? Yet this is not about the iPhone 4 and its infamous “death grip”. No, this is about the Google Nexus One. Back in January Nexus One owners were having terrible problems with reception. Some even joked: “So, does HTC stand for “Hard To Connect” now?” (referring to the Nexus One’s hardware manufacturer). There are pages and pages of disgruntled Nexus One customers complaining about the Phone’s reception problems, including the Phone dropping signal when held. Gizmodo themselves received images from readers showing how the phone had limited signal compared to other Android devices. With all this evidence from readers their conclusion:

“While the support thread is getting longer, and the whining louder, the evidence is still firmly anecdotal.”

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Are So Many People Experiencing the iPhone Antenna Issue Because They’re Trying to Experience it ?

by thomasfitzgerald on 27. Jun, 2010 in Apple, iPhone

I know I’m going to get flamed for being a “fanboy” over this but anyway, here it goes. I was browsing through some of the videos of the alleged iPhone 4 “design flaw” last night and I noticed something very interesting. Before I get to that though, lets back up for a second. Before Gizmodo made this issue public all of the reviews of the phone noticed a marked improvement in call quality and reception. Then suddenly after Gizmodo posted the story, the notion of a deeply flawed antenna design it spread like wildfire. Lots of reports came in from people who were able to reproduce the problem, and quickly there were lots of videos on You Tube, which people were then using as evidence of this being a widespread design flaw. To be honest I have a hard time believing that Apple never tested the phone without a case on. Anyway, it occurred to me to check my own phone, a 3g which I did and I too was able to reproduce the exact same signal drop on my phone. Here’s the thing though, I was trying to. I was gripping the phone tightly in my hand. When I hold the phone normally like I’ve always done the reception drop is just not an issue.

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Defending the iPad’s Restrictions

by thomasfitzgerald on 19. Jun, 2010 in Apple, iPad

Absolutely superb article on Forbes by Andrew McAfee debunking some of the “but it’s not open” nonsense on the web (and in particular by Doctrow). It’s the most sane and balanced article I’ve seen in a long time.

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Do you make a sound when you back up like that ?

by thomasfitzgerald on 20. May, 2010 in Apple, Rumors, Software

Daniel Eran Dilger from Appleinsider, commenting on the story doing the rounds yesterday, where Apple publicly stated that AppleInsider’s previous article from the day before was complete bull…

The site (Cnet) reportedly received an official comment stating, “Final Cut Pro is the first choice for professional video editors and we’ve never been more excited about its future. The next version of Final Cut is going to be awesome and our pro customers are going to love it.”

….

Dalrymple’s conclusion was not based on anything reported by AppleInsider, nor are the prosumers who buy Final Cut Express or Studio likely to be using iMovie or expecting an iLife-style app.

Dalrymple also speculated that, due to the presence of iMovie and Final Cut Express, “the Final Cut team should be free to concentrate on more high-end features.” The information provided to AppleInsider by person with inside knowledge of Apple’s plans does not support Dalrymple’s speculation.

Oh well, then I guess your inside source is more reliable than a direct “No” from the company. However, and this is the best bit… he goes on to say that it’s “to early to worry” and that:

“The fact the Apple’s Professional Applications Design Group is still hiring a Senior Visual Interface Designer and Senior Human Interface Designer to help design future iterations of its “high-visibility applications that are used daily by creative professionals working in post-production,” as reported by AppleInsider last week, makes it clear that the work on Final Cut’s future direction is both still under way and still targeted to serve the needs of professionals.”

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I want choice, but only if I agree with your choice

by thomasfitzgerald on 19. May, 2010 in Apple, iPad, iPhone

Ted Landau complaining about Steve Jobs’s responses to Ryan Tate, taking issue with Jobs comment that “There are almost 200,000 apps in the App Store, so something must be going alright.”

“More to the point, suppose there was a car that offered excellent reliability and 100 MPG. With these admirable characteristics, the car becomes very popular, deservedly so. But suppose people complained that the car had practically no trunk space or that visibility from the rear view mirror was very poor. What if the company’s only response to such complaints was: ‘Our car is the number seller in its class. We must be doing something right.’ Would you consider this an appropriate and sufficient response? I hope not.”

I’m sorry, but that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. If the car had the problems he’s saying it had (poor visibility and no trunk space) it would never have become so very popular as he describes. On the one hand he’s arguing that the App store should be free and open and follow the market principles of letting the customer decide, then he presents an argument against judging a product on its success in the market. You can’t have it both ways.

I think Ted’s problem, like that of many analysts/bloggers/journalists/geeks etc on the issue is that they’re confusing fundamental flaws with not liking something. People like Ted don’t like the closed nature of the App store, but that doesn’t mean it’s fundamentally flawed, or a lack of choice. If it was fundamentally flawed it wouldn’t be a success because people would have chosen to buy something else. That success been determined by the market you so desperately want to preserve the freedom of.

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Apple and the Politics of Phoney Outrage

by thomasfitzgerald on 16. May, 2010 in Apple, iPhone

It seems the “in thing” to do lately is bash Apple for non-existent threats to freedom that the company is supposedly perpetrating. People from left and right across the web are taking minor issues and blowing them out of all proportion to create this false sense of “outrage” against some perceived threat from the cupertino company. It seems the politics of “phoney outrage” has become so prevalent in the world of political discourse that it’s seeping into the mindset of everyone with an axe to grind. Here’s just two examples that popped up in my RSS inbox today. The first is from Slate magazine warning magazine publishers of the threat of doing business with Apple or supporting their products. As usual, the argument transcends technical or even computer issues and becomes one about freedom. Here’s some of his comments:

They’re claustrophobic walled gardens within Apple’s walled garden, lacking the basic functionality we now expect with electronic journalism: the opportunity to comment, the integration of social media, the ability to select text and paste it elsewhere, and finally the most basic function of all: links to other sources.

The technical issues he raises have absolutely nothing to do with the App store or its controlled environment, and are frankly completely false. It’s just that some of the existing Apps might have been designed that way, but there’s absolutely nothing in Apple’s App store rules preventing any of this. He goes on to say this….

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