Posted on 09/24/2010 5:34:41 PM PDT by Swordmaker
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Apple Inc. is a Death Star. It pulls in most of what comes into its orbit and either overtakes or assimilates it.
The success of the company is particularly spectacular because it is largely a four-product enterprise, consisting of the iPad, iPod, Mac, and iPhone. It also produces a suite of supporting software that includes its OSX, the Safari browser, iTunes, and the App Store. These non-hardware products knit together the “iProduct” universe.
Apple’s product line stands in stark contrast to tech giants like Microsoft Corp. (MSFT 24.75, -0.03, -0.10%) , Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ 41.02, +0.04, +0.10%) , Oracle Corp. (ORCL 26.96, -0.16, -0.59%) , and Cisco Inc. (CSCO 22.17, +0.08, +0.36%) , all of which have a multitude of product lines that spreads risk and increases sales opportunities. As a result, Apple’s revenue run rate, is only over $60 billion — much smaller than that of Cisco.
Some consumers are wondering whether a tablet like the iPad can replace a laptop for travel purposes. On a recent trip to Paris, Walt Mossberg decided to find out, saying au revoir to his laptop and relying on a tablet and smartphone for work and play.
However, despite the competition’s size, Apple’s market cap is $240 billion, more than those of Oracle and Cisco combined. Perhaps the thing that Wall Street loves most about the company is that it is growing quickly, especially for a company of its size.
The reason behind its growth is simple: Apple clobbers the competition.
The Blackberry
Amazon’s Kindle
Asus
Microsoft Windows
Mozilla’s Firefox browser
Sony
Adobe Flash
Google
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
I’ve been nice and civil, and we’ve had some interesting discussions here. I know I’ve been attacked repeatedly here, but have I done any bashing or attacking?
We’ve discussed VOIP clients and advantages of eBooks - is that not allowed?
Seriously, if the presence of anyone who does not 100% support everything Apple does is not tolerated on Apple threads, then why not make it a caucus?
Just get off the thread and stay off!! If I have to take further action to solve this harassment problem, you’re not going to like it.
Could it be because the only ones calling for this are the trolls and Apple bashers? We Apple users HAVE NOT requested that we be treated like a "religion" or establish a "caucus." your suggestion and the suggestion of the few others who have made it is just another form of Apple user bashing. . . I.E. Your claim that any criticism is not allowed at all, when all that happens is disagreement and disallowment of personal attack, ad hominem arguments.
Just as we have not requested moving threads to the "smoky back room" forum when it got bad.
Jobs was right about it being just what? (I'm not challenging anything, I just don't get it.)
The iPad is just that.
Microsoft has adopted a very similar market model with Windows Phone. The online store is open to developers without the secrecy restraints that Apple has imposed. The IDE is Visual Studio, which should allow easier development and the profit model for developers is a tad more attractive.
The standards on the phones is set quite high, and the phones appear to me slightly easier to use than the iPhone.
Plus, the phones are open to many carriers.
The question is can they catch up to the iPhone sales? They're hitting the market next month. It should be amusing to watch.
I used one for a day. It struck me as a very lightweight, very portable terminal into the internet. How is it between a phone and a computer?
Interesting definition, I guess. Most believe a lot of times 'cheap' is 'good enough'. For others, their definition of 'the best' is all that will do - hammers (ask my father-in-law), motorcycles (ask a Harley owner), coffee (Starbucks for some, gas station good enough for me)...computers.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2556008/posts#2
seems others have a different opinion. Not sure if one example will be good enought to counter ‘only’ and ‘never’.
Read post 10 in that thread.
Here is my take on that thread. Swordmaker posted a thread that put Apple in a less than glorious light, which ‘never’ happens...it does...even though is was just a blog...a blog that I never would have read otherwise.
Post 10, all of swordmakers comments - never said there wasn’t a problem. Discussed the issue being misrepresented - apple taking cust service calls as the phone maker instead of the service provider. I thought it was pretty clear. I saw swordmaker nowhere on that thread represent there was not an issue.
Does go to an interesting point about people misrepresenting others (people and companies), and how sometimes it needs to be addressed.
He called the blogger a liar using statistics to obfuscate, and thus dismisses the entire blog article. That’s what he does. I never said he doesn’t post articles that put Apple in a negative light, I said he always declares them FUD and never admits they might be right. You linked to a shining example of that.
Swordmaker just threw the article out there with a rather innocuous comment - in my opinion...I guess others will vary.
I remember those days, almost took myself off his ping list because of the comments back and forth. It has slowed down a bit for now...but for some odd reason, some folks keep coming to these threads for some odd reasons, which I just don’t understand.
I guess it is time to send in another donation - I like to help make sure we apple users are helping to take care of the bills.
It was innocuous to start. Then he threw in “Yup, like this guy, real liars, use statistics to obfuscate well.” That’s not innocuous, that’s calling the blogger a liar and saying his article is using statistics to obfuscate.
There are interesting discussions to be had on these threads. The problem is the cultists, all the OSes have cultists, and all the cultists make the threads suck. They all lie and insult constantly. I try to post around the cultists. And I laugh at them. I take pride in the fact that all the major OS cults on FR have done multiple day insult fests on me without me throwing one single insult back. It shows I’m neutral, which is truthfully the best place to be. I use what gets the job done for me, the logo only matters in so far as previous quality performance.
Maybe you don't.
But that has absolutely NOTHING to do with the question of whether or not the Kindle is a good product.
I have absolutely no need for a Formula 1 race car, but that doesn't make Formula 1 race cars worthless.
The overwhelming majority of Kindle owners love them. (My wife and I have owned the original and K2 so far.)
I would disagree that the problem is the cultists - unless you mean the other cults and the self appointed cult-busters.
Interesting about the blog we are talking about. I thought it was a discussion about the reception tragedy that iPhone had - and that fact wasn’t disputed. His extrapolations, however, did appear suspect.
Anyway...I appreciate swordmakers work. He keeps me up to date on Mac news, and let’s me know when to do software upgrades and such. It is too bad that his threads cause so many such angst.
“Cult busters” are just members of other cults. There are clearly identifiable Mac, MS, and ‘Nix cults on FR; and they turn tech threads into flame wars attacking each other and anybody they think might be in one of the other cults.
I think he’s funny. He’s very addicted to a world view where Apple is a victim of evil pressers spreading “FUD” when reality is Apple is a company like any other, and they do good things and bad things like any other, and people can point out the things Apple has screwed up without it being FUD. His threads cause angst because that’s what he wants, he constantly throws insults, and then whines that it’s the other cults. It’s all part of that persecution complex.
LOL! I think you are hilarious, psychoanalyzing me based on my opinions of negative articles about Apple that are validated by subsequent events. . . in this case, the total LACK of antenna issues in every other market where the iPhone has been released. In fact, the press in those newer markets wrote numerous articles about the "American iPhone whiners" and how the local buyers could not duplicate the antenna or dropped call issues, no matter how hard they tried. It's really amazing how that "problem" seemed to disappear once the paid flacks who were generating reams of press releases stopped sending them out because the iPhone4 USERS started telling their friends they weren't experiencing the problems the news was claiming "everyone" was experiencing. How many friends telling you it's a bogus problem does it take before you start disbelieving the flacks, and trusting the word of your friends???
Apple even found a far less than expected number of iPhone 4 owners taking advantage of the FREE case or bumper program designed to solve the hyped antenna "problem". . . and has announced it's discontinuation except for their own bumpers due to lack of interest. If it was SUCH a problem, why weren't more iPhone 4 owners taking advantage of a free $20 to $30 case, or reimbursement for the one they bought already to solve their antenna problem.
You claim I "constantly throw insults" and whine—I think you would be hard pressed to show that to be true—yet here you are throwing insulting terms like "cultists" and making accusations about my motives in "polite terms" that are just as insulting as some of the vile words that have been thrown around. Just because they are said with a smile and are "politically correct" jargon terms used by the psychiatric community does not make them any less an ad hominem attack intended to minimize the person you direct them toward, me. This is not an acceptable form for discussion. . . nor is it likely to get agreement with your position in the discussion. You did not even have the common courtesy to ping me to a discussion where you malign my motives for posting these articles.
I appreciate LearnsFromMistakes' efforts to defend me.
If you think an article I post, or ping the list to, that I claim is FUD, is not, say so and give your reasons. Discuss why it's true. I'll post my reasons I think it's FUD, and link to evidence, if I have it.
The article in question was roundly criticized in other venues as well for the same reasons I criticized it. . . poor use of statistics, false representations, and unreasonable conclusions as well as false, incomparable data. I posted WHY I thought it was FUD. I always explain why I think something is FUD, usually with links to the evidence proving it to be so. His claims comparing the iPhone antenna to the Toyota acceleration issue was totally bogus. . . and I stated so. The NHTSA found on examining the "black box" records of the cars involved in the incidents that all but one involved driver error, thus invalidating one of his statistical talking points. Another was his argument that phone users call the service provider and argued that there had to be a lot more calls that Apple never got about the antenna problem that AT&T handled and imputed and used those statistics. . . but those statistics don't apply to the iPhones because as soon as AT&T gets a 611 trouble call from an iPhone, it's routed directly to Apple customer service, not AT&T. AGAIN, invalidating one of the blogger's major talking points. . . a point that he should have known had he bothered to do any due diligence before publishing. EVERY point he raised in the blog has similar problems. That's why I labeled it FUD.
And THERE you raise the Straw Man and wave him around and expect us to bow down to him. Discostu, I did not say that 75% of desktop enterprise machines only "browse the web and do e-mail"... you've artificially reduced the iPad's capabilities to that limited set for YOUR purposes.
My point is that the iPad has MORE computing capacity and capability than the vast majority of what is needed or used on the Enterprise desktop. It certainly has more power and capacity than what existed and was used productively on that desktop less than five years ago. . . and still exists on many of those desktops. Your assertions of it's limitations fly in the face of our experiences both working with the iPad AND working in the Enterprise in IT, AND seeing what people in business are actually doing with it, that you dismiss with the wave of your Straw Man limitations you claim for something you really have little experience with.
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