Has Apple lost it?

[DMB]

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/is-apple-losing-its-touch-2027809.html

It's a long article, but worth reading for both Apple fans and Apple haters.

. . .analysts have been even more scathing, saying the company is in danger of falling out of public favour. Toni Sacconaghi of Bernstein Research warned about the “emerging pattern of hubris that the company has displayed, which has increasingly pitted competitors (and regulators) against the company, and risks alienating customers over time”.

Examples include “limited disclosure practices, its attack on Adobe's Flash, its investigation into its lost iPhone prototype (which culminated in a reporter’s home being searched while he was away and computers being removed), its restrictions on app development, and its ostensibly dismissive characterisations of the iPhone's antenna issues” and Mr Sacconaghi concluded: “These issues may, over time, begin to impact consumers’ perceptions of Apple, undermining its enormous prevailing commercial success.”

Regulators in Europe and the US have begun preliminary inquiries into a number of areas of Apple’s business, concerned that its success has led it to improperly restrict competition. Because all applications that can be downloaded to the iPhone have to go through Apple’s App store, it has veto power over developers and is also preparing to control advertising sent to users’ phones. Its dominance of the music market, thanks to iTunes, is also under scrutiny.

And a feud with the software giant Adobe, whose Flash video player is used on numerous websites but which doesn’t work on the iPhone, has also gone to the competition authorities.

[munnki]

They certainly have become a huge company... and they have their fair share of zealot-type followers. Stephen Fry is a good example who seems to be a walking advertisement for any product that Apple care to release. There sometimes seems to be an absence of balance in discussions around Apple products. I remain utterly unconvinced of the value of the iPad, for example, and I almost felt that I couldn't discuss my issues with it with some colleagues as they were members of the 'religious' set of Apple followers. The truth is, as always, somewhere in between... Apple have made some great products. Their OS, for example, since the use of a Unix base has been a great, intuitive and attractive system to use. A superior OS to Windows and, in particular, the disastrous Vista. The iPhone I would also rate as a great device and, certainly, the best browsing experience I have yet obtained from a phone. However, their hardware is routinely over-priced and since it now can run on a intel platform I see no reason why people shouldn't and couldn't run the OS from separately bought hardware. Their laptops and PCs - as hardware - are over-priced and place an over-emphasis on aesthetics rather than on value. It's worth remembering that what is inside is exactly the same. This has led to a culture of what could almost be described as classism or elitism among Apple users - simply put - they are not as affordable and as value-for-money as PCs and, given that they share the exact same hardware, there is no justification beyond branding or marketing for this sort of practice.

The flash issue is complex... tbh many flash games couldn't work with the multitouch interface anyway. A huge number of them are designed with the mouse/keyboard paradigm in mind anyway rather than the touchscreen model demanded by mobile devices. It is also true that flash is a memory and resource hog. Running youtube videos on my laptop, for example, will reduce battery performance from three hours (for documents etc...) to less than one hour - and this is on a reasonably high-spec and new pc laptop. On the other hand Apple do seem to be trying to force designers and users into their lines and their paradigms for both the production of applications and for the selection of those applications themselves.

I would like to see a more balanced debate on Apple and their products with less of the evangelicalism that sometimes befogs the debate. I sometimes think this zealotry resembles the kind of conversion-passion I used to see in the MS vs Linux wars when MS were reduced to a sort of 'dark side of the force' and Linux was elevated to the status of the 'Jedi'. (The metaphor is apt as Star Wars and Star Trek always seemed to be two high concerns among the Nix community.)

I've always been happy to have a blend of systems. My NAS runs as a 4TB linux server containing my media. My old living room contained a G5 for media editing and preparation. And my bedroom linked a flatscreen TV with a Windows 7 machine for media playback. I simply wasn't prepared to spend the bad value for money that the so-called Time Machine or the Apple TV box represented. The exact same hardware running linux and with equally good interfaces could be bought for 1/4 of the price.

Balance is needed... and yeah I think an anti-competitive investigation is probably due. MS has been dealing with them for years... why shouldn't Apple suffer one. They are now the largest provider of mobile phones as I understand it and they do not work on an open model....

[Matty]

NSFW (swearing)

FL7yD-0pqZg&feature=player_embedded

[DMB]

Smart-phone rivals are coming back at Apple and accusing jobs of talking bullshit.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/samsung-say-signal-problems-an-apple-iphoneonly-issue-2029995.html

"We have not received significant customer feedback on any signal reduction issue for the Omnia II," Samsung said in a statement, referring to its smartphone model which was featured in Apple's video on Friday. . .

. . . Jobs' argument was also swiftly rejected by RIM, which said late on Friday that Apple was trying deliberately to distort the issues surrounding the iPhone 4's antenna design by asserting RIM's BlackBerry had similar reception problems.

"Apple's attempt to draw RIM into Apple's self-made debacle is unacceptable," RIM co-Chief Executives Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie said in a statement emailed late Friday.