Tag: apple

Posted on

Apple sue-fest continues: HTC

Come on Apple, give it a rest. Get back and get busy with what you do best, innovation, and not turn into the next Microsoft and make your money from legal action against your competition (e.g. the Microsoft (SCO) vs Linux distro companies fiasco that went on for years and really went no-where for Microsoft)

As I said last week, you’re in danger of becoming the next Microsoft in more ways that one – your closed approach to iOS is blatant vendor lock-in, and you’re gunning down your competition in needless legal battles. If you carry on with this sue-fest, you’re putting me off from buying any more of your products. I love Mac OS X and my MacBook Pro, but I can’t bring myself to buy my next one from a company that pursues these kinds of legal action against your competitors. My next laptop will be running Linux (again) at this rate.

Posted on

Apple join in on Android sue-fest

Not to be left out with Oracle suing Google for megamillions for infringing on their Java patents with Android, Apple are getting in on the action and suing various Android handset manufacturers for infringing on iPhone and iOS related patents.

Apple in my mind has been getting away with murder when it comes to dominating the smartphone market. Although up until recently, iOS based phones are no longer the top selling smartphone, with Android based smartphones currently outselling iOS. Apple’s approach to control the iOS platform is exactly what Microsoft fell foul of with the multiple anti-competitive lawsuits in the 90s, and they are blatantly getting away with it unchallenged. Think about it, this is Apple’s aproach to controlling the iOS platform:

  • any software for iOS has to be approved by Apple, and only then can it be offered for sale or for free once approved
  • iOS software can only be downloaded and installed via Apple’s own AppStore delivery mechanism
  • you can’t install anything that’s not approved by Apple, and only mechanism to download and install is via their AppStore
  • the only tools to develop apps for iOS are supplied by Apple
  • apps for iOS must not emulate or simulate any other hardware or software platform that would allow them to run other software not approved by Apple
  • Apple takes a cut on every copy of every app sold by 3rd party vendors via Apple’s AppStore

Now think about this. Apple control the hardware. Apple control the software. The only vendor you can buy software from is Apple. This a completely, 100%, closed environment, completely controlled hardware and software platform, entirely controlled by one company, Apple.

Whereas Microsoft went about their mission to dominate the PC platform with a legally questionable approach, I can’t imagine Microsoft getting away with any of the approaches above, and yet Apple and iOS appear to be getting away with it.

The ironic thing is competition via Android is most likely Apple’s free pass to continue with their current strategy – as long as competition exists they most likely won’t be challenged. If their greed gets the better of them however and they continue with lawsuits against companies producing Android handsets, if they go too far and damage the longterm prospects of Android, I wonder if they’ll find themselves walking down the same path already taken by Microsoft.

Posted on

Android market share and daily activations now far exceed iOS devices

Activations of Android devices now exceed 500,000 new devices every day. That’s incredible. What’s more, Android devices now have 34% of the smartphone marketshare compared with 26% for iOS devices.

Although Apple bashes Android for it’s fragmentation and lack of standardization across devices, I believe this is precisely the ingredient that makes the platform so successful. People like choice. People don’t like being told what they can and cannot do (or what they can and cannot install on their phone). Sure, iOS devices do have a more stable platform because it is more controlled, but I’d rather go with the quirks, differences and occasional badly behaving app to get what I want, not what you (Apple)  tell me I can have or do, thank-you very much.

Posted on

Apple’s Mobile-Me-too?

There really wasn’t anything revolutionary about this weeks iCloud announcement from Apple, and left me feeling that this was a ‘me-too’ catch up from Apple to give it’s devote iOS users some equivalent features to what Android and Google users have been enjoying for the past few years already.

Android is clearly still ahead of the game with it’s cloud-based solution which seamlessly syncs your Android device address book and calendar with Google’s online web-based address book and calendar both which already have a great online web-based interface too – something which was not included in this version of Apple’s iCloud, and both cleanly integrated with Google’s killer web-based email, GMail. Cnet gave the nod to Google and Android in this regard, but listed many other features that said put iCloud ahead of the competition, but I still don’t see it. Other than the ability to sync music to the cloud without actually performing an upload (put only songs’ you’ve already purchased via iTunes, which for some users will be less than useful), this was very much a catch-up release just to keep Apple in the game. It’s interesting really since MobileMe could have been everything that Google’s cloud based services already is, but maybe the timing wasn’t right, and at the time the $99 price definitely was not right – Apple acknowledged this and dropped the price for iCloud.

So is there anything compelling that would make me move from using Google’s cloud-based services with Android to using iOS with iCloud? In summary, no.

Proudly powered by WordPress