A Memory of Gateway
About a dozen years ago or so, I was coming out of H&H Music after purchasing a large fake-book in what would ultimately prove a futile attempt to figure out how hit songs are composed. Nearby, in the set of strip centers just outside Baybrook Mall, was a “Gateway Country” store, easily visible from a zillion miles away by its big, black and white cow colors.
Every time I saw that Gateway store, it depressed me. As an Apple aficionado I had watched my favorite computer decline steadily throughout the late ’80s and into the mid ’90s under the stewardship of stiff CEOs from Planet Suit’n’tie. Both the company and its products seemed to get bleaker by the year. The computers looked more and more like generic, beige boxes, not significantly different than their market-dominating cousins on the Windows side. OS 8 and 9 looked more like a copy of Windows than ever, the interface items becoming greyer and squarer with each iteration. And Apple’s retail presence was almost completely confined to obscure, local, niche stores that didn’t do a particularly good job of showing off the product in any public way. As if to cement the certainty of Apple’s demise, Gateway, the then-juggernaut of the PC world, suddenly built their stores all over the place.
I never set foot in that Gateway store (something I now regret) — not out of spite but because I thought that my depressing feeling about Apple’s fate would only get ten times worse once I had seen the Gateway glory firsthand. So in my mind, I imagined a stunning, clean interior with gleaming, screaming-fast computers neatly arranged, and friendly, bright, knowledgeable employees brimming with answers to every doubt one might have about why to buy a Gateway PC. “If only Apple had something like that,” I thought at the time, “but I guess you have to command Gateway-like volume to support the cost. Oh well.”
And then, as in the old cartoon with the scientists at their blackboard ... a miracle occurred. First, in what seemed like a wildly improbable move, Apple bought out NeXT, and reinstalled Steve Jobs back at the helm — at first in a so-called “interim” position, but then as time went by in what became clearly a permanent leadership post. Mac OS got a complete overhaul and became OS X. The first iMacs appeared, and I’m ashamed to say my honest initial reaction was, “Oh no, a tiny, cute, all-in-one Mac! This time in candy blue! Steve’s back and he’s crazier than ever!” But that reaction would turn to new respect and admiration just months later when, to my surprise, iMac sales turned out to be quite robust.
And the miracles didn’t stop. Just as suddenly as they had appeared, the Gateway stores all closed! Just like that. And at about the same time, Apple announced that they would be opening a set of retail stores around the country. Pundits quickly predicted dismal failure for these stores — after all, if Gateway couldn’t do it, how could Apple? — but I had a gut hunch it would work, especially when I heard that Apple’s goal for these stores was just that they break even. Exactly: Don’t lose money on them, and get people seeing Apple from a pro-Apple perspective for the first time ever. That sounded right to me. And, as if we didn’t all know by now, it worked beautifully. The Apple stores were everything I imagined the Gateway stores had been, and more.
Then came the iPod. As soon as I saw the first commercial for it, with a Cosmo Kramer-like New Yorker jamming his way out of his apartment to the hopping sounds of the Propellorheads, I breathed a sigh of relief: I had almost taken the bait and bought a Creative Nomad just weeks earlier when my all-things-tech buddy Jim Kluka (now an Indianapolis home theater designer) showed me one in the Vegas Harrah’s. Cool indeed, but not quite portable enough and not quite user-navigable enough, I thought. Better wait until they come out with a smaller, easier-to-use model. And they did — Apple did. Imagine that!
No sooner did the iPod take off than the pundits once again predicted doom. Here comes Microsoft with their own music store technologies and DRM, and they’ll license it to anyone who wants to buy! Meaning everyone but Apple. Too bad, said the naysayers, it’s going to be a repeat of Windows beating out the Mac all over again. And VHS beating out Beta. But a few pro-Apple voices said no — Beta only ever had dominance of an infant market, and the Mac never rose above 10% market share. Neither product was beaten out of a dominant share of a mature market. That position has been enjoyed only by VHS, by Windows — and now, by iPod. Needless to say, the iPod is still going strong, years after the Beta/Mac analogy wore thin and dropped off the op/ed radar.
Need I even mention iPhone? Icing on the cake. Its the PDA and the cell-phone both finally done right, and with an even better iPod thrown into the bargain. Who will confidently predict its failure? Anyone? Anyone? And hey, I think I just heard someone say that Apple’s market share in computers (not handheld devices) is rising towards 10% for the first time since the mid ’80s. How high will it go this time? Wait, did I just hear the sound of Windows proponents grumbling that Vista is a basket of headaches? And how about all those viruses swarming all over the Windows community? I’ve never installed anti-virus software on my Mac, never even configured a firewall. It just doesn’t seem to be a problem.
In my mind’s eye, I can still see that Gateway store with its white paint blazing in the insane Texas heat. Now comfortably relegated to the status of memory. Thank you, Steve. Miracles do happen.
Update 2007.09.03 — Just heard that Gateway has now been bought out by Acer, for a small fraction of their valuation back when I used to see that Gateway store at Baybrook Mall. Oh, and Baybrook now has an Apple store. In the mall. I’ll have to check it out if I’m ever back in Texas.
Update 2008.01.30 — You know those somewhat-cool-looking Dell kiosks you see in many malls? The kiosks where you can play with Dell products, but not actually buy anything? Dell’s just announced they’re getting rid of them. Too sweet.
December 2011 update: After a near-four-year hiatus, the Dell kiosk has reappeared at one of my local malls (Polaris Fashion Place). It looks significantly cooler than the old one, but still doesn’t seem to be attracting crowds.
Update 2008.03.18 — At its peak (in the latter half of the ’80s) the Mac had nearly 10% market share, then sunk to 5% or less for a very long time after that. NPD just reported that the Mac hit 14% last month, and was 25% by revenue. It has begun.
Note: 25% / 14% = 1.8, which means that, on average, Mac users paid 80% more for their computers. That does not, however, mean that a Mac costs 80% more than a similarly equipped PC. (Do a price comparison and see for yourself.) It simply means that the average Mac user buys a better-equipped model than does the average PC purchaser.
Update 2008.04.11 — This is just getting better and better every few months. Gartner analysts say Windows is collapsing due to bad design.
Update 2008.04.23 — Apple just had a record quarter, in the middle of a recession, no less. And check this portentous analysis of Microsoft’s situation at RoughlyDrafted.
Update 2008.05.01 — Joel On Software’s very negative assessment of Microsoft’s “architecture astronauts”, which reminds me of Surface, and how you can’t use Windows-dominance leverage against successful third-party products when those successful third-party products don’t actually exist.
And don’t miss this hilarious episode of Fake Steve gloating over the iPhone SDK and the equally hysterical first reader response and its counter-response! (Update 2009.11.25: Sadly, all the original comments are now gone. But the article itself is still available here.)
Update 2008.07.16 — Apple passes Acer to become #3 US PC vendor. Say, didn’t Acer recently buy up Gateway?
Update 2008.07.24 — Satoshi Nakajima, chief architect of Windows 95 and 98, switches to Mac, and “says that he’ll never touch a PC again.” Steven Smith, most ardent Zune supporter, gives up and says he will hide his Zune tattoos.
Update 2008.10.21 — iPhone is now the top-selling smartphone beating out second-place BlackBerry by 25%.
Update 2008.11.10 — iPhone is now the #1 selling model of mobile phone (not just smartphone) in USA, beating out the former #1, Motorola’s RAZR.
Update 2008.12.05 — Worldwide, iPhone now outsells all Windows Mobile devices combined.
Update 2009.01.24 — Microsoft is getting ready to lay off 5,000 people. Apple’s experienced steady revenue growth throughout the Bush recession.
Update 2009.02.10 — Microsoft shareholders enraged at billions and billions of dollars of R&D with nothing much to show for it.
Update 2009.03.02 — Ages 12, 9, and 6, the children of Bill Gates are prohibited from owning an iPod or iPhone.
Update 2009.04.23 — iPhone’s web traffic, worldwide, now surpasses all Symbian phones, putting iPhone in first place. Microsoft has its first revenue drop since going public in 1986.
Update 2009.04.30 — Remember this update from one year ago (see above)? Apple had a record quarter in the middle of a recession. Well here we are a year later, the recession is still going strong, and Apple just eclipsed last year’s record quarter with another record quarter. Oh, and by the way, Microsoft’s year-over-year quarterly profits are down 32%.
Update 2009.05.21 — iPhone market share doubled from the year-ago quarter.
Update 2009.05.24 — Three pieces of malware found on factory-fresh Windows netbook.
Update 2009.05.29 — Dell’s net income falls 63% from the year-ago quarter.
Update 2009.06.03 — Apple’s New York glass-cube store pulled in revenue of $440 million last year — and all during a recession.
Update 2009.06.22 — iPhone 3GS sells over one million units during its opening weekend.
Update 2009.07.03 — London Stock Exchange to abandon Windows. The iPhone is now the best-selling smartphone in Japan, a country that supposedly wasn’t interested in the iPhone. (Update: The London Stock Exchange switched to Linux, and they’ve been having some problems with that.)
Update 2009.07.23 — Apple’s market cap passes Google’s. Apple now accounts for 20% of all profits in the entire mobile phone industry. Apple now receives 91% of all revenue on computers costing $1,000 or more.
Update 2009.07.28 — Apple’s market valuation now greater than HP and Dell combined.
Update 2009.08.04 — The iPhone now pulls in a third of all mobile phone profits worldwide (not just on smartphones).
Update 2009.08.06 — Remember the highly successful IBM ThinkPad line of laptops? That was sold off to Lenovo? Lenovo just reported a $16 million loss for the quarter.
Update 2009.08.12 — iPhone sales increase more than 6x during the second quarter of 2009.
Update 2009.08.17 — iPhone now the bestselling phone (not just smartphone) in Japan.
Update 2009.09.02 — Of the fifteen entrants in Microsoft’s own app development contest, the only one to develop for a non-Microsoft platform (the iPhone) wins the contest.
Update 2009.09.04 — Dell’s latest quarterly year-over-year profits are down 23%.
Update 2009.10.19 — Mac sales up 17% from the year-ago quarter. And they’re higher than any quarter in Apple’s history — including holiday quarters (which this wasn’t).
Update 2009.11.05 — iPhone app count now past 100,000. Steve Jobs named Fortune’s “CEO of the Decade.” Apple now has no debt and greater liquid assets than any other tech company.
Update 2009.11.12 — Apple’s iPhone profits overtake Nokia’s, putting iPhone in the top spot. iPhones are now 17% of all smartphones sold worldwide.
Update 2009.11.19 — Dell’s net income drops 54% from the year-ago quarter.
Update 2009.11.23 — The iPhone is now 50% of all mobile data traffic in the USA, UK, and worldwide.
Update 2009.11.25 — Last month Apple received nearly half of all desktop computer retail revenue in the USA.
Update 2009.12.17 — In about a year in Japan, iPhone takes close to half of the smartphone market.
Update 2009.12.21 — January-October 2009 data show that more iPhone 3G phones are in use than any other single model of mobile phone in the USA.
Update 2010.01.25 — Mac sales up 33% from the year-ago quarter. iPhones up 100% from the year-ago quarter.
Update 2010.02.01 — NPD now reports that 90% of all $1,000+ computers sold in the last quarter of 2009 in the USA were Macs. That’s not just by revenue, it’s not just by retail, and it’s not just by laptops.
Update 2010.02.05 — Former Microsoft VP describes Microsoft as a “failing,” “clumsy,” “uncompetitive,” “inept,” and “dysfunctional” company, crippled by “internecine warfare,” that has experienced “a steady exit of its best and brightest.” “It’s not an accident that almost all the executives in charge of Microsoft’s music, e-books, phone, online, search and tablet efforts over the past decade have left.”
Update 2010.02.09 — The iPhone is now 25% of all smartphones sold the USA.
Update 2010.02.25 — Apple just sold its 10 billionth song on iTunes.
Update 2010.03.07 — Apple named Fortune’s most-admired company for the third consecutive year. Microsoft set to spend $9 billion on new R&D.
Update 2010.03.14 — Total remote access Windows trojan found in factory-fresh Energizer USB charger software install. Apple’s market cap now about equal to Walmart. Mariposa botnet client found on factory-fresh Android phone.
Update 2010.03.19 — Three pieces of malware found on up to 3,000 HTC phones.
Update 2010.04.24 — iPhone is now 72% of the Japanese smartphone market.
Update 2010.04.30 — Apple passes Motorola to become largest US phone maker. Major provider of Windows anti-virus software accidentally breaks large number of its users’ PCs. Microsoft’s Bing division reportedly losing over $700 million per quarter.
Update 2010.05.17 — The iPad sells a million units in less than a month.
Update 2010.05.26 — Apple’s market cap now larger than Microsoft’s, putting Apple in the number one spot for tech companies worldwide, and the number two spot for American companies of any kind (behind only Exxon Mobil).
Update 2010.06.04 — Windows Mobile game silently calls Somalia and Antarctica, costing its users over $6 per minute. Apple is the only US computer maker to outgrow the market in the January-March quarter.
Update 2010.06.14 — Factory-fresh Olympus cameras found to carry Windows virus. Former high-level Microsoft employee recommends 30,000-40,000 job cuts (about a third of Microsoft’s current workforce).
Update 2010.06.22 — The iPad sells three million units in well under three months. Apple stops taking pre-orders for the iPhone 4 after receiving 600,000 of them in one day.
Update 2010.07.03 — The iPhone 4 sells 1.7 million units on its opening weekend. Dell reportedly sells many millions of defective PCs and lies about the cause of the problem.
Update — Now a juicy lawsuit.
Update 2010.07.09 — The just-released-then-cancelled Microsoft KIN phones are alleged to have sold only 503 units in their few weeks on the market. Fortune magazine picks Steve Jobs as the smartest CEO in tech, and Apple’s Jony Ive as the smartest designer. Apple now has more cash than any other American company of any kind.
Update 2010.07.20 — The iPhone 4 sells three million units in its first three weeks. Apple has its best quarter ever, with profits up 77% from the year-ago quarter.
Update 2010.07.23 — Dell ships computers with physically undeletable (i.e. hardwired) malware. Dell settles with SEC for $100 million after being found to have padded their books for about twenty consecutive quarters with under-the-table, don’t-use-AMD’s-chips payments from Intel. “[The SEC] claims that, at their peak, the exclusivity payments from Intel represented 76% of Dell’s quarterly operating income.” After spending $500 million to buy Sidekick, and more money to turn it into KIN, Microsoft is now writing-off the project to the tune of $240 million.
Update 2010.08.05 — Apple’s already-very-high retail store revenue was increased 73% by the iPad.
Update 2010.08.10 — Android trojan discovered to silently send text messages that run up charges on the user’s phone bill.
Update 2010.08.18 — SEC says over 25% of Dell shareholders want founder and CEO Michael Dell to be ejected from the company.
Update 2010.08.31 — Android’s app DRM quickly cracked; Google says developers are at fault. Apple’s App Store hits 250,000 apps. AutoCAD, one of the last big you-must-use-Windows holdouts, is coming to Mac OS X in about a month. Microsoft allegedly preparing to spend $500 million on Windows Phone 7 promotion over the next few months.
Update 2010.09.03 — Apple selling iPads about as fast as they can make them — and making about two million per month, pushing its manufacturers for three million.
Update 2010.09.11 — Apple’s manufacturer producing about 4 million iPhones per month. And last I heard, Apple’s still selling them about as fast as they can make them.
Update 2010.09.16 — Best Buy CEO says that up to half of their notebook PC sales have been devoured by the iPad.
Update 2010.09.23 — Apple’s mobile phone profits now higher than Nokia, Samsung, and LG combined. Apple passes PetroChina to become the #2 company in the world by market valuation — just 15% less than #1 Exxon Mobil.
Update 2010.10.03 — Iran’s computing infrastructure being wrecked by a Windows virus. Almost a year after Windows 7’s release, only a fifth of Windows users are using it, and two-thirds of Windows users are using the ten-year-old Windows XP. Update 2011.01.01: Windows version percentages about the same three months later.
Update 2010.10.19 — Apple’s App Store passes 300,000 apps. Apple has another fantastic, record-breaking quarter. Advertising Age names Apple “Marketer of the Decade.”
Update 2010.10.30 — CNN article calls Microsoft a “dying consumer brand.” In Microsoft’s 2010 summer quarter, during which their revenue rode to a record high on pent-up corporate refreshes from Windows XP to Windows 7 (25% higher than their year-ago quarterly revenue) — Apple’s revenue exceeded Microsoft’s by 25%. Last quarter, Apple took nearly half of all profits in the mobile phone industry.
Update 2010.11.11 — HP pays over $16 million to settle charges of using bribery to get their computers into school districts in Dallas and Houston.
Update 2010.11.26 — Last quarter, Mac sales grew three times as fast as the rest of the computer industry. Oprah Winfrey names the iPad her “No. 1 favorite thing ever.” HP sells off 98-acre Cupertino campus; Apple buys it up.
Update 2010.12.03 — Old Navy trying out Apple’s iPod Touch based point-of-sale system. Apple has likely sold its ten millionth iPad, and the holiday shopping rush is just getting started.
Update 2010.12.07 — MarketWatch names Steve Jobs CEO of the Decade.
Update 2010.12.23 — Since its release a few months ago, the new Apple TV has been selling about 375,000 per month: faster than any similar device. Microsoft announces that its hardware partners sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 phones its first six weeks — to stores and mobile service providers. No consumer sales figures are provided. The Financial Times names Steve Jobs Person of the Year.
Update 2011.01.01 — Possible botnet trojan found on Android. Apple’s market valuation passes $300 billion.
Update 2011.01.21 — Last quarter, of all major computer makers only Apple and Toshiba experienced unit sales gains from the year-ago quarter, with Apple gaining 44% more units than did Toshiba. Apple’s iTunes App Store passing 10 billion downloads. Apple has another amazing, record-breaking quarter. Apple passes Nokia to become the biggest mobile phone provider by revenue. Microsoft has laid off thousands of workers over the past few years, and is experiencing a huge, upper-management and engineering brain drain.
Update 2011.01.26 — iPad App Store passes 60,000 (iPad-specific) apps. According to a Reuters report, Apple’s quarterly profits are about to beat Microsoft’s for the first time in twenty years. (Update: Apple came close, but not there yet.)
Update 2011.02.01 — Microsoft’s online services lost $2.5 billion last year. Microsoft’s Bing search engine found to be using Google search to decide what pages to return for some searches. (Update: Microsoft denies this.)
Update 2011.02.04 — The Verizon iPhone 4’s preorders break Verizon’s first-day sales record in 2 hours — and 15 hours after that, they have to stop taking orders so there’ll be some phones to sell on the retail start date.
Update 2011.02.14 — Apple passes Sony and Motorola in total handset sales. Microsoft cancels Drive Extender, the latest in a long line of failed file-system projects. Microsoft paying Nokia at least a billion dollars to use Windows Phone 7 in future Nokia smartphones. Apple on the verge of becoming Samsung’s biggest customer.
Update 2011.02.18 — During 2010, the “year of Android,” Apple’s iOS App Store was #1 with over 80% of all mobile app revenue. (Android was #4 after #2 RIM and #3 Nokia.)
Update 2011.02.23 — January Mac sales 20% higher than January 2010. Microsoft’s first update to Windows Phone 7 is a huge screwup that renders some users’ phones permanently unusable. Apple’s stock price is up 70% from a year ago.
Update 2011.03.04 — Apple sells its 100 millionth iPhone, and has paid out $2 billion to App authors. Apple sold 15 million iPads in its first 9 months — more than all Windows-based tablets combined over the past ten years. 21 Android apps discovered to be infected with malware. Canadian couple billed thousands of dollars per month when their Galaxy phone goes berserk with data usage — at one point using 30 hours of data in a 24-hour period, according to the couple. Apple is Fortune’s Most Admired company for the fourth consecutive year. Microsoft is reportedly going to release Windows 8 tablets in the second half of 2012 — about a year-and-a-half from now.
Update 2011.03.11 — In a move that no PC maker would have dared attempt back in the ’90s, HP now announces that all its future PCs will ship with not just Windows, but also a totally separate, non-Microsoft OS: webOS. Microsoft, owner of such generic-sounding trademarks as “Windows,” “Office,” and “Word,” is reduced to competing against Apple by trying to persuade a court that Apple’s trademark on “App Store” is too generic — and that Apple’s trademark filing uses too small of a font.
Update 2011.03.16 — Last Friday, the iPad 2 went on sale and very quickly sold out everywhere. Apple opened its stores extra early yesterday for the second shipment, and that too sold out completely in a short time. After four years of sliver-of-the-market sales, Microsoft reportedly canceling the Zune.
Update 2011.04.03 — iPad 2 generating new lines every time a new shipment arrives. WWDC sells out for the fourth year in a row — last year it sold out in eight days, this year in under twelve hours. Barron’s names Steve Jobs world’s most valuable CEO.
Update 2011.04.07 — Clorox employees, formerly given BlackBerries but now allowed to choose their own phone, adopt iPhone by 92%.
Update 2011.04.13 — In first quarter ’11, US Mac sales grew 10% over the year-ago quarter, while the rest of the PC market shrank 11% — and Acer fell 42%. Acer is now behind the Mac in US PC sales, and that’s not counting the iPad.
Update 2011.04.18 — March Mac sales up 47% from a year ago.
Update 2011.04.20 — Apple posts yet another incredible, record-breaking quarter, in which revenues were up 83% from the year-ago quarter, and profits were up 95%. Apple has outgrown the PC industry for the 20th consecutive quarter. Apple passes Nokia to become the biggest mobile phone vendor by revenue. J.P. Morgan’s Mark Moskowitz calls Apple a “magical growth story,” and says that Apple’s growth “defies the laws of gravity.” Total sales of Apple TV approaching 2 million.
Update 2011.04.29 — Apple’s cash reserve now greater than the market valuations of RIM, Nokia, and Motorola combined. Three months ago Apple came close to beating Microsoft’s quarterly profits — this time they did beat them, by 14%.
Update 2011.05.02 — Apple now receives 50% of all profits in the mobile phone business.
Update 2011.05.14 — Apple’s April sales more than double what they were a year ago. Skype, which has been operating at a net loss, purchased by Microsoft for $8.5 billion. iPhone named “Fastest-Selling Portable Gaming System” by Guinness World Records.
Update 2011.05.20 — Last quarter, Mac sales grew 66%, almost 15 times as much as the rest of the industry’s 4.5% growth.
Update 2011.06.03 — Apple now worth more than Microsoft and Intel combined.
Update 2011.06.10 — Apple is now the world’s largest buyer of semiconductors by amount spent.
Update 2011.06.18 — Per current stock prices, Apple now has about enough cash to buy RIM, Nokia, Motorola, and HTC combined.
Update 2011.07.01 — iPad now at 100,000 apps. Windows now has a several-million-strong “indestructible” malware botnet.
Update 2011.07.07 — Apple’s App Store now at 15 billion downloads; Apple’s running at a billion downloads per month and selling nearly five million iPads per month.
Update 2011.07.13 — Apple is the fastest growing retailer, up 80% year-over-year. (Note: “Fastest growing” usually means “really tiny” — in this case, not so much.)
Update 2011.07.22 — Apple opening 33 new retail stores over the next two months. Since their start ten years ago, Apple retail has seen over a billion visitors. Apple has yet another amazing, record-breaking quarter. Apple’s iPad business is now twice as big as Dell’s consumer PC business. Microsoft omits Windows Phone 7 data from its quarterly results report. Apple now selling more smartphones than Nokia, putting Apple in first place. Apple projected to soon pass Exxon Mobil in market valuation, which will put Apple in first place for all companies of any type, worldwide. Acer has second consecutive quarterly loss.
Update 2011.07.26 — RIM laying off over 10% of its workforce. A survey shows that over a third of consumers want to buy the unannounced iPhone 5 “sight unseen.” Android phone return rate may be as high as 40%. Microsoft’s Online Services Division (i.e. Bing) has lost money every quarter for the past 22 quarters (typically several hundred million dollars per quarter).
Update 2011.07.30 — Apple now has two thirds of the profits in the mobile phone industry. Apple’s cash reserves now greater than those of the U.S. government. Electronics Arts says iPad is “our fastest growing platform.” Google TV returns reportedly outnumbering sales — Apple TV selling about half a million units per quarter.
Update 2011.08.10 — Apple now has the highest market valuation of any company in the world.
Update 2011.08.11 — Microsoft’s smartphone market share fell over the past two quarters from 8% to 5.8%.
Update 2011.08.19 — HP kills its much-hyped iPad knockoff, the TouchPad, and plans to spin off its Windows PC business. Apple’s sales overtake Lenovo’s in China. Apple now as valuable as all 32 euro zone banks combined.
Update 2011.08.24 — Acer posts a quarterly loss of nearly a quarter of a billion dollars. Android malware surges while iOS remains malware-free. Apple Retail makes more money per square foot than any other retail chain — 89% more than second-place Tiffany & Co.
Update 2011.08.29 — HP, the largest maker of Windows PCs, is apparently imploding.
Update 2011.09.08 — Lowe’s now using Apple’s iPod Touch based point-of-sale system.
Update 2011.09.22 — Apple tops computer satisfaction survey for the eighth consecutive year. Microsoft’s Bing division bleeding about a billion dollars per quarter. HP pays their CEO of eleven months $25 million to get lost — their third eight-figure CEO-ejection payoff in about six years.
Update 2011.09.28 — Microsoft employee morale tanking as “droves” walk out of Ballmer’s annual company meeting. Over 40% of US cell phone users plan to buy the unannounced iPhone 5.
Update 2011.10.04 — iOS app store now past 500,000 apps. iPad past 140,000 iPad-specific apps.
Update 2011.10.12 — iPhone 4S receives a million pre-orders in one day. Windows Phone 7 estimated to be hovering between 1.3% and 1.6% market share. Investment firm recommends that RIM fire its two CEOs.
Update 2011.10.18 — Steve Jobs’s death evoked a huge outpouring of sympathy and respects from all over the world. iPhone 4S sells over 4 million units on its opening weekend. Apple’s latest quarterly results: iPhones, Macs, net profits, and iPads are up 21%, 26%, 54%, and 166%, respectively, over the year-ago quarter.
Update 2011.10.21 — Acer posts second straight quarterly loss.
Update 2011.10.28 — LG Mobile, a major Android phone manufacturer, reports a net loss of $128 million — more than twice last quarter’s loss. Android’s ability to run the most current OS on their phones is reportedly atrocious. Apple’s sales in China more than quadruple from $3 billion to $13 billion in one year.
Update 2011.11.04 — The iPhone is now over 60% of all mobile web traffic. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer dips below 50% of web browser market share. Steve Jobs’s biography is now the top selling book in the USA. New Windows virus takes total control of your PC if you just open an infected Word document. The only phone maker to grow its subscriber base since last June is Apple. The entire mobile phone subscriber base is now over 10% iPhones.
Update 2011.11.17 — Android malware reportedly jumps 472% in the last four months. Annie Leibovitz calls iPhone the “snapshot camera of today.” Study indicates that iPhone has passed BlackBerry as the phone of preference in the enterprise. After over four years of hype, Microsoft’s Surface is finally available — to pre-order — for a mere $8,400.
Update 2011.11.21 — If you include tablets, Apple is about to become the highest-volume computer maker in the world.
Update 2011.11.27 — An IBM study indicates that over 10% of all Black Friday online sales (of any kind of product at all) were iPhones and iPads.
Update 2011.11.30 — RAM chip makers who bet big on never-ending PC growth are losing tens of billions of dollars while the iPad continues to sell like hotcakes with just half a gig of RAM. Apple now selling more iPads than Dell sells PCs.
Update 2011.12.02 — RIM loses $485 millon on unsold PlayBook tablets.
Update 2011.12.09 — Mac sales growing more than six times as fast as the computer industry average.
Update 2011.12.12 — Mac App Store tops 100 million downloads.
Update 2011.12.21 — After several years of using the position to announce lackluster products that subsequently flopped, Microsoft says this year’s CES keynote will be their last. Steve Jobs posthumously awarded Special Merit Grammy, and honored by sculpture in Budapest, Hungary.
Update 2012.01.04 — Microsoft reportedly paying $10-$15 bounties to retail staff for each Windows Phone 7 phone they sell.
Update 2012.01.13 — The fastest-growing computer language is now Objective-C, the language used almost exclusively for iOS development. If you include tablets, Apple’s market share is now at least as large as that of any other computer maker.
Update 2012.01.16 — Apple now the eighth most valuable brand, worldwide. For the first time since the mid-1980s, Windows PCs are now slightly less than 50% of all personal computing devices, having been on a very consistent, accelerating, percentage-share decline since about 2005.
Update 2012.01.20 — iOS now ahead of BlackBerry in corporate network usage. Apple’s market valuation now twice Google’s. According to the FBI, two former Dell employees were involved in a $62 million insider trading scam involving Dell and Nvidia stock.
Update 2012.01.24 — Apple has an astounding, record-smashing quarter, one in which its profits exceeded Google’s revenue, and iPad sales (double the year-ago quarter) exceeded US Windows PC sales. Apple has sold over 4.2 million of the new, iOS-based Apple TV boxes. Apple’s liquid assets nearing $100 billion, and closely following an exponential growth curve for the past six years. Every year since the iPhone debuted, it’s sold more than all previous years combined.
Update 2012.01.28 — In the U.S., Macs (just Macs, not iPads) increased 20.7% from the year-ago quarter, while the rest of the personal computer industry shrank 8.5%. According to Symantec, five million Android users may have been infected by a single malware package. Wisconsin using Microsoft settlement money to buy iPads.
Update 2012.01.30 — If you count tablets as computers, Apple has now passed HP to become the #1 computer vendor. Apple’s iPhone revenue alone is now bigger than all of Microsoft’s revenue, and Apple’s total revenue is more than twice Microsoft’s.
Update 2012.02.03 — Apple now makes 75% of the profits in the mobile phone industry.
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