“Yes, Android Still Beat Apple Handily in the Q4 Smartphone Market

Anyone who thought stronger-than-logical sales of the iPhone 4S in the previous quarter were going to make a difference short-term needs to breathe deeply for a few seconds.  Because it didn’t happen.”

Translation:  If it meant passing up a chance to piss on Apple, I would never breathe deeply.

[says Apple’s share of the tablet market has fallen to 58%]

Still counting shipments of non-iPad tablets as sales?  How accurate was that the last time you did it?

A 20/20 Vista

Sometime around a dozen years ago, Microsoft was hyping their next big planned Windows version, code-named “Longhorn.”  And it sounded really good (e.g. a database in a file system!).  But then the really great-sounding, revolutionary features of the OS were cancelled.  And then the whole release was delayed.  And delayed some more...

“Sell Apple; growth rate will not last”

“[I]f you are holding AAPL and believe they will be able to repeat the past quarter’s results, be warned by this article.”

Consider me warned.

“What Were 15.4 Million Apple Fans Thinking?”

“[W]ould it have hurt these 15.4 million new iPad 2 owners to wait a couple of months for either a better price on their own gadget or at the very least a chance to spend the same amount on something better?  I’m not asking iPad buyers to ‘think different’ as much as ‘think,’ period.”

15.4 million people are thoughtless Apple fans?  What chance do Apple’s competitors have?

“Apple is fabulously successful and I’m sure will continue to be so, but I do think Android will, over time, really dominate the mobile market.  It’s nothing to do with who’s better, it’s just you have thousands of companies producing these devices...  I think it’s going to be a repeat of the PC/Mac market, with 80% Android and 20% iOS.”

Number of companies!!  Again!  Yayyyy!  Back by popular demand!

“‘The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,’ the (Apple) executive said.  ‘There’s no American plant that can match that.’  Yes, slave labor does have that advantage.  Apple brings in some $400,000 per employee but little of that goes to those working in the suicide-ridden Foxconn factories, whose CEO compares workers to animals.  Another choice quote from an Apple exec:  ‘We don’t have an obligation to solve America’s problems.  Our only obligation is making the best product possible.’ This is the very definition of the sociopath corporation.”

Good thing all those Windows PCs are made in America, right?  In America, where everyone loves their job and nobody suicides.  Right?

“It’s Time for Apple to Stop Patent Trolling”

“[T]here’s a line between protecting yourself and just trying to kill everybody around you.  It’s one Apple has already crossed, and it’s not doing anybody any good.  Time to knock it off.”

“[T]he kind of R&D that $100 million [that Apple has spent suing HTC] can buy anybody is mind-boggling.  Would that money not be better spent on truly pushing the limits of innovation?  Isn’t that a better way to compete?”

Um, not if anything you develop with that money is just going to be ripped off by your competitors.

“Android, not iOS, will win over developers”

“Android will replace iOS as the most important platform to developers within the next 12 months, British analyst firm Ovum says.  It also notes an increased interest in Windows Phone and BlackBerry OS, and sees a move towards web standards in development over proprietary technologies.”

Translation:  We don’t really know what will win, but somehow, we know for sure that it won’t be iOS.

“Why the Apple textbook program will never work”

“The Apple textbook initiative announced recently is dead in the water ...”

“[Apple’s plan] will not fly on any level, as it means that purchased textbooks cannot be reused from year to year.  They ‘belong’ to the individual student, forever.”

Maybe that’s why they’re all $15 or less.  Duh.

“How Apple is sabotaging an open standard for digital books”

“For nearly two years, Apple has wooed digital book publishers and authors with its unconditional support of the open EPUB standard.  With last week’s introduction of iBooks 2.0, Apple has deliberately locked out that standard.  ...  If you read, write, or publish digital books, you should be concerned.”

Here’s why you shouldn’t be:  Amazon Kindle, the only other reasonably successful e-books reader, doesn’t use ePub at all.

“How Apple Could Fall From Grace”

“With the recent passing of CEO Steve Jobs recently, however, there is a lot of speculation about Apple’s future and whether the company can continue without the tech mogul guiding the ship’s sails.”

“If Cook were to lose any of his key players, it could cause investors to panic.  This catalyst could present itself in the form of Jonathan Ive’s departure, which has been speculated in the past.”

“Yet another doomsday scenario for Apple rests in the current incursion between Apple and Google over the smart phone market.”

“If you have a position in Apple, don’t panic.”

Thanks, I was about to.

“Enterprise Mobility: Apple 2012: 10 Major Challenges to the Company[’]s Product Strategy”

“[W]ith the passing of Jobs, Apple will no longer have its greatest strategist and advocate to lead it through turbulent times.”

“Android is a huge threat to the iPhone.”

“The iPhone 5 Must Be a Major Update — or Else”

“[I]n 2012, as more companies deliver ultrabooks, [the MacBook Air] might be viewed as the overpriced alternative that fewer customers will choose.”

“As Apple continues to sell an ever increasing number of mobile devices, it only presents a more inviting target to cyber-criminals.”

“How Will It Hold Off the Kindle Fire?”

“The iPad 2 was a bit of a disappointment for consumers looking for major improvements over the original iPad.  Apple can’t make that mistake again this year.”

“In 2011 Android tablets weren’t much of a concern for Apple.  But in 2012, they will be.”

They were going to be in 2011, weren’t they?

“Apple iPad 3: 10 Reasons You Shouldn’t Buy It at Launch”

But you should buy it later?  Can’t wait to hear about that, Don.

[predicts that Windows Phone will surpass iPhone in market share by 2015]

People don’t remember these 3-, 4-, and 5-year predictions, so let’s take special note that iSuppli predicts that this year (2012), iOS share will not go up at all, and Windows Phone share will nearly quintuple.  We’ll know how accurate that was in less than twelve months!

“Apple’s mind-bogglingly greedy and evil license agreement”

“I have never, ever seen a legal document like the one Apple has attached to its new iBooks Author program.”

“I have never seen a EULA as mind-bogglingly greedy and evil as Apple’s EULA for its new ebook authoring program.”

“Imagine if Microsoft said you had to pay them 30% of your speaking fees if you used a PowerPoint deck in a speech.”

Imagine if you could copy/paste the text and images of your PowerPoint presentation into some other presentation app and not pay Microsoft a single cent.  Mind-boggling!

“Use iBooks Author, only Apple can ever publish the result”

“[T]he point made by Venomous Porridge blogger Dan Wineman (an e-book author who first spotted the restriction) is that he never agreed to make Apple his sole distribution agent, except that he apparently did just by running the software.”

Except that you can make the same book with the same content but using other tools — like, uh, iBook Author literally didn’t exist until yesterday, so where were all these e-books coming from? — and sell it anywhere you’d like without paying Apple a dime.

Say, isn’t this the same Bill Ray who said, just before the iPhone announcement, “[T]he Apple phone will fail, and fail badly ...  The only question remaining is if, when the iPod phone fails, it will take the iPod with it.”