What Does Record Blackberry Trade-Ins Mean?

According to Gazelle (Electronista), buyer of used gadgets and electronics, reported a record number of Blackberries were traded in last week.  And this was a record that broke another record number of Blackberry trade-in a month ago.

Amazon Had A Bad Quarter; Could Get Worse Long Term Once Apple Gets Into Payments

You know what's interesting about Apple's 30% cut from apps to movies to books?  It's 30% of someone else's money that it is taking for itself.  Now, Apple has said that the 30% take it's enforcing allows it only to operate its stores at around break-even point.  Still, as more people go digital, all that money is going to add up.

And this is even before Apple, with access to around two hundred million credit cards, begins to get into the mobile and online payment business.  I get the feeling that Apple isn't looking at credit card like transaction fees.  I think Apple wants a piece of the profit as well. Apple could leverage its considerable knowledge of its customers and move into deals with retailers in ways unlike anything we've seen before.

And Amazon, which has just reported its own Netflix-like earnings and missing expectations, expectations that were not unreasonable like those imposed on Apple, needs to be aware of that.

Apple will be working out deals with retailers not unlike one like its got for its app developers and the app store where it'll take a percentage of the transaction.  Probably not 30% but it'll want something in return.

Thus, it's unlikely that Amazon could come to some sort of a deal with Apple because of its already thin margins.  And with Apple and Amazon competing in the tablet and digital sales, Apple could possibly steal customers away from Amazon in areas where it will hurt Amazon the most.

How?  Essentially now, Amazon is uses profits from other areas to subsidize its digital content expansions and efforts.  Amazon is losing money on each of the Kindle Fire it sells, hoping to make it back through digital sales. At the same time, sales from other departments are allowing Amazon to make content deals like TV and movies for streaming or sale.

Once Apple gets into the payment business, one of two things or both will happen.  Apple will steal sales from Amazon because Apple will shepherd its iTunes users to its partners or Amazon will play ball and give Apple money.  And either way or both, Apple will wants its pound of fresh from Amazon.

Apple has built a large platform and with it a very lucrative ecosystem unlike anything we've ever seen before.  Even with Microsoft's desktop dominance, it is not able to extract the kind of money that Apple has been able to or will be able to.

The only way Amazon can escape this fate is if there is a wholesale departure of iOS and Mac users over to its Kindle platform.  Right now, Jeff Bezos and company, will need to convince investors that sacrificing  hundreds of millions, possibly billions today as it invests and builds out its digital future will bring in a lot of profits later on.

Of course, Bezos did it once just after the dot.com bubble in early 2000.  This time, Amazon will need to do it again against a vastly complicated and competitive Apple with $86 billion in the bank.

Could There Be A Run On iPhone 4S Soon?

According to a variety of reports, Apple was not the only one to have missed their forecast on iPhone sales.  Both AT&T and Verizon all saw lower number of activations - largely due to people waiting for the iPhone 4 successor.

On top of that, what is scary about iPhone's potential growth is that Android and other competing devices, with newer models, did not see their sales increase.  It just sounded like people either wanted to jump ship to the iPhone 4S or that they simply wanted to see what Apple will be offering.

Then the Blackberry blackout happened.  It was an early Christmas gift for Apple.  According to a new survey, about 40% of Blackberry users now want to get an iPhone.  And this is only the beginning.  Since we do not know how this survey was conducted and who were a part of it, we can safely believe that this is only the beginning.

After all, the consumerization of IT is in full swing.  On top of that, Apple is looking like the place to be if you want the latest and greatest from the perspectives of Blackberry users and possibly Android users who are looking at the iPhone, particularly those on the Sprint and Verizon networks, now that its available to them.

The next couple of quarters is going to be very important.  Apple should be able to grow its market here in the US but it really depends on how much.  We'll be watching to see if it's enough to push RIM further back and bring Android back from the dominating position it is in right now.

As we get closer to Thanksgiving and shopping gets into full swing, don't be surprised of Apple finds itself that it cannot keep up with iPhone demands.

One more thing. Siri.  Let's face it.  If Google did not come up with an answer for it with Android 4, there is just no way RIM has something in the works that is even remotely close.

Source:  Cult of Mac.

PCs Not Going Away But Tablets Is Where Future of Mobile Computing Is At; Change Over Has Started

For those who still doesn’t get what’s going on, consider this.  The iPads alone have pretty much vanquished the netbooks and really put a hurt on companies likes Acer that had relied on netbook shipments to pad their PC sales numbers.

According to ABI Research, 7.3 million netbooks “shipped”, not sold.  On the other hand, 13.6 million tablets were “shipped”.  Again, not all of it sold.  As you can see, the volume of tablets shipped doubted that of the netbooks.  And while many research firms refused to face this facts, this started in Q2 of 2010 when the original iPad went on sale.  It’s only now that these firms realized what’s going on.

Even as Acer, which had relied on netbook figures to pad their PC shipments, was going through financial pains, research guys and analysts refused to face the facts.

Now, let’s be clear about something here – iPads alone accounted for a vast majority of that tablet figure.  Of the 13.6 million tablets, about 75% of that were iPads.  This is higher than the 68% figure ABI came up with. Close you might say, right?  Wrong.

Here’s why iPad figures should be high if you want to go with what’s shipped, not just sold.

In Q2, Apple sold 9.25 million iPads.  Sold. Not just shipped.  Now, Apple also ended up with about a couple of weeks of inventory because supplies were so tight.  So, let’s add another million to what Apple has in inventory.  That means Apple both sold and shipped closer to 10.25 million iPads.

Based on this figure, Apple accounted for more than 75% of all tablets shipped in Q2.  And no one really knows what the actual netbook sell-through rate is.  The 9.25 iPads sold could alone have doubled those of actual netbooks sold.


Source:  Boy Genius Report.

Tablet: Some Were Disappointed By iPad Sales, But Could The iPhone 4S Have Been The Culprit?

The general move to tablets is well under way now.  It doesn’t matter if you’re an iPad user which constitute a vast majority of sales (not just shipped) and near totality in Web traffic from tablets or an Android tablet, Playbook, or Touchpad user, we are a special breed of pioneers who are blazing a trail towards new means of mobile computing and entertainment.

One of the most interest things is that while Apple has sold millions upon millions of iPads, there does not seem to be a general acceptance that tablets are here to stay.  Moreover, the sales of iPads is something that is watch so closely over that any slip up is cause to disparage the tablet market in general, and specifically, something for analysts and pundits to find fault in Apple.

Apple sold more iPads than its internal numbers reported and above Wall Street concensus.  No, it did not sell thirteen, fourteen, or even fifteen iPads.  But it sold enough.  Eleven point one million iPads to be exact.  That’s a 166% increase from a year ago.

Still, if you want to find fault with this figure, I’ll give you one.  iPhone 4S rumors and the persisting rumors that went all the way back to even before the iPad 2 was introduced by Steve Jobs on March 2, 2011.  A hint, rumor, or whatever you want to call it from John Gruber of Daring Fireball hinted that even though Steve called 2011 the year of the iPad 2, we might see an iPad 3 this fall.

For the next few months, iPhone and iPad rumors worked in tandem to provide eyeballs for blogs and, worse, mainstream media – putting kids through college and food on tables through the ads displayed. Worse, sales of the iPad, like the iPhones, were put off as consumers anticipate an iPad upgrade.

So, if folks want to find a culprit to their wild iPad sales predictions, they need to lay the fingers squarely where it belongs.  The iPad sales could have also been affected by other tablet rumors like Amazon’s tablet plans which we now know is the Kindle Fire.

We’ll have to see just where the iPad sales for the Holidays quarter take us.  Keep in mind that iPad 3 are rumored to be going into production right about now so I would not be surprised if that rumor snowballs into something much much bigger.

Apple’s “Think Different” Attitude Includes How It Perceives Talent

Would you make Tim Cook the CEO of one of the most profound, visionary companies in the world?  Would you leave in the hands of Cook, Ives, Schiller, and a few others without Ivy League education a vision that that time and time again created change in a civilization-wide scale?

Sure, today, you would.  But back in the late 1990s, if you were Steve Jobs, would you have hired them for the jobs to turn Apple around?  Chances are, you probably would not.

I wouldn’t.  And that lies in just how differently Steve Jobs, and now Apple, things about the world.  And I’m glad that this Forbes post highlighted just how differently Apple sees talent.

And the post goes on to say that there does not seem to be a formula about how Apple looks for people it finds talented.  Absolutely right.  If there was one, I don’t think Apple would be as successful as it is today.  However, I know this much.  B-schools, Ivy Leagues, and others have their values and as well as disadvantages.  Look at Washington today.  It’s run by a long of Harvard and Yale folks for the last couple of Administrations and look where its gotten us.

Please, understand that I am not disparaging these schools or the education its students pick up.  But it does create a group-think that maybe a company like Apple or any other organization that prides itself on pushing the limits of what is possible are not looking for.

Siri – It’s About Speed, A Serial Killer Convinced My Friend To Go With iPhone 4S

Last night I had dinner with a good doctor friend.  We got to talk about the state of the health system as he sees it from the trenches in the ER, his office, and, more importantly, his patients.  But he’s a tech guy too and now, he’s not sure he’s getting the Galaxy S II or the Galaxy Nexus, two of the top Android devices I recommended to him.

He had expressed a desire to leave Apple’s ecosystem.  I told him, yeah fine, he’ll love the Galaxy phones because he likes a more opened approach.

Then for some reason, we hit the topic about the Night Stalker.

He was a serial killer in the mid-80s.  Anyway, he asked if he was still alive.  I didn’t know.  The only thing I remembered about him was that he scared the crap out of him as a child.

Instinctively, we both when for our phones.  He has a 3GS and I’ve got my 4S.  I was able to get the answer from Siri via a Web search even before he opened Safari.

It was fast, accurate, and Siri blew him away.  Now, he’s leaning towards getting an iPhone again.

Apple Posted Celebrating Steve Special Event

Apple is kind enough to post their all-hands event to celebrate their iconic and visionary leader, the late Steve Jobs.  You can click through here to Apple's webpage.

Got it from Daring Fireball.

Steve Jobs Biographer on 60 Minutes Video Up On Web

CBS has put up transcripts and videos online from their 60-Minutes program of an interview with Walter Isaacson, the author of the Steve Jobs biography.

Personally, I'm waiting to read the book first before I watch the video.  Inevitably, there will be spoilers.  I have been trying to avoid reading posts that unveil interesting bits of information from the biography.  I've been success for the most part but avoiding headlines from my RSS reader was a bit more difficult.

The book should be available for download tomorrow, in a few hours to be exact.  You can get them through Nook, Kindle, or iBooks on your iOS device as Steve would want you to.

Or you can do it old-school style and order it online.

Would You Want OS X Officially Available On Your Non-Apple PC?

According to Compaq's former CEO, Steve once tried to see if he was interested in licensing OS X from Apple and offer them along side Microsoft's Windows.  This offer was made back in 1999 by Steve Jobs to Compaq.

But only for a moment, both sides bursted out laughing and that was the end of it.  Still, I would love to seen OS X running on a non-Apple laptop.  Desktops, not so much.  And not all laptops and certainly not on netbooks.

But there are a few laptop makers that do come up with some pretty nice designs.  I've complimented Sony's designs in the past.  And on top of that, Sony at times offer higher specs than some of Apple's Macbooks.

For instance, Apple's 13" Macbooks has resolutions that go up to 1440x900 while someone of Sony's Air-like Vaios go up to 1920x1080.  And more than a few of them comes with 8 GB of RAM while the Air goes up to 4 GB, but only if you ask for it and are willing to pay for it.

Now, keep in mind, the VIAOs I'm talking about do cost more than the Air but still, I like having those options available to me.

There are probably ways get OS X running on these VIAO laptops I'm talking about but it's not quite an easy to do.  And certainly not what Apple wants.

Perhaps, one day, we'll see OS X run openly and legally on other PCs.  Until then, we can only think of the possibilities.