iBikes From Apple

Apple is giving employees bikes to use so they can ride between campuses.  It's a brilliant idea. I'm sure they're not the first to do this but they're probably going to get a lot of attention for this because, well, they're Apple.

And no, these are not for sale for the public though I reckon they can sell more than a few of these if they wanted to.  Some people will buy anything that has an "i" in front of it.

Source: 9to5mac.

T-Mobile To Offer Micro-Sims For The iPhone

9to5Mac is reporting that T-Mobile is offering micro SIM cards for the iPhone.  Could be that the iPhone is coming to T-Mobile just as I am quitting the service?

The possibilities on this is incredible.  I wonder if they can be used in the iPad.  This is important because there are currently no iPad plan with unlimited data where as T-Mobile, despite, throttling, does still give us EDGE even after the 3G allotment has been reached.

I had previously cut up my SIM card and used it with my iPad 2 and it worked well.  

Oh, the possibilities this presents.  

Microsoft Earnings Showed It Relied On Enterprise Sales And Windows Down; iPad and Mac the Reason?

Today, Microsoft, by most standards, hit it out of the part with its most recent quarterly earnings just as competitors Apple and Google did.  But there is some gray clouds on the horizon.  Dispite great Windows 7 adoption, Windows revenue is down.  This would mark the third quarter of decline, pretty much in line with increases in iPad sales.  And I reckon that Apple's sales of Macs and particular the 9+ million iPads that Apple sold (not shipped) and put into the hands of consumers will increase and we can expect Windows sales to further decline.

Another analysis of the Business Insider figure I brought to your attention was fault because it did not figure the iPad numbers.  With the new figure, MacObserver pointed out that iPad accounts for almost 10% of PC sales.

And whether analytics firms want to categorize the iPad as a media tablet and not a true tablet, they cannot ignore much longer the fact that these "media tablets", particularly the iPad, is taking a piece of the PC pie. This is why Microsoft, 12 to 18 months (possibly more given how they chronically miss deadlines), is talking up a tablet version of Windows 8 tablets.  

Redmond recognizes the fact that the iPad is a threat.  And that threat was realized in its shrinking Windows revenue.

Mac OS Lion: Reverse Scrolling - People, Learn To Live With It!

I'm seeing more than a few posts about the so-call reserve scrolls that come with OS X Lion that some people have issues with.  I call these people "homo sapien extinctus".  Seriously, people, get with the program.  What you've been doing in since 1984, when the Mac first came out was with the mouse.  Now, its about touching, no more clicking and dragging with a mouse.

Now, you've got touchpads on the laptops and touch screens that require you to scroll differently.  This is how true mobile warriors "scroll" if you will.  That is also the order of things are with you buy an Apple product.  And it is not as if Apple is trying to screw with up.  Apple is training you for the future.  And soon, this will be how things are done on Windows as well once Windows 8 tablets are released.

This is how it's done on Android devices as well - smartphones and tablets.

The main different now is that Apple has brought reverse scrolling onto the Mac.  There is a way for you to disable that in the Preference panel but I really encourage that you don't.  Soon, you'll be the only one and everyone around you are gonna look at you different.  Okay, they won't but I will.  

I wager this.  Apple will soon get rid of the mouse for the desktop and replace it with the Magic Pad.  

Give it a couple of days.  It'll start to feel second nature and you won't think about it again after that.  And if you do, you'll be thinking "wow, why did we scroll this way before?".

iPad at 60% and Android with 30% of Tablet Market; But Hard to Blieve Playbook with 3.3%

With all the talk about how well the iPad is well, you would still think that it controls 80-90% of the market still.  For better or for worse, the iPad accounts for more than 60% of the market while Android now has 30%.  The rest is split between "others".

However, the first that released the report, Strategy Analytics, have been known to skew things one way or another.  And there is no indication of how they account for the tablets - Android for smartphones installed on tablets or Honeycomb on tablets.  

Regardless, this is a clear indication that the tablet market is viable and is beyond just a niche market for Apple's iPad.  Even Windows 7 tablets have its fans as well with 4.6% of the market.

All the numbers above in of itself seem believable until you take into account RIM's numbers.  3.3%.  with 500K shipped and RIM unwilling to divulge the actual sell-through number, we can only assume that SA's report needs to be taken with a grain of salt.  Furthermore, I find it hard to believe that some of Windows 7 tablets are in actuality laptops.  As far as anyone knows, according to Gartner's way of differentiating between tablets and PCs, there are no Windows 7 tablets.

I'm sure we'll hear more on this front from other companies that release these kinds of reports.  And obviously, they will all vary becuase of the methodology in gather the data and accounting for what is or isn't a tablet.

I am force to conclude that the SA report has a lot of errors and fudging of numbers.  

Source: Phone Arena, BRG.

Apple's Cash: Focus Should Be On Investing For the Future and Disrupting Market, Not Dividends or Share Buyback

Here we go again.  With $76 billion in the bank, stupid people on Wall Street and greed hedge funds are asking for stock buybacks and dividends. People, do me a favor if you're near someone who is asking or writing saying that Apple should use the cash to buy back shares or give money back to shareholders (I've got a couple of Apple shares myself), rudely change the subject and take their laptop and slam it against the wall.

Had Apple done what these idiots said they should, Apple may not have had the resources to outbid Google for the Nortel patents.  Or Apple would have put itself in a position where it could not have cash for other uses.  

Had Apple done what these idiots said they should, Apple may not have had the resources to prepaid for the LCD screens, memory for the iOS devices, or research into the unibody Macbook designs.  

Had Apple done what these idiots said they should, Apple would not have a $76 billion figure that scare the scrap out of competitors – if you think Samsung is copying Apple now, just imagine what would have happened if Apple did not have the cash to influence Samsung with long-term deals to source components from them.

So, if anyone wants to talk about Apple's cash, talk about how they can use it to increase the value of Apple for stockholders.  Investment for the future. 

This Forbes post has 4 ideas.  While I'm lukewarm towards most of them, this is better than stupid chatter coming from old-school Wall Street talk.  I like the video game idea.  I also like the concept of entering new markets.  Forbes mentioned HDTV. 

So, more talk about laying the ground work for the future and less about what Wall Street wants.

Another Mobile Patent Bidding War Brewing

Google lost to Apple in the Nortel round but it looks like Patent Bidding War II is coming real soon.  According to MacdailyNews via Bloomberg, a company most of us never heard of, InterDigital Inc, has hired a banker to help them auction off 1,300 mobile related patents.  

The value is considered to be worth more than $3.1 billion.  Considering that the Nortel bidding opened with a $900 million bid from Google and ended up being $4.5 billion offered by Apple and friends, this could cost the winner quite a bit.

Apple and Google are obvious contenders as are the parties involved in the Nortel bid.  And judging by the sickening $11 billion added to the bank by Apple in the third quarter, Apple and a couple of anti-Android companies can go nuts (Google added $3.5 billion...which in and of itself is no small change either).

What I like to see is that HTC, Samsung, Motorola, and maybe Lenovo help Google out.  The last time, Sony, an Android device maker, sided with Apple while Intel was the only one  with deep pockets to side with Google.

On another point, will Apple, Microsoft, and RIM work together to thwart Google again?  RIM, despite losing share in the marketplace is still very rich and Microsoft has enough cash to throw $8.5 billion at Skype.  

It would so awesome if someone could live-blog the bidding.

Source: MacDailyNews, Bloomberg