Apple became the largest company in the world by market capitalization on the strength of innovation in mobile phones. Fortunately for Apple, the last several years there has been a consumer trend to treat their phones as status symbols or fashion accessories. This kind of consumer behavior has also been
(CLICK HERE TO ENLARGE THE CHART) Consumers have voted with their wallets and now it is official that Windows 8 is a flop. The new data from IDC show the steepest decline for PCs in one quarter. Only 76.3 million PCs were shipped in the first quarter of 2013. This number is
Ever since Apple announced that it would offer a streaming music service, there has not been much doubt that Apple would attempt to beat Internet radio heavyweight, Pandora. The thinking is that Apple will squeeze music labels to get better terms than Pandora. Such a scenario is certainly better for Apple, but
It does not yet seem to be well understood, but Facebook has just launched a bazooka against Google, Apple, Microsoft, and BlackBerry. Present-day phones are built around apps. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, asked the right question, “Should the phones be designed around people and not apps?” His answer was apparently that people are more important
Apple is ready to introduce an old design by Steve Jobs as the next iPhone, perhaps called iPhone 5S, according to the San Francisco Examiner, reporting on comments Apple government liaison Michael Foulkes made to San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon. Foulkes reportedly told Gascon that the next two generations of iPhones
As if Apple needed more trouble, here comes a double whammy. First, Apple CEO Tim Cook had to apologize to the Chinese consumers. Second, Apple got a downgrade from a big Wall Street supporter. A popular new segment on China Central Television highlighted how Apple discriminated against Chinese consumers with its warranties and
This morning BlackBerry released much anticipated earnings. After reviewing the earnings report, my conclusion is that it does not reveal much for a long-term investor since the company is in transition. The headline numbers were better than expected with one million BlackBerry Z10 phones sold. Here are the reasons why celebration for BlackBerry is
BlackBerry’s new device, the Z10, has now been introduced in a number of markets including the United States. It appears to have had a strong launch in places like Canada, theUnitedKingdom and India. In contrast, the launch in the U.S. by AT&T has been listless. The reason the BlackBerry launch has gone better in Canada, United Kingdom and
As BlackBerry attempts to stage a comeback with BB 10, one aspect of its sales pitch is that BlackBerry is famous for its security characteristics. Now BlackBerry is losing its security aura. The timing could not be worse for BlackBerry of a security warning coming from Canada. Canada.com reports that the government department in charge of cyber security
It is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Apple’s Passbook app has a new fan in Samsung. At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Samsung introduced its new Wallet app. The preliminary details show that the Wallet app imitates Passbook in several respects. Apple’s Passbook app allows users to handle mobile payments