AMITIAE - Monday 27 January 2014
Cassandra: Monday Comment - Q1 2014 Figures Imminent, Apple Still Doomed; Tim Cook on Apple and the NSA |
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By Graham K. Rogers
As is their style, the students clink glasses at times, often when one of them has made a good point, either about a teacher, or more often about their own or friends' behaviour. On one occasion, a couple of the students were a bit far away from each other for the glasses to meet, so they both said, "Bluetooth, Bluetooth" which made me laugh out loud. Th Bluetooth technology allows a contactless connection to be made between devices in reasonably close proximity and the students - being Electrical and Communication engineers - had hijacked the idea for this different purpose. Lovely touch. My reports and photographs from the weekend are online:
We should remember that Apple, usually conservative when it comes to financial matters, released a revised earnings estimate in September for the last quarter and when the report for that quarter was released Apple's own predictions were:
So the average analyst is really betting on Apple's upper prediction. That sounds safe. Of course, when the real figures are announced, the shares usually drop because, Apple has peaked; one of the estimated figures is lower than expected (like growth or sales of something); or one of the analysts fears Apple even when it is bearing gifts quarter after quarter. Of course it cannot last. If only the analysts would apply the same standards to other companies like Amazon, with persistent losses (the potential is there), or Microsoft (constant, even though mundane).
30 years of Macs actually means that Apple is a little older as there were popular models before: Apple 1, Apple ][ and Lisa, with one or two of the features from these being used in the Macintosh. But the icons were all new and designed by Susan Kare: she is still in the business of design. Throughout all the time that Macs have been used, Apple has been doomed. Even the mouse was criticised. John Dvorak saying that there was no evidence anyone would want a pointing device. Bill Gates did. Jonny Evans on ComputerWorld looks at Apple's 30 doomed years and gives us some of the highlights (or low-lights) of these predictions of failure. He notes (as does MacDaily News which gave me the link to this item) that Michael Dell was proved wrong about the imminent failure of Apple. As we have seen of late, it is Dell that is now in trouble and even flirted with the dangerous Carl Icahn who has been sniffing around Apple too.
On that note, Shane Cole reports on AppleInsider that Foxconn have completed assembly testing for sapphire glass screens that are expected to be used in the next iPhone. And news today covered by Jack Purcher on Patently Apple tells us that there is work starting on the A8 processor as Apple sorts out its supplier options. I would also mention the number of erroneous predictions about the arrival of the iPhone 5s which ran from a May release, with every month after being predicted at some time or another. These guys don't know shit and yet major news sources accept their flaky predictions as if it were from the mouth of Tim Cook. When it does come from the mouth of Tim Cook (or Phil Schiller), that is when we know it is real. The AppleInsider report also mentions sourcing of the new sapphire glass and that Apple "signed a $578 million deal with GT Advanced Technologies to open a sapphire manufacturing plant in Arizona". Is this for the next iPhone, or maybe the iWatch that Tim Cook has never mentioned either?
It covers the Mac Pro, 30 years of the Mac and the NSA. Cook's words on this have satisfied some people, but I am not sure. Cook said that the number one point was that the US needed "to be significantly more transparent". Good luck with that. The NSA have him tied in knots and there is a gag order on Apple. He also said that he would be pressing Congress for more transparency. Good luck with that too as that House seems to be avoiding its real responsibilities to the American people. There is a link to the video in an item by Jordan Kahn on 9to5 Mac. The whole thing is under 4 minutes and deserved to be much longer. When asked about certain product predictions Cook answered "I can't tell you that" a number of times. The interview was much longer and there is a transcript of the whole session in an item by Sam Grobart on BusinessWeek
Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand where he is also Assistant Dean. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs. |
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