The Deal That Makes No Sense - Was Apple Forced Into Buying NeXT?
The Deal That Makes No Sense
91–100 of 165 posts
Re: The Deal That Makes No Sense
#92Here we go. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...
Re: The Deal That Makes No Sense
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't agree. Most of the general users I know forget their email password every time they fuck up their phone and just buy all the apps again. This is the norm. The only thing people give a shit about is their data (and that is usually when it's way to late and they're about to lose it), not the apps.
No it's not. People may forget, but they don't rebuy things repeatadly.
Hi there, as a former phone support/trainer for apple support, people definitely buy things repeatedly!
I had one customer who thought each phone was effectively a burner, and he threw them out when he got a new one. He also made sure the apple store activated his phone (before all went that way) as he thought it was useless to have a computer with the phone (because why was he buying the phone then?).
This story and many like it popped up again and again until I realized that the majority of users are completely ignorant of even the smallest details of how the device or its internals work, its is mostly a fashion statement.
Re: The Deal That Makes No Sense
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
No it's not. People may forget, but they don't rebuy things repeatadly.
Somebody gave one of my students a fairly (< 1yr old) new laptop the other day because they got it loaded up with viruses, (virii?) There is a market segment with more money than brains, it is large.
I don't see how (a) one example of stupidity is representative for the populace at large and (b) how this particular example is relevant at all.
If one person is ignorant in one domain, that doesn't mean that person doesn't excel in another domain. Stupidity is relative.
E.g. my father can't use a computer and thinks his computer is broken whenever he has minor problems with it. On the other hand he has a perfect track record in managing government institutions and the family's business and he's also extremely good at handling money and being a cheap bastard. He never learned to use a computer simply because he can delegate such tasks to his subordinates (or me).
And yet you've placed him in the bucket of people with more money than brains, simply because somebody on this planet sold his computer because it was virused.
Re: The Deal That Makes No Sense
#95Just a few days ago there was talk around here about Elop being in the short list for Microsoft CEO. Does this make that more or less likely?
Re: The Deal That Makes No Sense
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
Android certainly does not have lower system requirements than Windows Phone. I mean, it could run on lower spec hardware... for some definition of "run". Mine are both last-gen devices, but my Lumia has half the cores and RAM as my Galaxy and runs twice as smoothly. I hear later versions of Android did get smoother on flagship phones, but I don't know how or if that translates to lower-end devices.
The smoothness thing is actually an architectural choice. On Windows and iOS, the multitasking subsystem will stop the world for a user gesture. On Android it treats a user gesture as one task to handle among many.
Well frankly, it seems like Android made the wrong choice. Going completely unresponsive is completely unacceptable.
Re: The Deal That Makes No Sense
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except you have tabula rasa in console business every few years so you could jump anytime if you have the money. And games as entertainment products rarely have legs longer than a generation - we the PC master race are spoiled with decade long backwards compatibility but in the console world it is rarely so. And entertainment business (because the console is just a hardware dongle) is different beast.
I would argue that any investment in the Halo series, God of War series, or Mario series is a big draw towards buying the next console the same as the console you currently have. Yeah, you'll have to buy Halo 5 on the Xbox One, but you've already played Halo 1-4. Switching to Killzone halfway through the series won't scratch the same itch.
In theory yes but: (Opinion)
This generation was weak on exclusives even the strong titles were franchised and watered down during the cycle - it was combination of prolonged generation and blockbuster effect with insane production values. After all GoW2 was the swan song of the PS2 and arguably the best game for the platform and for some at all. Xbox 1 also had very strong line up in the last two years (Halo 2, NGB, Burnout, Conker). The last two years have been a desolation in the console exclusive worlds - we have some bright spots like The Last of US but it seems it really is the last of them. So I am almost not interested in next gen at all.
But unlike mobile phones and tablets owning more than one living room console makes sense. You don't have cost of switching just cost of entry (buying PS3 allows me to play Uncharted but does not prevent me from cursing xbox for lack of mouse in a shooter). And you could always bring down the cost of the device to as low as needed if you are willing to take the hit.
Right now in US and western europe the only users MS can get must be poached from Apple and Android. That is much harder task.
Re: The Deal That Makes No Sense
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
Only 20%? This is not a great argument!
As Apple fans are often quick to point out when someone mentions Android's share, market share is not the only (or best) measure of a platform.
Except the argument was that the general public aren't fans of Windows phones, to which 20% market share of a few regions was used as a counter argument.
I would tend to think that market share is one indicator of a phone platform's popularity, and while 20% is not bad, it's not an amazing figure either.
Re: The Deal That Makes No Sense
#99> "...I think Microsoft ought to abandon Windows Phone. The war is over, and iOS and Android won." That's remarkably short-sighted. The first iPhone was released only 6 years ago, Android 5 years ago. You really think that Microsoft - a company with nearly infinite runway, an enormous R&D investment and serious history - is going to down tools after a few years of frustration? Not likely. The prize is too big and con…
Microsoft isn't abandoning the mobile war anytime soon. Too many things depend on it: in particular, its burgeoning media business that grew out of XBox Live (which is successful for a lot more than just games these days). Microsoft recognizes that, to preserve the its position in what people once called "the war for the living room," it needs to fight for the territory outside the living room.
Windows Phone may or may not have a shot in hell, and things don't look good in the short term. But finding success somewhere in mobile is a strategic imperative for the company.
Doing that through a hardware acquisition seems strange. And to Ben's point, this is a particularly weird "Why buy the cow?" scenario, given the preexisting partnership that served roughly the same purpose.
We'll see what Microsoft is thinking, but I'm scratching my head. Consumers are fickle, to your point, but en masse, they're also creatures of convenience. Android and/or iOS seem like mighty convenient platforms right now, from a consumer's POV.
Re: The Deal That Makes No Sense
#100> "...I think Microsoft ought to abandon Windows Phone. The war is over, and iOS and Android won." That's remarkably short-sighted. The first iPhone was released only 6 years ago, Android 5 years ago. You really think that Microsoft - a company with nearly infinite runway, an enormous R&D investment and serious history - is going to down tools after a few years of frustration? Not likely. The prize is too big and con…
And everyone thought XBox would be a consistent failure whereas the series ending up pioneering a lot of network service stuff and being well considered now.