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The Deal That Makes No Sense

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Re: The Deal That Makes No Sense

#141

Post by ChuckMcM »

protomyth wrote: post #138
ChuckMcM wrote: post #137

It isn't clear to me why the author is angry here but it comes across that way :-) His thesis though, that something forced this move, is pretty credible. And the choices being (in order of likelyhood) 1) Nokia filing for bankruptcy - this one clocks up as being most likely for me 2) Someone else was going to buy them - I wondered about this with Apple's Maps fiasco, they had much better maps than Apple did, although…

> 2) Someone else was going to buy them - I wondered about this with Apple's Maps fiasco, they had much better maps than Apple did, although I don't think Nokia would go for a breakup with partial acquisition. Am I reading the news wrong or is this a partial acquisition? It actually looks like Microsoft just made it easier for Apple to buy the part of Nokia it would want (maps).

I don't have inside information here, but from what I know about such things, breaking it up decreases the overall value sometimes. Sort of a "leave the desirable asset attached to the junk to ensure it all sells." In the press release Microsoft did they explicitly call out getting the Maps unit as part of the deal.

It would also have been a disaster for Microsoft if Google had bought them, not that I think they were thinking about it.

Re: The Deal That Makes No Sense

#142

Post by asabjorn »

redact207 wrote: post #6

Can I add my own conspiracy theory and put forward that MS wanted to buy Nokia years ago when the world was going mobile but couldn't. Then one by one, MS VPs mysteriously left their posts to go work with Nokia. Fast forward to today, MS finally buys the firm they wanted to in the beginning.

The strategy to partner with MS always seems heavily tilted in MS favor. It probably makes a good business study how this can be avoided for anyone in a similar industrial position. It always baffled me that there was no successful shareholder riot because Elops strategy seemed like a self-goal no matter how it would play out.

Re: The Deal That Makes No Sense

#143

Post by jacalata »

mikeash wrote: post #101
hobs wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Surely the Apple Store would set up the new phone with his existing Apple ID, though? Even if they didn't, most people only have one e-mail address (that they know of?) and so will be forced into using the same account again whether they like it or not.

You can create a new email address in the setup wizard. I know of people who set it up there and literally don't understand what they did, and don't attempt to remember it.

Re: The Deal That Makes No Sense

#144

Post by itsameta4 »

singlow wrote: post #87
fnordfnordfnord wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Word is from Latin - Latin plural is viri . The double i would only occur if the stem already ends in i , such as radius : radi- + -us . http://lysy2.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/WORDS.EXE?virus In English the plural is viruses .

In Latin, "virus" is a mass noun, like "stuff", "water", or "poison", its original meaning. There is no attested plural. Being of originally Greek origin doesn't help matters.

In English, there's never a reason to use anything other than "viruses".

Re: The Deal That Makes No Sense

#145

Post by jacalata »

venomsnake wrote: post #97
freehunter wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

Something like 50% of the market still owns a feature phone, last I checked.

Re: The Deal That Makes No Sense

#146

Post by lloeki »

singlow wrote: post #87
fnordfnordfnord wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Word is from Latin - Latin plural is viri . The double i would only occur if the stem already ends in i , such as radius : radi- + -us . http://lysy2.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/WORDS.EXE?virus In English the plural is viruses .

> Latin plural is viri

Actually, virus is a "mass noun" (uncountable) and has no plural. If it ever had a nominative plural it would be vira, and out of anything, viri is its genitive singular.

Re: The Deal That Makes No Sense

#147

Post by jtoeman »

bad_user wrote: post #40
bodyfour wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Plus it's a prize Microsoft probably feels it can't afford to lose. If Android magically evaporated tomorrow Google would be just fine -- the core of their business (ad sales) doesn't fundamentally require that they control the mobile platform, although it certainly makes things easier. Microsoft, on the other hand, had for decades been the platform company. They've historically tried to grow by pushing out…

> If Android magically evaporated tomorrow Google would be just fine -- the core of their business (ad sales) doesn't fundamentally require that they control the mobile platform I do not agree. They don't necessarily need to control the mobile platform, but they do need access to the distribution channels. Witness how Apple replaced Google Maps with their own solution, even before their solution was good enough, as i…

the entire history of this comes down to Google launching Android - AT ALL. Before then, strong, positive relationship. Once it happened, Jobs did the "thermonuclear war" thing and the company has been replacing Google components one piece at a time...

Re: The Deal That Makes No Sense

#148

Post by georgemcbay »

300bps wrote: post #85
7952 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Android is complicated enough that it doesn't feel secure when it gets bloated. It is easy for someone used to windows to imagine that slowness or crashing are caused by a virus.

The person that asked me the question was a very experienced Android user that legitimately got two viruses on their phone that were causing link hijacking and popup advertisements. He just assumed that Windows Phone would have the same virus issues as Android.

Somewhat ironically (compared to the Windows desktop situation), the only people I know who have actually gotten virus-like infections on Android are people advanced enough to be running custom rooted 3rd party roms on their devices.

This isn't to say it can't or hasn't happened on phones running factory stock roms, the Samsung /dev/exynos-mem permission bug on its own was one example of a huge attack vector on a limited set of Android phones, I just haven't seen or directly heard of it happening on a stock phone.

Re: The Deal That Makes No Sense

#149

Post by dragonwriter »

singlow wrote: post #87
fnordfnordfnord wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Word is from Latin - Latin plural is viri . The double i would only occur if the stem already ends in i , such as radius : radi- + -us . http://lysy2.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/WORDS.EXE?virus In English the plural is viruses .

> Word is from Latin - Latin plural is viri.

No, that's the Latin plural of vir; viri means "men" not "poisons" ("virus" means "poison" in Latin.) [1]

http://www.google.com/#q=translate+viri+from+latin+to+englis...

Re: The Deal That Makes No Sense

#150

Post by pmelendez »

polemic wrote: post #11

> "...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…

Also the phrase "the war is over" is true until it is not.

"The war was over" for online search before Google entered in the game.

The war was over for mp3 players until the ipod came out.

The war was over for Apple back in 98.

The war was over for internet browsers until Chrome came out.

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