Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why Everyone is Afraid of Apple

finance.yahoo.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 87 posts

Re: Why Everyone is Afraid of Apple

#51

Post by sh1mmer »

robotrout wrote: post #2

if you wanted to buy the entire company it would cost you about $240 billion. To put that in context, for the same amount of money you could own Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE: NEM - News), the world's largest gold-mining company, And E.I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co. And Kellogg Co., And Shrek studio DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc, And H&R Block Inc. (NYSE: HRB - News), And The New York Times Co. And Molson Coors Brewing, And…

Does anyone know the combine revenue, debt and liquid assets of those companies?

It would be interesting to see how Apple matched up.

Re: Why Everyone is Afraid of Apple

#52

Post by devinj »

ptomato wrote: post #41
pyre wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't be disingenuous. The exchange of money here is the least of the transgressions. I would think that someone sending Gizmodo a 'lost' iPhone prototype without the exchange of money would have gotten them into hot water too if they didn't try to return it first (before publishing the internals). In the past, most leaks have been information (specs,photos,etc) not the actual device.

Except for the bit where money being exchanged automatically makes it "purchasing stolen property".

Right. But the bit where they don't give it to Apple immediately makes it theft.

Which is worse, buying stolen property, or stealing property? If they couldn't be accused of the former, they would be accused of the latter.

You seem to forget the very basis on which this was declared buying stolen property: the theft itself. The theft itself would have occurred no matter whether it was bought or not, and both parties would be guilty if it was just handed over.

Re: Why Everyone is Afraid of Apple

#53

Post by wtallis »

guelo wrote: post #42
czhiddy wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple's response? They sent in the police ... This, like much of the article, is complete hyperbole (unless you actually believe Apple controls the police force).

R.E.A.C.T. is an outrage. Most police departments don’t put a ton of effort into resolving nonviolent theft cases. Obviously big rich Silicon Valley companies like Apple are going to have a lot of political clout in Santa Clara county come what may, but that’s a reality that should be pushed against not formalized. Apple can afford its own lawyers, it doesn’t need the cops working for it.

It really doesn't matter how much political clout Apple has. The Gizmodo people made the police officers' jobs too easy by publishing all the evidence necessary to convict them. They were low-hanging fruit.

Re: Why Everyone is Afraid of Apple

#54

Post by visava »

csomar wrote: post #43

I think it's very challenging for Apple. Apple is making a skyrocketing revenue because iPad and iPhone sales has boomed. But iPad won't sell for 300K piece everyday, that only happened the first day... actually it can sell! Yes, but there is an interesting point (so that it sells at such high rate): Apple "must" dominate the market. For the iPhone, the competition is now fierce: Android, BlackBerry, Palm, Windows mo…

After using the Mac for the first time ( bought it just for iPhone development ) I was impressed . Forget iPhone and iPad , what if Mac becomes the standard. Read 'Mac is back' by Paul Graham. Many of my friends who do not do any programming bought Mac recently. Windows PC now feels like a waste of time to me. Maybe the masses will catch up later.

Re: Why Everyone is Afraid of Apple

#55

Post by glhaynes »

tvon wrote: post #40
lurkinggrue wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With Apple the shortcomings are sold as features and then later given to you as an innovation. I almost expected them to release the iPhone shuffle that had no screen and randomly called people.

To an extent. Most companies seem to aim for a product that does well on a feature-grid of checkboxes more than in actual use. Apple would (apparently) rather that they had half the checkboxes but that those things worked very, very well (or intuitively, or smoothly, or in a magical way, etc). In other words, it's not as if an iPhone friendly multitasking setup was available and they just ripped it out so they could…

Yes, it's about making products, not just conglomerations of features.

Re: Why Everyone is Afraid of Apple

#56

Post by adrianwaj »

I'd love to see Apple do a watch, or a clip-on to a watch that enabled financial transactions as a substitute for cash.

It'd probably need some type of rfid, and the merchant some type of biometric, otherwise if someone saw the watch, they might be tempted to steal.

Re: Why Everyone is Afraid of Apple

#57

Post by mistermann »

sandee wrote: post #49
robotrout wrote: post #2

if you wanted to buy the entire company it would cost you about $240 billion. To put that in context, for the same amount of money you could own Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE: NEM - News), the world's largest gold-mining company, And E.I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co. And Kellogg Co., And Shrek studio DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc, And H&R Block Inc. (NYSE: HRB - News), And The New York Times Co. And Molson Coors Brewing, And…

I think is that Apple is doing something which no-one else may have done in recent past. 1. Apple is in software business where it has championed the model of fixed engineering cost and variable revenue streams. 2. They execute well and their products are neat. (That is a understatement) 3. They are market makers. There products are not just stealing customers but also creating new customer base for these products 4.…

More importantly I think is, these old economy businesses being compared are valuable to a large degree just because they are essential. Now, the iPhone isn't essential, but if you have some extra cash, it is one of the first things a lot of people buy, the sales figures prove this.

If Apple can avoid any anti-trust suits, I think they have clear sailing for the next 2 to 3 years. I dislike Apple, but I LOVE my iPhone (but only compared to everything else).

Re: Why Everyone is Afraid of Apple

#58

Post by jacquesm »

calebgilbert wrote: post #50

Gotta post this somewhere to get it off my chest, so might as well be here - ...as someone who was using OS9 when Apple had a death watch on it there's a certain amount of schadenfreude, mixed with wonder, at this situation of Apple as the 800lb gorilla. I get a giant kick out of the whole thing. :-) That is all.

I'd get a kick out of Apple if it were showing microsoft how you can be successful without pulling all kinds of (dirty) tricks.

Unfortunately it looks like they are at least as bad as microsoft ever was and that the gospel according to Jobs is not that far removed from the gospel according to Gates. The one thing they've got going for them is that stuff appears to look better and works better, otherwise the new boss is the same as the old boss.

Re: Why Everyone is Afraid of Apple

#59

Post by mistermann »

devinj wrote: post #52
ptomato wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except for the bit where money being exchanged automatically makes it "purchasing stolen property".

Right. But the bit where they don't give it to Apple immediately makes it theft. Which is worse, buying stolen property, or stealing property? If they couldn't be accused of the former, they would be accused of the latter. You seem to forget the very basis on which this was declared buying stolen property: the theft itself. The theft itself would have occurred no matter whether it was bought or not, and both parties…

Since when is finding something in a bar "theft"? There was a good article about this topic somewhere, about where journalists used to have balls, and the corporate victims were unhappy, but never before did they call the police and bust the door down.

Apple lost a phone. And the police busted someone's door down. I've read many stories of lost phones where the original owner, via software, has given the exact address of where the phone is, and what did the police do?? Nothing.

Since when is it the JOB OF THE POLICE to enforce self-inflicted violations of an individual corporations IP? This is not the role of the police in our society, it is as simple as that. It doesn't matter what is right or wrong, legal or illegal, they are not supposed to be prosecuting this type of thing.

Re: Why Everyone is Afraid of Apple

#60

Post by jacquesm »

adrianwaj wrote: post #56

I'd love to see Apple do a watch, or a clip-on to a watch that enabled financial transactions as a substitute for cash. It'd probably need some type of rfid, and the merchant some type of biometric, otherwise if someone saw the watch, they might be tempted to steal.

Why wait for Apple to do it?

A friend of mine is doing this, but on a card, not a watch:

They'll be going live within the next couple of months, keep an eye out for something called the real X card.

Post reply on HN