Category: Apple

Here’s why Apple will never buy a carrier

Posted on by

[US network’s] return on equity (the profit-per-dollar invested in the business) is way below what Apple enjoys, in spite of its having “way too much cash for its own good.” For example, last quarter, AT&T’s Net Income was $3.6B for $113.8B in Equity, a ratio of 3.16%. Apple’s numbers were $7.3B for $69.3, a ratio of 10.5% — more than 3 times AT&T’s… It’s a nice fantasy, a carrier with the service quality and simplicity we get today when we enter an Apple Store. But for the fantasy to become reality, Apple Wireless would need to give birth to services that

The smartphone patent war delivers a tangible victim

Posted on by

No more Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Europe: The leading German news agency, dpa, just reported that Apple has been granted a preliminary injunction against Samsung’s Android-based Galaxy Tab 10.1, barring with immediate effect all distribution of the product in the entire European Union except for the Netherlands on the grounds of an alleged infringement of Apple’s iPad-related [European] Community design no. 000181607-0001. There’s been a lot of talk around patent battles, and while this isn’t strictly a patent, the consumers aren’t going to note the difference, and simply hear “Apple stop Samsung”. I’ve no idea what their reaction beyond

Geeky Android, mainstream iOS, all mixed together at Glastonbury

Posted on by

Tom Hume gives a little after-action report on Future Platform’s Glastonbury mobile app: We could see twice as much per-user activity from Android users as from iPhone owners, although overall iOS downloads were about 4 times higher. Both of these surprised me: I’d have expected activity to be roughly equivalent, and there to have been more Android downloads given the growth of the platform over the last few years. Now if they could get the app gig for SXSW Mobile…

Quarrel, Scotland’s answer to Duke Nukem, hits iOS in August

Posted on by

It’s been a long time coming, but Denki’s masterpiece, Quarrel, is set to be available to the public. Okay it’s on iOS and not the originally planned platform, but let’s be honest. This has been delayed more times than Duke Nukem, changed platforms more often than the location of Platform 9 3/4’s at Kings Cross, and is more eagerly awaited than the next series of “Miranda”. The “Risk with words” game will be here in August. Yaay!