By Graham K. Rogers

Opening Gambit:

Apple Stuff

There was a collection of comments from a number of analysts (bear with me) in an article by Phillip Elmer-DeWitt on Fortune. In general it would seem they were not negative on Apple and its prospects and a couple mentioned the product range

I think analysts should replace the word, "expectations" with either "hopes" or "dreams" Not sure that any of them really understand Apple. The best comment I saw (confirming views that I hold) came on my link for this on Jim Dalrymple's site, The Loop. A reader wrote,

You kind of get the feeling that very few people at Apple actually give a f#ck about their stock price... and the few that do, are not allowed to mix-and-mingle with the rest of the company.

This happens every year before or just after a big announcement, so I don't know why investors do so little research and end up relying on ANALyst reports.

Rah, rah to that.

Some people see the products released by Apple last month and last week as a sign that Cupertino has stopped innovating. I don't because I take a careful look at not just the outside of the product, but the technical specifications. This month, I have also been looking at the manufacturing processes as well. As I teach engineers, I keep my eyes open for this sort of stuff as there are occasional teaching moments I can use. One of those was the video made when the last 17" MacBook Pro was developed with its special battery technology: something that is used in all Mac products. The design and manufacture of these batteries were useful for teaching.

There were several such moments with the newest products, but a lot of people are not convinced: they think Apple has stopped and the death of Steve Jobs has meant the inevitable death of the company and that Cook, Schiller et al, just cannot do the job. I tend to disagree and wrote a couple of items over the weekend on last week's event and its implications: The New Macs; and The iPad and the IPad.

In the second one, I listed the progress in the last 12 months:

• Mountain Lion
• iOS 6
• iPods - nano and iPod touch
• iPhone 5 (A6 processor)
• MacBook Pro with Retina display: 13" and 15"
• iMac (including the new Fusion Drive)
• iPad (Generation 3 and now 4)
• iPad mini

and commented that it seems to be a range that few companies match. I just realised that I had forgotten the Lightning connector. That was viewed by mnay as negative as it supposedly forced users to change adapter. What was wrong with the 30-pin one? It had 30 pins and most were wasted. And what was wrong with micro USB? I cannot believe anyone was seriously asking that question. I have these for cameras I own and avoid using them as much as I can.

If Apple is not being innovative, there seems to be something of a silence about the progress of other companies. But these are always held to different standards.

One of the devices released last week was the 13" MacBook Pro with Retina display and Mel Martin on TUAW tells us that PC Magazine named this Editor's Choice. Maybe Apple is doing some things right.

As a thought: is there anything left to invent? The iPad itself introduced in January 2010 was not exactly an innovation as there had been tablets for a number of years. There have been since. Only Apple made it work; and made it sell. 100 million we were sold. The only figure I found was 1.4 million over a period from June 2010 to June 2012. Maybe the customers don't need innovation: they just need something that works and is secure. There is no pleasing some people: black and white, ,blue and green (Roman history), red and yellow Apple and Samsung, Apple and Android. Apple wrong. And it is sometimes.

One of the places I looked, when finding out information about what goes on underneath the shiny surface was an item by Chris Foresman on Ars Technica on the architecture of the A6X chip that appears in the latest iPad. Innovation in moving from a 45nm process to a more power-efficient 32nm process? You be the judge. I had also looked at the item on Ars Technica by Lee Hutchinson concerning the Fusion Drive in the iMac and the Mac mini. Innovation? My computer engineering students thought so.

A summary of some opinions on the iPad mini were in an item by Damon Poeter on PCMag. One of these was a comment that I mentioned parenthetically last week when linking to a MacDaily News article by Trip Chowdhury who is in the vanguard of the "Innovation at Apple is over" brigade. Also included was his comment, "The iPad mini is playing catch up to Google Android and probably will have a mediocre customer adoption" which was trumped by AppleInsider reporting that the Black and Slate 16GB iPad mini was sold out in 35 hours. You can't trust those customers can you? Another report from AppleInsider tells us that the white and silver iPad mini was also sold out. Phillip Elmer-Dewitt on Fortune adds that the white one was sold out in 20 minutes.

Those customers won't listen to expert opinions at all, will they?

I am sure they won't even listen to Phil Schiller (especially not Schiller) so no one will be interested in an interview with Harry McCracken in Time Tech on the state of the Mac. One of the things he said was that, "These old technologies are holding us back. . . They're anchors on where we want to go" when referring to the way some drives and connectors have been removed and why BlueRay was never on the cards. He ended with "Primarily, we think about what we're doing, not what others do." So it makes sense not to compare Apple with others like Samsung or Google or Microsoft.

All focus before the event was on a 7" tablet but the event produced a tablet of 7.9" giving a larger viewing area. At the financial conference later in the week, Cook talked to reporters who asked about this, Electronista writes, and skated over the famous Steve Jobs comment that Apple would never make a 7" tablet (they stick to that) and that what Apple had produced wasn't really in the same class.

When asked about the replacement iPad Daniel Eran Dilger on AppleInsider reports that Cook said, "we don't really have an old product. We have only new products" and also said that Apple was not worried about cannibalization: one product drawing sales away from another.

That was a lesson Apple learned early on with the Apple II and Lisa. It also matches my philosophy when I buy something electronic. I used to say that the moment it was in my hands, it was out of date; but we need to realise that with the way technology is developed these days, a product is out of date before it is in our hands.

Another article with a similar approach appeared on Reuters Blogs from Felix Salmon who (as I have tried to do many times) explained why Apple doesn't care about competition. As Schiller and Cook have said: Apple just likes to make good products.

Talking of competition, Electronista reports that Amazon had a surge in sales of the Kindle the day the iPad mini was released: the biggest day of sales since the launch. The report suggests that this was due to customers waiting before deciding. There is speculation that with the cancellation of the Nexus event due to expected severe weather conditions there may be another spike. Awfully random and short term. On that hurricane: I just read that several concerts have been cancelled and major evacuations are in progress.

I was also tweeted a link to an weak article on an occasional blog (June 2010 and then October 2012) called All This Technology, which does not seem to live up to its title. Much of the opinion is also in Chowdhury's camp but the unsigned writer also has the "Steve Jobs is gone, so Apple is dead" meme. Advice: ignore the words of the presentation -- they are marketing spiel -- and look at the device itself. Carefully. And if you are focussing on the iPads, spare a thought for the Surface customers: one (named Brent Ozar, on a blog called Technically Funny) is sending his back already and he cites several reasons which had my mouth open: Apple would never do that. And that is why. . . .

Another online column that summarised comments came from The Macalope and this is always much more fun. I was pleased to see he also took some time to examine Chowdhury's input as well as Matthew Panzarino and Gizmodo, adding an important point that some of the other commentators ought to take on board, "The Macalope's not sure where this idea that Apple under Steve Jobs spewed out a market-changing hit every quarter came from, but it is a fiction." There were also some positive views on the new iPad and iPad mini from analysts and I am pleased to see that the Macalope examines the same point I had made over the weekend concerning market share.

I also found a really odd comment from Dana Blankenhorn on Seeking Alpha that was totally negative on Apple. He started with some really odd logic that the iPad mini announcement was a sign that the Q4 figures were not good. As he walked his way through the products and the supply line, it became obvious that instead of examining Apple he was angling for the share prices and recommends Apple as a good buy opportunity. I question the amoral nature of this sort of criticism.

Following this overnight Sunday, David Weinstein (also on Seeking Alpha) writes that Apple has peaked: "Enjoy the heyday of a company whose innovation and influence have changed the world and amazed analysts and investors alike. Just don't invest in that company."

He concedes that traditional evaluation techniques do not work with Apple (I sure agree on that one), but this is just so much hot air and as random as many other such viewpoints. Trying to suggest at the end that the fall of Nokia or RIM means that Apple will fall his conclusion is watered down from the sensationalism of the title: "It just won't be the best stock."

A local user posted some questions on Facebook concerning unusual use of data with iOS 6 which had caused problems with bills from the carrier. I never noticed as my plan is unlimited and (unlike the True, so-called "Fair Use" system) it does appear to be unlimited, not that I am greedy. Matt Neuberg on TidBits has a number of suggestions as to why the phones do this, and comments that the same reasons would have applied to earlier iterations of iOS.

A note on pricing in the Euro stores appeared over the weekend from Julie Kuehl on The MacObserver. With currency fluctuations, Apple has adjusted prices of some apps -- they are actually banded. It is not something that affects us much here as with dollar pricing -- the same $0.99 for example as in other countries -- the charge varies with the exchange rates. I expect that and have no objection. It is exactly the same as if I buy a book from Amazon or a lens from a US-based company.

Another day another lawsuit? Mikey Campbell on AppleInsider reports that a "non-practising entity" -- we may also refer to this as a patent troll -- claims that the Quick Look function infringes on a file viewing patent from 2011. QuickLook appeared in 2007.

In the Walter Isaacson biography of Steve Jobs there was some mention of a yacht that was being built by Philippe Starck. AppleInsider has an item on this with pictures as the finished boat has now been revealed in Holland. The photos show a fairly dull profile, but as I went through the other images, the size is more apparent and some of the external features. About the only thing visible of the inside is what I thought was a viewing deck with white seats behind tinted glass; but the video showed that those seats were instead a line of iMacs.

Half and Half

Samsung was adjudged to not have copied Apple's iPad in a UK court this year, with the judge adding remarkably the reason in part was that the Samsung product was clearly not as cool so could not have been a copy. To add insult to injury, Apple was ordered to advertise the decision. And after failing at appeal Apple has complied with that order to the letter, with a posting on its website that uses the judge's own words. I saw this reported on MacRumors by Arnold Kim and you may read the original on the Apple UK site.

Other Matters

Ballmer may be looking through rose-tinted specs as among comments he made on Squawk Box this week was the idea that (referring to Apple and Google), "Neither of those companies "has a product that you can use, that lets you work and play, that can be your tablet and your PC. Not at any of those price points." Note here on Tim Cook's views on convergence: you lose something when you do this (see the Froaster). Let's come back in a few months and see how many have sold, and how Windows 8 is going. Remember the Zune.

A grandmother in China was pretty upset by the Surface release party in Beijing as the noise was too much for her grandchildren who had to go to school the next day. Rather than shrugging and trying to ignore the noise, she and her husband went to the event, and tried to stop it, before being removed forcefully from the stage by security guards. Kotaku has information on the grandmother and a video of her part in the event.

Also commenting on the Surface was Tim Cook who as CEO of Apple also released a couple of tablet computers last week. He called the Surface, "compromised" and "confusing". If it uses Windows, I would find it confusing too. The article by Daniel Eran Dilger on AppleInsider also had some comments by others who tend to support Cook's position.

So confident were Microsoft that the Surface was a major seller, that they made sure by giving people $100 to line up for it, Brier Dudley reports on Seattle Times. This was in the form of a "credit toward a full year of Xbox Music Pass to the first 100 people lined up at Microsoft stores" when they opened on Friday. From the looks of things at Apple releases, customers would be happy to pay Cupertino $100 to line up. My source for this was MacDaily News.

An AP report I read in the Straits Times on Monday morning tells us that there seems to be scant demand for Windows 8. Remember OS X?

The media tycoon and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconia was convicted by the courts last week for fraud although may never serve the 4 year sentence (too old), but has now declared war on the current PM, Mario Monti I read in an AFP report on the Straits Times. There is something oddly familiar about this.

Local Matters

I found the data that was needed (passport number not ID card, for example) for page 1, then checked the right boxes and clicked Next. That returned me to the first order page, which was empty again. I tried a second time, but the same happened. Had I ordered one, or two, or (more likely) zero? I wrote to True.

About 18 hours later a reply told me that my email contained insufficient information for a check (name, passport/ID, True number, order number) so I added what I had, but pointed out that the problem I was reporting could not give me an order number and this is why I was writing.

It was not really important as beneath that section of missing information was the comment, "Beside: we regret to inform you that The iPhone 5 is full-booking now. Please wait for announce later (sic)". Needless to say, my reply to this was a little stronger, including "because your system was unable to work properly when I tried to make my booking, I am to be excluded. . . ."

To add insult to injury, I was asked if I could spare a few minutes to complete this service Satisfaction Survey. I declined strongly. A further reply on Sunday told me that there was no record of my registration and blamed the website: "because of website errors due to there were many people who are interested to preorder. . . (sic)" and asked me to be patient. True's fault but my problem.

As well as Thailand, the iPhone 5 is to launch in a number of other countries on Friday, Mike Wehner tells us on TUAW: India, Greece, Bulgaria, Malta and Romania.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. 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.