[Macworld]

Post your comments for The Macalope Daily: All backwards here

[Ventzi_Zhechev]

I thought that one of Apple’s biggest mistakes form the 1980s was that they licensed Mac OS… It’s certainly backwards to now suggest they should license iOS, but hey—what do we mere mortals know. Bow to the mental powers of the journalists at Fortune!

[PowerPC]

Does Mr. Sanati remember the Macworld Expo keynote that Apple announced would be its last, or did he get left out and write this piece as his revenge?

[TheHeeNow]

Quote

That was fine when Apple dominated the smartphone market but it’s downright foolish now.

Verizon reported this morning that 9.8 million smartphones were activated in the last quarter (holiday season). Of those, 6.2 million were iPhones.

That means all other smartphones combined totaled less than 37%.

Does the word dominance need a new definition for Fortune?

[Elmore]

Gawd.....help us all...we are swimming in stupid!

Where Verizon reports 6.2 mil iPhones sold, which most intelligent people would recognize as about 2/3’s, CNN Money is reporting that their math skills means it's only 1/2 of the 9.8 mil.

And don't even get me started on the dumbs**t column from Forbes of Sir Jon Ive, a very talented individual, replacing Tim Cook, an equally talented individual.

With all this stupid, I'm gonna need a new swimsuit soon.

[ingus]

One could breathe all the helium in the world, and it won't change the fact of Apple's success. The investor's, however, that bought at $700 "might" have cause for concern.

For those of us who aren't investors, it's irrelevant. The customer/seller relationship has conflicting interests, by definition. I don't know if the Macalope is a gambling creature, but if he were, would he go to the blackjack table and root for the dealer?

This post has been edited by ingus: 22 January 2013 - 09:43 AM

[StefN]

Open up the OS to other manufacturers? To top off landfills worldwide? along with the over 4,000 Android models? That's quantity killing off quality.

Apple needs to drive prices up, not begin dumpster diving. How? By "lifecycling" its iOS devices, offering to take used and broken units on trade in. Presently Gazelle will purchase my used or broken iPhone, I assume 'cus the components have material value.

Apple should be doing this good work, and driving a competitive wedge between itself and all those cheap Android phones and tablets that are garbage-in-waiting. Even if Apple makes a smaller, less expensive iPhone, it must be recyclable for all our sakes. Where Apple leads, others follow. See my petition: http://www.thepetiti...on/732/324/830. A Macalope signature would be gold ... grass.

[wardoggie]

Ventzi_Zhechev, on 22 January 2013 - 08:07 AM, said:

I thought that one of Apple’s biggest mistakes form the 1980s was that they licensed Mac OS… It’s certainly backwards to now suggest they should license iOS, but hey—what do we mere mortals know. Bow to the mental powers of the journalists at Fortune!

They licensed Mac OS in the 90's. Other than that small detail, you're spot on. It was a big mistake in the 90's, when the management thought that market share was important and that allowing more companies to build computers that ran on Mac OS would somehow address that deficiency. It would be an even bigger mistake now that they're raking in dough as fast as they can build products.

[David808]

Quote

Open up the OS to other manufacturers? To top off landfills worldwide? along with the over 4,000 Android models? That's quantity killing off quality. Apple needs to drive prices up, not begin dumpster diving. How? By "lifecycling" its iOS devices, offering to take used and broken units on trade in. Presently Gazelle will purchase my used or broken iPhone, I assume 'cus the components have material value. Apple should be doing this good work, and driving a competitive wedge between itself and all those cheap Android phones and tablets that are garbage-in-waiting. Even if Apple makes a smaller, less expensive iPhone, it must be recyclable for all our sakes. Where Apple leads, others follow. See my petition: http://www.thepetiti...on/732/324/830. A Macalope signature would be gold ... grass.

Actually, they already do that: http://www.apple.com...ling/gift-card/

[Sigivald]

Quote

I thought that one of Apple’s biggest mistakes form the 1980s was that they licensed Mac OS…

It wasn't quite like that; they didn't license "MacOS" to run on random hardware - they licensed out a package of ROMs and "you can run MacOS on it" for machines based on Apple's hardware. (And it was the mid 90s.)

Thinking of it as licensing "The Mac Platform" more than licensing "MacOS" is probably best.

(And it was a bad idea, at least for Apple.

Wasn't a problem for me - I actually had a Umax C600, essentially a rebranded and lightly modified PowerMac 4400).

[josu]

Given that those pundits now consider that Steve Jobs was a flawless manager, something that in life probably never have suggested, this guy must remember that was Steve himself who bought Power Computing, the mac clone maker, to close it, because he considered licencing one of the biggest mistakes prior to his return to Apple.

[Hologram]

Elmore, on 22 January 2013 - 09:00 AM, said:

Gawd.....help us all...we are swimming in stupid!

Where Verizon reports 6.2 mil iPhones sold, which most intelligent people would recognize as about 2/3’s, CNN Money is reporting that their math skills means it's only 1/2 of the 9.8 mil.

And don't even get me started on the dumbs**t column from Forbes of Sir Jon Ive, a very talented individual, replacing Tim Cook, an equally talented individual.

With all this stupid, I'm gonna need a new swimsuit soon.

The pool seems to be getting crowded with journalists relieving themselves and frolicking in each other's excreted stupidity.

Forget about getting a new swimsuit. It might be time to start looking for another pool.

[bastion]

Not only did the iPod not happen, but apparently the iMac, too.

Among the several problems with this article is the fact that all things considered, the 1980s weren't that bad for Apple. Apple's real problems started when John Sculley decided to turn the developer program into a profit center at the end of that decade, and the turnaround began with the announcement of the iMac nearly a decade later. The iPods and later iOS devices pushed Apple to juggernaut status, but they were already on an upswing 3+ years before the first iPod shipped.

[bastion]

Ventzi_Zhechev, on 22 January 2013 - 08:07 AM, said:

I thought that one of Apple’s biggest mistakes form the 1980s was that they licensed Mac OS… It’s certainly backwards to now suggest they should license iOS, but hey—what do we mere mortals know. Bow to the mental powers of the journalists at Fortune!

No. One of Apple's biggest mistakes of the 1990s was that they licensed the Mac platform, and they did so in a way that ended up cannibalizing their own sales instead of expanding the market.

One *might* be able to argue that one of Apple's mistakes from the 1980s was *not* licensing Mac OS, leaving a void that Microsoft was able to fill. Very arguable, though. Less arguable, and IMO the largest mistake Apple made *ever*, was to decide to start squeezing their developer base for cash, instead of treating them as partners who were giving people reasons to buy their machines, just as Windows was becoming a viable alternative target platform.