Apple
Only boring and bad things happening at Apple.
For example, more than 3 months after the release of iOS 7, we are still seeing articles like this:
iOS 7: Common Problems Users Have and How to Fix Them (Updated) | Digital Trends
I'm glad I'm not an Apple developer:
Apple orders developers to use iOS7 - Freedom, they have heard of it | TechEye
Nokia pulls Here Maps from App Store, claims Apple's iOS 7 harms user experience
Encrypted chat service Cryptocat for iPhone rejected by Apple | The Verge
So the iPhone 5S is supposed to be hot stuff?
We continue to see reports of it needing to be discounted:
Best Buy drops iPhone 5s to $125, 5c to $0 on contract - GSMArena.com news
And it is clearly not loved in China:
Initial Apple iPhone orders on China Mobile underwhelming AAPL CHL - Investors.com
Hon Hai assembles iPhones and iPads.
Hon Hai shares down on lackluster iPhone pre-sales in China
My favorite is this comparison article... it really shows just how weak the iPhone 5S is:
Galaxy S4 Versus iPhone 5S - Business Insider
And Apple Market share is down, despite the hyped launch:
iPhone market share shrinks as Android, Windows Phone grow | Apple - CNET News
Apple claims to have good security, but apparently that's not even close to true:
The NSA Reportedly Has Total Access To The Apple iPhone - Forbes
Apple even claims they didn't know there were problems. Do they really want to claim that?
Apple denies working with NSA to create back door - MarketWatch
And let's not forget:
Macbooks use cameras to spy on owners - Apple's legendary security strikes again | TechEye
I guess we'll know a lot more next month after earnings reports and IDC/Gartner report. But I don't think things are going well for Apple.
Microsoft
Microsoft no longer seems to exist in the consumer/SOHO realm. There is no news. Few mentions at CES.Here's what little I could find:
Ford's Mulally rejected the CEO job, so:
Microsoft succession speculation focuses on internal candidates | Reuters
But don't look for Ballmer to leave soon:
Microsoft CEO Selection Unlikely to Come in January, as Candidate List Contracts and Expands | Re/code
Microsoft did report one cheery piece of news, they sold 3 million Xbox Ones in 2013 (in about a month and a week, but during the busiest of the holiday season). For perspective, Apple sold about 5 million iPads per month in 3Q2013. iPads have much better profit margins than an Xbox One. In fact, in any long term sense Microsoft has never made a profit from Xbox... so this seemingly good news, really doesn't mean much. But you'd think with the title they gave the press release that something big happened:
Thank You for an Epic 2013
However, Sony then reports:
Sony says sold 4.2 million PS4 game consoles as of December 28 | Reuters
The PS4 released a week earlier than the Xbox One in the US, but later elsewhere, making the two numbers roughly comparable.
Even Paul Thurrott is down:
Microsoft Windows Big Problem | Windows content from Windows IT Pro
Here's a quote:
Can you guess what the biggest problem facing Windows is? Here's a clue: It's probably not what you think it is.
It's not the lackluster response to Windows 8... [rational omitted for brevity]
It's not Linux, which never emerged as a force on the PC desktop.
It's not Mac OS X... [rational omitted for brevity]
It's not tablets, though I'd pinpoint this latest move to simpler personal computing to be a major contributing factor: People realize that they don't just not need the complexity of Windows, they don't even need most of the power of Windows.
Windows is in trouble because people simply don't care about it anymore. It's not outright hostility; there's far less of that than the anti-Microsoft crowd would like to believe. It's ambivalence. It's ambivalence driven by the nature of "good enough" mobile and web apps. It's ambivalence driven by the allure of anytime/anywhere computing on tiny devices that are more cool to use and even cooler to be seen using.
So that's it... no news because no one cares about Windows anymore.
I agree with Paul, after all I'm writing this from my Chromebook!
