Category Archives: hardware

Apple Post-Quartum Thoughts

January 29, 2012 – 8:09 pm

TweetAs if you haven’t heard, Apple posted its Q4 earnings last week. I’ll spare you my own encomium and refer you to these links: Despite its title, Business Insider’s list of Facts About Apple’s Business That Will Blow Your Mind contains little or no hype. TechCrunch provides context for Apple’s “massive numbers”. Brian Hall offers [...]

Edited by Jean-Louis Gassée | Comments (8)

Will Microsoft buy RIM or Nokia?

January 15, 2012 – 8:15 pm

TweetWe continue along the lines of last week’s Monday Note kriegsspiel with the latest speculation Will Microsoft, at long last, buy RIM? The idea has been kicked around for at least five years: Days after the iPhone’s introduction in January 2007, Seeking Alpha suggested that the Xbox maker ought to buy RIM in order to [...]

Edited by Jean-Louis Gassée | Also posted in mobile internet | Tagged , , , | Comments (13)

The Apple Wireless Carrier (Part 2)

November 20, 2011 – 8:40 pm

TweetSpurred by years of frustration with AT&T, Verizon, Orange and the like, I wrote a half-serious Monday Note a few months ago (Steve, Please Buy Us A Carrier!) that imagined an Apple wireless universe. Simple pricing, no-surprise phone bills, no-tricks agreements. There would be dancing in the streets… Unfortunately (I concluded), if Apple were to [...]

Edited by Jean-Louis Gassée | Also posted in mobile internet | Comments (15)

iTV: Where’s The Money?

November 13, 2011 – 5:58 pm

TweetIn reaction to last week’s technical speculation on the putative iTV, several commenters raised questions about content providers, distributors, and “pipes”. Does iTV help or harm NBC, Netflix, and Comcast? How does the [one last time: “putative”] iTV make money, and for whom? Indeed, the column ignored an important – perhaps the most important — [...]

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How Bad Boards Kill Companies: HP

September 25, 2011 – 8:58 pm

Tweet‘A good Board can’t make a company, but a bad one will inevitably kill it.‘ Thus spake Barry Weinman, the Gentleman Capitalist, when I joined the VC brotherhood. He meant to tell me to watch out for co-investors on the Board of companies in our portfolio of investments. And he was right. We, Vulture Capitalists, [...]

Edited by Jean-Louis Gassée | Tagged | Comments (35)

Crazy Patent Wars

September 11, 2011 – 7:18 pm

TweetEvery week we see more companies filing more lawsuits over patents. Microsoft and Oracle sue Google, Apple sues a long list of companies…and they all countersue in a new kind of circular firing squad, a real MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) conflagration. Soon, high-tech companies will have more lawyers than engineers. First, a word on the [...]

Edited by Jean-Louis Gassée | Comments (17)

An Apple TV Set In Our Future?

September 4, 2011 – 7:34 pm

TweetNot another Apple TV black box but a real 50” flat-screen TV, “Designed by Apple in California” — and Made in China, like most Apple products. Or Made In Korea, if the company concludes a new pact with its best frenemy, Samsung, the new king of TV sets, the new Sony. Rumors of an Apple [...]

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HP: What Léo Apotheker’s Decisions Mean

August 21, 2011 – 8:29 pm

TweetLast Monday evening, hours after Google’s $12.5B gamble on Motorola Mobile (MMI), I had an intriguing idea and began drafting a Monday Note to explore its ramifications. It started like this: Larry, Please Give Us a Free gPhone In three easy steps, you can finish the job you started with Android: First, tell Motorola to [...]

Edited by Jean-Louis Gassée | Comments (82)

Catching the Cloud

July 17, 2011 – 5:16 pm

TweetWhen it comes to contracting for a computer service, there is little choice but hoping for the best. Small or mid-size companies, especially those located outside the United States, are betting they’ll never have to go to court – usually one located 11,000km and thousands of dollars in legal fees away. Let’s face it: contracting [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Tagged , | Comments (10)

HP’s Tortured WebOS Positioning

July 10, 2011 – 6:29 pm

TweetAs an old HP fan, the rebirth of WebOS is painful to watch. Palm, after missing the ‘‘App Phone’’ transition was effectiv ely taken over by an investor group led by Elevation Partners. They promptly installed Jon Rubinstein as CEO, banking on his successful Apple experience to breathe new life into Palm. He did: In [...]

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