I have been following, for stock reasons the latest HCT/Apple grudge match. It seems that the then match made in heaven between ATT and Apple is devolving. Back then Apple had the machine, and ATT the network, which was pretty cool and could command a price premium. However AT&T’s network is antiquated, lower band width, to Sprint. Sooooo, when the picture/voice new HCT ( that Apple is trying to suppress in court ) comes out this summer, only Sprint’s will be able to carry the traffic.
Which should cause a lot of Apple ‘must-have-latest’ fan base to cringe to be in their favorite Starbucks and be dissed by lowly ....( GOD HELP US ) Sprint owners.
With all the pressure of all these now common phones, eating at the margins of supposedly profitible Apple’s I-Phone buisness. What happens now, vis a vis AT&T? Is Apple going to force them to redue their network? Or does AT&T have exhaulted Lord Jobs over a contractual barrel?
Just thinking, outside the box( is that allowed ) Apple is profitable, right? Cause Cult Jobs, even though he never pays out cash, has cash, right, right, Bueller, anyone? You know, like Apple might be the AIG of the computer world. We’ll see what happens to Apple shares the day Job dies and the corporate curtains come down.
Apple makes its profit on hype and glossy products. Under the cover they are nothing special.
Apple is making a lot of business enemies. Their fanatical users like swordmaker are making lots of enemies in the user community.
Hype only last so long. Sooner or later it begins to tarnish. The iPad is the beginning of that. They put out a barely functional overpriced product that is essentially a big smart phone minus the communication.
Numerous other vendors will soon enter the market with functional tablet PCs. All of which will have to compete with lower end laptops.
I know many iPhone users who cuss AT&T every single day. Their entry into other cell providers might help but why buy old technology when something like the droid is out there.