Apple reportedly squeezing supplier to stop building MacBook Air clones from Asus

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  • Reply 41 of 165
    I am not convinced Apple moving all their laptops to a Macbook Air model is smart. We have seen so many Apple victories in the last few years I think everyone is starting to believe that anything they do will turn to gold. It is one thing to create a smartphone unlike anything the world has seen. It is one thing to create an entirely new "tablet" space with the iPad. It is another thing altogether to dramatically change an existing product that is growing market share and change it so it is similar to a product that is not growing (or selling) as well as the original. I fail to see the logic.



    Granted, I think Macbook Air/Ultrabooks are nice, but Apple is going to screw something up one day with their compulsive need to push the market forward. The expectation to keep their profits growing at the current pace will be their downfall (especially now that Steve is not around).



    Mark my words: one day they will push too hard and Apple will have it's on Windows Vista-like fiasco to deal with.
  • Reply 42 of 165
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Apple ][ View Post


    The difference between Israel and Syria is that one is a leading hi-tech democratic country and the other is a brutal and primitive dictatorship which is currently slaughtering it's citizens by the boatload last I checked on the news.



    Please, stick to Apple discussion (on which I usually tend to agree with you), because you're clueless and misguided about any other subject. Calling Israel a democracy is a big stretch, and real analysis of what a democracy actually entails, and what aspects are actually present in Israel, makes it clear that it is nothing close to one. I agree that the Syrian gvt is a brutal dictatorship, but Israel is and has been involved in it's own brutality and it's crimes are well known and ongoing.
  • Reply 43 of 165
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mstone View Post


    I really don't understand why Apple is so offended by these copycats. People who buy them were not ever going to be Apple customers anyway. The cloners can't compete on price, quality, service, warranty, ecosystem, software, operating system reliability, resale value or ease of use.



    Let the morons have their knock offs. There will always be knock offs. If they start putting Apple logos on them, that is when you take action.



    Apple is doing the entire industry a service by forcing competitors to come up with their own ideas. What if every car on the road looked like a Mercedes? Competition is supposed to give us choice, not copies.
  • Reply 44 of 165
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by thataveragejoe View Post


    I don't know, seems to be working ok for Samsung so far, LOL.



    Are you saying that Samsung signed a non-compete agreement with Apple?
  • Reply 45 of 165
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by auxio View Post


    However, the comment about commies is hilarious. This situation is one of the purest examples of capitalism you can find.



    China has embraced some Western Capitalism which has led them to have greater economic success, but they are still commies and they basically are ruled by one party. That's one reason why I don't really give a crap about any workers in China. They may have embraced capitalism, but until they ditch their failed, primitive and authoritarian political beliefs, things won't change much.
  • Reply 46 of 165
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Slurpy View Post


    Please, stick to Apple discussion (on which I usually tend to agree with you), because you're clueless and misguided about any other subject. Calling Israel a democracy is a big stretch, and real analysis of what a democracy actually entails, and what aspects are actually present in Israel, makes it clear that it is nothing close to one. I agree that the Syrian gvt is a brutal dictatorship, but Israel is and has been involved in it's own brutality and it's crimes are well known and ongoing.



    Israel is technically a Parliamentary democracy. You might be one of those misguided leftists who hate Israel for whatever reason, but that doesn't change what they are.
  • Reply 47 of 165
    red oakred oak Posts: 1,087member
    The fact that Apple even had to ask Pegatron is ridiculous



    Apple needs to beef up its non-competitive clauses with its manufacturing partners. It should be crystal clear to the vendors that they cannot do this.
  • Reply 48 of 165
    Pegatron used to be subsidiary of ASUStek, the company marketing the ASUS brand. Makes this quite a funny thing.
  • Reply 49 of 165
    ...in China.



    If Apple pretends exclusivity from manufacturers, the manufacturer's business model needs to work with just one client, a position nobody wants to be in. Pegatron will appease in the short run, but it does not sound like a sustainable strategy.



    Add to that the labor conditions issues, which will not go away, the problems with leaks of information, and the overall importance of the Chinese market.



    So I think Apple should build or buy a plant in China, and start manufacturing there. This plant would serve many purposes. Being of Apple's own property, it would be the first one to get new devices, and the first place new production techniques are tested and scaled. Plant workers would be Apple employees and have better wages, benefits, and working conditions, while also having far greater incentive to adhere to product secrecy.



    Such a plant would also be a marketing coup for the Chinese market, as it would indicate a much higher level of commitment to China.



    I am not suggesting Apple produce everything by itself. Just a significant percent. Rather than pressure Pegatron, why not buy it outright?
  • Reply 50 of 165
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Quick View Post


    As long as we have pixel-based screens, resolution independent GUIs make no sense.



    Technology is changing. Television will eventually go resolution-independent, vector-based for distribution, which will allow for meaningful use of very large screens without compromising on small screens. Why not get the OSs resolution independent first?



    The shift is just where the processing takes place.
  • Reply 51 of 165
    I deployed one of these Asus systems where I work at and my impression is their "Air" knockoff is nowhere near the fit/finish of the MacBook Air. The keyboard is awful, I had to practically bang on the keys to get them to acknowledge each keystroke (o.k. - that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it certainly wasn't able to do touch-typing), the trackpad was just plain awful as well - to the point that I had to plug in an external mouse to actually get some work done.



    The case itself is made of this brushed metal - it felt more like steel rather than aluminum and the edges were really sharp. When I took it out of the box some of the adhesive stickiness of the wrapper was left behind on the metal and I couldn't find anything to clean the smudges off of the case. I don't know if it came from the plastic cellophane that was used during shipping or if it was on there prior to shipping - but the adhesive was sticky, smudgy and extremely hard to remove.



    I didn't take it apart to inspect the innards - but the system was built with screws all over the bottom supposedly to access the battery, memory, hard drive, etc.



    So - from a hardware perspective (because that's the only comparison that can be drawn here), there's no competition is hands-down a winner for Apple.



    My opinion is - bleah - nice try.
  • Reply 52 of 165
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Alonso Perez View Post


    ...in China.



    If Apple were ever to build it's own plants somewhere (which I find highly unlikely at least for the time being), they can surely find a better place than China to do it in.
  • Reply 53 of 165
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Apple ][ View Post


    Israel is technically a Parliamentary democracy. You might be one of those misguided leftists who hate Israel for whatever reason, but that doesn't change what they are.



    Guys, there are thousands of places in the Web where one can praise or bash Israel, 24x7.



    This isn't one of them. Stick to Apple, it's competitors, manufacturers, even talk of the US or China in that context. But let's keep the Middle East and its problems as far away from here as possible.



    Thank you.
  • Reply 54 of 165
    Personally, I find it kind of ridiculous that other people copy apple's designs, then fault apple for not making things more "open" or giving them a "fair playing ground" or whatever.



    Take the "tablet industry". One way to say things is to say apple invented it. Another way to say it is apple invented a product, called an iPad, which now hundreds of companies want to copy... creating a tablet "industry". Apple would be just as happy if there wasn't any industry.



    In other words, apple's product is so good that now people assume nobody would want anything else. So instead of inventing, they copy apple.



    This is when capitalism gets dumb. As soon as I saw the whole "ultrabook" thing, I knew it was destined to fail. You can't win by copying apple, they are too smart to allow that to happen.
  • Reply 55 of 165
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Apple ][ View Post


    If Apple were ever to build it's own plants somewhere (which I find highly unlikely at least for the time being), they can surely find a better place than China to do it in.



    China's logistical advantages have been widely discussed. I am all for a US plant, but I understand that that's just not going to happen, as Jobs himself said not long ago.



    Thailand has not proven to be such a good bet (and unless they reforest, it will flood again and again). So, where do you have in mind?
  • Reply 56 of 165
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Alonso Perez View Post


    Thank you.



    I know that and I don't disagree with you. But you should perhaps tell that to the person who first brought up the subject in this thread. That person was not me.
  • Reply 57 of 165
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Alonso Perez View Post


    Rather than pressure Pegatron, why not buy it outright?



    Because Apple's current strategy makes higher profits for Wall Street.
  • Reply 58 of 165
    addaboxaddabox Posts: 12,665member
    Just a quick reminder for the "Apple should quite focusing on lawsuits and put more energy into their products" crowd: Apple has this thing called legal counsel? And law firms which they employ?



    And surprisingly, those attorneys are not working on the next MacBook Pro or iTV or iPad. Apple doesn't have to pull personnel out of R&D to put on figuring out what to sue someone for. Jony Ive isn't getting distracted, Scott Forstall doesn't have to drop what he's doing to deliver a deposition and Tim Cook can take time out of his busy schedule to talk to the lawyers about whether or not to proceed with a given piece of litigation without forgetting to make products.



    I get the feeling people imagine that Apple HQ has turned into some kind of war room with big maps on the wall and the top brass spending their days screaming at subordinates ala Hitler's bunker. Lawyers. They do work.
  • Reply 59 of 165
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Alonso Perez View Post


    Guys, there are thousands of places in the Web where one can praise or bash Israel, 24x7.



    This isn't one of them. Stick to Apple, it's competitors, manufacturers, even talk of the US or China in that context. But let's keep the Middle East and its problems as far away from here as possible.



    Thank you.



    Agreed. Thank you for that post.
  • Reply 60 of 165
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Alonso Perez View Post


    China's logistical advantages have been widely discussed. I am all for a US plant, but I understand that that's just not going to happen, as Jobs himself said not long ago.



    Thailand has not proven to be such a good bet (and unless they reforest, it will flood again and again). So, where do you have in mind?



    I'm not really sure where else besides China, but I do agree that the US is a non starter for Apple.
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