iPhone, iPod updates pad Apple margins; Belgian iPhone; more
Apple's new 16GB iPhone is as much a move to restore comfortably high profit margins as to spark sales, according to one report. Also, Belgium's main carrier may support the iPhone this year, and the chief creator of Linux has chastised Apple's approach to Mac OS X.
New iPhone, iPod capacities seen boosting margins
If prices for flash memory have stabilized or dropped since Apple first released the iPhone, the new 16GB model could prove to be a true cash cow for Apple, says a new analysis by Silicon Alley Insider.
The research points to an earlier iSuppli cost breakdown for the iPhone, which revealed that manufacturing costs accounted for only 50 percent of each unit before factoring marketing and sales into the equation. Assuming prices have remained the same for the NAND flash storage in the device -- an unlikely situation given Apple's admitted oversupply conditions, the report notes -- the 16GB iPhone's retail price would have increased disproportionately to its actual production costs.
An 8GB iPhone would cost $258 to make in October, leaving a 35 percent margin; however, the new model would cost only $40 more at $298. More than 40 percent of the handset's cost would be unaccounted for even before including near-certain price drops, the report makes clear.
The examination makes no attempt to break down prices for the 32GB iPod touch, though an October iSuppli analysis suggested that the $299 8GB model cost just $155 to produce at the time. Adding the $120 at October flash memory prices needed to reach the price of today's 32GB iPod would raise the manufacturing cost to $275, which would leave 45 percent of the new player's cost to other costs as well as profits.
Belgium a candidate for iPhone in 2008
The head of Mobistar, Belgium's second-largest cellular carrier, on Tuesday said a deal may be possible to offer the iPhone through the provider.
Company chief Benoit Scheen didn't estimate a specific timeframe but noted that the opportunity depended largely on Apple. As Belgium isn't the iPhone maker's highest priority, any Belgian release would likely follow only after those of larger countries, the executive said.
Linux creator criticizes Mac OS X
In an interview with Australia's Sydney Morning Herald, Linux founder and namesake Linus Torvalds has taken Apple to task for what he says is a hostile programming environment, even though it may be a stronger operating system than its most obvious alternative.
"I think Leopard is a much better system [than Windows]," Torvalds said. "[However,] OS X in some ways is actually worse than Windows to program for. Their file system is complete and utter crap, which is scary."
Importantly, the developer also attacked the philosophy behind both Mac OS X and Windows in equal measure. The OS is a shell meant to be an "invisible" means of getting to applications, he said. For hardware manufacturers, Linux is said to be a better alternative that is customizable for specific applications or very low-power devices like media players. With most commercial operating systems, however, the need to drive profits often distracts from improving performance or other important but less alluring components of the software.
To Microsoft and Apple [the OS is] a way to control the whole environment... to force people to upgrade their applications and hardware," Torvalds explains.
New iPhone, iPod capacities seen boosting margins
If prices for flash memory have stabilized or dropped since Apple first released the iPhone, the new 16GB model could prove to be a true cash cow for Apple, says a new analysis by Silicon Alley Insider.
The research points to an earlier iSuppli cost breakdown for the iPhone, which revealed that manufacturing costs accounted for only 50 percent of each unit before factoring marketing and sales into the equation. Assuming prices have remained the same for the NAND flash storage in the device -- an unlikely situation given Apple's admitted oversupply conditions, the report notes -- the 16GB iPhone's retail price would have increased disproportionately to its actual production costs.
An 8GB iPhone would cost $258 to make in October, leaving a 35 percent margin; however, the new model would cost only $40 more at $298. More than 40 percent of the handset's cost would be unaccounted for even before including near-certain price drops, the report makes clear.
The examination makes no attempt to break down prices for the 32GB iPod touch, though an October iSuppli analysis suggested that the $299 8GB model cost just $155 to produce at the time. Adding the $120 at October flash memory prices needed to reach the price of today's 32GB iPod would raise the manufacturing cost to $275, which would leave 45 percent of the new player's cost to other costs as well as profits.
Belgium a candidate for iPhone in 2008
The head of Mobistar, Belgium's second-largest cellular carrier, on Tuesday said a deal may be possible to offer the iPhone through the provider.
Company chief Benoit Scheen didn't estimate a specific timeframe but noted that the opportunity depended largely on Apple. As Belgium isn't the iPhone maker's highest priority, any Belgian release would likely follow only after those of larger countries, the executive said.
Linux creator criticizes Mac OS X
In an interview with Australia's Sydney Morning Herald, Linux founder and namesake Linus Torvalds has taken Apple to task for what he says is a hostile programming environment, even though it may be a stronger operating system than its most obvious alternative.
"I think Leopard is a much better system [than Windows]," Torvalds said. "[However,] OS X in some ways is actually worse than Windows to program for. Their file system is complete and utter crap, which is scary."
Importantly, the developer also attacked the philosophy behind both Mac OS X and Windows in equal measure. The OS is a shell meant to be an "invisible" means of getting to applications, he said. For hardware manufacturers, Linux is said to be a better alternative that is customizable for specific applications or very low-power devices like media players. With most commercial operating systems, however, the need to drive profits often distracts from improving performance or other important but less alluring components of the software.
To Microsoft and Apple [the OS is] a way to control the whole environment... to force people to upgrade their applications and hardware," Torvalds explains.
Comments
Still running my 867 12" Powerbook. Granted I only do word processing and family photos on trips. .
Or this means unlocked phones are coming to europe.
"I think Leopard is a much better system [than Windows]," Torvalds said. "[However,] OS X in some ways is actually worse than Windows to program for. Their file system is complete and utter crap, which is scary."
Apple seems to think so too. Which is probably why they are developing ZFS actively and it will probably show up in 10.6. I've actually never had any problems with HFS+ but I'm not a heavy programmer either. I'm looking forward to the features of ZFS though.
On his other complaint about the operating system being a lock in - I don't see how linux is any different. It is a platform and you are working on either a windows, linux, or os x platform. That is the lock -in. It is part of development. I'm glad that Apple leaves all the legacy crap behind. It reduces bloat and makes things more stable. I'm a happy OS X user and Linux distros still are not as attractive an option. I mean come on... it is free and they can barely give it away. Maybe in time it will be useable but for now it doesn't pass the "my mom can use it test" so I'm not going to support it.
I doubt Mobistar will be able to get a deal done with Apple as in Belgium it is by law forbidden to sell a phone with a subscription. My guess Mobistar wants to ride the iPhone and hype and hopes people will switch to Mobistar in advance. Belgium is one of the few countries where every phone is sold unlocked.
Or this means unlocked phones are coming to europe.
This is very true. I'm very excited nonetheless. This is the first real news I've herd about the iPhone in Belgium, except for jailbroken ones.
If Linus wants to remedy the situation, he's going to have to weigh in on the "Desktop Wars" in Linux-land. But thus far, all he says about it is "I like choice." Bah humbug, choice is fine, but if it don't work, who gives a ****?
Belgium a candidate for iPhone in 2008
Damn, that's less then 12km south of me.
KPN, Vodafone or T-Mobile, hurry up.
Linux creator criticizes Mac OS X
[snip]
With most commercial operating systems, however, the need to drive profits often distracts from improving performance or other important but less alluring components of the software.
To Microsoft and Apple [the OS is] a way to control the whole environment... to force people to upgrade their applications and hardware," Torvalds explains.
I understand what he says about Microsoft.
But he is talking crap about Mac OSX.
My 400mhz G3 Pismo went through 4 OSX upgrades before it died on me (stroke).
Every incarnation of OSX, from 10.1 to 10.4, the machine responded faster, until a point, after I upgraded it to Tiger, it felt almost as fast as OS9.
Both my current 2.33ghz 15" MBP and 2.8ghz iMac feel faster under 10.5 than 10.4.
I know 10.5 needs more resources and slowing some processes down, but if the resources are available, Leopard feels snappier.
So as far as I can see improving performance is still high on Apples agenda.
the chief creator of Linux has chastised Apple's approach to Mac OS X.
things are not looking good, eh? just a few months ago linux was the major alternative [windows mobile]. now we have android and the 'almost' perfect os x...
things turned out to be not as easy as you expected, right linus?
Damn, that's less then 12km south of me.
KPN, Vodafone or T-Mobile, hurry up.
I think you will have the iPhone before we Belgians do because Belgium is a no show for locked phones, in holland it's common practice. One of your carriers just keeps it mouth shut until they can guarantee the deal.
Yeah, and frontloaded R&D costs apparently don't figure into this equation at all. Tool.
Sour grapes on the part of Linus, I think.
Well, just consider the source: a "benevolent" socialist dictator.
The research points to an earlier iSuppli cost breakdown for the iPhone, which revealed that manufacturing costs accounted for only 50 percent of each unit
Oh. My. God. Why do you guys keep on saying this over and over? Do you hope that if you say it enough times, it'll be true?
The iSuppli cost breakdowns "reveal" estimated component costs. They do not attempt to account for the cost of manufacture.
On to the Linus quote:
It would have been nice if he'd actually backed-up the "filesystem is complete and utter crap" comment with an explanation of what the hell he was talking about. From my point of view, HFS+ is one of the best filesystems out there (and no, I'm not just saying that because I'm a Mac user, those that know me will know I have plenty bad to say about Apple and OS X).
In a sense, Linux isn't a lock-in because Linux is not an OS - it's a kernel. If want to migrate away from Ubuntu, you can always switch to Suse, or Red Hat, or Gentoo, or . . . If you want to migrate to non-Linux OS, no beans.
I wonder what Linus' beef is with HFS? I can't think why Ext3 is better. But 10.6 will probably move to ZFS anyway which I'm excited about. Honestly, WinFS was way sexy too before MS abandoned it. My fantasy in a file system is with unlimited, arbitrary tagging as well.
My fantasy in a file system is with unlimited, arbitrary tagging as well.
HFS+ in 10.4 and later already has that ability.
The success of Mac OS X sucked the air out of desktop Linux, because it runs all those good ole' Unix programs that Linux runs if you want to be geeky, but provides a much better desktop environment for doing so..... I finally gave up on Linux on the desktop when I tried to do some audio work, and half the programs wouldn't work because they needed the KDE sound system, half the programs wouldn't work because they needed the GNOME sound system, and half the programs wouldn't work because they needed some other weird sound system... and none of these three different sound systems would co-exist on the same system.
If Linus wants to remedy the situation, he's going to have to weigh in on the "Desktop Wars" in Linux-land. But thus far, all he says about it is "I like choice." Bah humbug, choice is fine, but if it don't work, who gives a ****?
I think you've hit the nail on the head there. I too went through a phase of using Linux and got a lot of entertainment out of it in a purely nerdy fashion, but in the end found it simply too anarchic to actually really get any serious work done on it, for similar reasons as yourself.
It's interesting hearing Linus' criticism of both OS X and Windows, describing them as a means for Apple and Microsoft to control the environment. I'd say a controlled environment gives the best opportunity for stable and productive programs. Yes, I'm sure in both cases there are many people who'd give an arm and a leg to have a glimpse of the source in either case, but equally both companies give pretty comprehensive integration guidelines, which are probably a damn sight more useful than just looking at pages of code.
The thing that debilitates Linux so much is that the situation with all the distributions is much akin to the worst days of the browser wars, with Netscape and Microsoft chucking in their own new propietary tags at their pleasure, leaving web developers the headache of trying to write code that keeps all of the browsers happy. Thankfully, the advent of the W3C has gone a long way to curing these ills, meaning browsers are now competing more over the efficiency of the user interface, security and performance rather than messing with the (X)HTML standards.
The teams that produce the range of Linux distros need to form their own equivalent of the W3C and start standardising the distros complete with integration guidelines for application developers - in other words start controlling the environment - in order to have a chance of delivering the stability needed to get the level of interoperability between applications on the platform that Mac and PC users take for granted.
Then again, I could be wrong.
Can anyone name major, paradigm-shifting software developments that have come out of Linux? (Please spare me the teary-eyed stuff about the beauty of "collective development" etc a la the Wikipedia model).
And, considering that many people see it as an alternative to Windows, would you please include in that an argument why it has a market share of about 1%?
What's Linux? Why should I care?
Can anyone name major, paradigm-shifting software developments that have come out of Linux? (Please spare me the teary-eyed stuff about the beauty of "collective development" etc a la the Wikipedia model).
And, considering that many people see it as an alternative to Windows, would you please include in that an argument why it has a market share of about 1%?
No, I quite agree. I think I covered my views on the current problems with the Linux platform in my last post. Personally, I'm happy with the Mac, merely proposing a strategy that the Linux fans in the world might consider to develop their 1% share of the market (although in fairness, based on the stats on the W3C page for OS use on the web, it's more like 3-4%)
Equally though, it's a bit unfair to write off open source development, PHP,MySQL and Apache being possible proposals for a paradigm shift in web server technology among others.
I've set up about 5 WinXP2Pro boxes recently with 2 hard drives on Raid 1 (mirrored), and it has never corrupted in about 5 months now, touch wood.
And here's the kicker: Parallels seems to work well with Time Machine. Imagine you have Time Machine. For Windows.