gregg thurman

across04 said:

WebOS was actually very good. It was deployed on flawed hardware. If they had introduced this on a "slab" phone, it could have been a big hit.

WebOS was VERY good.  It was certainly better than the first, second, maybe even third generation Android.  HPQ should have never bought Palm, they had not a clue what to do with it, so it died.

Today is far too late to introduce yet another me-too Android handset.  Because Androids appeal mostly to users of feature phones the Android winners will be Chinese.  It wouldn't surprise me any if sometime in the future the Chinese morph Android into their own proprietary OS.

lukei said:

ireland said:

Now that Spotify has 80M so-called paid subs, they need to pull out the blanket and get rid of the free tier.

Given ad sponsored Radio is still a multi Billion $ business worldwide why would they want to do this?

Ad-sponsored may generate Billions in revenue (it doesn't) ads do not generate as much revenue (per listener) as monthly subscriber fees, but the costs of operations remain about the same.  Shutting down ad-sponsored music would increase Spotify's gross margin percent and probably improve cash flow.

At the least Spotify needs to limit its free streaming to a fixed period (3 months?).

"The analysts also failed to mention that the HomePod has yet to see a holiday sales period."

... or meaningful distribution outside the US.

I buy speakers for the SOUND, not the gimmicks.  I'll wager that HomePod buyers are pretty much the same way.  The last set I bought was harman/kardon Sound Sticks (still use them).  HomePods are much better.  Getting voice control is icing on the cake (I haven't had any problems with SIRI on HomePod).

People should not think of all mobile handsets sold in China as "smartphones".  With an ASP bouncing around $200, these are glorified feature phones.  They appeal to FEATURE phone users because of the display, ease of use (vs classic button activated feature phones) and a selling price not unlike that of a feature phone.

Buyers of these handsets have no need for the advanced features of true smartphones, ergo they hold onto them for much longer than true smartphone owners do.

This is why I wish the research firms would break sales into two categories: those selling for more than $400, and those selling for less than $400.  In the above $400 segment Apple has no peers and nearly all of the entire industry's profits.

rotateleftbyte said:

I think you mean Ken Olsen. (ex Dec employee). From memory, it was several years after Ken O stepped down and Compaq bought the business.

You got me.  Ken is his correct first name.  Compaq bought DEC 6 years after Olson retired.