'Open' will ALWAYS Beat 'Closed' Myth. The 'Clueless' Apple-haters Cheering Not Realizing iPhone rising to 41% of Worldwide Smartphone Profits

Just scanning the web I see a whole bunch of Android fans and assorted Apple-haters cheering (mindlessly) as apparently Android smart- phone market share rises vs iPhone.

Note: that's smartphone, not total iOS devices. Smartphone numbers don't include about 50% of iOS which is on iPads and iPod Touches. Actually latest from Google and Apple quarterly financials released in January (and not analysts estimates) puts Android activations at 300,000 and iOS at 366,000 a day.

This 'market share' gains has led to this myth : 'Open'  Many OEMs will always beat 'Closed-lone-wolf-Apple'. (Questionable how open Android actually is as many Droid phones are locked down etc but that's a topic for another day)

Always beat Apple? Well perhaps I should remind people of iPod!!

Even as Analysts Raise Price Targets Apple Stock Dips Slightly After Blockbuster Earnings. Is Aapl Suffering the 'Tobacco Stock Syndrome'?

Apple announces  mind boggling earnings where it's revenue grows 71% coming in at $26.74 billion which is something like $2 billion more than consensus analysts estimate. It's net profit was a whopping $6 billion (to put that into some perspective in the Oct. 2010 earnings report Microsoft earned $16.2 billion in revenue and $5.41 billion in net profit. Msft is yet to announce the Christmas quarter). 


Analysts have been busy raising their price targets for Apple. 


But even with this blockbuster financial report Aapl dropped further today

Jim Cramer says Apple Stock is "Dirt Cheap" and "Apple is a Rainforest .. its Competitors are like the Gobi Desert".

The P.T Barnum of the investing world Jim Cramer, ecstatic with Apple's earnings raises his price target to $400 and comments why we should buy aapl:

Apple Announces Record Blowout Earnings

Apple:

Record Mac, iPhone, iPad Sales Drive Highest Revenue and Earnings Ever. Revenue Grows 71 Percent; Earnings Grow 78 Percent

In 2009 Barclays Analyst Asks "(What if) Steve is Unable to Return". Tim Cook's Revealing Answer

In 2009 when Steve Jobs was on medical leave for his liver transplant Cook answered a question during the Q1 Earnings call in January on Apple's response to Steve Job's absence. It gives a very interesting look at Tim Cook's beliefs and Apple's philosopy :

As Jobs goes on Medical Leave who is Minding the Store? Apple's Deep Bench of Talent

As Steve Jobs goes on medical leave (see stories below) thoughts go to management of Apple. Fortunately Apple has an extremely deep bench of talent undoubtedly one of the top management teams in the U.S.  CEOs who are 'less competent' sometimes hire poor quality subordinates as they don't want to be overshadowed but Jobs is a supremely intelligent and confident person and he has gathered over the years a top notch team.


A brief look at some of the more in the limelight Apple senior executives: 

Trying to Read some Hopeful Signs in Timing of Jobs Medical Leave Announcement

Digital Daily Writer Paczkowski Thinks Reaction to Steve Jobs Medical Leave Overblown

As news of Steve Jobs medical leave sends shockwaves through the internet and the Apple investor community with reports of Aapl dropping 8% in Frankfurt, Digital Daily writer John Paczkowski asks everyone to take a deep breath and ease up:

Steve Jobs Goes on Medical Leave

This morning Steve Jobs through a email to employees and reproduced for the media announced that he will be taking a leave of absence.

Google Vs Apple. Is Android Killing Apple? A Brief Look at Android's Effect on Apple's Growth since 2007

It seems that there is hardly anywhere on the net that I go where the argument that Android is killing Apple is put forward. I've even read that Apple will soon be heading towards insolvency like what happened two decades ago during the Mac PC Skirmish I. The belief is that Google (the new Microsoft) is raking in all the money and Apple is suffering diminishing returns.

Fact is in 2007 when Android was announced with great fanfare and plenty of prognostications of imminent Apple demise, Google was a larger company by market capitalization than Apple. Apple blew past Google in 2009. Now after 3 years or so of Android 'success' Apple is now larger than Google by a $100 billion ( $318 b vs 197 b ).

see chart:

Goog vs Aapl Growth since Android

Security Software Maker Says Android More Vulnerable to Viruses than iPhone

Bloomberg reports that security software maker Trend Micro states that Android is more vulnerable viruses than iOS.

"Android is open-source, which means the hacker can also understand the underlying architecture and source code,” Steve Chang, chairman of Trend Micro, the world’s largest provider of security software for corporate servers, said in an interview in Taipei yesterday. “We have to give credit to Apple, because they are very careful about it. It’s impossible for certain types of viruses” to operate on the iPhone, he said."

“Apple has a sandbox concept that isolates the platform, which prevents certain viruses that want to replicate themselves or decompose and recompose to avoid virus scanners,” 

Apple Erasing the Haze of CES while still Limbering Up for 2011

CES came and went and except for the most devout tech columnist who itemized every doodad in some database it was a blurry haze of products. Out of the plethora of items nothing earthshaking. Most casual observers won't be able to remember much: "Yeah I think there were like a whole bunch of tablets, but no one said there was an iPad killer. And I think iPad 2 is coming... ".

Iphone for Verizon announced. Engadget has live blog.

Doubtlessly every Apple fan in the U.S has heard that the iPhone has finally (after countless rumors) found a berth at Verizon.

Engadget has a blow by blow of Verizon's announcement event in New York.

(Tim Cook (right) at iPhone announcement. Photo: Engadget)

How does Steve Jobs live on $1 a year when he doesn't sell any Apple shares and why Tim Cook is walking home with $59 million.

It was revealed last week from Apple's 2011 Proxy Statement that Steve Jobs the iconic CEO of Apple took home his usual 1 buck a year salary and that Tim Cook was awarded a total of $59 million in salary and bonuses.

Steve Jobs' Jet N2N (Photo Coolspotters)

Steve Jobs got no bonuses and basically his only perk was expenses for his Gulstream jet which came up to $248,000. He was awarded the jet in 1999. Steve Jobs has a $1 a year salary since his return to Apple in 1997. He has not been awarded any new shares since 2003. He owns about 5.5 million in Apple shares now which is valued around $2 billion. He has not sold any Apple shares since his return except some for tax purposes. 


So what does Steve Jobs live on?

Apple launches new Mac App Store

Today the Mac gets some love with Apple opening it's Mac App Store.

More bad news about RIM's Playbook battery?

There has been a bit of a back and forth between Kaufman Brother's analyst Shaw Wu and Research in Motion about RIM's upcoming tablet the Playbook. Earlier Wu had indicated that he believed that there were problems about the battery life of the Playbook saying that it might be inferior to Samsung Tab's 6 hours or the iPad's long 10 hours which netted a quick reply from RIM co-CEO Jim Basille who said that "RIM is on track with its schedule to optimize the BlackBerry PlayBook’s battery life and looks forward to providing customers with a professional grade tablet that offers superior performance with comparable battery life" (Read more on this at CultofMac). Basille indicated that any conclusions drawn by analysts were inaccurate as they were based on early prototypes without optimized power management. 


According to AppleInsider Shaw Wu issued another note to investors this week that re-emphasized the Playbooks battery problems.

NPR on the Steve Jobs - Jonathan Ive partnership at Apple.

An interesting look at Steve Jobs' partnership with Jonathan Ive Apple's chief designer at NPR, there's transcript here and the audio file. Jonathan Ive is of course the famous lead designer of various pieces of ground breaking Apple hardware since the radical candy colored imacs that started Apple's renaissance to practically everything Apple today including the 'retina' screen iPhone 4. Ive is a cornerstone  of Apple's success.

John Gruber of Daring Fireball says Asymco.com is his favorite weblog of 2010

CNN votes iPhone 4 tech fail of the year. The phone which has the highest customer satisfaction ranking from JD Power and Changewave

CNN has vote the iPhone 4 as number one on its list of 2010 tech failures.

Gartenberg says Apple TV turning from Hobby to Full-time business

Michael Gartenberg at Macworld says:
"Apple TV sometimes feels like the Rodney Dangerfield of Apple products: it gets no respect. No less than Steve Jobs calls it not a product line, but a hobby. Hobbies are funny, though. Stick with one long enough and it can transform from side interest to full-time business."


Gartenberg's conclusion seems on the money as Apple has just announced that it has sold a million new Apple TVs in about 80 days. (To put this in context as a significant number Windows fan sites are jumping up and down when Microsoft proudly announced they have sold 1.5m WP7 phones in 6 weeks with 10 different phones on 60 carriers in 30 countries. Considering Apple TV is/was a 'hobby' and WP7 a major platform initiative with a 500 million ad budget... )