I'm sure Apple fans will agree, but consider this statement: "Without a doubt, [Microsoft CEO Steve] Ballmer is the worst CEO of a large publicly traded American company today." Well, that doesn't mean ALL CEOs, of course. But it's not something that came from a Mac fan site, or even a tech commentator for the mainstream media. Instead, this pronouncement originates in a story published in a prestigious business publication, Forbes magazine, entitled "Oops! Five CEOs Who Should Have Already Been Fired (Cisco, GE, WalMart, Sears, Microsoft)." I won't bother with the other four.

Number one, with a bullet, is Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer who, over his twelve years on the job, has utterly wrecked the company's reputation as the dominant player in the technology industry. Yes, Windows still powers 90% of PC desktops. Yes, Office is still the most popular productivity suite on the planet. But Microsoft's efforts to spread the joy beyond their 1990's accomplishments have been largely unsuccessful.

Continue Reading...

Some felt that Apple CEO Tim Cook was being conciliatory when he suggested the company would be willing to work out settlements for those ongoing intellectual property lawsuits involving Samsung, Motorola and other companies. At the same time he didn't hesitate to assert that he wanted them to invent their own stuff, so it's not as if he's willing to let them off the hook for perceived patent infringement.

Now this week it's reported that both Apple and Samsung have reduced the number of claims of patent infringement they've filed against each other in a California lawsuit. This action was taken at the request of Judge Lucy Koh, who remarked, "I think that's cruel and unusual punishment to a jury, so I'm not willing to do it." In response, Apple cut their claims roughly in half, and Samsung is dumping five out of their 12 claims.

Continue Reading...

My encounters with Apple's attempts to deliver a reliable online service have been decidedly mixed. Although most of you probably believe that it all began with iTools, a free set of online features, including email, which debuted in 2000, Apple's shaky online service history goes back further.

Indeed, the progenitor of MobileMe -- and now iCloud -- wasn't Apple's first attempt at taking their customers online. Back in the 1980s, Apple had an online service for dealers, AppleLink. A small startup company, Quantum Computer Services, made a deal with Apple to create a Personal Edition version of AppleLink, which would deliver a similar online service to consumers.

When the deal fell apart, Quantum decided to roll their own, and rebranded the service America Online -- later renamed AOL when it expanded beyond the boundaries of the U.S. But they continued to follow the Apple mantra, which was to make the service easy for regular people to master and get online, at the expense of making it too simple according to some skeptics, who also complained about AOL's infamous walled garden.

Continue Reading...

As you may have noticed, Apple's stock price dipped by the equivalent of $50 billion in market value earlier this week for various reasons. Certainly the stock market's volatility was but one possible cause. Another was the claim that wireless carriers resent having to pay Apple high prices for the iPhone and will be looking at other smartphones to offer instead. But that's just one potential challenge, real or imagined, which Apple may face in the next few years.

All together, should any of those fears be realized, it may reduce Apple's amazing growth, or maybe move the revenue curve in the wrong direction. Or maybe not.

Continue Reading...