Report: Apple To Switch From Samsung to TSMC For ARM CPU Production 178
another random user writes "Apple is planning to shift production of its ARM-based microprocessors from Samsung to the Taiwanese chip-baking giant TSMC as early as next year, according to a report by the China Economic News Service (CENS). The report cites CitiGroup Global Markets analyst J.T. Hsu as saying that TSMC will be Apple's sole supplier of 20nm quad-core processors, with volume production to begin in the fourth quarter of 2013. He also noted that Apple began its 20nm chip-verfication process at TSMC in August of this year. Hsu told CENS that the future quad-core chips were intended for Apple's 'iPad, iTV and even Macbook,' turning up the heat on two rumors that have been simmering for months: that Apple is planning a move into the television market, and that an ARM-based MacBook is in the works."
No ARM MacBook (Score:2)
If it was Microsoft that could have been feasible. But I really don't see Apple making ARM laptops. They don't want confusion and x86 MacBooks and ARM iPads seams to have good distinction.
Re: (Score:2)
If it was Microsoft that could have been feasible. But I really don't see Apple making ARM laptops. They don't want confusion and x86 MacBooks and ARM iPads seams to have good distinction.
I'm not saying Apple is doing it, it's honestly something I've never thought about Apple doing before, but they could easily avoid confusion by just calling it an iBook. Er, wait...
Re: (Score:3)
If you like Apple or not, you have to admit they are good at making an OS that works cross different hardware platforms, and maintain their compatability.
Microsoft couldn't even make a clean transition between 32 and 64 bit.
If you had any experience with Linux in Sparc or PowerPC you in essence needed to recompile near everything, and you are out of luck if you have the few closed source apps.
Re:No ARM MacBook (Score:4, Insightful)
Microsoft couldn't even make a clean transition between 32 and 64 bit.
Difference is Apple could release 64-bit on their terms, Microsoft is at the whims of the hardware manufacturers.
Apple could put out the G5 series as they saw fit. Microsoft is expected to throw something together the moment the hardware becomes available.
Plus having used XP 64-bit since it was available. Most of the issues were with incompatible drivers. With Apple that is not a problem, their is only one or two of each piece of hardware that is your entire "options" so producing a dozen drivers verses having to produce hundreds by all the hardware manufacturers.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
If it was Microsoft that could have been feasible. But I really don't see Apple making ARM laptops. They don't want confusion and x86 MacBooks and ARM iPads seams to have good distinction.
Apple has a better record of handling a CPU architecture change than any other company I know of. For years, they were shipping OS X as hybrid PPC-x86 code (fat binaries, or "Universal Binaries" in Apple parlance) and Xcode would automatically compile for both architectures and bundle them in the same executable file. Even outside of universal binaries, Apple's Intel-based computers could run PPC-only code just fine, thanks to Rosetta (removed last year with Lion). I don't think confusion over which arch
Re: (Score:2)
Gotta love how they handled those changes (either hardware or software architecture) so the transition would be almost transparent to users...
6502 to 68k via an add-on board (basically a 6502 on an expansion card to give full 2e compatibility), that one was both a hardware and software transition so a Mac could run Apple 2 apps.
When they switched from 68k to PPC during 7.x or 8 they used emulation again so apps would run on the new architecture, then Classic mode (emulation) when they switched from OS9 to O
Re: (Score:2)
Apple does not heavily promote the CPUs it uses. They are mere details and the user shouldn't have to care or know about that.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
a full blown laptop to compete with Microsoft's Surface
That's not how Apple works. Their business model is to identify market segments with no competitors, enter them, hype their product until it's identified with that market segment, and then move on to the next one before the race to the bottom takes over.
Re:No ARM MacBook (Score:5, Insightful)
That's not how Apple works. Their business model is to identify market segments with no competitors, enter them, hype their product until it's identified with that market segment,
I guess it worked on you then since you've forgotten all these MP3 players (Creative etc.), phones (Nokia, Sony Ericsson etc.), tablets (Microsoft etc.) that was before Apple. Of course they've picked their angle of attack to find trendsetters and increase market share quick, but I'd say Apply has pushed a fair number of competitors aside. They're really not into green-fielding completely new types of products, they ambush niches and rapidly increase their size into big markets. I do agree they're looking to be the biggest player though they won't start anything where they'll be second or third fiddle.
Re: (Score:2)
I guess it worked on you then since you've forgotten all these MP3 players (Creative etc.),
The mobile music player market was immature. Most of the existing players had either tiny amounts (128MB or less) of Flash, or 2.5" microdrives. Apple introduced the iPod with a 1.8" drive almost as soon as they became available (Creative got there just before, but the delay between the two means both were in production at the same time) and, importantly, bought up enough of the drive supply that no one else could manage to ship the same sorts of volumes. The availability of the 1.8" drives was the tippi
Re: (Score:2)
Apple needs to ensure that it has enough of a market share in the iPhone that developers continue to target it. Even if iOS and their hardware were superior, some people expect to use third-party add-ons, especially games. If their market share dips to a point where popular game-makers start to treat it as an afterthought, they'll go downhill quickly.
Right now they're getting the best of both worlds: a premium product with a premium price, and a hefty market segment. They seem to be managing it well, but th
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Actually, that's something else I've noticed about Apple. Their hype/marketing/RDF/whatever is so good that many laypeople mistakenly believe that Apple invented a lot of that stuff. GUI, MP3 player, smartphone, thin tablet (Archos was trending in that direction before the iPad), touchscreens, multi-touch, pinch to zoom, slide to un
Re: (Score:3)
You forgot to mention the part where they (attempt to) sue anyone else who dares enter the same market back out.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
But Apple may want something in between a tablet and a full blown laptop to compete with Microsoft's Surface. Makes sense to me.
This already exists, it’s called 11" Macbook Air.
Air doesn't run ipad apps.
now what they might do would be a hybrid with arm chip for ipad-apps mode.
full osx on arm though? yuck.
Re: (Score:2)
full osx on arm though? yuck.
Shouldn't run too bad, actually. There are of course MacOS X apps that you wouldn't want to run on an ARM chip, and full MacOS X on an iPad would also be a rubbish idea, but an Air running MacOS X would be feasible. And as long as an app has a 32 bit version and no assembler code, a recompile should be enough.
Re: (Score:2)
Air doesn't run ipad apps.
now what they might do would be a hybrid with arm chip for ipad-apps mode.
Air does run ipad and iphone apps. You can run an iphone simulator on all macbooks, and it wouldn't be too difficult for them to make this a more accessible experience.
Re: (Score:2)
I believe that when you compile with the Simulator as a target, it generates x86 code, which is a large part of why the Simulator runs so smoothly.
Re: (Score:2)
Well if they want ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Well if they want to be independent from Samsung, that's the way to go of course. ...
This thing is a new reaction to this trial which bothers both of us, normal people vs Apple fanboys
Re:Well if they want ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
I don't even own a phone yet I seem morally obliged to support Android over Apple.
Re: (Score:2)
I do own a phone (an old Nokia) but likewise, Apple's behavior against Samsung is immoral, and my next phone purchase will probably be a Samsung. I like a lot of what Apple did historically (loved the early Mac's) but their behavior now, boycotting Apple is unfortunately the only moral thing to do.
Re: (Score:2)
The next Google Nexus will be an LG and Nokia either spits an an Android range or dies, hell you can even go waterproof with a Panasonic Eluga or piss of the bagde and buy direct from a Chinese Manufacturer like Huawei. Boycotting Apple only really counts if they are the best choice, when the phones are trailing the pack in terms of features an price, not buying them means you are not a victim of marketing.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
They're the only ones that let you run what code you want on your device without needing to get it pre-approved by the mothership? They release the source for their operating system (except for that one release where the engineers were embarrassed by it but management shoved it out the door)?
Re:Well if they want ... (Score:5, Interesting)
How many people *ACTUALLY* need to run custom code tho? It keeps the iPhone mostly free of viruses or crash prone apps and the target audience for iPhone is customers not DIY hackers.
Android is so open but yet the Jelly Bean installation base is only 1.5% after 3 months. There's a difference between "theoretically open" and actual real world practise.
If you really want to run your own code for whatever reason (custom robot?) you can either Jailbreak or just get an enterprise license from Apple then you can run any code you want.
Re:Well if they want ... (Score:5, Funny)
Jelly Bean? I can't even run full ICS! Samsung is closed-source on all the drivers for my "open" Android phone. You can install ICS, but you get no video acceleration or camera - and other quirks like the face sensor and the accelerometers not working properly (or at all). It's a fun geek toy, but honestly you could load not-quite-functioning Android even on the iPhone. [idroidproject.org] (To be fair, that project seems to have stalled recently.)
Re: (Score:2)
How many people *ACTUALLY* need to run custom code tho? It keeps the iPhone mostly free of viruses or crash prone apps and the target audience for iPhone is customers not DIY hackers.
Android is so open but yet the Jelly Bean installation base is only 1.5% after 3 months. There's a difference between "theoretically open" and actual real world practise.
If you really want to run your own code for whatever reason (custom robot?) you can either Jailbreak or just get an enterprise license from Apple then you can run any code you want.
Android is open source. Anyone can modify it and submit changes to Google, or just run the modified Android as they see fit (Amazon). There are, indeed, many companies that make Android phones. So it's very practically open.
You mention jailbreaking - I can access any appstore with my Android phone without jailbreaking it. Which again shows that it's very practically open.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not arguing that its not open. I'm questioning how useful that is for consumers when in the end they can't even run the latest OS release until months or years after its released.
If you want an opn platform for hacking and modifying an contributing back to google then go for android. No problems there. Just don't think that that somehow means its better when you look at it from the consumers' perspective.
Re:Well if they want ... (Score:4, Informative)
FYI, apps on iOS are more crash prone [forbes.com] than Android apps.
Re: (Score:2)
FYI, apps on iOS are more crash prone [forbes.com] than Android apps.
It's a headline in the form of a question - so no, they aren't.
Re: (Score:2)
Android is so open but yet the Jelly Bean installation base is only 1.5% after 3 months. There's a difference between "theoretically open" and actual real world practise.
These two facts are completely unrelated. The vast majority of people I know with Android phones either don't know that an update is available, or simply don't care. Sure there are a few tinkerers. I imagine if you actually took a survey of the Slashdot Jelly Bean install base it would be quite different than a survey which includes my sister who had enough trouble turning the damn phone on and now a year later seems to have all of 3 apps installed and is 2 updates behind.
Or how about my girlfriend? She's r
Re: (Score:2)
It doesn't have to be one or the other. The problem with Android malware is not because Android can run custom code, it's because their app store is not premoderated, while Apple's is. If the default was a premoderated store, but there would still be a checkbox somewhere deep in "Advanced settings" that enables running third-party apps - or heck, even a command-line tool that would enable it from the console (which you first have to find and download a terminal emulator for) - it would be just as safe as Ap
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
I prefer to be treated as an adult, not as a child. I'll be responsible for security on my own device, thank you.
Re:Well if they want ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Google only uses its patents defensively, never attacking like Apple does. Its products compete by being better and more innovative, not through litigation.
They are far from perfect but Apple has actually gone over to the dark side.
Re: (Score:2)
So why do I read in European newspapers that Motorola are still seeking sales ban on for example the Xbox AFTER Google acquired Motorola. I've seen that argument numerous times that this is before Google acquired it, but when they are today still seeking bans that doesn't make any sense.
Even with regard of the cases that started before Google acquired Motorola, there is no reason why you should go through with a lawsuit that goes against yo
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
So what makes you morally obliged to support an OS created by the world's biggest enemy of privacy solely for the purpose to hurt its competitors?
You mean it has no other merits at all, that's why 60% of smartphones are Android and they're keep improving it just "to hurt its competitors"?
This whole post is so ridiculous it doesn't even merit refuting it point by point.
P.S: "(Score:5, Insightful)", LOL. Nice troll! I'll bookmark this shit for the next time some butthurt appleite mentions "pro-Google /. groupthink"
Re:Well if they want ... (Score:5, Informative)
"Competing" or even running at a loss for a while, trying to break into a market, isn't "attacking", What Apple is doing, meanwhile, IS attacking.
And you're wrong about Android. Google is making plenty of money, and NOT from advertising. While Android proper is free, anybody who wants-in on Google's Apps (Gmail, maps, navigation, etc) and the Market / Play Store, has to get a license from Google. They're making good money from it.
What's more, Google has no reason to use patents to attack Apple or Microsoft. Google doesn't have any lock-in on Android that would make that profitable from an advertising perspective. Anybody (see: Amazon) can change out the Google apps, and not use Google search... Some handset makers change everything to Bing, because the Microsoft money is better (though their service is unreliable), and I personally changed my Android phone to use DDG. Meanwhile, Google *does* have ample reason to aquire patents for defensive purposes, since there are concerted attacks by Apple, which Google needs to defend against to ensure the survival of Android.
Re: (Score:2)
Google doesn't make that much money from Android. They actually make more [androidapps.com] off iOS than Android.
Re: (Score:2)
What's more, Google has no reason to use patents to attack Apple or Microsoft.
Then why are they doing exactly that? You do know that Motorola, a company that has filed patent infringement suits against both Apple and Microsoft, is owned by Google, right?
Re: (Score:2)
Google only recently aquired Motorola Mobility, so you can't attribute previous actions to them. HOWEVER, I'd say suing Apple is fair game, because Apple fired the first big shot, a billion dollar lawsuit, plus import bans against Samsung over their Android devices. That's the kind of big action Google would need to respond to.
Re: (Score:2)
Those numbers obviously AREN'T for mobile phones. You can't compare Android licensing to their ENTIRE business, because mobile isn't their entire business.
"$543 million from Android devices between 2008 and December 2011"
That may be tiny percentage of ALL their income, but it's more than enough to make development of Android profitable, without forced advertising.
Re: (Score:2)
You keep using that word but you clearly don't know what it means.
You clearly have never thought about _why_ Google would bother releasing Android at all.
Re: (Score:3)
The best strategy for the USA in this situation might have been to broker a peace deal between Germany and Britain and let Hitler and Stalin destroy weaken themselves with a long war before stepping in to pick up the pieces, providing covert support to whichever side looked like losing until both empires were in shambles. They didn't, because countenancing genocide on that scale wouldn't have gone over well with the electorate in any vaguely civilised nation.
In this situation, however, no one actually d
Re: (Score:2)
They didn't, because countenancing genocide on that scale wouldn't have gone over well with the electorate in any vaguely civilised nation.
As the magnitude, or even existance, of the nazi genocides were not known to anyone outside Germany until after the war, I find this reasoning dubious.
Re: (Score:2)
Already in June? Reports form whom? Allied forces? Did they reach concentration camps that soon? Or the red cross?
Re: (Score:3)
OK, let me correct that to "before after D-day". Already in June? Reports form whom? Allied forces? Did they reach concentration camps that soon? Or the red cross?
Well, I've found this [nytimes.com] - American press had finally got whiff of it - which reported on the exact place, nature and scale of events. However, the information had been diffusing ever since Wetzler, Vrba and others escaped from Auschwitz. Wetzler and Vrba passed their report to Hungarians, and those were unwilling to believe it for quite some time. As far as non-public information is concerned, even before that, Witold Pilecki had been sending his reports to the Brits between 1941 and 1943, but they kept dismi
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Congratulations, you just made godwin's law imply that indeed, it's wrong to favour android over iOS.
Re: (Score:3)
Stalin killed many, many more people than Hitler. This doesn't change the fact that both were evil.
Re: (Score:2)
For some mysterious reason, when various politicized writings (like the "Black Book of Communism") count victims, for Stalin they count everyone whose unnatural death can even remotely be linked to any government policies, or even lack thereof - for example, all people who died from starvation in the USSR during his reign. For Hitler and others, on the other hand, they only count victims of war and direct genocide, but not e.g. indirect death in a country, the infrastructure of which collapsed due to the wa
Re: (Score:2)
It's important to remember that Stalin would intentionally starve various regions and townships.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Are you trolling or you really are that stupid?
The iSheep/Fandroid wars aren't that fucking simple. Primarily, because there's no such thing as a "fandroid".
The part iSheep don't get is that they are irrational and total brand loyalty to anything and everything Apple shits out, to the extent of defending to the death bad products.
So-called 'fandroids' on the other hand, would switch from Android to Symbian, BB10, whatever (I can't be bothered listing other smartphone OS's) *tomorrow* if (by some miracle) it
Or they'll go Intel: Haswell processors from 10W (Score:4, Informative)
According to Anandtech, Intel Core 2013 ULV processors will start from 10W
See http://www.anandtech.com/show/6355/intels-haswell-architecture/4 [anandtech.com]
" Finally, at IDF Intel showed a demo of Haswell running the Unigen Heaven benchmark at under 8W.
The chain of events tells us two things: 1) Intel likes to play its cards close to its chest, and 2) the sub-10W space won't be serviced by Atom exclusively.
Intel said Haswell can scale below 10W, but it didn't provide a lower bound. It's too much to assume Haswell would go into a phone, but once you get to the 8W point and look south you open yourself up to fitting into things the size of a third generation iPad. Move to 14nm, 10nm and beyond then it becomes more feasible that you could fit this class of architecture into something even more portable."
Re:Or they'll go Intel: Haswell processors from 10 (Score:4, Informative)
That's not really relevant, to be honest: it's still at least double the power consumption compared with Cortex-A15 SoCs (and you can be sure as hell the Intel figure is processor only, not memory, chipset, interfaces, etc.), and they idle at an order magnitude less, which is important for mobile devices.
Re: (Score:2)
That's not really relevant, to be honest: it's still at least double the power consumption compared with Cortex-A15 SoCs (and you can be sure as hell the Intel figure is processor only, not memory, chipset, interfaces, etc.), and they idle at an order magnitude less, which is important for mobile devices.
Dont' be so quick to dismiss Intel from the race. Intel is already shipping Medfield at 2GHz which has the same peak and idle power consumption as other ARM chips. It still lags the very high end ARM chips in performance but is very competitive when compared to mid range ARM phones and chips - in terms of performance, price, power - everything.
You will soon see Clovertrail based Windows 8 tablets by the end of this month. Again, Clovertrail is able to hold its own against the top end ARM tablets, which is w
Re:Or they'll go Intel: Haswell processors from 10 (Score:4, Informative)
8W is way too much for an iPad... The current iPad uses 1.5W for the processor and 2W for the screen... 8W on the processor is not gonna happen.
Re: (Score:2)
o please apple won't make a tv (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
I think you're right.
But, that's what people said about Apple making phones.
Re: (Score:2)
That exact argument would have made exactly as much sense when it looked like Apple were rumored to be entering the Phone market.
All apple needs to do is find something their TV can do that none of the competitors do well (for the iPhone it was browse the web, well), and make that the killer app.
apple should make a TV box to bad the cable co's (Score:2)
apple should make a TV box to bad the cable co's have to much control and the satellite market is just as locked in.
Cable card is nice when it's working right but the cables co's seem to do a lot to make it hard to work so you rent there box and in some systems you need the add on SDV tuner as well.
also no VOD and must order ppv events by phone. And the lack of VOD sucks on comcast as they have cut down on the HBO HD, STARZs HD, SHOW HD and MAX HD channels and they say most of that is on VOD.
Tru2way does
Re: (Score:2)
Welcome to the world of cell phones. Only three companies are making any money selling phones - Apple, Samsung, and HTC with Apple making 2/3rds of the profit, HTC making 1%, and Samsung making the rest.
Re: (Score:2)
Welcome to the world of cell phones. Only three companies are making any money selling phones - Apple, Samsung, and HTC with Apple making 2/3rds of the profit, HTC making 1%, and Samsung making the rest.
No they are not that is complete nonsense. Please don't continue that lie. Google make money from their Nexus range, Sony phone division is the only profitable part of the company, as for ZTE and Huawei also doing really really well. I suspect there are others but of the big ones they seem to be doing awfully well.
Re: (Score:2)
http://www.mobiledia.com/news/159036.html [mobiledia.com]
Says that Sony's mobile division continues to lose money.
Google's mobile division includes Motorola Mobility and it hasn't seen a profit in years and Google is having to spend more money on layoffs.
RIM is losing money.
Nokia is losing money
LG is losing money.
Do you have a link for ZTE and Huawei's financials?
Even Google said that 2/3rds of their mobile profit comes from ios and they pay Apple $100 million a year to be the default search engine on all of their devices.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't think your comment really justifies that much white space, its still a tiny list of companies that can't evolve from their feature phones. The reality is Android companies with a compelling product are doing well. Apple is doing really well selling shit as gold, but its market share is dropping everywhere. As for Google making money from Android this is only the beginning. In countries like china Where it has 12x the market share of Apple...and Apple is dropping. I think you need to stop having an A
Re: (Score:2)
So which Android companies are doing well besides Samsung? Companies are in business to make a profit - not increase market share. As far as Android doing well on China, that may very well be the case, but it does Google no good when a company uses its own fork of Android and uses no Google services like most of the Chinese companies do.
Re: (Score:2)
"Erm, source? I find it really, really hard to believe LG (or Motorola, or Nokia) isn't making a fair amount of money selling cell phones."
Motorola
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-05-01/business/chi-motorola-mobilitys-loss-widens-in-q1-20120501_1_motorola-mobility-holdings-google-s-android-mobile-devices [chicagotribune.com]
Nokia:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444464304577536440351488600.html [wsj.com]
LG:
http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/25/lg-q2-2012-earnings/ [engadget.com]
Cheaper Alternatives (Score:3, Funny)
I can't wait for the prices of non-Apple TVs to crash, just like the MP3 player market.
This can only be good for the discerning consumer.
Re: (Score:2)
You want them even cheaper than they are now? That's hardly possible.
Re:Cheaper Alternatives (Score:5, Informative)
Don't hold your breath.. The TV business already has thin margins, and the display manufacturers partly make it up on smaller screens.
Re:Cheaper Alternatives (Score:5, Interesting)
The other reason is the bad marketing. Apple success is marketing and when they find a way to distort the reality around the appleTV, it will fly off the shelves.
Re: (Score:2)
As you say, consoles cost way more than the Apple TV ($99). They also tend to be a lot bigger and have fan noise. Now say you want streaming media to four TVs in a household. That cost difference becomes a problem. The solution is a very small, very silent puck for under $100. Welcome to Roku. $50 to $99, same form factor (almost exactly) as Apple TV. The advantage of Roku is they push their SDK for third party apps as whoring hard as possible to everyone possible. Apple is mired in their desire to have tig
Re: (Score:2)
Doubt it. The first reason AppleTVs are not popular is because home consoles even though they cost way more. The PS3 and Xbox360 can do everything the AppleTV do and much more(Bluray and DVD, real games, more digital content etc, better media streaming tools, better control interfaces and recording capabilities). The only thing I know more complete than a PS3 to hook up to a home theater setup is a custom made HTPC.
Actually, Apple TV sold more units in the last quarter than XBox 360. Admittedly, this is more because XBox 360 sales are dropping, and not so much because Apple TV is selling so well.
Mac Pro (Score:4, Interesting)
Dammit Apple, how about doing something on your other lines?? Mobility is nice but desktop needs improvement! Big improvement!
Re: (Score:2)
New iMacs would be good too.
Re:Mac Pro (Score:5, Informative)
Apple doesn't want you to use desktop computers any more because you're likely to do something besides shop.
Re: (Score:2)
You haven't noticed what the average macbook user is doing.
Re: (Score:2)
Apple's getting out of the desktop business. They may keep the iMac line for a while longer, but everyone I know in video production for 3D and major post production are off Apple and have either gone to windows 7 or Linux depending on their particular software preference.
Now, ironically, most of the videographers I know in small shops are all still Apple or gone to Apple, but not on the desktop. They are all using 15" or 17" Mac Book Pros and some do have 27" iMacs. Mostly, though, that's because with a
ARM laptop (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, I could imagine having a 64-bit ARM Ubuntu laptop. Something fairly light-weight and long battery life, but with a number of cores (most CPU intensive stuff I actually do on my laptop is very parallelisable), plenty of memory and a largish SSD.
This won't save them from Samsung/Android. (Score:5, Interesting)
The patent trolling from Apple also made Google/Samsung to invent. One example is screen unlock. On the S3 you can swipe the screen anywhere and even launch apps (like email or camera) directly from the unlock screen. Better user experience with more functionality.
In the meantime Apple had to do some catching up and they made the screen larger on the iPhone5. But instead of making the screen larger in both directions, they opted to change the aspect ratio, so now ios developers have to support yet another screen layout (at least pre-iphone5, iphone5 and ipad for a universal app). On the other hand, Android was designed from the beginning to support multiple aspect ratios, so one layout can handle it all (and no, this is not a cause of fragmentation, it's a solution to it).
Then Apple tried to stick it to Google with dropping maps. We all know how that turned out.
The solution is simple: Apple should stop with the patent trolling. It is biting them in the rear. Android is here to stay. They should go back to inventing and competing, otherwise they will be out-invented and out-competed. I know they are making money hand over fist, but just take a look at their stock price since iphone5 release.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes to skip the trolling, but "multiple aspect ratios" only really came with ICS.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You are not serious, right? This was so big, Tim Cook even had to come out to apologize. [engadget.com] And you are saying that users are better off when they have to buy something that they had yesterday? Superior? Show me one map alternative that tells me the hours of the local violin repair shop, how long it will take me to get there with current traffic conditions and also gives me user reviews?
"""Apple sold only 5 million phones instead of 10 in a saturated ma
Re: (Score:2)
just take a look at their stock price since iphone5 release
LOL! You either don't understand than a climb up Mt Everest involves going downhill occasionally, or you can't read graphs. Share price hit an all-time high of 700 just before the iPhone5 release. A peak before release is to be expected these days. It has since dropped to ~630 or something, which is still higher than *any time in Apple's entire history* - except when it was building up to 700 of course.
Apple's peak after the original iPhone was "only" 200. That was *after* release, because people didn't rea
Re: (Score:2)
Shouldn't we be climbing again in the anticipation of the ipad mini release? Or shouldn't the ipad mini release, a month from iphone 5 release at least hold the value?
The stock value was around $660 for about a month before the iphone5 release. The $700+ craziness started after the release, then retracted to $630. So I thought the hype was 700, not 660.
Re: (Score:3)
I don't think patent trolling is what you think it is. Apple actually use their patents in products.
They do use some of their patents in products, but they have a policy of patenting things not in their products. Personally using others FRAND patents and not cross licensing their own basic interface patents, has effectively worked the same way [no comeback], with the additional nastyness that the goal is not to extract as much money as possible...but to stop other companies competing with them by having the government remove them from the marketplace. Apple need to be boycotted.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I do know there's plenty of things done wrong with Android. I hear grumbling about the size: ~5" phones are almost mini-tablets, and are quite a lump to try shove in an average size pocket-- it also makes it pretty awkward to operate one-handed. The battery life is atrociously short. (My running joke is: "Android phones are like Cinderella's night: It may work like a dream but everything shuts down before midnight".)
Are you kidding? I can stick a 7" google nexus, with case in my pack pants pocket, cargo short pockets, etc. If you can't fit a 5" phone in your pocket then you need to stop wearing skinny jeans, or carry a purse. My dad's business partner is a small woman with a Samsung Galaxy Note. It's big, but she just throws it in her purse. She loves the thing, and picked it specifically over the iPhone, which my dad suggested she get.
Coming soon: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
At that level, nobody is actually original. There's only something resembling originality in the outskirts (technical stuff, business models, etc).
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Made in Korea -> Made in Taiwan
This means they will sell cheap crap for big money. Who would buy it? Oh...
Not really sure what company you mean, but if you mean Samsung...ironically makes chips are made in Austin in the US.