reinharden's Profile

  • Jan 28, 2011
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Latest comments made by: reinharden

  • As the largest consumer of flash in the world, AAPL might seek additional vertical integration and margin improvements by owning their own fab instead of outsourcing. Especially since they're now getting into serious chip integration (as in fabbing RAM directly into the CPU on the A4). reinharden
    reinharden had this to say on Nov 09, 2010 Posts: 7
    Apple Buying Something Big? How UnAppleish
  • Um, did you listen to the keynote at all? Mr. Jobs clearly stated, more than once, that these were the top 3 reasons that apps were rejected. Not that they were the only ones. Also, to call Daniel Lyons a reporter without massive caveats is kind of a joke. He didn't leave WWDC with this impression of Apple, he went in with it (if he went to WWDC at all) and there's absolutely nothing in the universe that would have changed his mind. I think the biggest two messages that one could take away from the WWDC keynote, were first, the incredibly warm welcome that Mr. Jobs had at the beginning of the keynote and, second, the fact that Apple has passed $1 billion pack to app developers. This is a market (the iPhone app market) that simply didn't exist two years ago. And the development community as a whole is thrilled to have it -- regardless of what the blogosphere writes about it. reinharden reinharden
    reinharden had this to say on Jun 12, 2010 Posts: 7
    The WWDC 2010 Keynote: Great Product, Bad PR
  • Apple will introduce a $799 laptop within the next three years. The original iBook was introduced at $1599 back in 1999. By October 2001, in the last recession, there as a version introduced at $1199. By November 2002, $999. The MacBook was originally introduced in May, 2006, at $1099 and held that price until the unibody revision ($1299) last October. But the previous MacBook is now available at $999 (and now with a Superdrive instead of the previous "combo drive"). You can be certain that Apple is carefully watching for signs of price sensitivity between the old-style MacBook and the unibody MacBook. Combine Apple's mostly downward price creep with a recession and mix in recollection of the iPod mini. Apple eats its own young *before* anyone else has a chance. LCD prices have dropped through the floor, memory prices dug a hole under the basement, and CPU prices for the entry level device are dirt cheap. 4 GB can be had at retail for $40; Apple could simply solder 4 GB in and be done with it, no memory slots, no need to allow access to the memory, simpler design. A 250 GB hard drive is under $50. If commodity prices continue in the current directions and if the market prices other laptops too ridiculously stupidly cheap, Apple will have a $799 produce sooner rather than later. While holding the line on their profit margin. Besides, Steve Jobs said they didn't know how to make a sub-$500 computer that wasn't a piece of junk -- he didn't say nothing about $501, $599, $699, or $799. ;-) I wouldn't even be surprised to see the original MacBook drop to $899 or $799 next week... Particularly if they did a version for school districts with a slower CPU, no optical drive, no hardware graphics, and a smaller hard drive... The kids might even call it the MacBook Slo. ;-) reinharden
    reinharden had this to say on Jan 03, 2009 Posts: 7
    Five Things that Won't Change When Steve Jobs Leaves
  • You've got to be a child of the late 70's, because while you've got the general events correct, you've got the interpretation quite wrong. The entire low market share mantra was adopted in defense of having lost 100% of the personal computer market (when Apple was the only computer) to DOS. This was further argued as the Macintosh share dwindled. It was never the case that Apple or Jobs *wanted* a low marketshare nor were they courting fanatics. Admittedly they tried to rationalize the marketshare via the "BMW does okay" kind of arguments. But that didn't happen until after they'd dropped down near 10% US marketshare. Jobs has always been supremely confident. At least in public. I don't think he came back from NeXT humble...but he did come back from NeXT a little more interested in collaboration instead of fiat. Some of that was just a question of who was around. Jobs needs strong people around him with whom to argue. It's the debate that hones the projects -- it's rarely the case anymore that Jobs "lays down the law"; more often he's pushing people to do better until they give him something that satisifies him. So that's not arrogance. That's obsessively focusing on delivering a product that he wants to use. The Mac was supposed to be the computer for the rest of us. Not for the "elite". Unfortunately, Jobs made a few mistakes in his search for perfecton that drove the cost up and initially put it out of reach of the mass market. But the board forced Jobs out largely because he wanted to lower prices and take the Mac more mass market -- and they wanted to maintain high profit margins. After his departure, there were several reasonable products (including the Newton); unfortunately, they were grossly overpriced. And Apple eventually sank into a morass of trying to milk the Macintosh line without moving it forward. Even your version of how Jobs came back to Apple and "saved" it is inaccurate. Microsoft "invested" in Apple in August of 1997. Jobs became interim CEO in September of 1997. The original iMac was launched in May of 1998. Only 8 months later. If you're going to write opinion pieces, label them as such. If you're going to write history, leave out the opinion and get the facts right. This is much closer to an opinion piece than anything else. reinharden
    reinharden had this to say on Dec 18, 2007 Posts: 7
    Why is Apple Getting a Bad Rap?
  • To be a total pedant, June is Spring right up until June 21/22 which is technically the first day of Summer. ;-) All presupposing Mr. Jobs was speaking relative to the Northern Hemisphere. ;-) reinharden
    reinharden had this to say on Mar 19, 2007 Posts: 7
    WWDC June 2007 — What Should We Expect?
  • D) By charging for Bootcamp, Apple is provided continuous feedback on how many people are actually using Bootcamp and therefore derive greater insight into their market. Let's fact it, we'd all download something that's free. If it costs $29.99 it's more probable that we actually plan to use it. And with CrossOver, Parallels, and VMWare, it might be a waste of time and money for Apple to divert resources to Bootcamp. I'm not saying that it is, because I like having the security of being able to boot into Windows if necessary. But I might be in a very small minority. And I certainly don't *need* to boot Windows. reinharden
    reinharden had this to say on Jan 24, 2007 Posts: 7
    Apple to Charge for Bootcamp?
  • While I've enjoyed lots of Macs, I've got to go with the Cube as the most inspired. The Cube was truly a work of art and yet was quite powerful for it's time. To this day I hate that Apple screwed up the price point. Granted, the flat screen iMacs are nice and all...but I'd love to buy a nice monitor and trade out new cubes every couple of years whether than having to get an entirely new setup. The Cube also pointed to Apple's assault on the rest of the house. No longer would computers be stuck just in the home office. After the Cube, I'd probably go to the SE/30 - similar form-factor to its precursors, but substantially more powerful. Giving the first indication that the Mac was really going to rock-n-roll over time...those hints of power were inspiring. Even the first PowerBooks were fabulous. And the Titanium/Aluminium Powerbooks were jaw-dropping (and live on in the current MacBook Pro). Of course, I can't wait for the next generation. Then the original iMac, the iMac G4, and the flatscreen iMac's. Each new form factor hinted that computing was on the cusp on a new era. Can the Apple flatscreen TV with built-in Mac be far behind? Somewhat ironically, one of my favorite form factors remains the 300 MHz G3 "pizza box". Powerful for its day, attractively priced, just the right size for my desk, and the monitor sat on top of it just right. And, as the first generation with a DVD player, it pointed towards the future convergence of computing and entertainment media. ##### Outside of Apple? Like you said, I've got to go back awhile. The first time I finished typing in pages of hexadecimal from a forgotten magazine into some forgotten vendor's "monitor" program and moved a sprite from one side of the screen to another, I knew what I was going to do for the rest of my life. The first time I played Alkabeth on an Apple II, I saw more of the future. I imagined that I felt the dampness of the dungeon and cobwebs clinging to my face. Of course, I've still found a gaming experience that's lived up to that, but I hold out hope. And with each generation of storage, I've had a thrill as the possibilities have seemed even more limitless. From typing in hex every single time I wanted to do something, to a paper strip reader, to a cassette tape, to the Commodore's 1541 floppy drive, to the Macintosh 400k 3.5" floppy, to my first 5 MB hard drive, to my first CD-ROM drive, the first 100 MB hard drive, 500 MB hard drive, DVD drive, 1 GB drive, 100 GB drive... Probably within 5 years, my portable computer will have a terabyte drive! Admittedly, I'm a computer geek and have been since the mid-to-late 1970's. But little has inspired me more than the continual technology revolution of the last 30 years. reinharden PS: And let's not get started on modems, networking, and wireless. I liked that field so much that it's been my career for the last 25 years!
    reinharden had this to say on Nov 15, 2006 Posts: 7
    The Most Inspiring Computer of All Time?