Greg Alexander's Profile

I doubt the economics. I actually think the shops probably get the gift cards at 75% cost. That's why there are discounts on the cards so often. Apple still makes a profit, but a very small one. If so... that would be a massive loss for Apple But I don't know the truth of the costings. Do you? How much does a reseller pay for a $20 gift card?

Hehe.. yeah I wasn't going to mention the AppleTV..... :)

I'm not sure whether I get why these things are mistakes iPod Hifi: yes, underwhelming. Didn't damage Apple but why bother. iMovie: you're saying it was a great success, but Apple should have built YouTube? I would label that "Apple could have built Youtube"... and as such not so much a mistake as one of MANY different directions Apple could have gone. iTools: I tend to agree that could have stayed free and that would've been good for Apple. I note you're not criticising iTunes, just saying it was a mistake to charge for it. The G5: You're not actually criticising the G5, more IBM aren't you? Or just the PowerPC in general? I don't think we can say that overall the PowerPC was a bad move for Apple - but I agree it fell behind on the laptops. Originally, the G4 laptops were ahead of the curve... but then they languished. The Original iPhone: Should have had 3G? Yes that would have been nice. But at that time 3G/2G hybrid phones were more chunky/heavier than 2G only phones... so Apple chose to keep the phone thinner and lighter. If I'd had the choice of 5mm thicker to get 3G... I'd have chosen 2G like Steve did. There are other mistakes Steve has made of course. Nixing the Newton might be one. I think if AppleTV had been able to play AVI files it may have really taken off (and if preventing that feature was a bargaining chip with the studios.... then did it work?). And the biggest mistake is some of the easy changes that could get made (eg MMS on iPhone) but aren't because Apple tends to focus where Steve focuses... and that has its limits.

To be honest, your belief in this idea is so clear and I disagree ... and it's made me take a step back and look at a few of the things I think ABSOLUTELY make sense for Apple to do... and wonder whether I'm on track, off the wall, or somewhere in between. One thing is for sure - Apple doesn't make products that clearly fit into people's existing expectations. They attempt to take 2 steps further past that, and at that point most people can't imagine how it would affect their lives so Apple takes the gamble (and makes it as simple as they can) and has a hit (lately anyway!). I personally can't see how Apple can do that with games at this point, certainly not cheaply.

Does it matter who makes the games machine you're after? I mean, what is it that makes you wish Apple did it instead of the others? They're far enough out of this market that they'd have to do some catching up. And it's a cut-throat business with small margins.

No, we're already on the right track. LTE is looking very good for the future (interestingly, WiMax seems to be the main competitive technology at that level, now). And the competition between technologies has been good for making things improve more quickly. The main problem now I think is that frequencies are used in different ways all around the world and new technologies have to be massaged into the available spaces. (That's why we don't get satellite radio in Australia - the frequencies used for that worldwide are already in use in Australia, so they have to black out transmissions here.) Anyway, technology is getting better at handling multiple frequency bands, AND governments are aligning where they can. Smaller countries have an easier job as they can often pick a bigger country to copy, and use their equipment.

RoughlyDrafted always has a strong Apple bias. Anything Apple does is presented as a good idea with an amazing backstory. I find the articles quite insightful, but have to be careful as they can overlook the mundane reasons for things to happen and paint an overly amazing future. It's harder to use that filter when they write for AppleInsider now. So perhaps their pro-AT&T;is just about saying Apple has made the right choice?