Where Does Apple Go From Here?

lol I diddnt mean the "i" in the name I meant the "G" as in cell phone networks....the "i" is the apple standard not anyone elses.....and yes ipad is a little cheesy haha

 

No, there aren't. The iPhone 4S supports HSPA+ (or whatever it is called) so it can surf faster than standard 3G speeds but it still isn't "true" 4G. This is where the cellphone providers and manufacturers are playing a bit of a naming game. I think both T-Mobile and at&t are calling their HSPA+ networks "4G" and their real 4G networks are being called "4G LTE." I believe Sprint may have done the same thing when they first rolled out their 4G network but I could be wrong.

Almost everyone is playing this naming game except I think Verizon is doing it right. The only thing is that they add that little "LTE" moniker after their 4G network name and, although it might technically be correct, I think they do it so that their 4G network comes off as being better. Either way the main issue is that there isn't a solid 4G standard unlike 3G. So everyone is doing this or that instead of following a standard. A "4G" labeled phone from someone could very well just be HSPA+ while a 4G phone from someone else could be the real deal.

 

Jobs did a great job of instilling his vision and values into Apple's corporate culture, so I don't view his passing as a strategically pivotal point for the company. In terms of products, Apple is still in a strong competitive position. In terms of revenue, Apple has more money lying around than the US government.

However, Apple is spending large amounts of money in litigation against other, equally well-funded companies such as Google and Samsung. A strategy of litigation instead of competition is a financially costly method that doesn't achieve much in the long term, and Apple is increasingly turning to litigation as a means of preventing competition rather than allowing it to drive the company.

 

for the fact of the matter... LTE isn't even true 4G, even though its called that. LTE-Advanced is ratified as 4G, but normal LTE is not... even though everyone keeps thinking its the real 4G. Anyone could make anything and stick "4G" on it it seems and it wouldn't matter. Best to not fall into the trap of thinking bigger numbers means better... its just not true in technology.

 

I think apple will be fine for at least 2 years... after that - well hard to know how well they execute in the next 2 years will say everything... I don't think apple can afford long term to just refresh there next product (like a mac product), but possible iPad 3. They've been doing well. but there rivals are gain momentum... there getting close to and is some cares exceeding the bar apple set... time to set it higher.

 

I'm with you. You should look into the specifics of the technology (and especially field comparisons) if you're really interested. There's no point in getting caught up over the name "4G", especially since 4G isn't a rating or specification. It doesn't really tell you anything, except probably that it's better than 3G.

LTE is probably the best-bet high speed cell network, since Verizon and AT&T are behind it. People call it "real 4G" in large part because it has that market momentum behind it. I think it's also currently faster in practice than HSPA+, not sure about wimax. I also believe it's the newest standard of the three. In the long run, these standards are all subject to be updated, and their performance will depend highly on those updates, their ability to provide coverage, etc. - and less so on the standard

 

Sprint is also moving over the LTE.

Apple has at least 1-2 more good years... next year, the iPad 3 (if it has Retina Display) and the iPhone 5/4G/whatever (if it's released) will break sales records again.

By then Android should be more unified... BBX and even WinPhone may have gained more share and then we'll see.

 

Good luck with that lol. It's been on a path to furthered fragmentation from the day it was conceived all the way through today. It's further away from unified today than it was a year ago, and their goal a year ago was get things unified. The kindle fire is not helping android at large achieve that goal, although it might be good for amazon and kindle fire owners.

Android is really an OS platform, not an OS. It's up to hardware makers to add a bunch of OS level features and control to their phones. It would be better for everyone if they would cut it out, but they definitely don't seem to want to do that.

I didn't know sprint was moving to LTE. That's huge. That means 3 of the major 4 carriers will be behind LTE. Tmobile is gonna be in trouble.

 

Android fragmentation is not really caused by things like the Kindle Fire or customized Android operating systems. Too much is made about one phone running Android 2.1, another 2.2 and a third 2.3. Basically, third party software is compatible with all.

Android 3.0 (tablet only) did create two mobile operating systems.

The fragmentation issue is a hardware problem, mainly brought about by two things:

a) Different screen sizes and resolutions
b) Different GPU's.

Android 4.0 address the first one by integrating the phone and tablet UI back to one. Introducing scalable UI's and user adjustable widget sizes. Basically like our PC's.

Standardization also seems to be in the works. Instead of launching a vanilla OS to built on, Android 4.0 builds in a lot of features that before were added in UI like HTC's sense or third party apps.

While not directly related, this may give you an idea of what this is all about:

Mobile Raptor: Groups: Managing the influx of social information intelligently

The GPU issue, well that is left to the manufacturers.


As for Apple. It is getting harder to be the Apple of old. The main differentiation is now software. I mean MacBooks are now no longer run under their own designed processors but basically Mac OSX versions of Intel based laptops.

I think you will see them focus more on their software and services with their value of their devices being equivalent to the value of these services.

As for hardware, they will eventually loose out on a hardware arms race. And I do not think they want to get involved in a hardware arms race either.

 

Which is something Apple has pretty much done ever since the return of Jobs (and even before then when the Wintel crowd surfaced and took over). Back in the late 90's (1998 or 1999), I knew a family that purchased one of those colored iMac models. They paid more for it than my parents did for our Gateway desktop and it even had slower hardware. The Pentium (I think it was a Pentium II MMX or Pentium III, I don't remember) in our Gateway was outperforming the G3 (or whatever) that Apple was using in the iMac, our Gateway came with more RAM, a larger hard drive, a better AGP GPU, a larger display (17"), and so on. The family didn't care about the hardware but rather they purchased the iMac to run Mac OS. The ironic thing is that they also didn't want to have all sorts of cords running to and from the desktop but they ended up having almost just as many cords.

Anyway, they bought into the hardware+software combination despite the hardware performing below what was already out there for a lower cost. Apple is still doing the same thing today with their entire Mac line. I know I overpaid for my MBP and I could have purchased a Windows notebook with the same specs for about $500 less but I bought into the hardware+software combination. It doesn't really matter what platform Apple is using whether it is PPC or x86-64, that doesn't take away from the fact that OS X is still built for the hardware in each and every Mac that meets its minimum system requirements.

The only difference now is that Apple is starting to translate this model to their iOS devices. I still think the iPad is going to compete with other tablets with its hardware mainly because it is updated early in the year. iOS is lagging behind in terms of included features but Apple is relying on their software integration to provide a smoother experience while providing access to more apps. So now we are back to the whole hardware+software model previously used in Macs and it is translating over to their iOS devices. The iPhone 4S may not run the latest and greatest hardware (especially since quad-core smartphones are supposed to be out before year's end) but it is the only phone that provides access to iOS and the App Store (which contains more apps than the other stores).

I imagine some things will change next year when the iPhone 5 (or whatever) comes out as Apple will likely update that earlier in the year (summer) so that they can boost their revenues. That will likely compete with phones that are currently out on a hardware level until the end of the year when someone comes out with a 2GHz quad-core processor, decides to make a 6-core processor, or some other nonsense.