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Sir Jony Ive: Apple Isn't In It For The Money

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 16:21:00 +0400

Sir Jonathan Ive, Apple's famed Senior Vice President of Industrial Design, recently gave a speech at a creative summit hosted by the British Embassy. During the speech Sir Jonathan made a rather interesting, and for many unbelievable, claim: Apple isn't in it for the money. Sir Jonathan advances the idea that Apple's primary goal is to make great products and that money is a secondary concern.

We are really pleased with our revenues but our goal isn't to make money. It sounds a little flippant, but it's the truth. Our goal and what makes us excited is to make great products. If we are successful people will like them and if we are operationally competent, we will make money.

Now that sounds all very well and good coming from a designer and to be fair I am sure that Sir Jonathan's primary goal is to make great products, but I have a feeling that the shareholders and the buys in the finance department probably don't see things quite the same way. For them the bottom line is almost certainly where it's at and the fact that Apple does release some pretty good products is most likely their secondary concern.

Still it is an interesting comment and underlines why Apple produces the products it does: the guy designing them doesn't care whether the product is good for business, he only only cares that the product itself is great. It's not a bad design philosophy.

Video: Nokia Designer Interviews

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 13:34:00 +0400

Nokia has certainly changed over the last few years, there's no denying that. Some have welcomed the changes, especially those ushered in by Stephen Elop, whilst others have downplayed or even derided them. Well Nokia seems to be taking the bull by the horns so to speak and have released a series of videos interviewing some of their lead designers who explain what gets them going, the thought processes involved and so on. Definitely a fascinating watch, even if the videos do run on for around 20 minutes.

RIM To Layoff 3,000 More Employees

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 13:10:00 +0400

June aw RIM reporting its worst quarter ever and along with that came plans for a reduction in the workforce 5,000 strong. Now Cantech Letter is reporting that RIM will be looking to reduce its workforce by a further 3,000 by 13th August. The job losses are said to be focused in the customer service, human resources, marketing, non-enterprise sales and global repair services areas of the company. Those in enterprise sales and those working on RIM's forthcoming BlackBerry 10 OS are reported to be safe from the layoffs, at least for the moment. The round of layoffs should be completed by the end of August when RIM will end its second quarter. It's yet another sad chapter for the company as it desperately tries to release BlackBerry 10, which is widely seen as the company's last hope of survival.

Video: iPhone 5 Housing Shown Off

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 20:59:00 +0400

Japanese Apple blog Macotakara have posted a video purportedly showing off the housing of the next generation iPhone. The same housing that has been appearing in numerous pictures of late. Macotakara does have a fairly good record when it comes to spilling the beans on new Apple products and the housing shown is remarkably consistent with what has been seen before. Given that the new iPhone will reportedly be announced come 12th September it's no surprise that the rumour mill is really ramping up now either.

Android Fortunes Decline In U.S.

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 19:12:00 +0400

New figures from Strategy Analytics paint a less than healthy picture for Google's Android operating system Stateside. The figures show that year on year Android's declined both in terms of the number of units ships and also in its overall market hare. Fear not though Android fans as the Big G is still way out in front despite the losses.

Android saw its shipment of units slip from 15.3 million in Q2 last year to 13.4 million this year. Its overall marketshare was also down, sliding from a very convincing 60.6% last year to a still impressive 56.3% this year. Now some of this decine could be put down to the American smartphone market maturing a bit and saturation kicking. 'Could' is the key word here though as on the other side of the coin Apple enjoyed rather better fortunes.

For starters shipments of iOS devices were up from 5.9 million in Q2 2011 to 7.9 million in Q2 of this year. Overall marketshare also rose, climbing from 23.2% to 33.2% over the same time period. That's a year on year growth rate of 43% for those keeping count.

The last word from the figures goes to BlackBerry ... its marketshare having sunk from 10.5% to just 6.5%.

Why Apple Is Suing Samsung?

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 16:18:00 +0400

Looking at the picture below it might be easy to assume that Samsung has simply copied Apple's designs. It might be worth remembering though that Smasung first touchscreen handset, the F700, whilst having some similar elements to the iPhone, also featured a sliding QWERTY keyboard. The F700 came around just a month after the iPhone was introduced, a bit soon for Samsung to have gotten the photocopier out and produced a clone perhap?

A Few Choice Quotes About Apple ... By Samsung

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 15:53:00 +0400

The Apple vs Samsung just keeps on rolling and with a court date in San Jose coming around next week the filings reveal Samsung's thoughts on its rival and those thoughts aren't too pretty ...

For example, Samsung reckons that Apple wouldn't have sold even a single iPhone if it weren't for patented Samsung technology:

Samsung has been researching and developing mobile telecommunications technology since at least as early as 1991 and invented much of the technology for today‘s smartphones. Indeed, Apple, which sold its first iPhone nearly twenty years after Samsung started developing mobile phone technology, could not have sold a single iPhone without the benefit of Samsung‘s patented technology.

Samsung addresses the idea of Samsung having stolen Apple's designs by saying that Apple did it first, by stealing from Sony:

For good measure, Apple seeks to exclude Samsung from the market, based on its complaints that Samsung has used the very same public domain design concepts that Apple borrowed from other competitors, including Sony, to develop the iPhone. Apple‘s own internal documents show this. In February 2006, before the claimed iPhone design was conceived of, Apple executive Tony Fadell circulated a news article that contained an interview of a Sony designer to Steve Jobs, Jonathan Ive and others. In the article, the Sony designer discussed Sony portable electronic device designs that lacked “excessive ornamentation” such as buttons, fit in the hand, were “square with a screen” and had “corners [which] have been rounded out.

A bit of a stinger with this next one, Samsung accusing Apple of not being up to developing new technologies, rather simply commercializing the work of others:

Contrary to the image it has cultivated in the popular press, Apple has admitted in internal documents that its strength is not in developing new technologies first, but in successfully commercializing them. . . . Also contrary to Apple‘s accusations, Samsung does not need or want to copy; rather, it strives to best the competition by developing multiple, unique products. Samsung internal documents from 2006, well before the iPhone was announced, show rectangular phones with rounded corners, large displays, flat front faces, and graphic interfaces with icons with grid layouts.

Russian iOS Hacker Calls It A Day

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 20:25:00 +0400

You may recall the recent Aple App Store hack that has allowed users to get stuff for free. The hack proved popular of course, as you would expect, but Apple quickly plugged the hole and all was well again. Until the Russian hacker behind it, Alexey Borodin, bypassed Apple's fix and the free stuff continued to flow. Now, however, it seems that Apple have come up with a fix that cannot be bypassed although the hack will still work until such time as iOS 6 is released. Instead of trying to chase Apple around in circles Borodin will be looking at OS X's App Store to see what he can get up to there ...

Video: It's Still Not Out, But Galaxy Note 10.1 Gets An Ad

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 17:40:00 +0400

The Galaxy Note 10.1 was first shown off a good five months ago now back at MWC in Barcelona. There was some talk of a 30th July launch for the device after a foray with Amazon, but so far Samsung still hasn't said for definite when the device will actually go on sale. What they have done though is knock up an ad for it so feast your eyes on this and be assured that it probably signals an announcement on availablity soon(ish).

Another Loss For Nokia: $1 Billion Down In Q2

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 19:10:00 +0400

Nokia have released their second quarter financial results and it's another bad quarter for the struggling Finnish phone maker. For the third quarter in a row Nokia reported a loss, this time $1 billion. That comes on top of the $1.2 billion Nokia lost in the fourth quarter last year and the $1.7 billion they lost in the first quarter of this year. To be fair mobile phone and Lumia Windows Phone sales did increase during Q2, but the increase wasn't enough to ward of a loss. Nokia's revenue for the quarter was 7.5 billion euros and net cash was up year-on-year, but down from the 4.2 billion euros from Q1. The U.S. market is interesting here because Nokia, in conjunction with AT&T, have been really pushing the Lumia 900 there, but only 600,000 smartphones were shipped during the quarter, and that figures includes the Lumia Windows Phone devices. Of that 600,000 it isn't clear exactly how many were of the latter category, but 4 million Lumia Windows Phone devices were shipped worldwide. In short then it's another bad quarter for Nokia with a hefty loss and a big ad campaign in the U.S. producing little in terms of getting its flagship Windows Phone handset into customers' pockets.

British Judge Orders Apple To Run Ads Saying Samsung Did Not Copy Them

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 17:22:00 +0400

A British judge has ordered Apple to run ads that state Samsung did not copy the design of the iPad. The report, from Bloomberg, states that Judge Birss has instructed Apple to take out print ads in major publications such as the Daily Mail, Financial Times and so on to make it clear that Samsung did not in fact copy them. The Apple website is also to be used for this purpose with its UK homepage containing a similar statement and that that statement should be displayed for 6 months. Apparently Samsung had wanted Apple to display this notice on all of their European homepages, but that propoal was turned down by the judge. So far Apple hasn't commented upon the decision although Samsung has, issuing the following statement:

Should Apple continue to make excessive legal claims based on such generic designs, innovation in the industry could be harmed and consumer choice unduly limited.

iPhone 5 To Feature Nano-SIM Cards

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 16:57:00 +0400

The new iPhone (presumably coming some time later this year) is rumoured to feature all sorts of design modifications to make it sleeker and incorporate a bigger screen. One of the areas of change that has been mentioned before is the possible inclusion of a SIM card even smaller than the current micro-SIM setup Apple uses. Earlier this week the Financial Times was reporting that these 'nano-SIMs' were being hoarded by European networks in anticipation of the launch of Apple's new iPhone. Boy Genius Report has had confirmation from various networks that the new iPhone will indeed feature this new model of SIM card and that Apple has been supplying networks with nano-SIM adapters so that they can test the cards out on their networks. It feeds into the idea that the new iPhone will be looking to save as much space internally as possible so the card son the table are still looking like a more svelte product folks.

What The iPad Could Have Looked Like ...

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 14:20:00 +0400

The seemingly never ending Apple vs Samsung legal wrangle has produced at least something interesting ... some shots of an iPad prototype. The pictures, reported by Network World, show something quite different from the iPad we know and love today. The prototype shows a familiar white Apple finish, but the device itself looks horrendously thick and cumbersome. The prototype was created at the start of the last decade, probably between 2002 and 2004 according to Apple's head of design Sir Jonny Ive:

My recollection of first seeing it is very hazy, but it was, I'm guessing, some time between 2002 and 2004. I remember seeing this and perhaps models similar to this when we were first exploring tablet designs that ultimately became the iPad.

App Store Hack Is Still Going Strong Despite Apple's Best Efforts

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 13:25:00 +0400

You may remember that recently a Russian hacker, Alexey Borodin, came up up with a means to bypass Apple's usual App Store purchase checks e.g. users could use the hack to get free stuff from the App Store. Well Apple, as you might expect, responded by trying to shut the whole thing down. They managed to get the how-to video for the hack removed from YouTube although a subsequent video has been put up. Apple also blocked the server Borodin was using and persuaded the Russian company acting as webhost to shut it down. Apple even went as far as to get PayPal to block Borodin from receiving funds although Borodin is now using Bitcoin, an anonymous service, for receiving donations.

Borodin has moved servers too, with the new one apparently beyond Apple's grasp. So far 30,000 people are alleged to have used the exploit to bag themselves free stuff and apparently that figure is so high that Borodin can no longer afford the bandwidth to keep his exploit running. The hack has also been refined somewhat so that it doesn't actually interact with the App Store, which means that it is even harder now for Apple to close it down.

Infographic: The (Hypothetical) Sale Of RIM

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 12:34:00 +0400

Click to make things BIG!

Video: iPhone Hacker Makes In-App Purchases Free

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 11:10:00 +0400

An enterpising Russian hacker called ZonD80 has managed to cook up a means to get free in-app purchases from Apple's App Store. The method doesn't even need a jailbroken handset! The road ro free content has three steps according to 9to5Mac:

The installation of CA certificate, the installation of in-appstore.com certificate, and the changing DNS record in wi-fi settings.

Get past those three steps and the hacker's own in-appstore.com interface is running the show and store content is now gratis. Now even though this hack exists to make paid content free the chap behind it, the afore mentioned ZonD80 is urging users not to pirate App Store apps. Paradoxical or not 9to5Mac for their part are calling on iOS devs to help develop a solution to this hack.

iPhone 5 Images Leak Again

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 19:50:00 +0400

Some new iPhone 5 images for you today ... sorry some new purported iPhone 5 images. The images were published by KitGuru who claim to have received them from anonymous sources in the Far East and that the pictures show "an early iPhone 5". The pictures do show something resembling the previous hardware image leaks that have been associated with the iPhone 5, but Cult of Mac suggests that what you see here is more akin to an engineering model that serves to allow for the design and building of iPhone cases rather than an early model of the handset itself. The images do show a device consistent with current rumours though e.g. thinner design, smaller dock connector, and a larger screen.

Android Takes 50%+ Of U.S. And Europe

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 17:51:00 +0400

Android, for the first time, makes up more than half of the smartphones sold in some key European markets as well as the U.S. and Australia. That's the news from analysts Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. During the last 3 months Android accounted for a whopping 84.1% of all smartphone sales in Spain, for example, and Spain saw the largest year-on-year increase in Android sales, a hefty rise of 42.8%. Other European markets weren't slouching either with Android taking 49.6% of all Italian smartphone sales over the same three month period.

In The United States Android sales actually decreased year-on-year, from 57% to 50.2%. That came as sales of iOS devices jumped from 28.7% to 37.4%. However, the most interesting case might be Australia where Android has grown its market share from 36.4% to 56.9%. The reason this is interesting is because of the intense legal wrangles that have been going on Down Under between Apple and Android. Despite Apple's efforts Android has surged, indeed Apple's own iOS has actually fallen from 36.9% to 30.5%.

A quick mention of the old guard to finish and it's what you would expect: both RIM and Nokia saw their BlackBerry OS and Symbian operating systems, respectively, decline in every market the report covered.

Apple Involved In 60% Of Patent Suits

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 16:02:00 +0400

The last few years have seen the eruption of a global patent war between various technological companies. As the smartphone and tablet markets have blossomed so too have legal wrangles over intellectual property. Now Bloomberg are reporting that a study from Kanzatec IP Group, an intellectual property consulting firm, shows that Apple is right at the centre of this global patent dispute having been involved in a whopping 60% of all the biggest wireless patent cases filed within the last two years. Major suits involving Aple that have made the headlines affected companies like Motorola, HTC and of course Samsung, but other companies such as Kodak have been involved in battles with Apple too. The consulting firm saw no end to Apple's involvement in these legal battles " ... as long as it maintains its dominant place in the market".

Video: Kindle Fire Gets A Jelly Bean

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 13:14:00 +0400

Amazon's Kindle Fire uses a modified version of Android 2.3 Gingerbread, but the boffins over at XDA-Developers, namely Hashcode, have managed to get Amazon's pride and joy to run Google's latest version of Android, Jelly Bean. The port is at an early beta stage right now so it isn't fit for general use, but as a proof of concept it shows that it can be done and also open up the possibility of the Kindle Fire gaining access to Google's Google Play store and all its apps rather than just Amazon's own relatively limited Appstore.