je ne sais quoi - Slashdot User

Submission + - Apple surpasses Microsoft in Market Capitalization (nytimes.com)

Submitted by je ne sais quoi on Wednesday May 26, 2010 @05:34PM

je ne sais quoi writes: Today Apple surpassed Microsoft in market capitalization, a metric of the perceived worth of a company. At around 2:30 pm EST, the total number of Apple shares were worth $227 billion, whereas Microsoft's were worth $226 billion. Both companies stock ended the day in the red, and have dropped in value since the greek crisis began, but Apple's share price has been falling less quickly. Of American companies, only Exxon-Mobil has a higher market cap at this point at $278 billion. According to the NYT:
This changing of the guard caps one of the most stunning turnarounds in business history, as Apple had been given up for dead only a decade earlier. But the rapidly rising value attached to Apple by investors also heralds a cultural shift: Consumer tastes have overtaken the needs of business as the leading force shaping technology.

Submission + - Is IE usage share collapsing? 1

Submitted by

je ne sais quoi

on Tuesday July 07, 2009 @02:28PM

je ne sais quoi writes: "Net Applications normally releases its statistics for browser and operating system usage share on the first of every month. This month however, the data has not shown up, only a cryptic message has appeared that states they are reviewing the data for inexplicable statistical variations and that it will be available soon. Larry Dignan at ZDNet has a blog post that might explain what is happening: Statcounter has released some data that shows a precipitous drop in IE browser use in North America. At the end of May, StatCounter shows IE usage share at around 64%, at the beginning of June it is now about 56%, an astounding 8% drop in one month.

While interesting, it should be remembered the difficulties in estimating things like browser usage share, and this could very well be a change in how browsers report themselves, or other statistical anomaly, so it should probably be healthy to remain skeptical until this is confirmed by other organizations. Have any slashdotters seen drops in IE usage share for web-sites they administer?"

Submission + - Linux Reaches 1% Usage Share

Submitted by

je ne sais quoi

on Friday May 01, 2009 @10:20AM

je ne sais quoi writes: "The April data is out for the Net Applications "market share" survey of operating systems (more accurately referred to as a usage share). For the first time, Linux has reached 1%! This past month the Linux share increased by 0.12% which is well above the average monthly increase of 0.02%. Historically, the Net Applications estimate of market share has been lower than that of other organizations who measure this, but the abnormally large increase reported this month brings it closer to the median estimate of 1.11%.

For other operating systems, Windows XP continued its slow decline by 0.64% to 62.21%, whereas Vista use is still increasing to 23.90%, but its rate of adoption is slowing. That is, this month's increase of 0.48% is well below the 12 mo. average increase of 0.78% and down from the peak rate of increase of 1.00% per mo. on average in January-February 2008. Total windows share dropped to 87.90%. Mac OS use decreased slightly to 9.73% from 9.77%, but usage share of the iphone and ipod touch combined increased by 0.1%."

Submission + - Apple touch-screen netbook?

Submitted by

je ne sais quoi

on Wednesday March 11, 2009 @11:03AM

je ne sais quoi writes: "The Apple rumor mill is churning today. Reuters and the DOW Jones news wire are reporting that an anoymous source in Taiwan has leaked that Apple has ordered some 10 inch touch-screens from WinTek, the maker of the touch-screen for the iphone. It looks like an Apple netbook could possibly be in the works for a delivery date in Q3 of this year, in time for back-to-school sales. CNET and engadget have completely unsubstantiated mock-ups."

Submission + - Behind the scenes in Apple vs. the Record Labels

Submitted by je ne sais quoi on Wednesday February 04, 2009 @11:26AM

je ne sais quoi writes: The New York Times recently posted an article describing what really happened between Apple and the Record labels that culminated with the January 6th Macworld Keynote by Apple Senior VP Phil Schiller:
The announcement seemed to signal a rapprochement between the music industry and its biggest distributor: record companies gave up their demand for copyright protection (called digital rights management) and Apple allowed flexible pricing, so the labels could charge more for new or popular tracks. Behind the scenes, however, the relationship remains as tense and antagonistic as ever.

But according to one music industry executive involved in the negotiations, Apple's primary goal was securing distribution of music over its iPhone, as mobile phones are expected to become an increasingly important outlet for music. Disagreements over the timing of the changes also resulted in a particularly tense conversation on Christmas Eve between Steven P. Jobs, the chairman and chief executive of Apple, and Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, the chairman of Sony Music.
Apparently, as some of us here on slashdot speculated earlier, there was an quid pro quo between Apple and the Music Industry. The article further details just how much power Apple still has over the Music Industry:
Even if Mr. Jobs does not get personally involved in future negotiations, music executives still fear dealing with Apple. One chit the company holds is the power of the iTunes home page, where it promotes music. They also say that the entire Apple staff, including Eddie Cue, the vice president in charge of iTunes who handles the relationships with the record labels, do their best to follow Mr. Jobs's style in their own negotiating.

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