The timing may be suspicious, but the OS looks more to Google than to Microsoft
"Apple Speeds Mac 'Mountain Lion' to Take On Windows 8" Bloomberg Businessweek
"Steve Jobs is gone, Windows 8 is coming and Apple panics" betanews
As predicted, the tech press spent much of the rest of the week trying to make sense of last Tuesday's news that the latest version of the Mac operating system, Mountain Lion, is due out before the end of summer.
Most of the speculation had to do with the way Apple (AAPL) handled the announcement, privileging some reporters with previews and not others. (Why MG Siegler, who doesn't usually write reviews? Why not Andy Ihnatko, who does?)
Many wrote it off as Apple's way of keeping the press firmly under its thumb. "Access isn't an entitlement," Ihnatko tweeted philosophically. "I've gotten things early, I've not gotten things early. I can only do my job, day to day."
Some, as the headlines quoted above suggest, smelled something even more Machiavellian in the annoucement -- the first time in memory that the press got to test a Mac OS before Apple the Mac development community could. According to betanews' Robert Johnson:
"Apple more typically announces a new OS version months before it's made available to anyone, typically during their Worldwide Developer Conference. But with 10.8 things are different. The timing allowed Apple to preempt the release of Windows 8 Consumer Preview, which Microsoft announced in January would be the end of this month."
Was Mountain Lion announced prematurely to take the wind out of Microsoft's (MSFT) sails?
Click to enlarge. Data: Wikipedia. Chart: PED
The timing is curious. Even if Mountain Lion's release doesn't happen until the last day of summer, developers will have less time to prepare for it than for any OS X since Panther in 2003. (See chart.)
But as John Gruber and John Siracusa pointed out in Friday's The Talk Show podcast, the new features being added to OS X -- messaging, notifications, app synching, etc. -- are all about integrating the Mac more tightly with iCloud.
Google (GOOG) is the master of cloud-based computing, not Microsoft. So if Apple had any competitor in its sights with last week's Mountain Lion announcement, it's Google.
Would an $8 billion tax break on overseas capital gains do the trick?
Source: CNN
Rick Santorum has a plan to save Apple (AAPL) from itself.
It came up during Thursday night's Republican presidential debate when CNN host John King -- a self-confessed Apple aficionado -- put this question to the former Senator from Pennsylvania:
"Let's talk about something: Apple Computer is a breathtakingly important American company. It's one of the most respected MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jan 20, 2012 11:37 PM ET
If anyone has access to Channel Trend's latest report on Apple, I would love to see it (Update: Got it!)
Source: Channel Trend
On Saturday night, this headline flashed across one of the news feeds I use to follow the analysts who track Apple (AAPL):
"On August 20, 2011 Channel Trend Inc. downgraded APPLE INC.from NEUTRAL to UNFAVORABLE."
My first thought was "seriously?" My second was "tell me more."
I've seen some boneheaded advice MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Aug 21, 2011 7:48 AM ET
Fortune's curated selection of the day's most newsworthy tech stories from all over the Web. Sign up to get the newsletter delivered to you every day.
"In a year, we've gone from very small to ... very small." -- Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, on Windows Phone 7's market share (PC World)
* Cisco could cut as many as 10,000 jobs, or roughly 14% of its overall workforce, to keep profits up: 7,000 jobs would MORE
JP Mangalindan, Writer-Reporter - Jul 12, 2011 9:22 AM ET
Fortune's curated selection of the day's most newsworthy tech stories from all over the Web. Sign up to get the newsletter delivered to you every day.
* Plants vs Zombies and Bejeweled game maker PopCap is reportedly in final talks to get scooped up by Electronic Arts for $1 billion. According to TechCrunch, the company already pulls in revenues of between $100 million and $150 million (TechCrunch)
* Foursquare will announce its largest partnership to date, a MORE
JP Mangalindan, Writer-Reporter - Jun 23, 2011 11:48 AM ET
Fortune's curated selection of the day's most newsworthy tech stories from all over the Web. Sign up to get the newsletter delivered to you every day.
* Microsoft teased Windows 8 yesterday at All Things D's D9 conference, unveiling a versatile user interface heavily inspired by its Windows Phone 7 platform. While users will be able to access the classic Windows desktop experience they'll also experience the Start screen above, which presents users' apps MORE
JP Mangalindan, Writer-Reporter - Jun 2, 2011 10:24 AM ET
Rumors have it coming any time between late June and early 2012. Does it matter? Um, yes.
Source: Nowhere Else
In early spring the folks who obsess about Apple (AAPL) are usually busy speculating about what features to expect in the next iteration of the iPhone -- a game neatly summarized in an infographic produced by the French site Nowhere Else, from which the image at right was taken.
But this year, MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Apr 12, 2011 11:02 AM ET
Bloomberg Businessweek joins Maxim, Elle and Popular Science on the iTunes Store
The iTunes magazine subscription list grew by 33% Monday when Bloomberg L.P. agreed to Steve Jobs' terms and began offering subscriptions to the iPad version of Bloomberg Businessweek on the iTunes store.
That makes four magazine publishers willing to give Cupertino 30% of each subscription sold and take the risk that they will never know who bought it.
In return, the MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Apr 11, 2011 7:35 AM ET
A curated selection of the weekend's newsworthy tech stories from all around the Web. Read on, and join the conversation with a comment below.
"We learned that you can't rely on anyone else to control and maintain your own brand."
-- Groupon CEO Andrew Mason on its controversial Super Bowl ad. (Ad Age)
Photo: Engadget
AT&T plans to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion, a deal that would make the former the MORE
JP Mangalindan, Writer-Reporter - Mar 21, 2011 5:00 AM ET
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"HP has lost its soul." -- HP CEO Leo Apotheker (Bloomberg Businessweek)
Photo: M.I.C. Gadget
M.I.C. Gadget got its hands on what is likely a legit 64 GB iPhone prototype. Though, before you let your minds run wild, bear in mind it's a prototype of the iPhone MORE
JP Mangalindan, Writer-Reporter - Mar 9, 2011 9:48 AM ETEvery morning, discover the companies, deals and trends in tech that are moving markets and making headlines. SUBSCRIBE
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| Company | Price | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank of America Corp... | 7.95 | -0.16 | -1.97% |
| Microsoft Corp | 31.27 | -0.17 | -0.54% |
| Ford Motor Co | 12.28 | -0.25 | -2.00% |
| General Electric Co | 19.39 | 0.17 | 0.88% |
| Citigroup Inc | 32.36 | -1.00 | -3.00% |
| Index | Last | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dow | 12,938.67 | -27.02 | -0.21% |
| Nasdaq | 2,933.17 | -15.40 | -0.52% |
| S&P 500 | 1,357.66 | -4.55 | -0.33% |
| Treasuries | 2.00 | -0.04 | -1.96% |
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