Apple

Apple hit with EU antitrust charges over Apple Pay exclusivity

Apple will settle.

Why?

Because of this little bit: ".....Apple could be fined up to 10% of annual revenues..."

That's not peanuts, and a cudgel like that should make Apple *want* to settle.

Think about this: the EU has laws governing this sort of exclusion by an OEM. Plainly, it is illegal; *according to EU rules.

As I understand them, and fair warning, IANAL, you cannot exclude other manufacturers from utilizing standards-based functionality that the customer/consumer - in this instance, the iPhone owner - has already paid for.

For example: it would be like Apple requiring iPhone owners to only connect to Apple-branded Wi-Fi access points.

Which would be insane.

As this situation is.

Apple Pay's use of NFC compounds Apple's problem, IMO.

Because it isn't an Apple-created technology, and is standards-based.

Moreover, Apple has had enough time to come up with the security framework and privacy scheme that it would have posited would benefit iPhone owners.

It didn't do so.

Therein lies their problem: their (Apple's) steadfast refusal to even consider 3rd-party payment processors' use of NFC has been exposed for what it is: Apple not wanting any competition.

That is a clear violation of EU antitrust laws. I think.

What do you think I am missing?

What Apple is doing with Apple Pay isn’t new, their thing, or an Apple innovation.

Apple just took NFC payments to a whole new level with Apple Pay.

They also did so using basically available technology that they repackaged magnificently.

iPhones may not be the dominant devices numerically; they are so in terms of buying power.

The iPhone demographics skew firmly towards the well-heeled, and that is why everyone wants in.

Suffice it to say, While Apple has about 20% of the global smartphone market, Apple banks over 80% of available profits for ALL phones.

That really means that, yes, Android phone OEMs deliver crappy devices and crappy user experiences.

What I think though, is that other payment system operators such as PayPal just want access to the iPhone ecosystem without having to share both profits and customer data with Apple.

I hope Apple can come out with a scheme whereby other pay processors can use iPhone NFC, but cannot harvest customer data.

That, to me, would be the ideal middle ground.

Original story at The New York Times.

© 2002 – 2021, John Obeto II for Blackground Media Unlimited

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Can Microsoft even create a touch-first operating system, or even a touch-first version of Windows?

Over the past several months, I have been subjected to several news reports about the Microsoft Surface Duo 2, the ‘lost’ Microsoft Windows Version S operating, the new Surface devices, and quite happily, the magnificent Windows 11.

I also use the iPad as a tablet. Daily.

What does that have to do with anything?

Plenty.

While the Surface line really shows off their hybrid chops, they aren’t touch-first devices like the iPad is.

Resultantly, they cannot be used as pure tablets, and that’s a darned shame! Because, into this breech steps the iPad, which is a very good media consumption device. Only.

Which does everything well in that realm, as long as you desire to live in Apple’s walled garden.

I don’t.

I don’t want anything Android either. Ever!

I just want a Microsoft touch-first, preferably windows-based operating system for all my Surface tablets.

So that I can ditch the keyboard and the mouse.

That can’t too much to ask now, can it?

© 2002 – 2018, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

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The Circle of Trust

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Every day, we entrust our private and professional lives in these United States, and for most of the world actually, to basically these 6 companies, namely Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft and Starbucks. To a lesser extent, Snapchat, and Twitter. I have to add Uber and AirBnB as well. Facebook’s Instagram and WhatsApp will also be talked about under Facebook, as would YouTube under Google.

We do so mostly willingly, but mostly because of some vestigial connections still using that specific service or resource.

However, are these companies deserving of our trust, and our business, at all? Are they practitioners of ethical computing? Is our data safe with them? Can they be trusted in the future?

Over a series of blog posts, I will give you my thoughts on the firms listed above, and why I either have increased, stagnant, decreased, or zero engagement with them.

Believe me, some of these companies are not, and will NEVER be, in my Circle of Trust!

© 2002 – 2018, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

The Interlocutor - 350.png

Infra Dig: Apple to Microsoft: Our feelings are hurt!

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While I was not privy to the phone call fielded by Kevin Turner, I’m going to assume it took place as follows (the Apple side of the conversation only):

Hello Microsoft,

We would like you to pull your ‘Laptop Hunter’ ads because, well, they are hurting our feelings.

(Read more)

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This article previously appeared in the July 2009 issue of The Interlocutor.

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

Android harlots: Android to surpass iPhone

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Will this nonsense ever stop?

Now you have some dimwits proclaiming the ascent of Android….over the iPhone!

Wha???

For goodness sakes, it would NEVER happen!

Even if you look past the desirability of the iPhone*, how do you get past the Linux underpinnings...(read more)

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

iBrick lawsuit to go on

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Where were the adults at #1, Infinite Loop when the incredibly boneheaded decision to brick unlocked iPhones were made?

Where were they?

In my post here , I laughed it off, calling it malware. In a subsequent post here , I warned IT managers not to take...(read more)

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

Lies, damn lies and utter speculation!

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A very insidious rumor making the rounds the past few days has been the speculation the reason Microsoft didn’t go through with a planned change easing the EULA restrictions on the Windows Vista™ Home editions on June 19 was as a result of some double-secret agreement with Apple.

Let us see: Microsoft would take extremely great pains to alienate a gazillion current and future users of Windows Vista™ Home edition just for a few Macs?

Are you kidding?

The essence of the rumor was that Microsoft, as a result of a deal with Apple to ship Macbooks (or whatever their lappers are called) with Windows on a Boot Camp’ed partition, removed it since Apple wanted the additional revenue from selling Windows Vista. The availability of Safari, iTunes, and a host of other Apple software products made such a supposition logical.

Logical, yes. But only if you live permanently in Steve Job's RDF*.

Again, are you kidding?

A billion monkeys, thumping away at a billion Selectric® keyboards, in a billion years could not come up with a rumor like this! They could come up with the screenplay for Battlefield Earth – which, incidentally, I think they did – but not this rumor.

Current folklore puts the OEM cost of Windows Vista at anywhere from $39.99 to $49.99 USD for Vista Home and Home Premium editions.

One of the strictures imposed on Microsoft in its antitrust settlement with the DOJ was a level pricing structure for all OEMs, eliminating the MFN* status of some companies.

Now, I know that Intel is sort of biting the hand that feeds it, in giving Apple certain chips that do not seem to be available to Dell, at least to this unconnected blogger. Nevertheless, I do not think, indeed, I know that Microsoft is not cut of that cloth.

So, to please Apple, which, BTW, sells a maximum of about 5 million systems per year total, Microsoft would stay the course, and deny benefits to current and prospective users of Windows Vista, not including the untold numbers, estimated at around 800 million systems running a form of Windows?

Are you still kidding me?

As a One-Man Microsoft Myth & Debunk Squad, I decided to rifle through Ye Olde Email Rolodex and try to get an answer from Redmondians.

I immediately ran into a skepticism buzz saw!

“Are you making this up?” I was asked?

I pointed out a few sites with rumors.

“Dude, that will never come to pass!” I was informed, “Not even if St. Jobs danced the Macarena in an MSN Butterfly suit at Pike Place Market!”

“Thank you”, I said, and punched out.

Another call to a well-connected source at 1, Microsoft Way, exploded with the same skeptical guffaw!

Conclusion:
Apple might be the next big thing, but only in the minds of the horde worshipping at the feet of Reverend Paulie.

Microsoft will never change, or not change its EULA to please Apple.

There you have it.

*RDF: Reality-Distortion Field. An invisible, yet tightly-controlled force field emanating from Steve Jobs, and capable of not only enveloping conference halls, arenas, and stadia, but is capable of being projected trans-continentally by Steve in order to put victims in a state of adoration and euphoria, distorting all reality.

*MFN: Most-Favored Nation or OEM. The institution of an extremely generous, albeit secret, pricing scheme for OEMs who decide to carry Microsoft products and technologies exclusively. This practice is not limited to Microsoft alone. It has been rumored that Intel, for years, paid MFN dues to Dell to the tune of $1 billion USD.

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows

Steve, please try Microsoft Dynamics, OK?

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Newsflash: Apple delays OS X 'Leopard' till later in 2007 as a result of bodies sent to work on iBrick.

Apple, Inc.
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino, California

Dear Steve,

I heard today that you have delayed the release of Leopard until October because your drones are working on the iBrick iPhone.

Now, pundits are using this as an opportunity to pile on.

Forsooth, some writers are even comparing you to those philistines in Redmond.

Like you, I am upset.

However, I have the perfect solution for you: Microsoft Dynamics.

The Microsoft Dynamics suite of enterprise resource planning products would have eased, indeed, allowed you to avoid this mess entirely.

While it is out of the space we work in, if you give me a call, I will be glad to connect you with someone at Microsoft Business Solutions who would make ERP problems at Apple, Inc. a thing of the past.

Sincerely,

John Obeto.

________________________________________________

I mean, can you imagine the package on this guy? He must have balls made of Ununoctium (atomic number 118) or some other heavier, yet-undiscovered element!

Check out the past misdeeds:

  1. iTunes ships with virus: “We blame Microsoft for not making Windows more hardy against viruses…..”
  2. iTunes incompatible with Vista™: “Windows Vista’s release crept up on us so suddenly, we were not able to develop for it on time” or some drivel like that, despite 100 million sold.

And now this?

I really don’t blame him. When you think of the number of media harlots who make a living feeding at the teats of the nonsense machine that is the Steve Jobs Show,you then get a sense of why he comes up with sh*t like this.

If only Microsoft talked down to users like this, the money I could make……..

© 2007, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

© 2005-2009, John Obeto for SmallBizWindows