I love Ballmer being so wrong

by aanjhan

RIM and Microsoft were in denial, shock; thought Apple was lying about original iPhone
[Via MacDailyNews]

A former Research In Motion employee shed some light into what really went on…

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While this has a little more to add regarding the information I posted earlier, it does have this wonderful contemporaneous bit from Ballmer that is laughable in its sheer inability to see what has happened.

He has no clue. The iPhone was the first handheld computer that did calls. Everything Ballmer describes are phones with bolted on bits of software. “I like our strategy.” Wow. Such a good strategy that they brought out one phone – the Kin – and killed it and then killed the OS that Ballmer described in the video to come out with a completely new one.

Now there are some MS OS phones out there with exactly the same list price as the iPhone – the HTC HD7 at Best Buy has a $599 list price for 16 GB. Same as the 16GB iPhone 4.

Since the beginning of 2007, Microsoft is down 2.8%. Apple is up 255%. Since Ballmer took over Microsoft in January 2000, Microsoft has lost half its value – down 52%. Apple is up 1160 % – more than 10 times its value on January 2000. The last 7 years under Bill Gates, Microsoft went up 2000% – twenty fold.

His strategy sucked and he have been playing catch up since then – well before then actually. Any CEO that is that out of touch – and history has shown that his words were completely out of touch – should be looking for a new job.

Watch it below:

The Apple-Nokia patent battles look like career work for lawyers

Apfont-size: medium; color: #999999;”>Brainstorm Tech]

A simple patent dispute has escalated into a legal contest of Dickensian complexity

Click to enlarge. Source: FOSS Patents

In Oct. 2009, when Nokia (NOK) first complained in a U.S. federal court that Apple (AAPL) had infringed on 10 of its telecommunications patents, the case could be summarized in a fairly simple chart like the one at right created by FOSS Patents‘ Florian Mueller.

Fourteen months later, that relatively straightforward patent dispute has escalated through suits and countersuits into a legal battle of Dickensian complexity now being fought in seven different venues, from Delaware to Dusseldorf.

Mueller, who tackled the Android vs. iOS patent battleground three weeks ago, has scoured thousands of pages of legal documents and posted what is likely to be the definitive map of Nokia vs. Apple. The finished document covers 19 “moves,” 11 reference pages, 31 PDF slides and more than 75 individual patents.

Look below the fold to see Mueller’s representation of the nightmare that Oct. 2009 suit has grown into.

Click to enlarge. Source: FOSS Patents

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The complexity of this case makes it appear likely that the lawyers working on it will spend most of their careers working on it. I expect the goal is to get some sort of cross licensing but to make it as painful as possible. Does Nokia have the mettle to go against Apple and spend wads of cash in court?

Just amazing.

I’m sure RIM was not the only one agog when the iPhone came out

Report claims RIM was incredulous over Apple’s original iPhone
[Via AppleInsider]

An alleged former employee of Research in Motion has revealed that RIM was incredulous over the original iPhone when Apple first unveiled the smartphone in January of 2007, according to a new report.

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It is unsubstantiated but rings true. Many people were shocked in 2007, including a lot of tech pundits who claimed before thatApple could not do what it had done.

Jobs said at the time that Apple was 5 years ahead of everyone else with its technology. We are moving into year 4 without much real competition.

Getting stuck in the slow lane

by greenwenvy08

Weird Science always gets stuck in the slow lane
[Via Ars Technica]

The theory behind slow lines: As our own science video contest is over, we’ll forward you to a video from Bill Hammack, a University of Illinois professor who’s also known as the engineer guy. In this great video that covers everything from network engineering to human psychology, he explains why some other line is always moving faster, and how to pick a store where that’s not the case.

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Really nice explanation of why other lines move faster than yours. Also, that the best resolution to that is to have one line of buyers that feed multiple registers. Grocery stores do not do this – although the self-serve registers often fall into this pattern.

Often things like this will start spontaneously – one line for multiple registers. Until the line gets too long and fissions into two or more º usually because some jerk decides to move up to the front. Then everyone looks out for themselves. I love looking at them coldly and saying that there is a line here and to go to the back. interesting how often that works and everyone else is quite happy, because we all move faster that way.

But book stores like Borders and Barnes & Noble use this approach. They force it to happen rather than hoping it happens by chance. Banks also do this. And so do some big box stores such as Best Buy.

But Home Depot does not. Nor does Costco. Wish they did.Mostly why I stay away form them on the weekends.