Even as Apple comes clean, there are still a lot of venting going on. A few honorable mentions: David Pogue on Apple coming clean. Apparently, Apple's blog was the first time it had used the words "pain" and "suffering" in describing it's own product. Marketwatch's take was more analytical regarding the importance of the debacle, essentially, with Apple failing to address the scale of the business market. More articles on MobileMe is well documented at Macsurfer.
With Apple sorting things out, Verizon said it's doing just fine as it reported a 12% increase in quarterly profit. It outpaced AT&T by gaining 200K new customers dispite the success of the iPhone 3G launch. Verizon believed more of its customers bought smartphones due to the popularity of the iPhone. Not too shabby. Wireless is where the future is. Earlier this year, it won the rights to the 700Mhz spectrum.
Finally, we hear a bit from Michael Dell on Dell working on smartphones (slow news day) . It is really a rumor after all? When Dell released their line of mobile devices based on Windows CE, I jumped at it. Now, the question is not if Dell is going to enter the smartphone market but what OS they will use. I'm betting on Android. If I remember correctly, Dell's Axim were very competitive but their exit from the PDA market showed that it was not enough to compete in the market. Maybe a different OS might just be what Dell needs. I honestly do not Dell pouring any of their cash reserve into doing something different. Dell computers are fine for daily work but, for the most part, they're followers, not leaders. (Complete interview at Gigaom. Very good read.)
Back to mobile computing a bit. Everyone is waiting for new laptops based on Intel's Centrino 2 chips and the Montvina chipsets. Personally, I'm waiting for benchmarks on the X4500 IGP. Not so for the pending Macbook refresh from Apple.
Appleinsider is claiming Apple could be looking to use chipsets made by someone else other than Intel everyone is listed: AMD, Nvidia, Via. For a while now, Apple fans have been clamoring for Apple to use AMD chips. Perhaps the wound from the PC war is deeper than we'd expect. However, AMD's Puma mobile platform may make a good Macbook platform and allow Apple to lower prices.
I'm putting this in the doubtful column. It's not as if Macbooks aren't doing well, just the opposite. Intel offers a complete package. And if you look at the market carefully, I've yet to see a Iaptop with Intel CPU and not use Intel chipsets for consumer class laptops. If anything, the rumor would apply more to the Macbook Touch than the actual Macbook lines. If you think about it, using a totally new chipset makes more sense on an entirely new product than a proven source of revenue. If it ain't broke so goes the saying. More rumors here. Happy reading if you're into this sort of thing.
The mobile device front is kind of quite today. But the Blackberry Bold has some confirmed launch dates. Speculations and rumors of the Thunder are increasing as Blackberry fans wait for its release. I think Blackberry fans are just a few years from rivaling Apple fans in fanaticism.
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