Microsoft and Intel Teaming Up, Plotting to Take Down Apple

Taiwan-based ODMs claim that Microsoft is teaming up with Intel to take tablet marketshare from Apple.

It's probably now a given that Microsoft and Intel are working together to produce top-notch Windows 8 tablets and touch-based Ultrabooks. Both have high standards when it comes to the consumer experience, and are bringing to first-tier device manufacturers their requirements and expectations. But Taiwan-based ODMs are claiming the duo are looking to reduce the iPad's 70-percent global market share down to below 50-percent by the middle of 2013.

What will be their secret weapon? Windows 8, of course. They'll also be coming after Apple on two fronts: tablets and hybrid Ultrabooks that can "fold" into a tablet. While the latter is still in a prototype stage, manufacturers are already lined up to offer Windows 8 tablet by the end of the year including Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, Asustek Computer and Toshiba.

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Apple, Microsoft to duel in '12 with OS upgrades

Computerworld - This year is shaping up as a repeat of 2009, when Microsoft and Apple last faced off with rival operating system upgrades, analysts said today.

Three years ago, Microsoft rolled out Windows 7, it's last operating system upgrade, and Apple launched Snow Leopard, or Mac OS X 10.6.

Today, Apple began distributing a preview of Mac OS X 10.8, aka Mountain Lion, to developers, and said it would ship the final code "late summer 2012."

Meanwhile, most analysts agree that Microsoft is on pace to deliver Windows 8 to customers this year, probably in the fourth quarter. The company has slated the release of what it calls a "Consumer Preview" of Windows 8 for Feb. 29.

"It looks like both have the mobile OS religion," said Ezra Gottheil of Technology Business Research.

Gottheil cited the similarities between the Microsoft and Apple strategies, pointing out that both show strong influence from the companies' mobile operating systems.

"It's interesting that both companies are taking big gambles this year with their operating systems," said Gottheil. "Both recognize that the form factor that's taken off, tablets and smartphones, requires an upgrade from the 25-year graphical user interface that's dominated PCs."

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Apple is biggest buyer of semiconductors, Gartner says

IDG News Service - Apple became the biggest buyer of semiconductors last year, ahead of Samsung Electronics and Hewlett-Packard, Gartner said on Tuesday.

Apple's increased semiconductor spending is the result of a number of factors. The company sold more smartphones, and its tablet business was also highly successful in 2011, according to Gartner. The success of the MacBook Air also increased Apple's semiconductor demand, it said.

Apple spent a total of $17.3 billion on semiconductors during 2011, compared to $12.8 billion during 2010, according to Gartner's estimates.

In general, smartphones, tablets and solid-state drives were the major spending drivers in 2011, according to Gartner.

Samsung remained the second-largest semiconductor purchaser, thanks to its improving fortunes in the smartphone sector. The company's semiconductor spending grew by 9.2% to $16.7 billion.

With semiconductor products such as memory priced as commodities, PC and phone vendors' semiconductor spending is related to sales of their finished products.

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Steve Jobs interview: One-on-one in 1995

Computerworld - In April of 1995, Steve Jobs, then head of NeXT Computer, was interviewed as part of the Computerworld Honors Program Oral History project. The wide-ranging interview was conducted by Daniel Morrow, executive director of the awards program.

From his early years -- when he says except for a few key adults 'I would absolutely have ended up in jail' -- to how he felt about Apple in the mid-'90s -- 'The Macintosh will die in another few years [under John Sculley]' -- to his predictions about how the Internet would change the world, this is a rare look at Jobs after his first string of innovations but before he returned to Apple.

Steve, I'd like to begin with some biographical information. Tell us about yourself. Steve Jobs (SJ): I was born in San Francisco, California, USA, planet Earth, February 24, 1955. I can go into a lot of details about my youth, but I don't know that anybody would really care about that too much.

Well they might in three hundred years because all this print is going to disintegrate. Tell me a little bit about your parents, your family; what are the earliest things you remember? In 1955, Eisenhower was still President. I don't remember him but I do remember growing up in the late 50's and early 60's. It was a very interesting time in the United States. America was sort of at its pinnacle of post World War II prosperity and everything had been fairly straight and narrow from haircuts to culture in every way, and it was just starting to broaden into the 60's where things were going to start expanding out in new directions. Everything was still very successful. Very young. America seemed young and naive in many ways to me, from my memories at that time.

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Will Jobs' departure shake up the mobile industry?

With succession plan, rivals will be 'foolish' to try to take advantage of leadership change at Apple, analysts say

Computerworld - The iPhone. The iPad. Both iconic Apple products have soared in global popularity. Both have led to a mobile computing movement started, arguably, when the iPhone first appeared in 2007.

Perhaps it is more properly called a minor revolution that has forced the public to question its reliance on desktop and laptop computers. However you describe the way the mobile market and IT in general have been affected by the iPhone and the iPad, both products had Steve Jobs as the motivating spark behind their development.

Now that he has resigned as CEO, probably due to lingering health concerns, can his fire still burn inside Apple's engineers, designers and marketers? Jobs is staying on as Apple's board chairman, with former Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook installed as CEO. But is that enough to keep Apple on top with alluring new product designs and technology marvels, much less the business savvy to work with carriers and manufacturers globally?

"His departure will affect parts of the [mobile computing] industry dramatically," independent analyst Jeffrey Kagan said in an email. "Remember, it was Apple that was the leader in changing the music business [with iTunes], the smartphone business, and Apple invented the [touchscreen] tablet computer business. Much of that came from Steve Jobs' vision."

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Obama Says: Steve Jobs Deserves to be Rich

"And something that's always been the greatest strength of America is a thriving, booming middle class, where everybody has got a shot at the American dream. And that should be our goal. That should be what we're focused on. How are we creating opportunity for everybody? So that we celebrate wealth. We celebrate somebody like a Steve Jobs, who has created two or three different revolutionary products. We expect that person to be rich, and that's a good thing. We want that incentive. That's part of the free market."

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