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Like The Energizer Bunny,
AAPL share price just keeps going...
DOWN.
Save one of those pretty flower pictures. (To lay next to a digital headstone.)
Seriously, doesn't it seem like this falling knife is picking up speed?
Heywood, NOPE.
I think I spelled that out pretty clearly, previously.
I prefer my digital music at rip rates much higher than those offered by iToons, Napster & most of the URGE stores.
(Although, there are a couple of URGE services that offer at least 192K rips.)
Still, I prefer to buy my CD's & digitize myself, at the rip rate of my choice.
Pretty pictures, Bob - BUT
it doesn't really have anything to do w/ MSFT, does it?
It's been over a year since I had to do any actual moderating or deleting of off topic posts, so please stick to MSFT related subjects, OK? I've already had one complaint.
Bootz, I did it your way -
I handed yonder Sansa to the kid & asked "Can you put some music on here for vacation?" I didn't look at the results until it was too late for me to change anything. Fortunately, I didn't have to. Evidently loading the Sansa was pretty much "drag n' drop".
What I got from this experiment was an uploaded batch of music, about 10 albums of mine & 5 of the child's. And not exactly what I would have chosen, but interesting nonetheless. Some Stevie Ray Vaughn, the James Gang, & others, (although, I can't for the life of me figure out why Pink has a record deal... ).
End result, w/ zero guidance, the kid had no problems loading music to the "Lil Monsta". {And yes, now she wants mine. Fat chance.}
Ultimately that was what you wanted to know, right?
P.S. I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that Apple still hasn't found the bottom floor, has it? (Since you pointed out I " really, really, really don't like Apple") On the contrary, on days like to today, I'm lovin' it.
Y'know Bootz,
I don't think Sansa really cares where I get my digital media from. If I had to this Sansa player instead of getting it as a perk, yeah I would lay down money for it. I paid for my old EDIG one, & I bought it way back when because it had an audio input. In other words, I let feature set & price both dictate my purchases. (That's why Apple doesn't get much business from me anymore. That, and Apple's old "lifetime" support that they decided a "lifetime" expired 366 days after purchase.) If Apple had a compelling product that I wanted, I'd possibly purchase it. Lately, they haven't.
As for Peer pressure, I don't think I'll have to worry about that. My kid is smart enough to think for herself. She doesn't need someone telling her what model of something to buy, she just wants her music & audio books to work. She has 2 mp3 players & neither is an iPod. One is a Napster branded one w/ I think 500 megs of space that I paid maybe $30 for when she thought she lost her first one, a cheap CRAIG unit shaped like a cross between an egg & a lipstick tube. All she cares about it the 30-50 tunes she listens to at a time. I guess they're both closest to the Shuffle,except her playlists aren't random.
And yes, she knows how to program it. probably better than I do. Same with Satellite remotes, TV remotes & anything else like this. As for her peers? In her clicque, I know of 1 iPod mini, 2 Creative Nano's, and Dell Ditty DJ. No matter what you hear, kids want the MUSIC, they're not so caring about what the player is, unless it hinders them. So far, that isn't happening.
Bootz, Further testing needed.
I haven't tried anything lossless. unless you count a WAV file. (which it DOES support) I already know it doesn't support Apple's ALAC or AAC, (as you can imagine, this is a moot point for me. No loss){Pun not intended} APE & FLAC are also of no issue to me. I'll have to rip something to Windows Media Lossless and let you know. Since it uses the same WMA file extension, as normal Windows Media files, {supported} they should play. Waste of data space as far as I'm concerned. My 192K rips are pretty close to CD quality, as far as ripped media goes.
And no, I didn't try it with any of the plethora of "Plays For Sure" music stores. Like I said, I rip my own.
AS for external systems for speakers, etc. Sansa has said it expects to announce quite a few 3rd party suppliers such as Bose for such systems very soon.
Thanks for the link Bootz
I don't know what problem PC Magazine had figuring Sansa's menu out, In 3 minutes I had it all figured. The only glitch I had, was I got stuck in FM Radio mode selecting preset stations. Once I made my way out of that, it was simple as can be. I found the 1.8 inch color screen to be easy to read & a breeze to navigate. As for the buttons being difficult to press, I didn't see anything too difficult there, if anything, I was glad that they weren't overly sensitive. Between the navigation & menu buttons & the light up blue ring, I thought it was particularly well thought out. If I hadn't been gifted with one, this is the one I'd actually pay for.
Loading music in USB mode was a snap, I have no idea what problem they had. (Of course, since I did my own rips all the album & title meta-data was complete & correct, so that may have been their problem) I haven't loaded any new video to it, so I can't comment on that,yet. As an mp3/media player, I certainly can't find much missing on it. I don't know what kind of peripherals Sinclap seems to think it needs to hook in to it, everything you'd expect is pretty much already built in.
RE: Sandisk's "Lil Monsta"
I hadn't seen the ad campaign, but I was the lucky recipient of one of these a few weeks ago. (I Love Good Swag!) It definitely raises the competition bar. The option of the additional smart card, video support, built in FM radio, not to mention (dare I say it?) CHOICE in online music purchases, make this series of mp3/media players the competition to beat. With retailers such as Best Buy selling these @ $20 under the comparable capacity Nano's price, Apple's Nano's next version better step it up considerably.
Microsoft: Go antitrust suit dismissed
A federal judge has thrown out an antitrust suit brought against Microsoft by the founder of the now-defunct pen-computing company Go Computing, the software giant said Friday.
In an opinion filed Thursday, Maryland District Court Judge J. Frederick Motz granted Microsoft's motion to dismiss Go founder S. Jerrold Kaplan's suit, which was filed in June 2005. Motz did allow Kaplan the option of filing a new suit based on any damages that may have occurred within four years prior to the filing of such a suit.
In a statement, Microsoft deputy general counsel Tom Burt praised the court's decision, noting that Kaplan's claims date back nearly 20 years.
"This case should never have been brought against Microsoft, and we're pleased it has been dismissed by the court at this early stage," Burt said.
Kaplan's suit claimed that Microsoft violated antitrust laws by trying to thwart Go's attempt to enter the PC operating system market. The lawsuit also claimed that Microsoft stole Go technology, that the software giant threatened Intel (the chipmaker had invested in Go) and that it used "incentives and threats" to coerce Compaq Computer, Fujitsu, Toshiba and other computer makers not to use Go's operating system.
A California state claim by Go remains, though Microsoft said Friday it plans to file a similar motion for dismissal in that case sometime in the near future.
Microsoft, which has settled antitrust complaints with a host of competitors, said the Go matter is one of only two competitor class-action cases still pending. The other case is with Novell regarding claims related to WordPerfect.
Bootz, Didn't forget, but it's a big if:
"This resulted in the release of a version of Windows that nobody really likes and an attempt by Microsoft to properly license and document the protocols in question.
It's the second issue that is vexing European regulators. Faced with a February 2006 deadline for opening up the protocols, the company responded by informing the EC that it had already complied with that portion of the sanctions.
IF the EU actually gets a check, it'll be the equivalent of MSFT paying a parking ticket.
AP - French lawmakers pass 'iTunes law'
"Apple releases new updates to iTunes & iPod. Could this in any way be connected with the French legislation?
you tell us.
French lawmakers gave final approval Friday to government-backed legislation that could force Apple Computer Inc. to make its iPod music player and iTunes online store compatible with rivals' offerings.
Both the Senate and the National Assembly, France's lower house, voted in favor of the copyright bill, which some analysts said could cause Apple to close iTunes France and pull its market-leading player from the country's shelves.
Currently, songs bought on iTunes can be played only on iPods, and an iPod can't play downloads from other stores that rival the extensive iTunes music catalog from major artists and labels — like Sony Corp's Connect and Napster.
Apple described the original version of the copyright bill as "state-sponsored piracy" earlier this year, but the company had no immediate comment on Friday's vote.
In a statement issued after lawmakers hashed out the final compromise text last week, Apple said it hoped the market would be left to decide "which music players and online music stores are offered to consumers."
The vote was the last legislative step before the bill becomes law, barring the success of a last-ditch procedural challenge filed in the constitutional court last week by the opposition Socialists and Greens. The law would take effect only after that challenge is exhausted — a process expected to take several weeks.
The law states that companies are expected to share the required technical data with any rival that wants to offer compatible music players and stores.
"Any artist's work that is legally acquired should be playable on any digital device," Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres told lawmakers before the vote.
But the final text tones down many of the tougher measures adopted by the lower house in March. It also maintains a Senate loophole that could allow Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple and others to dodge the data-sharing demands by striking new deals with record labels and artists.
A new regulatory authority will have the power to order companies to license their exclusive file formats to rivals on request — but only if the compatibility restrictions they impose are "additional to, or independent of, those explicitly decided by the copyright holders."
Lawyers say this means Apple and Sony could avoid sharing their FairPlay and ATRAC3 copy-protection systems, providing they obtained permission from the artists whose music they sell.
The increased say for artists could strengthen the hand of recording companies in their recurrent negotiations with Apple, as they seek more flexible iTunes pricing — currently the same 99 cents for every standard-length track.
The final vote in France comes as several other European nations are considering action to force Apple to open iTunes to rivals' players. In a joint letter this month, consumer agencies in Norway, Sweden and Denmark accused Apple of violating contract and copyright laws.
The French law will also introduce new penalties for a range of online piracy offenses — up to a maximum three-year jail term and $380,000 fine for knowingly offering or advertising a download service for pirated music or videos.
2 years from now, Bill will step down
MSFT still in very good hands.
http://news.yahoo.com/fc/Business/Microsoft
Paper, If AAPL won't officially support Windows on the Mac,
Then WHY in the world do you think MSFT should? Or, expect them to?
You said it your self. You didn't read the EULA.
USER ERROR.
Gosh, If you really want me to, HMS:
OK,
By special request. Hope it makes you happy.
Is that the trick you wanted? Normally I don't do encores. Jesus did one, you know...
Interesting article, dileet.
I'm not sure i'd be all that calm about opening any new business in Russia just yet.
I remembered reading this article just the other day.
As a user of vacuum tubes in various pieces of equipment, I thought it was quite interesting.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13145804/
What a wildly bouncing chart today.
Where will it end up?
PS3-1/2 as fast as XBOX360 for twice the price?
That's the rumour from the inquirer:
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=32171
"Cell memory access appears to be broken, RSX has half the triangle setup rate of the ATI chip in XBox360.
The RSX can only write about half as much vertex data as it can fetch, not an ideal situation by any stretch, but survivable.
Then came the horrible news, RSX appears to be limited to setting up 275 Million triangles/second, anemic compared to the 500+ million in XBox360. When asked about this apparent thumping dished out by MS, the reply from one notable ISV relations boffin was a terse 'What a Piece of Junk'. Talk about a steak in the heart.
Half the triangle setup capability in the PS3, could things get worse? Yes, far far worse, how about another disparity of three orders of magnitude? No, I am not joking, looking at Sony's own figures, Cell appears to be pretty badly broken.
PS3 memory bandwidth table
For main memory, it looks like Cell has about 25GBps of main memory bandwidth, and RSX is about 15-20GBps. Achievable bandwidth is between about two thirds of that and nearly 100%, clearly the elves in the caves surrounding Rambus central did something right with XDR. That is the happy news.
For local memory, the measured vs theoretical bandwidth is missing, I wonder why? RSX is at a solid 22.4GBps for both read and write, good job there green team. Then comes the blue team with Cell. Local memory write is about 4GBps, 40% of the next slowest bandwidth there. Then comes the bomb from hell, the Cell local memory read bandwidth is a stunning 16MBps, note that is a capital M to connote Mega vs a capital G to connote Giga. This is a three order of magnitude oopsie, and it is an oopsie, as Sony put it "(no, this isn't a typo...)".
If you can write at 250x the read speed, it makes Cell local memory just about useless. That means you do all your work out of main memory, and the whole point of local is, well, pointless. This can lead to contention issues for the main memory bus, and all sorts of nightmarish to debug performance problems. Basically, if this Sony presentation to PS3 devs shown to us is correct, it looks like PS3 will be hobbled in a serious way.
The next slide goes on to say "Don't read from local memory, but write to main memory with RSX(tm) and read it from there instead", and repeats the table numbers. This is very very bad. The number of times the presentation goes on to say that it is correct, and the lack of anything like "this will be fixed by production steppings, so take measures X, Y and Z" say to me that it is not a fixable snafu. Remember at E3 when I said that the PS3 demos there were object sparse? Any guesses why?
Someone screwed up so badly it looks like it will relegate the console to second place behind the 360. All the devs I talked to were lukewarm on the 360 architecture but universally negative on the PS3. Revelations like this go a long way to explain why you keep hearing about simmering problems from the Sony devs.
You end up with a console with half the triangle setup rate of the 360, a crippled CPU that is a bitch to program, and tools that are atrocious compared to the 360. To make matters worse, you have an arrogant set of execs telling us that twice the price is worth it for half the power, a year late. If it isn't already too late, Sony had better do something about this recto-cranial inversion or it may very well sink the console.
Sinclap, You won't.
see an SP4 for XP.
Still, it's amusing to see that the Apple "Version 1" curse isn't just for their computers, and that it extends to things like elevators in the Apple store. Did the stock tank before or after this elevator story was released?
Apple needs to make up for lost ground... Dell's about 6 billion in market cap ahead. Quite a bit, considering Steve is the one who had them in a market cap dead heat (not a reference to Powerbooks) just a few months ago.
There's always this one.
I realize this one usually is reserved for Apple "version 1" product rollouts, but hey.
Media Player 11 - Beta Available:
I've played with it for about a week. Good Stuff.
http://www.download.com/Windows-Media-Player-11-beta/3000-2139_4-10537946.html
Heywood -
Ask Tex. 2 years ago, I forwarded him copies of the legal pdfs on the case for his own perusal.
Unlike you,I had no need to go back 3 years to find a post by someone to comment on , to try and make a now pointless point.
You won your case, Congratulations! (I'll still be watching the appeal process) But you still lost the war. The Beatles will go online selling digital files, & the odds are iToons ain't gonna be the first venue to deliver them, So all your pie in the sky "iToon Exclusive" fantasies are nothing more than that. RDF fantasies.
Don't be pissy. It's not my fault AAPL is down $2.50 on the day.
Once again, Congratulations!
One last question: And be honest.
Do you have your actual physical CD's segregated by what store you purchased them at? Because that's what AAPL is asking you to do with your digital music.
I see my name has been bandied about here a bit:
Yes, Sinclap, AAPL won their suit w/ Apple Corps.
Congratulations. I see the stock has done so well in the days following that announcement. How much has it lost since then? About $5 a share? (as I type, over $2.60 lost just today) Like I said, CONGRATULATIONS!
And following that, SJ has proclaimed he loves the Beatles & will "do anything" to get the Beatles music on to iToons. I hope he enjoys the roughly 3 million AAPL is set to receive for court costs, because IF the Beatles decide to allow iToons to sell Beatle music (and that's a big if) I guarantee there will be a very large "signing bonus" to be paid. More than likely the Beatles will sell their digital music through their own store.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to E3. (including a drive down the 600 block of Wilshire Blvd. Dilleet is right about that area, can you say "ghetto"? )
And once again, Congratulations!
Tomm:
"You're just going to HAVE to go out & actually pay for that copy of XP Pro.
Not me, ever."
No BC for you, I guess.
To each his own.
Dileet:
It depends on when & where you got the machine. But those discs gotten with a system are married to that machine already.
Boot Campers are gonna have to go out & buy a full version (not an upgrade) And those boxes have a disc inside.
Heywood...
No disrespect taken. If I see any other links for you on this subject, you'll get them.
Not so fast, Tomm:
"using Boot Camp is free because they already have Windows XP installation discs sitting around."
You may not be aware of it, but that XP installation disc is good for ONE computer only, and if you've installed on one computer, & go to install on a second different computer, don't be surprised if after 30 days,of non authorization it stops working. Unless you have a site license loader disc. Highly unlikely.
You're just going to HAVE to go out & actually pay for that copy of XP Pro.
Right Bootz.
"James Taylor's first LP was on the Apple label. The last record Apple released (to my knowledge), "1" (by the Beatles) sold something like 24 million copies."
I believe "Let it Be - Naked" was released after "1's" .
Not sure how many millions it sold.
Have they ever signed another artist?
What? You've never heard of BADFINGER?
HEYWOOD -
SEMANTICS. That's what lawyers do best.
wait.
YES, There's more.
In the London trial, which is expected to run into next week at least, Apple Computer is expected to argue that it merely serves as a conduit for the transmission of music in the form of digital data files on behalf of the owners of that music, the record companies. A lawyer for Apple Computer, Anthony Grabiner, declined to comment outside the courtroom, citing legal restrictions.
Part of the 1991 agreement was that Apple Computer would "Stay out of the music business".
"In his opening argument, Geoffrey Vos, a lawyer representing Apple Corps., dismissed the "conduit" argument, arguing that the lack of "interoperability" with other companies' music stores undermined Apple Computer's stance. He noted that iTunes offers exclusive songs not available in CD form, as well as repackaged collections, saying that demonstrated that Apple Computer is a music seller, not simply a transmitter of other companies' music. The holder of the copyright on the music is not immediately obvious on iTunes, he added.
"The agreement was intended to say, 'We do music, you do computer software delivery systems,' " Mr. Vos said of the 1991 deal. "The moment you cross the line is when you say you're in the record business."
Beatles need to get...digital.
"Either way, not the best press for AAPL right now."
I agree with that.
I also think that the Beatles need to get...digital."
I thought they almost tried something like that about a year ago w/ MSFT, but the "exclusivity" price they were asking was too high. ($100,000.00 ?) Personally, I don't understand why they haven't done it on their own, directly from their own website. Maybe EMI is the sticking point. I don't know.
Bootz, I think you're right.
"It'll ultimately be up to the lawyers to determine whether Apple actually broke any contractual agreements and, if so, whether iPod profits count toward damages."
This could go either way, but since the original suit started w/ the release of the iPod, and additional complaints were made when the iTMS was opened, I think that Paul & Yoko will have a good jumping off point.
The fat lady isn't even near the stage yet.
Home turf court doesn't hurt them either.
Either way, not the best press for AAPL right now.
Monday,Monday, Monday:
Pretty ironic that when this suit started, one of Steve's defense statements was that "the iTMS didn't make any money" ...
More of that "foot in mouth" stuff like the Dell market cap statement.
Ringo & friends prepare to take another bite of the AAPL
Come Monday, TIME'S UP.
Facts?? You know one?
"The fact that you are posting here signifies aapl is near bottom... "
You better hope so, baldy... But considering AAPL has a court date w/ Sir Paul & Yoko next week, along with the current French problems, I don't think AAPL has hit that bottom yet...
But hey! All is not lost.
Apple France has a new logo!
Vive Le France! Vive Le Difference!
The kiss of death?
"Friday, January 13, Steve Jobs sends around a memo gloating about the price of AAPL and how Apple's market cap had surpassed Dell's. That day, AAPL closed at an all-time high: $85.59. And like the ringing of a bell, that marked the absolute top.
Pride goeth before a fall."
For those that were keeping up with that sort of thing, as of today those numbers leave Dell about 19 Billion dollars ahead in that race.
AAPL 51.04 Billion
DELL 70.02 Billion
Actually it's more of a "Promotion Announcement" for Sinofsky:
And a naming of a successor to Jim Allchin, who's retirement was announced months ago.
"Sinofsky had been a key executive in Microsoft's operations responsible for its widely used Office suite of applications. In his new role, he will be responsible for process and planning of future versions of the dominant operating system.
Jim Allchin, also co-president of the division, will retire next year, as previously announced. He will continue to manage the division alongside Johnson until his retirement."
P.S. A suggestion... How about a "You are here" marker somewhere south of that 60 red line on the board info Titanic photo? I do realize it could be tedious placing it lower by a couple more bucks every day or so. On second thought, just changing the 60 to a 50 or 40 might be easier. ;)
"In effect they are requiring that all VCRs play both Betamax and VHS... That all streaming media be playable/interoperable with WMP, QT, iTunes, Real, etc."
Be honest, for once. Do you keep your hard copy CDs segregated by which ones you bought at Tower Records, which ones you bought at Virgin Megastore, & which ones you picked up at Target or WalMart?
Your analogy doesn't ring true. It's disengenuous. A closer one would be requiring all VHS VCRS play all VHS tapes issued in that region.
Does your old turntable only play LPs bought from one source?
As for "Where's Apple's tube of political KY?" , I believe that why they hired that clueless boob of an ex-VP, Al Gore. He certainly doesn't serve any other function, other than "yes man/puppet" in the iChat introduction. Seriously, WHAT other function has he served?
Windows Mobile users don't have this problem:
BlackBerry users frustrated by outages
Research In Motion confirmed Wednesday that several BlackBerry customers service experienced outages this week due to a software upgrade, which was the feared outcome if RIM had been forced to implement its workaround technology.
Several customers with Cingular, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and Sprint's Nextel service reported delays, outages and problems with their BlackBerry Internet Service, or BIS, starting early this week and continuing through Wednesday. A Cingular customer told CNET News.com that his carrier support representatives were pointing to an issue with RIM's servers--a diagnosis that a Cingular representative confirmed.
RIM confirmed that it was responsible for the problems in a statement to CNET News.com. "Some BlackBerry Internet Service customers experienced intermittent service earlier this week due to an issue that appears to have stemmed from a software upgrade in RIM's infrastructure. Service appears to be operating at normal levels at this time. RIM continues to monitor the infrastructure closely."
A T-Mobile representative had no immediate comment on the problems. A Sprint representative did not immediately return a call seeking comment. A Verizon representative said that a very small number of its BlackBerry customers could have been affected by a Verizon-designed software upgrade to its network this week if they were roaming on other networks, and that any of those problems did not appear related to RIM's software upgrade.
Frustrated consumers started venting on BlackBerryForums.com on Monday, and were still recording problems with the service as of Wednesday afternoon. Several said they had not been given a time frame for the resumption of the service. It was not clear what percentage of overall BlackBerry users were affected by the outage.
A similar problem affected T-Mobile users a few weeks ago; at the time, RIM confirmed the glitch was caused by a software issue with its technology. Both issues were related to RIM's BIS, not the BlackBerry Enterprise Server used by corporations to deliver e-mail to their employees.
RIM is trying to win over customers who held off on making BlackBerry purchases while the company fought its long-running patent-infringement dispute with holding company NTP. After RIM settled the case for $612.5 million earlier this month, company co-CEO Jim Balsillie said that RIM's customer growth had slowed amid uncertainty over whether an injunction would be reimposed on BlackBerry devices following RIM's unsuccessful appeal of a jury verdict that the BlackBerry infringed on NTP's patents.
If the companies hadn't reached a settlement agreement, and the judge in the case imposed the injunction, RIM planned to continue offering the BlackBerry service with a "workaround" that involved updating the software on its servers and on BlackBerry handhelds. Many corporate customers were nervous that the workaround would not work flawlessly, because as this week's outages show, software upgrades to major systems can cause problems.
"They tell us it would be a simple upgrade to our server environment, but we hear that all the time, so we kind of are cautious about anyone who tells us about a 'simple upgrade,'" Thomas Jarrett, Delaware's chief information officer, said in an interview prior to the BlackBerry settlement. The recent outages did not include corporate users of the BES software, but RIM is responsible for hosting BIS customers.
RIM's workaround technology was not involved in the software upgrade that caused the problems this week, a company representative said.
These backbacon boneheads dodged a bullet, didn't have to implement a workaround & STILL mange to shaft their users & cause service outtages... Windows Mobile users don't have problems like this. It didn't have to be this way.
More on MSFT's handheld futures:
Detractors of BlackBerry See Trouble Past Patents
By IAN AUSTEN
New York Times
"For years, Wall Street loved just about everything about Research in Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry, except the onerous, lingering infringement lawsuit filed by NTP, a patent holding company, over R.I.M.'s wireless e-mail system.
So it might have thought that settling with NTP on Friday for $612.5 million and the widespread relief among BlackBerry enthusiasts that service would not be suspended would give them some breathing room with investors and analysts.
Some think otherwise. "The patent case was a whole bunch of noise," said Ellen Dailey, a Forrester Research analyst. "Right now, R.I.M. is in danger of relegating itself to becoming a niche e-mail player."
David Schatsky of Jupiter Research echoed that view. "The lawsuit was an active threat to R.I.M.," he said. "But they now have to face other, long-term challenges. Microsoft appears determined to be a serious competitor in its markets."
These reactions are familiar ones for R.I.M., a onetime upstart that has received only limited respect, even after signing up about 3.2 million Americans, 70 percent of the United States market for wireless e-mail. Almost from the beginning of the BlackBerry, forecasters have predicted that its maker, based in Waterloo, Ontario, would be swept away by larger competitors, particularly Microsoft.
James L. Balsillie, the chairman of R.I.M., agrees with critics and some competitors that broader changes, including the long-delayed arrival of higher-speed wireless networks and a renewed mobile software effort from Microsoft, will force growth and changes in the market for wireless hand-held devices.
But Mr. Balsillie disagrees that those changes will leave Research in Motion out in the cold. "Our competitors keep going down the same path they've always gone down," he said. "When 95 percent of camera-phone customers don't buy a data plan, it shows that they haven't cracked the code."
What is now at issue, according to analysts, are the questions of where new wireless e-mail customers will come from and what kind of additional services they may demand.
The bulk of R.I.M.'s business has come from corporate information technology departments. As senior executives demanded BlackBerries, R.I.M. focused on creating a closed, easy-to-install system that featured high security so that computer systems managers had little excuse for denying their bosses' requests. That BlackBerries were spartan devices, avoiding fancy software, cameras and other add-ons, only seemed to increase that kind of appeal.
But most people in the wireless business, including those at R.I.M., recognize that future growth will have to come from outside the executive suites. And R.I.M.'s competitors hope that as wireless e-mail moves down corporate ranks to delivery vans and field-service technicians, customers will be looking for the kind of PC-like applications that BlackBerries do not offer.
"Voice is, of course, a killer app and e-mail is a killer app," said Tara Griffin, a vice president of Palm, maker of the Treo and a R.I.M. rival. "But customers are anxious to get beyond e-mail."
Danny Shader, chief executive of Good Technology, a leading wireless e-mail software alternative to BlackBerry, agreed, saying that R.I.M.'s coolness to outside developers will come back to haunt it. "This is a beginning of a 10-year shift in computing," he said. "Everything that can possibly be done on a hand-held will be done on a hand-held."
Ms. Griffin's sales pitch to customers who want to do more with hand-helds is based on both hardware and software. Palm's Treo hand-held device can be easily fitted with accessories allowing, for example, health care workers to scan bar codes on patient bracelets to summon medical records.
When it comes to new software, Mr. Shader argues that most developers will be inclined to write programs for Windows Mobile, Palm's operating system or Symbian, a popular cellphone system, rather than BlackBerry. That is partly because the BlackBerry, which uses a variation of Java, is less of a standard.
"Microsoft provides us with great developer kits and software tools," said Mr. Shader, whose company was sued by R.I.M. for patent infringement in 2003.
"Let's give BlackBerry its due," he said. "It's a completely integrated stack of stuff. If all you want to do is run e-mail on an appliance, then BlackBerry is your choice."
Research in Motion has indicated that it will be looking for more sales to general users. One recent deal will bring Google Instant Messaging and Google Maps to BlackBerries. And in an interview last week with Bloomberg News, Michael Lazaridis, president and a co-chief executive of R.I.M., said it was "inevitable" that future BlackBerries would include multimedia features.
Mr. Balsillie, though, said that no one should assume that efforts to sell BlackBerries to consumers were a sign that R.I.M. intended to yield its position in the corporate market.
His version of the future does not involve adding more and more software to the BlackBerry to allow it to perform new tricks. Mr. Balsillie's future is one modeled on the current BlackBerry e-mail system, which has servers do the heavy lifting and the hand-held device largely acting as a display terminal.
As an example, he said that companies would use a form of software known as middleware to harvest information from a variety of databases currently in use and repackage it for display on BlackBerries. That would make it possible, for example, for clerks not only to check if something is in a shop's storeroom but also to receive data about coming shipments of the item as well as information about the customer who is asking for it.
"The market is now really about figuring out thoughtful relationships to the servers that are already out there," Mr. Balsillie said, "picking and choosing the data you want. "It's not about 'I want to run these applications' or 'I just want to talk.' That's like saying that all people want is black-and-white television that shows just three networks."
Last year, the consulting group Gartner calculated that R.I.M. had eclipsed Palm one of the companies that earlier was supposed to destroy it as the world's largest vendor of hand-held computers.
But just before announcing the settlement with NTP on Friday, R.I.M. scaled back its worldwide subscriber gains for the last quarter of 2005 to a range of 620,000 to 630,000 from an earlier forecast of 700,000 to 750,000.
The end of the patent lawsuit may restore BlackBerry's growth. Certainly, investors reacted optimistically late Friday. In trading after hours, shares of Research in Motion rose $13.78, or more than 19 percent, settling at $85.70.
Mr. Balsillie acknowledged, though, that no single event would persuade buyers to stick with BlackBerries in a market that is expected to demand more information from wireless gadgets.
"The metaphor for this is how do you get someone to fall in love with you," he said. "Well, you do everything you can, and after you've done 20 different things, you find out later that one of them worked."
FWIW...
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060306/ZNYT01/603060347
Duke, I think it did:
"RIM, which is based in Waterloo, Ontario, had already put away $450 million in escrow, the amount of a settlement in 2004 that later fell apart. RIM will record the additional $162.5 million in its fourth-quarter results, it said."
Either way, not settling earlier was a bonehead move for RIM.
Not like I care either way. But I have noticed that the uncertainty caused by this litigation delay did impact potential new Crackberry rollouts, & steered more than a few people to Windows Mobile, instead.