The Growth of Apple

Wally Wang’s Apple Farm
“The Growth of Apple”
by Wally Wang

A long time ago, Apple had about 2 percent market share. Then it jumped up to 4 percent. Slowly it climbed to 6 percent and now, according to Gartner (www.drivershq.com/News/Device-Manufacturers/Mac-sales-hit-new-company-heights-in-market-share/105/727.aspx), the Macintosh’s market share has reached 9.8 percent.

Sales of Macintosh computers continue to grow (tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/03/15/u-s-mac-sales-up-39-in-jan-and-feb/), which means that within the next year, the Macintosh should capture at least 10 percent of the operating system market. Since sales of the Macintosh show no signs of reversing any time soon, the Macintosh’s market share will likely continue rising at the expense of market share for Windows.

Of course, Windows XP still maintains a commanding 74 percent lead as the primary operating system in corporations (www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=25558). Most businesses likely skipped Vista and may move on to Windows 7, but the overall trend in the corporate world is to stick with Windows XP. Microsoft will even let users downgrade from Windows 7 (news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-20010285-56.html) to Windows XP until the year 2014, which ensures that Windows XP will still maintain a large share of corporate computers.

The problem with corporations sticking with Windows XP for so long is that they have even less incentive to switch to either the Macintosh or Windows 7. After all, if something works, why bother changing it?

Eventually corporations will have to abandon their Windows XP machines, and that’s the time when they’ll need to consider upgrading to Windows 7 (or Windows 8 if they wait long enough) or the Macintosh. By that time, switching from Windows XP to another operating system will be such a drastic change that Windows 7 will lose part of its advantage of being a familiar and compatible upgrade path.

While Windows 7 may provide a seemingly comfortable upgrade path from Windows XP, more corporations are now using iPhones and iPads (www.electronista.com/articles/10/07/16/ipad.mac.getting.deep.footprint.at.work), which will lead many of these corporations to consider switching to the Macintosh as well. Toss in the growing number of college graduates using the Macintosh, iPhone, or iPad, and there’s a good chance that at least some corporations will switch from Windows XP to the Macintosh.

Now add in the ability to turn every Windows XP PC into a virtual machine and run it within a Macintosh using Parallels or Fusion, and the barriers to the Macintosh don’t seem so imposing after all.

The increasing market share of the Macintosh shows no signs of stopping or reversing, and the iPad’s growth even threatens sales of Windows laptops and netbooks (news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20010046-64.html). As more people use Macintosh computers, iPhones and iPads, there will be new opportunities for consultants, programmers and trainers while similar consultants, programmers and trainers in the Windows world will have to battle for customers in a steadily shrinking Windows market. If you make money from computers, where would you rather be? In the growing market of Apple products (Macintosh, iPhone and iPad) or the stagnating world of Windows? For right now, you should actually be in both.

Just as knowing only English limits your job opportunities compared to someone who’s bilingual, knowing about Apple products in addition to Windows can open more opportunities as well. Even if you’re an exclusive Macintosh user, take some time to learn about Windows. After all, your next job may involve helping a company switch from Windows to the Macintosh, and given the trends, those types of jobs may become more numerous in the future.

The Problem with the iPhone 4′s Antenna

The iPhone is notorious for dropping phone calls. When I got the iPhone 3, it dropped calls regularly. When I upgraded to the iPhone 3GS, the number of dropped calls plummeted to the point where I can’t recall dropping a single call. With the iPhone 4, I still haven’t dropped a single call, although dropped calls still affect many iPhone users.

The problem is that if you hold the iPhone 4 in such a way that your hand covers up the bottom left side of the iPhone, it can weaken the signal and risk dropping a call. Try as I might, I still can’t get my iPhone 4 to drop a call while holding it in this so-called “Death Grip” position to kill a phone call. However, enough people complained of this problem that Apple initially claimed that the problem had to do with the signal strength displayed on the screen.

According to Apple, the signal strength indicator gave out false readings, so covering up the bottom portion of its antenna with your hand would falsely indicate that signal strength had dropped. Of course, some people really did experience dropped calls, so that explanation didn’t fully dismiss the problem.

Finally as this problem continued to grow, Microsoft’s Kevin Turner claimed that the iPhone 4 was “like Apple’s Vista” (www.toptechnews.com/story.xhtml?story_id=1000046MBXL8&full_skip=1). Essentially this is like Microsoft saying, “The iPhone 4 problem is so bad that it’s something Microsoft would have done.”

Consumer Reports discovered that if you placed a piece of duct tape over this antenna weak spot, it would eliminate this problem. Despite this trivial fix, Consumer Reports rated the iPhone 4 highly, but still refused to recommend it. Finally Apple held a press conference to announce that the iPhone did lose signal strength when held a certain way, but that all mobile phones experienced this same problem (although no other mobile phone seems to have gotten much scrutiny over this issue before the iPhone 4).

Apple also said that this problem of dropped calls is limited to a small percentage of users and that if they’re not happy, they can return the iPhone 4 for a complete refund (although they’ll still be stuck with their AT&T two-year contract).

To appease current iPhone 4 users, Apple will also offer free bumper cases that will cover up the area that causes signal strength to drop. With a case covering this weak spot, iPhone 4 users should experience no loss of signal strength no matter how they hold their phone.

By offering full refunds and free bumper cases, Apple hopes to minimize the public relations damage caused by this antenna problem. If you’re one of the unlucky few who have problems with dropped calls, try a different iPhone 4, get the free bumper case, or just return the whole thing for your money back.

Despite this antenna problem, millions of people continue buying the iPhone 4 without returning them en masse, so apparently a large majority of users are happy with the phone. On July 30, Apple plans to start selling the iPhone internationally, so we’ll see if Apple has redesigned the iPhone 4 or if international users experience the same problems with dropped calls that can’t be attributed directly to AT&T.

Getting Better iPhone Reception

The biggest complaint against the iPhone is AT&T’s spotty coverage. Unfortunately, this problem isn’t easy for Apple to fix since it depends entirely on the carrier. In San Francisco, AT&T can’t build new cell towers without a three-year approval process (compared to a three-week approval process in Texas).

One way AT&T is trying to plug the gaps in its coverage is through a device called the MicroCell (www.wireless.att.com/learn/why/3gmicrocell). Essentially this MicroCell plugs into your high-speed Internet connection (such as a cable or DSL line) and acts like a miniature cell tower for your exclusive use in your home or office.

Using the MicroCell still burns off minutes from your iPhone’s calling plan, but otherwise there’s no extra charge to use it. If you make a call inside your house, your iPhone connects to the MicroCell. If you step out of the house and out of range of the MicroCell, your iPhone will reconnect to AT&T’s network automatically.

Unfortunately, if you make a call outside and then walk into your home or office, your iPhone won’t switch to the MicroCell. Instead, you’ll have to hang up and re-dial to connect through the MicroCell.

For a limited time, AT&T is even giving away MicroCells for free by invitation only. Before the MicroCell, I could never use my iPhone inside the house. Now with the MicroCell, I can finally make and receive calls on my iPhone anywhere in the house.

If AT&T didn’t send you an invitation for a free MicroCell, you can still buy one for $149.99. For anyone who needs perfect cell phone coverage inside a building, then the MicroCell may be the answer to better coverage (at least until you walk out of its range).

Denying Reality

When Windows enthusiasts compare PCs with Intel or AMD processors, they can objectively evaluate each one with little antagonism toward either company’s products. However, when you ask many Windows enthusiasts to compare an Apple product to a similar Microsoft competitor, suddenly all objectivity goes out the window.

For some people, switching to an Apple product (Macintosh, iPhone, or iPad) makes the most sense. For others, sticking to a Microsoft product (Windows 7) might make more sense, but you’ll never know unless you honestly evaluate the capabilities of each.

Denying and avoiding the facts is a favorite tactic of anti-Apple critics, and one of the more vocal anti-Apple critics is Rob Enderle (online.wsj.com/article/SB121738346889295815.html) of TechNewsWorld, who pretends to be an objective technology journalist, but who was once hired by Dell as a consultant for Dell’s MP3 player.

Obviously someone who has been paid by Dell will likely say good things about Dell’s products while disparaging competing products such as those from Apple. Now Rob Enderle has written a curious article that suggests that the failure of other companies to compete against Apple may be due to sabotage (www.technewsworld.com/story/Apple-Didnt-Beat-Microsoft-Robbie-Bach-Did-Apples-Secret-5th-Column-70092.html?wlc=1279323483).

Rob does admit that his accusations of sabotage are more likely to be fiction than fact, but he still offers it as one unlikely possibility to explain why Apple is succeeding where others consistently fail. According to Rob’s theory, Dell’s MP3 player and Palm’s Pre failed not because they were poorly designed products that nobody wanted, but because Apple has saboteurs within these companies who made sure the products failed.

Apple’s so-called saboteurs even get the blame for Microsoft’s failed Zune MP3 player and the Microsoft Kin phone, which Microsoft yanked just 48 days after launching with a million-dollar advertising campaign. Rob’s theory is that no company could fail so consistently and spectacularly against Apple unless they had active resistance from within, denying the more likely fact that other companies simply aren’t making products that people want, as Apple does.

This saboteur theory may appeal to anti-Apple critics who prefer the comfort of fantasy rather than the cold shock of reality that simply evaluating and trying an Apple product might do to their belief system.

Of course, Windows enthusiasts have nothing to lose (except their belief system against Apple) by trying and objectively evaluating an Apple product. Unfortunately, as religious-inspired terrorists have proved, belief systems can be far stronger than reality no matter how twisted and convoluted your thinking must be to deny facts that contradict your ideas about how the world should really work.

As Apple products continue grabbing market share, expect to hear more bizarre theories for why Apple keeps succeeding. The more outlandish the theories, the more desperate you’ll know people are getting to avoid thinking for themselves.

In the future, we can all look back and laugh at those reality-deniers, such as this 2006 story about Palm Computing’s CEO, Ed Colligan (www.palminfocenter.com/news/9110/colligan-laughs-off-iphone-competition).

“Responding to questions from New York Times correspondent John Markoff at a Churchill Club breakfast gathering Thursday morning, Colligan laughed off the idea that any company—including the wildly popular Apple Computer—could easily win customers in the finicky smartphone sector.

‘We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone,’ he said. ‘PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.’”

The iPad App for Mass

One obvious use for the iPad is to read books. However, there’s more to replacing paper with an e-book. The Rev. Paolo Padrini, a priest in Italy, has created an iPad app that lets priests celebrate Mass with an iPad on the altar instead of the regular Roman missal (www.marketwatch.com/video/asset/ipriest-the-future-of-catholicism/C8967B5B-E86A-49F1-A834-1FFC2E71C827).

“Paper books will never disappear,” Padrini claims, but he also added that “we shouldn’t be scandalized that on altars there are these instruments in support of prayer.”

The iPad app contains the complete missal—everything said and sung during Mass throughout the liturgical year. Upgrades will include audio as well as commentaries and suggestions for homilies in addition to musical accompaniment

If a priest can develop a unique app for the iPad, certainly it’s possible for people in other fields to develop their own unique apps customized for their line of work. Think of simple apps that only someone in your field might need. Giving away such an app can be free publicity for you or your company, or selling it can capture a unique niche market with few competitors.

The iPad offers a unique opportunity for anyone, not just dedicated programmers, to create specialized apps that can benefit others. Just as Paolo Padrini discovered, if you create an app to solve your own needs, you’ll likely find that it can help others as well.

The most common way to switch between open programs on the Macintosh is to click that program’s icon on the Dock. Another way is to press Command+Tab to display a list of open programs. Then just click on the icon you want.

Unlike the Dock, which shows both open and closed programs, the Command+Tab method only displays icons of open programs, so the list is much shorter and easier to navigate.