Tom B

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  • The Mysterious Steve Jobs
    You weren't supposed to know about the Osama Bin laden communication strategy! Expect a call from the CIA, which does better funding-wise in lunatic-rich environments.

    But seriously: Tech is different from pumping oil (Exxon) or Union-busting (WMT). Tech is hard to get "right"; and "right" is in a constant state of change.

    And Apple is at a crossroads. When the Stores opened and Apple started selling iPods, the pundits all said "Oooh, Apple wants to be a CE company". But, in fact, all their successes have lead to a boost in Mac usage. Apple has HUGELY increased the usability, performance, security and stability gaps between Mac and Windows (which were at their lowest points around 1996, just before Jobs returned). OSX runs on great machines and has dev tools Redmond can only fantasize about.

    And yet, market share sits around 10%, in large part because Enterprise is slow-moving; way more willing to spend 100's of thousands on IT support than $50 more on a CPU; and has, very, very simple needs-- E-mail, Powerpoint, some database. That is changing, but slowly.

    My feeling is that, at some point, OSX will pick up monentum and really start to hammer Windows on market share. 10.6 will help. Maybe Win 7 will help, if it is anything like Vista (and it looks like it will be very much like Vista!). After that point Apple's CEO will matter less. My hope is that Jobs will stay at least a few more years and finish what he started.

    I remember the Apple-is-doomed 90's, and it wasn't that they didn't have the best computers or the best programmers-- they did. The problem was they got WAY behind transitioning to a UNIX-like OS, needed in the modern age where everybody is always running many apps at once.

    MSFT has STILL not made the transition to UNIX, and I'd say its a bit too late to start now, particularly with weak, ineffectual management at the top: Ballmer (Yahoo deal, Vista, Zune, Xbox).
    Jan 06 10:19 am |Rating: +2 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Is Pfizer Now Interested in a Merger?
    I wouldn't pull that trigger.


    On Jan 05 04:26 PM Dan Jacome wrote:

    > mkt think ELN will be the target, look @ it
    Jan 06 09:51 am |Rating: +1 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Microsoft: Losing Market Share in a Non-Existent Browser Market?
    "Don't you realize that most people's only contact with MS is thru the browser? If it gives people a lousy experience, guess how people view MS?"

    Most people's contact with MSFT is through Windows, and it seems clear MSFT does not care how lousy the experience is, if Win3.x, Win95, Win 2000, WinXP, Vista and the execrable Win Mobile are any indication.


    On Jan 06 12:36 AM KenC wrote:

    > Wow, what a crock!
    >
    > Microsoft is exiting browsers as
    others
    > enter? This is a Microsoft habit? Why did MS follow Apple into
    the
    > music player market, when the MP3 market was maturing? When will
    Microsoft
    > follow Apple into the cellphone market?
    >
    > Don't you
    realize
    > that most people's only contact with MS is thru the browser? If
    it
    > gives people a lousy experience, guess how people view MS? If it
    exits
    > the browser market, guess how people perceive MS?
    >
    > By the
    way,
    > Net Applications has more than 2 years of data on their website.
    There's
    > a little "left arrow" that allows you to go back further. I
    believe
    > they go back to 2004. In October 2004, MSIE had 92.18%, and now
    they
    > have 68.15%, a drop of 24%. While rationalizing that it's just
    Netscape's
    > share that Firefox and others have gained, they seem to have
    fought
    > alot harder to gain Netscape's share than given it up.
    Jan 06 09:43 am |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Does Google Care About PCs?
    Agreed. GOOG is a bit like MSFT in that a tiny number of products generate essentially ALL the profit. Of course, everything GOOG does, they do a zillion times better than MSFT, but that's because they have smarter people.


    On Jan 05 12:51 PM SmallBizTech wrote:

    > Google doesn't have the human bandwidth and attention span required
    > to
    make
    > hardware products. Google only has the attention span to make paid
    search
    > worth billions of $$. No other product/service from Google
    generates
    > more than $200M per year in revenue.
    >
    > $200M in revs for a $20B a year firm is 1%.
    >
    > Pitiful, ain't it?
    Jan 06 09:38 am |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Microsoft: Losing Market Share in a Non-Existent Browser Market?
    The miracle is that, with a browser as out-dated, inaccurate, and generally AWFUL as IE, so many people still use it. The reason they do is because it comes pre-installed on PC's, and "Joe Six-pack" PC users live in mortal dread of installing new apps on their PC's, unless absolutely necessary (like anti-virus software).

    I don't know where GOOG is going with Chrome. There's no Mac version, so the browser is utterly unworthy of attention at this point, but the idea of treating each tab as a separate process is kind of cool. Will it be cooler than Firefox or Safari, though? Who knows?
    Jan 05 08:54 am |Rating: +2 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Momenta Pharma's Opportunities Abound
    It would be good for Big Pharma if biogenerics take off.
    Jan 05 08:26 am |Rating: 0 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Microsoft: A Solid Investment in Technology
    Agreed. And they keep falling further behind technologically with Windows. All the $$$ they put into Vista and, in addition to all its other faults, it hasn't even made the leap to UNIX yet.


    On Dec 31 08:45 PM Bobco23 wrote:

    > MSFT is a cash machine. The problem is that management is enamored
    > with developing the next giant hit and pisses the cash hord away.
    > Shareholder distributions from this cash machine are miniscule.
    > As competitors and pirates eventually erode MSFTs profitability,
    > shareholders suffer further as management burns cash in an attempt
    > to find "the next big thing." Replicating the financial home run
    > of "Windows" and the associated "Office Suite" will be next to impossible,
    > even if tens of billions of dollars go out in pursuit of this elusive
    > fantasy.
    >
    > The stock has gone from $90 to $20, after all kinds of buy recommendations
    > at $35. Mr. market agrees with me that a cash cow is no good if
    > the cash doesn't flow out to the shareholder, but instead is wasted
    > tilting at windmills. If the YHOO fiasco doesn't give one pause
    > to consider the quality and intent of MSFT management, nothing will.

    >
    >
    > Strong sell.
    Dec 31 22:36 pm |Rating: +1 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Tech Sector: 10 Predictions for the 'Net in '09
    I'd like Google to buy Flickr; I use Yahoo E-mail for historic reasons, but the company is poorly managed. The best you can say about Yahoo is that they were smart enough to evade Ballmer's chubby embrace.

    MSFT may bid for Facebook-- they've already invested in it.

    Apple COULD buy Netflix and kill a competitor, but they prefer to strangle their opponents slowly, through technological superiority (as AAPL slowly buries Adobe and MSFT). I think we'll see a stronger AppleTV this year. I DON'T see Hulu or XBox movie rentals ever becoming dominant players.

    GS to buy ETrade? Hmmm. Maybe.
    Dec 31 21:20 pm |Rating: 0