IBM Designed the iPod Before Apple Did

[Asher]

Originally posted by MarkG
small difference between IBM and Apple: Apple went ahead and got the damn thing on the market

Using IBM's microdrive, which is basically what made the iPod different in the first place.

The timeperiod was 2000-2001, when IBM changed CEOs. The new CEO is far more business-oriented. He cancelled many projects that he considered outside of the scope of businesses, and also started hundreds more having to do with services.

IBM isn't in the tiny consumer market. The iPod sales and revenue is ridiculously small to IBM...

They are now one of the largest software companies in the world in addition to being one of the largest hardware companies in the world.

If that's fallen...

It's the 2nd largest software company (to Microsoft), the largest hardware company, and one of the largest consulting companies as well.

[Az]

Yes, but look at that stock performance.

[Saint Marcus]

in other words, Dell's kicking MS ass?

[Az]

You could make some sweet money investing in Dell stock in 1995

[Asher]

Originally posted by Azazel
Yes, but look at that stock performance.

That's somewhat deceptive because you're comparing someone who was a juggernaught in 1988 to relatively tiny companies who grew very fast, thereby having far higher stock growth rates...

The reality is much more sobering...for example,

[Asher]

The chart.

[Az]

Yes, the reality is that they both dropped significantly since the bubble.

Market capitalization
DELL:89.52B
IBM : 143.76B
Intel: 147.41B
MSFT: 312.72B

So, IBM is not the supreme leader of everything computer related, but 'just' a giant company. That's what I meant.

A little something for you, though.

AAPL:12.04B

[Q Classic]

OMFG LIES!LIES!!!!111 APPLE IS T3H R0X0RZ1111!!!!

[Agathon]

Why is anyone even bothering to complain about the ipod anymore? Even Paul Thurrott wrote a glowing review of it (and he makes Asher look like Mr Nice Guy).

[Q Classic]

because i don't much care for it. too expensive, for one. and, the fact that everyone has it means it's lost its geek/snob appeal.

as far as the ipod mini, i think my complaints are justified.

why the hell would you buy something for fifty dollars less that has less than 33% of the capacity? because it comes in colors? because its size difference is negligible? it's utter stupidity, and imho, apple does really well in bilking money from idiots.

this is not to say all apple users are idiots, it's just to say that apple often has style over substance, and stupid people almost invariably go for style over substance.

the ipod classic was style and substance; the ipod mini was just style, like those abominable imacs or those stupid g4 cubes.

[Agathon]

They just lowered the price of two models by a hundred bucks each and added new features.

The cheapest one can't be had for love or money, so I suppose you can blame demand for keeping the price up.

I'll admit that I thought the ipod was never going to do anything. I mean the original one was pricey and who would pay $400 for a walkman?

A few weeks after its original release (when it was still mac only) I went to a local store to buy some software and ended up having a chat with the workers. I said I didn't think it would work, and the guy said that they'd sold loads and had angry Windows users complaining that they couldn't use it. They sold about half a dozen of the things during the time I was there.

Guess I was wrong. You can't go walking in TO without seeing one.

[Q Classic]

i know, and like i said, the fact that everyone has it means that it's lost its geek/snob appeal.

it's as if aston-martin suddenly slashed the prices on its nice cars to be competitive with those of, say, honda, and then everybody had one.

where's the snob appeal of that, eh?

[Asher]

Originally posted by Azazel
So, IBM is not the supreme leader of everything computer related, but 'just' a giant company. That's what I meant.

A little something for you, though.

AAPL:12.04B

That's another metric that has to do with stocks, stocks are not a very good measure for size of a company.

A lot of stocks are hideously overvalued, for example (look at the dot-com boom/bust...).

Annual revenue:

DELL: $43.45B
IBM : $92.84B
Intel: $32.71B
MSFT: $35.61B
AAPL: $7.64B

[Asher]

Originally posted by Agathon
Guess I was wrong. You can't go walking in TO without seeing one.

Same thing with GAP clothes. Doesn't mean they're good quality.

Just overpriced and trendy.

[Agathon]

where's the snob appeal of that, eh?

It's non-existent, but who cares.

Anyway, I was the idiot who decided not to spend the extra $100 dollars in 2000 to buy a mac with a firewire port (because I didn't want to do digital video) and so can't use an ipod. I guess I'll wait until next year when I get a new computer.