Much as it did with the iPod, Apple created a market for itself with the iPad. And it is still a market where Apple is top dog.Of, course, Apple’s tablets have some drawbacks that have pushed users on to the likes of the Galaxy Tab or Playbook, such as price and its inability to run Flash.So with the iPad 3 just around the corner, how will Apple stay at the top of the tablet pile? Well, as usual, the US tech giant has a few tricks up its sleeve.Apple iPad 3 to be firstIf there is one thing that Apple loves, it’s being the first. If you get your device out there first, all other devices will ...

iOS 5 was released for the last few generations of iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, including the older iPhone 4 and aging iPhone 3GS. The less powerful hardware of those older devices means that some of the top level functionality of iOS 5 may not be fully usable (or in some instances has been omitted entirely), but as it stands iOS 5 was released as a free download for older devices in the fourth quarter of 2011. While some existing users failed to take notice, or failed to grasp the meaning of the iTunes alert which attempted to steer them toward the iOS 5 update, the upcoming release of iOS ...

In a previous series of articles we discussed the capital Apple expends on equipment, real estate, leasehold improvements and data centers. Cost structure analysis reveals subtle shifts in strategy and the CapEx analysis demonstrates Apple’s increasing integration into its supplier network and integration into the distribution and service infrastructure that sustains its ecosystems. Another form of investing (spending now, reaping benefits later) is the spending on research and development (R&D). Let’s have a look at Apple’s R&D expenses by quarter since Q1/2006. Apples R&D expenses as percentage of sales have been declining from almost 4% to close to 2% in the last six years as shown in the following chart: While Apple’s absolute R&D expenses have grown at an annual rate of 33% they have not kept up with the far higher sales growth rate. Apple’s current rate of R&D expenditure is compared to a peer group [1] below. Apple’s R&D/sales ratio is between Dell and HP, companies which do not develop their own software or hardware. Beside the absolute, relative to sales and relative to peers, another perspective is to measure relative growth. The following chart represents shows the 5 year average growth of R&D expenses and on the y-axis the size of last 12 months R&D expenses as a multiple of Apple’s R&D costs [2]. Acer’s R&D expenses for example are almost non-existent compared to Apple, but have grown almost 100% per year while Microsoft’s last 12 months R&D expenses are almost 4x that of Apple’s and have only grown slightly over the past five years. Google’s R&D costs have grown at a similar rate compared to Apple, but remained double those of Apple’s throughout the last five years. Finally, we should look at the payoff from R&D spending over the last five years.  R&D growth should result in margin improvement, but does it? The following chart shows the relationship between spending (size of bubble), margin improvement (x-axis) and sales growth (y-axis). Of our sample, only three companies have achieved sales growth AND simultaneous margin improvement over the last five years. But while Microsoft and Dell have achieved sales growth and margin improvement slightly above zero, Apple has improved its bottom line by 13 percentage points and its top line by an average rate of 45%. In spite of Microsoft’s, Google and Nokia’s massive R&D growth, their returns from that investment have been meagre to negative in terms of margin and only Google showed appreciable sales growth. Discussion R&D expenditures on a stand-alone basis, in absolute or relative terms, do not correlate with disruptive growth. Essentially, you cannot buy innovation. In fact, sometimes it’s nearly free. Most startups spend less on R&D than large companies do on stationery and yet the bulk of wealth creation has come from these tiny companies. The challenge is, in fact, that if you have resources you find ways of spending them (the quaint American cliche of ‘cash burning a hole in your pocket’). The temptation is always there to fund a new initiative which bright people can always envision. Leadership in innovation is not the courage to spend but the courage to focus. “Focus is about saying ‘No’. And the result of that focus is going to be some really great products where the total is much greater than the sum of the parts.”, Steve Jobs (1997) [1] Our set of peer companies as shown in previous posts but excluding LG, Lenovo and Motorola Mobility due to lack of data, but including Sony Ericsson and Nokia’s mobile phone division Devices & Services. [2] In this post “year” and “last 12 months” refers to the time frame from Q4/(year-1) year to Q3/year due to lack of published data regarding Q4/2011. Five year data runs from Q3/2006-Q3/2011. [3] A note on capitalized R&D: Most of the companies analyzed do not have capitalized R&D costs. Some have small capitalization, but so small that the inclusion would not change the decimal points of percentages. The only significant amount of capitalized R&D appeared in Amazon’s earnings releases: capitalized R&D cost were USD 100 million in Q3/2011. The amortization of theses costs in included in Amazon’s EBIT (Operating imcome).

Those who are suffering from bugs on their iPhone or iPad in the mean time, however, can look forward to an iOS 5.0.2 update which will quash most (if not all) of what ails users in the mean time. The vast majority of users of products like the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 and older devices running iOS 5 hade made no complaints of “bugs” of any kind. However, a fraction of iPhone 4S users in particular have complained that their battery life is worse on their 4S than it had been on their iPhone 4 or 3GS before it, despite the 4S having a more powerful battery and offering longer battery life on paper. ...

Iouri Podladtchikov, better known as iPod, finished in second with a best run of 93. Ryo Aono vaulted into third, taking the gold medal, with an 86 on his final run of the evening.It was White who stole the show, as always, though. After pulling out of Slopestyle, many wondered how well his ankle would hold up on Sunday night in his signature event. As he showed, it was no worse for wear as he made history to cap the X Games.For more updates, news and stories concerning the 2012 Winter X Games, stay tuned to this StoryStream.Tweet 0 comments Add comment Do you like this post? ...

By now you must have read the numerous reports and rumors that Apple plans to get both the iPhone 5 and iPad 3 on 4G LTE this year. Given that the recently leaked iBoot data for the iPad 3 shows a LTE variant, as well as the fact that the current 3 US carriers that offer the iPhone are all on LTE (Verizon, AT&T and Sprint), the likelihood that an army of Apple users will be swarming the LTE network soon is very high.iPhone 5 and iPad 3 rumors hint 4G LTE connectivityWhile Verizon Wireless was in the lead in the LTE race when they launched the HTC Thunderbolt back in early 2011, AT&T has been ...

iPhone users who want a similar tool on their handset should take a look at TouchRetouch by Adva-Soft. TouchRetouch is a simple tool that lets you highlight an object in a photo and either erase it or clone it in a few easy steps. The app lets you load an image or grab one with your camera. Once you have the photo opened, you can zoom in on the object you want to remove or clone. You can grab the brush or lasso tool to select the object and the eraser to tidy up your selection. There's a zoom window in the corner of your image that helps you fine tune your selection. If you make a mistake, ...

Somewhere between the ages of 10 and 14, the iPod rose to the forefront of ‘must have' technol­ogy. I didn't really get what it was, but my uncle bought me one as an eighth grade graduation gift and it had buttons and a screen, so I assumed it was cool (assumption: correct). Fourteen years old, and I was the only kid I knew who owned an iPod. That was where I think things got a little hazy, at least in my life. Technology became less special. My two younger sisters are now the same age I was when I asked for that coveted Gameboy. This Christmas, there was no Gameboy under that tree for either ...

Boinx Software is pleased to announce that iStopMotion for iPad has garnered two important industry awards for its big debut at Macworld | iWorld 2012 — the 2012 Macworld | iWorld Best of Show from Macworld Magazine and Editors Choice Award 2012  from the Mac Observer.“I am incredibly proud to have iStopMotion for iPad recognized by Macworld magazine and the Mac Observer (TMO) as one of the best new products for 2012,” says Oliver Breidenbach, CEO, Boinx Software. “We worked very hard to reinvent the flagship iStopMotion Mac product for the iPad 2 and our efforts paid off. iStopMotion for ...

Apple Inc., Google Inc., Amazon.com Inc. were among the companies that increased their workforce by at least 50 percent in the past two years, Bloomberg's data showed. The growth has prompted Silicon Valley companies to consider more people from nontechnical backgrounds and ramp up recruitment everywhere from Wall Street to Seattle. Workers who would have shied away from the volatility of 1990s-era startups are seeing the technology industry as a haven of stability. Web.com Group Inc., a Jacksonville, Florida-based provider of website services to small businesses, grew the most on the list ...

In iPad Tips, Tricks & Best Apps for Venture Capitalists, ExecSense shares quick and easy ways to truly capitalize on all that an iPad has to offer for a venture capitalist. Take the 60 minutes to view this webinar (on your computer, mobile phone, iPad, or 22 other devices) to learn how other venture capitalists are getting the most out of their iPad, as many features, settings and new iPad-specific applications can make it a valuable resource to you, as long as you know how to use them. The webinar is led by an expert at helping venture capitalists get the most out of their iPad, Ahmer Khan ...

Seth Porges is a magazine editor and the creator of Cloth, an iOS fashion app for iPhone and iPod Touch. His Twitter handle is @sethporges.App appeal is obvious. The barrier to entry? So low! The upshot of producing the next Angry Birds or beer-chug simulator? So high! Heck, with just a small investment of time and cash, it’s not hard for would-be mobile moguls to turn a concept into a steady stream of cash. And thanks to today’s app stores, it’s never been easier to try your hand at becoming the next tech tycoon.Here’s (almost) everything you need to know before you get started on your own ...

Post iPod, the press arrived in greater numbers. By the time the iPhone launched, they began showing up in troop trucks. It became impossible to get a good seat. The number of exhibitors likewise swelled. It was chaos. And too normal. All the weirdos left. Or at least, there were so many normal people, the big old nerds weren’t as evident. I hated that. And I especially hated the media. Screw the media.But then Apple pulled out. And so too did all the hangers on in the media. And Macworld canned the Expo, at least in the form it once was. Now it’s Macworld | iWorld. And it’s officially not a ...

... Intel Corp., Adobe Systems Inc., Intuit Inc., Lucasfilm Ltd., Pixar y Apple Inc. violaron las leyes antimonopólicas al acordar convenios secretos de no contratar a los mejores trabajadores de las otras firmas. Al hacer así, dice la demanda, las compañías pudieron mantener sus salarios artificialmente bajos, impidiendo la competencia.Los demandantes también sostienen que correos electrónicos de las compañías demuestran que el mismo Steve Jobs promovió y orquestó al menos algunos de los "acuerdos de caballeros" mientras era director general de Apple."Creo que tenemos una política de no reclutar ...

pILLOW tHEORY is a NYC quartet who delivers a high-powered dynamic sound while successfully genre hopping under the modern rock umbrella (metal, punk, pop, electro.) They’ve blazed the stage opening for TV On The Radio, Living Colour and Ninjasonik and the band has received accolades from Rolling Stone, The Source, Village Voice, Yahoo, The Deli, and BRM. pILLOW tHEORY’s songs have been licensed for ABC television, SONY PSP and Tap Tap Revenge. Lead vocalist and guitarist Kelsey, guitarist Danos Ettrick, bassist Joaquin C De Baca and drummer Dave Burnett are all jazz rejects who were tainted ...

According to Neil Young, he and Steve Jobs were working on a iPod that would handle master-quality audio files!Young has always been the first to argue that MP3s suck — and that they only offer about 5% the fidelity of vinyl and other ways to playback. He's a huge proponent of lossless filetypes, saying:“If you take a 2192 file – the highest res recorded music today – and you compare that to a vinyl record or analogue tape master, they’re both pretty similar [in sound quality]. The copy is very good. If that’s 100%, now we have 5% with mp3… The problem is that there’s no alternative living in ...

There were computer music players before the iPod, but the iPod was the first you could use without getting angry. And that's what the Hotchkiss No. 1 did. It did what earlier staplers did, just better. You could load 25 staples all at once. But unlike modern staple strips, the staples came in strips made from one piece of metal. Not separated staples glued together; that would come later. The stapler had to snap the staple off the metal strip, then push it through paper. This took force, but less force than older staplers. And it was durable. You can still find them on eBay. Hotchkiss choked ...