07.02.07 - 03:32pm
Universal and Steve Jobs have never been the best of friends as arguing over the price of digital music downloads has become one long drawn out fight. Now, tensions appear to be heating as Universal has refused to renew their two-year contract with Apple’s iTunes instead opting for a month to month contract saying they will only market the music to Apple “at will.”
This gives Universal some extra power in any negotiations because should they choose to pull their music it would be the equivalent of 1 of every 3 hit songs no longer being available on iTunes.
With so much new competition in the digital music store market, Universal may be looking for a company that is willing to go with the higher prices Universal wants and they may also want to keep DRM attached.
Apple has had a great monopoly over the digital music market accounting for 76 percent of digital download sales. To lose a company like Universal thus suddenly limiting iTunes songs could be quite a blow to the company.
Category: itunes | Tags: apple, digital_music, itunes, monopoly, music_downloads, steve_jobs, universal | Be the First to Comment »
06.19.07 - 01:34pm
When Apple CEO Steve Jobs stood up to deliver his keynote last week he introduced to the world the new web browser Safari. Upon its introduction he showed a pie chart depicting Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Safari with no other browsers depicted and stated “this is what we’d love.”
This graph and statement has caused much ire in John Lilly, Mozilla’s CEO, who defined the statement to mean that Apple wanted to create a “duopoly” of browsers and take over Firefox’s market share and any others.
Lilly wrote in a his blog stating that the graph, “betrays the way that Steve, and by extension Apple, so often looks at the world.”
“But make no mistake: this wasn’t a careless presentation, or an accidental omission of all the other browsers out there, or even a crummy marketing trick. Lots of words describe Steve and his Stevenotes, but ‘careless’ and ‘accidental’ do not. This is, essentially, the way they’re thinking about the problem, and shows the users they want to pick up.”
Category: apple | Tags: apple, duopoly, firefox, john_lilly, microsoft, safari, steve_jobs, web-browsers | Be the First to Comment »
06.13.07 - 04:10pm
Apple’s shares have dropped sharply following news on Wednesday that the new web browser Safari had numerous bugs, on what many perceived as a lackluster keynote speech by Steve Jobs at the WWDC, and on fears that the iPhone won’t live up to the hype.
Apple’s stock has been on an unprecedented rise with the continued build-up of the iPhone but all of a sudden investors seem to have become edgy.
The stocked dropped to 116.05 in afternoon trading on Wednesday down from highs of $127.61. Andy Hargreaves an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities blames it on anxiety over the iPhone’s capabilities. He said, “It’s because of the launch date announcement, it’s because of people getting a little bit of a closer look at the iPhone through demonstrations and what not, and thinking it’s not going to live up to all the hype.”
Category: apple | Tags: apple, iPhone, steve_jobs, target_price, thinkequity_partners, wwdc | Be the First to Comment »
06.12.07 - 02:20pm
The iPhone will “go live” on June 29th and try as he might Steve Jobs couldn’t really get people interested in anything else during his keynote speech at the WWDC conference yesterday.
With just over 2 weeks to go for the much hyped release, nothing else will take the place of the iPhone. The only thing Jobs did say was that the phone will open up third party applications, something that was revealed just before the conference leaving attendees disappointed and wanting more. 
Mainly the keynote focused on Leopard, the new operating system that will be released in October, and the new web browser Safari which takes direct aim at Microsoft Internet Explorer and will work on PCs that run on Microsoft Windows.
Safari was created as a way to introduce Mac to PC owners and analysts are saying it has the potential to act as a Trojan horse - showcasing the way Mac works to current PC owners and quietly stealing them over to Apple’s way of doing things.
Category: apple, iPhone | Tags: iPhone, keynote_speech, leopard, microsoft, safari, steve_jobs, wwdc | Be the First to Comment »
05.23.07 - 03:40pm
There are a great many people who would like to see Gore run for President again and one of them is Mr. Steve Jobs himself.
“We have dug ourselves into a 20-foot hole, and we need somebody who knows how to build a ladder. Al’s the guy,” Jobs told Time Magazine. “Like many others, I have tried my best to convince him. So far, no luck.”
Jobs also commented to Newsweek,”If he ran, there’s no question in my mind that he would be elected. But I think there’s a question in his mind, perhaps because the pain of the last election runs a lot deeper than he lets most of us see.”
Gore has created quite a name in the world of climate change with the film “An Inconvenient Truth” winning an Oscar and gaining the support of Hollywood’s elite. He has also gained the support and respect of many in the hi-tech industry, as he sits on the board for Google and Apple.
Category: apple | Tags: climate_change, gore, newsweek, president, steve_jobs, time_magazine | Be the First to Comment »
05.15.07 - 11:29am
June - the month everyone is waiting for, mainly for the iPhone, but also to see what Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference will bring.
Steve Jobs will be opening the conference at 10:00 a.m. Monday morning on June 11th. He is well renowned for his keynote speeches and everyone is waiting with baited breath what this one will bring.
Jobs is expected to talk on the Mac Leopard due to come out in the fall. The Leopard initially was going to be released at the conference but Apple announced its delay due to moving key programmers over to work on the iPhone to guarantee its release. A complete version of Leopard is supposed to be shown with details of the program during the keynote.
Category: apple, iPhone | Tags: iPhone, leopard, steve_jobs, worldwide_developers_conference | Be the First to Comment »
04.18.07 - 01:21pm
Steve Jobs is the 132nd richest man in America, with a total net worth of $5.7 billion according to Forbes magazine. Yet he still takes only $1 dollar in salary from Apple. Jobs has taken the $1 yearly salary from Apple since he took over the role of CEO in 1997.
Magnanimous? Well, Jobs does still get paid, just a little differently from those of us with a yearly salary. Jobs currently owns 5.4 million restricted shares of Apple stock worth somewhere around $496 million. He was also reimbursed $202,000 for use of the company jet and other business related expenses. Jobs has had use of the jet as a “perk” since 2001, and he still holds 120,000 stock options that were granted to him for his work as CEO.
The whole of Jobs total compensation has not yet been explicitly disclosed since new rules (due to stock backdating scandals) require companies to list in great detail the value of such gifts as option awards.
Category: apple | Tags: forbes_magazine, richest_man_in_america, steve_jobs, yearly_salary | Be the First to Comment »
04.02.07 - 12:44pm
Steve Jobs is staying true to his word in an open letter he issued saying he wanted to abolish DRM’s. In a landmark deal with EMI Group, the fourth largest record label in the world, it has been announced that all songs would have the DRMs removed beginning in May.
“EMI, which has historically been one of the more experimentation-friendly major labels, realized that that’s the future,” said
Aram Sinnreich, a senior analyst with Radar Research.
The songs will cost slightly more at $129 instead of $0.99 but this is not supposed to be because of the removal of the DRMs but instead due to higher sound quality being featured in the songs.
“We think our customers are going to love this,” Jobs said. He also expects that with the pressure being put on other record labels, more than half of iTunes songs will be DRM free by the end of the year.
Category: itunes | Tags: drm, emi_group, landmark_deal, steve_jobs | Be the First to Comment »
03.26.07 - 02:22pm
Steve Jobs has helped propel Apple from floundering almost to extinction to one of the top and most well known companies
in the world, and now he is being recognized for his genius by being named the “ultimate CEO who matters,” according to a survey by Barron’s magazine.
Barron’s magazine, which has been around for 85 years provides authoritative market analysis and insights on companies, industries, sectors, the economy and financial markets in the U.S. and around the world. With this kind of a rep it is high praise indeed to Jobs when Barrons estimates that were Jobs to leave Apple, his departure would result in a greater loss of stock-market value than any other CEO in the world.
The magazine says that Steve Jobs value as a CEO is equivalent to 20 or so points of Apple’s shares - basically he’s worth about $16 billion in market capitalization.
Category: apple | Tags: apple, ceo, market_capitalization, steve_jobs | Be the First to Comment »
03.05.07 - 03:45pm
As reported in Fortune Magazine, Steve Jobs seems to have made a glaring error, not in the company, not even in the backdating scandal, but in his own estimation of what the little white music player he introduced six years ago was actually worth.
Fortune, at the time did an article about the stock options Steve Jobs received in 2001, just before the iPod launched and changed the world of music forever. They reported at the time on how Jobs had received a mammoth grant calculated at $872 million, the largest one-year package for a CEO in history.
Jobs wasn’t thrilled with the report and drafted a letter stating since Apple was currently in a decline the stock value was actually zero and even offered to sell the options to Fortune for half the money. (Fortune didn’t quite have the 436 million on hand to take advantage of the potentially “good deal”)
Category: Bling Bling, apple | Tags: fortune-magazine, iPod, steve_jobs, stock_options | Be the First to Comment »
