Apple names Arthur Levinson as its new chairman

[Cam]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15749945#TWEET28574

The world's most valuable technology company, Apple, has named long-serving director Arthur Levinson as chairman of the board.

The post had been vacant since Apple co-founder Steve Jobs died in early October.

Mr Levinson is chairman of Genentech and has been co-lead director on Apple's board, which he joined in 2000, since 2005.

Apple has also appointed Disney boss Robert Igoe to its board or directors.

Apple shares were up by 2.52% at $388.83 following the news.

Interesting! Funny to see the shares going up though

[hbk]

That's funny, because when they released the iPhone 4S, they were down by about 10%!

[Cam]

Nov 15, 2011 23:06:43 GMT @hbk said:

That's funny, because when they released the iPhone 4S, they were down by about 10%!

Maybe as people started using it more it's gone up? I don't look at the shares that often!

[hbk]

People were just disappointed. There isn't really much between the 4 and the 4S - nothing at least worthy of doing an upgrade.

[edenwax]

Yup. I have a theory about that.

Theres a certain... cool-factor to having an iProduct. Tons of people buy Apple products just for bragging rights. Well since the 4 and the 4S are identical in looks, there's no cool-factor because the design hasnt changed and its not obvious that you've got the newest iProduct. Watch, when the iPhone 5 is released (which is also supposed to have a new design), it probably will fly off the shelves. Just as the iPhone 4 did.

*sigh* Samsung and other manufactures need to take a page from Apples advertising technique. Make people want it, show off its cool-ness, convince people its revolutionary and wha-la! You've got a much more popular product. Apple did this at the right time, and literally took over the mobile phone market in only a few years.

Although, Android is definitely growing to be quite the competition for Apple. Its going to be quite interesting within the next few years.


I hope RIM makes a comeback tbh

[hbk]

RIM have tried that already, teaming up with Porsche to design the new phone. Don't get me wrong, the phone looks very impressive (that being on Porsche's side), but come on, it's listed as having "the latest and greatest in technology" - my ass! It does not have a super AMOLED HD screen with 720p resolution, and there certainly isn't a 1.5GHz dual-core processor inside! What it does pack though, is a hefty 1GB RAM. The screen, I know - I should lay off a bit and be realistic. With it being so small, it doesn't need the 720p resolution to look good. It runs at VGA. Another spec they seem to oversell is the camera. "The latest and greatest" to me sounds like 8 megapixels to play with and 1080pHD video recording - nope. You get a 5 megapixel camera which can record 720pHD video.

As for iOS vs. Android, well despite what Apple say, they do take notice of their competition - more specifically Android. Two hidden features inside iOS 5, are an Android-style autocorrect feature (so much for being the copied, and never the copycat), and also a panoramic mode for the camera.

I will say it like this - people buy iPhones, iPods, iPads and the like, because they are by Apple. A fruit that has a rather disgustingly-tasting juice. Android users buy their devices based on specification. You have a lot to choose from (sometimes noted as a bad thing), but what if you like the iOS, want to call and text and don't want to pay £500 minimal for an iPhone? You're pretty much naffed. With Android, you can easily pick up a £100 phone that does these features (and more), and you'll still experience the Gingerbread goodness!

[edenwax]

Pffffft Gingerbread is so 2010, Ice-cream Sandwich all the way!

Also BBX is what Im mostly talking about as to a "comeback" for RIM. They are finally doing something they should have done years ago and made developing easier, the software more practical, and pretty much copied what the competition is doing. Once they work out BBX, I imagine they will focus more on hard ware competition.

Hopefully with BBX you'll be able to:

• Delete apps without having to reboot phone
  
• Lower boot time (my phone takes upwards of 5 minutes to boot up)
  
• Able to manage what programs are running in the background (to be able to control multitasking)
  

And like 45358 other things they need to work on. But Im keeping my hopes up, I like Blackberry and I dont want to see them fail any more than they already have.

ALSO: I really hope they nerf the Porsche designed phone, its butt ugly and needs to be buried underneath a 47 tonne mass of concrete and re-bar.

See why: mashable.com/2011/11/15/blackberry-london-pic/#32095Porsche-Design-P9981-Keyboard

[hbk]

In my opinion, far better looking than any of their old tat.

And LOL at the amount of time your phone takes to load up

Also, you may say Gingerbread "was so last year", but my phone came with Gingerbread 2.3.3 installed. Many phones that were released late last year, and throughout this year are expected to get Android 4, including mine.

One feature I won't need though, are the virtual buttons.

[Nick]

Just to throw it in there, I didn't just buy my Macbook Pro because it was an Apple product. It has amazing quality as do all of apples products. The chassis is made out of a single aluminum block so it is suuuupppeerrr sturdy. The screen is superb (I got the anti glare). Apple is also one of the few laptop manufactures that make a 16:10 aspect ratio which I much prefer over the stretched 16:9. I just find the quality very superb. If they made Windows laptops like this, I would probably have one, though OS X is a very fun operating system that is just so friendly.

So I see where you're coming from (Dylan) about how a lot of people just buy it because it's an Apple product, but one of the reasons why they are so cool is their outstanding quality, simplicity, and their customer support is also one of the best in the tech world.

[hbk]

Meh, my phone is made out of one piece of aluminum, just like most of the newer HTC phones. And my laptop is in 16:10.

I understand that there are those users who look further than the Apple logo, but in general that's how the iPhone and iPad have become so popular.

With Android, you look further into it, more so into the specifications, because you know there's a choice to choose from, and you want what's best for you. Apple don't provide that (other than internal memory options), so there's no need to look further (although my rant will continue - iOS is shit and looks terrible).

[pretzels]

The apple stocks went down quite a lot because the iPhone 5's release was late (which was never actually released)

[hbk]

The iPhone 5 will finally get a screen upgrade - an extra half an inch to play with - 4 whole inches, wow!

This will cause issues with Apple's stupidly-called 'Retina Display', as it requires a PPI of 330, which actually isn't what Apple claim it to be anyway, so there really is no need.