[ always along the motto: extension of you, part of you. The new Apple under Jobs was NOT an overnight success! It build on its differentiation, strong base, a cult, a Tribe, 1000 True Fans, and build on it stride by stride. Most capitalistic company out of SV, no counter-culture out of largest corp on world. & can pull of iAd coup because it has monopsony! & Duopoly w Android. ] Many people love Apple, others despise it. But, even without Jobs, it cannot be ignored. There simply is no other company that combines such a high-quality hardware line with such well-regarded software platforms. A faltering Samsung has the former, but not the latter. A strong and admirable Google has the latter, but not the former. If you didn’t believe that before, this week’s event made it crystal clear, with once-bitter rivals like Microsoft and Adobe showing up onstage to boast about how well their products worked with new Apple hardware and software. [ sw & hw iteration = leverage comp advantage ]

Outside of China, Xiaomi will have a harder time differentiating itself from other smartphone makers. // Xiaomi seen as Chinas homegrown/made Apple. Outside China/Asia at large its just Xiaomi and competes with other high-end Android hw manufacturers.

“The data is showing that unless there is a brand pull (and only Apple is in this category), the device game has become a price game,” said wireless industry consultant Chetan Sharma. “This is especially true on the high end. Given that some good devices are available at half the price makes it hard for Samsung, LG, Sony and similar players to be successful with a device on the high end.” One need only look at recent financials from Samsung, HTC and Sony to see the impact that this is already having on both sales and profits. There is another big trend hurting Samsung and others trying to sell premium devices. Until very recently, consumers have been able to snap up even the priciest phones for as little as $200 with a two-year contract. But in a trend started by T-Mobile and increasingly true across the U.S. wireless industry, carriers are no longer subsidizing these devices.

Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC said it would cut jobs and discontinue models as part of its strategy to focus on high-end devices to better compete with the likes of Apple and Samsung. “The cuts will be across the board,” Chief Financial Officer Chialin Chang told reporters after HTC reported a second-quarter loss and forecast another for the third-quarter. “They will be significant.” Chang said the cost reductions would extend to the first quarter of next year, but declined to give further details. // &! on.recode.net/1hA4sm8/ // &! Lenovo cuts jobs too bc of phone business - Chief executive Yuanqing Yang said Lenovo would also restructure its lagging smartphone business at a one-time cost of $600 million, and was facing its “toughest market environment in recent years.” - on.recode.net/1DNHimy &! Lenovo bought Motorola to solidify its position in the market, but their numbers did disappoint as well.

Analysis: Android manufacturers (mostly Asia based) can't compete eye to eye with iPhone quality because they don't have the money for R&D and talent in design/UI/UX. &! Just to make the R&D/talent aspect for the hard things that are hard: hardware. Apple Patents New Liquidmetal Techniques For Manufacturing ( tcrn.ch/1TjN6uS ) vs. Xiaomi buying patents for "Patent War Chest to Launch in U.S." ( bloom.bg/1CG3s9S ) And even Microsoft and Apple make money off Android device sales because of patents (patents for technology, inside Android devices, that Microsoft or Apple own). // Apple's aspirational product - status anxiety - vs - Free. Downside with Free Of Android being a Privacy Sinkhole. & underfunded Android HW manufacturers vs only, marginally LG, Samsung, Lenovo who have other businesses. But hardware itself was turned into commodity business! // HTC trade below book value (12/08/15) - bit.ly/1JULi5t &! wrd.cm/1MkhnUw // &! Fragmentation - bit.ly/1q4iXyk

bloom.bg/1WbUffA // Internet hyperbole (and financial analysis) have rendered HTC, a once high-flying mobile brand, essentially valueless. In short, the company is trading below cash on hand. So if you bought all HTC stock, the company would have to pay you, the buyer, to take it over. This means the company’s factories, stock and brand are worth nothing, at least on Wall Street. [...] However, the modern phone marketers like Samsung and HTC only want to sell flagships – big, tentpole phones that lend themselves to big marketing budgets and fancy commercials. [...] When your only competitor is also ostensibly the most expensive phone on the market, there is little value in highlighting your cheapest models. [...] Now it’s iPhone and everyone else. The cell phone buyer’s market is saturated. Even the upgrade cycles have grown longer. In short, people are holding onto their expensive phones longer or buying wildly cheap ones. There is no middle ground. // PS Biggs is Apple Fan Boy

the picture emerging from those interviews is an ugly one, full of fights and corporate politics. It’s a story about about a failed acquisition, but also about the changing realities of consumer electronics, which are transforming from simple appliances to smart devices at a speed that often leaves big, slow-moving companies at a loss. - Sources told me that LG had a policy in place to reward managers with bonuses or even promotions if their features were part of the final product. The result was a constant feature bloat, as everyone tried to add on one more thing. - "Politics, not the lack of innovative talent, has probably doomed more tech companies than anything." - Feature bloat as a result of ill-conceived corporate policies

[Samsung] is so identified with the government and the progress of Korea that the country is occasionally referred to locally as the Republic of Samsung. So when Samsung repeatedly presented bad news to investors this past year, particularly its results last quarter that showed a drop of 15% of its operating profit — the first drop in three years — there has been something of a slowly boiling panic underway in the country. From talks with people who work at the company, stress levels are off the charts, intensified by the pressure to return previously-paid performance bonuses. My colleague John Biggs has already talked about Samsung’s race to the bottom, but that was before these most recent results. With consumers unwilling to pay top dollar for Samsung’s best smartphones and Chinese manufacturers readying a dizzying array of competitive and inexpensive products, Samsung faces what might be considered an almost overpowering inevitability crisis about its downfall.

Apple knows that competition is catching up faster and faster in terms of design and functionality etc etc. They hired 2 fashion people already (burberry and from LVHM). And to differentiate the brand further (price/status symbol - above middle class) and to keep selling it's Apple Products ... including wearables (Watch & Headphone) they hired those key people or b(r)ought them into the mothership. They could have long ago bought personal cloud storage companies and other stuff to add to its portfolio bla bla bla.... but that 'Software', you can't display - show off - walking around downtown manhatten. Wearables, phones, tablets - you can. ... Apple focuses on their core competencies - software like iTunes is only 2nd class, that is why it still doesn't stream. >> “They want Jimmy and they want Dre,” said the source. “He’s got fashion and culture completely locked up.” ( http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/22/apples-beats-deal-is-happening-and-its-a-dre-acquihire/ ) + !!! v=NP0P2BT0vTc !!!

"The main thing that has caused companies to fail, in my view, is that they missed the future," Page said. This is why Google is going full steam ahead working on a variety of projects.  "When we bought Android, it was small and I felt guilty working on it, but it was smart, it was the future," he said.