iBiquity issues notice about car radios not locking into HD

[FredLeonard]

We were talking about Apple sales, not the OS itself.

Apple invented the category, so any new entrants will take market share. However, as smartphone penetration approaches 100% there is room at the bottom for lower cost low profit manufacturers. Apple is growing its sales in double digit ranges, as it continues to dominate the high end... And high profits.

OK, you're an iGroupie. I get it. The Cult of Jobs. 30 years now that Apple users have acted superior based on their purchase of products that clearly are not. Fru-fru over substance. Talking tech with you people is like talking religion with fundamentalists.

 

[davideduardo]

OK, you're an iGroupie. I get it. The Cult of Jobs. 30 years now that Apple users have acted superior based on their purchase of products that clearly are not. Fru-fru over substance. Talking tech with you people is like talking religion with fundamentalists.

I discuss the relative sales increases of Apple iPhones and the failure to meet projections of Samsung phones, and you conclude that I am an Apple "groupie" of some sorts. Talk about having no evidence and jumping to a conclustion.... Actually, I am a fairly successful investor, and I have multiple paid accounts ranging from Morningstar to Edgar and I have been reading financials and annual reports for 59 years now.

As to platform, I the last time I use Apple devices for anything serious was in about 1979 with an Apple II. I have been a PC "screwdriver mechanic" since IBM PC clones appeared, and previously built S-100 bus devices and even owned an original Altair in 1975. So much for being an Apple groupie.

That said, I often recommend Apple products for people I feel could benefit from the closed hardware environment and OS simplicity of Apple. While the computers will not do many of the things I need them to do, such as run Nielsen apps in native mode, I have actually given several family members MacBook Air computers in the last year... to their delight and my freedom from "help me calls". No one system and no one OS is right for everyone.

 

[tomservo]

OK, you're an iGroupie. I get it. The Cult of Jobs. 30 years now that Apple users have acted superior based on their purchase of products that clearly are not. Fru-fru over substance. Talking tech with you people is like talking religion with fundamentalists.

That is a rather uncalled for attack on him for posting a factual item like that. I know the kind of Apple fanbois you speak of and nothing he said indicated he was anything like that. You're just making Android users look sour, and as avid Android user I take offense to that.

As for the Apple numbers, I think I can actually stand by my earlier statement that sales have flatlined. David's numbers suggest just 6 million new phone sales — globally — which is downright pathetic. And then one story I came across from Q1 said their North American sales were actually down 1%.

Things should start looking up for the company later this year as their agreement to sell the 5C and 5S though China Mobile come to bare fruit, but the North American numbers continue to look dire.

Apple was too late getting into the medium to low end markets and that's where all the growth is, and where Android and Windows Mobile continue to shine. The high end is shy on profit and highly competitive, with flagship devices like the LG G2, HTC M8, Sony Xperia Z2 and Galaxy S 5 eating into the high end market.

 

[davideduardo]

David's numbers suggest just 6 million new phone sales

No, they did not sell 6 million new phones. They sold almost 44 million new phones in the quarter, which was up 6 million from the 38 million they sold in the same quarter of 2013. That's about a 15% improvement from year to year.

And then one story I came across from Q1 said their North American sales were actually down 1%.

Since, historically, Q3 has brought a new line of iPhones, sales slow down in Q2 and only recover in Q3 due to pre-orders. The fact that global Q3 sales were up by double digit percentages is actually a rather significant positive achievement. It's perhaps even more significant since the 2014 models are rumored to have new form factors and screens.

Things should start looking up for the company later this year as their agreement to sell the 5C and 5S though China Mobile come to bare fruit, but the North American numbers continue to look dire.

Smartphones are approaching 75% of the market in the US. Everyone's numbers will slow down, as the replacement of non-smartphones will be nearly complete and people will upgrade less often.

Apple was too late getting into the medium to low end markets and that's where all the growth is, and where Android and Windows Mobile continue to shine.

Windows mobile shines about as much as Pluto.

The low end is price driven and is only profitable on volume. It's the high end where the profits are. THis is no different than the auto industry, where some high MPG models lose money for manufacturers but they keep selling them to meet fleet MPG requirements. In the case of phones, having the entry level models allows more profitable parts of manufacturer lines to get into the big 4. Apple, due to demand, image, heritage and other factors, does not need an ultra-low end phone for the US market. If you look, the two major carriers even have different plans for iPhones than for devices from other suppliers.

 

[diymedia]

iBiquity was formed, via a merger, in 2000, long before the iPhone... a year before the iPod and roughly at the same time that iTunes was introduced, amid a bunch of startups and products that tried to use the letter "i" or "I" to self-identify with the Internet. Serendipity, yes. Collusion, no.

Indeed! Reportedly, one of the initial names considered for HD was "iDAB," but broadcasters backed away from that out of some not-well-articulated fear that Apple would potentially come after them for trademark infringement.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Yeah - they came after my friend Dan Schneider for calling his show "iCarly". To this day he has to make a fake "pear" computer brand to avoid angering them further.

 

[davideduardo]

Indeed! Reportedly, one of the initial names considered for HD was "iDAB," but broadcasters backed away from that out of some not-well-articulated fear that Apple would potentially come after them for trademark infringement.

And, of course, "ibiquitous" is a takeoff on a real word, ubiquity. It's not a word with an "i" in front of it, it's a word whose spelling has been changed for uniqueness.

 

[davideduardo]

And, of course, "ibiquity" is a takeoff on a real word, "ubiquitous". It's not a word with an "i" in front of it, it's a word whose spelling has been changed for uniqueness.

Darn the spell checker... that should read as above, not as posted.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

OK, you're an iGroupie. I get it. The Cult of Jobs. 30 years now that Apple users have acted superior based on their purchase of products that clearly are not. Fru-fru over substance. Talking tech with you people is like talking religion with fundamentalists.

Just try posting anything even remotely critical of Apple over on the Apple iPhone Yahoo group. It isn't even run by Apple, and the cultists over there still jealously protect Apple as it if were some sort of technology god. They have some good engineers over there, but I've found mistakes in their design. Chip on small board in lightning cable being the latest fiasco. Cable after cable failed after being flexed. They are good. But not great. And their engineers are, as yet, incapable of introducing an iWatch when competitors produce watches that mate with phones.

 

[KB1OKL]

Do I have to factor in tower height into that one mile distance? Because most of the stations here that transmit in HD are on 1,500-1,900 foot sticks, and that's darn near half a mile right there.

Dear customer: Yes, as a matter of fact we were going to include a tether rope along with the bricks, er... radios for customers so they wouldn't have to keep eyeballing the tower as they drove around in circles but when we realized the height of the towers involved we had to eliminate the tether as a cost cutting measure. In lieu of that we have included a little booklet on sights and sounds within that 1 mile (optimistic yes) radius so you, dear customer, can be doubly entertained and possibly keep your mind off of the inevitable drop outs you will experience within that radius, after all even though we can fool the customer most of the time we can't fool mother nature! Happy motoring!