For your safety. Phil Schiller, Apples global marketing chief, doesnt use Twitter much. His last tweet was in December, wishing all a Happy Christmas. But Schiller had something to say this week, encouraging users to be safe out there and pointing them to a Mobile Threat Report by F-Secure Labs that says the rise in popularity of Android OS has led to a rise in Android malware. Googles mobile operating system accounted for 79 percent of mobile threats in 2012. Apples iOS threat share: 0.7 percent. No doubt some will point to Apples closed system approach as being better, since it places a damper on the distribution of malicious apps through the App Store versus the more open marketplace over at Google. You can read the report here.
Apple Loop: Good Stuff, Patent Squabbles, Bait Apps, Oscar Ads and One More Thing
Keeping you in the loop on some of the things happening around Apple this week.
Forbes writers have the ability to call out member comments they find particularly interesting. Called-out comments are highlighted across the Forbes network. Youll be notified if your comment is caliPhoneled out.
Its previously owned, not used. Finished with that digital movie? Done with that e-book? Tired of that iTunes track? Want to resell them? That day may be coming. Apple was awarded a patent on a system that lets users resell their digital goods, according to AppleInsider, which noted that Amazon got a patent on a very similar system just last month. Apples patent describes allowing the rights of that digital content to be passed from one user to another, and it includes provisions for restrictions, such as a certain piece of content may not be resold for a certain period of time. It gets even more interesting, as AppleInsider notes: The content need not reside permanently, or at all, on a users device, meaning the system can be cloud based. Key to the systems operation is ownership history. As the used content is passed from one user to the next, a database is established so that the proper owner is allowed access to the item and can then choose to transfer those rights to yet another party. Transferral of authorized access can be device-to-device through an intermediary like an online store, device-to-device without an intermediary, meaning verification must be established at a later time. In another embodiment, no device-to-device transfer is necessary. The question, iPhone, of course, is whether the digital content creators will go for such a second-hand marketplace. The music industry is already challenging ReDigi, which has a service that lets users sell their pre-owned digital music. No doubt Apple and Amazon are watching that case closely.
E-book drama. Tim Cook may have to testify in the DOJs antitrust case against Apple over e-book pricing (the five publishers cited by the U.S. have already settled.) According to Bloomberg, the U.S. asked a judge to intervene and help settle a discovery dispute with Apple over Cooks deposition. U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan, who is overseeing the case, has set up a call with Apple and the DOJ on March 13On a different front regarding the e-book case, Walter Isaacson, who wrote a best-selling autobiography of Steve Jobs, wont have to turn over his notes, which carry comments by Jobs working with publishers to sell books on the iPad. Isaacson refused to turn over his notes, callingApple Loop iOS Beats Android How the iPhone Was Almost Called the TriPod Help Wanted on a New York law that protects journalists from revealing their sources. While you wont get to read Isaacsons notes, you can find some 2010 emails written by Jobs to the head of HarperCollins and including Eddy Cue, Apples iTunes chief explaining why the publisher might want to throw his lot in with Apple and sell e-books at a higher price than Amazons $9.99. Interesting reading.
The iPhone name game. When Apple introduced the smartphone, the name iPhone seemed like the perfect and obvious choice for a company with other i named products, including the iMac and iPod. But iPhone was just one of several names discussed, says former Apple ad man Ken Segall. Cisco owned the name iPhone and it wasnt a sure thing theyd give it up to Apple. What else did Apple consider? Mobi, a play on the word mobile, TelePod, which combines a futuristic-sounding telephone with the pod from its digital media player, and TriPod, which speaks to the three-devices-in-one mantra that Steve Jobs himself used to describe the (phone, media player and Internet-access device). The name iPad was also considered, which makes sense when you consider that Apple started worked on the tablet before the phone.
The new Ferrari FF will include two iPads as part of its rear-seat entertainment system.
Apple up, Android down. While phones outfitted with Googles Android operating system still account for a larger share of the total U.S. market 52.3 percent Androids share fell 1.3 percent in the three months ended in January, according to data released this week by comScore. The researchers said that Apple sold more iPhones to U.S. consumers than Samsung. Apple had a 37.8 percent share of the U.S. market, and had the biggest gain among the top 5 smartphone vendors after its cut of the market rose 3.5 percent. Samsungs share rose 1.9 percent, giving it a 21.4 percent share. The happy news wasnt enough to inspire Apple investors, unfortunately. The shares closed today at $431.72,new york escort up less than 1 percent from $430.47 a week ago.
Help wanted. A couple of interesting job postings on Apples website. The iOS Communication applications group, an innovative and ambitious team who has played a large role in the iOS a success, is looking for a proactive, highly motivated engineer to help with iOS Car Services. Not surprising, given Apples announcements last year that its working with a bunch of automakers to include its Siri voice-assistant in new cars. Ferrari this week announced that its Ferrari FF (base price $295,000 for the all-wheel drive, four-seat hatchback) will have two iPad Minis installed in the headrests as part of a rear-seat entertainment package, according to Wired. You may remember that Apple iTunes chief Eddy Cue, a Ferrari owner, joined the carmakers board last year.The other job is also not surprising given Apples ongoing struggle to fix its Maps App. The company is looking for cartographers, creative and experienced cartographic professionals with a passion for developing world-class mapping data, products and services for international markets. A graduate degree in geography is required.
Buffett to Einhorn: Pfft! At Apples recent shareholders meeting, CEO Tim Cook didnt have much to say about a proposal by activist investor David Einhorn that the company issue preferred shares as a way to spend some of its growing pile of cash ($137.1 billion and counting). And thats just fine with billionaire Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway, whose advice to Cook on Einhorn: Ignore him. Heres what the Buffett told CNBC this week: I would ignore him. I would run the business in such a manner as to create the most value over the next five or 10 years. You cant run a business to try and run the stock up every dayBerkshire has gone down 50% four times in its history You just keep working on building the value. I heard from people at those time that said why dont you do this or that. Usually, pay a dividend. They think it might go up because of that. It would have gone down actually. We just focused on building value. I think Apples done a pretty good job of building value. They may have too much cash. Now, one reason they have so much cash is two thirds of it has not yet been taxed [because its overseas]. And they dont want to bring it back because they dont want to pay the tax. When Steve [Jobs] called me, it was a few years ago, I said, Is your stock cheap? He said, yes. I said, Do you got more cash than you need? He said, A little bit. I said, Then buy back your stock. But he didnt do it The best thing you can do with a business is run it well, and if you run it well, the stock behaves fine over time.
Ive spent almost my entire career as a journalist covering tech in and around Silicon Valley, meeting entrepreneurs, executives and engineers, watching companies rise and ll (or in the case of Apple, rise, ll and rise again) and attending conbs and conferences. Before joining Forbes in February 2012, I had a very brief stint in corporate communications at HP (on purpose) and worked for more than six years on the tech team at Bloomberg News, where I dived into the financial side of tech. Before that, I was Silicon Valley bureau chief for Interactive Week, a contributor to Wired and Upside, and a reporter and news editor for MacWeek. The first computer game I ever played was Zork, my collection of now-vintage tech T-shirts includes a tie-dye BMUG classic and a HyperCard shirt featuring a dog and fire hydrant. When I can work at home, I settle into the black Herman Miller Aeron chair that I picked up when NeXT closed its doors. You can email me at .
Streaming music service in play. Apple seems to be getting closer to delivering a music streaming service to rival Pandora, based on the increase in volume about the rumored service, already dubbed iRadio by Apple watchers. The chatter started after Reuters reported that CEO Tim Cook and iTunes chief Eddy Cue met last month with Beats CEO Jimmy Iovine to talk about Beats streaming music service, codenamed Project Daisy. Beats, co-founded by hip-hop artist Dr. Dre, said in January they were building the service ibut didnt really provide a lot of details about it. OK. That was interesting, especially since Iovine also said in January he was meeting with Cue soon. A day after the Reuters report, the New York Times said that the service, which will be supported by the iAds advertising platform, might not be up and running until this summer because Apple has run into problems getting publishing rights from one of the music companies Sony/ATV, which owns the EMI publishing catalog.
Our Real-Time Billionaires scoreboard tracks the biggest holdings for 50 of the worlds wealthiest people. See whos up &p>
Missed last weeks Apple Loop? Here you go:
Thats it. Enjoy the weekend.
More legal wrangling. Apple is in hot water after admitting that it didnt provide all the evidence it was supposed to in a privacy suit that accuses the company of collecting data on the whereabouts of iPhone customers, even after the geo-location feature on the smartphone was turned off. The judge in the case, U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal in San Jose, California, says he doesnt believe what the company tells him and that it needs to show how its complying with his order to produce evidence. That came after an Apple lawyer said on March 5 that the company made a mistake in iling to produce e-mails from Steve Jobs and other senior executives. Apple has until March 18 to deliver the e-emails.
