Liberty

Things can be interesting without being surprising. It's nice confirmation from the market where Android does best. As for pricing, of course that's an issue. It also is for BMW; they certainly do better in markets where you can lease than in markets where you don't have access to credit and have to pay for the whole thing up-front. Is the solution for BMW to make a lower quality $15,000 model? I'm not so sure (maybe they'd sell a lot, but do they really want to compete on price with a zillion other competitors making similar low-quality models, eventually killing their margins? do they want to hurt their brand in the high-end by cheapening it? do they want to spend their engineering and management resources that way?). The population of Asia is very large, and so is income inequality. There are still hundreds of millions of people who can afford the iPhone, and that number will just go up as GDP grows, the credit infrastructure becomes better and contract/subsidy models catch on, etc. I also think Apple will slowly reduce iPhone prices over time (years), as they've done with their computers, but there's no hurry.

http://www.jana.com/blog/smartphone-preference-and-spending-in-emerging-asia/ Table at the end particularly interesting.

One way to interpret this -- can't know if it's right -- is that the problems show the old operating guy's skills, and the fixing shows Yvon's skills. Hoping that's proven right over time.

What?! Did something go better than expected?!

Edit: remove off-topic message as it seems to have killed the conversation about the Schroeder interview. If anyone has anything to say about Asperger's, send me a private message.

http://business.financialpost.com/2013/12/05/apple-inc-china-mobile-iphone/?__lsa=8c0c-048c Yes, no, yes... http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/12/09/china-mobile-to-accept-iphone-orders-this-week/ Guess we'll know for sure soon enough, but despite the recent denials, things seem to be happening. China Mobile and Apple probably just don't want to say anything official before at least pre-orders are available because the media attention is worth more if people can buy the thing.

Asperger's is not a disability, just a different way of seeing the world. I'm pretty sure Buffett wouldn't be where he is today if he wasn't (most probably) an aspie; all these anecdote about him locking himself in a room to read annual reports during parties at his house, etc. Very typical. It comes with pros and cons, and there are ways to overcome many of the problems if you are aware of them (ie. many social skills can be learned with conscious practice - like learning a second language vs. other people learning them as a native tongue). With your scores, I'd definitely look deeper into it. http://www.amazon.ca/The-Complete-Guide-Aspergers-Syndrome/dp/1843106698 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger%27s_syndrome http://www.aspergersyndrome.org/ http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/ei_quiz/ (body language/facial expression recognition quiz, also telling)

I hear he started out as a fetus! ;)

If you want to do a bit of light reading... :) http://www.amazon.ca/The-Complete-Guide-Aspergers-Syndrome/dp/1843106698

For those who suspect they might not be neurotypical, this can give you an idea: http://rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php I won't tell you my score.. :)

Good thing Apple is also a leader in laptops, tablets, and phones, eh? :) At least Apple has healthy margins on the desktops that it does sell... Not sure the same can be said of Dell, Acer, HP, etc. do they break out the margin on desktops? I don't think so, but their desktops are basically the same hardware as their laptops but without quite as much fancy milled aluminum and without retina screens, so the margins should be at least the same if not higher.

Isn't the wash restriction 30 days?

Sanjeev, you truly rock. On so many levels. Keep being the beam of light that you are 8)

That was interesting, though not always the best-written book. For those who want most of the ideas in a different format, there's this great podcast by the Manual of Ideas: http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/315877-the-manual-of-ideas/30189-the-manual-of-ideas-on-business-leader-henry-singleton-founder-of-teledyne-audio

Maybe the Thurso plant is haunted :-\

Never catch a break:

https://developer.apple.com/support/appstore/ iOS 7 now 74% of iOS devices, iOS 6 22%. Impressive adoption rate for a new OS, especially one that was the biggest change in a long time (which could have scared users and made them stay on the old version). 3/4 of users on the last version within a few weeks! Very helpful to developers, both to make better apps (latest technologies and APIs) and to reduce the amount of work and headaches related to supporting old versions forever.

Thanks, nice mellow interview.

:'(

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-05/time-warner-cable-s-incoming-ceo-ready-to-sell-if-price-is-right.html Bit more color here. He sure seems willing to do a deal.

Thanks! What it tells us is interesting, but it's not quite what some people will think at first.. Not everybody has the same income in these countries, so you end up with something like this: http://stratechery.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/image-9-600x450.jpg

Good thing Apple is also a leader in laptops, tablets, and phones, eh? :) At least Apple has healthy margins on the desktops that it does sell... Not sure the same can be said of Dell, Acer, HP, etc.

How do you like it?

I was reading something interesting about that recently; many chinese will make the jump from EDGE to LTE rather than from 3G to LTE. That's a huge jump that will make smartphones like the iPhone much more desirable. I think there are already 45 million iPhones on China Mobile despite them not selling it, but these are stuck at pre-3G speeds. Imagine how much better the experience will be when LTE arrives!

Thanks, I'm adding it to the (long) list! :)