His company's software isn't in 60%, 70% or 80% of smartphones at the moment. That crown goes to Symbian OS and it will likely stay plonked atop that Symbian bonce for years to come (according to Gartner).

Besides, who could trust a man/monkey who jumps about on stage sweating buckets full of evil juice shouting, "Give it up for me!!!"? Not I, sir.

If the iPhone makes Apple $2.5bn, it's certainly not to be sniffed at.

I have downloaded your iPhone kit and followed the instrcutions carefully, but I can't figure out how to change the time on the display. It seems to be stuck at 9:41. Do you have a downloadable instruction manual?

According to the last quarterly figures I could find (Q3 2005) Windows Mobile shipped on 1,235,130 mobiles. If the overall market is 200+ million then that's only around 0.5%, nowhere near the 60-80% of devices Steve Balmer talks about Windows Mobile commanding.

I really hope Apple doesn't get even one half of a percent of market share. I hate them and their relentless ad campaign against my generation. I wince every time I see their stupid commercials and the idiot college kid portraying the mac.

And no, I don't and will never own an overpriced and underfeatured iPod. I'm perfectly happy with my HTC Apache as both my phone and my mp3 player.

it's probably Appleworks. 8)

A large part of the iPod's success came from the iTunes music store- a revolution in music retail. I bought an iPod in January 2002 (still works fine, thanks!) thinking that they weren't going to take off, and I wanted one before they disappeared. Glad to see I was wrong, but the more I think of it, that disappearing act certainly could have been the reality without the easy access to the iPod's consumables- tracks.

I can't really see the iPhone duplicating the iPod's success until Apple shakes up the airtime sales system and cavalierly informs the network operators of their new pricing scheme. That doesn't strike me is being very likely, but one can hope.

Another idea- much as iTunes had the ability to rip CDs, perhaps the iPhone will (eventually) have the ability to bypass the mobile network operators and gain phone network access via VOIP or similar technology.

Bottom line- the lack of an advanced technology music player wasn't the problem; the lack of a technologically savvy music industry was. The iPod couldn't fix it alone without a dramatic change in the industry as represented by the iTunes music store.

While improvements are always welcome, we don't currently lack technologically advanced handsets. We could all benefit from the iPhone Airtime Bazaar, if you will....

I like Ballmer's comment:

> But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I'd

> prefer to have our software in 60, 70 or 80 per cent of them, than I would to

> have two or three per cent, which is what Apple might get."

Yes, Steve, I'm certain that you would.

Is it just me, or does that sound more like the ambitions of a saboteur?

As for Harris Upham:

> A large part of the iPod's success came from the iTunes music store- a

> revolution in music retail.

This is what we call 'wrong'. A very large majority of people with iPods don't even have accounts on the iTMS, and an even larger majority have bought a total of less than ten tunes. It is a good talking point but it in no way explains anything about the success of the iPod.

It's a shame, because I agree that the iPod's smash success does not necessarily mean that the iPhone will do the same, at least to the same degree. But I think your reasons are claptrap.

-fred

Happy owner of a 4Gb iPod Nano for 1 and a half year, I have never even used iTunes or the store. I'm in Linux anyway... Almost all my tracks were ripped from my CDs. There's a bunch of not so kosher tracks in there, but let's not talk about that... And as far as I know the situation is pretty much the same with my iPod-enabled friends. Many of them running Macs, BTW.

Cheers

J

sony has the technology already . You can use your finger instead of the stylist. Palm tero has a large library of software. Ipod is a mp3 player that's why many people can download the songs from apple and play them on almost anything without conversing them. My stepson does it with his Sony W810i and Iwith my Konka A26M. Application such as net surfing is now on nearly every cellular phone coming out last year. I hope this phones not another Apple Newton...fantastic technology with no market