TheMacAdvocate

Microsoft’s retail stores: derivative doesn’t begin to describe it.

Pity poor Microsoft.  Coming off the heels of Apple’s record-setting quarter, Redmond…well… Got absolutely annihilated. Microsoft whiffed on analysts’ predictions to the tune of one and a quarter billion dollars.  The traditional sinks – online services and the Entertainment and Devices group (Xbox 360, Zune and mobile phone software) – continued their crimson streak in [...]

So AAPL crushed the Street estimates yet again (yawn) and analysts, always quick to hop on a good thing once it’s happened, are bullish on the company for Q3.  Oddly, Apple’s third-quarter guidance of 34 percent gross margin and $1.18 – $1.23 in earnings per share was uncharacteristically optimistic, leaving analysts wondering whether Cupertino was [...]

It’s time for Apple to report on earnings yet again‚ kiddies.  And the tech analyst keystone cop routine continues.  The beat’s worst weatherman is continuing the “yeah‚ but” style of analysis they teach at Harvard.  The consensus from the Street has Apple reporting earnings at $1.16 per share and 10% YOY growth. Pffffffft. Apple will [...]

Because Ars Technica has an Apple section‚ I guess they have to have one for Microsoft too.  I find a good chuckle there most days‚ though I imagine the humor is unintentional.  Like this gem recounting how “a lawyer from Apple” allegedly called Microsoft to beg them to stop running their “Shitbox Laptop Hunters” ads. [...]

Microsoft’s Kurtzian descent into madness continues, according to my favorite purveyor of comic relief Mary Jo Foley.  Apparently, M$’s bluster about a retail presence, which I had chalked up to an episode of missed medication in the marketing department, is going to happen this fall, including “scenarios where we have stores in proximity to Apple.” [...]

When you turned 1‚ you were still being spoon-fed your food and crapping in your pants.  After the App Store’s first year‚ Apple has taken a lousy paradigm and transformed it into a marketplace that is spoon-feeding competitors’ efforts their asses and…well…I think they’ve moved past the “crapping pants” phase. Happy birthday‚ App Store.  Keep [...]

Everyone’s favorite Microshill Mary-Jo Foley continues to build her case for a Microsoft entry into the mobile phone hardware business: Project Pink. Not to be confused with a fundraiser for breast cancer‚ the interface for the Project Pink phone is supposedly being designed by the Danger‚ Inc. folks that M$ picked up via acquisition last [...]

One of the recurring themes here at TMA is that most tech writing on the Tubes today sucks.  Badly.  The 2 major shitty writing contingents are: analysts who don’t know their industry and bloggers pretending to be industry insiders who don’t know their industry. Present company excluded‚ of course. One of the most telltale signs [...]