Alexander Chalkidis

Blog

  • Greatest of All Time: the fun game for everyone

    Greatest of All Time: the fun game for everyone

    Moving the goalposts is an excellent phrase. Religions have got away with it for centuries. And in sport, when discussing who is the greatest player of all time is how the rest of us indulge. So taking basketball as an example, and the common “LeBron James vs Michael Jordan” debate, here are a few goalposts for you to use next time you play with someone:

    1. “Basketball was different back then”. True. Also irrelevant. Unless you are trying to prove a point regarding some particular statistic, in which case it is so self evident that it is pointless. 0-0
    2. “Jordan/LeBron had a better supporting cast”. LeBron changed many teams and built up different teams. Some use that against him with the “superteam” argument, most admit that the 2016 Cavaliers championship was one of the greatest upsets in the history of sports. In any case you have to give LeBron points for flexibility if nothing else. 0-1
    3. “Republicans buy sneakers too”. It doesnt matter whether Jordan actually said that or not, the fact is that he never had the audacity to take on politically divisive issues like LeBron. Nowhere close. Even if you despise him as an athlete you have to bow in respect for what he dares outside the court. 0-2
    4. It has also been well argued that the way that Michael Jordan was used as a token African-American athlete was in fact a form of white-washing that he was happy to go along with. LeBron on the other hand is always on the cutting edge of race relations, not letting anything slip by in terms of popular culture. 0-3
    5. “Even Michael Jordan, with his gambling habit and ultra-competitive, combustible personality, could only live up to the image when certain of his traits were ignored.” (Bleacher report article) In this age of social media it is pretty clear that Jordan wouldn’t have lasted five minutes. Too many dead bodies in the closet at a time when the NBA was happy to be more like Disneyland. 0-4 (Jordan was super lucky to get away with all he did)
    6. Philanthropy is an excellent example of their differences. LeBron from his early days was constantly making large and meaningful contributions to society, cullminating with his truly groundbreaking educational system which is being copied around the world. Jordan only recently started some minor give aways. 0- 5

    5-0 to LeBron and you can only really counter possibly in point No2 regarding the supporting cast. Which is partly why I haven’t even included backetball statistic type arguments. Some sneaky sportscasters simply wait for any LeBron average to come down below Jordan’s to make a big fuss. That is not how it works. At the equivelant number of games LeBron is still ahead in a number of meaningful statistics and/or it is too close to call.

    What is clear is that LeBron is a better rounded player, succesful in a number of roles with more rebounds, more assists and more of well everything that Jordan never bothered doing. Saying that Jordan was GOAT because he is higher up in one or another stat is like saying that Senna was the greatest F1 driver because he did really well in the rain.

    Many LeBron haters try to downplay his statistics by saying he simply stuck at the game longer. Which is an easy (and important) 6-0 in this scoring system. LeBron is central to the NBA and world basketball for more years in an active and energetic way. More than anyone else. Even as the NBA actively tries to build up more superstars in these past years as a central marketing strategy, LeBron manages to remain not only relevant, but a key part of every re-invention the league thinks of. Michael Jordan was crucial to the NBA at a particular point in time, helping it reach new audiences. LeBron has been doing exactly the same thing , spanning multiple eras. And for longer.

    And that is the easiest definition of a G.O.A.T. anyway you look at it.

  • No, I’m not burning alive: What you need to know about Greek wildfires

    No, I’m not burning alive: What you need to know about Greek wildfires

    1. We have a lot of forest. Since the second world war Greece’s forest coverage has increased. I remember the first time I went walking in England with an Ordnance Survey map how shocked I was that every single tree was on the map. This would be impossible in Greece, we have a lot of wild forests, vast forests even near big cities like Athens.
    2. People and property are (thankfully) rarely truly in danger. Sure, in Mati a few years ago, a unique combination of inept politicians and other issues caused a tragedy. But in general, even though fires go near houses, they rarely burn them. Partly because in Greece we build earthquake resistant houses with cement, not wooden toy houses like in America.
    3. Fires are started by either the power company (pylons in forested areas badly maintained causing sparks), people burning old fields or spare material and cigarettes which are often thrown out of cars awaiting the right heat and wind combination. There has been very limited and not really convincing evidence of foreign powers or other conspiracies.
    4. Greece has awesome firefighting capabilities. If you could see the recent fire that came within 500meters of my home you would be impressed. Watching the scene from above I almost pitied the fire, it was like a scene from a film with a constant stream of firefighting helicopters, airplanes and drones attacking it. Targeted shots right on whatever little flame dared appear. It never had a chance. Also importantly the coordination of these vehicles and land firefighters is much improved recently.
    5. The media always hypes things up. They will do anything for an impressive shot. Go to an abandoned warehouse in the middle of nowhere and title it “houses burning” or find an old car someone left in the forest to say that “property destroyed”. Anything you see on the news…cut it by half at least. Also combine it with increased risk aversion on the part of government officials, the “better safe than sorry” approach which I guess is justified. We get evacuation messages even if there is very very little danger.
    6. Yes, this is global warming. Of course it is. Erratic rains late in the summer ensure a lush undergrowth and then extreme heat turns it into tinder. Get to Greece on holiday as soon as possible, last chance to see before it gets turned into one big desert. Unless we all think of something clever (and DO something) we have maybe 10-20 years of it still being the paradise that it is.
    Me and the media. They are looking for a dramatic shot and I am looking for trouble trying to persuade them to be more accurate in their reports
  • Apple would have never made a vaccine even if it could

    Apple would have never made a vaccine even if it could

    Look at the market share. Globally Android has 73% of the mobile operating market and iOS 26%. But in Africa it is more like 83% vs 14%. Only in North America is Apple ahead. And this has repercussions which I am amazed the rest of the world puts up with.

    Unlike Google that tries to build products for humans all over the world, Apple is simply catering to its locals. It’s not just the languages it doesn’t bother including. It’s entire distribution and support is focused on the US, UK, France and a few other countries. That’s it. Apple has always acted – and still acts – as if it is a little Callifornian company that made it big. In America. And it doesn’t care about anyone else. The rest of the world can adapt to the products.

    Is it working? Sure. The profits speak for themselves. Is it good for customers? Only if you are American. Here in Greece where I live, if you have a Mac computer you are the proud third minority after Windows (84%) and Linux (9%) as Apple only has 3% market share. Good luck getting any sort of support for your product, most Mac owners struggle to find a friend that knows what they can do about any issue. And they end up paying through the nose for good tech to help them out.

    Globally OS X commands just 15% market share, even in the United States all those iPhone users aren’t buying as they total just 28% compared to 62% Windows users and even Chromebooks are making an attack and becoming popular. Yet somehow Apple isn’t irrelevant. Is it through innovation? Heck no! I would disregard their recent relative success with their own chipsets, it is a short lived fluke much like all those years when they were going to “burn Pentiums to the ground”. M1 is a party trick that fools only Apple die hards. No IT manager is falling for it because we all know Apple never sticks to anything long term. It is a marketing company, not a tech pioneer.

    Is it important? I would say that it is a problem we need to take care of. It skews the market in a big way. A bad way. There are plenty exciting technologies that get shelved behind all the media focus on Apple adding a new button to its iPhone or something equally stupid as that in Apple’s constant efforts to copy Android whilst making it look like it thought of something up on its own.

    So is Google better? Hell yeah! While Apple spends ages dreaming up of new ways to get their phones to use a different dongle that costs 80 dollars for no good reason, Google is out there making products for the entire planet. Saving lost languages. Making useful products we all use everyday like Search, Maps, YouTube and so many more applications of its advanced Artificial Intelligence that actually helps the planet. They are giving away protein databases to scientists and the infrastructure on which so much of the modern world progresses on.

    Google is global, Apple is American.

    And there is nothing wrong with being American. As long as they don’t try and sell their extremely limited in purpose and use case products to the rest of the world. In fact the way Apple refuses to follow international standards and constantly blackmails developers into their walled garden is costing the world economy every day. We live in a globalized world. Amazing collaboration such as what we witnessed recently with the COVID-19 pandemic can only be achieved though open standards and transparency.

    If Apple was into pharmaceutical vaccine and developed a vaccine, it would be ten times the price of competitors, incompatible with anything else, they would not reveal their research results and would expect everyone to pay every year for an update. So why are you letting them control the devices you use every day?

  • The Greek Freak is killing the NBA: how a wonderful person is in conflict with an organization’s core values and audience expectations

    The Greek Freak is killing the NBA: how a wonderful person is in conflict with an organization’s core values and audience expectations

    “…so ….efficient!”  The sportscaster was struggling to find the right words after the Bucks won the championship.  Giannis Antetokounmpo had some pretty impressive stats.  But other than a few blocks was he spectacular?  No, of course not.  He never is.  Despite his unique physical gifts, the man can’t even make a cool dunk.  Unless you are Greek or a Bucks fan, the game he plays is boring.  It is…European.  As an NBA fan I am disappointed.  I think Adam Silver is worried.  This game can not just be about winning and…efficiency.  

    Everyone goes on and on about how Giannis worked hard and made it through adversity.  Rightly so, it is an amazing true story and he is an awesome human being.  But I didn’t sign up for a subscription to Reader’s Digest.  I want my NBA back.  The one with the show above all, the one where players focus on giving the crowd something unique to watch.  Other than a few blocks, the Greak Freak is no freak at all.  He is boring as hell.   Ten years from now they will struggle to find anything to put in a show reel from his highlights.

    Is it important?   It is to me and it is to many of the NBA’s target demographics.  We want stars that are stars, not “amazing hard working people”.  I could go to a factory floor and watch that if I wanted to.  Antetokounmpo is an anti star.  He doesn’t hang out with other NBA players, he doesn’t train with them, he doesn’t know how to make an inspiring speech or even a fun meme.   Already in the United States, rich white parents take their kids to soccer, not basketball. Giannis may be black, but he plays like a boring white person who wins through being gifted and working hard. Admirable. Not NBA though. It will make the rift even bigger.

    In a strange way it is similar to the election of Obama.  Despite the rhetoric, a simmering racism ensured that in the next elections Donald Trump won.  There were many more racists annoyed at Obama’s presidency than could publicly vent during his tenure.  Something similar is happening now with NBA fans.  Giannis doesn’t feature in rap songs because well, he is boring, he is an anti star, he does nothing like all the true NBA stars that built the league.  True NBA fans are sad today.  We are simmering with rage.  We are not racist of course.  But we hate “efficient”, boring players like Antetokounmpo.   When Kevin Durant slogs it out alone in Game7 it is epic. He generates stories, this is what the NBA is about. Giannis has one story, always the same story as his game does nothing to add to it, it is awesome, the boy that sold trinkets at traffic lights who went to the NBA. Fantastic. Let’s make it a movie. For DISNEY, not for the NBA.

    I am Greek.  Everyone here is ecstatic.  I am sad they missed the whole point of what makes the NBA special.  He was lucky to get a ring, now just watch as he fails spectacularly to even make it past the 1st or 2nd round in the playoffs the next years. Giannis Antetokounmpo should move to a European team as soon as possible and leave our league as we like it.

  • The case for a pyjama phone

    The case for a pyjama phone

    Maybe you will call it something else in the future. But I know you need it. I have used a pyjama phone from the first time I swapped up my mobile phone. That previous model seemed fine up until yesterday, it did the same stuff more or less, maybe a bit slower.

    1. Are you worried about your battery? You haven’t decided if it should stay on the charger all night or not, maybe you want it to stop at 80% charge, whatever you like. Get home, switch off your main phone and plug it in to exactly the level you think best. In the meantime….
    2. …relax. Your pyjama phone has only the apps you need at home. Only what you choose to use, the rest can wait. It has to wait, you haven’t even installed it. Instant recallibration.
    3. Take a load of your main phone. A whole lot of apps are only useful when you are home. Why carry them around all day and weigh down your main phone (and your brain) with them? Numerous chat apps or social media I only have on my pyjama phone. If you message me on Viber I won’t see it until I get home. TikTok is not something I need to be seeing all day.
    4. Test and play with stuff you aren’t sure about. That app you read about (on your pyjama phone at night, on that news app you wouldn’t install on your main phone) and are curious? Just try it out.

    There are a lot of uses for a pyjama phone. But the main objective is to create a “safe place”, a calm place, you are not going to switch off all phones completely like they say you should, so at least have a phone which is automatically set up to be closer to whatever you want to feel like doing at home.

  • You are all wrong about Google. 2-5 years wrong.

    You are all wrong about Google. 2-5 years wrong.

    It is fascinating to watch the media, analysts or financial whiz kids try to explain how and why Google does anything. How they enjoy the “failures” or run through the “threats” to the company. “Google just can’t seem to get it together in messaging apps” writes one guru. “Privacy issues could damage its advertising revenue” another. “Pixel phones never got market share” proclaims a title.

    How little they know.

    The only way to explain how Google does business is to imagine you are a two year old child. And Google is the adult. Not even any adult, a really smart and fit adult. Say you are playing catching and throwing a ball. You can hardly manage it, the ball falls out of your hands, you fall over trying to run to it. And Google will pretend to be at the same level of incompetence as you are for a while just to keep you happy.

    We get glimpses of this at times. But Google is a pretty smart adult and doesn’t rush into giving things away. When pressed by the stockmarket or developments it releases something that wows us. Or something to distract attention. Take Apple’s privacy war for example. First move was the Pixel 3a. Easy. Destroy Apple’s margin by bringing the whole smartphone market to a much lower average price point. But Apple insisted. No problem. Google doesn’t need old fashioned methods of tracking users. Just burn the whole thing. Google has tools to track which are far more advanced. Much like the stupid European GDPR fuss, Google will always come out on top. It now announced it is reducing its cut of Play Store app and digital goods sales from 30% to 15% for the first $1 million of revenue a creator earns each year. Big deal! That will be around 600 million of just 1.6 billion in revenue a year. Drop in the pond. Whatever keeps the kids happy.

    Because it is only pretending to be dumb when playing catch with you.

    I reckon Google is 2-5 years ahead of most of its competitors in most important fields of whatever it does. And even if it isn’t, it can make up for it with other tools or knowledge to the same end. It is just carefully cherry picking so that we don’t all figure it out. Elon Musk is a brash three year old in comparison. He makes a big fuss about buying into cryptocurrencies. Google founders made moves in the same field long ago quietly. Because with the amount of data and the AI they have, they know things a long long time before anyone else.

    So when online booking for hotels was announced recently, free for all, and retail shopping….soon free for the whole planet, well you see where it is going. Google decides when and how to release tools that can totally dominate. Don’t mess with the adult or they will get out the adult tools.

    Feel free to drop the ball now.

  • How many people have cheated their way to the vaccine?

    How many people have cheated their way to the vaccine?

    The answer to this question is much more complicated than it seems. In fact despite its dreadful toll in human lives and economies, the pandemic is a wonderful opportunity to see societies, governments and well, all organized systems in our world, tested.

    Capitalism or globalization or whatever you want to call it was already in trouble before all of this. Demonized and blamed for all sorts of problems. But if it was all about money, rich people all over the world would just buy a vaccine, wouldn’t they? We all have a sneaking suspicion many of them have, but then what about…

    … the rule of law? Because sure, you could get your hands on a couple of doses but then how would you do the paperwork? I am pretty sure that in Greece thousands of people have been vaccinated much earlier than they had the right to. They jumped the line by using political connections even though they are 40 or 50 years old. This should be impossible because of…

    …transparency and digital accountability. It is after all a most valuable item, every dose of vaccine should be on a computer system and accounted for. But it isn’t. Nobody wants the bad press that would accompany news that 1000 doses expired unused due to a mistake and in very few countries do governments allow their citizens access to such data.

    Social cohesion has been tested in these conditions. You can bad mouth Sweden all you like about the way they handled the pandemic, but you have to admire them in this respect. Depending where you live you have a very different approach to what you consider “normal” in terms of somebody jumping the line to get vaccinated before you. In Greece we consider it almost normal but…

    …group country behavior was spectacular. The European Union flexed its muscles to protect its members. It seemed a wonderful move which would protect smaller countries. It backfired. Other, small countries in the region did better. But like with masks and PPE, the gloves came off when it mattered, global cooperation went out the window when it mattered. So efforts like the…

    …green passport are in great danger of proving to be a joke. If I live in a country where I can get vaccinated just because I know a politician or a journalist, of course they can also produce any fake document or assurance with any dates they like afterwards. It will only work within countries, for their own use, like they did in Israel.

    So I don’t know exactly how many Greeks cheated their way into getting the COVID-19 vaccination before me. I am pretty sure it is several thousand. But I am even more sure we will never find out. If you live in a country which inspires more certainty you are lucky.

    Hopefully this pandemic will teach us all the value of institutions we can trust.

  • Who gives a sh*t management advice

    Who gives a sh*t management advice

    It is now almost a week without power, thankfully water is back on.  As usual on TV and social media everyone is playing the blame game.  And you know you can’t win.  As different types of information flies around, the complexity is overwhelming and usually nothing changes.  In any organization, family or simple task where a group of homo sapiens must collaborate and share the workload , things get complicated.

    WHO GIVES A SH*T?  I often get the urge to shout it in business meetings.  Now let me take my example here in the cold while I watch my freezer contents melt to try and dissect how nobody gave a SH*T and we ended up like this.  In fact I think this will become a huge management guru type moment, if we survive please invite me as a motivational speaker to come and explain how it will solve all your organization’s problems.

    Ι live in a rich suburb of Athens, a European capital, the year 2021.  It is in fact probabl;y in the top 10 richest areas in Greece, a beautiful residential area full of trees.  Pine trees.  Why pine trees?

    1. NOBODY GAVE A SH*T as our environment was degraded from beautiful indigenous species, to pine trees.  They act like cockroaches, incredibly sturdy and adaptable.  After every forest fire that wiped out biodiversity pine trees appeared first.  Most people were just happy to see anything green grow.  Unfortunately pine trees are not well adapted to snow fall.  So they break easily.  And when they fall, they take with them the power lines.

    Now it gets complicated.  An American would say “buy yourself a chainsaw and clear that damn tree yourself!”  If we lived in frontierland and were all physically able and strong enough, maybe it would be an option.  As a kid I remember many a Saturday with my siblings and father clearing trees either for the fireplace or for safety.  Taller trees were a bit tricky, thankfully we had no major accidents.  Then the local authorities decided that they should tackle trees near power lines.  It made sense.  Then they stopped doing it.  We called and reported danger spots, they said they had done all they could.

    1. NOBODY GAVE A SH*T as these requests piled up.  The local authorities made their own interpretation of a recent legal change to power distribution and decided it wasn’t their job.  They acted as if they had no right to interfere while they clearly had both a right and an obligation to deal with those danger spots.

    So it snowed and the trees broke and power supply was disrupted. Elderly people in my area were left with no heating, no telephone, no power, stuck in roads with no access, buried under heavy snowfall and blocked by fallen trees.  How did all the guilty parties react?  The local authority applied to put us in a state of emergency.  Great, that takes the responsibility out of their hands.  Pass the hot potato, why not?  So they announce that the Army, Fire Dept and every other special unit is coming to save us.   Government acted like they have solved the problem.  And…nothing.  Six days into the problem and nobody has knocked on doors to check if the people in the houses are alive.  Single parents with kids huddled around fireplaces burning furniture, desperate but unable to brave the cold or leave the kids alone while they go for help.

    1. NOBODY GAVE A SH*T.  You imagine the control center of a special unit in a tent and some commander shouting out orders.  You imagined wrong.  That “can do” attitude, you know when the boss says “I don’t care HOW you do it, just GET IT DONE!”  That is the “who gives a sh*t” moment when boss shows he gives a sh*t.  That is what makes a boss.

    I could continue breaking down the thousands of people that didn’t give a damn, a hoot or a sh*t but my netbook battery won’t last forever.  Please.  Be part of the solution.  It is a lovely sunny day here in Dionysos, Greece, but around 5pm it starts getting cold and by 7pm it is freezing with no power.

    Be a leader.  Be a doer.  

    Give a sh*t.

  • Big Tech saves lives – 911 calls need to change

    Big Tech saves lives – 911 calls need to change

    If and when you are psychologically up to it, listen to some 911 calls. It is not just good indirect experience in case you are ever in a desperate situation but also heart warming to know that so many ordinary people can turn into super heroes when the need arises.

    It is also absolutely infuriating.

    As a person that always looks for the optimal solution to problems, I often find myself wanting to scream at either the caller or the operator. 911 (or 112 if you are in Europe, or other numbers in other countries) is an amazing feat of collaboration and government actually managing to do something useful which generally works well. The history of getting different carriers to maintain an emergency service is fascinating.

    But it is far from enough.

    In the recent pandemic we initially all discussed contact tracing. Apple and Google silently yet amazingly, produced a way to use our smart phones. They got little credit for it mainly because they are so afraid of the privacy backlash. But maybe emergency calls is a way for us all to reap the benefits of this work in the long term.

    Have you ever dialed in an emergency? Here’s what happens. Regardless of whether or not you have paid your bill, or even if you are near a cell tower of the company you buy service from, your route gets patched through to a central service. (In the U.S. it is a bit more complicated due to different State laws and histories with telcos.) Your phone sends your location to the person picking up your call to save everyone time.

    So why just location? Your phone battery levels might be useful for emergency services to know. But what would be really great would be access to your cameras. Oh, you are worried they might abuse it? Well listen to the lady that drowned in her car because 911 didn’t believe it was filling up with water. In fact why stop at your cameras, based on location in case of emergency, 911 should be able to ask bystanders’ smartphone cameras to switch on. You get an emergency notification and accept if you want. It would help in a lot of situations. All available data from smart phone sensors of the person calling 911 as well as people nearby could save a lot of lives and energy.

    One of the biggest problems with 911 calls is pranksters. Again, there are tech solutions. Because if the call also send a log of recent activity, emergency services could much more quickly and reliably assess if you are serious or a ten year old playing a bad joke. It could be with your approval, a message on your phone saying “we need to access your internet history and app usage to make sure your emergency call is valid”. If my kid was in danger or my car is half fallen down a cliff I am pretty sure I won’t mind them seeing whatever else I did today to prove I am serious.

    In the early days of the internet, I had suggested public use of banners on websites for announcements that are important to society. It would a kind of online ad tax to help find missing children or spread awareness for important topics which don’t get enough funding for communication. Maybe 911 calls can start something which brings back the concept of public dogoodery in a new way again.

  • No serious user (let alone a company) should trust Apple silicon, here’s why

    No serious user (let alone a company) should trust Apple silicon, here’s why

    Let me explain how the tech world works for Intel.  It isn’t that they made “a wrong decision” or “were late embracing new materials” or whatever journalists wrote recently under the influence of the Apple marketing machine.  Sure, we all would have loved a David and Goliath story, or something truly exciting and revolutionary in the processor world.

    But it doesn’t work like that.

    The tech world has suffered too much from “move fast and break things”.  Apple’s M1 chip is a typical example of just that.  They botched a way to make it sort of work well enough on some applications.  Including Intel memory ordering or dedicating cache to Javascript however won’t cut it when you are making a serious buying decision.  It hardly makes it for a private user if you think about it.  I outlaid some of my objections here in a way that anyone that has seen Apple operate before should understand and believe.

    There is a reason the planet does not run on Apple machines.  And it was never about price.  Apple simply hasn’t got the people, resources or will power to collaborate on the global scale that Intel does.  Most people don’t even see this work.  While Apple toys with its users by changing power adaptors or connectors, Intel has people on committees making sure that the new USB will work on 90 percent of the planet’s computers.  Not work “sometimes”, not “work pretty well”, it has to work exactly as expected every time.  Apple can shoot off variations of Bluetooth of its own.  Their iPhone users will put up with it.  Intel can’t and won’t.  From space exploration to bank infrastructure, our planet relies on technological solutions that  have been developed through long term collaboration.  And that is never, ever from Apple.

    Serious tech companies work with other serious tech companies to ensure that everything works.  I remember putting my ten year old IBM laptop next to a fully loaded Mac G4, both had been bought around the same time.  My PC ran everything perfectly, even MS DOS software written decades ago.  The Mac was practically useless.  Microsoft and Intel are boring.  Yeah, sure.  If you consider reliably working boring.  They don’t just announce that 64bit is the future and throw a switch.  They find ways to communicate with tens of thousands of other companies.  Through trade shows, committees, working groups and a million other ways.  There are many candidate technologies.  Most fail.  Somehow we need  to make sure that the ones that really fit best are the ones that are supported.  Yes of course, that delays implementation.  And so it should.

    Sure, if you have a very small investment recoup window and a very specific task in hand that justifies an M1 laptop, go ahead.  If only you depend on the acquisition, play with it all you like.  But if you need to bet your life, company or future on the silicon you are about to buy, Apple is definitely not the company to trust.

    Apple was, is and will remain a fringe player.  Don’t be fooled by the hype.  They may make loads of money but it is from their lifestyle products, not their RnD.   We all know the ARM moves were through acquisition, nothing internal. Apple doesn’t innovate technologically but in marketing.  They bought a chip company and used them for this gimmick now like they have done with many other companies over the years.  Look again at the numbers.  Whether it is iOS or personal computing, they never get a big piece of the pie.  They don’t want to.  They can’t handle it.  The company recently paid a fine for batterygate and laughed at the amount it came to in total.  But that is only because their user base is so small.  90percent of the planet doesn’t care, we don’t use Apple devices and never will.