News for Friday, 22 August 2008

According to Apple, the last update of the iPhone firmware 2.0 (version 2.0.2) should have dramatically improved 3G network reception and performance. Indeed, the 3G indicator displays more "bars", but is it directly linked to a better reception/emission, or just a hack to convince users that their iPhone 3G are now more solidly connected to 3G networks?
According to some users, nothing changed, and Apple's statement of improved iPhone 3G performance is just to fool them into believing they are getting better reception. On the other side, some users report that the last update fixes their 3G reception issues...
So where is the truth? In addition, is it a true issue in all countries or mostly in USA where 3G network coverage is still limited compared to Japan or even EU?
It will be hard to identify the truth between, users who were expecting maybe to much from a firmware update, and Apple that does not want to publicly announce that the 3G reception is (still) bugged due to software/hardware issues. However, one should also admit that many users are having great experience with 3G networks with the iPhone 3G, so it might well be due to a poor sensitivity of the 3G chips/antenna.
For sure users experiencing phone’s 3G reception issues, such as dropped calls on the 3G network, weak 3G reception and connectivity and 3G speed declines, would like to get a solution. Of course news networks are prompt to jump on the story and claim that this issue might affect all iPhone 3G while it could be limited to a certain number only, or to a production lot. For sure, releasing a popular device leading to a huge buzz can also be dangerous for Apple as the company will be exposed and will have to react, otherwise its image could suffer much more than the price of couple of hundreds of iPhone 3G units to be exchanged.
To illustrate this, an iPhone 3G user decided to launch a class action lawsuit against Apple, accusing the company of overstating the iPhone 3G speed, and of slower-than-promised data download speeds.

As a proof that Apple's current success is starting to strongly impact Microsoft, the company will launch a 300 million USD advertising campaign designed to repair the damaged public image of its last OS version, Vista. As part of it, there will be anti-Apple ads, aiming to demonstrate Vista's openness and user-friendly design, while criticizing Apple's integrated business model approach, arguing it does not free users, and lock their creativity... By the way, having Jerry Seinfeld is this ads cost 10 million USD to Microsoft... will it be worth it?
Starting from September 4th, we will see what is already known as one of the largest marketing campaigns in Microsoft's history. Will it really have an impact on Vista sale figures? A recent report indicated that about 40% of the consumers purchasing a PC were uninstalling Vista and migrating to XP. Of course, Microsoft can claim it has sold bundled Vista licenses, at the end the pool of computers effectively running on Vista is different in numbers.

If Intel unveiled a lot of details about its future CPU generation, aka Nehalem, and while several samples are already been used for test and evaluation by OEMs, the founder does not plan to launch mass-production and consumer-oriented versions before mid-2009 at the earliest. So, do not wait for any desktop or notebook to be powered by a Nehalem before this period.
Of course, Intel has no reason to push earlier this new CPU as AMD can currently not compete, while NVidia might be in real trouble with the defective GPU issue. So Intel is probably going to slow down CPU revision, getting more cash from current generation models, and keep developing new CPUs and engraving technologies for post-Nehalem era. In addition, Intel might also try to align the released of Larrabee with the Nehalem, and a delay in the first technology might explain why the Nehalem was push back to mid-2009.
Last but not least for Mac users, the Nehalem-based Xeon should be introduced by the end of the year, giving Apple enough time and perfect timing for updating the Mac Pro models.