Bryan Chaffin

BusinessWeek’s Alex Salkever says the jury is out on Apple’s retail store effort. This is partially in response to many in the Mac community gloating over Gateway’s decision to shut down its remaining 188 retail stores. Mr. Salkever says that not only should we not be so quick to judgement, but that Apple’s market share…

We reported earlier today that Gateway will be shuttering its fleet of retail stores on April 9th. The real question for Apple watchers, of course, is how does this reflect on Apple’s own retail stores. After all, when Apple first announced its stores, the immediate comparison from many, especially the doomsayers, was to Gateway’s stores.…

Matt Loney of ZDNet’s UK offices has penned an interesting editorial on the patent application we reported (in a scoop) last week. Mr. Loney questions whether or not Apple truly has anything original that it can properly patent, and he uses an old tit-for-tat story involving Microsoft, General Motors, and Apple to help illustrate his…

Mac users tend to love their iPod minis, but what about Windows users? Forbes is addressing this question with an article looking at the iPod mini and its interaction with Windows. The article looks at the iTunes software, the iPod mini and its accessories, and more. From Forbes: Apple Computer’s iPod mini looks as if…

SxSW was originally a venue for independent artists and film makers to showcase their talents. Long ago, it became dominated by major labels, big Hollywood stars, and other powerful interests in the entertainment industry keen on using the event to promote their latest ventures. Perhaps the most fitting example of this is the fact that…

Watch out Apple, here comes Microsoft. CNN is reporting that Microsoft is preparing an "iPod Killer" to be released later this year. These units will be larger and heavier than the iPod, but will have a larger, color screen and play videos and display photos, in addition to playing back MP3 and WMA files. From…

E-Commerce Times has published an interesting interview with Apple VP Ron Okamoto by Robyn Weisman (note that Ms. Weisman also does freelance writing for TMO). Mr. Okamoto is in charge of developer relations at Apple, and the interview focuses on Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC). According to Mr. Okamoto, Apple is seeing more cross-platform…

A little more than a year ago, I wrote a column explaining why it would not make economic sense for Apple to port OS X to x86. This column took the form of an imaginary conversation with a PC Drone that was loosely based on the many arguments I have personally encountered on this subject.…

When running a race, one strategy is to get out front early and maintain your lead. If you are strong enough to stay ahead of the pack, you don’t have to worry about finding elbow room, or saving that little bit of reserve energy for the final sprint near the end; you just cruise and…

Apple is to Steve Jobs as Microsoft is to Bill Gates as Oracle is to Larry Ellison as Dell is to, well, Dell. All of those companies run with the blood of their founders, and are reflections of their boss. While Apple tried to get rid of Steve Jobs, and paid a big price for…

AllAfrican.com has an interesting report on Apple’s efforts to gain market share in South Africa. The media outlet says while Apple’s market share in the struggling economy of South Africa is at 2%, the company owns some 80% of the graphic design industry. From AllAfrica.com: Ten years after re-entering the South African market, Apple still…

C|Net is reporting that Motorola has introduced slightly faster G4 processors that should run cool enough for a laptop. This could allow Apple to release faster PowerBooks, but the processors clock in at only 1.42 GHz, 70 MHz faster than the 1.33 GHz processors currently offered in Apple’s top of the line 17″ PowerBook, and…

Elite Computers shut its doors last April, a victim, according to the company, of Apple’s unfair treatment to its resellers. A lawsuit from Elite’s Thomas Armes and MacAdam’s Tom Santos followed soon, with both retailers claiming that Apple was systematically and unfairly putting them out of business in order to make way for the company’s…