[coldstart]

What really bugs me about the Apple, Samsung, Nokia and RIM battle is the media.

(1) The media created a hype about how there are not enough iPhones to go around creating the idea of exclusivity and demand. I went into both an Apple Store (Fairview Mall in Toronto) and a Rogers store (one of the big local phone company in Canada) last week and they both had lots of iPhone 5s in stock, the 16gb, 32gb, etc. in both black and white.

(2) The media constantly portrays that Apple is the innovator and everyone else is the copier. What did Apple innovate?

The first smartphone-- RIM or Palm.
The first smartphone with rounded corners-- RIM or Palm.
The first smart phone with a touchscreen-- Palm.
The first icons on a smart phone-- RIM or Palm.

There were even tablets (with rounded corners) and MP3 players well before Apple. Apple just made them popular and mainstream. I will admit that the iTunes store for music was pretty original and that Apple does a great job and provides a very good and slick product. I also do not know who came out with "rubber banding" first-- maybe Apple.

I do agree that Samsung has innovated little but in patent law Apple should not have rights to that Apple did not invent.

(3) The media stokes the notion that RIM is going bankrupt and one should not buy a Blackberry because they likely will not exist in 6 months or a year. RIM has over $2 billion in cash and no debt. To go bankrupt, you must owe money. RIM will not go bankrupt anytime soon. This is a big fear for consumers and is a self-fulfilling prophecy as people don't buy a company's products because they think a company will go bankrupt, the company will eventually go bankrupt.

(4) Specifically, the Canadian media bashes RIM, a Canadian company, at every chance. The CBC (the government paid media) is especially nasty. For example, today after RIM reported way better than expected earnings, sales, cash on hand, the CBC prints an article entitled "RIM's losses less than expected - Business - CBC News". The Canadian media should be championing RIM like the US media does with Apple, the Korean media does with Samsung, etc.


Yes, I am obsessed with the smartphone wars and like making lists.

Personally, I own: an Apple iPhone 4G, a RIM Playbook, an Apple iPad2, a Samsung LCD TV (and almost bought an S3 phone recently) and a Nokia phone. I think that it is healthy to have lots of choice in the market for innovation and competition to bring diverse and better products to the end consumer.

I also own stock of AAPL (way up), NOK (down) and RIMM (up).