The Online Magazine Focused on App Design, Branding & Marketing

You’d think that Apple and Samsung would eventually just get tired of beating the stuffing out of each other on a daily basis, but nah, these two are pretty much mortal enemies locked in a death grip while tumbling off a cliff at this point. Even if one of them does “win,” it’s going to emerge battered and broken and unable to compete. I’ve long been of the opinion that the ongoing legal and patent war between the two companies is absolutely toxic for the mobile industry and is stifling innovation all over the place, but it genuinely feels like it’s worse than ever. It’s been too long since we’ve been genuinely blown over by a new device (although Google Glass may change that) and I place the blame squarely at the feet of these two dueling giants.

But what both companies have gotten especially good at is cultivating their respective images, images so powerful that’ll be hard to knock them off their pedestal even if (or when) something truly superior shows up.

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We’ve been hearing about the possibility of an iWatch since the Golden Age of Steve Jobs, but there’s never been any hard evidence that such a thing was actually being seriously considered. In many ways, it feels like the natural evolution of mobile technology (your apps will always be readily available on your wrist!), but at the same time, it seems really, really dumb (I imagine people talking into the watches like a junior spy in a ’70s children’s cartoon and I giggle a little). But now, for better or for worse, we now have our first piece of hard evidence that the Apple folks are working on iWatch: they’ve filed a patent for a “Bi-stable spring with flexible display.”

In English: a slap bracelet with a touch screen.

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Although the iPhone continues the be the public face of the mobile community (so much so that you’re grandparents probably call your Android an “iPhone” in the same way that they call your PlayStation a “Nintendo”), it would be foolish to say that they dominate the smartphone market. Because they don’t. In fact, it’s not even close. In terms of sheer numbers, Android is the easy king of mobile devices.

Since Apple VS Android debates generally break down into the technological equivalent of “Mine is bigger than yours!”, let’s do everyone a favor and break it down into numbers.

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Mobile apps have sparked a generation of apprepreneurs eager to make a buck developing the next must-have mobile app. However, as the mobile market matures, a number of journalists have hinted at a coming problem of having too many apps, and warn of consumers’ overall loss of appetite. Indeed, App Overload was Forbes’ #9 prediction for 2012, and more recently a writer for the NY Times Blog asked if we are suffering from mobile app burnout? I tend to agree, though I see what could be a problem as more of an opportunity for creative app developers up for the challenge.

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Mashable recently published an article noting a decrease in orders for iPhone 5 parts, and Apple may have finally reached critical mass. The specific piece of info originally came from the Wall Street Journal, citing “people familiar with the situation.” According to those people, Apple cut its orders for iPhone 5 screens for January-March by roughly half of what Apple originally planned for. Some people disagree with the timing of the news sources, but it brings up some interesting points.

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When the iPad was revealed in 2010, it was treated as a revelation. However, the truth is a little murkier than that. Tablets have been around, in one form or another, for decades, but until Apple made them hip, they were essentially the redheaded stepchildren of the computing world. But the iPad was not Apple’s first brush with the tablet. Let’s jump in a time machine and journey back to 1984, shall we?

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(Welcome to Kyle St. Romain’s regular look at the business and legal side of the app world. While his opinions don’t always reflect those of Rocksauce Studios, you should hear him out…the guy knows his stuff!)

Back in August, Apple was awarded over a billion dollars in its lawsuit against Samsung for willfully copying its patents. Since money is of no object over at Apple (it’s hedge fund, Braeburn, is one of the largest in the world and exists solely to manage all of Apple’s ridiculous amount of cash), Apple wanted the court to go a step further and permanently ban all sales of Samsung’s infringing smartphones (all 26 of them).

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Here at Tapsauce, we’ve had no shortage of things to say about current Apple CEO Tim Cook. Some of us think he’s a an interesting figure with a fascinating plan for his company, some of us think he’s slowly undoing everything that Steve Jobs accomplished and some of us think that he’s somewhere in the middle. No matter what your opinion on Cook is, though, we can all agree on one thing: his decision to bring Mac manufacturing the United States is an incredible and important decision.

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Some hot news in the tech and stock world today has to do with a rogue trader who tried to flip 1.65 million shares of Apple stock on its fourth quarter earnings news. The FBI is charging this trader, whose name will not remain anonymous (David Miller) with one count of wire fraud in connection with his activity.

Miller, who was employed as a broker-dealer at Rochdale Securities, decided to buy Apple stock hoping it would “pop” or go up, after releasing its fourth quarter earnings results. Apple’s stock has risen on 25 of the last 36 earnings releases, so I guess he thought it was a sure bet. Warning: Past results do not guarantee future performance. Making matters worse, which is also the substance of the criminal complaint against him, Miller told his employer the trade was for one of his customers when, in fact, it was for himself.

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Were you hoping to give or receive an iPad Mini this Christmas? If so, you’d better crack the whip on your loved ones to get them hunting right now or rush out and buy one yourself because Apple’s latest tablet is about to be in very, very short supply. To give you an idea of how scarce it’s going to be, look at the numbers: Apple was planning to ship ten million of these things this quarter…but they may only ship six million.

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