EMI chief executive Eric Nicoli said at this week’s CTIA event that the wireless industry needs to look towards Apple if it wants to succeed in mobile music. “Apple makes stuff that people love to own,” Nicoli said. “They love the simplicity and user-friendliness of the iPod and iTunes. Apple doesn’t employ any sorcery or dark magic to achieve this.
They listen to what consumers want. And that shouldn’t be Apple’s unique privilege.”
David Pogue of the New York Times hints that Apple worked with NYU researcher Jeff Han on the iPhone’s multi-touch interface. “After the Jobs demo, I called Jeff Han, fully expecting to hear how angry he was that Apple had stolen his idea without permission or consultation (it’s happened before),” says Pogue. “Instead, he knew all about Apple’s project.
He didn’t say that Apple bought his technology, nor that Apple stole it—only that he’d known what had happened, and that there was a lot he wasn’t allowed to say.”
DigiTimes reports on a possible shortage of NAND flash memory: “The considerable demand from Apple’s iPhone, the growing number of high-density MP3 players (4-8GB), and handsets with built-in memory should fuel NAND flash demand substantially. A severe shortage is likely to arrive in the second half of the year, he highlighted.”
John C. Dvorak says that Apple should pull the plug on the iPhone before it’s too late. “What Apple risks here is its reputation as a hot company that can do no wrong.