I agree that they shouldn't, but not for any hardware reason.

Apple no longer need to rely on killer apps like they used to in the days when PageMaker, Photoshop, Protools etc were what sold Macs. They've sidelined the companies that once made those killer apps, and even introduced competing Apple products. I don't think it's controversial to assert that their priorities are clearly Apple and its shareholders first, customers second, developers and other third party ecosystem content and service providers third.

For Microsoft, releasing Office into that environment would give the iPad (i.e. Apple) a not insignificant boost and dent Windows 8 sales. (If you can get Office on either, and that's what you care about, why would you plump for an unproven Windows tablet over an iPad?) Furthermore, they'd be in the awkward position of not wanting it to be too successful, because Apple could pull the plug at any moment, and could therefore make demands (say, for arguments' sake, require that 40% of the price of Office go to Apple rather than the usual 30%).

I can't see that it would make any sense for Microsoft to get itself mired in that swamp. Unlike other developers, they don't have to grit their teeth and bear it because Apple apps are the safest way to make proper money from mobile development -- they make plenty of money from other sources, and can invest in competing with Apple in general instead (via their own mobile OS, tablet hardware etc).

As always of course they probably wouldn't be in this position if they had invested in a culture of open standards and platforms decades ago... but winner takes all seems to be the only game anyone relishes these days.

Do we really have to liszt all the puns?

The Economist ran an article about China's balance of trade last week which included a breakdown of the value (price) of an iPad. Just over 50% was costs, the rest was profit, of which 30% to Apple (the rest to others in the supply chain). Chinese labour costs were minimal at 2%. They could perhaps reduce their profits to redistribute wealth from their execs/shareholders to the workers.

http://www.economist.com/node/21543174

One of the primary uses for my Android phone turns out to be as a streaming music player when I'm lounging in bed. I use the 2player app, which sees the music on my LAN, served via DLNA from a NAS (an iomega box). All of this "just worked" with just about zero setup cost (I had to turn on the "media server" on the NAS and tell it where the music was). At a stroke it rendered the CD player and stack of CDs I used to keep on hand obsolete, doesn't require me to do any syncing to my phone, and gives me access to a library of 2000+ albums.

I'd long ago sold my stereo as I found I listened to music mainly in bed or at my PC, and couldn't really justify a pile of gear in the front room. I do have an AV receiver and "home cinema" speakers (a simple 2.1 setup). Somewhere down the line it turned out that my PVR was also a DLNA client, and I can now listen to all my music in glorious high fidelity in my living room while reading, washing up etc.

Almost by accident, using equipment from three different vendors, it's given me access from various locations round the house to a central library of my stuff. So for me at least, DLNA is not at all a stupid concept. It is exactly what we should all want - someone defining a standard that everyone can implement, instead of requiring us to buy all our hardware and software from one vendor. It may be that the DLNA standard is crappy, but the principle is IMHO completely sound.

I wonder whether the next generation of consoles from Sony and Microsoft will use discs at all. Perhaps we are not yet at the point where it is practical to download 30GB of game data, but with incremental background downloads it might be feasible in the 720's timeframe.

Ultimately the OnLive model is clearly what we will all be using, but it'll be a while yet before low-latency broadband is ubiquitous.

I too am a senior developer for a small UK company. For me it is most definitely not the case - our company is run more like a cooperative, with profit sharing etc. However the OP mentions that work has been outsourced; I think this says everything he needs to know about his company's loyalty towards staff (i.e. cheap employee trumps loyal employee).

Prices without sales tax/VAT

Mac Mini
US: $599
UK: $728
markup: ~22%

Apple TV:
US: $99
UK: $139
markup: ~39%

I can understand that economies of scale may apply, i.e. that shipping many millions of units from China to the USA is more economical than few millions to the UK. It may even be that the cost of red tape, rents, staff etc are higher in the UK than the US average.

However, at the above markup, I could fly to Atlanta return with BA, pop 20 or 30 Apple TVs into a suitcase, and the trip would have paid for itself even after paying import duty. I've no idea why there isn't a booming market in grey Apple imports - presumably it's illegal in some way.

I think you've misunderstood what String Theory is all about...

Sweet! Does it ship with Pulse Audio?

Isn't Cyanogen mod essentially an Android distro?