Since the launch of Apple’s music-based social network yesterday, Cupertino has had some problems with Facebook and vice-versa. The New York Times is reporting that the two have become “frenemies“, since the two could not reach an agreement with Ping being based on services on top of Facebook.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs called the deal’s stipulations “onerous”, and that Apple’s original idea was to build Ping off of Facebook. But that deal, obviously, did not work out, and we now have Ping. However, Apple still left some connectivity to Facebook, so you could add your Facebook friends to Ping.
But once the service went live, Facebook pulled the plug on Ping’s API. Sources for NY Times said that that the Apple service, which is included inside iTunes 10, had the “potential to send so much traffic Facebook’s way and cause ‘site stability’ and ‘infrastructure’ problems”.
“We’re working with Apple to resolve this issue. We’ve worked together successfully in the past, and we look forward to doing so in the future,” Facebook said in a statement. The social network did not specifically say what the “issue” was.
Throughout the disagreements, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has created his own account on Apple’s social network. He is connected to another Facebook exec, Bret Taylor, and is the only “Mark Zuckerberg” account to be connected to another Facebook executive. So the likelihood of the account actually belonging to Zuck is high.
Apple, of course, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Steve Ballmer, Microsoft Corp.’s current Chief Executive Officer, may be packing his bags and leaving Redmond, the place he called home for over 30 years. Why would he be leaving? Not many like the CEO’s approach to defending Microsoft as he bashes its competition, but the one reason that would surely have him packing his bags, are the shareholders.
In June, The Wall Street Journal published a chart that showed Microsoft and Apple’s yearly earnings when Bill Gates was at the helm and after he left the company to Ballmer in 2000. One could only blame the fact that “geeks” are being rapidly replaced by MBAs in large technology-based corporations. Quite simply, the vision is gone.
There is no question about question about whether or not Apple’s innovations are leading the market, but Microsoft desperately needs to compete. Nokia has been much competition since Apple took over the smart-phone market, and look where that left the Finnish-based company.
Current Microsoft Corporation Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner made the comparison and called the iPhone 4 Apple’s Windows Vista.
“It looks like iPhone 4 might be their Vista and I’m okay with that,” Kevin Turner, Microsoft’s Chief Operating Officer, told an audience during the Worldwide Partner Conference on July 14.
If you are not aware (at this point, everyone is), Turner was poking fun at his main rival, referring to the dismay that consumers had at his own company due to Vista having to have several major updates and Service Packs before the operating system’s bugs and compatibility issues were resolved.
The latest iPhone has had major antenna issues, with Apple founder Steve Jobs even calling the problem “Antennagate”. Apple tried to ratify the problem at its June 16th conference by offering free bumpers and making sure that the company threw its rivals (primarily RIM and Motorola) under the bus. Jobs even went the length to demonstrate reception issues with the rival’s phones.
