And regarding Apple buying HTC, I highly doubt that Apple would spend more than $8,5B in the Taiwanese stock market

To quote Apple COO Tim Cook from a couple weeks back:

“We’ve always been about making the best product, not having the highest market share or the highest revenue, and so acquiring a company so our revenue gets larger isn’t something that drives us.”"

“It’s saying no to many products that are good ideas, but just not nearly as good as the other ones”

“[and] ensuring that it’s a small list of things to work on and putting all of our wood behind those things, that’s the magic behind us”

Acquiring HTC would go against all of the above, and just would not be Apple’s style. They could, I suppose, if they just wanted HTC’s hardware expertise and manufacturing capacity, throwing out the software sides, but that would be a high price to pay for something they could build or acquire much more cheaply.

Why not? At least in the short run. Having bought HTC, they’d be doing Android/WinMo users a favor, and making a profit.

I can see them using HTC’s in house manufacturing.. that would make sense.. but selling current HTC products would not make any sense..

Also HTC is based out of Taiwan .. I’m sure there are more obstacles Apple have to overcome in order to purchase HTC .. it’s not a publicly traded company in the US

Yes, who will not be trumped for an American company with a lot of cash?

And if Taiwanese govern doesn’t allow this hipotetycal transaction, Jobs himself must buy Taiwan.

I can’t understand praising buying competitors to stay ahead in market

@Jerry- Apple wouldn’t buy HTC to dispose of them! They would buy them to turn their revenues into Apple’s revenues! No IP problem if you’re the one selling the fruits of your IP! Besides, HTC makes great hardware.

The question is will that be enough for people to look elsewhere for gagdgets…

and the question for Apple is that IS HTC this much of a threat to you for you to spend money to buy them just to dispose of it .. and in addition taking a PR hit however minor it might be..

Bottom line if there are less apply type products on the market and New consumers are looking for that line of products they only have a few options–Apple wins even if consumers loose.

I’m glad I live in a place where software patents doesn’t exist

Microsoft may be old school but one thing that they never do is place one Windows partner above all others. They are treated as more or less equals so they will all get the next version of Windows on the same date and all upgrades will be offered at the same time to all partners. Devices will all work more or less the same way whether the device contains a keyboard or touch screen which is something that can’t be said for Android. Finally, Microsoft has a history of backward compatibility, which is a blessing and a curse, so all developers know where they stand moving forward. With Android, who knows.

IMHO, Google may have all of the buzz and technical wizardry – especially on the web. But when it come to leadership of a platform and set of channel partners they leave a lot to be desired. Circling back to Apple, Windows and Microsoft may in the end be more of a difficult opponent than Google and Android.