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I think Google’s X-Phone is going to be coming out of Motorola, but Google knows that they need all of their ducks in a row before introducing it because the minute they do they are going to make Samsung their enemy.

1 minute ago on Microsoft Xbox 360 did not infringe Motorola patents, rules ITC

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They have to do something with Motorola or else we are going to see a big fat $7B right down on Google’s earnings report in the next few years. I think Motorola had like $5B in cash when Google bought them so technically, the company did not cost Google a full $12B since part of that was the purchase of actual liquid assets.

2 minutes ago on Microsoft Xbox 360 did not infringe Motorola patents, rules ITC

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The average corporation paid 12.1% US taxes in 2011 (the most recent year since corporate taxes are paid in arrears). Apple paid 30.5%. Maybe the Senate should be hauling in General Electric for a little conversation about taxes.

25 minutes ago on Why Senator Levin's is Bent Out of Shape Over Apple's Taxes

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The average US corporation had an effective income tax rate of 12.1% in 2011 (some paid nothing). Apple paid 30.5%. Wouldn’t you say that that starting with Apple is barking up the wrong tree and clearly an attempt to create a media circus?

26 minutes ago on Why Senator Levin's is Bent Out of Shape Over Apple's Taxes

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I was going to reply to him, but after reading that first line I was not sure if it was worth it. To contest that iOS have higher web traffic because Safari does not cache pages is just silly.

30 minutes ago on Didn't IDC Say iPad was Losing Market Share? 1 recommend

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Apple Insider is not the source for the report being referenced — they are just reporting on it.

NetMarketShare

Piper Jaffray

Chitika

GoGo In-Flight Wifi

about 1 hour ago on Didn't IDC Say iPad was Losing Market Share? 1 recommend

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UK is not the only area. Walk into Costco in the USA and they are almost always running the free Galaxy Tab with the purchase of a Samsung SmartTV promotion. Every time share give away I have received an offer for includes a free Android tablet as well. I’ve also seen tons of promotions for free Kindle Fires.

If Samsung was selling their tablets well then they would not be free promotional items with purchases of other big box items.

about 1 hour ago on Didn't IDC Say iPad was Losing Market Share?

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Checked it today on Google Earth… rotate the image and look at it from an off angle rather than from above. They have eliminated the double-bridge (sat photo showing the bridge sitting flat on the water with the 3D model above), but as you rotate the bridge, a side-to-side wiggle is introduced (slalom course). As you pan around, the calculation for sea-level has a rounding error and puts the transparent water at a higher altitude than the bridge.

It looks better than it did, but the more you navigate it around it the funnier it gets. I have not checked on the Google Maps beta since I don’t have an invite to that — this was on Google Earth.

about 1 hour ago on Google Maps satellite view reminds me of something...

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That was not what the Apple Tumblr that everybody linked to portrayed. Those poor 3D images from Apple became the rallying cry for Apple’s detractors.

about 6 hours ago on Google Maps satellite view reminds me of something... 3 recommends

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Another interesting point here is that when Apple sold those 5M iPhones in three days, they did not count orders that had not yet shipped which were shipping that week. They were also out of stock everywhere. While Samsung has “shipped” 10M GS4’s you can probably walk into any corporate-owned mobile carrier store or Best Buy and one of those 10M units will be sitting on the shelf waiting for you.

Samsung shipped less than Apple Sold, in more countries than Apple released, and sitting on more shelves than in customer hands.

But the media calls that “winning”.

about 6 hours ago on Samsung's "record" sales vs Apple's "disappointing" sale.

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By the same notion, my brother’s wife received a cash gift from a family member in Japan. The gift was large so my brother looked it up to see about tax responsibility. Apparently, Japanese law does not tax cash gifts under a certain amount and taxes the recipient over a certain amount. US law puts the tax burden on the giver of the gift under a certain amount and on the recipient over that amount. The amount was lower than the limit in the Japan, so no tax was due to Japan. The giver in this case was not a US citizen and therefore not subject to US tax law (they were a Japanese citizen). As a result, the amount that was given was such that no tax was owed by the giver or recipient in either country.

Should my brother have donated extra money to the IRS because he came across a tax loophole? Should he have claimed the amount as income even though US tax law did not require it? I am betting that 100% of the people calling for Apple to pay US taxes on foreign sales would have done exactly what my brother did in that situation: pocketed the money and paid zero tax on it.

about 6 hours ago on Why Senator Levin's is Bent Out of Shape Over Apple's Taxes

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Apple’s “Map Gate” was so blown out of proportion over these 3D issues. Google has had the same or worse issues all along. Keep in mind that Apple has fixed those problems. Apparently Apple is ahead of Google on 3D map technology since they can figure it out.

Just check out the 3D view of the Golden Gate bridge on Google Earth. The bridge is wavy and looks like it is buckling. At some points in the fly over the bridge goes under water. It is as if Google is simulating an earthquake in San Francisco.

about 6 hours ago on Google Maps satellite view reminds me of something... 2 replies 5 recommends

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Oddly, Apple not being a “good tax citizen” would mean that paying 2.5 times the average effective corporate income tax rate than other corporations is just not enough for Senator Levin. In 2011, the average US corporation paid 12.1% (and some paid zero). Apple paid 30.5% on their US-based income. But as I have said before, hauling in General Electric and questioning them would not have created the media circus that Senator Levin was looking for.

I love Senator Paul’s question to his colleagues:

“Do you choose to maximize your tax burden or minimize your tax burden?”

about 6 hours ago on Why Senator Levin's is Bent Out of Shape Over Apple's Taxes 1 recommend

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I pay more tax than my cat, it’s not really relevant to my tax practices is it? Just seems like another “Apple pay so much tax that you shouldn’t investigate their tax practices” argument?

The funny thing about percentages is that they automatically scale with whatever amount you make. The whole notion of graduated tax percentages with deductions to choose “winners and losers” is silly to begin with. If you make $10,000 per year then 15% is a measly $1500 to pay your share of the resources you use in the country. If you make $10M per year then you are footing out $1.5M for using essentially the same number of resources. The only reason to tax the biggest money makers at a higher percentage is to say that somehow they are using more of the public services and resources as they earn more money. That is obviously not true, because we know that the richest people tend to send their kids to private school, they don’t use public transportation as much, and they don’t take advantage of Medicare and other welfare systems. Graduated tax is essentially a “forced charity donation”, which is odd since the richest people also tend to give the most to charity. I don’t make $10M per year — I fall well below President Obama’s “$250k per year” dividing line, and yet I don’t think the folks who make more than me should be paying a higher percentage on taxes than me. I do believe they should pay more money because the same percentage of a larger number is obviously a bigger number. And keep in mind that corporations are already paying for half of your payroll Social Security Tax in addition to paying for certain benefits required by law.

But whether or not you agree with my view on graduated taxes, pointing out that Apple paid 30.5% on their taxes is significant because the effective corporate tax rate (after deductions) in 2011 was 12.1% (see Wilkipedia). Apple paid 2.5 times this percentage in their corporate taxes, so obviously they are not the “poster boy” or “problem child” for tax deduction loopholes.

The point of my argument was not that they should not investigate it, it was that after an investigation it becomes evident that Senator Levin is barking up the wrong tree and yet he persisted because hauling in General Electric would not have created the media circus he was looking for.

about 6 hours ago on Why Senator Levin's is Bent Out of Shape Over Apple's Taxes

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That is the absolute first graph I have seen showing such a distribution. That is what you call an “outlier”. What makes my justification of about 30 reports over the last two years showing iPad and iPhone completely dominating usage statistics less valid than you throwing a single one up there and saying the rest are less credible?

about 7 hours ago on Didn't IDC Say iPad was Losing Market Share? 1 reply 1 recommend

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Yup. Every traffic or usage report has put iPad on top of tablets by a huge margin and iPhone on top of smartphones. iPhone and iPad users are for more active online.

about 19 hours ago on Didn't IDC Say iPad was Losing Market Share? 1 reply 2 recommends

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Not sure if serious.

about 19 hours ago on Didn't IDC Say iPad was Losing Market Share? 1 reply 3 recommends

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Actually, Ireland has no problem with Apple. They are glad to get 2% of ALL Apple’s international profits via AOI’s subsidiaries while getting 0% of AOI’s investment income. Keep in mind that the AOI subsidiaries in Ireland do pay the 2% tax that Ireland negotiated with Apple back in 1980. In retrospect that deal has worked out great for Ireland.

about 19 hours ago on How Apple Pays its Taxes... 1 reply

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Then how would Senator Levin feel?

about 19 hours ago on Why Senator Levin's is Bent Out of Shape Over Apple's Taxes 1 recommend

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It was not Apple Insider’s report, they just pointed to this analytics report as a source for the article.

about 19 hours ago on Didn't IDC Say iPad was Losing Market Share? 3 recommends

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Exactly. Or as one Senator put it: who would try to maximize their tax burden?

1 day ago on Why Senator Levin's is Bent Out of Shape Over Apple's Taxes

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Since Android 4.2 Jelly Bean disappoints me today, then no. Google would have to announce something truly amazing to get me to switch. So far they are announcing a whole lot of minor differentiators and things that are attempts to catch-up with Apple.

The real question is “What would Key Lime Pie have to offer to get you to switch?”

1 day ago on If iOS 7 disappoints will you jump over to Android? 1 reply 7 recommends

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It was Korean, but run through Google translator.

1 day ago on If iOS 7 disappoints will you jump over to Android? 2 recommends

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I don’t know about the pricing differences, but I will attempt a guess at the local taxes.

I’m guessing that Apple does pay taxes to each locality for sales in that country. Cook talked about the profits being taxed before moving into AOI for investment purposes. The difference is that the tax rates differ by country and if their base of operations was in the USA for their international profits then the USA would be charging the difference in the US tax rate versus the local tax rate.

For example: if Apple sold an item in Japan, I am sure that some sort of sales tax or tariffs apply in Japan (and that may be baked into the pricing). If Apple were to bring that profit home to the USA, the USA would charge Apple 35% taxes minus the taxes already paid in Japan. By centering their operations in Ireland (and I am even less familiar with Irish tax law) it sounds like Ireland gets a flat 2% rate regardless of the taxes already paid elsewhere.

I seriously doubt that Apple is selling goods in countries all around the world without paying each of those countries something in the form of sales tax or tariffs.

One last thing, Levin seemed particularly bothered by the fact that Ireland does not charge tax on companies managed externally while the US does not charge on companies that are incorporated outside the US. So Levin did not like this loophole.

1 day ago on Why Senator Levin's is Bent Out of Shape Over Apple's Taxes

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Similac Advance, now with “Acid Whey”!!!!

1 day ago on The bitter truth about Greek yogurt: it's producing millions of pounds of toxic waste 1 recommend