Touch pads are a bugger to use under Linux though, at least they are the way I have configured them.

Where's the stockholder's dividends?

People are looking at them on display, but are signing up for the new HTC OneXs' and Samsung Notes.

Mr. Cook said that Apple’s quarterly revenue from China was $7.9 billion, about 20 percent of total company revenue. Furthermore, that was triple Apple’s China sales in the same period a year ago.

"Mr. Cook said that Apple’s quarterly revenue from China was $7.9 billion, about 20 percent of total company revenue. Furthermore, that was triple Apple’s China sales in the same period a year ago.

Google Inc's Android mobile operating system (OS) was the top smartphone platform in China last year, growing its market share by about 35 percent in the world's largest market for mobile phones, a Chinese technology research firm said.

At the end of 2011, Android had 68.4 percent of the smartphone OS market by the number of smartphones sold, up from 33.6 percent at the end of the first quarter of last year, Beijing-based research firm Analysys International said in a report on Tuesday.

The cementing of Android's dominance in China came at the expense of Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia whose Symbian OS saw its market share more than halve to 18.7 percent last year.

Apple Inc, whose iPhones are seeing strong demand from wealthier Chinese cities, posted a modest growth in 2011, with the market share of its iOs operating system rising from 4.1 percent in the first quarter to 5.7 percent at the end of the fourth quarter.

Tell me about it. Linux doesn't even *recognise* the Sentelic touchpad on my ZenBook (only as a regular ps/2 mouse).

"Tell me about it. Linux doesn't even *recognise* the Sentelic touchpad on my ZenBook (only as a regular ps/2 mouse).

The impact of such advantages became obvious as soon as Mr. Jobs demanded glass screens in 2007.

For years, cellphone makers had avoided using glass because it required precision in cutting and grinding that was extremely difficult to achieve. Apple had already selected an American company, Corning Inc., to manufacture large panes of strengthened glass. But figuring out how to cut those panes into millions of iPhone screens required finding an empty cutting plant, hundreds of pieces of glass to use in experiments and an army of midlevel engineers. It would cost a fortune simply to prepare.

Then a bid for the work arrived from a Chinese factory.

When an Apple team visited, the Chinese plant’s owners were already constructing a new wing. “This is in case you give us the contract,” the manager said, according to a former Apple executive. The Chinese government had agreed to underwrite costs for numerous industries, and those subsidies had trickled down to the glass-cutting factory. It had a warehouse filled with glass samples available to Apple, free of charge. The owners made engineers available at almost no cost. They had built on-site dormitories so employees would be available 24 hours a day.

The Chinese plant got the job.

[...]

Corning was founded in America 161 years ago and its headquarters are still in upstate New York. Theoretically, the company could manufacture all its glass domestically. But it would “require a total overhaul in how the industry is structured,” Mr. Flaws said. “The consumer electronics business has become an Asian business. As an American, I worry about that, but there’s nothing I can do to stop it. Asia has become what the U.S. was for the last 40 years.”

“We shouldn’t be criticized for using Chinese workers,” a current Apple executive said. “The U.S. has stopped producing people with the skills we need.”

"“We shouldn’t be criticized for using Chinese workers,” a current Apple executive said. “The U.S. has stopped producing people with the skills we need.”

The article doesn't mention natural resources. A lot of which Apple needs originates from China.

http://www.idownloadblog.com/2012/04/19/apple-china-rare-earth-elem...

I'm not doubting that, just wondering why nobody has set up a mining installation up yet.

Does sound simpler than mining astroids!

If I refer to Wikipedia's list ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare-earth ), the only one which I believe is commonly used in consumer products is neodymium, because one can manufacture powerful magnets with it.

Disclaimer: I hate Apple. That aside, the idea that the will be replaced is born out of pure economics. There is just too much money for someone not to come along and do what Apple does, only better.