MBA Online has posted a new infographic which tries to describe just how much cash Apple has.

What would you do with $97 billion in cash? While we may never know, Apple is currently pondering that question. This graphic explores some unique comparisons to put the world's most valuable public company into perspective. Perhaps more money doesn't necessarily mean more problems.

(Via iClarified)

Steve Jobs sent a direct email to Eric Schmidt asking the former Google CEO to stop his recruiting department from poaching Apple engineers, according to a Reuters report.

The email surfaced in a court filing for a proposed class action suit brought by five software engineers against Apple, Google, Adobe, Intel, Intuit, and Pixar. The suit accuses the companies of conspiring to keep employee compensation low by eliminating competition for skilled labor.

Jobs emailed Schmidt in March 2007 about an attempt to recruit an Apple engineer writing, "I would be very pleased if your recruiting department would stop doing this."

Schmidt forwarded Job's email on saying, "Can you get this stopped and let me know why this is happening?" Schmidt wrote.

Google's staffing director responded that the employee who tried to recruit the Apple engineer "will be terminated within the hour", adding "please extend my apologies as appropriate to Steve Jobs."

The companies named in the suit tried to have it dismissed by arguing that they engaged in bilateral anti-poaching deals to protect collaboration; however, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh said the civil lawsuit will proceed.

(Via iClarified)

A leaked T-Mobile document reveals that the company will soon begin offering additional support to its unlocked iPhone customers, reports TMONews.

Starting on January 30th, T-Mobile will "begin offering additional support to customers using an Apple iPhone on our network." T-Mobile's added iPhone support will include "common procedures, information about feature and specifications and other basic device questions." T-Mobile is implementing these changes to support the 1 million plus users on the Magenta network with unlocked iPhones.

While T-Mobile is not currently an official carrier for the iPhone, the next generation phone is said to use a chip that supports the AWS spectrum band used by the network.

(Via iClarified)

Bill Gates reveals that he wrote Steve Jobs a letter just before the Apple co-founder passed away, in an interview with The Telegraph.

The letter came after a personal visit from Gates where the two "spent literally hours reminiscing and talking about the future."

With Jobs' death imminent, Gates wrote to him. "I told Steve about how he should feel great about what he had done and the company he had built. I wrote about his kids, whom I had got to know." The letter wasn't conciliatory, says Gates. "There was no peace to make. We were not at war. We made great products, and competition was always a positive thing. There was no [cause for] forgiveness."

Following the death of Steve Jobs, Gates received a call from his wife Laurene. "She said; 'Look, this biography really doesn't paint a picture of the mutual respect you had.' And she said he'd appreciated my letter and kept it by his bed."

Gates notes that while the two were competitors they both respected each other's accomplishments.

"Steve was an incredible genius who contributed immensely to the field I was in. We had periods, like the early Macintosh, when we had more people working on it than they did. And then we were competitors. The personal computers I worked on had a vastly higher [market] share than Apple until really the last five or six years, where Steve's very good work on the Mac and on iPhones and iPads did extremely well. It's quite an achievement, and we enjoyed each [other's work]."

(Via iClarified)

Apple reclaimed its position as the world's largest smartphone vendor in Q4 2011, reports research from Strategy Analytics.

Alex Spektor, Associate Director at Strategy Analytics, said, "Global smartphone shipments grew 54 percent annually to reach a record 155.0 million units in Q4 2011. Apple overtook Samsung to become the world's largest smartphone vendor by volume with 24 percent market share. Apple's global smartphone shipments surged 128 percent annually to 37.0 million units, as distribution of the iPhone family expanded across numerous countries, dozens of operators and multiple price points."

Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, added, "While Apple took the top spot in smartphones on a quarterly basis, Samsung became the market leader in annual terms for the first time with 20 percent global share during 2011. With global smartphone shipments nearing half a billion units in 2011, Samsung is now well positioned alongside Apple in a two-horse race at the forefront of one of the world's largest and most valuable consumer electronics markets."

Tom Kang, Director at Strategy Analytics, added, "Nokia's global smartphone market share halved from 33 percent in 2010 to 16 percent in 2011. A lackluster touchscreen smartphone portfolio and a limited presence in the huge United States market caused Nokia's shrinkage last year. Nokia's partnership with Microsoft will be very much in focus during 2012, and the industry will be watching closely to see how swiftly the two companies can expand in the high-value 4G LTE market that is rapidly emerging across the United States, Japan and elsewhere."


(Via iClarified)