“Many Israelis need or at least covet an iPhone. Although Apple signed sellign agreements with more than 70 countries including our Arab neighbors, it did not sign one in Israel,” Laura Goldman…
…MacDailyNews Note: Yes, that Laura Goldman…
… writes for her “Nakedisraeli’s Weblog.”
Goldman writes, “Thousands of Israelis have banded together on Facebook to protest to Apple. In my opinion. they are protesting to the wrong corporation. I suspect that the two major cellphone providers in the country, Cellcom and Partner, have refused to make a deal with Apple because they do not want to subsidize the cost of the iPhone.”
Goldman writes, “The problem with living in a county with no competition and many oligopolies is that service and new product introductions suffer.”
Full article here.
In this case, we have to – gulp – agree with Goldman (ouch) that Israelis who are protesting Apple to get iPhone into their country are protesting the wrong company.
Exactly, KenC.
“Ok, she’s a self hating jew then.”
She may be self-hating but that has nothing to do with being Jewish. Perhaps your own prejudices are oozing through?
“The problem with living in a county (sic) with no competition and many oligopolies is that service and new product introductions suffer.”
Maniac and Mac+: Point out the words or parts of that sentence that indicate religion.
@ Mad Mac Maniac and @ ron
Please just keep quiet if all you have to offer is a bit of hate-mongering about Barack Obama. It has nothing to do with the article or the comments or anything.
There are more political blogs than technical ones. Do everyone a favour and just go somewhere else. This site is for comments about Macs, not crazy political sh*t.
Your also being dishonest in implying that those statements were made by him (they wern’t) and what the heck did you include the pronunciation guide for? Are we supposed to get scared cause his name sounds “foreign” or something? Are you twelve years old or what?
Funny how the posts inevitably lead to America’s growing perception (and it’s dead on, by the way) that Israel is not the wonderful, morally-right country we were all taught to belive. Zionism is a horrible, horrible idealogy – worse than Nazism. Google Zionism and see what you find.
And just so I’ve said it, you love a German but hate Nazism just like you can love a Jew but hate Zionism.
When you look at how good the Israelis have it – at the expense of American Taxpayers – compared to how unbelievably bad the situation is for the Palestinians, I have no problem withholding the iPhone from that Godless country (Jimmy Carter’s clear inference in his new book).
“” . . . it would smack of anti-semitism.”
I don’t see that at all. I think you’re reading too much into it.”
I agree.
“Antisemitism (alternatively spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism, also rarely known as judeophobia) is prejudice and hostility toward Jews as a group. The prejudice is usually characterized by a combination of religious, racial, cultural and ethnic biases.”
Those here ever ready to slam Israel or, the obverse, sense anti-Semitism in this issue, should give it a rest. I’ll make only two points:
Though leading edge in so many ways, Israel has not gone big for Apple for several reasons. Apple has made no serious push there, while Microsoft has major development facilities (as does Intel – the Core architecture was developed there). Lots of folks have achieved success developing for the Windows environment, so that’s where they see the opportunities. And Apples are seriously overpriced compared to PCs; a Macbook will set you back some $2,000.
The existing carriers make a lot of money selling high end Nokias , Sony Ericsons and Samsungs for $400-800. They’re just not inclined to sell the iPhone for $199 and subsidize Apple at the same time. But jail-broken iPhones do exist there
@Nuclear Kid
Well said, and hats of to Jimmy Carter for sticking his neck out, it’s time that particular reality distortion field was unplugged….
……now back to Mac/iphone issues….
Oh PS…
Anti semitism, does not mean anti Jewish, all people who live in that region are semites, including Palestinians etc, and a host of other races who if we are to believe the bible were actually wiped out by the jews at the behest of god…
……now back to Mac/iphone issues….
Lessee now, if we became more like Canada…
• Lower crime–OK
• Longer life expectancy–Good
Blacks, Hispanics, and under educated whites make up less percentage of the Canadian population compared with the United States. These three groups typically suffer greater criminal activity, poorer health behaviors, and/or access to health care services less compared with higher educated and white citizens.
It’s not the politics as much as the person.
Israel is one of the most liberal democracies, with a free press that is more anti-establishment than in the US. Their borders are surrounded by a cabal of marginal governments; I think they are doing quite well.
Someone by the name of Laura Goldberg has a weblog called “Nakedisraeli’s Weblog”?
Nahhh.
Goldman. Damn!
And, do we really want to see her naked?
@ho ho ho
If you had socialized medicine perhaps the poor health and crime etc would also disappear.
I think not.
Buster,
“If you had socialized medicine perhaps the poor health and crime etc would also disappear.”
After half a century of the Great Society, Medicaid, and Medicare there has been no significant improvement in crime or health care in United States.
Again, the citizens more than the politicians determine the nation’s well being. How can one successfully legislate community spirit and healthy behaviors among individual persons?
Just back from Israel, and saw a hacked iPhone in Yaffa, in Tel Aviv. The owner was drawing a crowd, and said he was waiting for the 3G. Apple does not have an official presence in Israel as of yet. They’re probably waiting until Google Maps recognizes it.
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Ho, ho, ho:
So, according to you, being black or hispanic is enough to suffer greater criminal activity, poorer health behaviors (whatever that means!) and have less access to health care services. On the other hand, you have to be an “under educated white” to have the same problems.
So, what happen to highly educated blacks and hispanics? Are they doomed? According to your statement, they do not exist.
The answer is quite simple, the iPhone wasn’t kosher with Israeli telcoms
Nuclear Kid
maybe when you become Nuclear Adult you will understand.
Not about Zionism, but about Israel’s role in the Middle East.
Hi guys!
I’m the head of “The Group for the Promotion of the iPhone’s Release in Israel” and I’d like to clear up a few things, seeing as there is some confusion regarding the group’s purposes and actions.
First of all, we are all big fans of Apple and we fully respect it and its CEO, Mr. Steve Jobs. However, after many years of weak presence in Israel, we assume Apple is not aware enough of the Israeli market. Hence we decided to establish our group in order to raise Apple’s awareness of the huge demand its iPhone has in Israel, and of Israel’s well developed mobile telecom market.
We also hope that our group will be able to pressure the two major Israeli cellular providers to act in order to release the iPhone in Israel, but we don’t think they are the main problem. According to the Israeli press, both cellular providers approached Apple in order to release the iPhone in Israel but were told it won’t happen before 2009. In addition, Apple sent us a message saying that it is worried that the iPhone’s lack of right to left text support will severely limit its success in Israel. Therefore we figured we should mainly protest against Apple in order to encourage it to complete the Hebrew support for the iPhone and release it in Israel together with the other 70 countries.
Many thanks to Laura Goldman and MacDailyNews for mentioning our group and helping us in our effort!
sarmona:
So, according to you, being black or hispanic is enough to suffer greater criminal activity,…
These two groups endure a disproportionate amount of crime and the effects of crime. Both liberal and conservative groups both agree with that, the debate revolves around the root causes of crime, and the methods of limiting crime and the effects of crime. Many blacks and Hispanics in economically, educationally, and culturally deprived areas can and do escape these conditions, unfortunately, most do not.
poorer health behaviors (whatever that means!)
Poor nutrition, lack of exercise, illicit drug use, alcohol abuse, tobacco use, gang activity, health illiteracy, etc. will negatively impact any demographic group.
and have less access to health care services.
Yup.
On the other hand, you have to be an “under educated white” to have the same problems.
Statistically speaking, yes. Although education is not always a predictor of one’s health status, education tends to correlate with community involvement, regular employment, higher income, availability of health insurance (especially for routine and preventive care, expensive treatments and procedures, etc.), less language and cultural barriers, increased ability to interact with healthcare professionals, purchase healthcare services and medications, etc. regardless of one’s particular ancestry. It is well understood that whites tend to be more educated than blacks and Hispanics as a group, but, there are exceptions.
So, what happen to highly educated blacks and hispanics?
Nearly everyone benefits from the rewards of higher education. See above.
Are they doomed?
No.
According to your statement, they do not exist.
Never suggested it, you wrongly inferred it.
I can understand if Apple does not currently support right to left input as Hebrew is written. However, if the iphone is being introduced in the Arab countries, I presume they use Arabic and I believe that Arabic is also Right to Left… so unless Apple has released an Arabic Toolkit for the iphone something smells here.
“I can understand if Apple does not currently support right to left input as Hebrew is written. However, if the iphone is being introduced in the Arab countries, I presume they use Arabic and I believe that Arabic is also Right to Left… so unless Apple has released an Arabic Toolkit for the iphone something smells here.”
Yes, it must be some kind of conspiracy against the Jews, if for some reason Israel is not included. Stop being silly.
Maybe Arabic support is simply economy of scale? Israel is a tiny country, with only 75% of the people being Jewish, which is equal to the population of Detroit; 5+ million.
Israel will have to wait in line like everybody else. I’m sure Steve will be more than happy to take your money.
Lighten up.
1. Arabic is also written from right to left but is not mentioned in the list of supported languages in Apple’s website. That brings me to believe that it will be sold in Arabic countries with no support for the local language at all.
2. Obviously, both Hebrew and Arabic support has been developed by amateur developers, and as you can see at hebrew4iphone.com, Hebrew works perfectly fine on the iPhone, except there’s no right to left support.
3. “Israel’s mobile telecom market is fairly well developed, with a penetration rate almost 125%. In other words, there are more than nine million mobile phone accounts for a population of 7.2 million people. Furthermore, spending on telecom services in Israel accounts for 4.4% of gross domestic product. That’s a higher proportion than even the US and Europe.” (From “<a href=”http://www.moneyshow.com/msc/investors/article.asp?aid=tptp060508-14630&scode=008988″>”, published by John H. Christy III in MoneyShow.com, June 2nd, 2008)
With a developed mobile telecom market like that, it’s a shame Israel still waits for the iPhone while Africa’s developing countries get to release it first, for example.
4. Apple’s international marketing strategy for the iPhone has nothing to do with economy of scale whatsoever. It has signed contracts with major cellular providers which operate in many countries around the world, including in Arabic countries. Unfortunately, none of them operates in Israel.
I’m sure they would have sold more iPhones in Israel, where nine million mobile phone accounts are available, than in Liechtenstein’s which has a population of about 35,000 people.
BTW, the link for the article about Israel’s mobile telecom market was messed up in my previous comment so here it is again: “A Clear Connection to Israel”
There are two problems we have:
1) People have different skin colors. This needs to be fixed by either widespread genetic mixing (i.e., inter-racial reproduction) or some kind of virus. The mixing would be better for gene pool diversity and species fitness.
2) Lots of people are still using Windows. This also needs to be fixed. Probably easier than #1 above.
There is no iPhone problem because we can talk to other people who don’t use iPhones and nobody is forcing us to use non-iPhones (if we can afford it).