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Efforts to defuse the standoff between Immigration enforcement agents and local government in Minneapolis. DJT talks to governor Walz on the phone.

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With the popularity of Apple iPhones and smartphones, Nokia has lost ground. Its share price is down 73% from 2007 end. It is looking for a new CEO. The lack of new mobile phones to compete with the iPhone and other smartphones and generate the kind of excitement that Apple's iPhone has generated, is Nokia's main problem.

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Apple did its first product launch in China with the launch of the iPhone 5C in China. The phone is priced at $99 in the U.S. and targets buyers at the low end. In China where subsidies kick in later in lower monthly phone bills the price is much higher at about 4500 yuan or $733. Buyers in smaller cities in China pay about 1000 to 2000 yuan for a smartphone. Apple's market share is about 5% in China, behind Samsung at 18% and Chinese manufacturers Huawei, Lenovo and HTC.

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About 29% of businesses support the iPhone, up from none in 2007 and 17% in 2009 according to Forrester Research. Even though 70% still support the Blackberry, the iPhone is getting the support of employees who ask for iPhones, even if that means they pay for all or part of it on their own. AT&T's CEO Randall Stephenson, says about 40% of its iPhones are sold to companies or individuals with corporate discounts.

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Apple provides about 40% of Taiwanese company Pegatron revenues. Starting with older iPhone models, the company now supplies the new model iPhone 5C. Revenue in the 4th quarter 2013 for iPhones and tablets increased 20%, as sales from televisions and PC's declined. Operating margins increased slightly to 1.9% in the 4th quarter 2014 from the prior year quarter 1.6%.

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Judge Richard Leon of the District of Columbia agrees with Senators Wyden, Udall and Heinrich that the NSA's bulk collection of phone data program in the U.S. violates the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. This is the first successfu legal challenge to the program. It was put forward by Larry Klayman, a conservative public-interest lawyer. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a similiar lawsuit in the Southern District of New York. In his ruling Judge Leon, appointed by president Bush in 2002, said: "I cannot imagine a more indiscriminate and arbitrary invasion than this systematic and high tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval. Surely such a program infringes on that degree of privacy that the founders enshrined in the Fourth Amendment." Judge Leon stayed his injunction for 6 months so that the government can appeal his ruling because of the national security interests involved. The U.S. government's case was made with the argument that there are no fourth Amendment protections for collection of metadata information such as numbers called and received, date and time and duration as reflected in the 1979 case, Smith v. Maryland. Judge Leon rejected this saying that in the 34 years since that case the whole relationship of people with the phone has changed and the record collection with today's technology reveals a constantly updating picture of a person's life....

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Apple will be opening 25 stores in China in 2010-2012. Its first store is a 16,000 square foot store in Shanghai. Apple was slow to cultivate the Chinese market. Most of its newest products like the iPad and the iPhone 4 are not available in China. Apple is moving aggressively in the Chinese market to make up for lost time. It has 2000 authorized dealers in China, with 800 added in just the first quarter of 2010. Official restrictions also play a part. For instance the iPhone was officially released in China 2 years after it was launched in the USA, because of the long time negotiating with state run telecom companies and restrictions. In the meantime 1 million iPhones came into China through tourists and smuggling.

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Apple appears to have peaked and it marks the end of an era. Americans have more to be concerned about than the latest incremental iPhone design with decline in reading skills among children, dropping mens college enrollments, cost of living crisis, and retiree poverty.  For the most part US prices are kept at last year's level as Apple is facing new competition and restrictions in China, with a new Huawei phone which matches the new iPhone. Apple has increased iPhone revenues by 44%, even though shipments have increased by 15%, with aggressive pricing, making iPhones generate $40 billion, 50% of total revenue. This aggressive pricing phase may now be ending as Huawei plans to increase global shipments by 20% even as the total smartphone market declined by 6% to 1.15 billion shipments. Apple has 55% of the US smartphone market and worldwide at 27%. This may be the peak and the end of an era in which Apple and other Tech companies not paying a fair share of taxes led to the defunding of infrastructure and public services. ...

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This WSJ report looks at ways in which one can protect one's iPhone and information on the phone.

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Apple's 5% smartphone market share in India lags behind Sony at 9% and Samsung at 40% for 4th quarter 2012, according to Canalys. India is expected to become the third largest market for smartphones after China and the U.S. A major problem for Apple is India's multilayered distribution network, says Apple CEO Cook. Government rules require Apple to source 30% of parts in India to be able to open its own store network. Apple is also working on lower priced smartphones for the Indian market closer to Samsung's starting price of $111 for Galaxy smartphones in India.