Hello, this is Mary Alyce, Bob’s wife. I am coming to you with immense sadness to let you know that Bob passed away. His obituary follows. His family is not requesting anything, however, if you would like to make a donation in his honor, please consider The American Heart Association or The American SIDS Institute.
Mark Stephens, known to much of the world as Robert X. Cringely, passed away on October 3, 2026. He was 73.
Mark was a gifted writer, journalist, storyteller, husband, father, brother, and friend. To millions of readers and viewers, he was Robert X. Cringely, the witty and sometimes irreverent observer of the technology world. But to those of us fortunate enough to love him, he was simply Mark—and losing him leaves an emptiness that is difficult to put into words.
Born January 28, 1953, in Cleveland, Ohio, Mark was never destined to lead an ordinary life. From an early age, he was intensely curious, independent, and determined to see the world in his own way. He attended the College of Wooster and later Stanford University in the 1970s, arriving in Silicon Valley at an extraordinary moment in its history. He became captivated by the people, ideas, energy, and possibilities surrounding the emerging computer industry, and that fascination would help shape the rest of his life.
Writing as Robert X. Cringely, Mark became a distinctive voice in technology journalism. He had an unusual ability to understand not only technology but also the human beings behind it—the dreamers, inventors, entrepreneurs, eccentrics, and risk-takers who were changing the world. He could take a complicated subject and make it understandable, entertaining, funny, and deeply human. He was skeptical when skepticism was warranted, irreverent when others were overly serious, and never particularly interested in following conventional wisdom. That independence was not simply part of his writing. It was Mark.
He followed the beat of his own drummer throughout his life. He was brilliant, funny, opinionated, curious, generous, exasperating, and unforgettable —s ometimes all within the same conversation. He loved a good story and knew how to tell one. He could make you laugh, make you think, make you argue with him, and occasionally drive you crazy. Life with Mark was rarely dull.
Mark’s life also included heartbreaking loss. He was preceded in death by his beloved sons, Chase and Cole Stephens, as well as his parents, Ray and Lois Stephens and father-in-law Jim Neader. I could also add brother-in-law Jimmy Neader and niece Ericka Neader, but they were a thorn in our side.
Mark is survived by his wife, Mary Alyce; his sons, Channing and Fallon Stephens; his brother, Paul Stephens; his sister, Ann Stephens; his mother-in-law, Alice; and his brothers-in-law, Mike and Brian Neader.
Mark was never quite like anyone else. He was complicated and original, extraordinarily intelligent and wonderfully unconventional. He lived life on his own terms and left an impression on nearly everyone who knew him.
We will miss him more than words can say.
MacDailyNews Take: Too young! R.I.P., Mark.
Fanously, a 1995 interview between Robert X. Cringely and Steve Jobs was conducted for the PBS documentary series Triumph of the Nerds and later released as Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview after a VHS copy was rediscovered in a garage.
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Apple has adjusted the mix of its order volumes for fall 2026 iPhone models, according to an exclusive report citing supply-chain sources.
The company increased orders for the iPhone Duo by 30%. Even after the increase, total Duo orders remain below 10 million units. At the same time, Apple adjusted orders for the iPhone 18 Pro lower by 10–15% and raised orders for the iPhone 18 Pro Max by 10–15%. The overall order volume for the iPhone 18 Pro series is unchanged.
Supply-chain sources told reporters that the shifts indicate sales are tilting toward higher-value products. They described the adjustment as generally positive for the performance of companies in Apple’s supply chain.
The report, published by Securities Times (证券时报) and sourced to People’s Finance News (人民财讯), is based on information obtained from Apple’s supply chain. No further details on pricing, launch timing, or specific component suppliers were disclosed. MacDailyNews Take: The mix is being adjusted toward the higher end which will benefit iPhone ASP.
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Deepwater Asset Management Managing Partner Gene Munster argued on X that SpaceX will eventually produce its own handset, even as Elon Musk has repeatedly said he does not want to make a phone.
SpaceX buys 800 MHz spectrum, aims to make Starlink Mobile a major U.S. carrier
Deepwater Asset Management Managing Partner Gene Munster argued on X that SpaceX will eventually produce its own handset, even as Elon Musk has repeatedly said he does not want to make a phone. The comment came in response to SpaceX’s announcement of a deal to acquire nationwide low-band spectrum that strengthens Starlink’s path toward becoming a major U.S. mobile carrier.
Elon says he doesn’t want to make a phone. I still think $SPCX eventually will.
A vertically integrated handset on a Starlink mobile network could deliver features carriers can’t match, and cheaper service.
That’s a bigger problem for Samsung than Apple. $AAPL’s device and services tie-in is harder to break.
On October 8, 2026, SpaceX said it had reached an agreement to acquire Grain Management’s nationwide portfolio of low-band spectrum licenses—up to 14 megahertz of paired spectrum in the 800 MHz band. Grain had obtained the licenses from T-Mobile earlier in the year under conditions tied to the T-Mobile–Sprint merger. Combined with the roughly 65 MHz of mid-band spectrum SpaceX is acquiring from EchoStar and the company’s next-generation Starlink constellation (including FCC authorization for thousands of additional satellites), the low-band airwaves address a key technical gap: better signal penetration indoors and through obstacles such as walls and foliage. SpaceX stated that the combination positions Starlink Mobile to offer reliable service “indoors, outdoors, in cellular dead zones, and everywhere in between,” with existing phones already supporting the 800 MHz band. Elon Musk called the development a “very big deal.”
Munster wrote: “Elon says he doesn’t want to make a phone. I still think $SPCX eventually will. A vertically integrated handset on a Starlink mobile network could deliver features carriers can’t match, and cheaper service. That’s a bigger problem for Samsung than Apple. $AAPL’s device and services tie-in is harder to break.” He contends that controlling both the network and the device would let SpaceX offer capabilities and pricing that traditional carriers and handset makers cannot easily replicate.
Musk has long expressed reluctance. At a 2024 Pennsylvania town hall he said, “The idea of making a phone makes me want to die. But if we have to make a phone, we will. But we will aspire not to make a phone,” framing the decision as a potential response to heavy-handed app-store or platform controls by Apple or Google. In February 2026 he stated “We are not developing a phone” after reports suggested otherwise. In late January he allowed that such a device was “not out of the question at some point” but would be “a very different device than current phones,” optimized purely for running high-performance-per-watt neural nets. In July he dismissed as “utterly false” a Wall Street Journal report that SpaceX had shown investors a slim, AI-oriented handset prototype ahead of its IPO. He has also described future phones more broadly as AI “edge nodes” rather than traditional smartphones.
SpaceX went public in June 2026 in the largest IPO in history, pricing at $135 per share under the ticker SPCX and achieving an initial valuation near $1.8 trillion. Starlink has been a major growth driver; the company has been building both satellite direct-to-device capabilities and, with the new spectrum, plans for hybrid terrestrial infrastructure. The spectrum deals move SpaceX from primarily partnering with existing carriers toward operating its own significant mobile network presence in the U.S.
Whether SpaceX ultimately ships a conventional phone, an AI-first device, or neither remains speculative. Munster’s view highlights the strategic logic of vertical integration once Starlink Mobile has nationwide low- and mid-band spectrum and a large constellation. Apple’s tight hardware-software-services ecosystem is widely viewed as more resilient to disruption than Samsung’s more open Android-based approach, which is why Munster sees the greater risk for the Korean manufacturer.
MacDailyNews Take: For now, Musk himself continues to signal that a homegrown smartphone is not a priority, unless competitive or platform pressures make it necessary. Apple simply needs to make sure that iPhones always work well with Starlink Mobile and SpaceXAI’s Grok.
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