Nothing remains the same forever. This much Jose Mari Chan is telling us via his song “Constant Change.”

About seven decades ago, people would have skinned you alive for even suggesting that this country would someday find a close ally and friend in Japan. But today, it seems so natural for the countries to stand together in seeking to protect their respective territories.

Similar things have happened in the tech world.

Companies and vendors have seen alliances and enmities change as fast and as readily as the shifting sand. Today’s allies are tomorrow’s bitterest of rivals.

Today’s most beloved underdogs are tomorrow’s universally despised overlords.

Apple Suppliers Fall

Shares of stocks of Apple’s suppliers in Asia fell after the Nikkei newswire reported that orders for iPhone 5 parts were reduced 50 percent following lower-than-expected sales.

In Japan, Sharp, which supplies display panels for the iPhone 5, saw its stock drop 2.7 percent. Meanwhile, Samsung, Apple’s Korean supplier and rival, suffered a 2.6-percent decline in Seoul’s stock market.

Apple itself had to endure an 11-month low in New York following the Nikkei report.

Sculley’s Advice for Apple

He is not exactly the most confidence-inspiring bearer of news or purveyor of counsel. After all, some observers are faulting him for Apple’s near-death experience a couple of decades or so ago.

This, however, failed to prevent John Sculley, Apple’s ex-chief executive officer, from speaking his mind and telling Apple it should focus on cheaper products and work harder to grab a bigger share of the emerging markets.

I wonder what would Apple’s chief marketing officer Phil Schiller have to say about that. Last week, Schiller said something to the effect that hell would freeze over first before his company comes up with a cheap product.

London Calling

London’s Metropolitan Police recently released statistics showing more than 300 mobile phones are being stolen each day in England’s capital. About half of those mobile phones are iPhones, the data also show.

This is rather not surprising. After all, contrary to what some media organizations have been reporting, the iPhone remains the world’s most wanted smartphone even among the world’s most wanted criminals.

15K RIM Apps

Microsoft can learn a trick or two from Research In Motion as far as encouraging developers to create apps for its platform is concerned.

Last week, RIM’s Port-A-Thon events managed to secure some 15,000 applications, which certainly do wonders for the soon-to-be-released BlackBerry 10 operating system.

That’s all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.