Smartphone makers should help stem the tide of iPhones being swiped in the state, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said today.

Schneiderman sent letters to the heads of Apple, Google, Microsoft and Samsung asking them to help prevent theft and questioning why phones aren’t better protected from being resold on the black market.

He cited a rise in violent street crimes including phone thefts, often called “Apple picking.”

“I would like to know what Apple is doing to combat this growing public safety problem,” Schneiderman wrote in a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook.

He asked why “companies that can develop sophisticated handheld electronics, such as the products manufactured by Apple, cannot also create technology to render stolen devices inoperable and thereby eliminate the expanding black market.”

The NYPD has reported that smartphone thefts are increasingly on the rise in the city, even as other crime declines.

Thieves often swipe them from their owners’ hands – the subway is a frequent setting, just before doors close or on a platform – then wipe the devices and resell them for hundreds in cash.

According to Schneiderman’s office, between January and September of last year, 11,447 smartphones were reported swiped, an increase of 3,280 from the year before.

And too many of these robberies are violent, Schneiderman said.

This month, a woman was mugged at gunpoint in Crown Heights for her Android phone. In February, three people were stabbed on a Queens subway platform in a fight over the phone, and last April, a 26-year-old Museum of Modern Art chef was killed for his phone in the Bronx.

Schneiderman asked the companies to give information about what they tell consumers regarding safety. He also requested whether they financially benefit when customers have to shell out cash to replace stolen phones.

“Cracking down on violent and dangerous cell phone thefts is important for New Yorkers,” Schneiderman said. “The companies that dominate this industry have a responsibility to their customers to fulfill their promises to ensure safety and security.”

The post A.G. asks smartphone companies to help stop ‘Apple picking’ appeared first on Metro.us.

Microsoft Corp Chairman Bill Gates said he was not satisfied with the company’s pace of innovation over the last few years, and that it had mishandled its early mobile strategy.

“We didn’t miss cellphones, but the way that we went about it didn’t allow us to get the leadership. It’s clearly a mistake,” Gates, Microsoft’s former CEO, said in a rare interview with CBS.

Gates hedged questions on whether he was happy with Chief Executive Steve Ballmer’s performance. He said Ballmer had achieved a lot but that both he and Ballmer were not satisfied.

“(Ballmer) and I are two of the most self-critical people I know,” Gates said.

“There are a lot of amazing things that Steve’s leadership achieved — Windows 8, the Surface computer, Bing, Xbox. Is it enough? No. He and I are not satisfied that in terms of breakthrough things we are doing everything possible.”

Ballmer took over as Microsoft’s CEO in February 2000. The company’s shares have dropped 45 percent since then.

A former senior Microsoft executive, Joachim Kempin, said in a book he wrote about his time at the company that Ballmer was not the right leader for the world’s largest software company but held his grip on it by systematically forcing out any rising manager who challenged his authority.

His criticism echoes that of investor David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital, who called for Ballmer to step down in 2011.

Microsoft has faced criticism for its latest Windows 8 versions for different devices, while its Bing search engine has won only a small market share.

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