The Daring Fireball Linked List

Friday, 3 Feb 2012

Judge Not By What They Do, But Rather By How They Spin ★

Avram Piltch of Laptop magazine, talking to Li Qiang, founder of China Labor Watch:

“Dell and Hewlett Packard are not doing as good as Apple is doing right now,” Li Said. “But when we talk about publicity and public relations, it’s another story.”

So who does CLW spend the most effort criticizing — the companies whose actual labor practices are worse, or the one whose “public relations” (read: willingness to take a meeting with CLW) are worse? Take a guess.

Apple Updates iBooks Author With Clarified EULA ★

Matthew Panzarino:

Apple has updated its iBooks Author app in order to clarify the language of its End User License Agreement. The changes to the EULA clarify that Apple does indeed intend the packaged product to be sold on the iBookstore only, but also make it clear that it does not lay claim to the content that you use to create the book, nor does it try to limit what you can do with that content elsewhere.

First ★

Horace Dediu:

Apple reached 75% of profit share, nearly 40% of revenue share and 9% of units share.

Apple and Samsung combined for about 91% of profits with RIM third at 3.7%, HTC fourth at 3.0% and Nokia last at 1.8% of a $15 billion total for the quarter.

Not bad.

In Praise of Cheap Labor ★

Paul Krugman, writing for Slate back in 1997:

Such moral outrage is common among the opponents of globalization — of the transfer of technology and capital from high-wage to low-wage countries and the resulting growth of labor-intensive Third World exports. These critics take it as a given that anyone with a good word for this process is naive or corrupt and, in either case, a de facto agent of global capital in its oppression of workers here and abroad.

But matters are not that simple, and the moral lines are not that clear. In fact, let me make a counter-accusation: The lofty moral tone of the opponents of globalization is possible only because they have chosen not to think their position through. While fat-cat capitalists might benefit from globalization, the biggest beneficiaries are, yes, Third World workers.

Keep in mind that Krugman is, by anyone’s standards, a true liberal.

Thursday, 2 Feb 2012

Planned Parenthood Action Center ★

If you’re as disappointed as I am with the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation’s decision to drop funding for breast cancer screening at Planned Parenthood, do what I did: donate to Planned Parenthood.

(Cupertino-area readers, take note: Planned Parenthood is a registered 501c3, and thus eligible for a matching donation from Apple.)

iTunes Store Credit 20 Percent Off ★

The good news: Best Buy is selling iTunes gift cards at 80 cents on the dollar.

The bad news: you have to shop at Best Buy.

Microsoft Pushes for Plugin-Free Web ★

John Hrvatin from the Internet Explorer team:

The transition to a plug-in free Web is happening today. Any site that uses plug-ins needs to understand what their customers experience when browsing plug-in free. Lots of Web browsing today happens on devices that simply don’t support plug-ins. Even browsers that do support plug-ins offer many ways to run plug-in free.

Metro style IE runs plug-in free to improve battery life as well as security, reliability, and privacy for consumers.

How long until Google joins the party?

Five-Year-Old Analyzes Logos ★

Astute and adorable.

Backpedalling ★

Shawn King on Violet Blue’s odd response to having it pointed out that the Macworld/iWorld “booth babe” she wrote about was not a booth babe:

All is not lost. I have a solution for Violet Blue and ZDNet. First, offer a public apology to Piroska Szurmai-Palotai. Secondly, restore the story to its original writing. Yes, both are embarrassing actions but ones that real journalists recognize must be done from time to time. Offer a sincere mea culpa to both the developer, the Mac Community and to journalists everywhere.

And finally, offer to pay for the same booth for Ms Piroska Szurmai-Palotai and her company at next year’s Macworld.

See also this follow-up.

Caviar and Champagne ★

This week’s episode of America’s second-best podcast features discussion regarding Macworld/iWorld, the evolution and future of cameras and camera makers, and Apple’s Chinese manufacturing partners.

Brought to you by FreshBooks and MailChimp.

Zuckerberg’s Share ★

Nick Bilton and Evelyn Rusli, reporting for the NYT on who’s profiting from the Facebook IPO:

Mr. Zuckerberg, 27, has 533.8 million shares, worth $28.4 billion based on a company valuation of $100 billion, or $53 a share. He also has undisputed control of the company, a remarkable achievement since the company has received financing from some of the world’s top business minds. He owns 28.4 percent of the company outright and he controls 57 percent of the voting rights. […]

Bill Gates controlled only 49.2 percent of Microsoft as it went public in 1986. Google’s co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, each owned about 15 percent of their company when it went public in 2004.

I’m not much interested in and don’t use Facebook, so I seldom write about them. But that Zuckerberg was able to hold onto so much stock and an astounding majority of the voting rights is proof that his success is no fluke. The guy must be a badass at the negotiating table.

Dangers of Fracking ★

Clever, informative website by Linda Dong.

Having a Wee Bit of Trouble ★

Siri comes to Scotland.

Comparison of First Seven Quarters: iPod, iPhone, iPod ★

Nice little chart from the great Horace Dediu. If you asked me what the most underrated aspect of Apple is today, I’d say it’s the speed at which iPad sales have grown. The iPhone took off fast, but the iPad has taken off way, way faster. I suspect many Apple watchers consider the iPad an iPhone-like success — but it’s far bigger.

Dalrymple: ‘Apple Will Not Hold an Event in February’ ★

As usual, I would not bet against Jim.

Red Blooded ★

Sweet video for a sweet notebook; effects all done in-camera.

Not Everyone Copies Apple ★

Interesting contrast between the new CEOs of Apple and Sony.

The Global Handset Business in One Chart ★

Informative data visualization by Benedict Evans.

‘Think Profit’ ★

MG Siegler compares Apple’s profit-focused business approach to Amazon’s:

As their dance with the dreaded red line proves, Amazon isn’t anywhere close to operating the way Walmart does yet. In fact, Amazon’s margins are so slim that Facebook, which just filed to go public today, recorded nearly double the profit of Amazon last year ($1 billion versus $631 million). That’s pretty crazy when you think about it.

Avid Studio for iPad ★

$5 video-editing iPad app from Avid. No word on an Android version.

Like Royal Weddings ★

Nat Torkington:

Tech Giant IPOs are like Royal Weddings: the people act nice but you know it’s a seething roiling pit of hate, greed, money, and desperation that goes on a bit too long so by the end you just want to put an angry chili-covered porcupine in everyone’s anus and set them all on fire. But perhaps I’m jaded.

Bonus points for tagging the post with “porcupines”.

Apple Passes LG to Become World’s Third Largest Mobile Phone Manufacturer ★

Eric Slivka, MacRumors:

Apple’s share of the market hit 8.7% in the fourth quarter and registered at 6.0% for the full year. Steve Jobs famously noted during the iPhone’s 2007 introduction that Apple was shooting to take 1% of the massive overall mobile phone market, and the company has clearly exceeded that goal and can now set its sights on a 10% quarterly share during the next spike in sales.

I’ve long held that Apple’s share of the overall phone market is a far more interesting metric than their share of “smartphones”. All phones will soon be smartphones.

Dixons Apparently Sucks ★

Ben Rooney, writing for the WSJ:

Presumably Mr. Browett interviews really, really well, and perhaps Apple CEO Tim Cook has yet to visit a PC World or Currys (Dixon’s face of retail in the U.K.), but the two retail experiences are poles apart.

Apple stores are the epitome of tasteful design, with no visible cash registers, highly trained staff and an exacting attention to visual appeal; think gleaming white counters, bleached wood floors, minimal and tasteful signage.

Currys and PC World are more in the “stack ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap” end of retail, with all of the associated aesthetic appeal of that school of selling: garish purples, violent yellows, stacks of products, cluttered, aggressive, frenetic.

You can argue that Target (Ron Johnson’s gig prior to his Apple stint) isn’t much like an Apple Store either, but at least Target is tasteful, places value on design, and strives for a pleasant shopping experience. Those are values shared with Apple. Dixons and PC World seemingly share no values with Apple.

I’m not implying that Browett was hired to or intends to Dixons-ify the Apple Store experience — just pointing out that it’s a curious hire, also given how rarely Apple hires executives from outside the company.

Wednesday, 1 Feb 2012

Macworld 2012 ★

Astute summary of last week’s show by Shawn Blanc.

Similar take from Chris Foresman at Ars Technica, who summed the changes thus:

As a tech journalist, Macworld has gradually become less interesting. As a user of Apple’s products and a geek in general, however, the show has become perhaps more interesting.

70 Percent of All Smartphones Sold by AT&T and Verizon Last Quarter Were iPhones ★

Android’s market share victory is imminent.

This Is Sad All Right ★

Violet Blue, writing about last week’s Macworld/iWorld Expo:

I was, in fact, looking at The Saddest Booth Babe In The World. […]

She sat on a stool in between two large monitors across the aisle from us. The pretty brunette was in one of those big corner booths that paid a few bucks for that sorta-prime real estate you know is a gamble for whoever forked over the money to sell wignuts or widgets or iPhone cases or other sundry USB landfill.

Her shoulders were hunched and her hands sat limply in her lap beneath breasts that were packaged air-tight in a tight, branded t-shirt.

She stared at the floor. Unlike her counterparts, she never smiled. Sad booth babe was sad.

But as Shawn King points out in the comments under the photo, the woman in question doesn’t look anything at all like a “booth babe” — she simply looks like a developer who happens to be a woman manning her booth. And according to subsequent comments by Tim Breen, that’s exactly what she is:

The woman in the white top appears to be Piroska Szurmai-Palotai, the (sole?) developer for NeoPlay Entertainment. She has three apps currently in the App Store and was a first-time exhibitor at the Mobile Apps Showcase this year.

AT&T and Samsung Finally Upgrade the Infuse 4G to Android 4.0 ★

Wait, did I say 4.0? I meant Android 2.3.

iPhone 4S Camera Made by Sony ★

That’s one way for camera companies to thrive in the face of declining point-and-shoot sales: to become component suppliers for smartphones and other devices.

No Longer Loving Google ★

Nelson Minar:

I imagine half of my readers are smugly thinking “See, I told you Google was evil all along”. I don’t think that’s right. In particular I refuse to give in to a cynical view of Google’s “Don’t be evil” motto; that ethos was very real, a sincere and important guiding principle. And if a big company like Google can’t avoid being evil, then what world-changing enterprise can? But I think Google as an organization has moved on; they’re focussed now on market position, not making the world better. Which makes me sad.

Apple Updates Final Cut Pro X With Multicam, Broadcast Monitoring ★

Finally.

In Praise of Apple’s .ibook Format ★

Joseph Pearson, of the e-book startup Bookish:

So we were surprised and delighted by some aspects of the .ibook file that iBooks Author spits out. Their extensions to EPUB are done precisely the right way. They’re not done with dollops of embedded JavaScript — a fact that Baldur Bjarnason laments. (You can be sure EPUB’s governing body, the IDPF, is lamenting that too.)

Instead they’ve done it with microformats. […] They’ve said: this stuff is up to reading software developers to implement. Like Apple. Or Amazon. Or Kobo. Or Booki.sh. What we need to do is give the ebook authors enough opportunities to customise the functionality, not recreate it for every single book.

This is exactly the right stance. We’re thrilled to see this, although it means a whole lot of work for us.

Apple’s approach suggests that they think “write once, run everywhere” is no better a strategy for e-books than it has been for any other sort of software.

Making Mistakes ★

To top off those panel appearances, while in San Francisco I stopped by the palatial Mule Design studio to make an appearance on Let’s Make Mistakes, hosted by my friend and American McCarver co-contributor Mike Monteiro and Katie Gillum. We talked about everything from conferences to NFL team uniform design.

Less Than Perfect Apps ★

My second appearance was on this panel moderated by Lex Friedman, featuring Glenn Fleishman, David Wiskus, Paul Kafasis, Guy English, and yours truly, talking about the flaws that bother us in apps that we love.

The State of Apple ★

I made two speaking appearances last week at Macworld/iWorld. The first was this one, with Jason Snell and Andy Ihnatko, on the state of Apple (and, really, the state of the industry).

Tuesday, 31 Jan 2012

Apple Hires Dixons CEO John Browett to Lead Retail ★

James Davey and Poornima Gupta, reporting for Reuters:

Apple chief Tim Cook, making his first high-profile hire since taking the helm of the world’s largest technology company, lured the well-regarded industry executive to fill a critical post once held by Ron Johnson, another outsider who left Target Corp to join Apple in 2000. […]

Browett, Dixons’ CEO since 2007, was previously chief executive of Tesco Plc’s successful online shopping site. He will oversee Apple’s retail strategy and the expansion of its stores around the world, from the current total of around 300.

You don’t see many executives trading up from CEO of one company to senior vice president of another. That Browett is from Europe is a pretty good signal that international expansion is a top priority for Apple retail.

Tesla Motors Model S Options and Pricing ★

Looks great, and less expensive than I expected. I like my friend Nat Irons’s quip that the $50,000 40kWh model is “the white plastic MacBook of the product line”.

Visualizing Apple’s Quarterly Results ★

Fantastic tool by Francesco Schwarz for visualizing Apple unit sale and revenue growth over the past decade.

I stumbled across this earlier today when I asserted that the iPhone is now far more popular and profitable then the iPod ever was. Figured I should double check that, just to make sure. Not only is it true, but after last quarter it’s not even close. iPod unit sales followed a fairly regular pattern: about 10 million units sold per quarter for the first nine months of each calendar year, then a little over 20 million units sold each holiday quarter. Apple sold just under 23 million iPods in Q109 (the 2008 holiday quarter) — until this last quarter, that was the highest-ever quarterly unit sales number for an Apple product segment. Not only did the iPhone break the 30-million mark last quarter, but with a grand total of 37 million it came damn close to breaking the 40-million mark. Think about that: Apple had never sold 30 million of anything in a quarter and almost sold 40 million iPhones.

Now think about what happens if iPad sales continue to grow at their current trajectory.

RIM Creates Four Cartoon Characters to Spread ‘Be Bold’ Message ★

Someone at RIM is even nuttier than those two guys who got drunk on that airplane and chewed their way out of their restraints.

Sony, Too ★

Athima Chansanchai, reporting for Gadgetbox:

Sony’s Kate Dugan admitted that despite the natural disasters in Japan that affected production and shipment of its digital cameras, “true decline” has set in for digital cameras, in which sales are down 20 percent, the first time losses have hit in the double digits. The exodus is most pronounced amongst entry level users, who have turned to their phones as their all-in-one must-have gadget.

Dugan said that meant Sony has to focus on things phones can’t achieve, such as “high optical zoom, low light shooting, full HD video.” The way the company sees it, phones are fine to shoot food on the fly, but for “important moments should go to cameras.”

Compare and contrast Sony’s approach to dealing with the decline in point-and-shoot camera sales with Apple’s approach to the decline in iPod sales. Apple is skating to where the puck is heading; Sony is skating to where the puck is at the moment. Apple executives have long been on the record that the company is OK with iPod sales being cannibalized by smartphones — so long as they are Apple’s own smartphones. That’s worked out well for Apple, because the iPhone is now far more popular and profitable than the iPod ever was. They didn’t hesitate in 2007 to make the first iPhone, in Steve Jobs’s own words, “the best iPod ever” too.

Sony makes camera phones, too. But their phones are not as popular as their cameras were. (Could be worse. Consider, say, Canon and Nikon, whose point-and-shoot camera sales are in decline but neither of which even make smartphones.) Sony should no more abandon the point-and-shoot camera market than Apple should abandon the music-playing iPod market, but Sony has to recognize that it’s a business in decline and that the future is in putting better cameras into phones.

Monday, 30 Jan 2012

Canon Sales Slip, President to Step Down ★

Mike Tomkins, Imaging Resource:

The company reported growing demand for single-lens reflex cameras globally in 2011, but demand for compact cameras was said to have been sluggish in all but emerging markets.

Is there any doubt why compact camera sales are down?

Y-Combinator Startup Caught Stealing From 37signals ★

The funny thing isn’t that these Curebit guys shamelessly ripped off webpage designs from 37signals, but that they did it in such a stupid way. How did they not think they were going to be caught and come out of this looking foolish at best, dishonest at worst?

‘If You Do Things Well One at a Time, You End Up in a Really Good Place.’ ★

Great interview with Ron Johnson by the AP:

Q. Who are you targeting?

A. We are going after all Americans. We would like to be the store for everyone.

‘Rave Reviews’ ★

MacDailyNews calls foul on Seeking Alpha writer Cameron Kaine’s claim, regarding Amazon as a rival to Apple, that “last November the company launched an assault on Apple’s tablet reign with the unveiling of its Kindle Fire to rave reviews.”

Forrester: 20 Percent of Global Info Workers Use Apple Products for Work ★

Strong showing for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac in this new report from Forrester.

How Amazon’s KDP Select Saved David Kazzie’s Book ★

David Kazzie:

As I write this blog post, The Jackpot is No. 68 on Amazon’s Paid Bestseller list.

CUE FLASHBACK SOUND FROM LOST

One week ago, my book was dead in the water. And I mean dead. After a promising start last summer, sales crashed, completely, totally and spectacularly, despite wonderful reviews (from people who didn’t even know me!). From December 1 through January 24, I sold 21 copies on Amazon. One on BN.com. And that was it. Barely enough to fund a lunch date for me and my wife. The previous couple months hadn’t been much better. To be honest, I was trying to forget the book even existed as I worked on my new manuscript, my internal doomsayer wondering how badly I’d effed my career with a self-publishing disaster.

Saturday, 28 Jan 2012

MindNode ★: My thanks to MindNode for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed. MindNode is an easy-to-use mind-mapping app, available for your Mac, iPad, and iPhone. With great features like Dropbox support and Wi-Fi sharing, the different versions work together cleverly, providing you with a system for organizing your ideas and plans wherever you are.

Friday, 27 Jan 2012

Motorola’s Buzzwords ★

Seems like their caps lock key works.

New York Times Goes Deeper on Chinese Apple Factory Working Conditions ★

Charles Duhigg and David Barboza, reporting for the New York Times:

“Apple never cared about anything other than increasing product quality and decreasing production cost,” said Li Mingqi, who until April worked in management at Foxconn Technology, one of Apple’s most important manufacturing partners. Mr. Li, who is suing Foxconn over his dismissal, helped manage the Chengdu factory where the explosion occurred.

“Workers’ welfare has nothing to do with their interests,” he said.

Tim Cook responded in a company-wide email.

Thursday, 26 Jan 2012

Make That Two ★: Analyst Ed Zabitsky sees AAPL shares falling to $270:

The reason for his bearish view of the company is that Zabitsky believes the competing Android mobile operating system from Google “will change the playing field entirely” with its latest 4.0 update, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich. He says the experience on the updated platform is on par with Apple’s iOS.
There’s Always One ★: Thomas Kee is doubling down on his advice to sell Apple short:

My purpose here is NOT to suggest that sales of iPhones are going to decline aggressively, even though I firmly believe AAPL products do not carry with them the competitive advantages they once did. Instead, I am suggesting that sales growth like what we have been witness to will not continue at the same rate. This stall is coming, it is closer than most people think, and what we were just witness to is likely the peak in this growth cycle.