Linked List: November 16, 2009

Monday, 16 November 2009

File This One Under ‘Things I Never Expected to Say’ ★

I agree with Grover Norquist.

Windows Mobile Market Share Drops by About 30 Percent in 2009 ★

David Meyer reports:

According to figures released by Gartner on Thursday, Microsoft’s mobile operating system had 11 percent of the global smartphone market in Q3 2008. A year later, it had 7.9 percent of the market, while the iPhone’s share had risen from 12.9 percent to 17.1 percent, and RIM’s share had risen from 16 percent to 20.8 percent. Symbian’s market share fell from 49.7 percent to 44.6 percent over the same period — a 10 percent drop.

I’m sure Steve Ballmer has the whole situation under control, and everything is proceeding exactly according to Microsoft’s plans to achieve their stated goal from May 2008 for Windows Mobile to account for 40 percent of the global smartphone market by 2012.

Facebook App for WebOS ★

It looks like a Twitter client.

Turley Muller on iPhone Profitability ★

Turley Muller, whose track record on Apple financials has been remarkably accurate in recent quarters, shows why he believes that (a) Apple generated $2 billion in profit on iPhone sales last quarter (suggesting that Strategy Analytics’s $1.6B estimate was low), and (b) Apple’s profit margins on iPhones are around 60 percent.

In short: Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer implicitly revealed during the most recent finance call that the average selling price for an iPhone during the quarter was about $610. If Apple can sell iPod Touches for $199, the cost of goods for an iPhone 3GS is probably around $250. That’s right in line with other savvy Apple analysts’ estimate of around $350 average margin (pre-tax) per iPhone. Give or take $10 or $20 here or there and it doesn’t make much difference: you multiply that by 7.4 million iPhones and you get a lot of fucking money.

Seriously, just look at these numbers from Muller.

Taming Light: Stanley Kubrick Exhibition Poster ★

Gorgeous poster by Martin Ansin.

Google Wave’s Scrollbars ★

Another spot-on bit of UI analysis from Lukas Mathis. I love how he illustrates these pieces — so thoughtful.

Learning Advanced JavaScript ★

Nifty interactive tutorial by John Resig.