Linked List: September 30, 2010

Thursday, 30 September 2010

Mark Sigal: ‘Apple’s Segmentation Strategy, and the Folly of Conventional Wisdom’ ★

Terrific piece by Mark Sigal:

The following inconvenient facts must be an affront to the horizontal, commoditized, open, market share zealots. Apple has launched three major new product lines since 2001: the iPod (October, 2001); the iPhone (July, 2007); and the iPad (April, 2010).

The company’s stock is up 3,000 percent since the launch of iPod, 125 percent since the launch of iPhone, and 20 percent since the launch of iPad.

In that same time period, the major devotees of the loosely coupled model — Microsoft, Google, Intel and Dell — have been, at best, outpaced by Apple 6X (in the case of Google dating back to the launch of iPod) and at worst, either been wiped out (in the case of Dell) or treaded water (in the cases of Microsoft and Intel) in every comparison period.

Whole thing is a must-read.

Beijing Apple Store Closed Due to Scalpers Buying Unlimited iPhone 4s ★

The Apple Store lifted its previous limit of two iPhones per customer; this drew an onslaught of scalpers buying 20-30 at a time. (The scalpers resell the iPhones on the gray market.) In the photo, that’s a pile of cash at the register.

Léo Apotheker Named CEO and President of HP ★

HP:

The Board of Directors of HP today announced the election of Léo Apotheker as Chief Executive Officer and President. Apotheker, who previously served as CEO of SAP, will also join HP’s Board of Directors.

Authentic Jobs Charity: Water Campaign ★

Cameron Moll is trying to raise $20,000 to help bring clean water to people in Central African Republic. Clean water — just think for a few seconds about life without access to clean water.

Some great writing about this campaign from Cameron, and from Greg Storey. They could use your help.

Claim Chowder on the Ship Date for BlackBerry Tablet ★

Speaking of the BlackBerry PlayBook, currently scheduled to ship in “early 2011”, here’s what Bloomberg’s Hugo Miller reported on July 30:

Research In Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, plans to introduce a tablet computer in November to compete with Apple Inc.’s iPad, according to two people familiar with the company’s plans.

Beware Obfuscated Language ★

Derek K. Miller, on Say Media’s acquisition of Six Apart:

And for a personal blogger, writer, and editor like me, the most disturbing stuff is a sentence like this, from the merger press release:

Through the creation of social hubs and influencer-driven custom content programs linked to the innovative AdFrames offering, SAY Media delivers engagement across display and mobile.

Uh, what?

Does that mean anything? Especially for someone who just wants to write and publish a clear and useful website?

It means nothing. It’s gibberish. And it epitomizes everything that’s gone wrong with Six Apart. Compare and contrast with the original Movable Type website from September 2001 — clear, concise, well-written, personal.

Does the BlackBerry PlayBook Actually Exist? ★

Justice Gödel Conder asks:

There is not a single frame in the BlackBerry PlayBook commercial that shows the actual device! The only thing being seen in the commercial is CG special effects. Don’t believe me? Watch the ad again. Sure, those special effects are amazingly fast and responsive and cool but where is the device?

And it was never demoed onstage, nor did anyone get to use one at the press event.

Horace Dediu on ‘Non-Google’ Android Phones ★

Horace Dediu, on the fact that all iPhones ship with apps that use Google services, but some (many?) Android phones don’t:

In other words, is Google’s income from the iPhone offsetting its losses from Android?

That’s a cheeky way to put it. Another way to look at it is that Google is in a great position: they win if Android wins, and they win if iPhone wins. And I don’t think it’s a zero sum game where only one platform will “win” — it’s looking to me like both the iPhone and Android are winners, which is good news all around for Google. It’s sort of like Microsoft and the Mac — Microsoft makes money when you buy a Windows PC, and they make money when you buy Office for Mac.

Researchers Claim Some Android Apps Covertly Send GPS Data to Advertisers ★

Ryan Paul:

They used TaintDroid to test 30 popular free Android applications selected at random from the Android market and found that half were sending private information to advertising servers, including the user’s location and phone number. In some cases, they found that applications were relaying GPS coordinates to remote advertising network servers as frequently as every 30 seconds, even when not displaying advertisements.

WSJ on Dell’s Tablet Plans ★

Ross Kelly, reporting for the WSJ:

Dell Inc. will launch its seven-inch tablet in the next few weeks and a 10-inch tablet within 6-12 months, Dell Greater China President Amit Midha said Wednesday. [...]

He said Dell will launch ‘a whole slew’ of new products in the next 6-12 months, including additional three-inch, four-inch and 10-inch devices.

Translation: “We’ll just keep throwing shit up against the wall and hope that something sticks.”