Linked List: October 18, 2010

Monday, 18 October 2010

Apple Reports Record Fourth Quarter Results ★

Apple, reporting over $20 billion in revenue and $4.3 billion in profit:

Apple sold 3.89 million Macs during the quarter, a 27 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 14.1 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 91 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 9.05 million iPods during the quarter, representing an 11 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter. The Company also sold 4.19 million iPads during the quarter.

14 million iPhones strikes me as surprisingly high (and the final nail in Antennagate’s coffin). 4.19 million iPads actually sounds a little low to me, though. I would have guessed 5 million.

Kevin Guilfoile’s ‘The Thousand’ ★

Just finished Kevin Guilfoile’s new novel, The Thousand, and I really enjoyed it. It’s smart, fun, intricately plotted, and really comes together at the end. Sort of like a Dan Brown novel for smart people. Don’t take my word for it — check out the glowing reviews. $16 for the hardcover, $10 for the Kindle edition.

Round-Up of Analyst Predictions for Apple’s Q4 Results ★

Speaking of Philip Elmer-DeWitt, he’s got a good round-up of analyst predictions for today’s quarterly results announcement from Apple. What’s the deal with Daniel Ernst’s prediction of a mere 2.4 million iPads sold? Apple sold 3.27 million iPads the previous quarter — does he really think iPad sales have gone down? It boggles the mind.

Update: That 2.4 million iPads number must be a typo, because today Ernst set a target price for AAPL of $500 — way up from the current price of $315 or so.

What if the iPad Counts as a ‘PC’? ★

Philip Elmer-DeWitt on a report by Deutsche Bank’s Chris Whitmore:

Exclude the iPad, and Apple’s PC sales grew 24% year-over-year. Include them, and Apple’s unit sales soared roughly 250%. By comparison, Hewlett-Packard grew 3% year-over-year and Dell units fell 5%.

When the iPad is part of the mix, Apple’s share of the U.S. PC market is about 25%. That makes it the market leader, having gained a remarkable 18 points in the space of two quarters.

Like I just said, there’s no way Microsoft and Intel aren’t taking this seriously.

Engadget’s Nokia N8 Review ★

Vlad Savov’s review of Nokia’s new flagship smartphone is devastating: decent hardware (but a slow processor) and terrible software.

Intel, Microsoft, and the Curious Case of the iPad ★

Brooke Crothers:

“That tablet thing? Yeah, we’ll get back to you on that.” That’s a crude but fairly accurate encapsulation of the attitude Microsoft, Intel, and Advanced Micro Devices have toward the iPad and the tablet market in general.

Why the cavalier attitude? Before I defer to the opinion of an IDC analyst I interviewed (below), here’s one pretty obvious reason I’ll put forward. All three companies look at their revenue streams — traditional PC hardware and software on laptops, desktops, and servers — and come to the conclusion that the tablet is a marginal market. A deceptively accurate conclusion, because at this point in time — and even 12 months out — the tablet is marginal compared with the gargantuan laptop, desktop, and server markets.

An interesting take, but I disagree. I think Microsoft and Intel are both taking the iPad’s success extremely seriously. It may be a small market, as of today, but the trend line is heading north at a very steep angle. I think it’s a case where you can’t take what Microsoft and Intel say about it at face value. Intel has no processor to power an iPad-class device. Microsoft has no OS to run an iPad-class device. Most worrying for these companies may not be the iPad itself, but the fact that iPad competitors — scant though they are, as of today — aren’t running Intel processors or Microsoft software.

Enterprise HTML: Proven High Performance, Enterprise-Level and Scalable HTML Tips and Best Practices ★

Don’t miss the companion sites for Enterprise CSS and JavaScript.

Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Development of Warhammer Online ★

Scathing behind-the-scenes look at the development of EA’s Warhammer Online MMO game, from “EA Louse”, a pseudonymous insider:

Anyway, back to Warhammer. We shouldn’t have released when we did, everyone knows it. The game wasn’t done, but EA gave us a deadline and threatened the leaders of Mythic with pink slips. We slipped so many times, it had to go out.

We sold more than a million boxes, and only had 300K subs a month later. Going down every since. It’s “stable” now, but guess what? Even Dark Age and Ultima have more subs than we have. How great is that? Games almost a decade make more money than our biggest project.

He predicts doom for EA’s long-awaited Knights of the Old Republic MMO game. Take it with a grain of salt, given the author’s anonymity and the fact that it’s mostly about a single game that went bad, but it’s an interesting look at the big-ticket game industry.

‘Top Men’ ★

I’m a guest on the latest episode of The Incomparable podcast, along with Jason Snell and Dan Moren. The topic: Raiders of the Lost Ark.

‘Taken for a Ride’ ★

Funny-because-it’s-true spot from JetBlue. (Via Joe Stump.)