Linked List: December 9, 2010

Thursday, 9 December 2010

How Many Verizon iPhones Will Apple Sell Next Year? ★

Philip Elmer-DeWitt on analyst estimates for Verizon iPhone sales, if we’re all right that a deal is imminent:

Reid is even more conservative. He’s only raising his 2011 iPhone sales estimates to 63.3 million from 62.5 million, or 800,000 units.

That’s it? 800,000 measly iPhones? For reasons known only to themselves, analysts who have been breathlessly anticipating a Verizon iPhone are now busy lowering expectations.

That’s crazy. If Verizon gets the iPhone next year, they’ll sell a million on the first day.

Update, 27 January 2011: Ends up that Reid had previously included a Verizon iPhone in his 2011 forecast. But, in his initial forecast, he used a March ship date. The 800K adjustment is from Reid switching to a February ship date. I.e., he’s guessing Verizon will sell 800,000 iPhones in February alone, not 2011 as a whole. Not crazy at all.

If the Slipper Fits ★

I’ll be in the commentary booth for tomorrow afternoon’s Layer Tennis 2010 Playoffs semifinal match between Noper and Greg Hubacek. Here’s my match preview.

Kottke will be in the booth for the other semifinal, between Mark Weaver and Mig Reaves.

Apple Names Flipboard ‘iPad App of the Year’ ★

Jay Yarow:

Apple is highlighting all the most popular apps from 2010 in iTunes right now. Osmos is another app that gets a big shout out, named “iPad game of the year.” Hipstamatic is app of the year for iPhone, and Plants vs. Zombies is game of the year for iPhone.

The Talk Show, Episode 20: ‘Galaxy Dingus’ ★

If you like podcasts, you might like mine and Dan Benjamin’s. If you don’t like podcasts, shame on you. Brought to you this week by two fine sponsors: An Event Apart (the conference for people who make websites) and Campaign Monitor (email marketing software for designers).

BlackBerry PlayBook Hands-on Video Demo ★

Nice scoop for Boy Genius Report. Interesting use of swipes on the bevel surrounding the display. Swiping up from the bottom is how you switch between running apps. Swiping down from the top shows a toolbar in some apps.

TweetDeck’s Max Howell on Developing for iOS and Android ★

A different perspective than Whereoscope’s:

Android Police: Do you like developing for iPhone or Android better, and why?

Max Howell: iPhone honestly. The development tools for Android are raw and relatively unloved which can lead to frustration. Debug cycles on Android take half a minute at least. On iPhone you can be testing new code in seconds. And it takes less effort to make beautiful software on iPhone, and ultimately all that matters is: is my software gorgeous? Does it feel amazing to use? Because if it doesn’t your app will not take off.

We had to work harder to make our app look great and feel great on Android. It’s worth it though, and ultimately is achievable. Google could make it easier, currently the UI tools in the API feel like the wrong level of abstraction.

Good, thoughtful interview overall. He mentions that Android fragmentation has not been a problem for TweetDeck. In contradiction to Whereoscope, though, Howell describes Android’s developer documentation as “poor”.

300K ★

Andy Rubin, on Twitter:

There are over 300,000 Android phones activated each day.

That’s over 9 million per month.