Linked List: July 31, 2011

Sunday, 31 July 2011

Might Be Time to Retire the ‘Smartphone’ Category ★

Horace Dediu finds that “smartphones”, across the board, are no longer all growing in sales. Nokia’s and RIM’s are down, only Apple’s, Samsung’s, and HTC’s are up:

The fact that not all vendors benefit from a boom indicates that the early, happy days are over. People are noticing that there is a difference between smartphones and are not buying any and all.

Samsung Stops Reporting Phone and Tablet Sales Data ★

Jordan Crook, AOL/TechCrunch:

Anybody notice something missing from Samsung’s Q2 results? Hint: it was the phone/tablet sales data. But why? Well, according to Samsung’s “new information policy”, phones and tablets data will heretofore [sic] remain a secret. “As competition intensifies, there are increased risks that the information we provide may adversely affect our own business,” said Samsung’s investor relations boss Robert Yi on the Q2 conference call.

I’m sure this has nothing to do with their tablet sales being weak.

Macworld Benchmarks Core i7 MacBook Airs ★

Nice performance boost, particularly for the 11-inch model. But I’d like to know if it takes a hit on battery life.

A Brief History of Apple Not Buying Things ★

Harry McCracken:

For years, Apple has confounded the rest of us by not buying things that it should clearly be buying. Not purchasing other well-known companies is so core to Apple’s strategy that it must have a whole department devoted to non-mergers and un-acquisitions.