Linked List: October 10, 2011

Monday, 10 October 2011

The iPad Marches On 

New numbers from Comscore:

In August 2011, iPads delivered 97.2 percent of all tablet traffic in the U.S. iPads have also begun to account for a higher share of Internet traffic than iPhones (46.8 percent vs. 42.6 percent of all iOS device traffic).

Wonder which tablets split the other 2.8 percent?

Comparing Big-Ass Smartphone Screens to 1950s Tail Fins 

This is the absolutist position, and I don’t agree with it. I don’t think 4-inch and bigger screens are silly or needless. For some purposes, bigger is better, and for people who value those purposes, these are better devices. What I believe is that 3.5-inches (or so) is the sweet spot — the best trade-off.

But I do think there’s a Pepsi Challenge type effect going on here. The thing with the Pepsi Challenge was that most people preferred (and prefer today) the taste of Coke over Pepsi, when drinking a full serving. But, when you only take a sip or two of each, people tend to prefer whichever is sweeter, and that was Pepsi. Some people really do prefer Pepsi, of course. But I think there are a bunch of people buying big-ass Android phones after taking just a sip or two in the store.

Ripe 

The Seattle Times interviews Windows Phone chief Andy Lees:

Q: Do you think the iPhone 4S (running on iOS 5) gives you an opening? Do you think they missed an opportunity there?

A: Yes I do. I think, from an end user’s experience on the software, there’s a lot of interesting reviews written comparing us to iOS 5 and the amount that we’ve got done in 11 months — so some people (are) making comparisons of pace. […]

From a pure hardware perspective, I was surprised they’re not giving the consumer more choice. People want a variety of different things.

So there have been one million pre-orders for Windows Phone 7 devices running Mango?

iPhone 4S Pre-Orders Top One Million in First 24 Hours 

How will Apple recover from this debacle?

Netflix U-Turn 

Zero points for consistency.

Square Now Processing $2 Billion in Payments Per Year 

Gaining traction fast.

Size 

Marco Arment:

Android phones have been one-upping each other with screen size a lot recently. It’s an interesting tactic that seems to be working, at least relative to other Android phones. When comparing phones side-by-side in a store, the larger screens really do look more appealing, and I bet a lot of people don’t consider the practical downsides.

Apple generally tries to make it instantly obvious which of its products are better — what the trade-offs are. 16/32/64 GB: pay more, get more storage. iPhone 4S vs. 4: faster, better camera, Siri.

Bigger-screen iPhone proponents are telling me via email that they don’t necessarily want Apple to replace the 3.5-inch models with a 4-point-something inch one — just want a bigger screen model added to the lineup. But then which is “better”? I think it’s likely that many customers’ intuition would tell them that bigger must be better, and they’d make a choice they’d come to regret. What appeals to you in-store, side-by-side, isn’t necessarily what will appeal to you in long-term actual use.

Panic of the Plutocrats 

Paul Krugman:

The way to understand all of this is to realize that it’s part of a broader syndrome, in which wealthy Americans who benefit hugely from a system rigged in their favor react with hysteria to anyone who points out just how rigged the system is.

This is clearly political, but what’s interesting is that it’s not conservative/liberal, and it’s definitely not Republican/Democrat — both our national parties are the parties of Wall Street. For now.