Linked List: January 9, 2012

Monday, 9 January 2012

Great follow-up piece from Fraser Speirs.

Smartphone Customer Satisfaction Survey ★

The facts continue to show a decided pro-Apple bias.

Matt Gemmell has assembled a thoughtful and extensive list of commentary on the pros and cons of allowing comments on a website.

Speaking of the Original iPhone Introduction Five Years Ago ★

Jason Snell:

The memory that sticks with me, in fact, is that I was temporarily dumbstruck by the sheer feel of the device. I was testing it while sitting with a couple of Apple executives as well as an Apple PR handler. The idea was that I could try out the device while also asking them questions. As I used the iPhone, I found it very difficult to speak questions or even listen to the answers. The iPhone was so unlike anything I’d ever handled. The brightness of the screen and the density of its pixels were shocking; the weight of the small slab was strangely comforting.

It was all in shocking contrast to my phone at the time, a Palm Treo. I hated it. Every time I went somewhere, I asked myself, “Do I need to bring my phone with me?” If I could avoid it, I wouldn’t bring it along. The iPhone would be the first phone I’ve owned that I wanted to keep in my pocket at all times.

Here’s the phone that was in my pocket as I watched that keynote five years ago.

‘Five Years Ahead’ ★

Dan Frommer on Steve Jobs’s claim five years ago today that the original iPhone software was five years ahead of the competition:

If anything, where Apple is the most ahead of Android today — perhaps even 5 years ahead — is on the business and customer experience sides.

Apple still seems to have the power in its relationships with carriers, demanding a clean user experience (no pre-installed crap), control over software updates and the length of its update path, a mostly-reliable App Store that makes a lot of money in app sales for developers, distribution through its own retail stores, tight integration with Macs and the iPad, and great devices at great prices. Not to mention an extremely profitable business model — selling tens of millions of iPhones per year for a big profit. These things seem to be more iffy in the Android camp.

I agree that these are the areas where Apple is most ahead today. But among the phones I’ve got here in my office right now are a Nexus Galaxy and a Lumia 800 — state-of-the-art phones representing two competing platforms. I also have an original iPhone running iOS 2.2. Web pages scroll the smoothest on the iPhone.

I’m not saying the original 2007 iPhone is a better overall device today than the Lumia or Galaxy. It has very little RAM and a much slower processor and you can feel it. But there are aspects of the original iPhone software — animation, scrolling, touch-tracking — that remain superior to any competition. Was everything about the original iPhone five years ahead of the competition? No, no way — especially in terms of hardware. But some aspects of its software were more than five years ahead.

Speaking of iPhone and Android Market Share Numbers ★

Ryan Kim, reporting for GigaOM on the latest US smartphone market share numbers from the NPD Group:

In a CES telecom fact sheet, the research firm said that iOS has zoomed up to 43 percent of sales in October and November, compared with 26 percent in the third quarter. Meanwhile, Android’s share dropped from a high of 60 percent in the third quarter to 47 percent in October and November.

I’m chalking this report up as a statistical outlier for now, but maybe this is simply what happens when the iPhone is available on AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint.

Samsung AdHub ★

What was it Jean-Louis Gassée said about Samsung versus Google?

Buying Love ★

Greg Kumparak at AOL/TechCrunch, regarding the news that Microsoft will be offering $10-$15 bounties to retail salespeople to push Windows Phones:

In turn, John Gruber asks: “If this strategy was on the table, why didn’t Microsoft start this a year ago?”

Here’s why: because it’s an admission of failure.

Microsoft’s obstacle isn’t an easy one. When people walk into a phone store in search of a new smartphone, the sales dude generally offers up two choices: iPhone or Android. Meanwhile, the only people being handed Windows Phones are the ones who asked for them right off the bat.

Now, why is this? Is it because Apple and Google are coughing up piles of cash to get the sales reps to push their phones? Nope — while carriers and specific OEMs might offer spiffs for the sales of certain handsets, I can’t find evidence that Apple or Google themselves ever have.

But who cares who is paying the spiffs? Saying that neither Apple nor Google pay them isn’t really a fair comparison if handset makers producing Android phones are. A better way to put it is that there are no spiffs for iPhones, but there are for Android phones. Maybe Microsoft was hoping that handset makers would do this sort of thing for them, but obviously they haven’t. What I’m saying is if they’re willing to do this now, they should have been willing to do it a year ago to gain a foothold in the market as soon as possible.

Obviously this isn’t sustainable in the long run, given that $10-$15 per phone is probably the most Microsoft could be making in licensing fees. But if they were ever willing to do it, it only makes sense to do it as early as possible.

Unfunny Republicans ★

Interesting observation from Slate’s John Dickerson: none of the Republicans left in the 2012 campaign are funny.

Perhaps Instead of a Tablet Computer, They Should Have Made a Machine That Burns Money ★

Matt Lynley, reporting for Business Insider on the demise of Fusion Garage, the company behind the CrunchPad:

An industry source just forwarded us the first page of a legal document showing Fusion Garage is done. According to our source, the company owes creditors around $40 million altogether.

As a point of comparison, that’s at least 40 percent of the money that Kickstarter has raised for all Kickstarter projects combined.

Samsung Will Not Upgrade Galaxy S Phones to Android 4.0 ★

This, despite Samsung’s inclusion in Google’s much-touted Android Update Alliance from last year’s I/O conference.

Five Minutes on the Verge: Sparrow’s Dom Leca ★

Nice interview by Thomas Houston of Sparrow designer Dom Leca.

Samsung vs. Google ★

Jean-Louis Gassée:

This leaves us with the potential for an interesting face-off. Not Samsung vs Motorola/HTC, but… Samsung vs. Google. As Erik Sherman observes in his CBS MoneyWatch post, since Samsung ships close to 55% of all Android phones, the company could be in a position to twist Google’s arm.

Has any single PC vendor ever controlled that much of the Windows market? I don’t think so.