Linked List: April 19, 2013

Friday, 19 April 2013

Horace Dediu Takes Henry Blodget to the Woodshed Regarding Verizon iPhone Sales ★

Enjoy.

Writing for the Time 100:

What the competitors don’t seem to understand is you cannot get people this smart to work this hard just for money. Jony is Obi-Wan. His team are Jedi whose nobility depends on the pursuit of greatness over profit, believing the latter will always follow the former, stubbornly passing up near-term good opportunities to pursue great ones in the distance.

It’s more than just Apple’s competitors who don’t understand this.

(Via Matthew Panzarino.)

More Facebook Home Ads ★

Josh Elman, writing on Medium:

Facebook is celebrating all the wrong things. It advocates tuning out the people around you to see what else is happening that must be more interesting elsewhere. It foments FOMO. And it makes Facebook Home look like the best possible way to be the least present.

What I find interesting is that the “people first” interface of Facebook Home follows a trail blazed by Microsoft with Windows Phone. But Facebook’s ads promoting Home are 180 degrees apart from Microsoft’s for Windows Phone. Microsoft’s ads promoted the idea that with Windows Phone, you would — and should — spend less time looking at your phone. (My comments here.) Facebook’s ads take the opposite approach, and flat-out encourage you to tune out of your surroundings — at home, at work, everywhere — and pay attention only to what’s going on in Facebook on your phone.

Pretty Sure Twitter Didn’t ‘Forget’ Anything ★

“Kellex”, writing for Droid Life, “Twitter Launches Music Service, Continues to Forget That Android Exists”:

Twitter made their new music service official this morning with an announcement and then release on…iOS. As you can tell, and should be no surprise if you look at Vine, Twitter still doesn’t realize that Android is just as, if not more important than iOS in the mobile game these days. Then again, with iOS you don’t have as many devices to develop for and should be easier to launch with, but I digress.

Triage: Federico Viticci’s New Favorite Email App for iPhone ★

Federico Viticci, writing at MacStories:

If I find myself wanting to use an app without making an effort to remember I have to use it, then I know that app has “clicked” for me. That’s Triage.

US Smartphone Sales at Verizon and AT&T ★

Benedict Evans:

The implication is that there is an ongoing base of sales that goes to Android, and to some extent iPhone as well, that totally ignores product launches, and just buys a phone. Then, there’s a base of people who wait to buy the new iPhone (and of course come off their 24m contact in another launch quarter, eager to buy). And this latter base is getting bigger every year, and indeed driving all of the growth.

So actual numbers show that the iPhone is thriving at Verizon and AT&T. Yet we get headlines and stories like this hot mess yesterday from CNN Money.

Spot the Error ★

John Moltz:

That pretty much sums up the current state of reporting on Apple right there, doesn’t it?

Chitika Pegs iPad’s Tablet Web Usage Share at 82 Percent ★

Yet another sign Apple is doomed.

Mat Honan on Twitter Music ★

Mat Honan, writing for Wired Gadget Lab:

And finally, there’s potential for this to just plain work as a way to help you find new music. It’s already abundantly clear how important social is to music discovery. The social aspects of Rdio and Spotify are some of their strongest features. Facebook has become, by way of those two services, something akin to a pop chart of your friends favorite songs. Likewise, Ping’s poor social implementation explains why it never went anywhere.

The app is really good — useful for its intended purpose of helping you find new music, and full of interesting interaction design elements. This is obviously what Apple was shooting for with Ping, done right.

Despite Slumping PC Industry, Microsoft Profit Rises 19 Percent ★

Nick Wingfield, reporting for the NYT:

For its fiscal third quarter, which ended March 31, the company reported net income of $6.06 billion, or 72 cents a share, up from $5.11 billion, or 60 cents a share in the same period a year ago.

Revenue rose 18 percent to $20.49 billion from $17.41 billion.

I, and others, often wonder how Ballmer has held onto his job as CEO. Here’s the answer: he knows how to make money.

Samsung Probed in Taiwan Over ‘Fake Web Reviews’ ★

BBC News:

Fair-trade officials in Taiwan are looking into reports that Samsung paid people to criticise rival HTC online. Samsung is alleged to have hired students to post negative comments about phones made by Taiwan’s HTC.

Samsung, based in South Korea, said the “unfortunate incident” had gone against the company’s “fundamental principles”.

Shocker.