Linked List: July 30, 2014

Wednesday, 30 July 2014

The Best Argument Yet for Net Neutrality Comes From Major League Baseball ★

Quartz:

Earlier this month, BAM quietly submitted its own letter to the FCC, where it was equally scathing about internet fast lanes[…]. It’s a shame that BAM’s comments have been overlooked, because they amount to one of the most coherent arguments in favor of net neutrality we have come across.

‘To Hell With the Actual Numbers’ ★

Philip Elmer-Dewitt talks to a former IDC researcher regarding how they draw their market share figures.

Microsoft’s Long, Slow Decline ★

Yours truly, getting lucky five years ago:

Apple’s strong growth in this segment is a sign that the market is turning against Windows. If for no other reason than that Apple has never entered the low-cost computer market, it’s always been the case that the most budget-conscious computer buyers were Windows users. But the converse wasn’t true — not all Windows users were cheapies.

Today, though, Microsoft is increasingly left only with customers whose priority is price.

‘The Apple iTime Is Destined to Fail’ ★

If John C. Dvorak were still alive, we’d see more articles like this one.

Wait. What?

Apple’s Double Digit U.S. Mac Growth Contradicts IDC and Gartner Reports of a Mac Sales Slump ★

Shouldn’t IDC and Gartner report these things after PC makers report their results? They look like fools after this quarter.