Linked List: March 16, 2015

Monday, 16 March 2015

Google Asking Firefox Users to Switch Their Default Search Engine ★

Matt McGee, writing for Search Engine Land:

Why would Google give up the top two-plus inches of its search results page like this? It goes back to the November announcement that Mozilla was dropping Google in favor of Yahoo as the default search engine in its Firefox web browser. Even as the No. 3 browser with about 16 percent market share (according to StatCounter), Firefox still drives a substantial number of searches.

Apple and China ★

Om Malik:

Apple’s revenues went up from $12.7 billion in 2011 to $29.8 billion in 2014. At Goldman Sachs’s conference, Cook is rumored to have said that he has been studying China for 30 years and that “I think we’re still not too far from the surface” in opportunity terms. That should be good news for the company since the year-over-year growth in its two major markets — Americas and Europe (where the revenues are already large) is starting to moderate, but China is going strong and picking up steam. Analysts estimate it is only a matter of time before China becomes bigger than Europe.

I think Om’s headline — (Now) Apple Is All About China — is a little strong, but only a little. China is a top-tier target for Apple, and for the foreseeable future, every major undertaking the company takes will surely have an eye on the Chinese market.

The New MacBook and the Original MacBook Air ★

Dylan Tweney, writing for VentureBeat, thinks the new MacBook is underpowered and needs another USB port:

Cult of Mac writes that the MacBook is a down payment on the future of laptops. Other PC makers may mock the MacBook today, but in a year or two, Apple will address some of the more glaring flaws (maybe adding a second USB-C port), drop the price, and mop up the competition. It followed this playbook with the initial MacBook Air, which was ridiculously overpriced and limited when it first came out, but which is an affordable workhorse today.

If Apple is indeed moving towards a more tablet-centric future, I have a suggestion: Make that Retina screen into a touchscreen, and make the keyboard detachable.

The key to understanding the new MacBook is that it didn’t replace any existing models in Apple’s lineup. In fact, the 11- and 13-inch Airs and the 13-inch MacBook Pro all got speed bump updates last week. If you need more ports or better performance, or if you frequently need to work while your MacBook is plugged into a power outlet, this machine is not for you, today. That’s why it didn’t (yet) replace anything in the lineup.

I thought Tweney almost had it, in the first of the two paragraphs quoted above. The original 2008 MacBook Air was slow, expensive (based on specs), lacked storage, only had one USB port, was the first Apple notebook without an optical drive, etc. It was not for everyone. It was not for most people, in fact. But some people loved it. The new 2015 MacBook is the same thing — some people will love it today, and it shows us Apple’s vision for the future of the notebook form factor.

Apple Watch Polling in Line With 2010 iPad Polling ★

Abdel Ibrahim:

Given that the wearable is the first new product category to come out of Cupertino since iPad in early 2010, I thought it would make sense to look at some of the old online polls about that launch to better understand what kind of reception is indicated for this one.

What a disaster it’ll be for Apple if Apple Watch is only as popular as iPad.