Macs are Amazon's 'Most Wished For'
But some people may not be getting the computers they hoped for this holiday season
Image: Amazon.com
On the eve of Cyber Monday, Apple (AAPL) Macs held the top three spots on Amazon's (AMZN) "Most Wished For" laptop list, as well as the top four spots on the desktop computer wish list.
But wishes are not horses — or premium-priced Macs — and judging from Amazon's "Most Gifted" lists, some of those Christmas wishes might be filled by more affordable Microsoft (MSFT) Windows machines.
On the laptop "Most Gifted" list, the top two spots Sunday morning went to a $549.99 Toshiba Satellite and $418.98 Acer Aspire, respectively. The $1,199 MacBook Pro had been pushed to No. 3.
On the desktop computer "Most Gifted" list, three of the top four were still Macs, but a Hewlett Packard (HPQ) Compaq had moved into the No. 2 spot.
On Amazon's "Bestseller" lists — a broader measure of what's being purchased on America's largest online retail store — no Macs topped either list Sunday morning. But four Macs were among the top 10 bestsellers for both laptops and desktops.
[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]
The iPhone's got Seoul
Apple's smartphone lands with a bang in Korea as pre-orders approach 65,000
Seoul iPhone launch. Photo: news.naver.com
After China's muted reception, Koreans greeted the launch of the iPhone Saturday in the style to which Apple (AAPL) has become accustomed. Hundreds of customers lined up, some as long as 26 hours in advance, to pick up the country's first batch of 1,000 iPhones amid helium-filled balloons, flashing strobe lights and a blaring rockabilly band.
According to the AP, KT Corp. (KTC), the country's second-largest carrier, had received an estimated 65,000 pre-orders — a number likely to loosen Samsung and LG Electronics' tight grip on the local mobile phone market. Between them, the two manufacturers (the world's No. 2 and No. 3 cellphone makers after Nokia), had sold some 400,000 smartphones in Korea at prices considerably higher than they charge in other countries.
Video: Mr. iFart appeals to Steve Jobs
The developer of the iPhone's No. 1 flatulence app says Apple's policies stink
Joel Comm
Another voice has been added to the chorus of iPhone developers complaining about Apple's (AAPL) App Store approval process.
The latest is that of author and Internet entrepreneur Joel Comm, whose iFart Mobile app is one of the iPhone's all-time best sellers (No. 1 last Christmas and still No. 16 on AppShopper's Entertainment list).
Comm has sent Steve Jobs an open appeal and the "Dear Steve" video posted below the fold. His complaint: his latest app, a simple green button that makes the cash register's "ka-ching" sound, has been rejected twice by App Store reviewers for containing "minimal user functionality."
The reviewers may be right. However Apple, as Comm demonstrates, has approved plenty of equally brainless apps, including some of his own creations.
Still, Comm makes a good point:
The future of the PC: Chrome or Fusion?
Will tomorrow’s PC be a nimble netbook or a high-def laptop? Google and AMD recently offered opposing views.
If Google has its way, the mainstream PC of the future will be a lot simpler than the one you’re using right now.
Like a TV, it will turn on almost instantly instead of taking nearly a minute to boot up. It will do everything through a web browser, pulling down most programs and data from the Internet. It’ll make do with a low-cost processor and will carry a cheap price tag – kind of like today’s stripped down netbooks, only with even fewer frills.
That’s just Google’s (GOOG) vision. A few miles down the road from the search giant’s Silicon Valley headquarters, the folks at chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices have a very different idea. More
Chart: iPod vs. iPhone
It took the iPod 17 quarters to reach 30 million units. The iPhone did it in 10.
iPod quarters date from fiscal Q1 2002; iPhone from Q3 2007. Source: Company reports
Thanks to AAPLinvestors' Terry Gregory for gathering the data from Apple's (AAPL) quarterly reports. You can see his spreadsheet here.
Below the fold: A version of the chart that extends the iPod numbers to the end of fiscal 2009.
UPDATE: Also, per reader request, a chart showing sales per quarter for the first 20 quarters.
Can Google Wave replace email?
Electronic mail is so 1996. Will "Waving" replace it?
Email is antiquated. We need a better way to get things done online than hitting “reply all” to long message chains and sending constantly updated attachments.
Google aims to make waves in email. Image: Google.
Google (GOOG) is attempting to solve this program with a new service called Google Wave. Announced at a developers’ conference last May, the software application and computing platform blends email, instant messaging and online collaboration. If it gains traction, it could be disruptive, particularly in the enterprise market—but the chances for that may be slim.
Here's how Google says Wave works: You create a wave and add people to it. Wave members can add their own text, photos and feeds. They can also edit the wave. Everyone on the wave can view changes being made in real time. Through a playback feature, you can also rewind the wave and look at how it has evolved.
If you’re having trouble wrapping your mind around what exactly Google Wave is, you’re not alone. Google opened the service to a limited number of users in September. I am not in this group, which includes a sampling of software developers and early technology adopters, but I spoke to a half-dozen folks who are trying it, and all report that it’s a little hard to understand. More
The smartphone wars, one year later
The iPhone leads the pack, Android is gaining, everybody else is losing share
Click to enlarge. Source: AdMob
It's been a year since Google (GOOG) released Android OS, the open-source smartphone operating system widely perceived as the most likely to overtake Apple's (AAPL) iPhone in the long run.
As it happens, Google this month also purchased AdMob, the world's largest purveyor of mobile phone advertising. So this seemed as good a time as any to take a snapshot of the changing smartphone marketplace, as measured by ad requests to AdMob's network.
We reviewed a year's worth of AdMob data — including the October numbers released Monday — and charted it on the graph at right (reproduced full-size below the fold).
There's a bias in the data, since AdMob ads run better on iPhone OS and Android devices than on, say, Research in Motion (RIMM) BlackBerries. But the trends are clear.
Over the past year, Nokia's (NOK) Symbian has lost the largest raw market share, down to 25% last month from 59% the same month a year earlier. In percentage terms, Windows Mobile (MSFT) is the biggest loser, down 70% in 12 months, with Symbian, Palm's (PALM) Web OS and BlackBerry OS close behind.
These numbers are based on worldwide ad requests. Apple's lead is even greater when AdMob zeroes in on the U.S. and U.K. markets. For a look at how the iPhone's share of the U.S. and worldwide markets have grown, see the chart prepared by MacRumors' Erik Slivka here.
Below the fold: A full-size fever chart of AdMob's worldwide data for all the major smartphone operating systems.
[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]
Intel Capital stays in the VC picture
Corporate venture capital is one of the corners of the VC world that runs extremely hot and cold. When the startup world is gathering interest and money, practically every large company – even some small outfits – trots out its own venture investment group. But just as fast as they pile in with their corporate cash, the suits also run for the exits when times get dicey.
Take the previous tech boom-and-bust cycle. As the ‘90s ended and this decade began, corporate VC investment in startups soared from $468 million at the end of 1998 to $6.2 billion at the beginning of 2000, according to Thomson Reuters.
When the bottom fell out of the tech economy, the corporate cash crashed too, down to $848 million in the third quarter of 2001. Never mind that corporate VCs inevitably lose money on their deals, it appears that most public companies just don’t seem to have the stomach for it.
Still, a handful of tech companies have consistently stayed in the corporate VC game, including Microsoft (MSFT), Qualcomm (QCOM), and more recently Google (GOOG). For these tech companies, buying technology and talent early is worth the risk (they all also happen to be sitting on billions in cash to invest). But perhaps the most steadfast corporate VC is Intel (INTC). More
New iPhone ads stick it to Verizon
Apple underscores one of the strengths of AT&T's cellular network
Image: Apple Inc.
Scheduled to air on primetime TV Monday night are a pair of Apple (AAPL) iPhone advertisements that highlight one of the few things AT&T's (T) network can do that Verizon's (VZ) can't: surf the Web in the middle of a phone conversation.
(AT&T's GSM network allows simultaneous voice and data connections; Verizon's CDMA network does not.)
The spots — posted below the fold — follow a series of high-profile Verizon ads attacking both AT&T and, by association, the iPhone, for the shortcomings of the carrier's 3G network.
Apple's response — showing users a feature that they may not have been aware of — is considerably more subtle than AT&T's, which accused Verizon of false advertising and sought relief from its ad campaign in the courts, so far without success.
The ads are scheduled to run during House, Dancing With the Stars, How I Met Your Mother, One Tree Hill, Big Bang Theory, CSI: Miami, The Daily Show, and the late-night talk shows (Conan, Kimmel, Fallon, Craig Ferguson).
Below the fold: the new ads.
Jailbroken iPhones infected, again
Security experts report that a malicious worm is tunneling its way through Dutch iPhones
This may be one of those "I told you so" moments that gives comfort to people on both sides of the Apple-Microsoft divide: Those who claim that Apple's (AAPL) products are no more immune to malware attacks than Microsoft's (MSFT), and those who insist that Apple's operating systems are nearly impenetrable, as long as you play by the rules.
According to the Dutch security firm XS4ALL, a software worm has been spreading through the Netherlands that can seize control of iPhones without their owners' knowledge and hand it over to a server in Lithuania.
"This worm is doing really bad things," XS4ALL's Scott McIntyre told security.nl.
Only a few hundred iPhones have been infected so far, according to the BBC. But if the worm gets into large Wi-Fi networks, thousands could be at risk.
This is the third reported iPhone malware incident in as many weeks and by far the most dangerous.
