Kara Swisher Reports That Carol Bartz Is Out at
Yahoo

post from Daring Fireball on 06 September 2011 08:03:20 PM. © Daring Fireball

Name one great thing Yahoo has done in the last five years.

Update: Confirmation from Bartz herself, including that she was fired over the phone.

?

Read The Full Article:
http://allthingsd.com/20110906/exclusive-carol-bartz-out-at-yahoo-cfo-interim-ceo
/?mod=tweet

Digg this

The Familiar Lag

post from Daring Fireball on 06 September 2011 07:03:45 PM. © Daring Fireball

Vlad Savov, grading the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 on a curve:

Even the very latest version of Android (Honeycomb, v3.2) isn?tquite up to the standard of iOS in terms of responsiveness andutility-enhancing applications, and I did manage to spot thefamiliar lag when dragging onscreen items around the Androidinterface. That?s a software shortcoming that will get betterwith time, mind you, and having the almost-standard 1280 × 800Android tablet resolution should stand this Galaxy Tab in greatstead to receive the Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade. Samsung saysit?ll do its utmost to provide users with the best possiblesoftware, but wouldn?t commit on whether or not the 7.7 willget ICS.

So the responsiveness is poor compared to iOS, but it “will get better with time” because of an OS update the device might get. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

?

Read The Full Article:
http://thisismynext.com/2011/09/01/samsung-galaxy-tab-7-7-hands-on-ifa-2011/

Digg this

Googles Customers

post from Daring Fireball on 06 September 2011 07:03:45 PM. © Daring Fireball

Why do people complain that Google doesn’t offer customer support via the phone? Of course they do. For their actual customers: advertisers.

?

Read The Full Article:
http://searchengineland.com/google-customer-support-suprise-1000-reps-handling-10
000-calls-a-week-from-60-countries-91616

Digg this

From the DF Claim Chowder Archive: Tomi Ahonen on
iPhone Sales

post from Daring Fireball on 06 September 2011 06:03:18 PM. © Daring Fireball

Former Nokia executive Tomi Ahonen, predicting market share drop-off for the iPhone back in April 2010:

The Apple iPhone sales pattern differs from all other majorsmartphone makers because Apple only releases one new model peryear. So the sales take off strongly and then decline as therivals keep releasing newer phones.

The first of those two sentences is a fact. The second is not — it’s conventional wisdom. Conflating conventional wisdom with fact is a problem for many of Apple’s competitors. Remember, for example, how often it was treated as a fact that the iPhone’s lack of a user-removable battery was a “con”?

?

Read The Full Article:
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/04/20/tomi-ahonen

Digg this

Analyst: iPhone 4 Remains Top-Selling US
Smartphone Despite Growing iPhone 5 Hype

post from Daring Fireball on 06 September 2011 06:03:18 PM. © Daring Fireball

Neil Hughes at AppleInsider:

Analyst T. Michael Walkley with Canaccord Genuity revealed in anote to investors on Tuesday that checks with U.S. carriersindicate that sales of the iPhone 4 remain on top ahead of theiPhone 5 debut, despite the fact that the iPhone 4 is more than ayear old.
“Our checks indicated strong sales of the iPhone 4, as it remainedthe top selling smartphone at AT&T and Verizon despite increasingconsumer expectations for the iPhone 5 launch,” he wrote.

The first few years of the iPhone, sales would drop precipitously in the April/May/June quarter preceding the release of a widely expected new model. That doesn’t happen any more, because the iPhone is no longer a tech-nerd product. I’m sure sales of iPhones to tech nerds have dropped recently, but the iPhone is now a mass-market product.

Also worth remembering: the iPhone 4 has been on the market as the top-of-the-line iPhone far longer than any previous iPhone.

Oh, and the second-best-selling handset at AT&T for the last three months, according to the same analyst? The iPhone 3GS.

?

Read The Full Article:
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/09/06/iphone_4_remains_top_selling_us_sma
rtphone_despite_growing_iphone_5_hype.html

Digg this

Sprint and the iPhone

post from Daring Fireball on 06 September 2011 05:03:50 PM. © Daring Fireball

Nilay Patel flagged this passage in Sprint’s lawsuit against AT&T’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile:

The iPhone and the Storm are classic examples of the existingscale advantage of the two largest national wireless carriers.Apple launched the iPhone with AT&T under an exclusive arrangementin 2007. In early 2011, Apple then gave Verizon a time-to-marketadvantage for the iPhone, most likely because Verizon had thelargest subscriber base in the United States. Sprint has had tocompete without access to the iPhone for nearly five years. TheTwin Bells have had a tremendous time-to-market advantage with theiPhone, and have been able to lock many customers into two-yearcontracts with the iconic device.

Patel reads this as a hint that Sprint might be getting the iPhone 5. I don’t see that. (I think it makes sense that Apple would continue to expand the list of iPhone carriers, both in the U.S. and around the world, so Sprint may well be getting the iPhone 5. I’m just saying I don’t see what Sprint wrote in the above-quoted lawsuit as being any different whether they were getting the iPhone soon or not.)

What I find interesting is the tacit admission from Sprint that it is at a competitive disadvantage without the iPhone. Seems obvious to me, of course, and probably to most regular DF readers. But how do the Android supports who insist that Android is “winning” square that belief with this?

?

Read The Full Article:
http://thisismynext.com/2011/09/06/sprint-iphone-lawsuit/

Digg this

Shorter Mike Arrington: I Sold My Company (to a
Bunch of Idiots) and Expected to Still Maintain Control Over It.

post from Daring Fireball on 06 September 2011 05:03:50 PM. © Daring Fireball

Mike Arrington at AOL/TechCrunch seems to have a little seller’s remorse:

We?ve proposed two options to Aol.
1. Reaffirmation of the editorial independence promised at the time of acquisition. Given the current circumstances, that means autonomy from Huffington Post, unfettered editorial independence and a blanket right to editorial self determination. To put it simply, TechCrunch would stay with Aol but would be independent of the Huffington Post.
or
2. Sell TechCrunch back to the original shareholders.
If Aol cannot accept either of these options, and no othercreative solution can be found, I cannot be a part of TechCrunchgoing forward.

Anyone else running low on popcorn watching this saga unfold?

?

Read The Full Article:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/06/editorial-independence/

Digg this

Apples Storefront Symmetry

Even the sidewalk is part of the design.

Fireballed: Cached here.

?

Read The Full Article:
http://www.ifoapplestore.com/db/2011/08/29/apples-designers-work-towards-storefro
nt-symmetry/

Digg this

The Supply-Side Virus

Paul Krugman, writing for Slate all the way back in 1996, on the durability of supply-side economics in the face of evidence that it doesn’t work. 15 years later, this stands up remarkably well.

?

Read The Full Article:
http://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/virus.html

Digg this

HP Splitting WebOS Hardware and Software

Derek Kessler, reporting for PreCentral:

We?ve received two memos sent to employees of HP?s webOSGlobal Business Unit that tell the story of how HP is splittingthe former Palm, Inc. into two separate units that will report toseparate divisions of HP. The hardware division will stay underthe Personal Systems Group and continue to report to StephenDeWitt. The software side — the side that HP?s stillinterested in — is to be split off and moved over to HP?sOffice of Strategy and Technology, where they?ll report to EVPShane Robinson.

What strikes me about this are the stupid names of these internal divisions. “Personal Systems Group”, “Office of Strategy and Technology”. What a bunch of crap. Arbitrary bureaucratic internal divisions like this are the antithesis of what I mean when I say that Apple, as an institution, is itself Apple-like. In the way that Apple products aren’t junked-up with extra buttons, logos, stickers, legacy ports, or needless ornamentation, Apple as an organization isn’t saddled with a confusing internal bureaucracy that doesn’t map directly onto the company’s products and services.

?

Read The Full Article:
http://www.precentral.net/hp-splitting-webos-gbu-two-software-headed-office-strat
egy-and-technology-exclusive

Digg this