William Goodall's Blog Occasional mutterings

October 29, 2010

Apple passes RIM, now number four cell phone maker globally

Filed under: Apple,iOS,IT — William_T_Goodall @ 16:48

Apple’s stellar fiscal fourth quarter results continue to break records for the company. It sold 14.1 million iPhones, and its $20 billion in revenue topped one of Microsoft’s best quarters ever. Now, according to market research firm Strategy Analytics, the iPhone has catapulted Apple past both RIM and Sony Ericsson to make the company the fourth largest mobile phone vendor in the world.

Apple’s sales of 14.1 million iPhones was enough to capture 4.3 percent of the global mobile phone market for the last quarter. That’s double the roughly 2 percent market share the company managed this same time last year.

Despite the boost in ranking, however, Apple still has a tough road ahead to move into one of the top three positions. Nokia is still the global leader with 33.7 percent market share, while Samsung grabbed 21.8 percent and LG held on to 8.7 percent. All three of those vendors still sell millions of feature phones in addition to smartphones, though sales of those devices has been slowly waning as smartphones increase in popularity.

But Apple doesn’t plan on backsliding, either. “We’ve now passed RIM—and I don’t see them catching up with us in the foreseeable future,” CEO Steve Jobs boasted during Apple’s most recent quarterly earnings call.

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[From Apple passes RIM, now number four cell phone maker globally]

The naysayers appear to have been wrong again.

October 20, 2010

The Trainyard Story, or How To Make a Smash Hit iPhone App [Stories]

Filed under: Apple,iOS,IT — William_T_Goodall @ 16:05

#stories There are people who make some serious bread from the App Store. Matt Rix, the creator of the wildly popular iPhone game Trainyard, is one of them. Here’s how he did it, starting with his sketchbook. More » [From The Trainyard Story, or How To Make a Smash Hit iPhone App [Stories]]

Interesting reading. And it’s a good game too 🙂

October 15, 2010

With iPad, Apple is the biggest US PC maker

Filed under: Apple,iOS,IT — William_T_Goodall @ 22:14

Apple is now the biggest US PC maker if you read between the lines of the latest Gartner and IDC PC sales data. This is why Apple’s announcement of new Mac OS X features next week will also be the point when AAPL defines the future of computing. read more [From With iPad, Apple is the biggest US PC maker]

The categories have always been broken.

October 6, 2010

Internet Explorer market share dips below 50 per cent

Filed under: IT,Microsoft,www — William_T_Goodall @ 16:50

Microsoft’s once dominant Internet Explorer now accounts for less than half the web browser market, according to recent figures from StatCounter. [From Internet Explorer market share dips below 50 per cent]

Good news for standards-based browsing.

October 1, 2010

Atheists excel in religious knowledge – Laurie Goodstein – The New York Times

Filed under: Superstition — William_T_Goodall @ 17:34

Thanks to -DRF for the link

Americans are by all measures a deeply religious people, but they are also deeply ignorant about religion.

Researchers from the independent Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life phoned more than 3,400 Americans and asked them 32 questions about the Bible, Christianity and other world religions, famous religious figures and the constitutional principles governing religion in public life.
On average, people who took the survey answered half the questions incorrectly, and many flubbed even questions about their own faith.
Those who scored the highest were atheists and agnostics, as well as two religious minorities: Jews and Mormons. The results were the same even after the researchers controlled for factors like age and racial differences.

“Even after all these other factors, including education, are taken into account, atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons still outperform all the other religious groups in our survey,” said Greg Smith, a senior researcher at Pew. That finding might surprise some, but not Dave Silverman, president of American Atheists, an advocacy group for nonbelievers that was founded by Madalyn Murray O’Hair. “I have heard many times that atheists know more about religion than religious people,” Mr. Silverman said. “Atheism is an effect of that knowledge, not a lack of knowledge. I gave a Bible to my daughter. That’s how you make atheists.” … continue reading [From Atheists excel in religious knowledge – Laurie Goodstein – The New York Times]

The first thing one discovers when one tries to debate with a religionist is that they don’t know anything. Not even about their own religion. Religion is fuelled by and requires ignorance.

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