More on Verizon/Alltel, Virgin/Helio, Philly Wi-Fi
Other stuff I recently wrote or chipped in on:
2007 by the numbers
Google Inc. crossed $700, IAC/InterActiveCorp split itself into five pieces, and Apple sold more than one million iPhones. Here’s a look at some of the numbers behind the year’s tech happenings.
Read Ones and Zeros
Apple’s gravitational pull
Many Apple retail stores are madhouses on ordinary weekends, so it’s no surprise they were crowded on Black Friday. But according to analysts, some of whom are studying the company’s holiday traffic for the first time, Apple’s performance is worth paying attention to.
According to Piper Jaffray, Apple stores exert “what can best be described as a gravitational pull” on mall shoppers. A shopper walking within 25 feet of an entrance has a 27% chance of going in, said analyst Gene Munster, whose firm spent six hours monitoring foot traffic at Apple stores this weekend. Most of them don’t buy anything, he added, and Apple stores are often in high-traffic parts of shopping centers, but this signals a possible shift in buying intentions to Macs from PCs.
Read Holiday Sales Blog: Do Apple Stores Exert ‘Gravitational Pull’?
The iPhone: Not a Cure for Cancer
Not bad, Richard Gardner. In an otherwise straightforward Apple research note, the Citigroup analyst (and a 2003 Best on the Street alum) tucks in, just after the company’s balance sheet, “Figure 1. I just arrived from Mars. Just what is this ‘iPhone,’ anyway?” Under “What the iPhone is,” he lists 8 hours talk time and 2MP camera, among other features.
Under “What the iPhone is not:” “Incompatible with AT&T’s 3G HSDPA high-speed wireless network; Not a cure for cancer.”
But it gets better when he lists tips on obtaining one (two max) of the coveted Jesusphones:
Bloggers React to Windows-on-Mac
A delayed April Fool’s gag? A last-ditch corporate effort to win a hacking contest? Bloggers alternated between shock and delight over Apple Computer Inc.’s announcement that its new “Boot Camp” software allows Windows XP to run on its new Intel-based Macintosh computers.
“I still can’t quite fully believe this,” said Hadley Stern, a designer and writer who blogs at Apple Matters. “The implications here are mind-boggling.” And like many bloggers commenting on the news, Mr. Stern couldn’t resist a jab: “I think the OS wars are now over.”
When an email bearing the news arrived this morning, “we just about plotzed,” said Gizmodo, a popular gadget blog.
Ben Stanfield, editor of the MacSlash discussion site, wrote: “It’s still cold in my part of the world, but I didn’t realise it was chilly enough to cause the freeze over of Hell.”
Killer Combination
According to Gadgetopia writer Rob O’Keefe, Windows-on-Apple is a killer combination for the big PC makers. “Michael Dell may not be worried yet, but depending on how this plays out, he might be soon,” he wrote.
On his blog, Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg called Boot Camp “a nice tactical move by Apple that will make their platforms and systems much more attractive.”
The technology and politics blog Politechnical Institute agreed. “This is going to increase Apple’s marketshare big time. Buy a Mac, bring your XP license and apps, and have everything on one platform. You want games? Boot Windows. Windows, Unix, and Mac, all on one box.”
C.K. Sample III, a writer for the Unofficial Apple Weblog, said PC users will soon join the ranks of the converted: “If Apple plays its cards right and doesn’t screw things up, people will see that booting into OS X runs more smoothly and is nicer than booting into Windows, and we may see more switchers than ever before.”