Research by Strategy Analytics shows that Apple iPhone 5 is the best selling smartphone globally in Q4 and iPhone 4S follows the 2nd. Galaxy S3 dropped to the third place.
It’s kind of weird to see iPhone outperforms Android in the Android dominated world.
However, iPhone 5 was already the best-selling smartphone in the US.
Strategy Analytics: Apple’s iPhone 5 tops world smartphone sales for Q4 2012
The Pros And Cons Of A WebKit Monoculture
More on WebKit Monoculture debate.
I’m glad to hear Mozilla won’t abandon Gecko anytime soon.
The most vocal opposition to this kind of monoculture has come from Mozilla, which is obviously heavily invested in its own Gecko engine and Servo, its forthcoming successor. Mozilla CTO Brendan Eich argues that monoculture is a problem Mozilla must fight because of its mission. Adding to this, Mozilla engineer Steve Fink argued that an all-WebKit web – both on mobile and desktop – would prevent innovation and lead to a small number of companies controlling the web as a platform and just lead to added complexity and confusion in the long run.
Also, Opera had no choice.
Even Opera, in its own announcement, argued that “monoculture is bad,” but then also added a somewhat defeatist note to this, saying that it “was never really in a position to prevent it in the first place,” because despite its considerable market share on mobile, “web developers still designed just for WebKit.”
SIRI RISING: The Inside Story Of Siri’s Origins — And Why She Could Overshadow The iPhone
Very detailed history of Siri from Huffington Post.
At its original debut, in 2010, Siri had been able to connect with 42 different web services — from Yelp and StubHub to Rotten Tomatoes and Wolfram Alpha — then return a single answer that integrated the best details culled from those diverse sources. It had been able to buy tickets, reserve a table and summon a taxi, all without a user having to open another app, register for a separate service or place a call. It was already on the verge of “intuiting” a user’s pet peeves and preferences to the point that it would have been able to seamlessly match its suggestions to his or her personality.
Didn’t knew Siri was more powerful then.
As conceived by its creators, Siri was supposed to be a “do engine,” something that would allow people to hold conversations with the Internet. While a search engine used stilted keywords to create lists of links, a do engine could carry a conversation, then decide and act. Had one too many drinks? The ability to coordinate a Google search for a ride home might elude you, but a do engine could translate a muttered, “I’m drunk take me home,” into a command to send a car service to your location. The startup’s goal was not to build a better search engine, but to pioneer an entirely new paradigm for accessing the Internet, one that would let artificially intelligent agents summon the answers people needed, rather than pull relevant resources for humans to consult on their own. If the search engine defined the second generation of the web, Siri’s co-founders were confident the do engine would define the third.
The current status of Siri is quite stumbling, but I hope it will change the paradigm of accessing the Internect.
Also it is interesting to know that Siri had a deal with Verizon before Apple.
What Tech Company is Healthier Than Apple?
In fact my only concern for Apple is that they are having trouble keeping up with demand. Their earnings call revealed that Apple was supply constrained in almost every product category. Apple could not make enough products fast enough.
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I recognize that investors have a distorted and mostly short term view of the world. So I can’t fault them for being short sighted. But I would encourage them to dig deep down and ask themselves what tech company is more heathy than Apple and better positioned for success in the long run? If Apple isn’t still on the forefront of innovation then who is?
Agreed. Apple is a successful company with a vertical model, and I also think Apple will be relevent in the game 10 years from now.
