Nate Bird

Smartphone profit share

This is an update on profit share in the smartphone market. In 2010 I posted that Apple had 2.8% of mobile market share yet 39% of the operating profits. Fast forward and in  the first half of 2011 Apple captured 66% of the operating profits in the mobile industry. See Horace Dediu’s post at Aymco for details and pretty graphs.

Tablets Before and After the iPad

In light of the recent ruling banning the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany it is important to remember what tablets looked like before and after the iPad. Also remember that the ban is based on a design trademark and not software patents. Thanks to ReiVersuri for the image.

Droid Bionic with 4G

Josh Topolsky reviews the Droid Bionic:

…this is the first phone to come preloaded with Google Talk video chat, which was great when I could get it to work (it still seems a bit buggy).

Even though the Bionic has a larger battery than every other LTE device on Verizon, I don’t see most people getting through a full day without a recharge or a spare battery, especially if you’re making lots of calls.

As far as auto-focus lenses on phones go, this seems to be one of the slower models.

You know you can expect some significant software tweaks. That’s certainly true for the Bionic, where you’ll find a mishmash of previous Moto customizations atop Android 2.3.4

To simply place an icon on your homescreen, you must open your application launcher and then long press on the app you want. This brings up a contextual menu asking if you’d like to place the icon on your homescreen or add it to a group. If you choose homescreen, it places the icon in the first available position on your page — meaning you have to long press again to move it into the location you want. 

Elsewhere in the OS, there are graphical inconsistencies that make the Bionic’s interface feel thrown together.

Let me just say that any money spent on any of the Webtop devices is essentially money wasted. The quasi-PC interface which Motorola provides (based on Ubuntu and little more than the Firefox browser) is largely useless. The browser itself is sluggish and there are no other applications aside from a window into your phone on-screen.

This is not the killer handset that I think a lot of people were expecting it to be…

Sounds like a winner.

Compromise

John Gruber posted about a MS article on Windows 8’s new “no compromises” design. While Steven Sinofsky goes to great lengths to reinforce the point of “no compromises” the fact is they are making compromises - you have to compromise something.

Microsoft may continue to tout “no compromises” but who said compromising was a bad thing? You want to see what no compromises looks like? Then look to the new Windows Explorer 8. That is “no compromises”.

Steve Jobs Resigns as CEO

Having grown up using a PC from middle school to college I didn’t know much about the history of Apple but I had heard of Steve Jobs. He co-invented the personal computer back in the early 80s (ok, technically 70s). 

After college I worked for a small design firm where all we used were Macs. That was 2005. I was amazed at the state of OS X and the company behind it. I read articles about Apple and of course Steve Jobs was always mentioned. He is credited for leading Apple from the brink in 1997 to the most profitable company in the world in 2011. John Gruber stated yesterday:

Jobs’s greatest creation isn’t any Apple product. It is Apple itself.

This is what intrigues me most about Steve. He isn’t directly responsible for any of Apple’s current lineup of products. They were all built by teams at Apple and released at the right time. Job’s magic is about putting together amazing teams of people who can create tightly integrated hardware and software products like the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. It isn’t about the products - it is about the organization behind them. The driving force to obliviate their current best seller because they have created something better. That is company culture and I believe it is Apple’s greatest asset. They aren’t stuck protecting the past - they are looking forward to the future and creating the next big thing.

As a fledgling entrepreneur I thank Steve Jobs for creating a company culture where innovation thrives and amazing products are created and shipped regularly. Thank you Steve.

The first item of business for HP…

… should be to fix their URLs. Seriously.

http://h30261.www3.hp.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=71087&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1598006

Guess what that is - a link to the press release of their acquisition of Autonomy.

And this one? A little easier… but really?

http://h41112.www4.hp.com/promo/webos/us/en/tablet/touchpad.html

Let’s see what a url should look like.

http://apple.com/ipad/

Yeah. Not the only reason the iPad is successful but the culture behind these decisions is what creates successful products.

Responding to Google’s Acquisition of Motorola

It has been fun to read some of the articles about Google’s buyout of Motorola. It is a very interesting story indeed. First thing yesterday, Dan Lyons (of Fake Steve Jobs fame) posted an articles, suck on it applesoft, which immediately prompted MG Siegler and John Gruber to respond with “Defending Android” and Balls. 

I am very much siding with Siegler and Gruber as they actually presented facts and not a hastily written piece based on seemingly nothing other than Dan’s dislike for Microsoft and Apple.

From my article yesterday you can see that I believe that Google is in trouble. This is Larry’s first big move as Google’s CEO and while I think this partially fixes Google’s patent problems they didn’t come out much better in the end. They now have an unprofitable 3rd rate Android handset maker and 20,000 more employees to manage along with a 12.5 billion dollar price tag, which as Gruber explains is over 2 years worth of profit for Google.

So now what? That is the question everyone is trying to answer. Will Google now make better hardware for their Nexus phones? Will they actually create a Google TV that someone other than a 40 year old living in their parents basement would actually use? Will they use Motorola’s patents to “defend” Android by going offensive (I know, they said they wouldn’t do this but…) after Microsoft and Apple?

I’m not sure, but from a business point of view, this deal solved one problem and creates many others for Google. They just became a much more complicated company and that in and of itself creates problems. I wish Google good luck but I won’t be surprised to see this blow up in Larry’s face.

Update: Horace Dediu agrees with me.