Measuring Apple’s Laptop Sales Success

Through the U.S. consumer retail channel, Macs notebooks reached rather shocking milestone during first half 2015, according to data that NPD provided to me today. You can consider this a first, and from lower volume shipments. By operating system: OS X, 49.7 percent; Windows, 48.3 percent; Chrome OS, 1.9 percent. That compares to the same time period in 2014: OS X, 44.8 percent; Windows, 53.1 percent; Chrome OS, 2.1 percent. The data is for U.S. consumer laptops.

While data junkie journalists or analysts often focus on unit shipments, revenues, and subsequently profits, matter much more. Looked at another way, Mac laptop revenues rose by 10.9 percent during the first six months of 2015, year over year, while Windows PCs fell by 9 percent, and Chromebooks contracted by 9.5 percent.

Photo by Joe WilcoxAug 12, 20157:18 am

Flickr a Day 224: ‘Piercing’

Our selection is so odd, or my ability to process the elements so lame, only the photographer’s explanation can make sense of it. “I went to the Institute for Contemporary Art today”, Nicholas “Nic” McPhee says of self-titled “Piercing”, captured on June 30, 2105. “As we passed through the Boston Financial District on our way there, we stumbled across ‘As if it were already there‘ by Janet Echeman. This is a big, glorious public art sculpture installation in the sky above a park—the Rose Kennedy Greenway”.

The suspended structure went up in May and goes down in October. So don’t delay getting to Bean Town if you want to see it. “This is actually a brightly colored—if the light catches it correctly—net/mesh of high strength fibers and LEDs that actually lights up in quite brilliant color at night”, Nic says. “I highly recommend the wonderful pictures on her website, which include some cool night shots”.

Google by Joe WilcoxAug 11, 20151:49 pm

What Google gets from Alphabet

I predict that the innovation of the year will go, not to a tech product, but to Google’s creation of a new company: Alphabet. The search and information giant that disrupts so many other companies on and off the Internet essentially disrupts itself. By doing so—divesting the core, established business from future research and inventions—cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin unshackle weights dragging growth.

To recap: Page announced the dramatic change after the market closed yesterday. Google becomes secondary to Alphabet, which will hold a collection of related entities. Page hands over Google chief executive reigns to Sundar Pichai, while becoming CEO of the new entity. Brin is president. Can we call him letterhead instead of figurehead? 🙂

Photo by Joe WilcoxAug 11, 20157:17 am

Flickr a Day 223: ‘New York — The Long End’

Perspective takes the Day—a March 22, 2013 capture from the hands of Jacob Aurland. Self-titled “New York—The Long End” is a “vintage looking american school bus on New York, 5th Avenue, just infront of the Plaza Hotel […]

Photo by Joe WilcoxAug 10, 20157:40 am

Flickr a Day 222: ‘Sun at the Lighthouse’

Sometimes the photo you get isn’t the one you take but the one you make. “This was not exactly the composition I wanted, but I just didn’t wanted any people in the shot”, Miroslav Petrasko […]

Apple by Joe WilcoxAug 9, 20154:06 pm

iPhone 6 Plus Review

Sometime within the next few weeks, Apple should announce successors to iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and my review of the latter device is long overdue. Let’s get to it finally and present the key finding first: If size matters, as in you want a phone with larger screen but that doesn’t feel humongous, the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus is a worthy choice. By measures that matter most—benefits from apps, calling, camera, data, performance, screen, and storage—the phablet is best of class.

As expressed in my iPhone 6 review, I regretted not buying the larger device after handing it. The Plus is big, but not overly large for my tastes. Hell, I bought Motorola-made and Google-branded Nexus 6 in January 2015 to replace iPhone 6; the screen is even bigger than Plus, at whopping 6 inches. I gained great value using either of the larger handsets, but gave up one for the other.

Photo by Joe WilcoxAug 9, 20156:45 am

Flickr a Day 221: ‘Comma Butterfly’

All Rights Reserved is the copyright barrier this series cannot cross. Let me show you what I would rather feature from the photostream of Marilyn Peddle if licensed Creative Commons: Hedgy is cute, eh? Instead, […]

Living by Joe WilcoxAug 8, 20155:14 pm

Protesting Greenpeace?

The weather is perfect here in San Diego—what my wife and I call a Maine Day: 22 degrees Celsius and breezy. We hauled off to Ocean Beach, where navigating people busking or begging for money takes almost as much talent as negotiating a kayak through rocky rapids. Sure enough, I looked left and missed the approaching, friendly fundraiser from the right. Smack!

The singing circle of happy people distracted me. Oh no! Greenpeace? Again? Just cut an artery why don’t they and bleed me? But this dude—the one holding the yellow sign—had a different pitch. Greenpeace hires for two-week jaunts, he claimed, and those who don’t meet their quotas are dismissed from service. There be women with kids about to lose their livelihood. Yikes! The small cadre raised money against Greenpeace.

Photo by Joe WilcoxAug 8, 20157:11 am

Flickr a Day 220: Chat

For some people, photography is a way of life. For shooter Erik Hagström, it is a way of living—of expressing himself in ways his body otherwise limits. There is a cool, somber ambiance to his art I could see, before learning his story, that captures more than just images in around the French Alps, but essence.

About himself, Erik explains: “After two cerebral accidents vascular in 2007, making me lose most of the control of my members, reconquered gradually, not being able more to play of musical instruments, or use pencils to draw and paint, I turned to the photograph”.

Photo by Joe WilcoxAug 7, 20157:28 am

Flickr a Day 219: ‘The Skater’

Street portraits are rarely as appealing as our selection, which wins the Day for perspective. Sometimes you got to go low to get the moment. Eye level is the way for studio portraits, but on the […]

Apple by Joe WilcoxAug 7, 201512:02 am

Microsoft’s Hollywood-style Redemption Story

Satya Nadella is a man with a formidable challenge. Microsoft CEO’s predecessor, Steve Ballmer, squandered the company’s mobile fortunes. From smartphone platform leader a decade ago, the software-and-services giant is a category also-ran in 2015. Microsoft has no independent mobile platform future. The war is over. There remains this: Making alliances with old enemies to preserve existing territory, while using the foothold to reach into new frontiers.

Made available August 5th, Outlook for Apple Watch is a very smart move and metaphor for what went wrong on Microsoft mobile platforms and what has to go right to preserve and extend the legacy applications stack. While Windows 10 makes its way to Lumia devices, the future is Android and iOS and how the company supports them with contextually meaningful cloud-connected apps and services.

Photo by Joe WilcoxAug 6, 20157:03 am

Flickr a Day 218: ‘Looks’

Somebody is fascinated by owls, for there are plenty of them in the photostream of Riccardo Cupidi. Self-titled “Looks” makes the Day for composition and for being interesting. C`mon, that is one fraking big bird. […]