Op-ed

Infrequent notes on projects, publishing and platforms

Mobile platforms: visual comparison of daily sales, Q2 2010

Platform-sales-q2-2010
Above: estimated worldwide daily sales for each of these platforms, for Q2 2010. This does not show cumulative sales or sales growth. What it does give you is a snapshot of what's shifting on a daily basis right now.

It also doesn't tell you that Android was only selling 100k units two months ago. And that Google want to get a billion Android devices into the market.

The iPad figure is based on Apple shifting 3 million units from launch to June 21. So it would be reasonable to expect that this will decrease in time (Rupert Murdoch disagrees however, with a sweaty prediction of iPad sales in the "hundreds of millions").

Data Sources:
3,000,000 iPads in 80 Days (IPadinsider.com)
(Chart made using IBM Many Eyes, which doesn't play nice with Posterous when embedded)

2009: web trends to watch

So here's the shorthand version of a piece I wrote for Business & Finance (Ireland). Just shortlisting a few trends for 2009.

  • Cloud computing for personal use will grow more pervasive. Business use is another issue entirely.
  • Open Data needs to be an eGovernment cornerstone. And it will happen. Slowly.
  • The mobile web is here and growing. Massive opportunity here, as long as people focus on context; it's not about fitting everything into small screens.
  • Social data ownership and portability will become bigger issues. But Facebook Connect will probably blow a disconnected Open Social movement away.
  • Data protection & security issues will enter the mainstream. Lose a smartphone and you'll discover it's not the device you care about. It's the data.
  • Advertising and content streams will begin to cross. Usable, useful advertising? Is that possible? Yes.
  • The top-down semantic web is happening and it will continue to grow. There is value to be made here in releasing previously walled-off content & services. People need to be more careful though.
  • Web applications will come forth and multiply: SaaS model is established now, with ad-supported models gaining traction. Some consolidation probably likely.
  • Ireland’s Knowledge economy needs attention. Needs to focus on the next billion people coming online, and how Ireland can be part of it. See an interesting post by Neil Leyden here on creating an International Content Services Centre.
  • Advertising will continue to move online. Budgets will get squeezed, but the percentage afforded to online advertising will continue to grow (disclaimer: I work for ICAN, an online advertising & digital communications agency, but them's just the facts: http://www.letmegooglethatforyou.com/?q=online+advertising+trends)

The full article is in the 'Digital Connections' supplement, in this month's B&F.