A Cold War analysis in which Google plays the part of North Korea's Kim Jong-Il
Kim Jong-Il. Source: thealttab.com
Daniel Eran Dilger, one of the cleverest writers covering Apple -- both at AppleInsider, and on his own blog, Roughly Drafted Magazine -- has posted an analysis of the latest twist in the smartphone patent wars that reads like a Cold War-era thriller.
Title:
Why is Google playing the Cold War patent game in the age of patent terrorism?
Cast of characters:
"Today's existing superpowers," Dilger writes, "are both mystified and somewhat entertained by the notion that these pissant countries really see themselves as puissant nations, even as their real attention remains focused on the modern threats of extremist religious conservatives who want to blow up buildings or shoot children to get attention."
"How did Google," he asks, "end up with both majority market share and a persecution complex? And why does it think the tech world is still operating under the antiquated rules of the Cold War rather than recognizing the real threat of patent terrorism? Understanding this insanity requires a historical overview of how Google put itself in the position of, I can't help it, North Korea as a diminutive braggadocio running a bankrupt little copycat nation that it is clearly not equipped to run."
It's a fascinating story, and Dilger tells it with flair. You can read it here.
Out of 72,000 paid apps in Google's Android Market, only two have sold more than 500,000 copies
80% of Android paid apps have sold fewer than 100 copies. Source: Distimo
The Utrecht-based analytics company Distimo generated some catchy headlines last month with a report suggesting that Google's (GOOG) Android Market was rapidly catching up to Apple's (AAPL) App Store and might surpass it by July.
What that report didn't mention, as Roughly MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 27, 2011 6:57 AM ET
Cooler heads have started to respond to the smartphone data flap, but it may be too late
Screengrab from iPhone Tracker
"If there is anything less appropriate than a technologically ignorant media covering the subtleties of the manufactured LocationGate phony-scandal," writes Roughly Drafted's Daniel Eran Dilger, in a post perhaps too subtle for his usual AppleInsider audience, "it's the investigative policing by US and EU politicians who have suspended their efforts MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Apr 26, 2011 8:11 AM ET
Wait until Apple's developers conference, he tells a reader, "You won't be disappointed."
Steve Jobs at WWDC '08
This was Google's (GOOG) week.
Not only did the Federal Trade Commission give its blessing to Google's purchase of AdMob (a mobile ad network that Apple was planning to buy), but Jay Yarow at Silicon Alley Insider counted 11 ways Google "slapped" Apple (AAPL) at its I/O conference in San Francisco.
Two of my favorite MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 23, 2010 5:54 PM ET
Or is he trying to ensure that Apple apps continue to "just work?" A guide to the latest flap
Photo: gdgt
The hottest topic in tech these days -- and the lead item all weekend in Techmeme -- is an obscure clause in Apple's (AAPL) latest Developer Program License Agreement, the document programmers must conform to if they want to be part of the bonanza that is the iTunes App Store MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Apr 11, 2010 11:30 AM ET
Daniel Eran Dilger finds anti-Apple bias in Gartner's research
"Looking into its crystal ball, Gartner Group has predicted that Google's Android will become the second largest smartphone platform by 2012," writes Daniel Eran Dilger in the one-man blog he grandly calls Roughly Drafted Magazine. "Problem is, nobody's talking about how terrible Gartner is at predicting things, or that Gartner's 'research' has historically been paid for by special interests."
So begins Dilger's reaction MORE
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