Fortune's curated selection of tech stories from the holiday weekend. Sign up to get the round-up delivered to you each and every day.
What's going on, Windows Phone 7?
* Former Windows Phone general Manager Charlie Kindel explains why he thinks Windows Phone 7 hasn't taken off, chalking up much of it to Microsoft's relationship with manufacturers and carriers. However, tech influencer Robert Scoble thinks it really has to do with the operating system's lack of apps, while TechCrunch columnist MG Siegler argues that it arrived to the scene "way too late." (cek.log, scobleizer, and paris lemon)
* According to IBM (IBM), online shopping spiked nearly 16% on Christmas Day, with almost 7% of those purchases made on iPads. (AP via Business Insider)
* With Research in Motion's market value down $30 billion this year alone, The Wall Street Journal dissects the company's board and management. (The Wall Street Journal)
* Some startups, like the San Francisco-based Splunk, are setting their sights on "big data," the growing amounts of data produced by devices that are increasingly hard for companies and governments to wade through and make sense of. (The New York Times)
* Google (GOOG) and Mozilla's renewed deal, which will continue to make Google the default search engine in the Firefox browser, is a lucrative one. According to All Things D, Google will pay Mozilla nearly $300 million a year. (All Things D)
* A look at the Amazon's virtual supercomputer (aka the "42nd fastest supercomputer on earth"), built atop the company's Elastic Compute Cloud. (Wired)
* The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg looks back at the year in consumer tech. (All Things D)
* Pinterest, an invite-only startup that lets users create and manage themed-based photo collections, has seen site traffic grow 4,000% over the last 6 months. (The Next Web)
* How social networks beat email. (Reuters)
* Apparently, Europeans aren't very keen on the iPhone 4S due to the weaker economy and lower prices on competing handsets. (Reuters)
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A lot. Despite delayed launches, they download nearly as many iPad apps as U.S. users
Share of U.S. and Chinese iPad app downloads. Source: Distimo
Consider this:
The original iPad didn't go on sale on mainland China until September 2010, five months after its U.S. launch.
The iPad 2 arrived in May 2011, two months after its U.S. launch, and even then just in Wi-Fi-only versions.
The 3G iPad 2 finally launched in China MORE
Microsoft's claim that its voice command system is Siri's equal is put to the test
Click to view the video. Source: TechAU
You might think that Microsoft's (MSFT) Chief Research and Strategy Officer would have spent some time playing around with Apple's new intelligent personal assistant before making the claim -- as Craig Mundie did earlier this week -- that there's nothing to Siri but clever marketing and the usual mindless fascination MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Nov 26, 2011 9:48 PM ET
All investors seem to want is a bigger piece of the company's $53 billion cash pile. They'd do better to pay attention to what Windows 8 and Windows Phone really mean.
By Kevin Kelleher, contributor
FORTUNE -- Microsoft's obituary has been written plenty of times. There was no place for the software mammoth in a tech world designed -- and dominated -- by Apple. CEO Steve Ballmer was unable to steer the MORE
Sep 20, 2011 10:56 AM ET
Fortune's curated selection of newsworthy tech stories from the last 24 hours. Sign up to get the newsletter delivered to you every day.
* Microsoft (MSFT) did a big unveiling for Windows 8. The operating system update features a radically different, streamlined user interface heavily influenced by the company's tile-based Windows Phone 7 operating system and optimized performance. (CNNMoney)
* Facebook made its Friends Lists feature smarter with new features like Smart Lists, which automatically creates and MORE
JP Mangalindan, Writer-Reporter - Sep 14, 2011 3:30 AM ET
But the odds that Microsoft will overtake Android or the iPhone are steep
Click to enlarge. Source: Asymco
ComScore released its July 2011 U.S. smartphone data this week and as usual Asymco's Horace Dediu has done the best job of turning the numbers into striking -- and insightful -- graphics.
On Thursday he released three charts that show:
1. The scale of the opportunity for further smartphone growth
2. The extent to which MORE
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Illustration: Electric in Life
* Has the tech IPO (initial public offering) window closed thanks to the extremely volatile market? (VentureBeat)
* Whether or not Spotify can achieve its ambitious goal of nabbing 50 million U.S. users during its first year of domestic operations remains to be seen, but at MORE
JP Mangalindan, Writer-Reporter - Aug 9, 2011 6:30 AM ET
The sharp rise of one of Apple's frenemies triggers a fierce debate about what it means
Source: Asymco
Some of the most intelligent conversations on the Internet these days are to be found in the comment stream of Horace Dediu's Asymco blog. Not only does Dediu produce striking charts and graphs from his analysis of the mobile phone market, but he carefully moderates the subsequent discussion, pruning repetitive comments and chasing MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Aug 1, 2011 6:41 AM ET
In Techheads.tv's debut, Robert Wright argues the affirmative, yours truly the negative.
Source: Techheads.tv
My former Time Magazine colleague Bob Wright, who has written several books about God -- including The Evolution of God, a 2010 Pulitzer finalist -- does not, it turns out, believe in Steve Jobs.
This theological shortcoming was revealed earlier this week when he and I recorded the premier episode of Techheads.tv, a spin-off of Bloggingheads, the current-events oriented MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jul 28, 2011 11:45 AM ET
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"In a year, we've gone from very small to ... very small." -- Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, on Windows Phone 7's market share (PC World)
* Cisco could cut as many as 10,000 jobs, or roughly 14% of its overall workforce, to keep profits up: 7,000 jobs would MORE
JP Mangalindan, Writer-Reporter - Jul 12, 2011 9:22 AM ETEvery morning, discover the companies, deals and trends in tech that are moving markets and making headlines. SUBSCRIBE
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| Company | Price | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank of America Corp... | 7.95 | -0.16 | -1.97% |
| Microsoft Corp | 31.27 | -0.17 | -0.54% |
| Ford Motor Co | 12.28 | -0.25 | -2.00% |
| General Electric Co | 19.39 | 0.17 | 0.88% |
| Citigroup Inc | 32.36 | -1.00 | -3.00% |
| Index | Last | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dow | 12,938.67 | -27.02 | -0.21% |
| Nasdaq | 2,933.17 | -15.40 | -0.52% |
| S&P 500 | 1,357.66 | -4.55 | -0.33% |
| Treasuries | 2.00 | -0.04 | -1.96% |
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