2011 June 25 archive at Robert Pogson

Archive for June 25th, 2011

FUD Flows Freely Against FLOSS

Published by Robert Pogson June 25th, 2011 in technology. 38 Comments

The FUD attacking Android/Linux is getting stronger by the week, a sure sign that M$’s “technological evangelism” is being fired up:

“Comscore’s latest figures put that to rest by showing the Ipad trouncing Android tablets“

2011-6-23 – ComScore – “Traffic” from iPads is up to 30X more than “Traffic” from Android tablets in most countries, and infinitely more in Japan. 92% of “Traffic” from iPads is on LANs while only 65% of “Traffic” from Android tablets is from LANs.

2011-6-23 – DigiTimes – “Most non-iPad table PC vendors have been frustrated recently due to lower-than-expected performance of their tablet PCs built with ARM/Android. While attributing the slow sales to the instability of Android and the strong brand image that Apple enjoys, some vendors have also begun mulling new strategies to strengthen their competitiveness.” This is from an article about Wintel offering to supply CPUs and software for non-Android tablets, in ~~2013~~2012.

In fact, sales of Android tablets have been quite good and share of page views from Android tablets are nearly on par with iPads. iPad + iPhone gets 3.93% of page views on Wikipedia compared to 1.19% for Android. Surely Lawrence Latif and others should know that iTunes soaks up lots of megabytes and megabytes do not trounce page-views as usage. In fact, Gartner shows Android is expected to have a 20% share of tablets shipped in 2011, up from 14% in 2010. They project Android will catch iOS after 2015. I think Gartner is way off on that. The Android tablets released lately are spectacular compared to iPad 1 or 2 and the Android tablets produced in 2010. The Android tablets are being widely promoted by heavy hitters and many smaller operations. The exposure of Android tablets to the market is huge. Android tablets are not being “trounced”.

- Robert Pogson

Gartner and iSuppli Disagree on Semiconductor Sales but Both Predict Growth

Published by Robert Pogson June 25th, 2011 in technology. 0 Comments

Both have revised their estimates for 2011. Gartner’s estimate has gone down from 6.2% to 5.1% growth whiel iSuppli’s estimate has gone up from 7% to 7.2% growth. They are growing apart while both agree that people are buying more gadgets and that global sales of semiconductors will amount to more than $300billion in 2011. That’s a bunch of dollars per capita.

see Digitimes – Gartner cuts 2011 chip forecast – IHS iSuppli raises 2011 chip forecast

- Robert Pogson

Oracle’s Case Against Google/Android Caught in the Shredder

Published by Robert Pogson June 25th, 2011 in technology. 1 Comment

USPTO is reviewing Oracle’s patents and finding them full of holes. At this rate, Oracle may have nothing about which to sue Google long before anything gets to trial. So much for the Big Bad Wolf. At the same time SCOTUS is circling software/business-methods patents like a shark. There are so many legal suits on the matter of software patents that one day SCOTUS will bite.

- Robert Pogson

My Mission

My observations and opinions about IT are based on 40 years of use in science and technology and lately, in education. I like IT that is fast, cost-effective and reliable. I do not care whether my solution is the same as yours. I like to think for myself.

My first use of GNU/Linux in 2001 was so remarkably better than what I had been using, I feel it is important work to share GNU/Linux with the world. I have been blessed by working in schools where students and school systems have benefited by good, modular software easily installed in most systems.

I have shown GNU/Linux to thousands of students and hundreds of teachers over the years and will continue in some way doing that until I die in spite of the opposition.