Wait, So 20 Phones On 4 Carriers Outsold 1 Phone On 1 Carrier? Shocking.

I love MG Siegler's style of writing. A little snippy with a large dose of fanboy mixed in. Don't get me wrong, I like Apple products probably as much as he does. The only difference is that I'm looking at the numbers that were released today regarding smartphone market share not with disdain but with a general sense of dread and optimism mixed in.

Make no mistake, Android is on the rise. Though I think they make an inferior phone, they are successfully encroaching on Apple's market share. Remember what happened when a supposedly inferior product started encroaching on Apple's market share back in the early 90's? Apple can't turn a blind eye to this and I don't think they are (though I think the fanboys are). My hope is that Apple sees this as a huge threat and decides to do something about it - like say release the iPhone on other carriers. That's why I feel some optimism about the news. If it pushes Apple to make a better product or more carrier relationships then it only benefits me, the consumer.

So this was announced today...

Over the weekend, I saw a bunch of ads for the Droid phone from Verizon. It seems their main selling point was how more powerful the phone was and they are correct. It will always be the case that Android phones will always have the latest and greatest hardware, just like with most Windows laptops. Apple will never make devices with the fastest processors, the most RAM, the hardware latest innovations. What Apple has made a very calculated decision on is they would rather have a more polished product than one with the best specs. They weren't the first with a front facing camera but I bet mobile video chat will explode because of their implementation and not any one else's that came first. Same thing with multi-tasking. Not the first, but a more smooth integration.

For a long time there was this pseudo arms race in the tech industry of who could cram the most transistors on a chip or the most pixels on a screen or crank up a few more Mhz from a CPU. I think we've gotten to a point where the vast majority of us have way too much horsepower in our devices. Now the question is who will use that horsepower in a way that appeals to us. Apple seems to be leading in that sense... for the time being.

Google Acquires Teracent To Apply Machine Smarts To Display Ads

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, I had a little start-up that was doing Netflix style delivery but for video games. Vikas Jha, currently CEO and founder of Teracent, was kind enough to join our board of advisors. He had no obligation to do so and was just interested in helping out a fellow entrepreneur. Fast forward to today and I'm ecstatic to hear that Google has bought Teracent. Hope you made out well Vikas!

"Who knows what this thing is? To me, the Chrome OS thing is highly interesting," said Ballmer, choosing his words carefully and drawing more amusement from the largely pro-Microsoft crowd.

I don't think much of Google's Chrome OS and I guess Steve Ballmer shares my sentiment. Even still, he should be a little bit more humble/respectful when speaking about competition nowadays. Though I believe that behind closed doors, Microsoft takes any and all threats to its OS monopoly very seriously, it doesn't hurt to publicly show a little humility given their stumbles lately.