A Drop in Tablets

Whatever you do, don’t look at the Dow. Again.

Trading just started here in the U.S., and the Dow is already on the way down again (but only 1.68 percent, as of press time).

Stairs on the way up, elevator on the way down.

Me, I want to turn my attention back to some positive technology news. Okay, er, uh, well, some technology news, anyhow.

I’ll start with a report from IDC as reported by VentureBeat on the subject of tablet sales. IDC’s latest report indicates the tablet market has now declined YOY for 13 quarters straight, with Q4 2017 witnessing a 7.9 YOY decline.

IDC’s estimates count both slate form factors and detachables (tablets with keyboards included).

In terms of market share, Apple led the way with 26.6 percent share, followed by Amazon at 15.6 percent, and Samsung at 14.1 percent.

If you, too, aren’t in the market for a new tablet, perhaps the Apple HomePod might strike your fancy.

The Verge got their hands on one, explaining that whether Apple likes it or not, the HomePod "is the company’s answer to the wildly popular Amazon Echo and Google Home smart speakers."

So what’s the skinny? The Verge writes that "while it’s true that the HomePod sounds incredible — it sounds far better than any other speaker in its price range — it also demands that you live entirely inside Apple’s ecosystem in a way that event Apple’s other products do not."

So, Apple HomePod is like Wilson the Volleyball — it lives on an island, like Tom Hanks in "Castaway." Got it.

For an example, consider this headline from the review: "Siri Can’t Compete with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant."

You can’t ask Siri to look up a recipe. You can’t ask Siri to make a phone call. (You have to start the phone call on your phone and transfer it to the HomePod to use it as a just-okay speakerphone.) Siri also can’t compete with the huge array of Alexa skills, or Google Assistant’s ability to answer a vast variety of questions.

In other words, if you’re living on Apple’s island ecosystem, have at it.

News To Go…And Lots Of It

Half of all U.S. adults now have a mobile connection to the web through either a smartphone or tablet, significantly more than a year ago, which has major implications for how news will be consumed and paid for, according to a detailed new survey of news use on mobile devices by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) in collaboration with The Economist Group.

So how do you prefer to consume your news on your mobile device?

A new study from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism indicates that half of all U.S. adults now have a mobile connection to the web through either a smartphone or tablet, which is much higher than even a year ago.

Pew alleges this has “major implications for how news will be consumed and paid for.”

Agreed.

But we’re also seeing that users are moving from “snacking” on news via their mobile devices, to reading much longer form content.

And moreover, more people are moving towards using a browser and away from using an app for their tablet news consumption.

I found this one to be quite interesting, as it’s somewhat opposite from my own behavior.

For example, I’ve been a long-time New York Times reader, mainly via their Website (on my Mac), and sometimes via my iPad or iPhone 4.

I finally decided to give them some of my hard-earned money, recently signing up for an all-digital subscription. I don’t want no dead tree showing up on my doorstep!

I strongly prefer the New York Times app, particularly on the iPad. Call me old-fashioned, but being someone with a journalism background myself, I place great value on design, layout, and yes, usability.

So, I save the browser version for the desktop, but much prefer the app on my mobile devices.

Going against the trend, as always!

Some other highlights from the study:

• Lower cost tablets in late 2011 brought in a new group of tablet owners.
• There’s growing evidence mobile devices are adding to how much news people get.
• People who get news throughout the day on their mobile devices are more engaged news consumers.
• People notice ads on mobile devices and may be even more likely to click on them than they are to click on other digital ads.

From their lips to Mark Zuckerberg’s ears!

You can read more about new Pew report on mobile news usage here.

Blogger’s Note: If you’re a tried and true news junkie, then you have to check out the Magnolia Pictures documentary release “Page One: Inside the New York Times.”  The filmmakers take you inside the Times newsroom and the inner workings of the Media Desk, just as the Internet started to surpass print as our main news source and as newspapers all over the U.S. started  going bankrupt.  Page One chronicles the transformation of the media industry at its time of greatest turmoil. The best part: It features lots of coverage of media columnist and technology curmudgeon, David Carr.

The App Economy: Creating Nearly 500,000 New Jobs

This just in from TechNet, a bipartisan policy and political network of technology CEOs that promotes the growth of the innovation economy.

TechNet's new report, "Where The Jobs Are: The App Economy," reveals how smartphones, tablets, and other devices are creating a wealth of new jobs in the U.S.

They released a study yesterday showing there are now roughly 466,000 jobs in the “App Economy,” as they refer to it, in the United States.

That’s up from “zero” in 2007.

Remembering, of course, that the iPhone wasn’t introduced until June 2007 (and I guess the BlackBerry before that didn’t count!).

Here’s what Rey Ramsey, the President and CEO of TechNet, had to say about the report: “America’s App Economy — which had zero jobs just 5 years ago before the iPhone was introduced, demonstrates that we can quickly create economic value and jobs through cutting-edge innovation. Today, the App Economy is creating jobs in every part of America, employing hundreds of thousands of U.S. workers today and even more in the years to come.”

In terms of U.S. urban centers, the top metropolitan area for App Economy jobs turns out to be New York City (9.2 percent) and its surrounding area, although San Francisco and Silicon Valley combined make up for 14.8 percent.

In terms of states, of course, California runs away with it at 23.8 percent, followed by New York at 6.9%.

The research also revealed that when it comes to employment impacts, each app represents jobs across a wide spectrum of roles: programmers, user interface designers, marketers, managers, and support staff.

They include jobs at “pure” app firms like Zynga (which makes games for Facebook) as well as app-related jobs at large companies like EA, Amazon, AT&T, as well as app “infrastructure” jobs at firms like Google, Apple, IBM, Facebook, and others.

Flying Java Monkeys

There’s two ways I sense that the Web technology market is starting to pick up some momentum.

One, the Techmeme page starts to get longer and longer.

Two, you start to see crazy money starting to fly around like recently uncaged monkeys again (Okay, monkeys can’t fly, but it’s the visual that’s important here).

For example, Softbank has led a financing round for live video streamer (and Apple iPad announce day savior for flyover country) Ustream, which, according to Bloomberg, will use the money to expand primarily in Japan, China, Korea, and India.

Specifically, for live streaming to mobile devices.

And while Ustream’s getting busy with it’s streaming expansion to the East, Google’s getting down to business with the announcement of its new App Store for Business, where it will sell add-ons for its Web productivity apps.

The store’s expected to open sometime in March, reports the Wall Street Journal, and will sell business software from external (not Google’s) developers that “integrate and add capabilities to Google Apps.”

One would presume all those new apps would also run on the rumored Google tablet device.

What, you didn’t think they were going to take the iPad lying down, didja?

But the insider’s insider, Robert Scoble, explains there’s a whole lot more going on here than meets the eye, and that developers developers developers (with all due credit to Steve Ballmer) are ultimately going to be the winners of these emerging media and tablet wars.

So many devices, so many versions, so little time.

I knew I should have taken that Java programming class when I had the chance.

Just for funsies, here’s a Java oldie but goodie from back in the day, circa 1995, when broadband streaming into the home was virtually impossible and coding efficiency was a given:

public class HelloWorld {

    // method main(): ALWAYS the APPLICATION entry point
    public static void main (String[] args) {
	System.out.println ("Hello World!");
    }
}

Hello World!

Hey, remember to keep an out for flying monkeys!