59%

That's the iPhone percentage of smartphone sold in the US at the three carriers where the iPhone is available. That's up from 36% the year before. Jay Yarow over at Business Insider takes a very pessimistic view of Android's future in his piece posted today.

I'm more inclined to agree with MG Siegler's view of Android's future. I think there's a place for it in the near and mid term, but it's long term prospects may not be very good. If Microsoft can start to get it's operating system onto a greater installed base of phones, I could see it taking over in the anything-but-Apple market.

I have to wonder about Google's interest in the continued development of Andoid if market share continues to slide and they continue to make more money off iOS devices than they do their own.

2 Hours

The long anticipated announcement of WWDC 2012 came this morning. Tickets became available and sold out in under 2 hours. The sellout occurred 5 times faster than last year. The developer interest in iOS is accelerating exponentially. The future is very bright.

94%

The year to year profit increase reported by Apple today.

iPhone: 88% Increase over the year ago quarter

iPad: 151% Increase over the year ago quarter

Mac: 7% Increase over the year ago quarter

iPod: 15% Decrease over the year ago quarter

All of this comes as the foreign iPhone market continues to ramp, the new iPad still has supply constraints, iPods weren't refreshed at all in the fall, every Mac Apple produces is due for a refresh and OS X 10.8 is being prepped for a late summer release. It's going to be an amazing 2012. And beyond.

Of eBooks & Farmville

L. Gordon Crovitz writing for the Wall Street Journal today:

Whether it's news, games, apps or books, Apple's position is the same. The market determines the price, and Apple gets 30%. 

Hat tip to Daring Fireball.

See Some Nature

There's a great review of the National Geographics National Parks app over at Macstories today. I've been playing with the app for a day or so and it's really beautiful. This is definately worth a look if you appreciate the beauty of nature.

Slingshot Cocked, Check...

Head over to Apple 2.0 to check in on the analyst estimates for Apple's Tuesday earnings report. Will this report be closer to the 2011 Q4 "disappointment" or the 2012 Q1 "surprise"? I'm leaning towards a small version of the Q1 results.

Thinner is Better

If it's true, a story over at Digitimes today reveals one way Apple could either reduce the thickness of the next generation iPhone or keep it near it's current thickness while increaseing battery capacity. I'd vote for the second option.

Dilbert on Steve Jobs' RDF

The always well written Scott Adams puts pen to paper and shares some thoughts on Steve Jobs after finally getting around to reading the Isaacson biography. This thought is fun to ponder.

Maybe it's simplistic to say Jobs was a liar and a con man. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say he found the user interface for reality, and lying is simply one of the levers. We know Jobs spent years trying to find the keys to reality's engine. Maybe he found them.

Lost Steve

There's an amazing story at Fast Company today written by Brent Schlender. He discovered tapes he previously recorded during an interview with Steve. The story is kind of long, but is really must read.

Corporate Stupidity, Even at Apple

As someone who's always been blown away by the service I've received at my local Apple Store, this Seattle Rex blog post was a big surprise. On the surface, it's difficult to see just what Apple was thinking taking the position they took on this one.

Apple, well, they didn’t really have a defense. They just kept repeating things like “It’s Apple’s policy to do this”, and “It’s Apple’s position that we do that”. The Apple guys seemed genuinely surprised that I knew as much as I did about computer hardware.

Hat tip to Loop Insight.