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Hilton Tarrant is production editor at Moneyweb. His main focus is project management for the listed company’s local and international websites, and contributes to their strategic direction. From time-to-time, he also fills in for Alec Hogg on the SAfm Market Update with Moneyweb radio programme. In between, he covers the ICT sector, with a particular focus on mobile and telecoms.
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Microsoft's decision last week to not offer an upgrade path from Windows Phone 7.5 (currently in the market) to Windows Phone 8 opened a can of worms most thought only applied to Android. The F-word: fragmentation. But do the few million people using Nokia Lumias even care? Do those 200 million-plus people using Android phones care?“Fragmentation is busy killing Android.” It has become one of those facts that are widely believed and repeated in the web’s echo chamber. Worldwide, Android ...
The timing of the Microsoft’s announcement of Surface was particularly peculiar. “Hands-on” demos were decidedly hands-off. Microsoft didn't allow anyone to use the SmartCover keyboards -- bizarre, given that this is the most innovative feature of Surface (and a real differentiator between the iPad). It’s obvious now that Surface is not ready.So why did Microsoft unveil something that it isn’t launching yet?The answer is Google. It is expected to launch a Nexus tablet to showcase the “best of Android” at ...
Everyone is suing everyone. Everyone is upset with everyone. Everyone is blaming everyone.Get over it. It’s history. The biggest IPO since Google has happened. Some made millions. Others lost even more. Someone got it wrong, and they’re to blame, right?It’s doubtful that this was some deep-rooted, intricate, secret conspiracy by investment banks to overprice Facebook stock. But the mispricing cost it.Morgan Stanley as lead underwriters (and the others) spent billions propping up the stock price to ensure that ...
iMessage doesn't work.Well, that's not entirely true. It works perfectly well as a traditional text messaging replacement. To a point.The first problem with iMessage is its lack of awareness.It's a simple broadcast bus (think back to parallel connectors used to transfer data between components or computers). At its launch, Apple admitted that iMessage runs on top of its notifications engine (based on XMPP).But that's the problem: it's treating messages -- two-way communication - as what seems to be ...
Apple sold more iPads last quarter than any computer manufacturer in the world sold PCs. Read that again.Apple sold 15.4-million iPads between October and December. Compare this to HP (15.1-million PCs), Lenovo (13-million PCs), Dell (11.9-million PCs) and Acer (9.8-million PCs) and suddenly you’ll realise why we saw over 100 tablet competitors launched during 2011 by every hardware manufacturer.Tablets > PCs.iPad > PC.And, as much as Twitter and tech blogs tried to have you believe otherwise, the use of the ...
Mainstream news (in fact, all news outlets) will have you believe it's the end of the world. Google's new privacy policy came into effect yesterday.From CBS News: How to remove your Google Web History, from the Washington Post: Google privacy policy changes March 1: How to clear your search history, account information and the obligatory Business Insider impression bait: How to Use Google's New Privacy Tools to Stop Them from Tracking You. Then of course there are the fear mongers. ...
Nokia’s in trouble! BlackBerry is in trouble! There is a tendency, especially among Wall Street talking heads and US tech bloggers who don’t understand anything outside of the Valley, to group underperforming companies together. After all, it makes for great headlines and “everyone” knows the mobile battle is between iPhone and Android.Except it's not.Nokia and Research In Motion (the maker of BlackBerry) cannot compare on size. In its most recent quarter, Nokia shipped 113.5-million devices, totaling revenue of €6-billion (close ...
The echo-chamber has flooded the web with all the details following the filing of Facebook’s IPO. It will raise $5 billion in the listing. It will be valued somewhere between US$75-billion and US$100-billion. We even know that the graffiti artist who took stock instead of cash for painting the walls at Facebook’s first HQ is now worth US$200 million. But what’s behind the numbers and how do they compare?1. We're all going mobile
Out of 825-million monthly users on Facebook, more ...
Fragmentation is busy killing Google’s OS, as Apple comes close to outselling Android for the first time.
Sales of Apple iOS and Android smartphones are now neck and neck in the US. According to research outfit NPD Group, iOS phones accounted for 43% of smartphones sold in the US in October and November. Android’s share? 47%. That's the closest Apple’s operating system has ever been to Google’s “juggernaut”.
But, "Android is winning".
Yes, Apple’s share of sales in those months ...
Ignore all the rubbish about "serendipitous experiences" that Mark Zuckerberg wants you to have. Forget about his notion of "frictionless sharing". The first iterations of sharing content or experiences seamlessly on Facebook are all wrong (witness the horrible real-time “ticker” that does not sit comfortably above "chat").But, Facebook got one thing very, very right. Its Timeline was the single biggest innovation in social media over the past few months. Sure, the New New Twitter changes everything, but the two spaces ...
Lauren Granger: Staff Reporter 
Michelle Atagana: Managing Ed. 
