We “don’t do numbers” here at RedMonk, but I see several interesting numbers each week. Here are some:
Netbooks, again
This year [in EMEA], DisplaySearch reckons, notebook shipments will have dropped 9.1 per cent to 46.7m units, while netbook shipments will have risen 80.6 per cent to 13.3m units.
The same pattern – notebook shipments down, netbook shipments up – can be seen in North America (down 1.1 per cent, up 136.9 per cent, respectively) – and Japan (down 13 per cent, up 29.1 per cent).
I’m still not too hot on Netbooks after trying one out (thanks to RedMonk client Zenoss who loaned me one, thanks!). As I said in an Enterprise Irregulars thread today:
I had a Dell Mini for awhile with Ubuntu Netbook Remix on it. I found
it barely tolerable for reading web sites and maybe writing email.
Once I got into things like trying to bounce around between GMail and
GCal to schedule a meeting, it got to be terrible. Also, one of the
primary applications I use – Evernote – has a web app which I was
hoping would work well with the Netbook, unfortunately,
Netbook+Ubuntu+Firefox was way too slow for the (apparently) advanced
Ajax the web site used: I’d be typing in a note and the characters
would show up 5-10 seconds later.
LG’s AppStore
LG [the world’s No. 3 handset maker], which trails Nokia and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd in mobile phones, said in a statement on Monday that the “LG Application Store” would provide 1,400 applications including 100 free programs, available in 15 languages.
Meanwhile, in iPhone-land:
[T]here are now 62,965 apps on the iPhone, according to Mobclix. The number of games is now 13,030. Back on June 24, we noted that there 59,073 apps, including 12,403 games.
That means there are 299 apps — including 48 games — coming out every day.
Working in a cubical sucks, but…
According to global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, planned layoffs announced by employers in the computer, electronics and telecommunications industries totaled 33,891 in the second quarter ending June 30, 2009. The total is 60% less than some 84,000 positions eliminated in the first three months this year, which put 2009 midyear totals at 118,108.
The Microsoft Cash-pile
It was a reference to the massive market share of products like Exchange, SharePoint, and Office, and their ability to generate cash for Microsoft and its partners. Elop, the president of Microsoft’s business applications, claimed 17,000 SharePoint customers and 100,000 million licenses.
Microsoft’s business applications division, home to SharePoint, pulled in $4.5bn of revenue during the company’s most recent quarter and $2.8bn of income. Both were down – 4.5 per cent and 9.6 per cent respectively – on last year thanks to weakness in the PC and server markets.
And, from Ashlee Vance on the potential SaaS-market for Office:
All told, Microsoft says about 400 million people already have a Windows Live account through services like Hotmail and Messenger, and 90 million more corporate customers have Office subscriptions. So, the company is boasting that half a billion people will have ready access to Office 2010 online next year.
…
Lots of competitors are doing nothing beyond copying what we have done in our product for years,” said Chris Capossela, a senior vice president in Microsoft’s business division. “They have weekly releases to add things like bold and italics and more than four fonts. We have to redefine what productivity means to 500 million people.”
It’s always fun to see what happens when people poke the Zoho.
Open Source at Microsoft
Yesterday Microsoft announced that the number of projects hosted on CodePlex breached the 10,000 mark, just after CodePlex celebrated its third anniversary.
Even if numbers are not impressive compared with Google code – becoming home to over 80.000 projects in half the time – it is definitely a measure of how seriously Microsoft is taking its open source strategy.
iPhone Venture Funding
Among companies developing solely for the iPhone, social network startups have drawn more VC investment money than games, according to startup investment tracker Chubby Brain’s latest set of charts. Listing 22 rounds of funding for 17 companies, Chubby accounted for over $100 million in investments, with a median level of $3.45 million.
Texas Venture Funding
Venture Capital investment totals in Q2 of 2009 totaled around $282M, according to an analysis by Texastechpulse.com of venture deals which were reported this quarter.
…
The largest investment in the quarter was for Brazos Software, which saw a $50M injection from Austin Ventures in June. The quarterly results appear to be a healthy increase from Q1, but did not match Q4 of 2008, when Texas had its best quarterly investment total, ever, when Dow Jones VentureSource reported $505M was invested in the region.
Meanwhile, VC followers, such as TechCrunch, have commented extensively on VC fundraising sucking of late:
The second quarter of 2009 saw the lowest level of capital going into VC funds since the first quarter of 2003, according to the National Venture Capital Association (NCVA). During the second quarter, VC funds in the U.S. raised only $1.7 billion, an 82 percent drop from the second quarter of 2008, when $9.3 billion was raised. The amount raised is 63 percent less than than the $4.6 billion raised during the first quarter of 2009.
Longing for the Gravy Train
“This calendar year [Facebook will] do over $500 million,” Andreessen said in an interview, noting that Facebook has more than 225 million users, so revenue per user is still small.
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