"Math is hard. Let's go shopping!"
Thus spoke Barbie nearly 20 years ago, and the sentiment still holds water today. Why do your own math when you can just wait for someone else to do all of the hard work?
So I'd like to thank uber-blogger John Battelle for doing some math today. Using nothing more than middle-school subtraction and division, John shows that Google's
According to Battelle's math, Apple has moved about 130,000 iPhones a day since the debut of iPhone 4. Back out the mad rush to get one on release day and the run rate drops to maybe 65,000 a day. Not bad. But Google reports that 160,000 Android phones get activated each and every day, which blows even the more generous iPhone stat to smithereens.
"As far as I can tell, Android-based phones will far outnumber any other smart phone by year's end," Battelle says. "Apple, meet your new Windows. It's name is Android."
Indeed, Google seems like a closer head-to-head rival for Apple these days than crusty old Microsoft
Apple, on the other hand, profits handsomely from every iPhone sold by Apple stores, AT&T
So thanks for doing the math, John. Now let's see what Apple plans to do about these embarrassing figures. (Embarrassing figure? Ask Barbie, perhaps.)