"While Apple's iPhone sales may have passed that 50 per cent milestone in the US, Kantar Worldpanel ComTech's stats show that Cupertino is losing the smartphone war in hefty chunks of the world."

I come in peace - Apple computer and Android phone and tablet user.

In Apple's postion I wouldn't be losing too much sleep over "losing" the smartphone wars. Share isn't everything. The margin on every iPhone sold is fine, thank you, and only Samsung out of the Android camp is making any money. Meanwhile Nokia and RIM's choices have put them on a fast track to oblivion. :(

It's just the same as PCs. Apple's total market share is diddlysquat compared with with the massed rank of Windows OEMs. But who is making the returns?

The "BMW niche strategy" for keeping shareholders happy has a lot going for it. Just ask Ford, GM, FIAT, Renault, and Peugeot-Citroën, all of whom are struggling to make the sums add up in their European operations.

@Bodhi

Agreed about the 1st gen. Tablet S. A very good first effort from Sony and I also use mine every day.

I suspect its sales were impacted by the lack of an oleophobic coating on the screen, which meant the screens of demo units in Currys etc looked greasy and dirty compared with the Samsungs and iPads.

A classic penny-pinching cock-up that I assume Sony will have fixed in the new iteration.

Had this phone for a couple of weeks

I had a good experience with an Xperia Arc and so, being in the market for a mobile for non-work use, I went for the Xperia P.

The Reg's review is pretty much spot on. It's a sold mid-range phone that improves on the Arc in several areas and I particularly like the understated design.

It's not for those who want to carry their entire video and music collections around with them, but Sony do other Xperias that have SD card slots.

The Xperia P is unspectacular in that it just does what I want it to do without fuss - primarily a data device that can make phone calls. The screen, call quality, build quality etc are fine.

My only gripe is the flimsy microSIM slot cover, which is fiddly. Also battery life wasn't great at first, until I discovered that bluetooth was switched on by default. Replacing the live wallpaper with a static background helped too.

All in all a nice phone.

Wonky spreadsheet?

Hmm...

Strategy analytics "calculate" that 4M Apple TV's are shipped WW in a year. I'll be generous and assume Europe soaks up 30% = 1.2M units per year.

In 2001, the EEA reported there were 151M households in Europe.

Strategy Analytics reckon 7% have Apple TVs = 10.5M households.

Assuming Apple sales are reasonably constant and that no units ever break or are discarded and that only one unit is acquired by each household, then Apple has taken nearly 9 years to build up this share.

Apple TV was launched in March 2007. Erm ....

A dead business model sucks its last

For freebie users I can understand the move. But for subscribers a.k.a. your loyal paying customers? Erm, another Netflix disaster. And so soon after the last one.

Allytot plot the lost.

Singapore

The countdown indicators at major pedestrian crossings in Singapore work well.

Sounds as though ..

Apple is getting increasing attention from competition authorities. If you bar one recompilation tool, then you have to be totally pure and bar the lot, without exception.

I suspect a Reality Inspector has pointed this out to His Steveness and has also mentioned the amount of $$$$ that Adobe could suck out of Apple's coffers if he continues with his one rule for Flash and another for everyone else.

Mi-Fi

I use one of these on the road with an iPod Touch. Generally it works well. Thanks for highlighting the settings screen - perhaps I can now change channels to avoid conflicts with The Cloud venues.