Industry news
The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus launched last weekend, and sold 10m units. This is slightly ahead of last year, but last year the two smaller Chinese mobile operators had it (China Mobile itself launched it later) and this year they don't (no word on why and no formal date), so the number isn't quite comparable. Lots of Chinese grey market buyers in the queues. And, as is now traditional for an Apple product, not one but two negative stories. One was that Apple released a software update that briefly made the iPhone 6 & 6 Plus unable to make phone calls (this has now been fixed). Every OS company has done something like this, but it's still painful when it happens. The second was that some people posted videos of themselves bending their new iPhone Pluses. Much like 'Antennae-gate' two years ago, this mostly seem to fall into the category of 'if you try very hard to break your phone, it will break', and it's not apparent this is an issue for normal use. But feel free to try bending your own. Links: Sales figures, software bug, Consumer Reports test, Apple testing, driving over an iPhone with a car.
China is trying to cut handset subsidies - it would appear. Lots of kremlinology going on as to why, what impact this will have and how long it will last. And of course probably not unconnected to the fact that there is not yet a date for iPhone launch in China. Link
SoftBank may be in talks to buy Dreamworks. Evokes a painful comparison with Sony buying Columbia. Link
Talko - intriguing new voice-centric app from Ray 'Notes' Ozzie. Fast networks mean voice is going to be the next big thing in mobile - it'll be changed by apps much as SMS has been. Link
Yahoo shut down Yahoo. That is, the web directory where it all started. Presumable Marissa only just found out it was still there. Link
Google keeps tightening up the controls and bundling requirements of Android. That might be a little incautious given the EU's growing interest and its dominant share in southern Europe. Link
Amazon refreshed the Kindles with a set of incremental improvements, a dedicated kids' model and yet more bundled content. Link
The new openness of Apple's iOS8 only goes so far - useful launcher app pulled from the app store, apparently. Link
Iliad, one of France's leading ISPs (and a hugely innovative and aggressive company), is moving its IPTV STB to Android. Link
Apple bought PRSS, a platform for making magazine-style apps for the iPad. Nice software, limited market. Remember when the iPad was going to save newspapers and magazines? Link
Blog posts
The state of Apple and Android. Link
Mobile & winner takes all. Link
Steven Sinofsky - the beauty of software testing. Link
Exploding mobile adoption in Myanmar. Link
Deploying mobile in Afghanistan. Demand was so high that the pre-launch info leaflet was being resold in the Kabul bazaar. Link
Spotify on managing international expansion. Link
The mechanics of Taobao hand-delivery. Link
Charging the uncharged: generator economics. Link
The Android launcher battle (mostly in China for now). Link
Statistics
iPhone 6 & 6 Plus benchmarks. Link
iOS 8 has been installed on 46% of active iOS devices in the first week. Link
The iPhone now has 69% of smartphone sales in Japan. Link
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