The iPad acceleration, Draw Something's ugly sketch (and yes, the SIII)

In an earnings call last April 24, Apple CEO Tim Cook mentioned some staggering numbers about the iPad's continued rise as a global phenomenon. Here's a piece of those awesome figures from Q1 2012, straight from Steve's successor. (I must say though, I'm not yet fully convinced that Tim's the right leader. Well, we won't find out if we don't keep watching Apple's progress, won't we?)

"Through the last quarter, I should say, which is just 2 years after we shipped the initial iPad, we’ve sold 67 million. And to put that in some context, it took us 24 years to sell that many Macs and 5 years for that many iPods and over 3 years for that many iPhones. And we were extremely happy with the trajectory on all of those products. And so I think iPad, it’s a profound product."

This says a lot about a tablet market that didn't exist two years ago, which surely enough created a tablet race that got every single manufacturer joining the fray. When the dust settled, the iPad's first-mover advantage is still in control of majority of the market--with Amazon's Kindle Fire, a relative newcomer (November 2011), being the only one who is able to compete in total units sold.

A recent article from CNET talked about some really tough facts about the iPad's disruption of the PC market. For one thing, people are buying iPads when they should be buying PCs! That must really be annoying HP and the rest of the computer industry--a lot.

(Credit: Apple Outsider)

In other news, Zynga's $180 million purchase of OMGPOP/Draw Something last March is starting to draw a lousy picture. A month after the acquisition, the sketching game lost 5 million Daily Active Users (or DAUs). That is a LOT. What happened exactly? Reports suggest that the decline happened instantaneously after the buyout. Wait, is everyone starting to hate the Zynga behemoth--which by the way has a habit of gobbling up promising game developers?

Don't think so. Well, the thing is, I've played Draw Something last April and it was quite addictive. A few days later, and after the botched 'pegasus' guess with Dhinno (our CFO) among others, I started realizing that there were better things to do. It means people lost interest in the game, plain and simple. And this happens to a lot of games in both the Android Market and Apple App Store. One day they're at the top of the charts and the week after, gone. Bottom line, Zynga bought too soon. But that doesn't mean OMGPOP won't be churning out other hits (this is what Zynga bought remember?). Draw Something is just a start.

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Okay, let's not put off Samsung's new toy any longer. Set to be available before month's end in 'pebble blue' and 'marble light' (okay, I hate that part), the SIII is a stunning piece of a device. It sports a huge 4.8" Super AMOLED HD screen at 1280x720 resolution, way over the iPhone 4S (960x640). (Pixel density is still very close: 306 versus 326 in favor of Apple.) A quad-core 1.4 GHz processor with a gigabyte of memory powers this Ice Cream Sandwich machine. There's a bunch of other mighty specs inside: up to 64 GB internal storage, 8 and 1.9 megapixel (front) cameras at 1080p video recording, up to 21 mbps 4G HSPA+ connectivity, 2,100 mAh user-replaceable battery (iPhone 4S: 1,420 mAh), a barometer (!), near-field communication/NFC chip. Yeah, yeah.

But those are just specs. The cool stuff is what happens inside. Let's start with the coolest bit: eye-tracking. Most smartphones have this annoying 'feature' where the display dims while you're still looking. The SIII takes care of that by constantly keeping track if your eyes are still open. It won't go on standby until you doze off. Nice one. The new Galaxy is also voice-controlled (called S Voice, to launch in eight languages), which together with face-tracking, is the most 'natural' device yet according to Samsung. On-device encryption is available for business users looking for better email security. The NFC chip, partnered with Visa, will allow for tap-to-pay as a mobile wallet. Also, the Pop up Play feature will allow multi-tasking, i.e. watch a video while composing a message (hmmm why would I want to do that though?). Finally, a wireless charging kit (sold separately) is available to do away with wire clutter.

There's clearly a significant amount of new things that other devices don't have. And Samsung really did a good job, I must admit. Samsung boss JK Shin said it: "The Galaxy S3 is the best-in-class smartphone in the world." He may be right.

But it's also a matter of time until Apple catches up. Samsung will definitely need every bit of their strength to take this one home.

Burst-shooting up to 20 frames per second (which is very fast).

Apple-style launch party in Earls Court Auditorium, London.