Ars Technica: By end of 2010, Android will have more users than BlackBerry, iOS

If you were looking for evidence of how much Apple could really use a partnership with Verizon, this is it: Verizon sells more phones than anyone else, and a preponderance of their phones are Android.

Apple’s not a market-share company, as we Mac users know. But ending the exclusive agreement with AT&T would probably mean millions of extra iPhone sales.

This news is also a sign of how far RIM has fallen: not only behind the iPhone, but now behind an upstart OS without any major hardware manufacturers.

Ars Technica: Is the iPad cannibalizing netbook sales?

Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn told the Wall Street Journal last week that the iPad was responsible for decline in laptop and netbook sales, to the tune of almost 50 percent, in his stores.

Wow.

Ars has some solid analysis on this, and suggests that some of this might be that the mobile-PC market in the US is relatively finite, i.e., that rather than creating a completely new market for the iPhone, Apple is (unsurprisingly) getting the sales of people who might have bought low-end laptops instead.

It also hypothesizes that the economy might play a role here, but frankly I don’t see it. This time last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, private-sector layoffs were close to 250,000 per month all 2009, and we’re at about 140,000 in 2010.

I wrote about life with a netbook (and how you might prefer an iPad) last month.

Business Insider: Verizon could steal 23% of AT&T's iPhone users if Apple ended exclusive contract

Speaking of how badly AT&T needs Apple (and not the other way around) Business Insider reports that a Credit Suisse survey found that 37% of iPhone users said they would leave AT&T if the exclusive deal were ended. Of those, 23% said they’d go to Verizon, 3% to Sprint, and 2% to T-Mobile. (The rest were unsure.)

Holy cow. Those are some insane numbers.

Now, remember that that’s just current iPhone users. This is not to mention the Verizon customers who would, I imagine, buy an iPhone if they could, and not have to settle for the latest BlackBerry POS device.

WSJ: Verizon to begin capping data, introducing tiered plans

Ever since AT&T announced the tiered, data-capped plans for the iPhone, we’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop. This was it: the other big boy in the market, Verizon, is making the same move for its smartphones, according to CEO Ivan Seidenberg.

This sets up an interesting dynamic: the two mid-major carriers (T-Mobile and Sprint) have been running ads extolling all of the various and sundry unlimited things you can get with their plans. And at the bottom end of the market, unlimited usage has long been a feature.

I wonder if some of the underlying dynamic will shift with this move, with some customers moving to other carriers, or if T-Mobile and Sprint will begin to cap usage and charge plans.

It’s also worth note that the data costs them practically bupkis to transmit; the data network infrastructure is a sunk cost. So this is a virtually pure profit center for Verizon.

Macworld: Is the Apple TV worth it? Point-counterpoint debate.

Is the Apple TV worth the $99? Macworld hosts a debate from contributor Lex Friedman and senior editor Jonathan Seff. They consider whether its lack of TV recording, or third-party application support, or even the fact that you can’t rent from Amazon like on a Roku or TiVo device, is a problem. (My opinion? If you want a DVR, get one from the cable company—or better still, buy a TiVo. Why reinvent the wheel? Apple’s forté is selling and renting media, not letting you record it.)

Macworld: Adobe adds HTML5 controls to Illustrator

For all the hubbub around HTML5 vs. Flash on mobile devices, a lot of people were talking about Flash like it was dead. It’s not (yet), but it looks like Adobe can read the writing on the wall. They’re announcing an extensions pack to Illustrator to allow users to develop HTML5.

PCWorld: AT&T On Loss of iPhone Exclusivity: What, Me Worry?

The guys at PCWorld opine that they don’t understand AT&T’s “What, me worry?” stance on the rumors that they’re going to lose their exclusive on the iPhone. We noted last week that some 23% of iPhone users would jump ship if given the opportunity (plus the Android/Windows Mobile/BlackBerry users who might get an iPhone if it were on Verizon)—seems like Apple is ready to put that to the test.

Copyright © 2010 Wes Meltzer, wmeltzer@atpm.com.