There was plenty going on this week, but it didn’t take long for Mark Zuckerberg to spend $19 billion for Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp to become the week’s dominant news. Fortunately, a number of writers who have been paying attention to the explosive use of messaging services outside the U.S. have offered us plenty of information that we have been failing to pay attention to.
The Social Clongomerate. Taiwan-based Ben Thompson has been following the surge of messaging services for some time and has some of the best commentary to offer on the Facebook acquisition. As it happens, he also had a terrific advance piece looking at the business, Messaging: Mobile’s Killer App.
The Phase of Messaging by Benedict Evans also added a useful piece of analysis on the changes that are coming.
Mobile Contacts Are Now the Real Social. And on the U.S. side of the oceans, Peter Yared of CBS Interaction posted his analysis of the big changes at TechCrunch.
Meanwhile….
Apple’s iPhone led 2013 US consumer smartphone sales with 45% share – NPD In the worldwide market, Android phones are dominating smartphone business, but iPhones continue to dominate the U.S. market, while HTC and Motorola are struggling, according to NPD.
Windows Phone Device Stats: February 2014 Meanwhile, Paul Thurott tells us that Windows Phones are doing so well either, with the Nokia market totally dominated by low-end phones.
The Future of Mobile Payments. Analyst Jonathan Fishman does a deep dive for Seeking Alpha into the trends of the use of mobile phones as purchase devices.
Understanding Aereo. With the Supreme Court getting ready to hear broadcaster’s challenge of Aereo’s over-the-top distribution of network television, J.S. Greenfield does a deep analysis of the legal issues for CIC/Greenfield.
Glass. Google offers users of Google Glasses some detail advice on how to behave, including how to avoid being a Glasshole.
And a couple of bit of news about some important writers…
Om-Niscient: A Much-Deserved Mash Note to Tech Blogger Om Malik. GigaOm just published a brief note informing readers that founder Om Malik is moving out of editing and writing regularly to spend more time as an investor. Re/code’s Kara Swisher well-deserved credit to Om for his improvements to news on the technology world.
This Old Man. Roger Angell, a great writer best known for his outstanding writing about baseball, returns to The New Yorker for his deeply rewarding reflection on reaching the age of 93.
The “Understanding Aereo” link takes me to a Seeking Alpha article on the future of mobile payments.
Joe
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