30,186 Apples a day

30,186 is how many iPods Apple sells every day of every week, 11m of them in a year. And they have contributed rather largely to the Cupertino-based company posting impressive revenue results, especially give the global financial Götterdämmerung that's currently going on.

Profits are $1.21bn, up 15% on last year on quarterly revenues of over $8bn. As for the iPhone, it managed to shift 3.7m units round the world, generating $2.2bn while it did so.

All very impressive, and even more so when you realise that Mac sales are down 3% but that the company has actually managed to increase its profit margins over the past three years - partly due to its ability to leverage its sheer size in the Flash memory purchasing market. Writing this on one of their lovely but infernally expensive machines, I'm not surprised.

NAB = Numbers Almost Bad

Well the first figures are in and seem to bear up the anecdotal evidence from the showfloor that the show is definitely quieter than before. Final figures are yet to be released (massaged did someone say at the back? - cynic!) but so far seem to be around 20,000 down at a shade over 80,000. Interestingly though, overseas visitors have only fallen by about 4000 to 23,000 or thereabouts.

Monitoring the news coming out of Vegas though it's been a quiet show for products as well as visitors, with little in the way of incandescent announcements to set the world on fire. Some post stuff, some 3D stuff, some camera stuff...the theme of the show seems to be encouraging greater efficiencies out of existing tech and greater interoperability between it all. Less a Great Leap Forward and more of a What Do We Do With What We've Already Got, Eh? - and probably no bad thing because of that. Every industry needs a fallow year while it catches its breath now and then.

And IBC is already coming out fighting. Here's part of a statement the Amsterdam show released this morning, with Mike Crimp answering the questions:

How are plans for IBC2009?

Exhibition bookings for IBC2009 are still very strong. Currently we are about 10% down on the final space requirement for last year, which at this time is very good. My view is that we will have an excellent show, filling the RAI Centre, and perhaps the space available to us in the new Elicium building. Sony is the only major company at IBC2008 which has not signed up for this year.

Does that mean IBC2009 will be a smaller exhibition than last year?

We are a little smaller because many exhibitors have trimmed their stand space a little, and we fully understand why they need to do this.

Sadly, we are seeing some cancellations from companies who are struggling in the market, but these are being replaced by fresh applications. Last month we were able to allocate stands to 25 new companies, who were waiting for space in the right areas for them. It may be hard to believe but I promise it is true: new bookings are still outrunning cancellations for IBC2009. Sustainability is the keyword.

Not strictly relevant

Which is why I've posted this story from New Scientist about a map generated to illustrate temporal distances from major cities worldwide on the personal site and not here. Still interesting enough to go have a look though IMHO...More here.

Where is everywhere?

Interesting one via New Scientist: a map which shows how far away everywhere is from everywhere else temporally:

"The maps are based on a model which calculated how long it would take to travel to the nearest city of 50,000 or more people by land or water. The model combines information on terrain and access to road, rail and river networks (see the maps). It also considers how factors such as altitude, steepness of terrain and hold-ups like border crossings slow travel.

Plotted onto a map, the results throw up surprises. First, less than 10 per cent of the world's land is more than 48 hours of ground-based travel from the nearest city. What's more, many areas considered remote and inaccessible are not as far from civilisation as you might think. In the Amazon, for example, extensive river networks and an increasing number of roads mean that only 20 per cent of the land is more than two days from a city - around the same proportion as Canada's Quebec province."

More here.

NAB = Not Actually Bothered

Okay, so that's a slight exaggeration I admit. Part of me would love to be in Vegas for this year's show, especially to sit in on all the 3D cinema stuff that's going to be talked about out there. It is though a long and expensive way to go, as a lot of other people seem to be deciding, so I'll follow it remotely from the comfort of my own sun-kissed part of Rutland.*

In the meantime, plenty to be getting on with, including a feature for Broadcast on newsrooms which looks at how the physical layout of the places has changed with the advent of new technologies. Should be interesting...Now, if only all the people I need to talk to aren't in Vegas at the moment...


*Only slight sarcasm there...

Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre

Dr Who's Planet of the Dead episode as redone by The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre. Really rather brilliant.



YouTube - Planet Of The Dead - Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre

The name's Snell. Just Snell...

Pro-Bel and Snell & Wilcox have decided to move forward into the brave new broadcast future together under the name Snell. So much so simple, but the enjoyment comes from the press release accompanying said announcement, which is an entertaining masterpiece of corporate cobblers.

"At the same time the Snell name and new branding position for the company introduces the ambitious, passionate and customer-focused agenda that will define our activities in the future.”

Marvelous.