<![CDATA[Gizmodo: stats]]> http://tags.gizmodo.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gizmodo.com.png <![CDATA[Gizmodo: stats]]> http://gizmodo.com/tag/stats http://gizmodo.com/tag/stats <![CDATA[Reality Check]]> Windows 7 rolls past Snow Leopard in just a week, almost everyone still runs XP, and Vista, which didn't even crack 1/3rd of its predecessor's install base, is doomed to be forgotten. This is the world outside Gizmodo, people. [Ars]

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<![CDATA[Graphs and Charts Prove iPhone to Be the Most Successful Gadget Ever (Sort of)]]> These charts, from the Web 2.0 Summit, show the iPhone's growth in both data usage and sheer sales compared to other blockbuster gadget releases—and (not without caveats, natch), it blows most of them out of the water.

Before I show these charts, created by Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker, I should mention the obvious: Comparing one gadget to another in a different category is messy and inconclusive. iPhone adoption is different than, say, Wii adoption for lots of reasons: The iPhone is a phone, a gadget which pretty much everybody has and needs, and it combined the capabilities of a phone with that of an established hit, the iPod. In contrast, the Wii is a videogame system, a category with a totally different demographic, requiring different kinds of software and accessories. They're just not the same (and I only mentioned a couple reasons), and comparing unit shipments doesn't necessarily prove anything. However, it is interesting to see exactly what an absolute blockbuster the iPhone has been over its first ten quarters, and while we can't make any sweeping conclusions, we can say that the iPhone/iPod Touch is, as TechCrunch says, "the fastest-growing consumer electronics product of all time."

This next chart is also inconclusive, but pretty interesting: It compares the rate of growth in mobile internet to the rate of growth in desktop internet, in the mid-90s. Caveats apply again, of course, as the adoption of mobile internet is much easier than going from no internet to desktop internet. But certainly the iPhone has introduced easy-to-use mobile internet to the masses in much the same way that Netscape and AOL brought it to the home user a decade and a half ago, and the iPhone is making way quicker work of it.

As I said repeated, these charts aren't exactly ironclad evidence. But they do put the iPhone's remarkable rise to the top of the smartphone game in perspective, and it's hard to show in charts and graphs exactly how much it's changed the game of mobile devices. Those sales records are pretty impressive, after all, and there's no denying the impact it's had on today's gadget landscape. [TechCrunch via Twitter]

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<![CDATA[Canucks Create Mathematical Model for Outbreak and Containment of Zombie Invasions]]> A handful of stats students at the University of Ottawa decided to create a working mathematical model for zombie outbreaks, and possible ways of thwarting the attack. What did they learn? We're screwed. Kind of.

First, some background. They based their methodology around three groups: zombies, those susceptible to zombie attacks, and those who are unaffected (dead zombies). They based their model around zombies who infect humans with saliva via bites, and walk in slow, irregular strides. They also allowed a 24 hour incubation period from the moment of infection to complete zombification.

What did they learn? Well if left unaddressed, a zombie attack on a sizable city would wipe out the population in a matter of 4-8 hours. If you tried to quarantine the zombies, it would essentially have no effect on the outcome because the zombies would inevitably escape, or infect the humans attempting to quarantine zombies. And if you tried to generate a zombie antidote, you'd still lose a lot of people in the process of creating the antidote, and it wouldn't revert the zombies back to a dead state, which means they could possibly infect people in other areas.

The best solution? The only hope of wiping out a possible zombie invasion is to attack the undead in focused, strategic attacks that progressively increase in intensity. This will help address the growing number of undead in the process. But even then it would prove difficult to emerge victorious, as it would take 10 days worth of heavy fighting to quell the outbreak.

But luckily, you don't have to worry about any of this because some sap mathematically proved it would be impossible for zombies to exist (along with vampires). Something about how they would feast themselves into oblivion. [University of Ottawa (PDF) via io9]

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<![CDATA[70% of Kindle Owners Are over 40?]]> The Official Amazon Kindle Forum has a thread called the "Average Kindle Owner's Age." Someone counted up all 1,387 responses and found that 70% of respondents were over 40.

Keep in mind, the data is by no means scientific. There were no controls in the polling process, meaning that it's quite possible for the average Kindle Forum reader to be over 40 (or something exactly the opposite), while the average Kindle buyer is of a complately different age group.

Still, it's a staggering number that's tough to completely write off as fictional. Kindles are obviously successful in their niche, but for most gadgets to take over the mainstream, they need to have a level of universal appeal that, sadly, supports tweens, mid-20s jerks such as myself and all those 40-year-olds who just CLAIM to be in their 30s during anonymous online polling. [Kindle Culture via Gear Diary]

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<![CDATA[Cannondale Bicycles May Get iPod Dock Upgrade + Stat Tracking]]> Cannondale bikes hired a design firm to render up some possible future features on their rides, one of which is a very interesting one called MetroPolite that has an iPod connector. An iPod seems like the last thing you want to be shoving into your ears when you're riding in a Metro area, seeing as bikes lose to cars when the latter accidentally hit the former, but the connector isn't just for that.


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Based on the renderings, you can display a rear view camera on the screen (technically impossible) or use the iPod like a Nike+ device to track your bike workout (might also be impossible). Still, very cool if you're using this on rides that aren't through traffic. [Cannondale Community via Cannondale via Trend Hunter]

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<![CDATA[Blu-ray Awareness Hits 60%...Hooray?]]> According to a recent poll by research firm Interpret, 60% of the U.S. is "aware" of Blu-ray. So does this actually mean anything? We're not so sure. While brand recognition is important, it doesn't appear that Interpret asked those polled to interpret what the hell Blu-ray really meant. Our guess is that if you asked the public some basic questions (Can Blu-ray players play normal DVDs? Will Blu-ray play on a standard def TV? What new features does Blu-ray bring?) that the 60% statistic would drop abruptly. Why doesn't Sony just run a simple commercial Q&A? We don't need hip marketing. We just need a clear explanation. [cepro]

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<![CDATA[Like WoW, The Pirate Bay Has Reached 10 Million]]> Torrent sharing group The Pirate Bay has asserted itself as "World's Largest Tracker," now claiming over 10 million peers sharing 1 million files. Not only is 10 million more than the population of New York City, it's just about equal to the user numbers of the most successful MMO on the planet, World of Warcraft, which not so long ago announced the same user milestone...and may have a thing or two to say about The Pirate Bay's title.

Blizzard, like The Pirate Bay, implements a P2P system. Instead of avoiding issues of copyright, the developer utilizes P2P as an inexpensive way to distribute WoW updates and patches. And the last time we played WoW, which was admittedly some time ago, Blizzard's P2P updater was pretty much mandatory to play the game. So if you're thinking what we're thinking, The Pirate Bay may have jumped the gun with their announcement. And Blizzard may actually be the sleeper king of P2P. [slycknews via slashdot]

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