statistics

Android vs. iPhone fight is still ahead, not behind

SlashGear points to a new ComScore report of the US mobile market share. Both Android and iOS are growing their market shares, with the rest of the platforms going down.

To me it says that there is still enough space for Android and iOS to peacefully co-exist, despite all the little pushes and punches. Soon, however, they will have to get more serious with each other and we’ll have the chance to observe a tougher fight. Too bad that Steve Jobs is not leading Apple anymore. He is a great man to go against.

Civil servants salaries in Cyprus

Cyprus Mail reports:

Around 65 per cent of civil servants (some 35,000) are paid wages that are substantially higher than the national average.

And if that wasn’t enough,

The discrepancy between the wages of civil servants and the general population may be substantial, yet even this is slightly misleading. Civil servants’ salaries weigh heavily in calculating the average national salary. It follows that the figure for the average national salary, as given by the Statistical Service, is “bumped up” by the high wages received by civil servants, thereby concealing the true extent of the difference between public and private sectors.

The numbers breakdown follows:

Civil servants wages (May 2011)
Salary Number of recipients
€0 – €1500 10,871
€1501 – €2500 16,465
€2501 – €3500 14,449
€3501 – €4500 6,866
€4501 and above 5,360

Read the rest of the article for more details.

Every 60 seconds on the Web

We’ve all seen a gadzillion of statistics on how many videos are uploaded to YouTube every day or how many Google searches are performed every month. While those are all interesting on their own, combined into a single overview they provide a really good perspective on how active and diverse the Web is.

Via ma.tt.

What your email provider says about you

Hunch Blog runs a rather massive statistical study of users of different email providers – Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, and AOL. I’ll just copy the snapshot of findings here for my own quick references. But you, you should have a look at the original article.

AOL users are most likely to be overweight women ages 35-64 who have a high school diploma and are spiritual, but not religious. They tend to be politically middle of the road, in a relationship of 10+ years, and have children. AOL users live in the suburbs and haven’t traveled outside their own country. Family is their first priority. AOL users mostly read magazines, have a desktop computer, listen to the radio, and watch TV on 1-3 DVRs in their home. At home, they lounge around in sweats. AOL users are optimistic extroverts who prefer sweet snacks and like working on a team.

Gmail users are most likely to be thin young men ages 18-34 who are college-educated and not religious. Like other young Hunch users, they tend to be politically liberal, single (and ready to mingle), and childless. Gmail users live in cities and have traveled to five or more countries. They’re career-focused and plugged in — they mostly read blogs, have an iPhone and laptop, and listen to music via MP3s and computers (but they don’t have a DVR). At home, they lounge around in a t-shirt and jeans. Gmail users prefer salty snacks and are introverted and entrepreneurial. They are optimistic or pessimistic, depending on the situation.

Hotmail users are most likely to be young women of average build ages 18-34 (and younger) who have a high school diploma and are not religious. They tend to be politically middle of the road, single, and childless. Hotmail users live in the suburbs, perhaps still with their parents, and have traveled to up to five countries. They mostly read magazines and contemporary fiction, have a laptop, and listen to music via MP3s and computers (but they don’t have a DVR). At home, Hotmail users lounge around in a t-shirt and jeans. They’re introverts who prefer sweet snacks and like working on a team. They consider themselves more pessimistic, but sometimes it depends on the situation.

Yahoo! users are most likely to be overweight women ages 18-49 who have a high school diploma and are spiritual, but not religious. They tend to be politically middle of the road, in a relationship of 1-5 years, and have children. Yahoo! users live in the suburbs or in rural areas and haven’t traveled outside their own country. Family is their first priority. They mostly read magazines, are almost equally likely to have a laptop or desktop computer, listen to the radio and cds, and watch TV on 1-2 DVRs in their home. At home, Yahoo! users lounge around in pajamas. They’re extroverts who prefer sweet snacks and like working on a team. Yahoo! users are optimistic or pessimistic, depending on the situation.

Google is building a better boss

Here is an interesting New York Times article about Google’s Project Oxygen, which is, in essence, an initiative by the company to improve management.

In Project Oxygen, the statisticians gathered more than 10,000 observations about managers — across more than 100 variables, from various performance reviews, feedback surveys and other reports. Then they spent time coding the comments in order to look for patterns.

Like in many other technical companies, team and project leaders are assigned from the best of technical people. It turns out that being good at programming does not necessarily mean being good at managing people. That’s something that some of us knew for years.

For much of its 13-year history, particularly the early years, Google has taken a pretty simple approach to management: Leave people alone. Let the engineers do their stuff. If they become stuck, they’ll ask their bosses, whose deep technical expertise propelled them into management in the first place.

But Mr. Bock’s group found that technical expertise — the ability, say, to write computer code in your sleep — ranked dead last among Google’s big eight. What employees valued most were even-keeled bosses who made time for one-on-one meetings, who helped people puzzle through problems by asking questions, not dictating answers, and who took an interest in employees’ lives and careers.

But just knowing that technical skills aren’t at the top of the list for a manager is not enough. One needs to know what is important. And that’s what Project Oxygen is all about.

Things like this make me appreciate and respect Google. Even if they don’t publish the results of the studies and use it internally only. One thing that should be kept in mind is that Google employs a lot of people. And those people come and go. So even if they get a glimpse of a better way while at Google, that knowledge will eventually get out, will get applied to other companies, and will make the (office) world a better place.