Apple iTunes Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Have you ever wondered what the major themes are in the 27 page Terms of Service and Privacy Policy for Apple’s iTunes?  Well intrepid reader, wonder no more.  

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Tim Cook’s pay package

$378 million ($378,000,000)

What do you give the CEO of the world’s most influential and admired technology company for his partial first year on the job?  Start with a base salary of $900,000, throw in $376 million (yes, million) in restricted stock that vests over ten years, and top it off with the bragging rights as the highest paid U.S. CEO for 2011.  

Technology trends of 2011

90%

It has been said that history is the best predictor of future events and if that is in fact the case, then 2012 is going to be an incredibly exciting year in technology.  2011 saw the explosion of innovations in mobile and social technology with tremendous growth in group buying, geolocation applications, and tablet computing.  

Mobile shopping dominance

92%

Perhaps one of the most interesting statistics to cross my inbox this year is today’s data point.  Retail analysis firm RichRelevance recently released a study based on 3.4 billion shopping sessions between April and December 2011, during which Apple’s market share grew from 88% to 92%.  

Facebook for Android

58.3 million (58,300,000)

For the first time since its launch in September 2009, the Facebook app for Android has surpassed the daily active users of the Facebook app for iPhone.  As of December 17 the Android app captured 58.3 million users while the users of Facebook’s iPhone app totaled 900,000 less or 57.4 million users.  

Apple’s share of mobile advertising

15%

Launched last year and touted by Apple’s then CEO the late (great) Steve Jobs, iAd was supposed to be their answer to Google’s AdMob mobile advertising platform.  With a relatively complicated and inflexible pricing schema, iAd confused and upset advertisers – all of whom initially had to commit to $1 million in advertising spend, although that number was dropped to $500,000 shortly thereafter.  

Android Market milestone

10 billion (10,000,000,000)

Two days ago Google announced that the Android Market had reached a historic, albeit largely symbolic and almost entirely irrelevant, milestone – 10 billion downloads.  From the time the platform was released in mid-2008 until July, 2010 approximately 1 billion apps were downloaded.  

Apple’s desirability

44%

Among U.S.-based kids aged 6-12 Apple topped the charts for most desirable products once again this holiday season according to a recent survey by The Nielsen Company.  The iPad took first place (44%) with the iPod Touch (30%) and iPhone (27%) taking the second and third spots respectively.  

Android global presence

52.5%

Android is crushing the competition and now owns over 50% of the global smartphone market (52.5% to be precise) – double from this time last year.  The growth comes largely at the expense of every non-iOS mobile platform, although Apple did fall slightly to 15% of the world-wide market in Q3.  

Making HVAC sexy

The folks over at Nest Labs are doing something truly innovative and even sexy in the field of HVAC.  Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (or HVAC as it is called by insiders) is responsible for keeping most of the U.S. civilized in the dead of winter or during the sweltering heat of summer.  It is also responsible for roughly half of the average household’s energy expenditure in a given year – roughly $1,100.  If you’re like most people, the thermostat is your interface point for more than 99% of your interactions with your HVAC system. Those interactions range from putting the system on permanent “hold” (a recent Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study found that as many as 50% of households are set this way) or trying to program it using a kludgy interface that conjures painful memories of trying to set the clock on the VCR in 1983.