Joe Wilcox

Google+ has done in about three weeks what took Facebook years -- reach 20 million (presumably) active users.

In May 2006, Facebook opened to the public, already with about 6 million active users (mainly from schools). The service reached 20 million active users 11 months later. Google announced the G+ service -- invite-only during early testing phase -- on June 28. But those invites trickled out at first. Three weeks later, Google+ already had 20 million subscribers, or so claims Pluser Leon Håland.

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Microsoft must move beyond Windows, as clearly seen in fiscal 2011 fourth quarterly and yearly results, announced late yesterday. The operating system remains a pillar of the company's revenue stream and will long be the identifying brand. But its relevance is diminishing, in developed markets for now. Emerging markets will come much later.

For the third quarter in a row, sluggish PC shipments diminished Windows & Windows Live revenues -- and there is little sign anything will change anytime soon. Revenues fell by 1 percent and operating income by 4 percent during fiscal fourth quarter. Global PC shipments grew by 2.3 percent, according to Gartner, and 2.6 percent, according to IDC. US PC shipments were disastrous, falling 5.6 percent year over year, according to Gartner, and declining 4.2 percent by IDC's reckoning. Microsoft estimates global PC shipments grew by 1 percent to 3 percent. Windows actually underperformed, by comparison, with OEM revenues declining by 1 percent for the quarter and growing by a tepid 2 percent for fiscal 2011. OEM sales accounted for three-quarters of Windows revenue during fiscal Q4.

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While I studiously covered Microsoft's fiscal fourth quarter earnings, Apple announced that more than "1 million users" purchased Mac OS X 10.7 Lion during the first day of availability. That's why I'm posting this later than everybody else.

For some reason Apple made a distinction between "users" and "copies" of software, which I find surprising. Is the distinction meaningful, I wonder. Users is appropriate from perspective of how the software is sold -- from the electronic Mac App Store for which there is an Apple account and person attached to it. On the other hand, users could refer to number of installs per copy, which would mean more installations than sales. Apple probably means the former, but I call it out because the company is typically quite deliberate in use of language.

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Microsoft closed its fiscal year on a high note, despite globally slow PC sales that weighed down Windows division sales. The Redmond, Wash.-based company announced fourth quarterly and yearly results after the market closed today.

For fiscal 2011 fourth quarter, ended June 30, Microsoft's revenue rose 8 percent to $17.37 billion, year over year. Operating income: $6.17 billion, or 4 percent increase. Net income rose 30 percent to $5.87 billion, or 69 cents a share. Earnings per share rose by 35 percent year over year.

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Today's dismal Nokia second-quarter earnings results offer little good news. Apple now leads Nokia in smartphone sales, 20.3 million units to 16.7 million. The sliver of good news: Nokia will ship a Windows Phone handset this year, which probably isn't soon enough.

Nokia smartphone sales collapsed during second quarter, plummeting an awe-numbing 34 percent year over year. By comparison Apple smartphone sales soared by 142 percent. The percentages alone are sobering enough.

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Is better late than never really applicable in the rapidly-changing smartphone market?

Finally, seven months after debuting for T-Mobile, the Samsung-manufactured, Google-branded Nexus S is headed to AT&T. Best Buy starts taking preorders today for the smartphone, which goes on sale July 24 -- $99 with two-year contract.

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Global mobile payments will generate $86.1 billion in revenue this year, Gartner forecasts today. That's up 75.9 percent, from $48.9 billion, in 2010.

The big numbers are coming from a relatively small base -- 141.1 million users, up 38.2 percent from 102.1 million last year. That base isn't growing fast enough.

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As announced late yesterday during Apple's fiscal 2011 third quarter earnings call. OS X 10.7 released today. It's yours for 30 bucks, if your Mac has Snow Leopard and Mac App Store installed. Otherwise, you're buying something more first, either OS X 10.6 or a new Mac.

Concurrent with Lion's release, Apple also updated MacBook Air with Intel Sandy bridge processors and Thunderbolt ports. Lion ships on all new Macs from today. Lion requires a Mac with OS X 10.6.8 to install and a Core 2 duo processor or later. If your Mac is Core duo, you're out of luck.

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Apple's record-breaking fiscal 2011 third quarter is chock full of surprises -- in the results and from the earnings conference call. I learned 10 things, many of which surprised me, that you might want to know, too.

1. Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion" ships tomorrow. Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer announced the release in passing, with surprisingly little fanfare. The software will be available for direct download to Mac users running Snow Leopard with Mac App Store installed. Cost is $29.99.

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Wall Street analysts were bullish almost to the point of insanity about Apple's fiscal 2011 third quarter results, with consensus estimates putting revenue growth at nearly 60 percent and income up by more than 65 percent, year over year. Apple did even better.

For the quarter ending June 25, Apple reported $28.57 billion revenue and net profits of $7.31 billion, or $7.79 a share. A year earlier, the company reported revenue of $15.7 billion and $3.25 billion net quarterly profit, or $3.51 per share. Apple announced fiscal Q3 results after the market closed today.

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As I reported yesterday, but want to call out more prominently today, a recent ChangeWave survey found that more Windows Phone 7 users are "very satisfied" than those with Androids.

Apple iPhone users are most satisfied, 70 percent in the "very" category. Fifty-percent of Android users are "very satisfied". For Windows Phone 7 users, it's 57 percent. But there's more. The number is a huge improvement over Microsoft's past. Only 14 percent of Windows Mobile users are "very satisfied".

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Well, so much for that Android exclusivity. But, hey, the iOS app appears to be for iPhone only. That's no iPad or iPod touch for you, bud.

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The American Customer Satisfaction Index e-business report is out, and, whoa, do people not really like Facebook.

"Facebook continues to register as one of the lowest-scoring companies measured by the ACSI", from the report. "To put this in perspective, only 14 other sites of the 226 private-sector companies measured by the ACSI have scores that tie or fall below Facebook's, meaning Facebook is in the bottom 6 percent of the whole ACSI".

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There's an irony to today's LulzSec attacks on News Corp. websites. It's bad for newspapers to wiretap, but OK to hack them. That's the message from the hacktivists -- they're justified to break the law but no one else.

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It's a good question to ask now that ChangeWave claims that 46 percent of 4,163 consumers surveyed plan to buy iPhone within 90 days. Apple is expected to release iPhone 5 within that time period.

Earlier today, ChangeWave released the data, which reliability is somewhat skewed. "This survey focuses primarily on the North American smartphone market -- with the sample being 89 percent U.S. respondents and 11 percent outside the US", according to the analyst firm. Pardon my confusion, but when did the United States annex Canada and Mexico? Last I checked, North America wasn't synonymous with the United States. It's little details like this that in the past caused me to beat ChangeWave with its own data.

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