Inside View

70/100 Are iPhones

IT'S HARD TO ARGUE with Morgan Stanley's statistics on the overall dominance of the iPhone as the primary handheld device used to visit web sites. Last month, more than 70% of the mobile browsers (shown above visiting InsideView.ie) that reported their presence to Statcounter came from the iPhone or iPod Touch. I reckon that was the high water mark because I'm seeing three or four new Android visitors every day and those Android handsets could push iPhone visitors below the 60% level before the August heat wave.

My 100 Million Euro Mistake

A FEW DAYS AGO, I was wrong to cite a figure of €100 million in relation to Tipperary Institute. I was wrong by a factor of 10. But I was not alone in my casual use of isolated financial data. The 9th Level aggregator picked up my incorrect figure and dropped it into the research folders of several reporters where it may be recited as an authoritative number when it actually lacks standing. I'm not alone in picking up on the 100 million euro number. It originated in the McCarthy report where the cost of education at Tipperary Institute is reported incorrectly. The financial analysts wrongly attribute an entire pot of money to education when a deeper analysis of the data shows the contribution made by the Irish Exchequer actually covers a wider swath of activities. Grainne Fuller in the Irish Times recited the €100m figure in the context of the McCarthy Report without disputing its accuracy but her article does offer further discussion about the reach of Tipperary's third level institution--a deep reach into Ireland's start-up ecosystem, community development programmes and well-established outreach in Ireland.