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Apple Is Top 'Mobile PC' Vendor, DisplaySearch Says

If notebooks and tablets are lumped together, the mobility crown should be handed to Apple, a DisplaySearch report concluded Wednesday.

DisplaySearch combined Apple's MacBook and iPad sales and named Apple the leading vendor of "mobile" PCs for the fourth quarter. HP was second, followed by Acer, Dell, and Toshiba.

In total, worldwide mobile PC shipments reached 59.6 million, up 8 percent from the prior quarter and 17 percent from the same period a year ago. But excluding tablets, notebook sales were up just 1 percent from a year agoand 4 percent sequentially.

Apple sold 10.2 million tablets and notebooks, for a 17.2 percent share. HP sold 9.3 million units, for a 15.6 percent market share.

"While we anticipate increased competition in the tablet PC market later this year with the introduction of Android Honeycomb-based tablets, Apple's iPad business is complementing a notebook line whose shipments widely exceed the industry average growth rate," said Richard Shim, senior analyst at DisplaySearch, in a statement. "Apple is currently benefiting from significant and comprehensive growth from both sectors of the mobile PC spectrum, notebooks and tablet PCs. Cannibalization seems limited at this point."

Shim said that both Apple and Toshiba were the only companies to grow their shipments on a year-over-year basis. DisplaySearch didn't provide year-over-year growth figures for the individual companies.

Acer, which included the Founder brand, sold 8.4 million mobile PCs, worth 14 percent of the market. Dell sold 5.9 million units, or 9.9 percent of the market, and Toshiba sold 5.1 million units, or 8.6 percent of the market. The top brands accounted for 65.4 percent of the market, DisplaySearch said.

Egypt's Leaderless Revolution

NEW YORK – The uprising in Egypt was swift, relatively bloodless—and lacked a real leader. Former Hillary Clinton adviser Anne-Marie Slaughter on how the new generation is anti-leadership.

Follow the leader. It's a game we play as children and an assumption we still make as adults: Effective action in any organization requires some to lead and others to follow.

That assumption motivated the various news stories this past week on who was really leading the protesters in Tahrir Square, captured in a New York Times headline on February 8: “A Quest for an Opposition Leader.” , Nobel Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei, Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie, Ghad party leader Ayman Nour, and another Nobel Prize winner, the chemist Ahmed Zewail.

But in reading the story, it is quickly clear that the “quest” comes from the Times and not the protesters, who have actively refused to appoint a leader. Even Ghonim, who mobilized tens of thousands of protesters with his Facebook page and Twitter feeds, has rejected the leadership mantle.

The reason, in part, is that the Internet generation—the digital natives who took to Cairo’s streets—has a very different conception of leadership. They don’t see the world in terms of atomized actors requiring leaders to represent them and organize cooperation, but rather as a vast network of interconnected individuals. In this world, organizing is easy and almost organic, involving not much more than the creation of a Web page, the posting or tweeting of key information to allow likeminded people to converge on the same point at the same time, provide a forum, and assure everyone that they are not alone.

“Leaders” in this world do not chart a course for others to follow, or even represent the views of their followers. Rather, they are central nodes in multiple networks, individuals who convene, connect, catalyze, and facilitate the action of others, who make it possible for as many different people as possible to come together and solve their own problems. That is what Ghonim did when he created the Facebook page “We are all Khalid Said,” giving tens of thousands of people a place to come together, make their views known, and draw strength from their gathering numbers. In a , Ghonim insisted that his purpose was “to increase the bond between the people and the group through my unknown personality. This way we create an army of volunteers.”

The Internet generation—the digital natives who took to Cairo’s streets—has a very different conception of leadership.

• • • • In Egypt, protesters had many disincentives to identify a leader. First, it puts an individual face on what is now a mass movement—and individuals can be arrested, imprisoned, and silenced. Second, even multiple leaders can take a horizontal network and turn it into a vertical, hierarchical pyramid, where those at the bottom have far less ability to shape their own future. Third, the point of having leaders is to have designated representatives who can negotiate and compromise with the government. Leaders who succeed in this task, however, constrain and reduce the scope of action open to the protesters, rather than enabling them to speak and act for themselves.

Still, the organization of mass protest is a very different enterprise than the organization of ordinary politics. Mass movements can depose a leader; or, indeed, as with Barack Obama, elect one. But they cannot govern. The romantic solidarity of the masses in Tahrir Square is intoxicating, but deeply impractical. It is also open to exploitation by ruthless individuals or groups who see a power vacuum to be filled.

That, at least, is the conventional wisdom. But the message from the young Egyptian protesters is that they are free for the first time in their lives—free not only to speak, but also to organize themselves to meet their own needs. If they can organize in Tahrir Square to provide municipal services from trash removal to medical care, might they be able organize their own neighborhoods to do the same?

It will be a long time before they trust their government. Even the most successful elections later this year cannot possibly scrub away decades of encrusted corruption and inaction. And no government, however competent, will be able to instantly create the millions of jobs that young Egyptians need.

So suppose they create their own jobs; suppose they elect or appoint not 10 leaders but hundreds and even thousands of leaders, who act as central nodes in countless community networks, organizing and facilitating common action to meet local needs and solve local problems. Instead of waiting for elections to replace and reform their government, suppose they simply create a parallel political process that identifies and energizes leaders who, in the words of Nannerl Keohane, former president of Duke University andon leadership, can “determine or clarify goals for a group of individuals and bring together the energies of members of that group to accomplish those goals?”

After all, this is a group of organizationally savvy youths who know the way to Tahrir Square, as one protester recently told an interviewer when asked how protesters would ensure that all of their demands were met. They also know the way to every marketplace and city hall across the country.

To readers over 35, this scenario may seem preposterous at best and dangerously utopian at worst. But with nearly , these young people have no jobs to return to. That is one of the principal reasons they are protesting in the first place. Are they really going to return home to their idle lives and wait patiently for elections? The energy, motivation, and confidence that are now surging through them still need an outlet that cannot be met by politics as usual.

And a generation raised on multilevel videogames with complex graphics and strategies is unlikely to be content with Follow the Leader.

Anne-Marie Slaughter is the Bert G. Kerstetter '66 University Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University. From 2009-2011, she served as director of policy planning for the State Department, the first woman to hold that position. She was dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton from 2002-2009. Her most recent book is The Idea That Is America: Keeping Faith With Our Values in a Dangerous World.

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More Clues Point to iPhone Nano Debut [REPORT]

Is there a smaller, cheaper version of theon the way? , but now the Wall Street Journal has found "people familiar with the matter" who have actually laid hands and eyes upon it:

"One of the people, who saw a prototype of a new iPhone several months ago, said the new device is intended to be sold alongside the current line of iPhones and would be about half the size of the iPhone 4. The phone, one of its codenames is N97, would be available to mobile carriers at about half the price of Apple's main line of iPhones, the person said."

According to the , Apple's also considering making its MobileMe online storage service free, allowing users to store their data in the cloud rather than on a small device such as an iPhone,or . This move could facilitate a smaller iPhone, which could store most of its data elsewhere rather than within its tiny confines.

When will we see such a tiny iPhone, reportedly one-third smaller than its bigger brother, and ? The WSJ sources are saying this summer, which is right in line with the usual time new iPhones are unveiled.

A.R. Gurney's play 'Black Tie' is well tailored

NEW YORK – Sometimes, your dad's old hand-me-down suits need altering to fit just right. Sometimes, his advice does, too.

Such is the premise of A.R. Gurney's very enjoyable new play "Black Tie," which made its world premiere at Primary Stages' 59E59 Theaters on Thursday night. A comedy about how values change from generation to generation, the play benefits from some excellent acting and writing.

It takes place on the eve of a wedding in a hotel in the Adirondacks. The groom's family has arrived to prepare for the rehearsal dinner downstairs and the father, Curtis (a fine Gregg Edelman), is slipping on his late father's tuxedo, which he has had tailored for the occasion to honor tradition.

That's when a familiar spirit appears: It's Curtis' charming father, who has been aroused from The Great Beyond by his loving son to help write his wedding speech and for advice. Dressed in an impeccable tuxedo of his own, the silver-haired father cannot be seen or heard by anyone but Curtis.

The father, played deliciously by Daniel Davis, is hardly mute: He's a font of old-school elegance, quipping relentlessly, advising on the "proper" way things should be and liberally quoting from Joseph Conrad and Lord Byron.

He believes in continuity, in dinner jackets, that "pants" should be called "trousers." When he says he's "very fond" of someone, he really means the opposite. And he's revealed to be a snob, as when he discovers the bride's father manages a supermarket in Utica, an upstate New York city that is far from glamorous.

"Do we know anyone in Utica?" he asks Curtis.

"I don't know, Dad," Curtis answers.

"I'm not sure we do. I'm not sure we should," he replies.

Curtis' preparations for the rehearsal dinner do not go smoothly. His wife (a delightfully flinty Carolyn McCormick, of "Law & Order" fame), never really much liked Curtis' dad and thinks the old tuxedo makes him overdressed. The two lovingly bicker like a comfortable married couple.

More bad news: Their daughter (Elvy Yost) soon reports that the youthful guests are messing with the carefully constructed seating arrangements and that an unwanted guest has arrived. And the groom himself (Ari Brand) is having second thoughts. Plus, the bride's parents may resent the WASPy-ness of the groom's parents. Even the decision to wear black tie may be sending the wrong message.

Curtis — and especially his ghostly father — have a hard time with each new revelation. Davis, who played the butler Niles in "The Nanny," does a superb job of slowly unspooling his character's horror at modern life: unembarrassed divorcees, interracial marriages, the lost art of sparkling after-dinner speeches and, perhaps most shockingly, wedding receptions held in a place as tacky as the hotel's Ticonderoga Room.

"Life is a long, incoherent, ungrammatical sentence, and all I can do is try to provide some basic punctuation," the ghost says at one point, in one of Gurney's best lines.

Director Mark Lamos has handled several of Gurney's plays and keeps the rhythm of the new one at a happy pace, juggling five characters who pop in and out — including an apparition, who, naturally, knows how to make a grand exit when the time is right.

As for "Black Tie," the makings of a very sad commentary on life actually ends up fine in the end: Some of the old ways may not work now, but some of the new ways lack a certain pizazz. Gurney has tailored a fine piece of work to joke about both.

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Super-G champ Cuche promises 'tough battle'

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN (AFP) – Defending world super-G champion Didier Cuche plans to ruin World Cup leader Ivica Kostelic's 'holiday' when the men's competition starts Wednesday at the World Ski Championships.

The Swiss veteran scooped super-G gold when the world championships were held in Val d'Isere two years ago, but Croatia's Kostelic is now the skier to beat and has a massive 524-point lead over second-placed Cuche in the World Cup rankings.

With the events set to start Tuesday with the women's super-G and finish on February 20 with the men's slalom, Kostelic has said he will treat the world championships like a 'holiday' in order to focus on his World Cup campaign.

While slalom-specialist Kostelic has performed strongly this season in the technical disciplines, warm day-time temperatures and freezing nights in the Bavarian Alps mean the Kandahar course will be icy and fast.

Course conditions will favour the speed demons amongst the world's elite skiers and Cuche says it promises to be a tough battle in the super-G, which combines elements of the downhill and the giant slalom, and is decided over one race.

"Sure, it would be nice to able to celebrate winning a medal, but, as we all know, this isn't a walk in the park," said the 36-year-old Swiss.

"I'm not going to make any statements concerning my colour of choice, but of course I'm hoping for the necessary ounce of good luck. I like the track in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

"I have often been able to perform well here in the past."

Unlike the downhill, skiers do not have the chance of a pre-race training run in the super-G, only a one-hour visual inspection on the morning of the race.

And that is where experience will count down the twisting turns of the steep course, with the likes of veterans Bode Miller of the US likely to prosper on a fast track.

Olympic champion Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal, third in the overall rankings, is also one to look out for having taken super-G gold, downhill silver and giant slalom bronze at the Vancouver Winter Games.

"Beautiful sunshine and very warm in Garmisch," Svindal said on his blog. "Just played football in a t-shirt.

"But race conditions on the hill are looking good, and so does the weather forecast. Nice to be here. Let the world championships begin!!"

Austria's men come into the race in fine form after Philipp Schorghofer won the giant slalom on Sunday in Hinterstoder, 24 hours after compatriot Hannes Reichelt won the super-G.

The wins boost flagging confidence in the Austrian camp with Hans Grugger recovering from severe head injuries that required a coma-induced operation last week following a crash at Kitzbuhel on January 20.

Mario Scheiber (collarbone) and Georg Streitberger (shin) also suffered crash injuries in recent weeks.