The internet is an incredibly rich source of information and data. Unfortunately, not all information providers are adept at presenting their data appropriately. To me, an appropriate presentation of data means that I can look at your chart/graph/table/pictograph/hieroglyph and instantly glean the key finding(s) without much of a struggle.
This is why I was particularly perplexed by this chart and the corresponding article:
When I look at this chart, I think, “Wow, RIM sure does have a foothold on the market share of SmartPhones in the US. The others have some catching up to do.” But according to the article, the main finding is “Apple’s U.S. iPhone user base blew past Windows Mobile for the first time in October and it’s bearing down on Research In Motion…”
I certainly didn’t get the feeling that Apple is blowing past anything. Notice how each of the horizontal bars represents a month. Everybody knows that time is best represented as a continuum – since that is what it is. What is even more striking is that Silicon Insider thought they had improved upon the original display of this information by rank ordering the SmartPhone OS by share of the market in October (check out the original chart here. Yuk.).
FierceDeveloper was kind enough to post the original data on their website. Here’s my attempt to show the same information but more visually appealing.
You can still see that RIM has the strongest position but Apple’s surge over Microsoft in July is much more apparent than in the horizontal bar charts above.
Well, what do you think?