Economist, Feb 28, 2015

choi

(1) Telecoms and society | The Truly Personal Computer; The smartphone is the defining technology of the age.
www.economist.com/news/briefing/ ... y-personal-computer

My comment:
(a) There is no need to read the text. Just view charts and a graphic.
(b) Chart 1 (not discussed in the text) pegs the 2014 shipment of smartphone around 1.2 billion. "Sources: Gartner; Strategy Analytics." (Another category in Chart 1 is "mobile phone.")  

Press release: Gartner Says Smartphone Sales Surpassed One Billion Units in 2014. Gartner, Mar 3, 2015
www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2996817
("In 2014, sales of smartphones to end users totaled 1.2 billion units, up 28.4 percent from 2013 (see Table 2) and represented two-thirds of global mobile phone sales")

This press release does not say how many smartphones and non-smart ones were shipped in China--but probably did (say) in the detailed analysis sold to customers.

(c) "Already hugely attractive—an estimated 500m will be sold in China this year—smartphones are getting both more useful at the top end and much cheaper at the bottom. The most popular brand in India, Micromax, sells basic models for under $40."

choi

(2) Energy controversies | A Frack Too Far; Yearnings to tap gas threaten to split a state in two.
www.economist.com/news/united-st ... e-two-frack-too-far

Note:
(a) "New York’s Southern Tier"
(i) Southern Tier
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Tier
("west of the Catskill Mountains" or "west of Delaware County")
(ii) Catskill Mountains
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catskill_Mountains
(or the Catskills; section 1 Name: While the meaning of the name ("cat creek" in Dutch) and the namer (early Dutch explorers) are settled matters, exactly how and why the area is named is a mystery)
(A) One looks at Google map and will be struck by mountainous nature of the region ("Catskill Mountains" or "the Catskills"--just googling the former without quotation marks and a sketch of mountains pops up to the right of returned results, which says the highest point is Slide Mountain of 1,277m).
(B) But the Wiki page does not have a map to tell you where exactly the region is.
(iii) Catskill Park Map. New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, undated.
www.dec.ny.gov/docs/lands_forests_pdf/catmapguide.pdf

The Park is delineated with a light blue boundary.
(iv) Cicely A Richard, Information on the Catskill Mountains. USA Today, undated
traveltips.usatoday.com/information-catskill-mountains-12639.html
("The Catskill Mountains, 135 miles north of New York City, are sometimes considered an extension of the Appalachian Mountains, which start in Alabama and end in Canada. Located west of the Hudson River, the Catskills boundaries include Delaware, Sullivan, Greene and Ulster counties")

(b) "It might be easier if, as some suggest, New York state were just split into two autonomous regions. New York City, Long Island and Westchester would be one region and everything else would become 'New Amsterdam,' a nod to New York’s original Dutch name."

Westchester County, New York
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westchester_County,_New_York
(Established in 1683, Westchester was named after the city of Chester [which is county town of Cheshire], England; The county seat of Westchester is the city of White Plains; shares its southern boundary with New York City)

(c) "Calls to divide New York are not new. In 1969 the writer Norman Mailer ran for mayor of New York City on a pledge to make it the 51st state. The only effort that succeeded was in 1777, when a chunk of upstate New York became Vermont."
(i) Norman Mailer
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Mailer
(1923-2007; section 3.1 Mayoral campaign)
(ii) History of Vermont
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Vermont
(section 3 New Hampshire Grants, New York's claim, and the Vermont Republic)

Basically the section says:

New Hampshire governor Benning Wentworth "issued a series of 135 land grants between 1749 and 1764 called the New Hampshire Grants, west of Connecticut River, which New York State (and France) also claimed. Following France's loss in the French and Indian War, the 1763 Treaty of Paris gave control of the whole region to the British"--New France no more. In 1764 UK King George III set the River as the boundary between New Hampshire and New York. New York considered setters on New Hampshire Grants (who had paid New Hampshire to buy the land) invalid and had to pay New York again for the same lands. Settlers rebelled against New York. On Jan 15, 1777, these settlers declared independence from New York, formed The Republic of New Connecticut. On June 2, 1777, they adopted the name "Vermont" and souht admission into the newly independent United States of America as the 14th state, which succeeded on Mar 4, 1791.

choi

(3) Smartphones The Xiaomi Shock; China’s booming smartphone market has spawned a genuine innovator.
(“”Conquering the world will be harder than dominating the home market. * * * Few consumer in other emerging markets are as plugged into e-commerce as the Chinese are. Entering such markets may require Xiaomi, which has thus far relied mostly on internet sales and word-of-mouth buzz, to make expensive investment in advertising and in bricks-and-mortar retailing. * * * Another snag is its [Xiaomi’s] lack of intellectual property [ie, patents]. Smartphone companies are highly litigious”)

Note:
(a) That ”genuine innovator” in the subtitle is Xiaomi.
(b) There is no need to read it.