Archive for the ‘Geek’ Category
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Monday, December 21st, 2009
Last month I posted a quick comparison between Sony PRS-600 and Kindle 2 where was mentioned the upcoming new Sony.
New wireless Sony eReader PRS-900BC won’t be available for another couple of months but earlier today I got a call from a Sony rep who just received a demo unit.
I played with the device for half an hour. Enough to say I love it but not enough to give an in-depth review.
Size is probably the best asset of this ebook. Somewhere between a Nook and a Kindle DX. A nice 7′ display using E Ink Vizplex technology. A lot has been said on the Sony vs Kindle screen. Personally I like Sony screen better as it provides a natural, high-contrast picture without provoking any eyestrain.
Wireless capabilities add daily papers delivery right to the device, real time RSS feed reader and of course the ability to buy a book on the fly.
Epub open format, 2 weeks battery life, gigantic 1.6gb internal memory expendable to 33.6gb with an SD card and matte black finish makes the PRS-900BC most appealing reader for now. One major drawback is the $400 price tag. Sony must launch around $250/$280. Over $300 will keep sales marginal.
Below pics of PRS-900BC in action.
Tags: E ink, epub, ereader, kindle, nook, prs-600, PRS-900Bc, reader store, Sony
Posted in Books, Content, Geek, Newspapers, Sony, ebook | No Comments »
True mess, wrong phone.
Monday, December 7th, 2009
Jeremie Berrebi wanted me to read Getting Real by 37Signals. I highly recommend it to anyone planning to launch a startup. Their caveats, disclaimers, and other preemptive strikes says it all:
“… the ideas in this book won’t apply to every project under
the sun. If you are building a weapons system, a nuclear control
plant, a banking system for millions of customers, or some other
life/finance-critical system, you’re going to balk at some of our
laissez-faire attitude.
Don’t get huffy if you read some of our advice and it reminds
you of something you read about already on so and so’s weblog
or in some book published 20 years ago. It’s definitely possible.”
Some precious advice found in the book came back to me after reading Truphone’s blog earlier today. Truphone is a VOIP – Voice Over Internet- provider. Their mission is to offer “free and low-cost international calls”. Every attempt to bring down price of telecommunication is a good one as long as you remember to Keep It Simple Stupid – KISS.
Here is basically what Truphone came up with: get a Truphone account online, buy an iPod Touch, get a contract with a carrier for an always-on portable device (MiFi type), add a 24 months contract, buy a headset with microphone built-in, add funds to your Truphone account and you are good to go for low cost telecommunication of the 21st century.
This is the most ridiculous telecom offer I’ve ever seem.
Subscribers are ready to pay additional dollars for convenience i.e. they are not ready to sacrifice simplicity to save 2 cts on a telephone call.
“Conventional wisdom says that to beat your competitors you need to one-up them. If they have four features, you need five (or 15, or 25). If they’re spending x, you need to spend xx. If they have 20, you need 30.
This sort of one-upping Cold War mentality is a dead-end. It’s an expensive, defensive, and paranoid way of building products.
Defensive, paranoid companies can’t think ahead,
they can only think behind. They don’t lead, they follow.
So what to do then? The answer is less. Do less than your
competitors to beat them. Solve the simple problems
and leave the hairy, difficult, nasty problems to
everyone else. Instead of one-upping, try one-downing.
Instead of outdoing, try underdoing.”
There will be 3 kinds of comments after this post, some saying I don’t understand nothing about innovation, some saying I’m an ass for trashing a competitor and certainly a bunch of comments for Viagra and male enhancement. So here comes the natural disclaimer: I have a lot of respect for competition and doers. Truphone does great things and I have used their service several times. They are not a competitor of my core business Global Roaming. Never was. At Global Roaming we do one thing and one only: providing a hassle-free SIM card for travelers.
There is an ongoing temptation to start ‘innovating’ in a wrong way by adding a bunch of useless features just to prove we can do it. Think market adoption, simplicity, sales pitch and PR before you sign off on a R&D project.
“The secret to building half a product instead of a half-ass
product is saying no.
Each time you say yes to a feature, you’re adopting a child. You
have to take your baby through a whole chain of events (e.g.
design, implementation, testing, etc.). And once that feature’s
out there, you’re stuck with it. Just try to take a released feature
away from customers and see how pissed off they get.”
Bottom line Truphone has used heavy dollars to develop a feature that has zero need. What’s next – turn my watch into a Truphone capable device?
Tags: complex, failure, global roaming, ipod, marketing, mifi, simcard, Telecom, truphone, voip
Posted in Apple, Geek, Technology, Telecom, iPhone | 3 Comments »
Is Square a sham or the next big thing?
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
Seems everyone is falling for this but me. I had to look at the TechCrunch video presentation of Square few times and I still do not understand what Square is up to.
Is it a clearing house, a merchant provider, payment gateway, a mobile POS – read Point Of Sale 
, a technology platform or all the above? I don’t have the answer and my guess is Square is exploring all possibilities.
Whatever is shown on that short video presentation is not an easy form of payment process. It took a couple of minutes to pay for a coffee as it takes less than 10 seconds to do the same at any Starbucks. What happens during rush hour when 60 people need to pay for coffee? Expect a 120 minute wait to process payment!
What’s the point of a $200 iPhone PoS (Point of Sale – don’t want any confusion here) when you can process credit/debit payment on a virtual terminal at $0 additional cost?
I read somewhere it’s a huge opportunity for pop and mom kind of business, eBay sellers, Craigslists transactions, farmers and so on.
First I believe they could all accept credit cards today if they wanted to. There is a gazillion solution out there for them.
Second do you think those really want to be exposed to chargeback, fraud, IRS, sales tax and potential liability for identity theft?
Third – credit/debit card sales is not CASH in da pocket. Often I shop at Coconut Grove Organic Farmers Market and let me tell you – they don’t like/want your plastic. Cash allow them to live. They already struggle, take it away from them and they die.
So what am I missing? Should I buy the concept because Jack Dorsey – Twitter co-founder- is behind it? Enlighten me.
Tags: dorsey, iPhone, mobile payment, payment, square, transaction, virtual
Posted in Apple, Economy, Entrepreneur, Geek, Telecom, USA, iPhone | 10 Comments »
Droid Must Have Applications
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
It has been 2 weeks since Droid invaded my life. Let me be clear – it’s not a perfect device. Verizon and Motorola rushed to get this phone out and I think they did the right thing.
Verizon announced an update for December 11th. Google updated their official website for its mobile operating system. Going by history, Android.com has always been updated before an update is released for the Android operating system. This could mean that Android 2.1 is near, and might arrive on December 11th. To add fuel to the fire, Google recently updated their Android market terms of service which go into effect on Dec 11, 2009. According the rumors going around Dec 11 update should bring the following
- New Android Market with carrier billing support
- Android 2.1 update for select devices
- OTA updates for the Verizon Droid and Droid Eris
- Desktop client for Android Market
Nothing regarding much wanted features: pinch-to-zoom, Sense UI, Mobile Chrome Browser, screen capture and tethering.
Therefor I decided to put up a list of applications to make the Droid a much better device .
List of must have applications as of December 1st:
Better Keyboard – $2.99
Better Keyboard provides some options like three different keyboard layouts and slightly larger keys. You can type letters and numbers without having to swap keyboards. Improves overall typing experience.
Astro File Manager – FREE
Astro should be in all Android phones. It’s basically a file manager to browse SD card, system files but also a utility to kill running processes, optimize RAM and create/rename/edit folders.
DockRunner – FREE
Developed by Active Frequency this app will simulate Multimedia Dock mode. Very handy at night to keep your phone on a night table displaying time. Saves you $30 on an accessory you will barely use.
Dolphin Browser – FREE
Motorola Droid has some core features disabled such as Pinch To Zoom -certainly to avoid potential lawsuit with Apple. Dolphin Browser brings pinch-to-zoom to Droid. It’s fast and powerful. You can set Dolphin as a default browser and avoid the hassle of using built-in browser.
Beautiful Widgets – $1.50
Droid landing is kind of empty compared to HTC Sense UI. Beautiful Widgets adds weather and flip clock to your home page. Personally I love it and recommend it.
dXTop: Home Alternative – $2.99
I’m not a big fan of themes, backgrounds and ringtones but dXTop is more than just a cosmetic lift. It adds one more screen to the home, dual drawers and screen capture. Unfortunately screen capture feature is working for home page only 
but it proves its doable. I’m surprised we have no screenshot application for Droid so far. dXTop can run with Beautiful Widgets.
Imagine Multi-Touch – $0.99
Droid does not offer multi-touch but it does work! Imagine Multi-Touch is an Android Image Gallery application that supports multi-touch on all Android handsets for $1. Combining Dolphin Browser with IMT makes the Droid so much better.
Market offers much more applications to suit your need. The above applications are specific to Droid in order to improve user experience. I’m taking the opportunity to show some respect to those developers who spend hours, days and weeks to develop an application for a particular need knowing next OS update might make their efforts obsolete. Thank you!
Posted in Geek, Telecom, android, google | 1 Comment »
Droid for Dummies
Saturday, November 7th, 2009
One thing I noticed while purchasing a Droid at my local BestBuy -was the lack of basic knowledge fro
m potential buyers.
Fortunately most will learn fast and adopt geeky habits but some will return their new phones very disappointed Droid did not meet their expectations.
So here is a little tutorial on how to make the best out of your new phone.
First steps to properly use the Droid:
- Remove gently protection sticker on the battery cover BEFORE inserting the battery. Failure to do so will make the battery door irremovable. Been there, done that.
- You need a Gmail or Google Mail App account to operate an Android phone. If you don’t have one you need to create one. Technically you can use an Android phone without a Gmail address but you’ll be missing 80% of core features. I suggest you sign up for a Gmail and add your other email accounts. Gmail account will just be used to sync your contacts, Latitude, Market, etc.
- To configure your phone, you will need to access “settings”. Unlike the iPhone, “settings” icon is not showing on home page. To access the “settings” press the central lower tray to pop up all applications. They are sorted from A to Z. Get to “settings” and start configuring.
- If – like me- you like to keep your phone protected you will need to set it up. By default Droid does not offer protection i.e. PIN code. Android 2.0 introduces a new form of screen lock called “pattern”. Press on central tray, scroll to “settings”, go to “location and security settings”, check mark “Require pattern”. The rest is very intuitive.
- Once your phone is protected from curious, very likely they will try to input pattern. After 5 attempts, phone is locked 30 seconds. Every wrong attempt after 30 seconds will re-lock your phone for 30 seconds. If you forgot your pattern, you can still log on to your phone using your Gmail username and password.
- Market is the application store for Android powered phones. To access Market you need to have a valid credit card on file via Google Check Out [Google Merchant account a la Paypal].
- Downloaded applications are assigned to your Gmail account. Whenever you change phone you simply need to logon using your Gmail credentials and all your apps will be available for download again at no cost.
- For now – Droid offers only 3 home screens. You can add shortcuts, widgets or folders by keeping your finger pressed on an empty spot. A menu will pop up offering several options.
- Background image format covers all 3 panels. Screen definition is a bit odd 960X854 pixels. Check Droid Forum Gallery for cool wallpapers.
- I strongly suggest you install “power control” widget on your central panel. You will be able to toggle Wifi on/off, Bluetooth on/off, GPS on/off, and brightness with a single touch. Very useful.
- To use the camera you need to press on the gold button located on the lower right side of the phone. You cannot use the camera without unlocking your screen first. Keep finger pressed a couple of seconds to launch camera. For now, camera is slow and auto-focus needs an urgent firmware update.
- On most applications you can use the search function. Easy access to search needs a single pressure on the magnifier icon located on the right inside of lower toolbar. Very handy to search applications in Market, contacts, emails, etc.
- To optimize battery I suggest, you set “screen time out” (located under Settings/Sounds and Display) to 15 seconds. By default it’s 1 minute. Also under Sounds and Display, adjust brightness to low. Also in Sounds and Display, set Animations Off. Do not keep Wifi on all the time, mostly on Verizon where network is faster than most Wifi connection. Remember to turn Bluetooth off if you don’t use it. No need to keep GPS on in the house J
- You cannot remove pre-installed applications. To uninstall applications you downloaded and no longer want to have go to “settings/applications/manage applications. A short way to remove an application is to keep your finger pressed on the application icon and use the pop up menu to uninstall it. Very smart.
Here I will stop as I believe further steps are not for beginners.
Let me know if you have additional tips or tricks and I will add it to the post.
Happy Droiding.
Tags: android, bestbuy, droid, dummies, eclair, power control, settings, tutorial, verizon, vzw
Posted in Geek, Technology, Telecom, android, google, iPhone | 13 Comments »
International Domain Names: Internet Set To Add Non-English Web Addresses
Monday, October 26th, 2009
This is an incredible news to revive a saturating industry. ICANN has decided -after 40 years- to open domain names to non-English web addresses. Briefly, it means you will soon be able to register www.été.com or www.שלום.com. Registrars around the planet must be ecstatic about the news. Same for hosting companies. Brands, individuals are obviously less happy to have to spend few more dollars to increase domain name protection. Not sure how search engines will react but it sure adds a lot of work for them. Indexing, ranking international non english domain names is looking like a real challenge.
“We’re confident that it works because we’ve been testing it now for a couple of years,” he said. “And so we’re really ready to start rolling it out.”
Of the 1.6 billion Internet users worldwide, Beckstrom – a former chief of U.S. cybersecurity – said that more than half use languages that have scripts based on alphabets other than Latin.
“So this change is very much necessary for not only half the world’s Internet users today, but more than half of probably the future users as the use of the Internet continues to spread,” he said.
Read more here:
International Domain Names: Internet Set To Add Non-English Web Addresses
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Tags: domain names, ICANN, internet, non english, web, www
Posted in Content, Geek, Technology, World, google | No Comments »
Sony eReader vs Amazon Kindle 2.
Friday, October 16th, 2009
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Electronic books are not my cup of tea. I resisted as long as I could to move to digital content. Nothing can match the touch of a book, the smell of inked paper, the easy access to any page, sneaking preview of chapters and the legacy you leave to younger generations.
Anyway we have to live with our times and I decided to give ebook a try. My daughter has a Kindle and reads about 2 books per week. She takes it everywhere.
I personally find the Kindle ugly and lacking basic features making any attempt to try the device worthless. Choice was limited to Sony eReader or Kindle. Soon new devices will be released- obviously upcoming readers can only get better.
The #1 difference between Sony and Amazon is accessibility. Kindle is an online device with wireless capabilities (limited to US market and soon to be open to international) as the Sony eReader is an offline device where you need to connect to your desktop/laptop in order to download books.
I do not see the need to download a book wirelessly as a mandatory feature. It’s not a news or weather service. You can download hundreds of books on a Sony and be set for a long long time. The only thing you need to add a book to Sony eReader is a USB cable. You can even use memory cards. Sony supports all memory card formats adding more flexibility and more storage to the ebook.
Being wireless and connected to ONLY Amazon store is an extremely restrictive feature of the Kindle. Wireless doesn’t mean openness. You must buy your books from the 350,000 titles available. It’s a lot -I agree. But Sony eReader gives you access to Google’s library of 1million FREE books and tons of other libraries accessible online in all languages.
One of the top features Sony added is the touch-screen ability. I love flipping pages using my finger. Makes digital content user-friendlier for an old man like me.
At last my choice for the Sony eReader PRS-600 was final after someone showed me Calibre. Calibre is a magic piece of software that turns ANY digital content into a reading material on the Sony eReader. Magazines, word docs, books, tutorials…anything you can see on your computer can be readable on the Sony.
It gives also access to ebooks purchased by a friend who willingly lends you his book. One thing Kindle cannot handle. If you bought a book and your wife wants to read it on HER Kindle – she cannot transfer your purchase. Recently Amazon pulled OUT books that were purchased on the Kindle store directly from users device. This is inadmissible for me. When I buy a book – it’s mine and I can decide to lend it to my kids without violating any copyrights. There is no fear one will come to my place and take it off the shelf.
If books were not going from one hand to another – literature would have died long time ago. I do not encourage anyone to steal but I must admit it’s a killer feature.
Sony has learned from the ATRAC days that open file formats are more preferable than proprietary ones. By supporting the ePub format, Sony’s essentially guaranteeing that your digital library will always have a home. Stick with Kindle’s proprietary format, and you’re forever a slave to Amazon’s device.
Same feature that made iPod so popular. Take an mp3, drag it on iTunes and enjoy the music. No question asked.
Conclusion: my subjective review goes towards Sony eReader. Three good reasons: cheaper, better, richer. For a detailed review of Sony PRS-600 read Ilene Hoffman post on http://www.electronista.com/reviews/sony-prs-600-touch-ereader.html
Tags: amazon, ebook, epub, ereader, kindle, prs-600, Sony
Posted in Apple, Content, Geek, Sony, Technology, google, itunes | 4 Comments »
Media Player War. Can Apple lose?
Sunday, September 20th, 2009
In the 80’s you had to have a Walkman no matter what. For many of us it was our first gadget. Portable music.
30 years later things look different.
Cassettes have disappeared, music went digital not without difficulties. Although MP3 format started in the 90’s first MP3 player came out in 1997.
In 10 years Apple imposed itself as the sole purveyors of digital music. All attempts from consumer electronic giants to take over this market failed.
What is changing today?
Few factors are weakening Apple leadership on this segment.
#1 factor comes from Cupertino – the iPhone.
The smartphone device has replaced many iPods. Convergence created a competitor inside Apple. Why would you carry an iPhone 32Gb in one hand and an iPod 32Gb in the other?
Apple made it clear in their early iPhone advertising, it’s a phone and an iPod all-in one!
Second factor is the lack of innovation. Ok, now I’m hitting a nerve – let me clarify. Apple is the most innovative consumer electronic manufacturer ever BUT once a product is out they fail to integrate basic features we all want to see ie adding a memory card reader in MacBook (took them 10 years to do so) or to offer Blu-Ray players built-in, to integrate FM player in iPods, move to OLED displays, etc….
New comers are very aggressive on updated technologies and multiple add-ons that are starting to make a difference.
Finally the price of iPods is too high. I guess Apple executives are thinking they should grab the momentum while it lasts.
Who can hurt Apple?
I see 2 big competitors rising: Microsoft and Sony.
Zune was the laughing stock a couple of years ago when Microsoft released the “brick” 1st-gen Zune. A joke went around about Microsoft’s pathetic attempt to enter the “iPod market.” So a year passed, and Zune remained a joke in the consumer electronics world and had to endure the jeers and torment of the Apple crowd. When the 2nd Gen Zunes came out, the Zune brand slowly started to see redemption. The Zune 80gb was deemed the first decent competitor to the iPod, but the brand was still in recovery from its hazing.
It took some time, few billion dollars and lots of consumer reviews for MSFT to come up with new Zune HD.
Amazingly Zune HD is sold out on Amazon, BestBuy and most retailers.
The Zune concentrates on being a Portable Media Player. Not a web browser. Not a game machine. Maybe in the future it will do even better in those areas, but for now it’s a fantastic way to organize and listen to your music and videos, and is without peer in that regard.
Zune Pass subscription service is the favorite feature that will keep buyers to use a Zune until it’s pried from their desperate grasp. For $15 a month you can get 10 DRM-free MP3 songs to keep, and unlimited access to millions of songs. As long as you would have bought at least 10 songs anyways that means you’re paying only $5 for that access. It’s better than Pandora, Slacker, LastFM or other services because you can listen to full CDs, specify playlists and tracks in the exact order you want, and can either stream this music or store it on your Zune to listen to later, even if out of wifi range. Lots of people present subscription services as something you do instead of owning music, but at this cheap a price there’s no reason you can’t use this as a supplement to whatever purchases you make. It’s not either/or, it’s a wonderful “and”, especially if you’re the type who likes to explore and enjoy a broad range of music.
HD radio and HD Video (720p) are killer features. I wonder how long it will take for Apple to move there.
Sony made a bad move when they decided to partner up with Ericsson and use the Walkman brand name on a line of phones. The idea was appealing but the execution was terrible. Perfect example of brand awareness vs. brand association.
Walkman is coming back in the digital music segment with a new line of players. For first time in years Sony outsells iPods in Japan promising a tough fight in the US during the holiday seasons.
Apple has a lot to worry about. Consumers are not married to any brand. They come and go. Personally I moved to an Android powered phone – HTC Hero and ordered a Zune HD.
What will be your next media player?
Tags: Apple, digital, Microsoft, mp3, Music, Sony, walkman, x series, zune
Posted in Apple, Geek, Microsoft, Music, Sony, Technology, itunes | 7 Comments »
Mobile industry : Evolution vs. Revolution
Friday, September 11th, 2009
We must give Apple credit for the mobile application raison d’être. Mobile apps have been around for at least two decades and never seemed to be anything else but a gimmick. Cupertino firm re-invented mobile phone distribution and created a viable content delivery model. For years – manufacturers and carriers tried to increase subscriber’s data usage but ultimately failed to find innovative concepts. Motorola and Nokia were dominating telecom market copying each other on small technology evolutions for more than 20 years. Apple started from scratch with one motivation: offer the best possible customer experience on a win-win-win basis (Apple, carrier, subscriber).
apple
Palm – the missed opportunity
Palm – founded in 1992- was very close to monetize the industry back in 1996 but they thought selling devices was more lucrative. I remember my first Handspring Visor during Comdex 1999. Jeff Hawkins was praising a revolution in mobile devices…we know the story.
Palm wanted a basic handled – in my experience, basic users tend toward basic devices. Palm executives underestimated our capabilities to adapt and kept Treo/Palm a digital agenda.
Realizing that everyone didn’t want to play movies/music on the go was certainly their biggest failure.
It took 10 years for Palm to copycat Apple innovate and launch App Catalog – a marketplace for WebOS mobile applications. So far figures are kept secret and Palm Pre failed to reached its commercial targets. A new device was announced today Palm Pixi with supposedly better capabilities. Let’s hope the hosting carrier will not be Sprint.
Nokia – Double failure
The Finnish phone manufacturer had 3 out of 4 ingredients to make it happen. Firstly they have the audience. Around 1.24 billion phones worldwide. Then they had the carriers – over 700 of them all around the planet. Third they had one of most innovative mobile OS – Symbian. But they had NO vision, NO strategy to sell content.
Symbian was the best thing Nokia did to make their handsets ‘smart’. I must mention Symbian was an independent company backed up by the phone giant. Nokia had the ambition to promote Symbian OS to competitors and make money thru licensing the platform. They believed other device manufacturers would not integrate Symbian if Nokia was the sole owner.
Double mistake – everyone knew Nokia was behind Symbian although Ericsson (15.6%), Sony Ericsson (13.1%), Panasonic (10.5%), and Samsung (4.5%).were partners.
Biggest Nokia’s failure was to understand money was not to be made on the container but on the content.
Unfortunately it took Nokia 10 years to understand their mistakes and decided only last December to acquire Symbian.
Google – The Challenger
I remember when we first heard of a Google Phone most experts were skeptical Google – the service company- could risk it all entering in a hardware world.
Basically Google never manufactured any phone. They made a deal with HTC and Tmobile.
The only reason they worked this way around was to overcome mobile carrier’s cartel. Google executives understood Telco operators would not open their doors easily. This is maybe the major difference between Google and Apple. Apple is first of all a top hardware manufacturer. Google is only a search engine a service technology provider specialized in content delivery.
Android – Google’s OS- is promising not only for mobile but also for tablets and PCs. I was lucky to try the new Archos Internet Media Tablet running Android – true convergence between Mobile and PC. Future laptops, tablets are going to be ‘always connected’.
Admittedly Apple has a serious lead over Google but there is no short time strategy here. I strongly believe Google is the strongest contender in the game today.
BlackBerry – Productivity at best
Research In Motion has been a market leader in many ways. Firstly as a money maker with the best free idea of all times: EMAILS.
Trying to sell a free concept for a fee is definitely a challenge. Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie started in 1984 with Pagers. In 1998 they launched their first Qwerty device launched and only early 2000 did we see the first BlackBerry. [note: BlackBerry website still displays older devices and press releases from their early days.]
RIM business model is simple. Pay to get your emails on the go. They spent 100’s of millions litigating patenting their technology. Today they totally own the market of corporate emails.
3 sources of revenue for BlackBerry:
- The Device
- Email access BlackBerry Internet Service [BIS] or BlackBerry Entreprise Server [BES]
- Revenue sharing with carriers
With over 55 Millions devices sold BlackBerry is now grabbing the Application momentum.
RIM had a closed platform for 15 years and refused to open to mobile applications. This is a big change for the Canadian giant. Creating a friendly development platform on the worse possible OS.
Despite all critics BlackBerry has now an App World store selling highly priced mobile applications. RIM has not yet disclosed figures but I believe
BlackBerry has recently launched a touch-screen device – Storm- and faced huge criticism due to lack of basic features iPhone is offering. We can’t blame users for comparing.
BlackBerry Messenger is the most popular feature among young adults. Another tour-de-force for RIM. Cashing in on a free concept: instant messaging.
I believe BlackBerry is in a hit or miss situation. A lot will depend on their new OS and new devices to be launched. Their current strategy of multiplying similar handsets is certainly not the way to go.
Deliberately I left Motorola out the scope of this post. Despite various rumors of a soon to be announced comeback I think Motorola gave up on R&D and innovation and will exclusively produce Android based handsets. At least for now…
No mention of the already obsolete Windows Mobile OS. The raise and death of WM deserves a post for itself J.
It took Apple one shot to conquer the world with a real smartphone. Best of all – their range of phone is ONE device. They transported the iPod/Music model to the phone, created an industry for mobile applications recycling thousand of jobless developers into entrepreneurs. Telco giants spending billions of dollars in R&D could not achieve it. They can’t even copycat it. We are going to see a vertical renewal of the entire mobile industry. From carriers to phone manufacturers.
But Apple taught us a lesson. No matter how much you spend, how long you have been around and how tricky you are in those carriers contracts– there is no market retention. Customers will go to the best device no matter what.
Tags: android, Apple, Blackberry, google, iPhone, mobile, motorola, nokia, palm, phones, telco, webos, windows
Posted in Apple, Blackberry, Geek, Technology, Telecom, iPhone | No Comments »
Picture posting from Seesmic to Pikchur to Posterous
Tuesday, August 25th, 2009
Posted via web from [blog.florianseroussi.com]
Tags: images, Pikchur, posterous, posting, seesmic, sharing, Twitter
Posted in Geek, Photography, Pikchur, Social Media, Twitter | No Comments »
