Smalltalk with James Robertson

Well, the mobile space fight between Apple and Google demonstrates why it's so hard for anyone else to get in there: Engadget shows this chart of the extant space of developers:

That overlap - the people developing for the two main platforms - is small. It's likely to stay that way in the short term at least, given Apple's "no cross platform tools" policy. Now imagine you are a third player trying to nose in - Microsoft, HP, whoever - you have to somehow convince people to target a smaller space than the two big players, or offer a way for those people in the middle to add your gadget - all without setting off a reaction from Apple that blows you out of the water (see: Adobe).

Fun Times :)

Technorati Tags: apple, google

This open letter from Apple may or may not describe what's going on with the new iPhone, but it sure sounds odd:

Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars. Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don’t know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.

Now, it's not as if I've done studies or anything - so this is all anecdotal. Having said that, I don't recall many calls dropping with my 3g phone while I was just sitting in one place - I've had that happen with the new phone a few times, and yeah - I've been holding it with the left hand at the time. Call me crazy, but that doesn't sound like a software error in signal strength display.

Again, this is all anecdotal - and I know that in the presence of a lot of media coverage of this, I could be falling sway to confirmation bias. Still - that latter just doesn't hold up well for me :)

Technorati Tags: iPhone, apple

It took Sony a long time to get to this point - the point where a sale of the PS3 doesn't cost them money:

"This year is the first time that we are able to cover the cost of the PlayStation 3," Yoshida said. "We aren't making huge money from hardware, but we aren't bleeding like we used to."

In the interim, as game development for the platform initially lagged, they lost a lot of ground on the "hardcore gamer" front to Microsoft, and got surprised on the other end by Nintendo. They run the risk of slipping again - it looks like MS will have Kinect (their answer to the Wii) out at the same time that Sony will have their version (and Sony's version looks, well, strange).

Technorati Tags: ps3, xbox, wii, motion sensor

Apple knows how to launch gadgets. Then.... there's Microsoft:

Just over two months after launching it, and days after reducing the price, Microsoft has decided to kill the Kin phone.

Microsoft needs to figure out focus. They really don't need to be in every single space...

Technorati Tags: kin, microsoft

Yesterday I sounded skeptical about the latest "iPhone on Verizon" rumor. However, there is this tidbit:

This information comes from a new tipster, but we have very good reason to believe that Verizon will begin rolling out its LTE network in 25 markets starting on November 15th. While 25 markets might not sound like a lot, but apparently they’re enough to give 100 million subscribers access to the next-generation wireless network.

I'm no wireless expert, but I seem to recall that LTE merges Verizon's network with the next gen global wireless standard - which would make their network a lot more suitable for the iPhone as far as Apple is concerned. Just as the existing phone has the 2g (Edge) and 3g (GSM) radios, a Verizon edition could have a 3g (CDMA) and 4g (LTE) radio. Does that make sense? I guess we'll find out.

Technorati Tags: iPhone, verizon, apple, lte

Yet another "iPhone on Verizon" rumor has surfaced:

Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. mobile-phone company, will start selling Apple Inc.'s iPhone next year, ending AT&T Inc.'s exclusive hold on the smartphone in the U.S., two people familiar with the plans said.

How solid a rumor? Well...

The device will be available to customers in January, according to the people, who declined to be named because the information isn't public.

Right... It would still involve a downgrade so far as Apple is concerned (the whole voice/data problem on CDMA issue), and LTE is still on the horizon. So I'll believe it when I see it :)

Technorati Tags: iPhone, verizon

FedEx delivered the iPad and iPhone this morning; I got them both set up pretty quickly. The iPhone is nice, but the square-ish shape is kind of weird for an Apple product. My only complaint so far is this - in my pocket, I can't tell the back from the front. It's a minor quibble and unimportant in the grand scheme of things. I haven't tried a lot of things out yet - one thing I need to start using is voice commands with my headset.

The iPad is really nice - my daughter has already been using it to look things up for video games. It seems trivial, but it's nice to have a small device right there that's easy to read. I downloaded a free ebook a long time ago for my iPhone, but never really got anywhere with it. I went back to it on the iPad, and the reading experience on it seems very nice. I expect to shift a lot of my book purchases over to it.

My only complaint has nothing to do with the iPad - more of a "huh, what?" kind of thing. Facebook has no native iPad app yet? Seriously?

Technorati Tags: iPhone, iPad

I'll find out soon enough - FedEx says my phone is out for delivery. This reception problem based on how you hold the phone sounds very annoying:

One iPhone 4 demonstrated the issue everytime it was held in our left hand (as a right-handed person is apt to do) so that our palm was essentially bridging the two antennas.

You would think that basic acceptance testing would turn that sort of thing up...

Technorati Tags: iPhone

The important thing for Amazon to focus on is the core item - books - and not the hardware device. As Om Malik points out, Amazon gets paid whether you use a Kindle or not, so long as you buy from their store:

The day I first laid hands on Apple’s iPad I banished my Amazon Kindle to the back of the proverbial drawer. And yet, I have been spending, on average, about $10 every 3-5 days on Amazon’s site buying a book to read using the Kindle application on the iPad. In fact, the reading experience on the iPad is so superior to that of the Kindle I often find myself staying up later than usual reading a book.

Some companies would have doubled down on the hardware, but Amazon was smart - they pushed the reader app out to iPhones (and now iPads) - they don't care what device you read on, so long as it was purchased from them. My wife's experience mirrors Malik's, except that she didn't bother with the Kindle in the first place.

Since the Kindle app exists on iPhones, iPads, PCs, and Android devices, stuff you buy there is portable. Anything you buy in the iBook store, on the other hand, is locked to the Apple device. Amazon is playing this very intelligently.

Technorati Tags: books, digital media

This story explains why Microsoft isn't in the mobile game at all. Not long after touting Windows Phone 7 as the next big thing, they've announced Windows Mobile:

The company has previously announced the Windows Phone 7 OS for smartphones. Microsoft's focus on consumer mobile devices will continue through the Windows Phone brand, Kelley said. It's unclear if the Windows Embedded Handheld announcement means that Windows Phone 7 will not support enterprise capabilities originally promised for that OS, or if Windows Embedded Handheld and Windows Phone 7 will compete with each other for business users.

It's becoming clear to me, at least, that the rot at MS starts at the top. Ballmer is a sales guy with no grasp of what his company does, or of where the industry is headed. He needs to go - and whoever they replace him with should start by radically downsizing the company. If it's big enough to come out with this kind of confusion, it's too big.

Technorati Tags: management, mobile