Confession: it was a pretty boring call from Palm CEO Ed Colligan today. No Pre release date. No Pre feature update. No assault on Apple. Nothing and pretty much more nothing. We kinda wish Steve Jobs had crashed the event and gone all Christian Bale on Palm. At least that would have been interesting! Still, PreCentral caught this tidbit, for what it’s worth:
On the issue of PATENTS, Colligan made sure to note that there are no pending legal actions with Apple right now. More pointedly, he noted that Palm has 15 years worth of patents (over 1500 of them in total) and that in patent fights often go like this:
The reason you do that is to have a defensive position. It’s like two little porcupines going around, and you don’t want to touch each other because you might get stung. You peacefully coexist and everything’s OK and you keep working together. We’re very respectful about people’s intellectual property, we believe we’re huge innovators and have been for a lot of years and that this product has an enormous number of innovations in it. If something does happen there, we do have the portfolio, we think to defend ourselves and to be successful doing that. But nothing’s happened to date, so we’re really just focused on getting the product out the door.
Note to Palm: while you fancy yourself a prickly little rodent, Apple’s totems are the big cats, so either you’ll bloody their mouth and run them off, or they’ll use those quills to pick their teeth clean after they’re done eating you.
Microsoft CEO and current CES Keynoter Steve Ballmer, prior to the original iPhone 2G’s launch, had quite a bit to say:
“You can get a Motorola Q for $99. [...] [Apple] will have the most expensive phone, by far, in the marketplace.” [...] “There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance.”
Flash forward 2 years, where Apple’s $199 iPhone was the best selling smartphone — and all around phone — in the late-summer quarter, and the cost of unlocked Windows Mobile handsets like the Xperia X1a rocketed past the $800 price point, and what does everyone’s favorite internet dance sensation have to say? According to the Financial Times (Registration annoyingly required, text via Ars Technica):
Ballmer conceded that Apple’s iPhone (and RIM’s BlackBerry) have “clear market momentum.” Indeed, Windows Mobile has suffered in the face of strong competition from RIM and Apple.
Posted on Saturday, Oct 25, 2008 by Rene Ritchie
File Under:News; Tags: ballmer, BlackBerry, ceo-snap, colligan, iphone jeopardy, lazaridis, Microsoft, palm, rim, Treo
This. Is. iPhone JEOPARDY!… Judges Round!
Way back on March 14 we covered some of the bold, bodacious pontifications the CEOh-no’s of Microsoft, RIM, and Palm had made about the iPhone. Quick-on-the-buzzer as always, it’s time once again to go back to our judges and see how they did!
“Why We’re Not Worried about the iPhone” for 100
Ed Colligan:
“We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”
Daily Double-Talk
Steve Ballmer:
“There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance.”
Final Jeopardy!
“Mike Lazaridis”:
“Talk — all I’m [hearing] is talk about [the iPhone's chances in Enterprise]. I think it’s important that we put this thing in perspective.” [...] “Apple’s design-centric approach [will] ultimately limit its appeal by sacrificing needed enterprise functionality. I think over-focus on one blinds you to the value of the other.” [...] “Apple’s approach produced devices that inevitably sacrificed advanced features for aesthetics.”
And to top it all off:
THERE’S a reason that R.I.M. is averse to the iPhone’s glass pad. “I couldn’t type on it and I still can’t type on it, and a lot of my friends can’t type on it,” says Mike Lazaridis, R.I.M.’s co-chief executive and technological visionary. “It’s hard to type on a piece of glass.”
Judges?
10 Million iPhones sold in 2008, almost 7 million in Q4 alone. More units of a single SKU moved than all RIM SKUs combined, and more than (we think!) WinMob licenses as well. 200,000,000 App Store downloads, 5500 Apps available, and now being copied by Microsoft, Google, and RIM. Form factor and touch-centricity copied by both Microsoft-OEMs and RIM (who’s also introducing a no-keyboard Blackberry Storm!). And Palm? Er… Anyone heard from Palm lately?
And the Winner Is!
None of the players today.
For the Pundit Round, be sure to check out Daring Fireball’s awesome set of links, and MacDailyNew’s Compendium of iPhone Naysayers.
Microsoft’s Xbox King, Lord of Zune, and Master of All Things Windows Mobile (i.e. basically in charge of everything but the revenue generating OS and Office franchises… ouch!) decided to comment on the huge iPhone numbers Apple released last Tuesday. Marc Flores over at BGR reports (via BusinessWeek):
“Apple had a big launch of a new product, and they launched at scale in a lot of new countries with a lot of new [wireless] operators. This quarter, RIMM is having its big launch, and at some point we’ll have our big launch. We’ll have to see where things normalize”
Now, we don’t necessarily disagree that there was pent-up demand for a 3G iPhone in existing markets, and introduction of many new markets, along with the honeymoon period many new gadgets from a player of Apple’s caliber enjoys, but…
How about we get some good news round Microsoft Entertainment and Mobile Way, rather than Xbox write-offs, Zune lack-tion, and continued Windows Mobile 7 push backs, before we spend our expensive executive time stepping to Apple, b’okay?
Pop quiz. You run one of the few CDMA-based mobile providers in the world, and while you were rumored to have passed on the original iPhone, thus locking you out of the North American market for Apple’s revolutionary handset, even your Old World parent, Vodafone, has finally, desperately signed up to carry the iPhone 3G in many other markets. Bottom-line, you missed the boat to the point of now being landlocked, and what do you have to say for yourself? You’ll do better? You’ll try harder? You’ll stop with the iClones and actually try to out-innovate the iPhone?
Not if you’re Ivan “the Terrible” Seidenberg, who’s big answer to the iPhone 3G is:
“Steve Jobs eventually will get old . . . I like our chances.”
Yup. Steve Jobs, who helped bring the Apple II (command line), Mac (graphical interface), and iPhone (multi-touch) to the masses, in spite of health concerns that might make lesser CEOs (subjected company not only included but vehemently singled out) lose continence in themselves, will — gasp — grow old.
If that’s best Seidenberg can come up with, his board has a far bigger reason to panic than competition from Apple.
Of course, this isn’t the first time Seidenberg has opened his mouth about Apple only to firmly insert feet.
And luckily (for our funny bones), it’s not likely to be the last!
Michael Dell has gone done and opened his mouth about Apple again:
“Yeah, I could take [Steve Jobs in a fight].”
He’s gone done and done it before, of course:
“What would I do [with Apple]? I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.”
And we all know how well that’s worked out. Any reason to think this time will be different? Let’s check out the tale of the tape:
Ego: Both are crushing. However, Jobs’ company is called Apple, not Jobs. Edge: Dell.
Build: Jobs is Vegan thin. Dell is big as Texas beef. Edge: Dell.
Reach: Dell once made profits based on Walmart-style supply-chain “management” and low labour costs. Jobs continues to make profits based on unparalleled technological design and innovation. Edge: Jobs.
Record: APPL: $187.01, DELL: $21.69. Edge: Jobs.
Judges?
Dude, you’re getting Vulcan nerve pinched by Mac.
(tip’o the hat to Dieter for the inspiration)
Read
Ah, comedy, thy name is Lazaridis!
What, you may ask, makes the CEO of Blackberry manufacturer RIM so knee slapping-ly funny? Deadpan Setups (on April 27th) like this:
THERE’S a reason that R.I.M. is averse to the iPhone’s glass pad. “I couldn’t type on it and I still can’t type on it, and a lot of my friends can’t type on it,” says Mike Lazaridis, R.I.M.’s co-chief executive and technological visionary. “It’s hard to type on a piece of glass.”
Followed by absolutely killer punch-lines (on May 13th):
The BlackBerry Thunder, as it is codenamed now, (all you “reporting” on it as the Storm are incorrect) will launch in Q3 of this year. It is a full touchscreen BlackBerry — no slide out keyboard
Please. Ouch. My ribs. I can’t take it…
Ahem… Okay. So, if RIM is now iCloning a touchscreen of their very own, is it really that Lazaridis and his friends can’t type on a touchscreen, or that they just can’t type?
(Would go a long way towards explaining those tic-tactiles, wouldn’t it?)
We interrupt this episode of RIM, Lose or Draw? for a quick iPhone JEOPARDY update!
Last time, Blackberry “pusher”, and outage-plugger extraordinaire Mike Lazaridis took “Post SDK Over-Reactions” for a thousand:
“Talk — all I’m [hearing] is talk about [the iPhone's chances in Enterprise]. I think it’s important that we put this thing in perspective.” [...] “Apple’s design-centric approach [will] ultimately limit its appeal by sacrificing needed enterprise functionality. I think over-focus on one blinds you to the value of the other.” [...] “Apple’s approach produced devices that inevitably sacrificed advanced features for aesthetics.”
While it’s still too early to go to the judges, a new competitor has stepped up to the podium, CNet’s Matt Asay (via Daring Fireball).
What is the most expensive phone, by far, on the market?
I walked into my local AT&T Wireless store on Saturday fully expecting and prepared to get a Blackberry 8820. My Blackberry 8800 died while I was in London last week [...] Unfortunately for Research in Motion, maker of the Blackberry, the in-store price for the 8820 was the same as the iPhone. I deliberated for all of three seconds and walked out with the iPhone.
What about “lack of functionality”? Lack of the tic-tactile keyboard, man?
I thought I wouldn’t be able to type on the iPhone without tactile feedback. I was wrong. I’m actually faster on the iPhone than I ever was on the Blackberry, and that’s with only an hour of “training.”
Still, regrets you must have a few, like SMS blasts, animations on email deletion, and the lack of Flash?
But all its good points make up for these negatives. The iPhone is an amazing device. It was inevitable that I’d find my way to it, just as it’s inevitable that it will continue to take more and more market share, eventually breeding lower-end devices that will change the way we use mobile “phones.” The iPhone is designed too well to be anything less than inevitable.
Good answer! But is RIM too far ahead? Can the iPhone catch up? Or is it too close to call? What do you think?
Will Flash come to the iPhone? Won’t it? Will it? Won’t it?
GearLive said yes. Adobe said maybe. El Jobso said too slow, too lite — where’s my middle?!. El Narayenso (er… Adobe’s CEO) said SD-OK! And… now Adobe clarifies that ambiguous yes with another maybe. Kinda:
“[T]o bring the full capabilities of Flash to the iPhone web-browsing experience we do need to work with Apple beyond and above what is available through the SDK and the current license around it. We think Flash availability on the iPhone benefits Apple and Adobe’s millions of joint customers, so we want to work with Apple to bring these capabilities to the device.”
Hooked on the iPhone’s first reality soap yet? Us neither, but we’ll keep on it until those wacky techs finally hook up for good or call it quits forever.
GearLive reported Flash for the iPhone was immanent. Adobe retorted that it was all up to Steve Jobs. His Steveness resorted to telling investors that Flash desktop was too big, Flash Lite was too small, and they were missing a product that was juuuusssst right.
Well, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen hopes Apple’s newly released SDK will help Adobe deliver that middle ground, with or without Jobs’ blessing. Speaking to investors, Narayen said (via Apple Insider):
“We believe Flash is synonymous with the Internet experience, and we are committed to bringing Flash to the iPhone. We have evaluated (the software developer tools) and we think we can develop an iPhone Flash player ourselves.”
Hopefully without those peskyprivacy and security problems, b’okay?
Given the restrictions imposed on 3rd party apps, unless Apple gives Adobe “special dispensation” it seems unlikely that even Adobe could get Flash working in an unplugged-in, sandbox environment, but we’ll see.
Eerily similar to Sun’s Java announcement immediately following the iPhone SDK launch, all that remains now (in terms of rival interactive development platforms) is Microsoft’s Silverlight. Balmer, get your dance shoes!
