Kudos to Palm for getting a webOS SDK out to Pre developers so quickly, and for the sheer genius of making web 2.0 standards like CSS, HTML, and Javascript, ubiquitous all, the major toolset.
There’s a long road ahead to catch up with the iPhone’s 56,000 apps, 100,000 registered developers, and 1.5 billion downloads, but that road would have been infinitely has Palm gone with more complicated development model.
Sure, hardcore gamers may have to wait for native access to write their racers to the metal, but anyone familiar with the 80/20 rule knows that for this market, at this time, webOS and web standards development was smart play.
Bring on the fart apps — I have dibs on flashlight!
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There. Done!
Either Microsoft thinks it’s still April 1, or they really are going to open Microsoft Stores right next door to Apple Stores. Gizmodo provides the quote:
And stay tuned, because we’re going to have some retail stores opened up that are opened up right next door to Apple stores this fall. Stay tuned, just stay tuned.
Tuned to what, Comedy Central? We’ve made fun of this before — and rightly so — but it seems Microsoft is again entering a business just because Apple or Google are in it. And is that really sound strategy in anything outside a Hollywood parody? (Starring Will Farrel, ‘natch).
Sony Style Stores haven’t hit the mark yet, and Microsoft Stores selling shrink-wrap Windows 7 with free Songsmith classes…? Sigh. Apple needs competition. Good, focused competition that builds successful core business on top of successful core business.
We don’t see Google Stores opening up next door, do we? Microsoft, if you’re going to clone something, clone the focus. Please.
The BlackBerry Tour 9630 has landed, and our sibling site, CrackBerry.com has been all over it like, well, Kevin on a new BlackBerry. Check out their full BlackBerry Tour review and new BlackBerry Tour Forums for all the details.
It’s not a touchscreen like the BlackBerry Storm (or Storm 2 will be), and it’s not on GSM networks like the Bold or Curve, but it sounds like it mixes elements of all those devices to maybe help the big CDMA carriers keep the BlackBerry faithful happy and their eyes away from the iPhone and AT&T for a few more months at least.
If you’re on Verizon and love hardware keyboards, it’s likely a no-brainer upgrade. If you’re on Sprint, you could always get both the latest Palm and BlackBerry and go on a Pre-Tour — last smartphone standing!
Update: Commenters remind us that the BlackBerry Tour doesn’t have Wi-Fi (jeers, Verizon!) and, as we mentioned a couple posts ago, Verizon is continuing their faux-openness by putting their own app stores on their devices, rather than the BlackBerry App World (torches and pitchforks, Verizon!)
Was Apple’s just released App Store announcement — and Steve Jobs’ remark about how difficult it will be for others to catch up — conveniently timed to preempt Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference where, according to our sibling site WMExperts, details of Windows Marketplace for Mobiles are emerging?
1.5 billion downloads, 100,000 developers, and 65,000 apps is a good old Jobsian gut punch to knock the wind of out any Microsoft news about WinMo 6.0 support, Windows Marketplace Business Center, and whatever else comes out from the folks up in Redmond.
It also combines in a very tidy roshambo to Verizon’s recent revelation that, according to Engadget Mobile, BlackBerry App World or Windows Marketplace won’t be built into devices on that carrier(?!)… and we won’t go much further on that bone-headed, short-sighted, anti-openness news since our cursing would get Parental Control level 17+ slapped on this post…
Despite frequent, repeated denials from Microsoft that they aren’t making a Zune Phone to pit against Apple’s iPhone juggernaut, our sibling site WMExperts keeps compiling evidence that Microsoft might be doing just that.
The latest is that Pink (as it’s code-named) has an ad agency, will be based on Windows Mobile 7 but have it’s own proprietary UI layer, should be available next year-ish, and provide Zune, My Phone, and Windows Marketplace for Mobiles functionality.
So have Microsoft’s previous denials been based on crossed fingers and the “truthiness” of actually making a Zune HD Phone? Or as TiPb has been predicting, an Xbox Phone?
Let’s face it, Microsoft would be negligent and borderline daft not to integrate the technologies and leverage the brand of Xbox.
Oh, wait…
Oft rumored, is Sony ready to leverage both the struggling Sony Ericsson partnership and the still fairly solid Sony Playstation brand to produce a Playstation Phone? (PSP Phone? PSPhone? PSP Go-Call-Someone?).
Makes sense from a competitive point of view, and something we certainly thought we’d see sooner. If Sony can get passed their historic intra-company integration problems, and avoid doing anything silly like ATRAC DRM or root kits — if they could get a product manager who could cut through the quagmire and drive everything that’s good about Sony into the product — it could be an interesting contender.
For the iPhone, of course:
Nikkei says it will directly compete with the iPhone, and that a project team was set up last July to start working on the console/phone hybrid. So basically, it’s the same rumor we’ve been hearing for years, except this time from a reliable source. Whether it’s got any truth to it remains to be seen. Note: The above image is a mockup. Seems obvious but sometimes you gotta say it out loud.
[Gizmodo via Reuters]
Our sibling site Android Central is all over the new HTC Hero announcement — the latest Android smartphone and one that looks decidedly different from its G1 predecessor.
We weren’t exactly fond of the G1’s user experience, but did lust after their notification system and push Gmail. Does this latest entry, with its Senses UI, up the ante? And should Apple be worried yet, or is Microsoft and Windows Mobile still the low-hanging fruit in Google’s sights?
Steve Jobs might want to look in his rearview mirror, because there’s a hulking eighteen-wheeler barreling down the highway, belching thick black smoke, and crushing every vehicle in its path.
The software giant is working with long time rival Adobe to bring Flash player Lite (yes, THAT Flash player) to Windows Mobile devices, while simultaneously incorporating support for its own SilverLight technology. The move will give Microsoft a leg up over Apple, making its mobile platform more web 2.0 friendly in supporting these ubiquitous web animation and runtime environments.
Apple has valid reasons for eschewing Flash lite, so it claims, like poor performance and a not-so-much like a desktop experience. Even if valid, it’s never a checkmark in your favor when competing products support features yours does not.
Wake up, Apple. You’re in Micrsoft’s crosshairs now.
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Apple and RIM are on a collision course as the two companies go toe to toe vying for enterprise messaging market share. RIM has long held the corporate high ground with its dominant BlackBerry Enterprise Server technology and ubiquitous handsets. But Apple is sending iPhone to business school, adopting Microsoft Exchange support that is certain to give Apple the competitive advantage it needs to challenge RIM’s BlackBerry industrial complex.
This puts Apple in a unique position. Until now the company has narrowly focused its product strategy at consumers, not business. Apple and enterprise go together like Dairy Queen and Lactose intolerance, but iPhone has achieved the kind of sweeping success and brand awareness that makes it marketable to business customers, given the right pedigree of tools.
The combination of iPhone’s consumer appeal and business smarts could produce a perfect storm for Apple. Will it be enough to topple RIM?
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First let me say that I am not one to laugh at someone else’s misfortune. Wait, who am I kidding? Of course I am. So it comes with certain self indulgence that I take this opportunity to point to a study that ranks Palm dead last in customer satisfaction among handset makers. So sad. But sadder still that a Palm employee posted a rebuttal in the comments of that story and cited a different study, commissioned by Palm no less, to dispute these negative results. Which is the equivalent of saying “No, really I am wonderful, just ask my Mom, she’ll tell you.”
Cheer up, Palm. When it comes to product stagnation and obsolete technology, you’re still number one in my book.
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