/images/Logo.png){kind=logo}
/images/loginout.gif)
/images/rss.gif)
Mobile OS Inflation
During this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the world’s most important mobile trade show, everyone seemed to think that a new OS (Operating System) is the way to go. It is unclear to me what makes them think that.
First, I’m a bit tired of the overuse of the OS nomenclature. Few deserve this title since they are really adding proprietary layers on top of Linux. Actually most do, even the beloved Android and iPhone. They should all be called “platforms”. However that is not the cause of my outrage. No.
Second, who does the branding for these things? Symbian, Bada, MeeGo, Mobiln, MeeMo, LiMo, Else, and others in addition to the successful iPhone, RIM, and Android. My favorite name in a sarcastic kind of way will have to be “Windows 7 Phone Series”. Redmond finally got something that does not deserve bashing throughout the blogsphere – a la Vista – and decides to use it everywhere. I get it, kind of makes sense. But, my fellow follower (singular) Windows 7 has a nice ring to it. Windows 7 Phone Series does not, I’m sorry.
Third is that application developers have better things to do than to port their app to the “OS” of the day. And who is thinking about users? Thanks to this inflation you will have to scavenge the world to find the right app if you made the mistake to buy a platform that didn’t quite make it for whatever reason. Now that is an outrage, but not the point of my post. Suffice it to say that there will be plenty of casualties in these OS’s flood.
Amidst this Mobile OS inflation there is one that in my opinion deserves mention: MeeGo. Sure, the name sucks but I’ll have to give it some points for obscure geekyness. A shape-shifting 9000-year old alien from the planet Marmazon 4.0 has to attract the dormant or not so dormant geek in most smartphone users, from the Blackberry suits to the Android hoodys. Let’s just hope it doesn’t suffer the fate of the CBS sitcom who didn’t get the chance to finish a single season mostly because it wasn’t any good.
Anyway, MeeGo is worth mentioning not because of the fact that it is a joint venture between Nokia and Intel. MeeGo is a platform that promises to bring smartphones to the 2010’s by using an x86 architecture instead of the perpetual ARM. x86 architectures are ubiquitous in the PC world whereas ARM architectures have their humble roots in the embedded world (you know watches, sensors, WiFi radios, set top boxes, routers, cellphones – Ok, not so humble). ARM uses RISC – Reduced Instruction Set Computing – vs x86’s CISC – Complex Instruction Set Computing. This difference has allowed computers to run more complex software and algorithms so they can behave like, well, computers. ARM on the other hand is fundamentally more power efficient, which explains its huge presence in mobility.
Until now the lowest x86 has gone is Intel’s Atom family (which drove the netbook “revolution”). What is so new about the Atom family? Low power consumption in an x86 processor. At the same time, Qualcomm has been touting its Snapdragon 1 GHz+ Arm based systems – base for the reference design of my favorite name Windows 7 Phone Series – and now powering some “smartbooks” (again with the naming).
You see what’s happening under the hood? New product categories are being launched, OS inflation is flooding the mobile world but at its real core there is a tremendous collision happening. ARM getting more powerful while x86 is getting more efficient. This brings us back to why MeeGo is so significant for the industry.
x86 based phones are out there but none has really made a mark basically because they haven’t offered anything new. In this blogger’s very humble opinion if Nokia-Intel get it right (which is a big “if”) this could be the next revolution in mobility: the power of a real computer in the palm of your hand. With html 5, 4G networks, ubiquitous 802.11n WiFi, comparative shopping, location based services, “billions upon billions” of webpages, will now be available to complex software thanks to CISC based smartphones. By the middle of this starting decade we will all wonder what was the hype behind all these “clever-phones” that could barely browse the web. We will remember them as we now think of the first color Mac’s. Very cool but just a sign of what’s to come.
Enjoy.
Another Googlesque act at the Nexus of the smartphone market
Google is an amazing social experiment. Besides giving bloggers an endless source of topics to write about, it challenges all common sense, business logic, and engineering innovation concepts. In a very Googlesque fashion, Nexus One was announced during 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. What is more surprising is that it will most likely be a success.
Without having had my hand on it it is tough for me to have an opinion on its performance. But given the engineering track record of Silicon Valley’s favorite they probably nailed it (even if they didn’t you know there will be a Nexus 2). But that is not what will make it a success, nor is that what is surprising about it. Motorola, LG, HTC, Sony Ericsson, and others have or have announced plans for Android powered smartphones. Yet, Google, the author of Android, decides to put out a device that competes with all of them. Moreover, Google does not have to make money from it (even though they will) since it is really a bet on mobile advertisement revenue. So far nobody has found a way to make money on mobile ads, but it is my contention that if somebody can figure it out it will most likely be Google. It is hard to imagine that Google decided to compete with their hardware partners just to make a “few” bucks selling hardware. They most likely did it for the same reason Google does everything else: to disrupt a market.
Imagine a world in which you do not have to pay for cellphone service. Pretty much the way you didn’t have to pay for TV in the past. Advertisers paid for it and consumers take advantage of that money flow. I know, I know, those days are waaaay over and not likely coming back anytime soon (until Google has a say). But in the mobile Internet business the biggest barrier to entry IMHO for mobile search to explode is the hefty $30 – $50 a month data fee from your preferred carrier plus a $100 – $300 “club entry fee” for your favorite smartphone. Sure there are hundreds of millions of smartphones out there and there will be more in the years to come, but the mobile search revenue still dwarfs the “fixed” one. Granted usability, contextual value, and other issues are still important. But Apple and Google will shortly solve those. Cost will remain a barrier. Unless, yes, unless it is free. In other words, paid by advertisers. You and I can pick our favorite smartphone subsidized by a carrier to get your voice revenue and Google pays your data plan as long as you search. Weird? Sure, but then again Google is known for its weird business models.
Enjoy.
Google and Apple Call it Quits.
It is all over the news that Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, resigned from Apple’s board recently citing “conflict of interests”. Businessweek published an article contrasting the two companies. It highlights the fact that they are still aligned against Microsoft, but their ideologies are vastly different. There are some speculative blogs that tie this resignation to Apple’s removal of Google Voice application from the iPhone store. Although it might have been the proverbial “last straw”, it is hardly the reason. How much conflict was there really and how different are their interests? Google Voice proves the point in a very interesting way.
Continue …
Blackberry running out of juice?
Research in Motion, responsible for those of us “thumb-typing” all day long and undoubtedly king of the smart phone market announced quarterly results today. Impressive!! They beat analyst estimates again. Yet, the stock traded at some point after hours almost 10% below yesterday’s close (it has then recovered all but the last 2% or so). Is the Blackberry is running out of juice (I hate puns!) at last?
People buy things because of the things these things do (whaaat?). Applications are what sell devices, not the devices themselves. Sure a sexier iPhone will sell better than an ugly one but first and foremost you have to want to do what the iPhone does before you consider it.
The battle for the Smart Phone is on!
The industry seems desperate to find an alternative to the iPhone so far with no success. Palm (the inventor of the category in a way) launched last week the “pre” a successor to the “pro” (pretty creative naming) that is supposed to be what we’re all been waiting for. Based on what Palm calls WebOS (do not try to pronounce it in Spanish) which is really a WebKit browser on top of a Linux kernel. It is to me just another “clever phone”, pretty well designed, but just a follow up.
Is there still room for a landline?
We may feel nostalgia for out traditional telephone lines or what the industry calls POTS (Plain old telephone system) but is the world still in need for something so 20th century? Every year millions of landlines are being canceled in the US and Western Europe and in some places in the developing world they were never even installed. It seems that the world is doing away with wires in lieu of wireless or cellular telephony. Vonage and other VoIP (Voice over internet protocol) providers have given a bit more life to the traditional telephone but in some places cellular is the only phone. Why hasn’t it totally moved over? Continue …
/images/logosmall.gif)
Copyright © 2009 ·