Windows Phone 7: Three lessons Apple doesn't need to learn
Microsoft needed to take risks and make a mobile splash in order to remake its image as a technology leader, but instead displayed ineptness in the unveiling of Windows Phone 7 (WP7) today.
Microsoft needed to take risks and make a mobile splash in order to remake its image as a technology leader, but instead displayed ineptness in the unveiling of Windows Phone 7 (WP7) today.
"Android is exploding on the app scene," says Jonathan Carson, CEO of the telecom practice at Nielsen Company, adding, "like a rocket ship over the last year." Carson was speaking to a few hundred mobile app developers who gathered at the first AppNation conference in San Francisco's Moscone Center earlier this week.
To pay or not to pay, that is the mobile user conundrum.
Verizon mocked Apple and its new iPhone 4 in a New York Times ad this week. Promoting its flagship Droid X, Verizon's ad states: "Most importantly, it comes with a double antenna design. The kind that allows you to hold the phone any way you like and use it just about anywhere to make calls."
Apple CEO Steve Jobs heralded the new iPhone 4 as, "beyond a doubt, the most precise thing and one of the most beautiful things we've ever made." To be sure, die-hard Apple fans will rush out and get one when the iPhone 4 becomes available. But are the hardware upgrades enough to move the masses to an Apple Store? Apple stock actually fell on the iPhone 4 unveiling Monday, dropping $5.02 per share to $250.94.
It's too soon to call the iPad a game-changing tech success story, but that lofty title gets closer by the week. With soaring sales, huge gains as an e-reader, real cuts into the netbook market, and sky-high (albeit early) customer satisfaction rates, the iPad's biggest challenge has been living up to all of the pre-launch hype.
Want a Mac for work? Sure you do. Macs are powerful, sleek and super easy to use. Even your company's top executives probably have them.
Killer iPad apps won't be available at launch because Apple didn't release iPads to most major developers ahead of time so that they could test their apps on the new device.
One thing is clear about our recent CIO.com story, "Are Macs really cheaper to manage than PCs" --readers have vehement opinions on this topic. One other thing: there is no "right" answer to this question.
Last week, a new iPhone app called Tiger Text hit the App Store. The app lets users send text messages to a server that could be read by the recipient via an app reader. The text message would then be wiped from the face of the earth (i.e. both the texter and recipient's iPhones, and the server) after a pre-determined amount of time.
Server virtualization is supposed to save buckets of cash, largely from server reduction. After all, consolidating some 20 physical servers to three host servers means less hardware, power and cooling, and management overhead.
With its 130,000 available apps, built-in camera and GPS capabilities, the iPhone sits squarely at the center of convergence. There's little question that the iPhone has taken a bite out of sales of some standalone devices, notably navigation units and cheap cameras.
Will the iPad really be a game changer? If history is any indication, it's a good bet the iPad will dramatically impact publishing much like the iPod and iTunes changed the game for music.
'Tis the season of mobile predictions. As this year comes to an end and a new decade begins, Mobclix, which operates a mobile ad exchange network, has gazed into its crystal ball and foreseen 10 mobile trends-many of which are, in fact, pretty outrageous.
Old friends, family gatherings, homeward-bound travel all go hand-in-hand with the holiday season--and, of course, so does taking photos of these special moments.