Two goodbyes in one week Part 1

Sorry! I've been away! I've spent a lot of time writing hardware guides over at Bit-Tech.net forums, but I'm back now and that's what is important.

I can't backfill the last few months with articles that have been drifting round my head, never to be penned, but in the constantly changing world of mobile, yesterdays news is yesterdays news today, so lets look at what has happened just in the last week.

Did you see that AMD just appointed Rory Read as their new CEO? Nope, didn't think so, I read the article a few days ago, but still had to go back to look his name up. Usually a company CEO stepping down is something you end up reading about because The Economist was the paper left on your seat between Kings Cross and Holloway Road, but its interesting to see the kind of mainstream coverage that the inevitable end of Steve Jobs tenure at Apple has garnered. So, love him or hate him you have to respect the work he's done at Apple, and the way they have shaken up the entire mobile industry since the launch of the iPhone. Ultimately, that's the way the industry was headed, but its also fair to say that because of Jobs and Apple we are about 5 years ahead of where we might otherwise have been.

So where do Apple go from here? Despite what I suspect will be minor share price drops, going forward Apple fans have little to be concerned about. Tim Cook, while potentially unable to match Jobs revered status on the catwalk, is an old hand, and it seems unlikely that Jobs would have made a final mistake in his endorsement of Cook, after doing so much right for so many years. Roadmaps will have been layed out, deals for coming generation ARM chips will have been shaken on, and assuming that the iPhone 5 launch goes as planned, we'll see very little that will rock the boat in the next year or so.

What is more interesting, is Apple's continued diversification. Yes, Jobs is a perfectionist, with a real passion for the company, but what really differentiates Apple under Jobs is the way they are so successful at diversification. Apple sceptics will have in their armoury a whole raft of tablets that proceeded the iPad. And yet, none of them enjoyed any kind of mainstream success. Again, maybe the iPad is where tablets would be in 2013, but ignoring the dubious success of Apple TV, what Apple are really losing is Jobs Vision. His ability to take in the landscape and produce a product that is ahead of its time. Sales of the once revolutionary iPod classic are down 17%. No real concern, since Apple has replaced them with the iPod touch, and then the iPhone, but where do Apple go from here, and does the word 'innovative' appear anywhere on Tim Cooks CV?

Hardware

Three. That’s the number of times my lady partner has dropped her phone into the toilet in the last two years. With smartphones steadily packing more advanced tech, its good to see Toshiba go some way to improve their durability. The Froyo (Android 2.2) toting Regza Phone T-01C, features a 4-inch 480x854 resolution screen, a 12.2 megapixel camera with 720p video recording and a MicroSD slot while weighing in at 149g . As well as offering most of the functionality of rival Android smartphones the T-01C also has another trick up its sleeve. It’s entirely waterproof to 1m, so should be fine for a brief trip to the U-Bend and back. Speaking to Docomo, the Japanese network showcasing the phone at MWC11, they say that the waterproofing is achieved through the use of a layer of fibre that allows air, and thus sound, to move through it, while blocking and repelling water. A UK release is currently unconfirmed, perhaps someone should tell Toshiba about our weather.

Mobithinking

Just a quick follow up on what I wrote about the disposable nature of apps earlier in the week.

An interesting report over at mobithinking states that 1 in 4 purchased apps is never used again. This raises some interesting questions about why that is, and if its more related to the quality of the apps or the way in which we think about them.

Disposable Teens

First up, let me direct you over to Hexus:

Now lets begin.

Something with that story struck a chord with me, linking in from what I wrote last week about having to repeat buy apps for different devices/OS's (by the way, I am very excited about Googles launch of a browser interface for your account in the next few weeks this will will make it much easier to manage the apps you have bought). Whether or not Reggie Fils-Aime has a legitimate case for concern regarding the price people expect to pay for games, I couldn't say. Personally Angry Birds is, to me, not worth more than a couple of pounds. I can't imagine it had the budget of a legitimate console release so I find charging more than a menial amount a tough pill to swallow. When someone get Call of Duty up and running, I'll pay the asking price (not that far away if the launch of Tegra 3 lives up to the hype). So, before the time of night I'm writing at gets me more sidetracked than I already am, my question is this: how much money is throwaway money?

By this I mean, 'disposable'.

Obviously, an items intrinsic 'disposableness' is relative to what it is. A set of 6 plastic cups at £2 is to me, throwaway, but at the same time, I'd definitely pick up a £2 coin if I saw it lying on the street.

So do Apps fall into this category? Should I be thinking about apps as disposable? Part of the attractive nature of buying apps for my Android account is that I will always have them at my disposal, should I need them later, and its all ultimately tied into the customisation and personalisation aspects of smartphones that people find so appealing. But does everybody think like this? £2 might be a disposable amount to many people, money that they don't mind not recovering should 'gypsy wedding simulator 4' turn out to be the software equivalent of infidelity (appearing good at first but quickly turning out to be a terrible mistake).

If that is the case, and people do see apps as disposable then, a) how much can they raise the price before they move into the category of 'non disposable' (£2 is already in that category for me it appears) and b)how are they going to convince people to pay more, or monetise in other ways, the software they are releasing? Perhaps another reason why Advertising and Applications go hand in hand. For the first time we have an advertising medium that truly has the potential to give something back to the audience. We just need better integration.

vPlayer

I've recently been using the wonderful 'File Expert' app on my Desire, to drag videos straight off the home network and onto my phone. This is great for the tube into work, as while everyone else is standing around looking like they'd punch a lost dog for looking sad, I'm stood there guffawing at Family Guy (which by the way, is the perfect time length for a trip to work, and always lifts the spirits). This week though, the trial version of vPlayer, which I've been using to view said videos ran out, leaving me all at sea. For the full version the makers wanted HK$23 - or £1.82 in Sterling. Now there are other apps out there that I am sure fulfill the same function - my housemate uses Rockplayer, but I've found vPlayer to be a great little app, that is lightweight and plays almost anything you can throw at it. I had no real qualms about shelling out the price of a Sainsburys Tuna Sandwich and a packet of quavers for the app.

My thinking behind this was fourfold.

1. As above, its a great app that just works.

2. Regular updates mean that I'm buying into something that will be updated as new formats arrive etc etc

3. I'll be able to use it on my tablet when Honeycomb finally arrives

4. It'll be ad free.

Unfortunately not all of the above assumptions turned out to be true.

My biggest complaint is that it is simply not ad free. Is it wrong to assume that it would be? Its generally accepted that if you pay for media, whether it be, music (spotify premium), DVDs or games that what you are buying is not also ad supported. I may as well have just downloaded another app that does the same job, and also has ads all over the place. This is a perfect example of how to get things wrong on the Android app market. Some developers have already voiced their concerns about Androids users willingness to pay for things. Its a very delicately balanced situation, and making them pay for an ad supported product does not seem like the way to convince them that your Hong Kong dollars are being well spent.

Regular updates are another thing. Am I right to assume that I am entitled to free updates? This is more of a grey area. I am buying an app based on what it can do, right now, and yes, today it does play video's on my Desire running Android 2.2. But what happens when I inevitable upgrade (every 18 months or so)? Will the app then work on my Nexus S running 2.3 or even, my Honeycomb tablet. Many people may end up owning both a tablet and a phone. Will I end up having to buy a separate video playing app for that? Its an interesting question, given the divergent nature of the Android OS. You are buying apps for your account, they have no resale value whatsoever, so you had better make sure you want something when you buy it. If a developer decides that he has got better things to do than update his app, thats it, for your next phone, you'll have to buy another app that does exactly the same thing as the one you currently own, but is compatible with your new, slightly tweaked OS. I must however, put my hands up and say that I don't know what the solution is here. All I know is that I don't want to have to buy multiple apps that do the same thing for every new phone or tablet I buy.

Stuck in the middle

Well here we all are at some kind of mobile half way house. It’s the 28^th of January and the dust has finally settled from CES. Past the casinos and the neon lights CES bought so many other exciting things to the table this year. My personal, if somewhat predictable, highlight was the glut of (Android) tablets, mostly powered by ARM CPU’s. Motorola’s Xoom appears to be Googles flagship device, which they hope will go head to head with iPad2. The UI so far looks slick and intuitive. However, there is always the worry that with a company like Apple, they’ll pull something special out of the bag with its 2^nd iteration, and its possible the others will look like they are playing catchup. Interestingly, while we saw a number of tablets being demoed, there is still a lot of unknowns when it comes to Honeycomb and any small tidbit still seems to have the tech news sites clamouring for coverage.

HTC – one of Androids pioneers, produced on of the more mystifying things to come out of CES. The ‘Flyer’ a tablet based on 2.3 Froyo. Quite why HTC think anyone would knowingly purchase an Android tablet based on a shoehorned OS just a few months before honeycombs release is beyond me. Maybe they are counting on mainstream consumers not knowing the difference. Perhaps true, but a little insulting all the same. NEC on the other hand, made their claim for the most backwards and forwards tablet in the form of their dual screen Android tablet – imagine a large Nintendo DS. Not a bad way to protect the screen but being limited to 384mb of RAM and Android 2.1 is just asking for negative press and more concerningly for Google at least, a negative user experience. If consumers get hold of devices that are a pain to use, it’s going to push them away from Android for generations to come. It’s all very well Motorola and Google getting Honeycomb right, but if everyone else is getting it wrong, especially in the more mainstream price sectors, then all that hard work is undone. At least once Honeycomb is finally released it should signal the deathknell of tablets running 2.xx.

Just around the corner in February is of course Mobile World Congress – this year being hosted in Barcelona. I expect 4G phones to be prolific but this raises some interesting questions about the technologies penetration outside of the US – or lack of it. It will be very interesting to see how this plays out, especially for Apple, who traditionally release a ‘one size fits all’ iPhone and will be keen to take advantage of the speed increase that 4G offers. Other manufacturers can potentially scoot around the issue a little more easily as they often release different phones for different territories.

Honeycomb for xmas

Well its xmas. Mother dearest was going to buy me a Kindle!.... but instead bought me two concrete Gargoyles and a mustache kit (no, really). In all honesty, I probably would have preferred the Kindle, but it did get me thinking.

Just before I get onto what the thought was, I was also doing some thinking yesterday as well (you can tell its the holidays). A friend was given an iPad for doing a talk on IPTV at Broadband World Forum 2010, they turned up with it in one of the covers that makes it look like a leatherbound book, and you a little bit of a idiot on the tube (I have a feeling this will change as tablets become more commonplace). I had a little play, and it is undoubtedly a smart little device. Browsing around the OS itself was a pleasure. Apps open quickly and the screen is gorgeous to look at. I was quickly reading their iPad subscription to Empire, and then surfing the net (admittedly using my Androids hotspot feature, which made me think that 3G was essential), and everything seemed to just work how I would expect it to, in that magical way that Apple seem to design things. I want one and I'd buy one. But not as my main computer and not at the price that Apple want me to pay. The lack of physical keys still makes doing any task that involves a lot of writing a bit of a pain.

So this xmas I want a Kindle, and I want an Ipad. But I need neither. What I will buy is an Android tablet. Despite the not-too-bad job they've done I've no desire to take the plunge with the Galaxy tab and Toshiba's own shoehorned Android 2.2 tablets, and because of this I can't help but think that Google have dropped the ball with a post Xmas release of Honeycomb (the new version of Android targetted at tablets). I'm sure in 2011 we are going to see a deluge of Honeycomb tablets, it seems everytime I logon to Hexus a new manufacturer has a press release stating their intentions to release a Android tablet in the coming months, but its a great shame that they haven't already dropped.

Once again, I'd like to emphasise the importance of the app market in the success of a mobile OS, and what this has to do with the missed opportunity this xmas. Microsoft are currently paying the price for being last to market with the W7 phones. Hardware wise, they are great, but the reason I'd buy either an Android phone or a iPhone over them now is that 1. The app store is tiny in comparison. And 2. I've already made an investment in the Android marketplace which I take with me as I upgrade my phone. I certainly don't want to have to rebuy all my old apps for a new device. This will be the same problem Google will be facing with the tablets. Those who desire a tablet this xmas, only have one real option, the iPad. Still, its the same battle that Google faced on the mobile market and they have had astounding success there. The amount of companies already committed to manufacturing an Android tablet is also assuring.

In truth I also know that if Google released a buggy, unintuitive tablet OS, into this very new sector, where a lot of people will be buying for the first time, it would put a lot of people off using an Android tablet in the future, and for me at least, once you buy into an OS, it's very hard to switch it up.

I'd like to see some statistics on the amount of people who have switched between mobile OS's.