Below is a live feed of the Laminate Flooring installed on the 19th floor balcony at BuildDirect’s Vancouver, BC, headquarters. For more check out http://watchuswreckafloor.com
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Hi All,
It has been a couple of months since my last post. Sorry for the delay. A lot has changed since then. The mobile community has grown and some interesting developments are occurring in the world of tech.
On the personal side I am now co-coaching my son’s soccer team and spent last Sunday through a grueling 8 hour, physically intensive soccer coaching clinic.
So let’s jump right into it. Since the release of the iPhone 3G, we have replaced 5 BlackBerrys but now have a total of 9 iPhones in use at our corporate office. After I had a look at the first iPhone here, it clearly became evident that the return on the investment was substantially increased over our use of the BlackBerrys. Now don’t get me wrong: I have a lot of love for RIM and BlackBerrys but it is clear that a bar has been raised and set for mobile devices. The iPhone really is a computer in the palm of your hand. It’s useable. It’s useful. It’s easy to navigate.
I even have my systems engineer empowered to VPN into our back end systems and remote control any of our servers from the iPhone. That means he can stay on top of things anytime and almost anywhere.
The greatest part of the iPhone? Other manufacturers are forced to rethink and redesign their product offerings. We as consumers benefit both on price and quality of the devices.
While there are a zillion iPhone knock-offs out there, the real competition will come when the BlackBerry Storm (formerly known as the Thunder) is released in Q4. It will feature a touch screen interface and RIM is developing an application store much like Apple’s iTunes App Store. The App Store has had 100 million downloads in 2 months and is outpacing iTunes music’s debut four-fold.
The other contender will be Google Android-based phones. This will be interesting to see. While Apple and RIM control their hardware and software, Google’s mobile OS is being built to run on multiple manufacturer-built devices. Personally, I see the maintenance in keeping compatibility smooth as an anchor on the development of the OS. Remember, Apple just has to make their OS compatible with the iPhone and the iPod Touch. And those two devices are very similar in technical specifications.
In any case, the mobile landscape is changing in a fast and dramatic fashion!
Â
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I came across a press release this morning from Nokia announcing their acquisition of the remaining 52 per cent of Symbian that it does not already own estimated to be about $410 million. Without question, recent changes in the cell phone market initiated by Apple and further pushed by Research in Motion and Google, have changed the landscape of the cell industry. In essence, features and functionality are taking second place to ease-of-use and integration.
There are many comparisons that can be made with other industries. Take the automobile industry for example. For years, American car manufacturers have added every bell and whistle to their vehicles including things like HUD displays that on the surface look cool, but only serve to complicate the user experience and add one more quality control item that could fail. Japanese car manufacturers, in contrast, had much fewer features but ensured the quality and the user experience were second-to-none. As a result, Toyota, Honda and Nissan consistently top user satisfaction and customers’ intent to repurchase surveys.
Looking at the operating system software industry, Microsoft has dominated the industry with their Windows platform but their logic of adding every feature imaginable including countless options for configuring each feature has started to catch up with them. Not only is the depth of configurations daunting for most users, but the glut of code to support this is not only impacting performance but making the software increasingly prone to errors and problems. Windows Vista, for example, has had so many problems that Microsoft has included a free downgrade option so users can either install Vista or the more reliable Windows XP. This has opened the door for increased market share from the Linux camp as well as Apple’s Mac OS X.
Moving back to the cell phone industry, most people use less than 15 per cent of the technology on their cell phones. The common features beyond phone functionality are text messaging and taking photos. The other 85 per cent of the features rarely or never get used. Enter the new age of mobile technology where the manufacturers work to ensure a seamless, easy-to-use customer experience and suddenly cell phones offload functions currently performed on PCs and open new markets to everyday users such as GPS, web browsing and searching, gaming, and multimedia such as TV-on-demand.
Competition is good and it is time the cell phone industry evolves to the next level.
Â
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Mark July 11th on your calendar. The iPhone is coming to Canada and 22 initial countries on its roll out to more than 70 countries worldwide. Rogers in Canada will require a 3 year commitment but pricing will be the same as the US: $199 for the 8GB version and $299 for the 16GB version. Data and voice plans will be announced at a future date. The full press release is listed below.
As expected, along with the new iPhone supporting 3G technology, Apple announced a number of products at WWDC including the replacement of .Mac with MobileMe and further clarified features in iPhone OS 2.0 and iPhone SDK. AppleÂ
Here are some notes of interest around the new iPhone:
- no longer includes Dock.
- includes USB Power Adapter
- supports HSPA (High speed packet access), technically 3.5G technology
- not available through the Online Apple Store
- activation in-store only
- requires iTunes 7.7 (not yet released)
- continues to feature 2.0MP camera
- A-GPS technologies
- Enterprise support
- significantly improved battery life
- new App (”application”) Store.Â
Apple also announced the next version of its operating system nicknamed Snow Leopard. MacDailyNews reported the following:
Apple today previewed Mac OS X Snow Leopard, which builds on the incredible success of OS X Leopard and is the next major version of the world’s most advanced operating system. Rather than focusing primarily on new features, Snow Leopard will enhance the performance of OS X, set a new standard for quality and lay the foundation for future OS X innovation. Snow Leopard is optimized for multi-core processors, taps into the vast computing power of graphic processing units (GPUs), enables breakthrough amounts of RAM and features a new, modern media platform with QuickTime(R) X. Snow Leopard includes out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 and is scheduled to ship in about a year.
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Rogers Press Release:
Rogers/Apple to Bring iPhone 3G to Canada on July 11
WWDC SAN FRANCISCO and TORONTO, June 9 /CNW/ - Rogers Communications and Apple(R) today announced that the highly anticipated iPhone(TM) 3G will be available in Canada on July 11. iPhone 3G combines all the revolutionary features of iPhone with 3G networking that is twice as fast(*) as the first generation iPhone, built-in GPS for expanded location based mobile services, and iPhone 2.0 software which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and runs the hundreds of third party applications already built with the recently released iPhone SDK. "Rogers has a long history of bringing Canadians the very best in wireless services, networks and handset innovations," said Rob Bruce, president, Rogers Wireless. "With iPhone 3G, we will provide our customers with an amazing mobile experience over Canada's fastest wireless network." "We're excited to be working with Rogers to bring iPhone 3G to Canada," said Tim Cook, Apple's COO. "We can't wait to get this revolutionary phone in the hands of even more people around the world." iPhone 3G will operate on Rogers' High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) wireless network, the fastest mobile network in Canada. HSPA is nationally available in the top Canadian urban centers from Vancouver to Halifax, covering more than 60 percent of the population. iPhone 3G will also operate on Roger's coast-to-coast GSM/EDGE network, proven to be the country's most reliable wireless network. Starting July 11, iPhone 3G will sell for $199 for the 8Gb model and $299 for the 16Gb model, on a three-year plan. More details on price plans and retail availability will be available soon. (*) Based on 3G and EDGE testing. Actual speeds vary by site conditions. Rogers Communications is a diversified Canadian communications and media company. We are engaged in wireless voice and data communications services through Wireless, Canada's largest wireless provider and the operator of the country's only Global System for Mobile Communications ("GSM") based network. Through Cable and Telecom we are one of Canada's largest providers of cable television, cable telephony and high-speed Internet access, and are also a full-service, facilities-based telecommunications alternative to the traditional telephone companies. Through Media, we are engaged in radio and television broadcasting, televised shopping, magazines and trade publications, and sports entertainment. We are publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: RCI.A and RCI.B), and on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: RCI). For further information about the Rogers group of companies, please visit www.rogers.com. Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.
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