Apple App Store: The beginning of the end

Just came across a very interesting article on the net that talks about Apple driving developers away from its App Store. Huh!!! Is that possible? After all Apple and it’s iPhone/iPod are supposed to be the best thing that has ever happened to the world. The truth is actually quite different my friends.

At one point the iPhone was probably the best platform for mobile applications. But the situation is quite different now. RIM’s Blackberry, Google’s Android and Palm’s WebOS have all changed the dynamics of the game. Consumers and mobile app developers have a lot of choice now. All the operating systems are quite capable and worthy and some of them are actually easier to develop for. For example if you want to develop for the Android or the Palm Web OS all you need is the SDK and a computer running Windows, Linux or Mac OS. But if you want to develop for the iPhone you need to have an Apple Mac computer. Ridiculous!!! What were they thinking? By constraining the development environment you are already alienating some of the developers.

The thing that takes the cake is Apple’s policies for applications that can be hosted on the App Store. In fact there is a clear lack of a consistent policy and every application, and by extension the developer, is at the mercy of the whims of an Apple employee. So if the Apple person reviewing your application on a particular day had a harrowing time tackling brutal traffic, or just learnt that his/her partner is cheating on him, then you could be doomed. Your application would be rejected for some seemingly vague reasons. And I am not pulling something out of thin air here, this has happened….on multiple occasions….and continues to happen even today. So here’s the million dollar question:

Who the f&*^ is Apple to decide what I can run on my iPhone/iPod ?

In some of my previous posts I had talked about how Apple might be losing developers if it does not get it’s act together. Here are a few of them:

• Apple iPhone will lose to Google Android powered T-Mobile G1
• 22 steps through iPhone development hell
• Arrogant Apple good for Google

In fact Apple has started losing developers. Check out this article. Most of the fanboys would be quick to dismiss this as a one off case of disgruntled developers. Probably true now but how long would this take to snowball into something bigger? More importantly can Apple afford to take a hit to their reputation? Google Android and the Web OS have opened up development to all and their store policies are more lenient towards developers. So what does Apple have to gain? The iPhone on Verizon seems to be a distant dream specially with the Motorola Droid faring quite well. Looks like it might pretty much be all downhill from here for the iPhone.

Apple, Microsoft: Birds of the same feather

Microsoft is being sued in the European Union(EU) for antitrust practices – yet again. The piece of software that’s the bone of contention is Internet Explorer. In spite of being one of lousiest browsers, extremely prone to security exploits, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer still holds a majority stake in the market of web browsers. Mozilla’s Firefox, comparatively a much superior product, comes second by quite a distance. The EU now wants to stop Microsoft from bundling IE with its Windows family of operating systems or bundle other competing browsers too. The rationale behind such a directive is to allow users the choice of trying out an alternative.Anyway, Microsoft’s practices have always been anti-competitive and for this reason it has been much vilified by the pundits.

On the other hand, Apple, in spite of being even more closed than Microsoft, has never come under the radar of the anti-trust laws. Firstly, Apple prohibits the usage of its operating system on any hardware other than Apple branded ones. The hardware that Apple sells has significant markups even though it is not necessarily superior. So for the same hardware capability, consumers pay an exorbitant price. Isn’t that anti-competitive? How is it then that Apple never comes under the scrutiny of the anti-trust sharks? When Psystar started selling computers with Apple Mac OS installed, Apple decided to sue to the company. Many thought it would be an open and shut case, but guess what? Psystar continues to sell its brand of Open Computers preloaded with Apple Mac OS. Psystar has also brought forward anti-competitive charges against Apple. Till date Apple has not won the case. So is there are a chance that Apple might come under the anti-trust laws at last?

And Apple is a really sore loser. The recently announced Palm Pre stole the thunder from Apple in this year’s CES. Experts are predicting that the Pre would probably dethrone the Apple iPhone. So what does Apple do? It responded with a veiled threat of suing anyone(read Palm) for violation of their IP. Well the iPod design was not Apple’s and they ripped it off. They survived that because the previous patent was held by an individual who could not renew it due to financial constraints. And being the unscrupulous corporate that it is, Apple did not even think of paying a one time royalty to the guy. But when sued, they brought him over to lend credence to their case in court.

So ladies and gentlemen, next time before maligning Microsoft over a coffee-table discussion, please give Apple a fair thought. They are no better than Microsoft. The only difference is that Apple enjoys the loyalty of a few high-nosed zealots that Microsoft does not have.

First impressions: The return of Palm – The Palm Pre

After pioneering a revolution in mobile devices like PDAs and smart phones, Palm, as of recent times, has found itself more and more out of the market due to stiff competition. Currently it is ranked fourth after the likes of Apple, Research In Motion(RIM) and Windows Mobile. All that is pretty much set to change if what Palm showed in CES lives up to its promise. And there is a high chance that it would.

Enter the Palm Pre. This is Palm’s latest entrant in the land of mobile devices, more specifically the smart phone segment. This segment is dominated by Apple and RIM. Even though Palm did have some success with its Centro, Treo and Treo Pro lines of phones, it was nowhere near to regaining the coveted leader position. With the Pre, Palm is pretty well set to pose a challenge that is serious enough to even topple the revered Apple iPhone.

If looks could kill or rather dethrone the iPhone, the Palm Pre has it. If functions and performance can poach users, the Pre has that. If coolness is such an important factor that entire cults grow around that, the Palm Pre is well equipped. The new design features a touch screen interface along with a slide out full keyboard. It sports Palm’s latest operating system the WebOS. The combination is stupendous.

The Pre is not only a pretty looking phone, but packs a mean punch too. There is innovation at its best coupled with legendary usability. Here’s a look at a few innovations that the Pre comes with.

Wi-Fi, GPS and email are standard on the Pre. The new Synergy system also allows a user to see all the conversations with a certain contact in a chat style. The universal search feature allows searching across contacts, Google, applications and even Wikipedia. Pretty cool, huh!

The Pre treats each running application as an activity card. Multiple applications can run in parallel and a user can switch between these running instances or activity cards with the mere flick of a finger. No longer do you have to close your email application to browse a web site. All notifications, like the ones for new messages, appear at the bottom of the screen and does not interrupt the user’s current activity. Quite nifty I say.

The calendar application in the Pre can show a combined logical view of calendars stored in Outlook, Google Calendar and Facebook. Also if a single contact is stored in different applications, they can all be linked together.

The browser is full featured and fast. It supports full HTML and has the now ubiquitous zoom and pan functions. Also all the applications installed on the phone are constantly updated via the internet. This gets rid of the rather dull “Update now” function.

Another innovative feature is the Touchstone wireless charging station with which the Pre can be recharged. The Pre attaches to the Touchstone device through magnets and remains in position without any cables or wires connecting the two. The phone can be used while charging.

The Plam Pre appears to be of fantastic value with the necessary looks and coolness. Check out the following gallery of images taken from the Palm website:

Here are the specs as detailed on Palm’s site and do not forget to watch the keynote presentation:
Carrier
Sprint
Operating system
Palm® webOS
Network specs
3G EVDO Rev A
Display
3.1-inch touch screen with a vibrant 24-bit color 320×480 resolution HVGA display
Keyboard
Physical QWERTY keyboard
Email
Microsoft Outlook® email with Microsoft® Direct Push Technology
POP3/IMAP (Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, etc).
Messaging
Integrated IM, SMS, and MMS
GPS
Built-in GPS
Digital camera
3 megapixel camera with LED flash and extended depth of field
Sensors
Ambient light, accelerometer, and proximity
Media formats supported
Audio Formats: MP3, AAC, AAC+, AMR, QCELP, WAV
Video Formats: MPEG-4, H.263, H.264
Image Formats: GIF, Animated GIF, JPEG, PNG, BMP
Wireless connectivity
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g with WPA, WPA2, 801.1x authentication
Bluetooth® 2.1 + EDR with A2DP stereo Bluetooth support
Memory
8GB of user storage (~7.4GB user available)
USB mass storage support
Phone as laptop modem
Bluetooth tethering
Connector
MicroUSB connector with USB 2.0 Hi-Speed
Headphone jack
3.5mm stereo
Palm® Touchstonecharging dock
Compatible
Dimensions
Width: 59.5mm (2.3 inches)
Height: 100.5mm (3.9 inches)
Thickness: 16.95mm (0.67 inches)
Weight
135 grams (4.76 ounces)

Android can beat Apple and the iPhone

The latest entrant in the sphere of mobile operating systems in Google’s Android. The OS has been received well by the mobile content development community and has been gaining steady momentum. T-Mobile’s G1 has also received very good reviews and some(including myself) have called it better than Apple’s iPhone. 

There are quite a few reasons that are in favour of Google Android. Here are a few:

• Android is open source and free to use and customize. This also makes it more attractive for adoption by a large number of mobile phone vendors.
• There are certain features in-built like cut-n-paste that are still to make their way into the iPhone. 
• Android apps are developed using Java that run on a specialized virtual machine. This aspect makes it attractive to a larger pool of developers than the iPhone.
• The Android Market has set policies that would let developers keep a majority share of the revenues earned through it. This is in contrast to Apple’s App Store policies.
• Google has promised to have very little control over the Android Market.
• Coming from Google, Android has the backing of a behemoth and top-notch quality is ensured.
• Being open source, community based development can introduce newer features to this operating system much faster than any other.

In fact Android adoption has seen a steady rise. From developers to mobile phone vendors everybody seems to be jumping on to the Android bandwagon. Here’s a list of few news item that come up on CNET.com when you search for Android in the news section:

• Kyocera joins Android phone bandwagon
• Google Android and Symbian to merge?
• Report: Motorola expanding Android team
• Coders get 70 percent of Android Market revenue
• MySpace’s Android application goes live
• Maverick puts Google Talk on Android G1
• Motorola preps its own Android phone
• Capitalism still alive: EA on Android games
• Google adds Android app for Flickr photos

It’s pretty clear that interest amongst developers and vendors is increasing with respect to Google’s Android. Amongst mobile phone vendors Kyocera, HTC, and Motorola are already on to it. It’s only a matter of time before a lot more follow this trend. If this continues, Android’s appeal would surely surpass that of the iPhone’s. 

So is Android the beginning of the end of Apple iPhone’s dominance in the smart phone segment?

Palm use Android, scrap Nova

Arguably Palm is considered to be the company that started the smart phone trend. Initially Palm was just a maker of hand-held computers or PDAs. Later they merged the PDA to the cell phone and thus was born the smart phone in the form of the iconic Palm Treo lineup. Ironically, even though global adoption of smart phones has increased over the years, Palm’s market share has seen a steady decline.

With more and more smart phone vendors offering PDA capabilities in their phones, Palm’s niche PDA market saw a steep decline. The company faced tough times and even sold off their software division. Later they re-acquired the same. For the past few years Palm is going through a very rough patch.

This is very surprising for a company that has a brilliant team of technical experts and who have in the past created superb products for the mobile professionals. To get back to a healthy state Palm even started making smart phones based on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile platform. Though this helped the company it did nothing to reinstate it in its former state of glory. Of late with the Centro smart phone, Palm saw some success. They followed it up very recently with the Palm Treo Pro that was received well by the consumers. However the Treo Pro was running on the Windows platform – not something with which you would expect to set the market ablaze.

For quite some time now, Palm has been reported to be working on its next generation operating system based on the Linux platform. Known as the Nova, its still away from seeing production by at least a year. The bigger question is would Palm’s fortunes turn around with Nova, now that we have multiple mobile operating systems in the market? Operating systems like Apple’s Mac OS, Nokia’s Symbian, etc. have gained a lot of popularity. RIM’s Blackberry is still supposed to be the be-all and end-all of smart phones. And the latest entrant in this field is Google with its Android operating system. 

So does it make sense for Palm to spend time and money after its Nova? Wouldn’t it be more prudent to just take Android and then work your magic on it? I sincerely believe that Palm should try to embrace Android. Not only is it backed by a powerhouse like Google, but it provides an extendible platform on which Palm can start building its next generation of applications. For Android Palm would not have to pay any licensing fees since its open source. 

Palm has the capability and the prowess to turn around by embracing the Android platform. The question is will it?

The new Palm Treo Pro: Its officially out

Palm publicly announced the new Palm Treo Pro smartphone after having accidentally released it on its website a few days back. The phone looks sharp, smart, slim and all set to make an impact. In my previous post I had posted the specs.

The phone is intended for the business users and from the specs it appears to pack enough punch to do it with aplomb. The shape echoes that of the Centro but slimmer. The only thing that I am bit sceptic about is the Windows Mobile operating system that is driving this machine.

Even though the phone has been announced, its still not available for sale in the US. From first reports it appears that the phone would be sold as an unlocked one starting fall. Apparently Europe and Australia will see it before US.

So will the new Palm act like napalm and set the smart phone market on fire? Lets wait and watch. Its got the goods.

The return of Palm: The new Treo 850 or Treo Pro

Palm, the once upon a time leader in PDAs and smart phones is all set to make a comeback. Even though Palm did have reasonable success with its Centro smart phone, it could never rival the popularity of the RIM BlackBerry or the Apple iPhone. Now it seems Palm is all set to make a splash with the upcoming 3G enabled Treo 850 rechristened the Treo Pro.

A Flash presentation of the Treo Pro recently went live accidentally on the Palm website earlier this week. Even though it was taken down soon, some people did capture a few screen shots. Here is what we can expect.

The front view:

The rear view:

Looks quite nice. The Treo Pro is expected to be slimmer than the Centro but with a more comfortable keyboard. First looks do seem impressive.

Now for some specs:

• 2.4-inch, 320 by 320-pixel display
• Wi-Fi
• 2 megapixel camera
• 400MHz processor
• 100MB of RAM
• microSD memory expansion
• 3.5mm headphone jack

The only let down is that it would be running on the latest Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 and not on Palm’s Nova, the operating system based on Linux, on which Palm is still working. Being a long time user of the Palm Tungsten E2 handheld, I can vouch for the preformance and reliability of the Palm OS Garnet. Even though handhelds from other manufacturers running Windows may have had a more attractive look they simply did not perform upto the same levels as Palm OS.

The Treo Pro looks like a winner to me, but I would still like to wait for the Treo that would run Nova; just can’t compromise on performance.