Great tear down by Craig Grannell of Timothy B. Lee’s nearsighted Forbes piece, “Why Google is Winning the Smartphone Wars”
Here’s the deal - the “smartphone wars” have been imagined by pundits and analysts for a variety of reasons, including linkbaiting, stock manipulation and incompetence.
We have never been at war with Eastgoogle.
Great short post by Harry Marks with a link to an equally great post.
The piece by Timothy B. Lee is so riddled with factual and logical errors, I wonder how this man managed to graduate.
Jason Snell’s review of the HP TouchPad
Best review of HP’s competitor to the iPad out there.
I’m routing for the TouchPad and the things that will follow it, because from what I have seen, webOS is the most promising alternative to iOS out there.
I’ve been using Palm devices for years, even programmed for the platform for a short time and I would love to see them succeed.
(via Instapaper)
Consumers have to be educated
Yesterday John Gruber wrote a short article about the imminent release of the HP TouchPad.
He argues that the Touchpad seems to be the most compelling iPad competitor so far, but HP will have to wage an uphill battle:
I think the problem facing HP is summed up in the sub-head on this promotional page:
The ultimate in entertainment with Beats Audio and Adobe Flash.
That’s not a compelling answer to “Why should I buy this instead of an iPad?” I mean, who has even heard of “Beats Audio”?
I agree that the TouchPad will have to prove itself; a task not easily accomplished in a market dominated by the iPad. I don’t agree however with the assumption that the TouchPad has no differentiating features that would answer the above question.
Just like Apple had to tell consumers why the iPod/iPhone/iPad will make their lives easier, HP is going to have to educate consumers about what the TouchPad does and what it does that the iPad does not do. A consumer-centric feature like improved audio characteristics sound like a good argument to me, at the very least to grab people’s attention.
A well-made series of commercials — let’s call it Apple-y — focusing on what the TouchPad can do for the potential buyer would be a good start.
Every 'Mac vs. PC' Ad in chronological order
Adweek has put together a blog post, showing each and every one of Apple’s “Mac vs. PC” ads in chronological order.
via TUAW
Over the last few days Jim Dalrymple of The Loop has written a few pieces on the rather strange things RIM’s two co-CEOs said in interviews (articles 1, 2 & 3).
All of the things Mr. Dalrymple wrote were accurate — albeit a bit tongue-in-cheek — yet in the comments of each post there was a rabid RIM supporter — of the trollish kind — feeling the need to bash Apple, the iPad in particular and praise RIM’s soon to be released iPad competitor to high heavens.
What these close to fanatic RIM fans don’t understand is, the iPad desperately needs an actual competitor, because even a company like Apple can become complacent. Nothing spurs innovation like healthy competition.
By all means, I want the PlayBook to be good (and HP’s tablet, too), I want it to be all the things that RIM has been promising customers for months.
Quick thought on HP and webOS
Having caught up on yesterday’s press event and hands-on reports concerning webOS and the new HP/Palm devices, the thing that came to my mind first, was that HP thinks bigger and farther than all other companies trying to compete with Apple today.
From my point of view the Pre3, the TouchPad and — in its own way — the Veer are not meant to compete with today’s iPad and iPhone 4, but with whatever Apple will release next. They didn’t say it out loud, but the device’s specifications and the effort put into the next incarnation of webOS seem to suggest it.
Daring Fireball: What's Next for Nokia?
Brilliant write-up; there’s not much more anyone could add to this.
I’ve had to go back to using my old Nokia E51 while waiting for my iPhone 4 and the experience has been gruelling.
It wasn’t the hardware — I quite like the design and the build — but the lack of apps, the crummy software and the awful UI.
And Facebook is nowhere on Ping, either. Currently, there is no linking, sharing or participation of any kind with Facebook–or Twitter or MySpace–on Ping, which will work only on the iTunes software on computers, iPhones and iPods.
When I asked Jobs about that, he said Apple had indeed held talks with Facebook about a variety of unspecified partnerships related to Ping, but the discussions went nowhere.The reason, according to Jobs: Facebook wanted “onerous terms that we could not agree to.”
Kara Swisher on All Things Digital.
I wouldn’t have agreed to a deal with Facebook, if I had been in Mr. Jobs’s position either. Facebook likes to own all the data they collect from users and its partners and do with it as they please.
Given that Ping will quickly become popular among the 160 Mio. credit card equipped iTunes users, it’ll give Apple terabytes of data on the listening preferences of its customers, which Apple’s marketing division will surely put to good use for the company.
It might even give Apple an edge — though probably not a necessarily long-lived one — over its biggest competitor in the field of digital music distribution, especially in negotiations with content providers.
Oh the bitter irony.
(via lonelysandwich)
