Tablet Bucks

Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Despite being little more than a rumor, scouring the Internet for news on RIM’s Blackbery tablet will find oneself reading mixed opinions on the device. Many journalists seem to have taken a pessimistic view of it, some even comparing the idea of a companion device to the Palm Folio and suggest that the Blackberry tablet will find the same fate (in other words, will never be released due to high potential of being an utter disaster). I have quite a difference of opinion though.

There is no doubt in my mind that tablet devices will become a giant market segment and have a potentially lengthy life-span. The fact that iPads are beginning to outsell Apple computers makes this point hard to argue. So RIM taking a step into the tablet market isn’t unfounded. Arguments that RIM doesn’t belong in this market aggravates me. Sure they don’t already have any market penetration yet. But did Apple have any before the iPad? Did RIM have any smartphone market penetration before the Blackberry? The fact that a company does well in one segment shouldn’t preclude them from expanding into another. Especially when the segments compliment each other so well.

Cellular network technology is continuing to mature, get faster and cheaper. A companion device from RIM, who has established itself as a pioneer in the cellular industry, would therefore have the benefit of being able to scale up to the latest and greatest network technology if able to tether to a Blackberry. Consumers would indirectly have their tablet running on the latest and greatest network whenever they upgrade their mobile device. The lack of cellular functionality (besides wifi) in the tablet device would also bring down the cost substantially and allow RIM to escape having to support both CDMA and GSM networks in the tablet chipset. Add to that the fact that Blackberries continue to top the smartphone charts means that RIM already has a foot in the door with many potential customers.

Blackberry owners should ask themselves, “why would I buy a non Blackberry tablet when I can possibly get this companion device for less cost, that will integrate with my Blackberry, probably use my contact list and media and my data plan that is compressed and far cheaper than non-Blackberry data plans?” While 3G iPad users will be getting pounded by bandwidth charges, Blackberry tablet users will be able to enjoy some power usage with their ultra cheap and conservative data plans due to RIM’s constant pursuit of providing the complete experience from data bandwidth and cellular technology to user interface and interactivity.

No, I don’t believe that RIM’s Blackberry companion tablet will face the same fate as the Palm Folio. In fact, I have a hunch that it will be a marvelous success. In fact, I think that Blackberry companion devices are a new market that RIM should tap into even more. Heck, I’d like a watch that could run apps and tether to my Blackberry. Could potentially also monitor my vitals and email my parents should anything happen.

I can see it now – “Jamie’s pulse has dropped to 0. Sent from my Blackberry companion watch”.

The iPhone OS 4.0 looks awesome. No questioning that, but along with all the new features has come some changes to the terms of use of the SDK.

John Gruber of Daring Fireball made a post in his blog yesterday pointing out that section 3.3.1 of the new iPhone Developer Program License Agreement reads:

3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).

Suddenly a number of third party iPhone development tools (and the thousands of apps that have been created with them) are in jeopardy. Adobe was planning to include a packager for iPhone in Flash Professional CS5 to let developers publish ActionScript projects as native iPhone apps. Adobe isn’t the only company who’s effort to build a non Objective-C compiler may be sunk by these latest licensing terms.

Novell released MonoTouch last year – a .Net C# compiler that can build native iPhone apps. Despite a relatively steep cost, their community has been growing substantially. There has been no comments from Novell on Apple’s new terms, but it may be difficult for Novell to build a case that a C# compiler doesn’t violate them. C# is not Objective-C, C, C++ or Javascript.

In a similar boat (although perhaps a little less clear) are companies that have developed frameworks to enable app building with html and javascript. Appcelerator’s Titanium SDK and PhoneGap both fall into this category. PhoneGap tweeted yesterday, in response, suggesting that “everyone relax about the new policy. phonegap apps are accepted by apple.”. Around the same time, a blog post from Jeff Haynie, CEO of Appcelerator, was a little more cautious. In his blog post, Jeff says, “since iPhone 4.0 is still in beta, both the APIs and the Terms of Service are covered under NDA, so we cannot speak to specifics or Apple’s intent with its proposed language.” He then mentions that “you have our commitment that we will do everything possible to ensure that Titanium remains the outstanding platform for cross-platrorm application development for years to come.”

A post by raganwald on ycombinator nails the WTF on this… “Apple really wants to prevent people releasing multi-platform compilers. Adobe’s Flash compiler is a classic maneuver to ‘commoditize your complements”… Adobe want to lock developers into Flash and commoditize everything else as Flash-delivery devices. Apple want to commoditize applications and lock developers to their API’s.”

Although it is still relatively unclear what this all means to iPhone developers trying to scrape out a measly living with the platform, it is concerning. My suggestion is simple – if you’re now just looking at development with the iPhone/iPad, don’t rely on a third party framework. Learn Objective-C and you can still throw up a Safari UIWebView and build 90% of your app in Javascript and HTML.

For the indi iPhone app developers, making ends meet these day might seem difficult.  Spend a month or more working feverishly on a project to find yourself amongst a pile of competing apps all bidding for buyers at the bottom of the barrel 99 cent price point.  Bringing in $20 per week is doing well.  Hardly an income to live on.

Fortunately, the iPhone app boat isn’t the only boat sailing and the more available platforms, the more possibilities and greater market penetration available.  Android and Blackberry are already two other platforms that cater to app developers, although arguably not as well (it is safe to assume that this will change).  Another emerging market is that of the Windows 7 phone.

At the MIX 2010 conference this week, Microsoft showed off some of the tools that Windows 7 Phone developers will have in their arsenal.  In a nutshell, developers will be packing heat Visual Studio style with the XNA or Silverlight platforms.

Requirements for a developer are, at minimum, in a complete polarization from Apple, a Windows PC and Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2010.  This is good.  C# has a advantages over Objective-C (in my opinion).  With the likes of garbage collection, it could be probably be considered simpler to program with.  And for those “I’m (usually) a PC” guys who might consider switching from iPhone development, the home and end keys will work again.  Assuming that the Visual Studio crowd outnumbers the XCode crowd a billion to one (not exactly), Microsoft is likely sittin pretty with so many devs already familiar with the tools.  Of course, developers will still need to pick up the lingo of the XNA or Silverlight worlds.  For Android and Blackberry developers, familiar with Java, the similarity of C# should make it an easy port.

Taking a look at the distribution models that developers will have at their disposal, app monetization will be come in the form of app purchases, with the possibility of developers offering demos or trials.  As one would also suspect, advertising will also be available but unlike recent innovations in the iPhone camp, Microsoft doesn’t seem to be offering any in-app purchasing (yet anyway).

All in all, I can see this platform taking off from a developer perspective, assuming that Microsoft also creates a straight forward app distribution model and the app approval process isn’t hampered.  Given Microsoft’s success with XBox Live, I suspect that, although there may be growing pains in its maturing, Windows Phone 7 will have a fairly robust (and successful) app program, quite probably leading to an increased usage of the Windows mobile platform.  Time will tell.  But in the meantime, download a copy of the development tools now and get your WinFart apps ready for deployment!

The tablet device market is definitely going to be the next big thing. The iPad could possibly be considered as the catalyst towards this new computing paradigm, but it certainly won’t be the only contender.

Although Dell hasn’t really made much of a mark as far as smartphones are concerned, it is poised to make a fairly large and early dent in the tablet device race with their initial offering, the Dell Mini 5 Tablet, set to launch in the next few months. If the popularity of the Dell Mini Netbooks are anything to go by, the Mini 5 Tablet will be a sure hit. Considering that it also has a few additional things up its sleeve when compared to the iPad, who knows… perhaps it will actually be a tight race to the top.

Dell Mini 5 Tablet Specs:

• 1 Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 processor
• 405MB RAM
• 1.63 GB internal storage
• microSD slot for expanding the storage
• 720p Video support with HDMI output
• Wifi, bluetooth, 3G equipped
• Integrated GPS
• Android 2.x operating system (Froyo perhaps?).
• 5 MP camera with dual led flash (plus a forward facing camera, presumably for video calls)
• 5 inch (800×480) capacitive multi-touch screen

This is loads more functionality than the iPad, although the larger screen real estate of the iPad (at 9.7 inches at 1024×768) is certainly an advantage that Apple will have out of the gates. What could be a big win for Dell though is that it is rumored that the Mini 5 will be running FLASH as well, where it’s almost a given that the iPad will never see the FLASH. The Dell will also likely have fewer constraints than the iPad and will have multitasking capabilities.

What the Dell Mini 5 won’t have, however, is the hundreds of thousands of apps in the incredibly successful iPhone App Store. The Dell will also probably be somewhat costlier as it will be shipping with integrated camera, GPS and more connectivity options (one could also argue that the smaller screen and less internal storage could offset the costs and it would be comparably priced against the iPad). But don’t let this detract you from developing applications for the Dell. While most people will be developing their apps for the presumably successful iPad, other players will be quietly exploiting the smaller Android market with probably significantly less competition, at least initially.