The ComputerWorld Contrarian

HP lays out the blueprint for Amazon to follow

2011-08-31T19:45:00Z

I’ve been called a “Fandroid” on numerous occasions due to my affinity for the smart phone OS. But that love affair ends on the smart phone, as I will fully admit Apple is the only game in town when it comes to tablets.

But that could change with the latest reports of a pair of Amazon tablets, which include 7-inch and 10-inch models. DigiTimes claims that Amazon will start mass production of a 10.1-inch tablet in the first quarter of 2012, while the smaller 7-inch model will ship as early as this October.

Industry analysts have speculated that Amazon could sell its slate device for less than $300. This is nearly half the price of the low-end iPad offering. The low price point would probably mean Amazon would be barely breaking even on the device, turning to an ad and apps driven profit model.

At this point, this is the only way to compete with the iPad.

If we learned anything from the HP TouchPad, it’s that people will flock to the stores to buy a non-iPad tablet if the price is right. The TouchPad would probably be flying off the shelves at a $200 price point as well, so the closer Amazon can get to that figure, the better.

Like Apple, Amazon can also bring content to the device, including a massive archive of e-books, music, videos and games. I would call this an “Android+” offering and am excited to see more details about the hardware.

Remember, Amazon sold its Kindle below cost and became the de facto standard in the e-reader space. An Amazon tablet has the ability to finally give Android a flagship tablet and cut into Apple’s market dominance.

RIM can blame its struggles on apps

2011-06-22T14:36:00Z

At our first ever enterprise mobility conference, MobiBiz, one speaker unintentionally highlighted why BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. has been under financial and media fire over the last several months.

While making a point about the need to separate handset penetration from actual usage patterns, IBM Canada’s Alon Kronenberg, a practice lead of mobile apps for the company’s mobile solutions unit, talked about Air Canada’s portfolio of mobile apps.

He said that the airline’s boarding pass app, which lets user acquire their flight ticket, is accessed mostly by BlackBerry users. On the other hand, the much more smart phone-optimized (and native) flight status app, which gives customers the ability to keep tab on flight progress and delays, is used by Android and iPhone users.

Kronenberg didn’t editorialize this point any further, but for me, the different use cases really underscore what RIM has to change to survive. On the small smart phone form factor, user interface and ease-of-use is critical, especially for media-rich applications.

BlackBerry users are gravitating toward an app that isn’t very mobile-specific. Air travelers can easily print out their boarding passes at home or in an airport kiosk. However, keeping tabs on real-time flight information on a visually rich display takes BlackBerry users out of their comfort zone.

Another presenter at MobiBiz presented some statistics on the average number of applications installed on a typical Android, iPhone and BlackBerry user’s phone. RIM users unsurprisingly ranked last in this category, with an average of 10 apps installed per phone.

This isn’t a new story for RIM either. When it recently launched its new BlackBerry OS and the PlayBook tablet, building up the app development community was a top priority. And with each passing month, that goal seems more and more unattainable for the company.

What RIM should really be whining about

2011-04-11T20:06:00Z

In a New York Times interview last week, RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis has called out financial analysts and media pundits for their negative sentiment on the BlackBerry brand.

“Why is it that people don’t appreciate our profits,” Lazaridis asked. “Why is it that people don’t appreciate our growth? Why is it that people don’t appreciate the fact that we spent the last four years going global? Why is it that people don’t appreciate that we have 500 carriers in 170 countries with products in almost 30 languages?”

The smart phone maker’s other CEO, Jim Balsillie, also reacted to the growing sea of BlackBerry haters. “No other technology company other than Apple has successfully transitioned their platform,” he said, adding that the move is almost never done and is way harder than many people realize.

The transition RIM is referring to is the move toward the tablet market. But I’d view this as the move toward an increasing focus on the consumer market away from the enterprise market.

That shift has actually been occurring for years now and included some sub-par releases such as the BlackBerry Storm and Torch phones. These unsuccessful forays into the touch screen market, plus the delayed arrival of the Waterloo, Ont. company’s tablet offering, has rightly painted RIM as a “me too” vendor.

All the hard numbers show that RIM is growing far slower than Android and iOS in the smart phone market, but more than that, developers have largely stayed away from the platform.

I’ve wrote this before, but it’s worth repeating. Going forward, a mobile device company is only going to go as far as its developer community.

Apple was able to take over the tablet market because its developer community was making a ton of killer apps that needed more screen real estate. It’s a pretty bad sign for RIM’s PlayBook when one of the selling points is that the device can run Android apps.

So instead of asking why people don’t appreciate what it’s done in the past, RIM’s leaders need to start asking why developers are still staying away.

Ottawa firm sues most of wireless industry

2011-03-18T16:06:00Z

When I first read about the patent lawsuit filed by Ottawa-based chip designer Mosaid Technology this week, I was reminded of the time Dr. Evil held the world ransom for “100 billion dollars” during the second Austin Powers movie.

But on further analysis, perhaps the suit isn’t so far fetched.

The company announced Thursday that it has filed a lawsuit against a raft of big tech companies in relation to six Wi-Fi related patents. Mosaid, which filed the action in the United States District Court Eastern District of Texas, claims 17 firms have “infringed and continue to infringe Mosaid’s patents by making and selling products using Wi-Fi technology.

Among the list of targets: Asutek, Canon, Dell, Huawei, Intel, Lexmark, and Research In Motion.

In its release, the Ottawa firm refers to itself as one of the “world’s leading intellectual property companies.”

I usually put little stock into how companies bill themselves, but this one might actually be an accurate.

Mosaid has licenced its six wireless patents to over a dozen other companies, including Sony, Samsung, Panasonic and Nokia. And very recently, the company also settled a patent agreement with both LG and MediaTek. These agreements could be give its case a major boost in the Texas court, which is a state that has recently been very friendly to patent holders making similar claims.

Remember, we all laughed when Dr. Evil wanted “sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads” during the first Austin Powers movie. But by the third one, his dreams came true.

Perhaps the future of any Wi-Fi enabled product will eventually go through this Ottawa-based patent company.

Android on BlackBerry all comes down to execution

2011-02-28T21:17:00Z

The blogosphere is heating up over reports that Research In Motion Inc. will support Android-based apps for its next generation BlackBerry smart phones and the forthcoming PlayBook tablet.

I love this idea, but only if RIM uses the Android catalog as a supplement to its own crop of premium apps.

The best course of action for RIM is to keep pushing its developers to create tightly integrated, premium apps for the BlackBerry OS and use support for Android-based apps to fill out its catalog.

This would provide BlackBerry users with the best of both worlds. The BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service is a premium app and among consumers at least, it is the feature that is probably driving the most sales of the handset.

For the enterprise IT department, I don’t think this will present any problems, but the same won’t be true for app developers.

For Android developers, this news would mean that apps would have to be tested against different versions of both the Android OS and BlackBerry OS. While this would broaden the reach of their apps tremendously, I foresee a lot of additional complications.

Jason Perlow, a blogger with ZDNet, expressed it better than I ever could:

"On the x86 platform, developing a Java app on one platform and moving it to another is supposed to be painless, particularly if you are using say, Sun’s J2SE VM on a Windows PC and you want to run it on Solaris, AIX or Linux. In theory, the Java bytecode for that application is supposed to work exactly the same on all platforms if the VM is coming from the same vendor. That’s what the whole beauty of the Java platform was supposed to be about in the first place. The raison de etre, so to speak.

However, the reality of Java is very different. Even between Linux and Solaris on x86, where the platforms have a lot of commonality, Sun’s own JVM behaves differently on the two OSes (and also on both Solaris architectures for x86 and SPARC) even though it passes all the Java certification tests. Behavioral differences also occur between dot releases of Sun’s Java VM on the same platform."

Of course, developing on Android and porting over to the BlackBerry OS on PlayBook might actually be music to the ears of RIM’s developers. Last week, an open letter surfaced from a developer who was fed up with the experience of developing for the PlayBook.

The angry, Waterloo-based developer refers to the PlayBook SDK as “complete crap,” so perhaps he would welcome the opportunity to develop Android apps that also run on future RIM devices.

Froyo adoption rate still too low

2011-02-08T16:05:00Z

According to the latest numbers released on Google’s Android Developers blog, about 90 per cent of all Android devices now run version 2.1 or higher.

The numbers break down as follows: Froyo (Android 2.2) leads the way at 57.6 per cent followed by Eclair (Android 2.1) at 31.4 per cent and Gingerbread (Android 2.3) at 0.8 per cent. Remember Gingerbread is currently only available on the recently launched Nexus S device, which accounts for the low adoption rate.

On the surface of things, it would appear that older version of Android, such as 1.5 and 1.6 are being phased out nicely, with those two incarnations of the OS sitting at a combined 10.1 per cent.

But the way I see it, the numbers actually indicate that 41.6 per cent of Android-based devices are not running Froyo. My personal device, the Motorola XT720, was initially planned for a upgrade to Froyo, but that has since been canceled by Motorola.

I suspect many of those 31.4 per cent of users on Android 2.1 will be stuck there.

Despite what these latest numbers from Google might suggest, the company has a long way to go in fixing the Android upgrade system. Of course, carriers and manufacturers need to work harder on keeping everybody up-to-date, but perhaps Google needs to take some more ownership in this area.

This has to happen if Android is to maintain its huge growth numbers.

Egypt's online shutdown impacts SpotCloud service

2011-01-28T20:57:00Z

In an effort to silence protesters, Egypt’s government ordered all of its ISPs to shut down all Internet traffic into and out of the country.

The move has probably left the vast majority of its citizens, especially those trying to coordinate the protests, desperate for connectivity. But it has also left many with business dealings in Egypt scrambling for a compute resources.

SpotCloud is a cloud capacity “clearinghouse,” which allows buyers and sellers to exchange unused cloud capacity throughout the globe. It was created by Reuven Cohen, the founder of Toronto-based Enomaly Inc. While SpotCloud would typically have several providers offering cloud computing resources in Egypt, his service has completely gone dark in wake of the shutdown.

In most cases, the minimum requirement for a seller to offer capacity on the SpotCloud marketplace is a compatible IaaS platform and at least five to 10 servers. But as of today, Cohen said any connection will do.

“We’re looking for anybody who has a connection to Egypt, even if it’s a laptop with a satellite uplink,” he said. “It could even be the world’s slowest 33 modem.”

Cohen wouldn’t say what organizations or people might be interested on the buyer side, but added that sellers would probably be looking at $1,000 an hour for their excess bandwidth, with that number skyrocketing as the crisis continues.

It’s time to overhaul Android Market

2011-01-26T20:23:00Z

At an app developers conference in San Francisco this week, Google’s Group Manager for the Android platform, Eric Chu, admitted that the search giant is “not happy” about the number of paid apps being purchased in the marketplace.

Chu said the company is looking at implementing direct carrier billing and in-app payment systems to alleviate these concerns. The in-app payment system would, in theory, let developers offer customers a “one-click” payment option to buy additional features or goods while they use an app.

The Android platform manager also said the company is looking at improving the Market’s recommendations features, including listing the top apps based on actual usage.

While these are all features I’d like to see implemented, if Google really wants to increase the amount of apps it sells, the first step is to completely overhaul its Android Market.

When I’m looking for a new widget or app to purchase, I first go to Android blog sites or YouTube to find what I want. After I discover something that looks worth a download, I type it into the Android Market and install it. But without this first step, I would be totally lost in Android’s chaotic marketplace. The search feature can best be described as “un-Google like.” Unless you know the name of the app you want, I find the search to be completely unintuitive.

A Market revamp should also include a complete change in the categories that users can browse through. Currently, if a user clicks the “books and reference” subject heading for example, they are subjected to hundreds of apps. But the Market doesn’t break down the categories into more specific sub-categories. This is something that Amazon has done so well with its site and I fully expect it will be a key feature for its soon-to-be-launched Android app store.

I love the openness of the Android Market and the fact that any developer can upload their apps to it, but without a better filing system, Google is destined to lose out to a third-party Android app store.

National IT Day campaign off to a bad start

2011-01-20T15:53:00Z

This week, Dell has started gathering signatures to petition the Government of Canada to create a nationally recognized IT professionals day.

The company argues that because IT professionals are common across all industries and that other professions such as teachers and engineers have their nationally recognized day, a “National IT Day” should be a top priority. Dell is also being supported by Intel and are asking IT people to submit their most “heroic IT moments” for a chance to win a prize package of $20,000 worth of Dell and Intel products.

“The hardworking men and women, who keep our technology running smoothly – even when nothing else is – deserve the utmost recognition,” the company stated in a release.

As of this blog post, the petition has 128 signatures. It can be filled out online or via the paper-based petition forms I received.

Now I probably would have signed my name to the petition if Dell had simply let me know about this via e-mail. But as opposed to just sending over a virtual pitch like an IT professional might do, Dell choose to send me a heavy clipboard and a stack of blank petition forms.

It would be one think if I asked to help out and be part of the cause, but it’s quite another for Dell to assume that I want to volunteer my time to collect dozens of signatures. And that’s putting aside the waste of paper and money to send me these materials.

Here’s a lesson for Dell, and other IT vendors, that want to start their own “National IT Day” petitions: Take advantage of IT and just send me an e-mail (or tweet).

Motorola’s Atrix demo doesn’t woo me

2011-01-06T21:45:00Z

Motorola’s big Android announcements at CES have left me spilt.

Although I was very impressed with the animated demo of its Android 3.0-powered Xoom tablet, Motorola’s 4G Atrix smart phone (which will eventually be heading to Bell Mobility) left me sour. Sure, I’m impressed with the phone itself, but I just don’t see the appeal of the device’s secondary functionality — its ability to double as a laptop.

The device itself is awesome and features an Nvidia dual-core Tegra 2 chip, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and runs both Android 2.2 and a customized version of Linux. As a smart phone, this is definitely looks like a winner for Motorola.

I repeat, I would buy this device as a smart phone.

But where the company loses me is when it starts pitching the product as a combination smart phone/laptop. If a user wishes, they can dock the Atrix and attach it to a monitor or Motorola laptop dock (basically a dummy device that doesn’t work without the phone).

This added accessory makes little sense to me and I think consumers will feel the same way.

If I’m a business traveler, I am probably going to have a difficult time getting by on a PC with such limited memory. I am not sure users will be trading in their laptops and netbooks for a PC with only 16 GB of storage space.

Plus, the user still has to lug around this dummy laptop, so I don’t even see a convenience advantage.

To me, it would make more sense to implement phone features into a tablet device. Or have a tablet outfitted with this dock to give users the ability to access their phones via a larger touchscreen.

Either way, it’s an interesting concept that is still a long way away from getting me excited.

Google may have sent out too many Cr-48 netbooks

2011-01-04T19:38:00Z

I don't think this is what Google had in mind when it sent out thousands of Chrome OS-loaded Cr-48 netbooks to U.S. beta testers.

Users at the Something Awful forums have successfully installed both Windows 7 and Mac OS X on the Google netbook, which completely defeats the purpose of the cloud-based OS’ beta program. The complicated process, one which actually involved removing the entire bottom cover of the laptop, can be found here.

I’m all for experimenting with a new platform like this, but I want to see more hacks that actually deal with the Chrome OS software itself.