In case you haven’t been paying attention to the mountains of coverage, Google has announced the “real” GooglePhone, the NexusOne. A Snapdragon sporting, AMOLED adorned, Android 2.1 touched smartphone, the NexusOne is taking the tech sites by storm. Several people have asked me my thoughts on the new phone, and I decided to put them here.
I get a lot of statistics thrown in my face by various marketing groups trying to make a point one way or another. As an endless critic, I can’t help but question every number or “fact” presented to me without any background data.
Last time around, I mentioned why the carrier reviews from Consumer Reports seemed fatally flawed. Today, I stumbled upon something new that I find almost as questionable. The iPhone blog posted a pie chart from AdMob, which apparently displays the percentage of web traffic coming from various mobile devices.
According to the chart (click the image to view full size), the iPhone makes up a very healthy 55% of all web requests from mobile devices here in the United States.
Android follows with 20%, RIM Blackberries with 12%, and moving down to the bottom of the list are WebOS at 5% and Windows Mobile accounting for a measly 4%.
I am not surprised one bit that Apple’s iPhone is in the lead. It is clearly the most popular consumer oriented smartphone in the country. What DOES surprise me is the Android numbers, especially compared to Windows Mobile and WebOS.
In fact, speaking of WebOS and WM, the very notion that Palm’s new system has a higher percentage of traffic than Windows Mobile indicates that something is awry with these “facts”.
These statistics represent WebOS at a time when it is on a single branded device, the Palm Pre on Sprint. Sprint, meanwhile, is lagging behind in third place with national carriers as far as subscribers. Windows Mobile, meanwhile, may not be as media spotlight friendly as the other mobile OSs, however we’re dealing with an OS that exists on every one of the 4 major carriers, and in multiple handset styles by multiple manufacturers.
So, yes, it would seem strange to me that WebOS, as great as it may be, is reportedly being used for more web traffic than Windows Mobile. That got me thinking… how is this test being performed? What are the details behind these numbers? What sites are being monitored and what determines the the data?
IDC, a Market Research firm, has issued their regular report on the top selling smartphones. The period in question is the 3rd Quarter of 2009 and no-one should be surprised to hear that the iPhone is on it twice. There’s one Android phone on it, the MyTouch3G, but that debuted in the 3rd quarter, as I recall, so not such a shock. The Hero, Moment, Driod etc are all 4th quarter devices, so we’ll have to wait and see.
The Pre made a surprising showing, moving from 8th most popular in Q2 to 6th in Q3. A good sign, but as noted, a lot of new phones came out in Q4, so don’t be surprised to see it get knocked off the list entirely.
A bigger surprise is number five, the Blackberry Storm. That’s right, no II. It’s interesting that with all the vitrol heaped on this device online, it still outsold the Pre, MyTouch, and came up right behind the iPhone3G.
Not surprising is the lack of WindowsMobile devices, as all the new stuff came out in Q4. The rest of the list is utterly dominated by Blackberries, both old and new.
We’ll be keeping an eye out for that 4th Quarter report to see if the Driod really was a gamechanger….
It’s interesting how married to Operating Systems people can become. My first computer was an Apple IIGS, but then we swiftly moved to Windows. I used to join in deriding Macs, then I got one. Mac OS, especially 10 and up, became my OS of choice. However, I still used Windows (and occasionally Linux) on a daily basis. I’m basically platform agnostic. A platform is a tool, and the one that works best for you is the best… for you. There is no perfect platform for everyone, for computer or phone.
I mention this because of discussions I’ve been having with some fellow techies. This week I finally broke down and bought a Pre. The reactions from my iPhone, WindowsMobile and Blackberry using friends (Sort of sad, but I don’t personally know a single Android user – no I’ve never met Justin) were almost comical in their predictability. I even got complaints about the Pre from a fellow Pre owner… because he’s really a Blackberry user. I’m not saying they’re wrong – I’m just saying the Pre is closer to my “ideal” phone than most of those other options (In fact, I recalled a doodle I drew ten years ago and it resembles the Pre to the point of scariness).
Every phone does its job in one way or another and every phone does it for someone. The cell market is really big enough for everyone. So how about we all just calm down and let people find the right solution?
So, why is the Pre my “perfect phone” (so far, anyway?)? Click the read link and find out.
[Warning – this thing is a fricking essay. I clearly have no life.] (more…)
Comic book fans have long been awaiting a Digital Format for comics. The theory is that just like we have digital audio, video, and ebooks, one day we should have digital comics. There are groups dedicated to scanning comics into formats like .cbz and .cbr (renamed .zip and .rar files, really), and distributing them via the internet, but the legality of such endeavors are… well, non-existent really.
Marvel Comics, publishers of such hot properties as X-Men and Spider-Man, as well as really good comics like Agents of Atlas and Nova, have long experimented with digital formats, but mostly online. They’ve made several “motion comics” available on iTunes – but comics purists turn their nose up at such mixed media. Sure, you can get Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men run for a low price, with some neat animations, and it may be fun but it’s not comics.
Recently, comic news and rumor site bleedingcool took notice that Marvel’s newest online comic book reader was a lot like the Longbox reader. Longbox are trying to set themselves up at the iTunes of Comics. Now Marvel’s announced a distribution deal with Longbox, and that pretty much explain the reader. Indeed Marvel’s added support for a whole bunch of iPhone readers . So now you can buy a comic for 99 cents and read it on your desktop, laptop, or iPhone. DigitalLongbox hopes to add eReaders to that list soon, but one journalist has created a bit of a storm by suggesting that all this digital comics talk is a harbinger of the oft-rumored “iTablet”.
It would be fascinating to see, but considering the niche – and a large niche, but still a niche – of comic book readers vs the billions of music lovers, videophiles, and just plain readers, it’s hard to imagine comic books as the “killer app” for an iTablet, especially since you can read them just as well on an iPhone, and there are even solutions for Windows Mobile, Android, and other platforms. If you don’t want to squint, there’s always the option of using your netbook.
I’m not saying it wouldn’t be cool, I’m just doubting that it “proves” anything.
Holy cow, what a week. Every time Mordy or I sat down to write a post, something else happened. I’m going to try to condense it all into one week, going by topic. Bear with me: (more…)
Here are some interesting things from DigitalLook, but not exactly interesting enough to be their own article (no offense to the vendors, who were all awesome)
Note that I do have photos, but I seems to be mangling the photo functions of the blog, so I will be holding off on adding them. (more…)
As someone who has been waiting since CES, it gives me great joy to note that the Palm Pre finally has a release date and a price: June 6th for $199.99 (after contract, of course).
This answers one of the concerns I had about the Pre: would it be priced competitively with the iPhone and G1? Looks like. This is a nice change from Palm’s usual pricing, where they would announce a Treo and the price would be staggering.
Now comes the really tricky part: The marketing. Palm and Sprint both have some major PR work ahead of them. Sprint is hardly the favorite mobile provider these days and Palm isn’t on a lot of people’s radar anymore. Recently Palm has shown that they remember how to market (those Santa Claus ads were quite memorable), and Sprint has strong brand placement, so here’s hoping.
Sadly, I won’t be buying on day one. I have to wait till July, for when I have an upgrade credit (Unless Sprint wants to send MoPocket a review copy. Hint, hint). Still, the moment I have one, you’ll know all about it.
C|Net has an interesting article about the President-Elect’s desire to hold on to his Blackberry, even after the inauguration. It does a good job of presenting all the cons (basically, a security nightmare). You can see some more detailed specs here.
Specs (and insanely high price) aside, the idea of a connected President is a very cool one, regardless of politics.
So much of who we are can be found on our phones… Who we talk to, which people we ignore, are we faithful to our spouse, what we are doing this weekend, etc.It is almost as if our phones are mini individual time capsules.
The Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, DC is putting out a play next month titled Dead Man’s Cell Phone.Playwright Sarah Ruhl had the same idea: How much could someone learn about you if they found your cell phone – and started answering your calls?
Want 25% off your ticket?Share a slightly outrageous, funny, or completely inappropriate conversation you overheard someone saying on their cell phone.Text “get woolly†to 24421 for instructions. All stories can be heard on DeadMansCellPhone.com or at the theater just before the show.
As someone who has been waiting since CES, it gives me great joy to 
