Yes the iPhone is a cool product that runs OSX over UNIX on a mobile device. My bet is the touch screen will bother more people than it helps, and I’m sure it’ll be a warranty issue as screens get scratched and fail to function. I like my tiny QWERTY that I can feel.
I had a Compaq iPaq back in 2001. It had a touch screen you COULD use with your thumb. It played Audio and Video. It worked on the Cell Network and doubled as my cell phone. It could communicate wirelessly over 802.11a and 802.11b, and even had an external GPS device. Sure it ran Window’s Mobile, not UNIX and OSX. Why didn’t it last in the consumer spectrum? Possibly because there were no mobile services for the device.
So I ask, what is the benefit of running OSX over UNIX when application developers write code for the Safari Browser? With the recent flurry of Mobile RIA’s targeting the iPhone is there really any reason Apple would open the platform and provide a native SDK?
Regardless, I have a Blackberry Pearl. It plays music, video, mobile TV, and runs many popular mobile applications like Opera Mini 4.1. Sure the screen is about a quarter the size of an iPhone, but guess what? It has no problem running iPhone RIA’s!
Try it for yourself:
Navigate to http://www.operamini.com/beta/ (on your device), download and install the new Opera 4 mini beta browser (which as a first includes a little mouse you can control with your trackball!!).
Setup Opera Mini on your device by launching it in the Main Menu (you should see the red O icon).
Navigate to any of the following sites:
That adds Social Network, News and IM functionality to your Blackberry device. Everything should run fine. I'm not totally sure if these sites run in Opera 3, regardless, I've installed Opera 4 mini beta.
I think it’s time that the industry in general starts labeling these Mobile RIA’s rather than iPhone applications.
Side Note: I bet there are a lot more Blackberry's out there than iPhones so branding a Blackberry / iPhone site may actually make a lot of sense.
Free Advice to RIM: Drop the Blackberry Browser and replace it with Opera Mini 4 on the base device. If you have features in the Blackberry Browser that are not in Opera Mini than work with Opera to have the features included.
Over and Out
Showing posts with label RIM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RIM. Show all posts
24/04/2007
Toll based Syndicate Internet has arrived in Canada
For $5 per month I subscribe to a TV service on my Blackberry Pearl. For another $3 per month I can get unlimited access to Rogers Newsclip which delivers syndicated content and related media to my Blackberry Pearl without using a mobile web browser. For $10 per month I can install TeleNav GPS Navigator which promises to provide voice guided turn-by-turn driving directions.
If I go the Rogers Vision route, embedded in the plan is Video On Demand for access to the top commercials (cough cough) sorry videos on YouTube, plus news updates, (sponsored) music videos, (sponsored) movie clips and more. Further you can access Rogers music store and purchase and download unlimited music without paying the download cost. And if I'm running late, I can watch my new TV shows with my 25 stations of live TV on the go.
In another year I'll probably be able to lease an application for $15 a month that allows me to connect to all of my favorite social networks, integrates my instant messenger platforms under one app, and interoperates with my device content and functionality.
Until Canada gets some more competition in the wireless space the Toll Based - Syndicate content internet is here to stay. And it’s going to be ushered in VIA mobile carriers who are trying to monetize every aspect of their digital delivery systems.
Why would I want to purchase video from the Rogers Music store when I could download from iTunes or xBox Live? Why would I want a limited assortment of YouTube clips when I could just subscribe to Joost? Why would I want “syndicated content” over being able to browse thousands of sites and pick which blog or article to digest? Why should I pay for TeleNav GPS Navigator when I have a GPS built into my phone, and can integrate that into Google maps for free (expense of data)? If I have digital cable at home, why should I pay extra to have TV service on my blackberry on the go when I could pipe it over broadband?
All the above alternate technologies are feasible given one thing: unlimited network bandwidth (or the wireless equivalent of broadband: HSDPA).
The carriers don’t want to give you unlimited bandwidth because they already subsidize your phone, the network is anything but cheap, and to be quite honest, because there is no competition forcing them to provide these plans. So they will continue to charge end users fee’s to access syndicated content.
The people providing the phones don’t want to give this to you because it nominalizes the value of their service offerings, limits their growth to hardware innovation, and will result in more support services being required (say, to help install a mobile video player on their phone). So they continue to work with the carriers on digital delivery channels.
These digital roads are just being paved in Toronto. They require collaboration between the carrier (Rogers), the hardware supplier (RIM, Nokia), the software vendor (creator of mobile application), and the content owner. Once all of these people can agree on the details – you have a service offering you can sell to consumers.
As mobile continues to grow, services will become the differentiator that closes the deal when an end user purchases a phone and then a plan. It is just a matter of time before we see phones (or even wireless data plans for laptops) sold around recreation or lifestyle based service offerings. For example you can get a Blackberry Pearl for Financial Analysts – where tons of financial information is delivered to the advice. A Blackberry Pearl for Media Lovers Plan which comes with a bigger memory stick – and an unlimited pipe to a bunch of media sources – and possibly online storage. People will decide to purchase an iPhone with a Media Lovers Service Plan because the screen is bigger, but others would rather the Sidekick.
As these roads, or Service Plans, become more popular - they get more crammed – they have to build bigger roads – then they have to build entirely new highways. In urban planning when the costs of the transportation system outweigh the budgeted value of its inputs, roads are turned into Toll roads. Consumers are charged to drive on these roads as a consequence of getting to where they are going. They have no option.
For any content owner, content delivery is a priority. If these mobile carriers continue to pipe service offerings through their digital channels (specialty roads), then content owners will eventually be forced to pay service providers to allow their content to travel down the carriers roads. These fees are like Tolls on Toll roads, just the only difference at this point is the only content you can gain access to without paying an arm and a leg is syndicate content.
Kind of like living in a city that has highways’ connecting a bunch of disconnected roads. The only way you’ll ever get anywhere is to pay the highway toll.
Over and Out
If I go the Rogers Vision route, embedded in the plan is Video On Demand for access to the top commercials (cough cough) sorry videos on YouTube, plus news updates, (sponsored) music videos, (sponsored) movie clips and more. Further you can access Rogers music store and purchase and download unlimited music without paying the download cost. And if I'm running late, I can watch my new TV shows with my 25 stations of live TV on the go.
In another year I'll probably be able to lease an application for $15 a month that allows me to connect to all of my favorite social networks, integrates my instant messenger platforms under one app, and interoperates with my device content and functionality.
Until Canada gets some more competition in the wireless space the Toll Based - Syndicate content internet is here to stay. And it’s going to be ushered in VIA mobile carriers who are trying to monetize every aspect of their digital delivery systems.
Why would I want to purchase video from the Rogers Music store when I could download from iTunes or xBox Live? Why would I want a limited assortment of YouTube clips when I could just subscribe to Joost? Why would I want “syndicated content” over being able to browse thousands of sites and pick which blog or article to digest? Why should I pay for TeleNav GPS Navigator when I have a GPS built into my phone, and can integrate that into Google maps for free (expense of data)? If I have digital cable at home, why should I pay extra to have TV service on my blackberry on the go when I could pipe it over broadband?
All the above alternate technologies are feasible given one thing: unlimited network bandwidth (or the wireless equivalent of broadband: HSDPA).
The carriers don’t want to give you unlimited bandwidth because they already subsidize your phone, the network is anything but cheap, and to be quite honest, because there is no competition forcing them to provide these plans. So they will continue to charge end users fee’s to access syndicated content.
The people providing the phones don’t want to give this to you because it nominalizes the value of their service offerings, limits their growth to hardware innovation, and will result in more support services being required (say, to help install a mobile video player on their phone). So they continue to work with the carriers on digital delivery channels.
These digital roads are just being paved in Toronto. They require collaboration between the carrier (Rogers), the hardware supplier (RIM, Nokia), the software vendor (creator of mobile application), and the content owner. Once all of these people can agree on the details – you have a service offering you can sell to consumers.
As mobile continues to grow, services will become the differentiator that closes the deal when an end user purchases a phone and then a plan. It is just a matter of time before we see phones (or even wireless data plans for laptops) sold around recreation or lifestyle based service offerings. For example you can get a Blackberry Pearl for Financial Analysts – where tons of financial information is delivered to the advice. A Blackberry Pearl for Media Lovers Plan which comes with a bigger memory stick – and an unlimited pipe to a bunch of media sources – and possibly online storage. People will decide to purchase an iPhone with a Media Lovers Service Plan because the screen is bigger, but others would rather the Sidekick.
As these roads, or Service Plans, become more popular - they get more crammed – they have to build bigger roads – then they have to build entirely new highways. In urban planning when the costs of the transportation system outweigh the budgeted value of its inputs, roads are turned into Toll roads. Consumers are charged to drive on these roads as a consequence of getting to where they are going. They have no option.
For any content owner, content delivery is a priority. If these mobile carriers continue to pipe service offerings through their digital channels (specialty roads), then content owners will eventually be forced to pay service providers to allow their content to travel down the carriers roads. These fees are like Tolls on Toll roads, just the only difference at this point is the only content you can gain access to without paying an arm and a leg is syndicate content.
Kind of like living in a city that has highways’ connecting a bunch of disconnected roads. The only way you’ll ever get anywhere is to pay the highway toll.
Over and Out
19/04/2007
Blackberry please fix your developer portal!
I hate it when I go to a site and there are a list of downloads like you can see on this page.
Then when I click on the link: BlackBerry Java Development Environment v4.2.1 it takes me to another page which has a drop down list and guess what the contents are? The exact same list of downloads I had to click through on the first page.
So I select the option BlackBerry Java Development Environment and it takes me to another super sweet page which is the exact same as the above page but now I have a link to download.
So I click download and that takes me to a registration form. Sweet baby J.C., Research in Motion, I've had to click through 4 pages to get to this registration form and I still don't have your toolkit.
So I decided to register so I could download the development toolkit - and I decided to use the persistent cookie in hopes that I'd never have to go through this again (clicked Remember me).
I can't share links to the next part because it's got a session variable that I don't care to share with you (my persistent cookie).
So after agreeing to the terms of use when I registerred I end up at yet another page called Software Download for Developers and have to agree to something else. OK RIM THIS IS THE 2nd TERMS OF USE CONTRACT I'VE HAD TO SIGN WITH YOU. WHY DO YOU MAKE ME DO THIS TWICE?
I click agree, and finally after 6 pages of click throughs' I have an image that says download.
But this is where it get's really messed up. You remember above I'm looking for the BlackBerry Java Development Environment - NOT WHAT I GOT - I got the JDE components package. So I will continue to download misc packages until I get the one I want.
Oh, and as I try to download the each other component, I have to go through all these steps again. CRAZY INSANE AND INSANE CRAZY.
Thanks for making this a process RIM. Good looking site, but not very functional. And you call yourself a tech company, you should be ashamed to put me through this hastle.
Over and Out
Then when I click on the link: BlackBerry Java Development Environment v4.2.1 it takes me to another page which has a drop down list and guess what the contents are? The exact same list of downloads I had to click through on the first page.
So I select the option BlackBerry Java Development Environment and it takes me to another super sweet page which is the exact same as the above page but now I have a link to download.
So I click download and that takes me to a registration form. Sweet baby J.C., Research in Motion, I've had to click through 4 pages to get to this registration form and I still don't have your toolkit.
So I decided to register so I could download the development toolkit - and I decided to use the persistent cookie in hopes that I'd never have to go through this again (clicked Remember me).
I can't share links to the next part because it's got a session variable that I don't care to share with you (my persistent cookie).
So after agreeing to the terms of use when I registerred I end up at yet another page called Software Download for Developers and have to agree to something else. OK RIM THIS IS THE 2nd TERMS OF USE CONTRACT I'VE HAD TO SIGN WITH YOU. WHY DO YOU MAKE ME DO THIS TWICE?
I click agree, and finally after 6 pages of click throughs' I have an image that says download.
But this is where it get's really messed up. You remember above I'm looking for the BlackBerry Java Development Environment - NOT WHAT I GOT - I got the JDE components package. So I will continue to download misc packages until I get the one I want.
Oh, and as I try to download the each other component, I have to go through all these steps again. CRAZY INSANE AND INSANE CRAZY.
Thanks for making this a process RIM. Good looking site, but not very functional. And you call yourself a tech company, you should be ashamed to put me through this hastle.
Over and Out
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)