PhoneGap under Incubation at Apache Foundation

When Adobe announced the acquisition of Nitobi, the creators of the nice cross-mobile  development tool, like many people I was worried that this would become a closed-source Adobe Air mobile. Adobe has recently been voicing that it would deprecate Flash mobile and instead move towards HTML5 and JavaScript. Thus, PhoneGap seemed like the perfect acquisition to make money out of the new generation of cross-platform mobile development.

The heart-warming announcement came a couple of days back when it was decided that PhoneGap was moved to Apache Foundation as an incubation project. The project is called Callback and the code has been moved to github for now. There are also some nice tools coming in Adobe Dreamweaver which can be used to work with PhoneGap and with the acquisition it might get better and better integrated. This means that Adobe will hope to make money out of the development and probably the build service, yet keep the platform open-source and free…

All in all, I think this is great movement for PhoneGap and cross-platform mobile development. What has been hard for ages since the promise of JavaME, seems more likely now. Good job Adobe!!

iPad 2 : Something about Apple just fascinates people

Why do people get fascinated with Apple products? I’ve always wondered… Is it really that Apple products are so much better than what’s available in the market? They had the iPod, the iMac, the iPhone and the iPad (…to name some) and gave them cult status. Now with the iPad 2, I see the same fascination in people in response to the launch and the ads.

The iPad 2 really isn’t the best in terms of hardware packed into the device. Motorola Xoom/Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 has the camera on both front and back better than the iPad 2. Battery life and processors are equally competitive. The ecology around Android is really awesome and growing rapidly. The iPad 2 is thinner, but wasn’t the iPad already thin?? The iPad 2 doesn’t have USB. It does not run flash. It will use proprietary formats for connecting to other devices. It does not have an SD card reader. So why are people still fascinated with the Apple iPad 2?

One thing is how Apple sells you the stuff... The ads make an emotional connection with you. The people who tell you things in the Apple ads, just like Steve Jobs speaks at the launch of these devices, make you feel fascinated. The “cool-ness” of Apple devices are another fascination. The external design and look-and-feel of Apple products are these days probably similar to other high-end devices, but the overall experience of the Apple software in my opinion is the biggest difference. How many times on the iOS have you seen a “Force Close” dialog, that an Android device would often throw? How many times do you feel an interface element to be out of place, when using an Android device?

I write this as I’ve just finished playing with a friend’s Motorola Xoom while at the library. I’ve tried the Galaxy tab, the iPad, but none of them are “Post PC” as Jobs describes it at the moment. Somebody nicely said, its an Apple vs Oranges comparison. You choose the fruit you like… I don’t like both yet!!

Google to Bring iPhone-like App Store to Android

The iPhone App Store's success for Apple has changed the way Google is thinking content-distribution for the Android platform. According to an announcement yesterday, Google is ready to have an App Store for the Android platform called the Android Market.

Google has been working on the Android platform for over an year now and is about to give a final release by the end of the year. Different handset manufacturers have already vouched their support for the platform and Android is seen as the biggest competitor to Apple's iPhone in the smartphone market. With the roaring initial success of the AppStore for Apple, it makes obvious sense for Google to have a similar content-distribution system for their platform.

Google also has an expertise on web infrastructure and it can surely avoid the mistakes that Apple has done with the reliability and availability of its web services. The details on exact model of operation of Android Market are still unknown, but Google surely will make it open and stable!! They are the "do-no-evil" company!!

Apple iPhone 3G at Rs.31000 ($720) in India

While most of the iPhone lovers in India already own an unlocked 1st generation iPhone, Apple officially launched the iPhone 3G in India at Rs. 31000/- or $720 when you apply the latest conversion rates. The same iPhone 3G costs $199 to a customer in the US with a cell plan from AT&T.

By the way, Airtel and  Vodafone are the two companies that have brought the iPhone 3G to India. If you want to buy the iPhone from Vodafone, then you can choose from a host of plans which have voice + data ranging from Rs.500 – Rs.1000. But along with that monthly rental, you have to buy the iPhone at an insane Rs.31000/-

The pre-launch interest for the iPhone 3G in India was huge. Airtel and Vodafone received over 25000 customers who were interested in the iPhone. How many of those customers are stupid enough to buy at this price is anyone’s guess?? India is the 2nd largest cellphone market in the world. But I’m pretty sure that with this ridiculous pricing the official iPhone 3G will not capture even 0.1% of the Indian market. With all the marketing expenses and Apple revenue sharing, the economics of the iPhone 3G for the cellphone operators doesn’t make any sense to me.

The most funny thing in this whole affair is that 3G services are still not available in India. It will take atleast another year for the services to start in full swing. So anyone who buys the new iPhone 3G will not be able to use the 3G services. With the current sucking GPRS service from these GSM operators, the internet speeds are so slow, that I would prefer my old 56k modem to surf the internet than GPRS.

Apple has played the same game again!! To be part of the Apple cult you have to be filthy rich and stupid. Apple is known to have high margins, but when you know that you have a product that can score on volumes, you obviously can lower your margins and increase your profit. But Apple gives a damn about volumes. It is happy to have a cult status and if that means only milking your stupid customer base, then so be it.

iPhone App Store’s $30 Million May Be Second Best

Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in an interview yesterday to Wall Street Journal that the iPhone AppStore made $30 Million in the first month of sales. That is  approximately close to $1 million everyday for July. Its an amazing feat when you think about the problems with the launch of App Store & iPhone 2... And $1 million a day is not a small amount, but will the business scale?? Will it be the winner for online content distribution??

Steve Jobs has already proved his amazing entrepreneurship in the past with the iPod and iTunes Store. Apple has changed the face of online music sales with its iTunes store and is surely building it up everyday by adding more and more content. The iPhone is also one of the most successful smartphone product, which in its first-generation already got a cult status and has been a hit in its second re-incarnation as well. But with all the success coming its way, there aren’t too many people who are looking at Apple’s shortcomings.

Apple’s failure in web services like .mac and MobileMe is probably its biggest recent failure. But then there is also the bad sales of AppleTV and Jobs Cube (oops MacMini) which still isn’t in the living room!! Apple desktop and laptop sales may be growing, but they still aren’t anywhere outside the US. But with those products not working as well, Apple still rocks with the iPhone.

The App Store fetches 30% of total revenue to Apple and the remaining 70% to the application developers/publisher. 30% does sound a lot for just hosting your App, but then with the developers getting rich for their not-as-much efforts, why would anyone have a problem with Apple getting an even bigger share?? For example, Super Monkey Ball is the most successful paid app on the App Store and has sold more than 300,000 copies in 20 days at $10 each. This means Sega (…and OtherOcean Interactive) made $2.1 million in 20 days. This has made OtherOcean create a new iPhone apps division, which obviously shows that they want to make many more such wonderful apps. I expect many more such developers coming up with interesting apps for the iPhone in the future.

But what we need to think is how much will people keep spending on the App Store and what will be the kind of competition that will come up for developers on the app store... If you need comparisons, most people will obviously look at iTunes, but I don’t think music and games/apps can be considered to be similar content. Obviously music can be downloaded and used whenever, where-ever you want. You could be playing your favorite tunes all through the day, but is it the same with games/apps on a mobile device?? How many hours can you game on the iPhone ?? How many apps do you need on the iPhone?? How much more will you really spend on the iPhone after that purchase??

On the PC side of things, there’s another company getting big on the online content distribution front. And its Valve Software, with its Steam Content Delivery System, which I think has more “steam” in the long run. Desktops/wired networks have lot more bandwidth to download and gaming hardware is lot more capable on PCs. Also we may be moving to specialized gaming consoles from desktop computers, but then Steam could very well be moved to consoles in the future. Steam already has 15million users, who use Steam servers for multiplayer gaming, buying new content, social networking and the like. Steam also has the support of many game developers and studios. And new studios are getting interested everyday to share their content on the Steam system. With all that and improving PC gaming numbers from other countries than the US, it feels that Steam could very well be the leading content delivery system of the future.

How Apple scales its App Store and how developers come up with new and interesting applications/games on the App Store will determine its future success. But the start is surely on track!! Probably, App Store is the constant stream of revenue for Apple, since someone somewhere is going to need an app, but then $1 billion revenue which Steve Jobs is expecting from the App Store is way... way too much!! Atleast not until every kid on the block owns an iPhone!!

3G iPhone Expectation Decreases Market Share

The latest smart phone market share data released by IDC shows that Apple's iPhone has lost market share. On the other hand RIM's Blackberry has gained market share. Does this mean that Blackberry is picking up back against the iPhone? Is the excitement about iPhone coming to an end?

If you look at the facts it seems like Apple is loosing its lustre. iPhone has a market share of 19.2% in Q1'08 compared to 26.7% in Q4'07. At the same time Blackberry has increased its market share from 35.1% in Q4'07 to 44.5% in Q1'08. Thus it seems Blackberry has a victor in the making. IDC analyst Ramon Llamas said the BlackBerry is now strong in the "prosumer" segment, as RIM has successfully widened the appeal of the device beyond the professionals who have been its core customer group.

Actually, the fact is that iPhone excitement is just about to reach its peak sometime later this year when Apple Application Store will come into being. Apple has released its developer program and developers are in the process of finishing their applications. A lot of prospective buyers of the iPhone are also waiting for a 3G version which Apple plans to release in a few months time. With a really small timespan left, Apple will be up again and I think will be capturing all the lost market share.

Project Capuchin - Sony Ericsson Mates JavaME & Flash Lite

Sony Ericsson announced today that they are experimenting with a new technology which plans to integrate Flash inside JavaME applications. This will enable developers to show Adobe's FlashLite interfaces inside JavaME applications. The project is called Project Capuchin and will be shown to the world at the JavaOne Conference 2008.

Adobe's Flashlite has been one of the easier UI development platform for mobile phones, but there aren't many popular business applications in Flashlite. On the other hand JavaME is popular for mobile application development, but the user-interface built using JavaME (especially CLDC) is boring and tough to build. With Project Capuchin, the guys from Sony Ericsson want to provide developers with the combined power of Adobe's Flash and Java's programming capabilities.

The main advantage of Project Capuchin is that developers will not have a new technology to learn. Designers are already acquainted with Flash and Developers already have existing JavaME applications. This will make the new technology easier to learn and will mean faster porting of existing applications with a better UI. The details about the performance and the runtime are still unknown, but most probably it'll be a single Java runtime that'll be able to run the applications. For this technology to be successful, Sony Ericsson should license the platform to other handset manufacturers, so that applications can be run on different handsets. May be Steve Jobs wanted something like this when he said Flash wasn't good enough for the iPhone...

The release date for the project and availability on handsets is still unknown and the technology is very much in the experimentation stage. The idea of such a mashup is exciting and it'll be interesting to see the response towards the technology at the JavaOne Conference. Hoping it'll become a quick and stable release from Sony Ericsson because the mobile platform does need something of this sort.

Flash Not Good Enough For Steve Jobs, But Windows Mobile Wants It

When Steve Jobs said that Flash wasn't good enough for the iPhone, it was kind of odd. Odd because a lot of devices from other handset manufacturer including Nokia, Sony Ericsson are easily able to display Flash using FlashLite. But here we are, Steve Jobs saying the iPhone needs a better, "special" version of Flash, just like YouTube site for iPhone.

Soon after that, I was speculating that Apple was going to use Silverlight on the iPhone and Microsoft was pitching a good deal to Apple. But today Microsoft's Windows Mobile team has a surprise for us!! Microsoft has licensed the latest version of Flashlite v3 from Adobe to be installed on handsets with Windows Mobile. The most current version of Flash Lite, which is developed on Adobe Flash CS3, can' display pages built using Flash 9, but it works with sites created using older versions of Flash.

The announcement comes as a surprise because Microsoft has been building its own version of a Flash competitor called Silverlight. Silverlight is under heavy development for the mobile devices, but Microsoft still managed to win Nokia to install Silverlight on its devices. I'm not sure how Nokia would be feeling with this development and I guess they must be thinking some delay in the shipping of a Silverlight for Mobiles.

Either ways, how can be Flashlite good enough for Windows Mobile when it isn't good enough for iPhone?? I guess Steve Jobs always needs special treatment!!

Can Developers Decide iPhone Vs Android ??

Its exciting to see the amount of work that is going into mobile phone world. Google wants to be at the helm of things in the future of mobile devices and   Android is its bet to conquer the mobile world. Rich Miner, manager for mobile platforms at Google was speaking at the Emerging Communications Conference and said that Android will Outshine iPhone. Only time will tell if Google's belief in Android will be true, but let us analyse how the competitive environment of Android and iPhone will look like.

Apple's iPhone is a phenomenon. It sold about 4 million units in its first seven months of release and is grabbing market share in the US smartphone market unlike any other previous mobile phone. Even with a closed platform, where installing apps was an issue and developing apps for the iPhone was a reverse-engineering experiment, it still managed to make all those sales. Just goes to show what good design and "Apple sleekness" can do!! The latest release of the iPhone SDK brings in a new paradigm to the iPhone, where developers will be making new apps that can be downloaded from the "Apple App Store". Apple said last week that more than 100,000 downloads of the SDK were done and if this is any indication then we can surely expect some interesting apps for the iPhone.

On the other hand we have Google Android which was announced at 3GSM last year. Google Android is a software platform and there isn't any device in the market that currently implements it. The SDK has been downloaded over 750,000 times and Google is offering $10 million in prizes as part of its "Android Developers Challenge" for innovative applications. The response to the competition and design wins from Motorola, HTC, Samsung and others, may be one reason why Google may be confident about its position that Android may outshine iPhone.

But the question to ask here is whether just having good apps decide the winner?? iPhone has made its sale till date only on the pre-installed apps. This goes to show the mobile phone matters. The iPhone User-Interface has been innovative, but the same can't be said about Android at the moment. How it will be implemented by the handset manufacturers will also be another reason to decide the winner in this battle. Google Android being free, open-source will definitely help keep the price of the handset down compared to the expensive iPhone, but will price be enough to win this battle??

Developers may create great apps, but the users are going to decide the winner of this battle. Lets wait and watch the fun!!

Sony Ericsson to Ship Windows Mobile

Sony Ericsson which has been touting the UIQ to be the future of mobile interfaces and has been shipping it with its phones, will now be shipping phones with Windows Mobile. Sony Ericsson yesterday announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that it will ship its first Windows Mobile based device,the XPERIA X1.

The XPERIA X1 is a feature-rich PDA/Smartphone with a touch-screen interface. It has a resolution of 800x480 which is amazing because its the same resolution which 7" display UMPCs like EEPC or HCL X showcase. It also weighs just 145g. There is 400MB memory and has data standards like GPRS, EDGE, HSPA and HSUPA. It has a 3.2megapixel camera, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, FM Radio, aGPS. Another useful feature is the QWERTY keyboard that can slide from the bottom of the phone.

Other than Windows Mobile, another difference that Sony Ericsson has done to this device is that it requires the MicroSD card for external memory unlike Sony's MS or M2 card. So with the XPERIA X1, Sony does want to change a lot of things. The iPhone has been very popular and successful in the PDA/Smartphone market and if you look at the demo video below, you'll see some excellent UI.

The press release from Sony Ericsson is here:

Microsoft Wants Testers For Games

Microsoft is announcing to its current group of testers on Microsoft Connect that it wants people who will be able to test games from Microsoft Games Studio. And they are not just wanting hardcore gamers, but everyone and anyone who is interested in gaming. Microsoft Games Studio is looking for testers on a wide variety of plaforms like XBox 360, PC, Zunes and even mobile phones.

Microsoft's email states:

Dear Microsoft Game Studios Beta Tester,
We are gearing up for a year of great betas. To prepare for these upcoming betas we have a new survey on the beta website. Please follow this link to access the new survey: Survey. We will be using this new survey to select participants for our betas. If you do not complete this new survey, you will not be able to participate! But don't worry, the survey is quick and painless.

Remember, we are always looking for all types of game players. Whether you play once a year or every day, whether you pre-order the latest consoles or wouldn't think of paying for a game - we want feedback from you! If you know of someone who would be interested in participating in the Microsoft Game Studios Beta program, please feel free to forward this mail or direct them to: http://connect.microsoft.com/mgsbetas.

Questions? Please contact: Microsoft Games Studios Beta Program Administrator
Thanks!

This is an opporunity for a lot of people who like playing games and want to make some contribution by giving their views to games in the future from Microsoft. It will also give a sneek peek on Microsoft Games. Good for guys who have a XBOX 360 Live account!!

AT&T Takes Revenge On Apple

Everyone knows AT&T exclusively sold the iPhone and bet quite a lot of money on the iPhone. Infact, AT&T shares quite a large percentage of revenue earned from the iPhone users with Apple. So, you must come to think of Apple & AT&T being best friends...??

That's not quite the inside story. When AT&T sold the first iPhone bundled with its service exclusively, it meant that iPhone could be used only on AT&T networks. But you know, the hackers didn't want that to happen. They unlocked the iPhone and we know what happened after that. But one thing not many people understood is why Apple sold the iPhone from it's stores as well, when it was only meant to be running on AT&T's network. It should have been available only at AT&T's shops and not the iTunes activation. Atleast some gaurantee that you have taken the AT&T's plans!! Forget it though since that's history...

Apple releases the firmware slowly after everyone in the world has unlocked the iPhone and newer firmware is cracked even before Apple puts its on its servers. AT&T must be totally pissed off at these leaks and so, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson leaked the info that consumers could expect a new iPhone next year that offered HSDPA wireless broadband support. This means the 3G missing from iPhone currently would be available early next year... After this information leaked, obviously people wanting to buy iPhones will hold their horses and wait for the 3G one. That's how you take revenge on Apple!!

AT&T obviously has plans and other phones for its revenue, but for Apple the iPhone sales will surely slow down. PBS's Bob Cringely, also agrees to this view, but seems to suggest that Apple will bid on the 700Mhz spectrum that Google, Intel, Verizon and others are fighting for. We'll know that on Monday, but I'm quite certain Apple will stay away from the fight which has already got quite noisy!!

Indians Can Now Search Google With SMS

Found an interesting story at tech-buzz.net that Google has started its 5GOOG service in India.

Searching Google on the really slow world of GPRS in India is a complete pain. Quite a lot of places in a city like Mumbai have a very low coverage of GPRS connectivity, and hence browsing google and performing searches is a test of one's patience.

Google has just launched beta service of its text messaging service in India. You have to write your search query as an SMS and send it to 54664 , (represented on keypad as 5GOOG). You can go to the site and test the results for the service.

Google SMS is a premium SMS service; queries sent to 54664 will be charged at the following rates:
Aircel: Rs. 3.00
Airtel: Rs. 2.00
BPL: Rs. 3.00
BSNL: Rs. 0.80/1.00 (post-paid/pre-paid)
Reliance: Rs. 3.00
Note: Incoming messages from Google are not charged.

Requirements: Text messaging enabled mobile device; mobile operator networks supported at this time: Aircel, Airtel, BPL, BSNL, Reliance.

I tried this a few times since morning but haven't got any replies for results from Google. I have an Airtel mobile and I'm located in Mumbai. I was querying for the Pizza Hut phone number located at Malad... and till now my hunger for Pizza just died... and I swallowed my Daal-Chawal.

The idea of the service is useful and is quite a good way to monetize as well. I'm wondering though if it's worth spending if you don't get accurate results, as has been my experience with web searches. You require atleast 3-4 searches with different keywords before you get the desired results.