Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Video Evidence
Today the FIFA president said it would be "a nonsense" not to take a look at goal-line technology. I guess the disallowed England goal and the 'allowed' off-side goal of Argentina must have finally changed the mind of the football governing body. The technology is there and why not use it to help the referees make correct decisions and correct mistakes. A red light camera can determine if a car has run a red light and recognizes the numbers and letters on a license plate, surely today's technology can determine if a something as big as a football has crossed the goal line.
Monday, June 28, 2010
iPhone 4 is out
The new iPhone 4 was out on Thursday last week. The Apple Store in San Francisco has a line outside that wrapped around the block and I wasn't going to wait in line. It's amazing that people will line up to buy a phone. Well, today I finally walk into an Apple Store (no wait anymore) to check out the iPhone 4. The screen is absolutely beautiful but other than that, there is nothing really appeals to me to make me upgrade from my iPhone 3GS. I know many people will disagree with my verdict but to me it is more a cosmetic upgrade of the iPhone 3GS. It is true that there are new features like multitasking, Facetime video call, 5M pixel camera, but still these are not new in cell phones. I think Nokia has all those over a year ago.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Apple vs. Nokia
Since Apple introduced the iPhone, Nokia continue to lose share of the smartphone market. So, how are they different in making and marketing cell phones?
Apple create public anticipation and excitment on their product launch because they keep their product secret very well (until the iPhone 4 shows up in a bar in the Bay area). That creates public interest and people do line up to get an iPhone because it is cool. Nokia on the other hand announced the N8 in April and said it would be available in the third quarter of 2010. The N8 is supposed to be Nokia's answer to the iPhone but what good is it if you cannot buy it and let Apple take the market with the iPhone 4?
Cell phone has become a commodity where hardware becomes less of a differentiating factor. Apple understand this and created the App Store. With the App Store, there is a platform on which third party developers can create applications and let the marketplace decide which applications are good. Consumers can 'customize' their phones however they like by loading different applications. Apple shift the software application development cost to others while taking a cut in every application sold at the AppStore, like collecting tax!
While Apple have basically one phone model, Nokia segment the market by selling different models, the N-series high end multimedia phone, the E-series business optimized phones, other series for music focused and other low end phones - and they don't run the same operating system. Apple again have the advantage here because they can focus on one platform development and the application developers can make one application that runs on the iPhone (and iPod Touch too). On the other hand, Nokia have to spend multiple R&D budgets on developing and marketing many more phone platforms. In addition, software developers have to port their applications to different platforms.
I think the N8 has better hardware than the iPhone but the software and user interface may let them down. However, I am still interested to see how the N8 performs in the smartphone market, especially outside North America where people are generally more savvy with cell phones selection.
Apple create public anticipation and excitment on their product launch because they keep their product secret very well (until the iPhone 4 shows up in a bar in the Bay area). That creates public interest and people do line up to get an iPhone because it is cool. Nokia on the other hand announced the N8 in April and said it would be available in the third quarter of 2010. The N8 is supposed to be Nokia's answer to the iPhone but what good is it if you cannot buy it and let Apple take the market with the iPhone 4?
Cell phone has become a commodity where hardware becomes less of a differentiating factor. Apple understand this and created the App Store. With the App Store, there is a platform on which third party developers can create applications and let the marketplace decide which applications are good. Consumers can 'customize' their phones however they like by loading different applications. Apple shift the software application development cost to others while taking a cut in every application sold at the AppStore, like collecting tax!
While Apple have basically one phone model, Nokia segment the market by selling different models, the N-series high end multimedia phone, the E-series business optimized phones, other series for music focused and other low end phones - and they don't run the same operating system. Apple again have the advantage here because they can focus on one platform development and the application developers can make one application that runs on the iPhone (and iPod Touch too). On the other hand, Nokia have to spend multiple R&D budgets on developing and marketing many more phone platforms. In addition, software developers have to port their applications to different platforms.
I think the N8 has better hardware than the iPhone but the software and user interface may let them down. However, I am still interested to see how the N8 performs in the smartphone market, especially outside North America where people are generally more savvy with cell phones selection.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Techno-Austerity
There is a good article in the 10 June 2010 issue of the Economist where the phrase techno-austerity is used. The link is here. The article makes some good points of less is more in technology.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
iPhone 4
I have just finished watching Steve Job's keynote speech where he introduced the iPhone 4. Even though we have seen the iPhone 4 because of the Gizmodo leak, it is still interesting because of Jobs charisma and how he presented the most important features of the new iPhone. Comparing the technical specifications of the new iPhone 4 with the latest smartphones on the market, it is roughly on par with the likes of HTC's Android and even Nokia phones. However, Apple still make it relevant because they focus on the 'why' you need this but not that, instead of focusing on 'what' is in the phone. I am not going to do a full review here as you can find many of them by Googling. Let's look at two features to illustrate my point.
Camera
- 5M pixel with LED flash. This is nothing exciting because the new Android phones come with 8M pixel camera and the upcoming Nokia N8 comes with a 12M pixel camera. 5M pixel on a small sensor is plenty in a phone form factor. If you are just viewing your photos on your phone or your computer, both of them have resolution far less than 5M pixel anyway. The front camera is not a new idea either but using it for FaceTime video calling, that's a good use of a front camera.
Display
- 'Retina display'. What a cool name! Basically Apple says that's all the resolution you will need because your eyes won't be tell the difference even if the resolution is higher. Another sensible decision with a good explanation rather than just cramming more pixels and dots per inch on the specifications.
Overall, I would say the iPhone 4 is a attractive incremental upgrade. Apple just do things a little better than everyone else and now others have to play catch up again.
Camera
- 5M pixel with LED flash. This is nothing exciting because the new Android phones come with 8M pixel camera and the upcoming Nokia N8 comes with a 12M pixel camera. 5M pixel on a small sensor is plenty in a phone form factor. If you are just viewing your photos on your phone or your computer, both of them have resolution far less than 5M pixel anyway. The front camera is not a new idea either but using it for FaceTime video calling, that's a good use of a front camera.
Display
- 'Retina display'. What a cool name! Basically Apple says that's all the resolution you will need because your eyes won't be tell the difference even if the resolution is higher. Another sensible decision with a good explanation rather than just cramming more pixels and dots per inch on the specifications.
Overall, I would say the iPhone 4 is a attractive incremental upgrade. Apple just do things a little better than everyone else and now others have to play catch up again.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)