Apple vs Adobe

30/4/2010

Anyone who has used an iPhone will be well aware that that nifty little plugin Flash from Abode is well and truly missing. Flash is something that most of us use day in day out, even if we don’t realise it, with most video and animation being powered by it.

It’s been a long bugbear for users around the world as Flash is so prevalent in the non-Apple world.

Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, has at last come clean on the reasons for this in an open letter. His message: Flash is a failure on mobile devices. Don’t hold back Mr Jobs. And he didn’t. Jobs has gone to the trouble of listing 6 different reasons why Flash is a has-been and cannot exist on the Apple platform. These include the feeling that software if full of bugs and hence “Flash is the number one reason Macs crash”. Other reasons include that battery life deteriorates through Flash usage and Flash does not work well with touchscreen devices.

\\\"Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short,\\\" he wrote.

But core to Jobs’ argument stems from Adobe’s move to cease making tools that third party developers use to translate Flash code to run of iPhones and iPads. This means that developers would now need to make two separate versions of apps – one for Apple devices, and one for the rest.

Instead, Apple is leaning towards the HTML5 programming standard that is capable of many similar functions available within Flash.

Meanwhile, Adobe Chief Executive, Shatanu Narayan, has dismissed Apple’s views saying the issues cited were just a ‘smokescreen’.

HP Buys Palm

29/4/2010

In a sudden move, HP have bought Palm, the maker of the latest Pre and golden oldie, the iPaq.  This is actually a good thing for Palm that has been losing it’s share progressively over recent years, indeed, even with questions of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this year. 

Whilst it may have been a flag bearer for Smartphones back in the noughties, it’s nots been able to keep pace with the iPhone and, more recently, Android platform phones.  The price paid by HP? $1.2 billion. 

This all seems to have been in response to HP’s wish to regain a foothold in the mobile phone market.  But as David Garrity, principal at GVA Research LLC in New York has pointed out “Just because H-P now has a smartphone in its lineup doesn’t mean people are going to wake up tomorrow and say, ‘Aha, this is the next Apple’. There are obviously a lot of things Apple has in terms of its iTunes store and apps that H-P doesn’t have”.

On the plus side though, Smartphones have the fasted growing segment of the mobile phone market. Worldwide smartphone shipments are set to rise to 247 million units in 2010, up 36 percent from 182 million in 2009, according to ISuppli Corp.

The Nokia N8 and Symbian

27/4/2010

Nokia’s have lost the shine somewhat of late. Remember in the 90’s when everyone that was anyone had to have the large 2110 – you couldn’t afford the calls but at least you could play Snake all day. Then there was the 8110 that helped Neo fly in and out of the Matrix.

But then the iPhone came along and ruined the party. Since then, try as they might, Nokia just haven’t been able to get back on top. To add salt to the wound, a myriad of other manufacturers have got in on the game and have made Nokia’s struggle that much harder.

Now Nokia is back on the offensive. The Symbian platform has gone open source, and Nokia are the first to announce the first phone on the platform called the flagship N8. And it’s features are pretty impressive on paper – 12 megapixel camera, HD camera with record and edit functionality, and the ability to watch web TV services.

There’s something in it for Symbian too – it’s the first chance for it to pit the platform against both Google’s Android platform as well as Apple’s iPhone. Features like multi-touch and multi-tasking will be welcome news for users that are already familiar with similar functionality on Windows Smartphones.

Nokia does need to get it’s skates on though. The Symbian foundation is made up of other leading mobile phone manufacturers like Motorola and Samsung, and so we can expect to see these camps releasing phones soon too.

Expect to see the phone in the third quarter of 2010.