Netflix Not Working On Triumph

I just managed to install a copy of Netflix on my Motorola Triumph running on Virgin Mobile USA's network. 

Sadly, while the installation worked out well enough, playing video was not possible at this time.

Hooefully, we proud new owners of the new and powerful device can have native support soon, anyone else with a working solution, the larger Android community would appreciate your help.

CEOs Sacked, Cloudy Forecast. Consolidation Coming?

Here are the new kids on the block: Samsung, Motorola, HTC. Maybe LG.

Here are the guys who don't get it. Let's call them the "old guys": Asus, Acer, Lenovo, Dell, HP...though HP gets a pass because its Palm acquisition has yet to play out. RIM probably belongs here too given the limitations they've put on Playbook and the weird marketing.

Wild Cards: Amazon And Barnes and Noble. Sony And Nintendo Should be with the Old Guys but I'm gonna give them the benefit of the doubt.

So far, the new kids are doing well. Dazzling the market with new Windows Phone 7 and Android gears. And just completed 3 months of 2011, we'll see more Android 3, Honeycomb, tablets hit the market and continue what the iPad did last year: putting a hurt on the laptop market and possibly finishing off the netbooks.

The old guys spew a lot of double talk about how their experience in enterprise will ultimately demonstrate that they new guys's tablets, including the iPad, will not have a chance. They came out with fuzzy math to show how the tablet is more expensive.

And yet, so far, vaporware.

Because it's a Friday afternoon, let me put this out there. Dell is going to fail. The rest of the old guys probably will struggle bit time as well as the mobile market shifts in terms of needs and what the new type of computing the tablets represent.

And like HP having to go out and buy Palm for the Web OS, I wonder if others will need to do the same to stay viable over the next decade.

Dell has to make an acquisition or two. As an old guy, Dell is still making loads of cash. And the PC market isn't just going to disappear overnight. And of the new guys, Motorola Mobile (MMI) is the weakest and smallest.

Can Dell come in and scoop them up and instantly gain strong street cred with Xoom and Droid? It has done that in the past with the gaming laptop maker, Alienware. On top of that, there's talk that Motorola is making their own OS to distance themselves from Android and Windows Phone 7.

Dell will probably see what their lineup will do against others. It will gain no traction and the blogs and investors will demand action. They'll probably have to go out buy what they need. All that matters is when Michael Dell pulls the trigger. I'm predicting it'll be Motorola because RIM will be too expensive. Plus, RIM's got a couple of erratic co-CEOs that might clash with Dell.

For the other old guys, 2011 will be exciting not because of their new products which are largely based on old thinking but what they will do once they fail. Aside of HP's Touchpad, the rest of the Android tablets will be hard to differentiate. And though some might hope that a Windows tablet OS might save them, that is probably a 2012 thing, more likely 2013 given Micrsoft's track record to promise but under deliver.

The ebook sellers and the gaming guys, Wildcard guys, present a very interest dynamics going forward. And they have an opportunity to play big roles or completely disappear into nothingness. I'm looking foward to speculate what could come of them.

Right now, the situations for the old guys are more dire. HP has to succeed with the Touchpad and the next Web OS smartphones. Dell will fail miserably and look for an answer through a buyout.

The same is probably true for the rest of the old guys. Their only opening is in Asia where many of these old guys can still count as their stronghold. However, that window will close quickly once Apple has its iPad 2 supply issues figured out (Steve Jobs has $60+ billion in the bank to do just that) and more Apple stores start opening up.

RIM: Will Ship 4th Gen Playbook In Weeks, Months, This Decade (It's a Joke But Must Read)

RIM's Playbook is kinda tied into the Blackberry for some services and it's not as severe as some in the media is misrepresenting it.

What the media really missed is that the Playbook has gone through so many changes since we heard about this back in the fall of 2010, October 25th to be exact. And Yes, in a couple of months, we will be in spring of 2011. And it's possible that the Playbook will not ship until summer, fully 9 months after the Playbook was announced.

That is the sin that the media committed. And you know why this is and allowable? Because RIM is now perceived as the underdog. Even yours truly have been giving RIM waaaay to much rope. And it's not a good thing. All that rope will only allow RIM to hang itself it it doesn't deliver.

So, when is the Playbook shipping? In weeks? Months? With 5G wireless access? More at Greenjava.

Xoom Superbowl Commercial - Good Enough To Turn Heads And Stop the iPad?

For those of us watching the on-going Superbowl game between the Pittsburg Steelers and the Green Bay Packers, we got to watch the Xoom commercial in full.

The statement being made is that 2011 is not 1984, an unmistakable reference to the iconic 1984 Superbowl commercial from Apple introducing the Macintosh. We received sneak peaks throughout the week and we finally saw it in full.

Here it is again or if you're seeing this the first time, I wonder if you think it was effective.



I like it and maybe I'm biased. I think the Xoom is a worth tablet to highlight the coming out party for Android 3, Honeycomb.

However, outside of mobile fans, I don't know if it will be remembered in any way by regular viewers. We saw no demonstration of features like Apple did with the iPad. We saw nothing in way of production that was iconic and it definitely did not rank near the top as best Superbowl commercials.

I thought the website address was hard to read and was not on the screen very long.

At the end of the day, was it effective enough to turn heads and get people to consider the Xoom over the iPad?

No. For the Xoom's sake, Motorola should do the right thing and copy Apple's approach to the iOS devices. Show buyers its strengths and why we should get the Xoom.

Maybe if not Motorola, Google should spend some of its changes and promote Honeycomb on the airwaves.

Atrix: Tweets and If Netbook Dock Will Change Mobile Computing (Android)

This is a post of my tweets regarding the upcoming Atrix with a laptop dock that will be available on AT&T:

#Atrix: The success of Atrix (or not) will determine whether #Android kills off #Chrome OS faster. #AT&T #Google #motorola (Part 1)

#Atrix: If successful, it might establish #Android as the default OS for future netbooks #AT&T #Android #motorola (Part 2)

#Atrix: It can move Nvidia out of just graphics and into mainstream CPU – Intel/AMD could lose out #AT&T #Android #motorola (Part 3)

#Atrix: This will accelerate #microsoft’s Windows for #arm chip even more if it happens. #AT&T #Android #motorola (Part 4)

#Atrix: Without need for storage, CPU, or others parts in a regular netbook, battery life sould be better. #AT&T #Android #motorola (Part 5)

#Atrix: A new mobile way of working – take your smartphone with you and plug it into any terminal #AT&T #Android #motorola (part 6)

#Atrix: Too bad it’s on #AT&T because it no longer offers unlimited 3G access #AT&T #Android #motorola (part 7)

#Atrix: $500 is a lot. #XOOM may offer better value as a tablet. No need for dock to have larger screen #AT&T #Google #motorola (part 8)

#Atrix: with Atrix & #Xoom, Motorola has a foundation for changing mobile life & computing #AT&T #Google #motorola (part 9)

#Atrix: will be available for pre-order with AT&T on Feb 13 - $199, $499 with netbook dock #AT&T #Google #motorola (part 10)

#Atrix: Impact on mobile computing depends on battery, enterprise, and #iPhone competition #AT&T #Google #motorola (part 11)

#Atrix: #AT&T just push netbook dock combo or else, it’ll just be another #Android phone #motorola (part 12)


Bottom-line: The Atrix is an incredible product on paper and promises to deliver based on the videos I’ve seen.

Motorla has a truly added a new dynamic to the mobile market. I look for a lot of copycats in 2012 if Atrix sales explodes. But like I said in the tweets, there could be things holding it back.

Pricing is one. AT&T is making users sign up for a bunch of services that they don’t need if they want to have the Atrix-dock combo.

Second, data plans. I’m not talking about the cost but the limited data access AT&T has. Seriously, as a mobile user, I want unlimited use. I don’t want to be restricted to 2GB or the limitation put on the tethering plan.

Rather than just AT&T, Motorola should have made the dock available to other networks that provide unlimited 3G access.

As it is now, it’s a very enticing product. We’ll just have to see if this is the magic bullet AT&T is looking for to replace its lost of iPhone exclusivity and if this will usher in an new era of mobile computing.

Apple's Answer to Pre's WebOS, Sense, and MOTOBLUR

When Apple offered the original iPhone, there was no app store.  There were no apps to speak of other than those offered by Apple and selected partners.  But we always knew that apps were coming.  Instead of coming clean, Jobs told the masses that the apps were available via Safari.


Simply develop for iPhone via Safari and that was it.  And in deed, many mobile developers did just that.  Webapps continue to make their way onto Apple's directory for weapps.  And maybe that's a good thing for iPhone users.


One of the things that's noticeably absent from the iPhone is seemingly cool accessible social and contact webapps that Pre users love. Apple has not provided an answer to HTC's Sense or Motorola's MOTOBLUR in offer cool looking widgets for offering quick access to social sites like Facebook and microblogs like Twitter.  In fact, I'm not sure the developers for Android that offer products in this category are happy about being supplemented by the phone developers.  But that's another issue.


However, I think I've figured out what Apple may be offering that will seem more innovative than anything offered on the market to date.  And it won't be anything new at all.  It'll just seem new because it's from Apple and Steve Jobs will sell it to us as something... well, you know...his reality distortion field will be on full-power.


So what will it be?  Dashboard.  Ah, I see those familiar with the Mac and Mac OS that has Dashboard know exactly what I'm talking about.  Basically, Dashboard is Apple's answer to micro-applications that are small, faster, and simple that ran under an environment like Yahoo's Widgets or the sidebars we started seeing in great numbers in Vista and Windows 7.  

To access widgets in Dashboard in OS X, you can assign a hotkey or drag your mouse pointer to a corner in your Mac or Macbook and the widgets would appear.

Why do I think this is where Apple is headed?  First, it is an easy implementation for Apple's iPhone team because it is an existing feature.  How will it work?  That's up to Apple of course.  But in my limited experience with user interface, perhaps there is an icon for Dashboard.  Or Apple can start the iPhone in Dashboard mode and allow users to switch to the current classic format we've got today.  A third method of implementation is that uses can tap on a corner or swipe with a gesture to implement Dashboard.  Once Dashboard is activated, the screen is replaced with widgets added by users.  The user can swipe between windows for access to their widgets just like they do now with their apps.

The second reason I think Apple will offer Dashboard for the iPhone is obvious for Apple.  There are already widgets for the OS X that can be migrated over to the iPhone.  The fruit of hundreds of developers already exist and some may even work on the iPhone without much change.  For those that needs to be modified to work on the iPhone, I'm sure Apple will make it worth their while to made the changes as painlessly as possible.

The third reason is no competitor on the market can make the following claim:  develop for the iPhone, you also develop for the Mac.  Perhaps in the development kit, be it for the iPhone or the Mac, Apple may even offer an one-click option for widgets to be generated for the iPhone when developing for the Mac.

Here are examples of what Yahoo and Microsoft offers.  

For the record, these are just what I think Apple will likely offer and merely my thoughts on this issue.  Not based on rumors or secret moles from deep within Cuptertino.  Because while I wish I have sources, I don't.

It has been noted via Wiki that there was a demo showing that is it possible to install widgets on jail-broken iPhones and that an update to the iPhone SDK allow for creation of widgets.  Perhaps Apple is waiting for more robust Web standards like HTML 5 is approved and the next version of Webkit (the framework on which Apple's browser, Safari, Google's Chrome, and Android browser) with HTML 5 support is shipped.  The new Web standard will offer richer Web experiences currently only possible through plug-ins like Flash.

More about Apple's Dashboard at Wiki.  Apple's own Dashboard on the OS X page seems to be missing.

Motorola Gambles on Android

This is not really a surprise.  Motorola's move to Android does make Android more like to succeed as a mobile platform but it does not necessarily work the other way around. It mean not mean success for Motorola.  At least not overnight.

In addition to announcing plans to use Android to turn its fortunes around, Motorola just reported a quarterly loss of nearly $400 million and is laying off 3,000 workers.  I can understand the need to shore up its finances as it has not been successful in replace the still high popular but low-margin RAZRs.  Nor has it been able to answer the charges of Blackberries and the iPhone.

By going with Android, Motorola hopes to catch up to the front runners or, at the very least, stop the bleeding.  There still is not a lot of information on what a Motorola mobile device powered by Android is capable of.  One area that I hope to see such a device excel is the design.  As evident with the RAZR, Motorola clearly has the design talents to make a cool looking device.

I just hope their design team isn't a part of the 3,000 soon-to-be ex-Motorola workers.

Here's the bottom line: there is a lot of risk here.  In addition to Android now, Motorola has also dabbled with Windows Mobile.  Without something that will make it stand out from the rest of the field, Motorola will not benefit having an Android phone in its portfolio. 

Being a "me, too" will not work.

Note:  When Palm adopted Windows Mobile insteading of innovating, it essentially became just another WM licensee.  There are rumors flying about that Palm is looking at Android.  I've used many Palm PDAs (there's an abbreviation you haven't seen in a while) and I like them very much.  I hope they will stick to the innovation road than one that may only mean a slow death.

White Spaces Battle Update

We last updated you on Monday when the broadcasters, NBA, MLB, and the NFL lobbied the FCC to delay the November 4th vote.  And other the other side, we got Dell, Google, Microsoft, and Motorola.  Sprinkled on top are national legislators.

Guess who else got involved?  Dolly Parton.  I'll cut to the chase.  I'm guessing someone wrote the letter to the FCC and Dolly just signed it.  Seriously, she's cool.  I mean it.  She knows music, the business, and she looks great.

But white spaces she knows not.  She's joined by a lot of other singers who fear interference from white spaces devices on their performances.  I'm not dismissing their concerns.  However, according to Cnet, "The report noted that geo-location technology, which uses a database to help devices identify and avoid spectrum bands known to already be in use, worked very well in avoiding interference".

Anyway, my feeling is that this will go ahead on November 4th.  There'll be a lot of election results to watch on Election Day.

Links:

• Onxo summarizes latest White Spaces battle.
• FCC Endorses White Spaces Use For Wireless Internet.
• The Register
• CNet News 
• Information Week 
• Fierce Wireless explains more about the performers' concerns 

RIM's Competitors

Because of the online media coverage and intense interest the 3G iPhone has been getting and will be getting (millions of dollars of free advertisement for Apple), it is almost impossible to know that out there are other new phones coming out into the market.

And it was natural for the websites that routinely cover mobile devices to make comparisons between the iPhone and Blackberry. However, RIM's biggest competitor will not come from Apple but from Palm, Windows Mobile, and Nokia.

For Blackberry, any kind of comparison will have to take place on its home court: e-mail. No one, not even Apple, is likely to duplicate the ease and success of the Blackberries to help its users stay in touch. Whether it is a technically true assertion or a perceived one is not the point here. The Blackberry is king and anyone know who wants to play will have to do better e-mailing.

A lot of it could be the form factor and additional features that its competitors will have to develop to make sure that they can out Blackberry the Blackberry. E-mail is one thing but in an increasingly mobile society and an even more mobile workforce, the smartphones will have to allow the mobile warriors to do lot more without hindering productivity or increase complexity.

Apple will do what Apple wants to do. Keeping an eye on them makes good business sense. But trying to out-Apple Apple just doesn't make sense and will ultimately prove futile. If anything, the focus will have to be on Blackberry's position as the market leader.

Nokia's new E71 is a good start. It is a beautiful phone that has everything an user can ask for today. It appears to be easy to use but that is where it ends. In an attempt to be an alterative to the Blackberry, there is no compelling offer to a mobile warrior to abandon its trusted Blackberry. It is as though Nokia is throwing the smartphone out there because it has to until it figures out its next move.

This is the same for the Motorola Q except the Q seems to try and do it all which is where it can potentially hinder a mobile warrior and complicate his or her life. Motorola is hurting now. Once it finds its footing, it could be very interesting for the smartphone market.

For Palm, its multi-year death spiral has at least temporarily been stunted by the success of the Centro. Despite the age of the Palm OS, its got a winner in Centro. Not just as a form that is please to hold and use, it is doing exactly what it intends to do for it's target market: non-business consumers. It will do even better once the new OS is out. Whenever that is. If it can translate this success and direct it at the mobile warriors, it can reclaim at least a share to the title of smartphone king.

Then there is Windows Mobile. Licensees like HTC has to rely on Microsoft's innovative talents. So far, Redmond has not been very inspiring. Microsoft will be a long-term player owing largely to its desktop success. Windows Mobile will have tough road ahead if it does not figure out a way to break the link between Blackberry and e-mails and offer more. The office suite are adequate but it's Internet experience is horrible. A short cut would be to copy what Apple is doing with Safari. It won't be the first time Microsoft has duplicated Cupertino's best works.

Finally, there is Google's Android. It remains to be seen if it'll have the kind of impact the iPhone has had on the smartphone market. It will be a work in progress for years and it is nothing RIM will have to worry about in the short-term. It could have a disruptive effect on the low-end and consumer segment of the market.

So, while every website that is tracking smartphone movements is make this an iPhone-Blackberry fight, the real focus should be on the battle among the other smartphone makers. 2008 seems to be the year where everyone show their cards and 2009 and beyond is when the real fight for the smartphone market starts.