Twitter Versus Weibo

In China, due to the tender loving care of the government of the people, the Great Firewall of China has blocked access to much of Western social networks like Facebook and Twitter.  It's unfortunately really since we can all vastly benefit from the tweets and updates of our fellow men and women from China.  However, all is not lost as there are alternatives, carefully monitored alternatives, that are available.  

Weibo is one such site that I signed up for.  I figure I give it a shot and use this opportunity to learn Chinese.  

And I reckon I'll see a lot interesting things.  What will be of interest to me is what I will not be able to see.  Keeping in mine that I have the reading level of a first grader if that and my comprehension of Chinese idioms and common phrases are even worse, I am eager to plunge into what it's like behind the whole separate Internet that Google has battled with Beijing since their announced pullout and reentry into the Chinese market to the latest incident of gmail hacking. 

I recommend folks sign up as well.  Even if you don't understand Chinese, I suggest you use Google Translate and for the most part, we can get the gist of most Weibo tweets.  Tweets.  Are these called tweets?  I wonder what the Chinese call them.

Microsoft Innovates And Here's Proof

Okay, so Microsoft has been down on its luck as far as its stock price is concerned. Oh, it is getting its clock cleaned by the iPhone an Android in the mobile market. But here's the thing. IDC predicts that Windows Phone 7 and/or whatever comes after will surge to such proportion that by 2015, it'll be the second most popular mobile platform on the planet.

Skeptical? Sure, who wouldn't be. But watching this Windows 8 video from Microsoft. Who says Microsoft does not innovate anymore?



Oh, and this is this week's Friday video clip. Have a great weekend!

Interesting Read On Twitter Integration with iOS - What It Also Means For Social Networking

Here's an interesting read on iOS integration with Twitter that was unveiled at the WWDC keynote on Monday. What was surprising was the deep level of integration that no one had expected Apple to do.  In one post I read, the blogger said Apple essentially gave Twitter  immortality Take the meaning as you will, this is a relationship that benefits both firms.

Also, I was listening to a podcast, 5 By 5, where John Gruber guessed that the relationship between Apple and Twitter is different from say Apple and Facebook, which is on the rocks, hence, its exclusion from iTunes, resulting in Ping's failure.

This came back to when Apple and Google broke their marriage.  Apple has learned from it.  Gruber said just as much and in the deal, there probably was a clause in which Apple would have the rights to veto any takeover of Twitter by another company or that Apple will have the first chance to purchase Twitter should the need arise.  Such a clause would provide Apple the confidence it needs to know that Twitter has no plans to become a competitor or be used by a competitor like Facebook, Google or Microsoft. 

Regardless, I can see some amazing things for iOS and the Mac from this.  Right now, the company with the most to worry about here is probably Facebook.  But relationship between Apple and Facebook can't be all that bad if is including fields in Contacts for Facebook (as well as a few other social networks).

Could Apple develop an app that serves as an umbrella platform for social networks the way Trillion, Meebo, or Adium does for the various instant messaging services?  Could that be what iMessage will one day evolve into?  Also, it would rock if we can tweet directly from iMessage as well.

iOS 5 is still in the first beta and I'm sure we'll see more about Twitter integration in the coming months.  The final version of iOS 5 will ship this fall, presumably with this year's new iPhone and iPod touch.

Source:  TUAW, Crunchgear

iCloud: What Does It Mean For Storage Solutions? Probably Good Things

Steve Jobs always has a way to make sure the spotlight is on Apple and its visions.  And sometimes, this is bad for competitors.  Other times, it could be a good thing because Apple creates a mindset in the consumer that was not there before.  Take the iPhone.  Before the iPhone was introduced and sold in 2007, the smartphone market was very stagnant.  Then with the App Store, things just exploded.  And what does iCloud mean for Box.net, Dropbox, and others?

It does mean competition to some extent.  And that's what a free battlefield in every market means.  You've got established players and once in a while a new guy comes in and plays by a different set of rules.  The incumbents will have to decide a deal to deal with things.  Either innovate  and adapt or get wiped out.  The current crop of cloud storage solutions will have to find a way to provide value in ways that Apple's iCloud isn't.  And here's the thing to know about Apple:  they never try to be all things to everyone.  And that means opportunities for others to compete.  

Right now, I see Google and Microsoft definitely competing big time, even on iOS devices, Apple turf.  For someone like Dropbox, I definitely see some changes coming.  

Furthermore, iCloud will bring attention to the likes of Dropbox to the average mobile warrior that would otherwise not happen or will take lots of advertising dollars to make that happen.  iCloud could be more effective for competitors than any expensive advertising campaign can do.  Apparently, PC World agrees with me.

It all comes to down to how iCloud competitors want to deal with Apple.  Innovate and compete is the best way to go about it.  I definitely will continue to use Dropbox despite iCloud.  And also keep in mind that while iCloud will be a huge change for how iOS and Mac users deal with data, 75% of the market will not have access to iCloud.  That is hundreds of millions of users who can use third party storage solutions.

One Billion Smartphones By 2015 - WP To Take Second Place

When Apple debut the iPhone in 2007, there was already 1 billion phones sold worldwide.  However, that include regular phones that just made calls.  Since then, smartphones like the iPhone, Blackberries, and those based on Android have grown to become a large share of the global phone market.  According to IDC, there we will see 1 billion smartphones ship by 2015.

What's interesting is that I was going to extrapolate the numbers based on today's marketshare.  However, IDC had their own ideas.  Windows Phone 7 will come out of nowhere and take second pace from Apple while Android remains at the top.

With one billion smartphones in 2015, 440 million of them will be Android, 200 million will be WP devices, 170 million iOS phones, and 130 million Blackberries.  Essentially, IDC has WP growing from about 2 to 3 million shipped so far to 200 million in 48 months.  Or a 100x growth.  

Obviously, I am not one to put it past Microsoft to suddenly have a spurt of inspiration and innovative energy that can make this happen.  Still, this is one statistic I'm going to keep in in the back of my head for reference in 2015.  

Pulling back a bit, one billion is a crazy number and even by 2015, I'm sure the market will still have lots of room to growth on a planet with 7 billion-ish people.  And can you imagine the awesome mobile devices that we'll see in just 48 months?  

More at Info World.

Mobile At A Food Fair - iPhones And iPads Could have Helped Us Do Better Business

On Saturday, I went to help some friends with their first endeavor into selling food at a small stand they set up.  It was one of the more interesting experiences I've had.  I've done retail before for our family business but never sold food.  

I found that it was hard work but could mobile tech have made it easier?  Maybe even some kind of a bulletin or blog to help understand what's going on and how to go about becoming or efficient?

After all, we all had iPhones except for one and her job was to look pretty and pass out samples.  

And after this week's WWDC, I reckon that for our next food fair, I think iCloud can play a larger role in all this.  For instance, we had a schedule that we could keep and allow everyone to see who was showing up to help out.  Tweeting and updating on Facebook could probably be a way to keep everyone updated as well though I think I rather stay away from Facebook if I can.

Ultimately, we want to be able to use mobile to do better business.  Actually, I think we could have used an iPad to help us show off what we were offering and take videos of customer testimonies of what they thought about our food.

Also, keeping an inventory of what we had and we needed to stock up would have helped as well.  

There are plenty of apps that can help us with our jobs.  Maybe next time, we will try to integrate mobile tech and apps.  

Like It Or Not, China Makes Green Moves That'll Never Happen Here

In the past few months, I've been reading about China's moves into green tech.  I'm very competitive by nature so obviously, I can't stand it when pretty much more green efforts are being made anywhere else but the United States.

And like China or not, they make moves in green efforts that the right wingers and old energy-backed politicians, in both parties, continue to hamper a potential ecnomic growth engine.  

China will be doubling solar production from 5 GW to 10 GW by 2015.  They're playing huge in wind as well  In fact, China invested more in green tech than the US so far this year.  

And the oil and coal guys are playing a smarter game in the US than the green advocates.  The renewable energy and green advocates are talking about climate change.  The dirty energy guys are glad that's happening.  What it comes down to for these guys is money.  If the renewable energy industry can move away from any talk about climate change and more about economic growth and securing energy sources, the sun and wind, the public would be more likely to support an energy policy in this regard.

I'm afraid that opportunity had long passed.  And in China, even now, they've got their own cash-for-clunker program going on and I see them keep this going for a while.  Remember, this is Beijing, not a democracy.