Mereja

Author: TheAppleBlog.com

  • What You Didn’t Know About Cloudera

    There are a few widespread misconceptions about Cloudera, the promising, well-funded Burlingame, Calif.-based startup that offers services, training and support for the open-source software framework Hadoop. At least that’s what I found out during a talk earlier today with the company’s CEO, Mike Olson.

    New Horizons for Hadoop

    Cloudera, now just over a year old after launching in October of 2008, has remained a buzz-worthy startup for a number of reasons. One is that the company employs heavy-hitting folks who helped build Hadoop, such as Doug Cutting. Another is that it offers much-in-demand support for Hadoop, which has moved well beyond its roots as an Apache-driven open-source platform powering hugely scalable search technology at companies such as Yahoo to many new kinds of complex data query tasks of interest to businesses and organizations of all stripes. Hadoop is emerging as a powerful tool for sifting extensive data sets in newly useful ways. In my talk with Olson, he confirmed that Cloudera still sees a lot of “pent-up demand” from companies that want to leverage Hadoop’s power but need help understanding it and using it.

    In addition, Cloudera is notable because it’s leveraging the proven business model that Red Hat has deployed around Linux, building a fee-based support and services infrastructure around free, open-source software. Red Hat emerged as one of the big software winners during the recession with such an approach.

    But Olson delivered a surprise when he said that it’s wrong to assume that his company is solely focused on open source software. On the contrary, Cloudera will diversify out of a strategy focused solely on it. “Either this quarter or next we will offer an enterprise software bundle consisting of proprietary enhancements for Hadoop users,” Olson said. “Our proprietary apps will complement the open source core, and, like Facebook and Yahoo, we continue to have core committers to Hadoop.”

    Cloudera already offers its own distribution of Hadoop, which is downloadable for free, as well as its own proprietary Cloudera Desktop software consisting of dashboard and management tools for Hadoop users. Cloudera Desktop is also currently free, but Olson made clear that, going forward, his company will focus on both free, open-source software and fee-based proprietary software. The enterprise bundle will be the company’s first foray into fee-based software.

    Big Data? Try Medium

    Also on the surprise front, Olson doesn’t entirely embrace the idea of “Big Data” which I suggested is currently the driver of Hadoop’s success. “When I hear that term I think that must be a Google thing,” he said. “What about Medium Data? We like to say that Facebook doesn’t run Hadoop because it has a lot of data, but that Facebook has a lot of data because it runs Hadoop. Businesses that use Hadoop find that keeping data is worthwhile because Hadoop helps them process it in new ways.” Olson confirmed that Cloudera is working with plenty of large firms in possession of huge data sets, but is also working with smaller ones.

    So who is doing what with Cloudera’s Hadoop distribution? According to Olson, Hadoop usage is extending way beyond just searching data. “We see people interested in it for crunching genomics data, retailers and financial institutions interested in it for processing large sets of transactions, and interest from the health-care and energy industries,” he said. You can find discussion of many use cases for Hadoop in these videos.

    Cloudera, like many small companies focused on innovative open source-centric strategies and many small companies focused on the cloud, is often cited as an acquisition target. Olson told me, however, that his company has a shot at remaining a long-term standalone outfit. “We have a reasonable chance of doing it,” he said, while confirming that the company may eventually pursue an IPO. “We aren’t actively talking to anyone about any type of merger.”

    Patent Shmatent

    I also asked Olson about Google’s recent move to patent the MapReduce algorithm for working with large data sets that underlies Google searches. Hadoop is based on a variant of MapReduce, and there have been suggestions made that everyone using Hadoop or MapReduce is in danger following Google’s patents. As we noted here, Hadoop really isn’t threatened, though. “Google has no track record of using patents offensively,” Olson noted.

    It will be interesting to see what happens to Cloudera as cloud computing and Hadoop-driven data crunching march forward. Despite the focus on staying independent that company founders cite — and I’m convinced they are focused on that — I wouldn’t be surprised to see it get picked up by a larger company.

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    Yahoo Still Emceeing a Growing Hadoop Lovefest

  • AT&T Taps Alcatel-Lucent, Confirms LTE in 2011

    AT&T has picked Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson to deploy its LTE network, marking another big win for the two vendors that were tapped last year to build Verizon Wireless’s 4G network. AT&T said it will begin to commercially deploy LTE technology in 2011, confirming plans announced during an earnings call last month, after field trials set to begin later this year.

    AT&T is taking a two-step approach to upgrading its network, which Om has called “the Achilles heel of the iPhone experience.” The carrier is deploying High Speed Packet Access 7.2 across its 3G footprint, enabling downloads of up to 7.2 Mbps, before advancing to the LTE technology that promises average download speeds of 5-12 Mbps. AT&T is playing catch-up with Verizon, which plans to offer LTE to areas comprising a total of some 100 million people before the end of this year and everywhere it has 3G by the end of 2013. But the twofold strategy may allow AT&T provide enough of an improved experience to hold on to iPhone users after its oh-so-important exclusive grip on Apple’s iconic device expires.

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    Image courtesy Flickr user radialmonster.

  • Broadcom Bets on New Bluetooth Tech for Mobile Health

    The market for mobile healthcare is poised to surge over the next few years as smartphone use continues to ramp up and connectivity comes to devices like pedometers and heart-rate monitors.  And Broadcom is one of a small army of players hoping to benefit from a gadget-toting, health-obsessed population by pushing Bluetooth low energy (BLE) technology. That’s right: A variation of the wireless technology that connects your cell phone to a headset may now count calories during your jog.

    Indeed, we’re already seeing gadgets like Fitbit (see disclosure below), DirectLife and Contour USB that help users monitor their health wirelessly. BLE is an alternative to ANT, which is a proprietary wireless sensor network technology. It also competes against  ZigBee and other low-power wireless technologies designed to minimize power consumption. BLE was ratified in December by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) for very low-power applications such as sensor networks, and the technology has drawn support from Broadcom rivals Texas Instruments and CSR.

    Backers say the spec is ideal for remote health care and fitness applications as well as home networks and other sectors. Those emerging use-case scenarios will fuel a booming market over the next few years, according to ABI Research, which predicts manufacturers will ship more than 2.5 BLE chipsets in 2014. Part of that growth will be driven by the fact that BLE is an open standard,  which will help alleviate some of the fragmentation that currently exists with proprietary technologies, Broadcom executive Craig Ochikubo told me.

    “Today there’s a lot of devices that are working in a sense over proprietary solutions — either wired or wireless — so you end up with a pedometer that will only work with a particular cellphone or exercise device,” said Ochikubo, the company’s VP and GM of wireless personal area networking business. “But what we’ve historically seen happen is when the app exists and moves into an open standard, the opportunity and adoption increase…The consumers are going to want that flexibility, and at the same time the OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) are saying that this is…a much better way to scale.”

    Bluetooth also offers an encryption scheme for security, Ochikubo said, which will be crucial as BLE moves beyond end-user scenarios (think a consumer monitoring his workout at home with a smartphone app and Bluetooth-connected sensor) to more widespread uses within the medical community. Which is not to say that BLE’s role in connected care is a done deal in light of the chicken-and-the-egg situation hardware vendors find themselves in — phone makers and manufacturers of devices like sensors and monitors must each believe that the other side will buy in to lay a foundation for a BLE ecosystem. But much like Wi-Fi is rolling over proprietary technologies when it comes to local area networks, Bluetooth has a good chance for personal area networks.

    Disclosure: FitBit is backed by True Ventures, a venture capital firm that is an investor in the parent company of this blog, Giga Omni Media. Om Malik, founder of Giga Omni Media, is also a venture partner at True.

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    Image courtesy Flickr user jontintinjordan.

  • Virtualization Is the Trojan Horse to Take the iPad Beyond Apple’s OS

    Citrix’s quiet announcement that its Receiver software will allow Apple iPad users to run Windows 7 sessions via virtualization has caused some to suggest that the iPad may have much promise as a business tool. But why stop at Windows? The iPad will reach beyond Apple’s iPhone OS and Windows.

    As Citrix vice president Chris Fleck has noted in a blog post:

    “It turns out the 9.7 inch display on the iPad with a 1024×768 screen resolution works great for a full VDI XenDesktop. Windows applications run unmodified and securely in the data center, and even multiple applications at once. The advancements that were made for the Citrix Receiver for iPhone will carry over to the iPad, however the iPhone restrictions of screen size and small keyboards are overcome with the iPad. It’s a beautiful thing!”

    One of the primary details to note there is that multiple Windows 7 applications can run in a session on an iPad via Citrix Receiver and Xen virtualization. Of course, it’s also important to note that Fleck is describing applications housed on remote servers — not running locally. Apple has already announced that it will have its iWork applications available for the iPad, but why won’t many Windows 7-centric users and businesses want access to Windows applications that they can run concurrently as well? Doing so could eliminate multitasking limitations inherent to the iPhone OS, and a larger screen than the iPhone’s will only help encourage such usage.

    PC World’s Randall Kennedy argues that the iPad’s limited connectivity and lack of a keyboard and a mouse will keep many business users from adopting it, even if it does Windows 7 sessions. I, too, have expressed my doubts about whether Apple will even market the iPad toward business users, and many Windows 7 users may favor Windows tablets over the iPad. Still, the more I think about it, the more it seems inevitable that the iPad, through virtualization, will reach out to other operating systems featuring myriad types of applications.

    Also, why stop at Windows? Many businesses run on Linux platforms with robust virtualization options. Lots of Linux users are used to running Linux in conjunction with other operating systems, and they may reach for virtualization as a way to extend what their iPads can do, too. Despite its cloud-centric focus, users of Google’s upcoming Linux-based Chrome OS may end up wanting to add virtualized sessions to their iPad arsenals, too, especially because of the strong security it promises to have.

    Years ago, virtualization implied performance hits and other problems that made it impractical for many users, but that has changed. Even though the iPhone OS doesn’t include it natively, the writing is already on the wall that other players will deliver virtualized solutions for the iPad. They’ll be available for free, too. One of the key drivers for all of this is that, as always,  rich applications are what solidify the future of hardware devices. For that reason alone, the iPad will reach out to other operating systems — and apps for them –whether Apple likes it or not.

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  • Foursquare Teams With Zagat to Make Yelp Squeal

    Foursquare is looking beyond virtual badges to high-profile content brands to give it a leg up on competitors such as Gowalla and Yelp. The company said today it’s inked a deal with Zagat to enable users to access restaurant reviews and recommendations, according to the New York Times. And AdAge reports it’s in the process of deploying promotional campaigns for HBO and Warner Brothers. The moves follow its recent tie-up with Bravo Media as well as a deal with the Canadian version of Metro that will provide users with local news content as they check in. The strategy appears to be about making Foursquare fun AND functional.

    The Zagat agreement is a counterpunch to Yelp, which last month continued to take its offering to mobile by launching check-ins for iPhone users. (The friend-finding app Loopt has joined the bandagon, too, adding local reviews two months ago.) And the flurry of new partnerships continues a roll that has seen Foursquare close in on 300,000 users — roughly tripling the base of its rival Gowalla — as it expands to 50 new cities.

    The deals will give Foursquare a chance to gain mainstream exposure by opening the door for nationwide cross-promotion through well-known media companies, and will enable Foursquare to continue to gradually introduce sponsors to its users. Most importantly, though, partners like Zagat and Metro bring value to an offering that’s essentially a friend-finding service. Foursquare’s fun, gaming-style service has built considerable momentum — and is the reason it has become Om’s favorite mobile app — but virtual pats on the back and mayoral crowns will only go so far. The addition of valuable, location-based content will be crucial if Foursquare is to move beyond early adopters and into the mass market.

    Image courtesy Flickr user cambodia4kidsorg.

  • 10 Unsung Collaboration Tools — Many of Them Free

    Collaboration is in full swing on the web, for both social and work-oriented purposes. Most of us can rattle off the well-known applications that are available, but there are many targeted, useful collaboration apps that are more offbeat. Here are 10 of them, many of them free.

    Redliner. If you’ve ever tried to collaborate with others on documents over email, you know that version control problems and many other issues can arise. Redliner is becoming one of the more popular online tools to get around these problems. Unlike, say, Google Docs, it offers a complete commenting and revision system. Check it out in the screencast here. Redliner is currently being beta tested and you can use it for free, although it will eventually move to a paid monthly model.

    doingText. Also on the document collaboration front, doingText has steadily grown into a robust, hosted platform. It’s available in a version for $5 a month, and you can share documents via randomly generated, unique URL.

    Kablink. Kablink is a free and open source collection of collaboration components that lets groups work offline and online. When work is produced offline, it can automatically be synced with other users’ work online. Conferencing and wiki-like features are available.

    Collanos Workspace. The motto of the Collanos Workspace free, open source collaboration platform is “Think outside the inbox.” To set up a team work environment, you click Create Space and begin inviting people. You can post files of many formats to collaborate on, instant message while you work and track pending tasks.

    PBworks. At November’s Enterprise 2.0 conference in San Francisco, the folks behind PBWiki announced the addition of real-time collaboration tools to their wiki platform. The new PBworks suite of tools includes in-app instant messaging, live notifications of changes to an organization’s workspaces, live editing of documents and voice collaboration. There are also business and legal document templates available in an online store. Businesses, legal firms and schools pay just a few dollars per month per user (pricing varies by package) for PBWorks’ hosted collaboration apps.

    Drop.io. The free file-sharing service Drop.io is used by many editors and writers across The GigaOM Network to easily upload files that can be shared with collaborators by simply providing a short URL to visit. Drop.io also now offers real-time collaboration features for tasks such as sharing files during phone conferences.

    Socialtext. Based on the concept of combining a wiki with a blog, Socialtext provides an enterprise-level group collaboration platform. Every person who is a member of an organization’s Socialtext account gets their own dashboard –- or personal homepage –- where they can embed and arrange via drag-and-drop both personal and work information, images, and widgets. Email and microblogging are also integrated with the platform in useful ways. Socialtext is free for groups of 50 users or fewer who want basic features, and reasonably priced fee-based packages with all the bells and whistles are available.

    e-tipi. e-tipi incorporates elements of Twitter, Digg, wikis and blogs to create a shared workspace through which ideas are fleshed out. Each user page is called a tipi, and it contains various ideas submitted by the tipi’s users. You can export data to HTML for sharing on web pages, too. You can watch a demo here, and free accounts are available.

    MemberHub. Group management and communication service MemberHub equips users with dashboards, discussion forums, shared calendars and many other tools for sharing ideas and collaborating. You can see how it works in this video, and pricing is found here, including a free version. 10 cents per person per month, purchased in blocks of 100.

    Colaab. If you want a very feature-rich collaboration platform with a slick user interface, check out Colaab. Once you sign up for an account, you begin by creating a workspace. As Pamela over on WebWorkerDaily notes, “the workspace includes an integrated IM feature, and discussions are displayed in the upper part of the right-hand panel, while the lower part shows which users are participating.” Colaab is available in a starter version for $24 a month, which includes 1GB of storage and 10 workspaces.

  • Why On-the-Fly Mobile Translation Technology Won’t Happen Soon

    Google is developing mobile software that would translate foreign languages almost instantly, according to a new report in The Times Online. Enabling automated voice communication among speakers of the world’s 6,000-plus languages is a lofty goal, and one that may take many years to achieve — if it can be done at all.

    The project combines Google’s speech-recognition technology with its automated system for translating text on computers, which now covers 52 languages. The company showcased the technology as a “concept demo” two months ago and now hopes to have a basic mobile translation system in place “within a couple of years,” according to the Times story. (A Google spokesman declined to tell me whether the project has moved beyond the concept stage and said the company has no news to announce.)

    Delivering accurate translations in near real time will be an extremely difficult task, however. The language information behind such a service couldn’t possibly be stored and accessed on a phone, so Google will need the fast access to the cloud promised by HSPA and LTE. (Current speech-to-text engines send large chunks of data to the cloud for conversion to text, but translations during voice conversations will have to be infinitely faster.) And while Google’s speech recognition software is respectable, the company may need to bulk up its portfolio by acquiring another player on the field — Nuance, which has continued to expand its portfolio with the recent acquisitions of SpinVox and Jott , would be a particularly attractive (if expensive) option.

    The value of technology that can deliver on-the-fly translations is evident in the Phraselator, a pricey gadget used by soldiers in Iraq. But to be effective in the mass market, voice recognition technologies must be able to consistently understand users regardless of speech patterns, dialects and other variables. Meanwhile, software must be able to determine context and other nuances to accurately translate one language to another. That’s difficult enough for humans to do; it may not be possible with technology alone.

    Image courtesy Flickr user Jeremy Brooks.

  • Mobclix and Nielsen Ink Mobile Ad Targeting Data Deal

    Mobclix has struck a deal to integrate Nielsen’s ad targeting data into its mobile ad exchange, the two announced today, the latest effort to deliver highly targeted mobile ads. The pact allows Mobclix to resell Nielsen’s PRIZM and ConneXions products, which slot consumers into more than 150 segments based on lifestyle and usage patterns. Marketers will be able to target pitches based on a user’s age and gender as well as location, spending power and tech savviness — features that will give advertisers more confidence in a market where hard data is difficult to access.

    Detailed user information has become increasingly valuable in mobile, where an explosion in the number of mobile apps has led to a glut of advertising inventory in the industry over the last 18 months, forcing CPMs (cost per thousand ad impressions) down. So app developers and content owners are scrambling to find ways to boost the value of mobile ads in order to ramp up ad revenues. Mobclix claims its new partnership with Nielsen will enable developers and publishers to produce CPMs that are 20-100 percent higher than the market at large.

    Mobclix offers mobile analytics that provide developers with information about how consumers use their mobile applications, and the company claims a penetration rate of 85 percent across iPhone and iPod touch unique devices. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup is vying for a chunk of a mobile advertising market that will generate $13 billion in revenues by 2013, according to Gartner, as smartphones and flat-rate data plans become more affordable for mainstream consumers. The space still faces substantial hurdles, from a lack of performance metrics to consumer privacy concerns, but providing more detailed information about individual consumers will surely help entice advertisers to invest more heavily in mobile.

    Images courtesy The Nielsen Company.

  • 3 Surprise Scenarios for Microsoft’s Future

    Even after Microsoft reported record earnings a few days ago, one of its former executives has effectively written the company’s obituary in a New York Times op-ed piece.  Is Microsoft not savable? Here are three surprise scenarios that could have a lot of upside for the company.

    It Branches Out As An Investment Holding Company. People familiar with the way Warren Buffett has run Berkshire Hathaway over the years know it’s seen enormous contributions to its earnings come from ownership of stocks, bonds and various types of fixed-income investments. Sure, it owns businesses ranging from GEICO to See’s Candy, but Buffett has driven billions of dollars of profit through simply owning shares in companies such as The Washington Post and Coca-Cola. Over the long run, Microsoft may well move toward this kind of future as an investment holding company, too. It has nearly $35 billion in cash and equivalents, which is more than 10 percent of its entire $246 billion market capitalization.

    In today’s New York Times op-ed piece, Dick Brass takes his former employer to task for desperately struggling to come up with new product innovations, but failing miserably. “It is failing, even as it reports record earnings,” he writes. Indeed, Microsoft just reported a record $6.66 billion in quarterly earnings, but that’s primarily due to operating system and Office application suite sales, not new product innovation. It won’t happen overnight, but over time, if Microsoft invests its cash wisely, investment returns could start to approach the returns it gets from its software business. If the idea seems far-fetched, consider the fact that Red Hat gets nearly half of its earnings from investment activities.

    It Finally Gets the Web Right. Microsoft has a long history of downright boneheaded moves on the web. Indeed, ranging from its multiyear efforts to turn MSN into a meaningful web brand to its current efforts with Bing, it has primarily generated billions of dollars of losses with its web efforts. This could change, though, especially as the web and the cloud become more central to how people use applications. Microsoft employs some of the smartest software engineers on the planet and is showing signs of commitment to the cloud with its Azure rollout.

    I’m definitely in agreement with Matt Asay that more Microsoft leadership on the web would be good from a competitive standpoint, and Google’s founders have made the point more than once that their company’s brand is only “one click away” from competitors. Additionally, it’s worth remembering that the commercial web just isn’t that old. If Microsoft can find a way to combine success online with success in its traditional software business, the combination could be powerful.

    The Ray Ozzie Era. Ray Ozzie holds the title of Chief Software Architect at Microsoft, which Bill Gates held as well. This is not an accident. Going back to his days behind Lotus Notes, I remember Ozzie as a product guy and a smart guy. Under Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s stock has dropped significantly over the last 10 years, and Newsweeek, among others, has predicted that he won’t continue to run the company much longer. If anyone at Microsoft can introduce new products and innovation, it’s probably Ozzie. If he takes the CEO spot, as some predict he will soon, Microsoft could head in new directions.

    In general, it’s hard to argue with Brass that the software company he used to work for has crafted its own “creative destruction,” but the cash registers continue to ring in Redmond, and there are smart people there. Over the next decade, Microsoft could easily pull a few rabbits out of its hat, and become a very different kind of company.

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  • How-To: Remotely Wipe an iPhone Using Exchange

    The thought of your iPhone or iPod touch falling into the wrong hands is enough to scare anyone. The iPhone does have the passcode function to keep prying eyes out, but what if that’s not enough?

    In a corporate environment, the loss of a device like this is a major ordeal. Apple has touted the MobileMe remote wiping capabilities, but what if you don’t use MobileMe? If you are in a corporate environment, you probably connect to an exchange server for mail. Using OWA (Outlook Web Access) you can remotely wipe your lost or stolen iPhone/iPod touch and breath easy knowing your data is safe.

    As I stated, this relies on using the Exchange email push functionality in the iPhone OS. I have only tested this with Exchange 2007 so I can’t verify how or if this works in older versions of Exchange. OWA is Microsoft’s fancy name for web mail so the first thing you need to do is access your company’s web mail.

    1. After you successfully login, click on the Options button in the top right.
    2. Now click on the Mobile Devices option in the left-hand menu.
    3. You should now see your iPhone or iPod touch device listed. Click the radio button next to your device and the click Wipe All Data from Device…
    4. You will get a confirmation dialog to confirm you really want to do this. After you confirm, the Status will change to Pending Wipe.
    5. The next time your iPhone/iPod touch has an internet connection and checks in with Exchange, a secure wipe is initiated. This is what the screen looks like to the user.
    6. After the wipe has been started, the status for the device in OWA will change to Wipe Successful and you can remove the device from the list.

    You can give this a try on your own device if you want to see the magic. Be advised that it will take about an hour to wipe the device so you can’t use it during that time. After the wipe, you can restore from a backup in iTunes. Since this is done in OWA, you don’t even have to bother your Network Admin. Maybe you are a little embarrassed that you lost your iPhone. This way no one has to know. Your secret will be safe with me.

  • New, Open Symbian Looks Beyond Smartphones

    The Symbian Foundation said today that it’s completed the migration to open source — and that it’s hoping to take the mobile operating system far beyond smartphones. The transition to open source — which the Symbian Foundation crows is “the largest in software history” — enables developers and organizations to access the code for use on any platform, not just phones but tablets and a wide range of other connected devices, according to Larry Berkin, Symbian’s head of global alliances and U.S. general manager.

    “If you look at eras of computing, from the desktop to the laptop to cellphones, things have grown in an order of magnitude,” Berkin told me. “My anticipation is that over the next 5-10 years you’re going to see all kinds of things. Unit volumes certainly rest in the phone space today, but we anticipate that morphing and changing.”

    Nokia announced plans to take Symbian open source in June 2008, a move that including buying the remainder of the company and establishing the Symbian Foundation. But while the conversion was completed four months ahead of schedule, the OS lost substantial ground during the transition to competing platforms from Apple, RIM and Google. The shifting landscape has led some to question whether it’s already too late for Symbian to capitalize on open sourcing the OS.

    But carriers are already looking to connected devices to shore up slimming voice margins, and a variety of new tablets will come to market this year. It may seem odd to hear that the 10-year-old Symbian platform is targeting the new wave of devices, but it’s a smart move for an operating system that continues to lose market share — especially now that Nokia’s long-term hopes for high-end handsets hinge on Maemo.

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    Image courtesy Flickr user KhE 龙.

  • With Mobile, Firefox Buys Into the Browser and Scorns Apps

    Mozilla is hoping to create a seamless browsing experience regardless of whether you’re accessing the Internet on a phone or PC. But in the era of the native mobile app, is that a strategy that can win?

    Firefox for Maemo, which was released earlier this week, offers some undeniably cool features for Nokia’s new mobile operating system. The browser includes Weave, a tool that syncs bookmarks, saved passwords, browsing history and open browser tabs with your PC, effectively minimizing the keystrokes that can be such a hassle on a phone. And Fennec, as the mobile browser is dubbed, enables users to choose from about 40 other browser add-ons, including an ad blocker and a YouTube interface.

    Those add-ons provide an impressive level of personalization, and they underscore the role that the browsers may eventually fill as a unifying force in the increasingly complex world of smartphone platforms. But the strategy contrasts with the OS-specific model pursued by Apple and a host of others. Even Google — whose business is the web — has followed in Apple’s footsteps with its Android OS and related app store, Android Market.

    For Mozilla to help reshape that paradigm, it will need to create a mobile footprint to match its presence on PCs, where it claims a 24 percent market share — and that’s not likely to happen anytime soon. Nokia’s Maemo is on a tiny fraction of mobile phones, and while a Windows Mobile version of the Fennec browser is in production, the browser is incompatible with BlackBerry OS and would likely be banned from Apple’s App Store. That’s why Mozilla’s best near-term hope for traction in mobile lies in an Android version that is expected to follow the Windows Mobile offering.

    If Fennec is a hit with Android users, Mozilla could help mobile evolve beyond a landscape of OS-specific applications and toward a more PC-like environment where apps are largely web-based. That’s a very attractive scenario for developers who have long had to build a different version of each app for each mobile platform, but it’s also a long way off.

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    Screenshot image courtesy Mozilla.

  • Multitasking is Overrated

    Perhaps the strongest criticism of the iPhone has been that it doesn’t support multitasking, aside from a few of Apple’s own system level applications that are included on the device and can’t be deleted. Yet the iPhone sells like hotcakes, and Apple has a technical solution that essentially accomplishes the same thing, called background notifications. If multitasking is so important, as the critics, pundits and technology bloggers will tell you, why have the iPhone and its sibling the iPod touch become two of the most successful electronics devices of all time?

    Because the technology press and hardcore technology users have an unprecedented platform from which to speak and be heard. Period. End of story.

    Last week’s iPad announcement made this abundantly clear. The technosphere has labeled the iPad an unqualified failure, in large part due to lack of multitasking. News flash: multitasking is overrated. Its not nearly as important to average, everyday users as it is to the people who cover technology for a living. Despite the fact that Palm’s WebOS and Google’s Android both support multitasking, neither has come anywhere close to the success of the iPhone.

    With the iPhone and now the iPad, Apple is clearly targeting a mass consumer audience. Many of these users aren’t comfortable with computers. They use them almost because they have, for email and a few other core tasks. Obviously this is changing, as the number of computer and Internet users continues to grow. Its not because computers and the Internet are incredibly easy to use, because they aren’t. In fact, the difficulty in using computers has probably slowed adoption of computing and Internet services into consumers’ daily lives, and part of that complexity comes from multitasking.

    Here are three observations that also lead me to believe that multitasking just isn’t that important to most people.

    1. I have facilitated or observed literally thousands of web usability test sessions over the last several years. In watching people use computers and the web, I’ve noticed three very specific behaviors: 1) most people instantly maximize windows to fill their screens and minimize distractions; 2) only the most tech savvy users use alt-tab (Windows) or command-tab (Mac) to switch between apps; and 3) people are far more likely to be confused when multiple windows and apps are open.
    2. There has been a surge in interest in the last few years for desktop applications that take over the screen. This is true of Firefox, for example, which has a full-screen “kiosk” mode, and several word processors designed to let users write without distraction.
    3. Despite pretty regular usage, my wife still struggles with some basic Mac operations related to multitasking, such as closing windows as an attempt to quit an app, switching between apps, not realizing which window is active, etc. While she still uses the Mac, she has moved more and more of her computing activity to her iPhone because she doesn’t have these same issues.

    Sure, many of us heavy users like multitasking on our computers and might not feel nearly as productive without it (I say feel because there is evidence to suggest that we aren’t really multitasking but fast switching, and performance suffers when we do). But the majority of people in the world aren’t like us. They want something that is really easy to use and understand, and that provides some level of enjoyment or helps make their lives easier. Apple’s iP products (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad) are designed for these people.

    What Apple is really doing is making technology disappear, surfacing content in a very human way. Even if processing power and battery life are currently capable of delivering multitasking, I’m not sure Apple will implement it in the way we think of multitasking today. Perhaps it will allow background processing and easier switching among apps, which get at core user needs, but I expect it will maintain a solotasking approach well into the future of its product designs.

  • Promiscuous Developers Want Downloads Not Dollars

    Few developers of location-aware mobile apps are distributing titles across multiple storefronts, but those who are are doing it because they want downloads rather than revenue, according to data out today from Skyhook Wireless.

    Skyhook, which provides a Wi-Fi database to determine a user’s location, said a manual search turned up 6,000 location apps through Apple’s App Store, 900 in the Android Market and 300 in BlackBerry App World. But only 43 titles were available in all three stores, and most of those were free — an indication, Skyhook concluded, that developers make cross-platform apps to boost downloads, not revenues. “Developers that are interested in high revenue tend to focus only on paid apps for iPhone,” according to the company.

    But the low number of cross-platform apps could just be a reflection of BlackBerry App World’s small (but growing) library, which some iPhone and Android developers are just beginning to embrace. And while getting paid for each download is great, advertising dollars are increasingly playing a key role in monetizing location-aware mobile applications. Developers of compelling location apps will surely support multiple storefronts as the segment matures and their apps become recognizable brands. But their business models won’t necessarily depend on download revenues.

    Related GigaOM Pro (sub. req’d) research:

    Image courtesy Flickr user Nimbuzz.

  • SinglePoint Jettisons Messaging to Focus on SMS Ads

    SinglePoint this morning said it’s spinning off its mobile messaging business to Ericsson to focus solely on the quiet — but lucrative — SMS advertising segment. A longtime player in mobile marketing, the Seattle-area company gained traction with interactive text campaigns including those used by Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and TV shows such as “Deal or No Deal.”

    Mobile text ads have steadily picked up steam even as sexier offerings like in-app marketing or video ads attract attention. Text ads accounted for an astounding 88 percent of total U.S. mobile ad revenues last year, according to J. P. Morgan, ringing in $2.3 billion. And it will surge to $3.2 billion in 2010, J. P. Morgan pridicts. Veteran mobile companies OpenMarket and mBlox launched SMS ad platforms last year in an effort to tap some of those dollars, joining a host of others in the space. Look for some of the SMS ad guys to get picked up in the coming months as the bigger players — including perhaps Google — seek to fill the holes in their mobile advertising businesses.

    Related GigaOM Pro (sub. req’d) research:

    Image courtesy Flickr user Tom Legrady.

  • iPad Prognostications: What Apple Fans Want in a Web Tablet

    A few weeks back, we asked Apple fans here at TheAppleBlog what you wanted in a web tablet. To round things out a bit, we also queried the mobile gadget enthusiasts what mattered to them over at jkOnTheRun.

    Today we published the results of our technology enthusiast survey, and no doubt about it, most had strong opinions about what made a good web tablet. While there is no doubt for many of you that you’ll own an iPad someday, many see the price of a web tablet, the recurring cost of mobile broadband as well as other factors are important.

    If you are interested in seeing some of the slides from the survey, head on over to GigaOM. If you’d like access to the full report, head over to GigaOM Pro and subscribe today to our all-you-can eat research service for one year at just $79.

    Note:  Those of you who took the survey should have been emailed the survey with the executive summary, as promised, in the original survey post. TheAppleBlog would also like to congratulate William Thomas and Sean Roycroft, winners of the $50 Amazon gift cards.

  • iPad Prognostications: What Matters in Web Tablets

    When it comes to Apple’s iPad , the question for many is not if they will buy the device, but when. However, as detailed in our new report at GigaOM Pro (sub. req’d), which presents the results of a survey of technology enthusiasts we ran in the run-up to the iPad launch, the answer may not be day one. In fact, a significant number of people may end up sitting on the iPad sidelines for the foreseeable future as they weigh factors such as price, connectivity features and choice of wireless carrier.

    As can be seen in the embedded slideshow below, price and cost of broadband service ranked near the top of purchase considerations when it comes to web tablets. Given the extra $130 it costs to add 3G to the iPad, not to mention the monthly carrier access fees, such considerations will factor heavily into the success of Apple’s latest gadget.

    When asked about what technical features mattered most on a web tablet, a nearly unanimous 98 percent of respondents ranked connectivity at the top, and 85 percent said an e-reader feature was a must-have. Video games, on the other hand, were only seen as important by 39 percent of our respondents.

    And is Apple the only game in town when considering a web tablet?  According to our survey, it depends where your loyalties lie. If you’re a confirmed Apple fanatic, there’s no other choice. But if you’re a general mobile enthusiast, there’s a chance you’d be open to a Windows or Android version as your web tablet platform.

    Bottom line? The iPad hit most of right notes and will see much of its early demand driven by the same early adopters who rushed out to buy the first-generation iPhone. But also like the iPhone, the price of the first-gen product and associated fees could keep some out of the game, at least for 2010.

    To read the full 33-page report on our web tablet survey, head over to GigaOM Pro, where for just $79 a year you can access it and over 70 more in-depth research reports and insight pieces.

    Related GigaOM Pro Research:

  • Are Emerging Markets Enough to Fuel Nokia’s Ovi Store?

    Nokia’s Ovi Store, after stumbling out of the gate last year, appears to have found its rhythm, becoming the storefront of choice for mobile developers in emerging markets. But whether it can turn that success into big money is unclear.

    Deemed “a complete disaster” in the wake of its launch last May, the Ovi Store has gained remarkable traction in recent weeks. Nokia last week said the storefront had begun delivering a million downloads a day, and Greystripe — which recently scored another $2 million in funding –  today said it had extended support for its mobile gaming ad network to the Ovi Store. Research In Markets has confirmed the momentum, proclaiming that the Ovi Store has overtaken Apple’s App Store in “crucial high-growth emerging markets” in the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America.

    That success is getting lost in translation, though, in Western Europe and North America. An executive from the mobile app analytics firm Flurry told me this morning that over the last year building for the iPhone has accounted for roughly 80 percent of developers’ time, while Java — the feature phone platform that Nokia dominates — accounts for only 1 percent. And Flurry has some experience in emerging markets, as it built and distributed email apps for feature phones in developing economies before shifting its focus to higher-end gadgets in more mature markets.

    “To me, Nokia’s stated ‘progress’ in developing markets reveals that the company continues to lose ground in key markets; namely, North America, Europe and Japan,” Flurry VP of Marketing Peter Farago told me this morning via e-mail. “Apple is segmenting the high end of the market, rolling up the most desirable and affluent consumers with a handset against which no OEM has successfully competed to date, and that is supported by the power of the App Store (read: 3rd party developer community).  And where Apple may leave any vulnerability, Android is attempting to challenge.”

    Nokia’s worldwide footprint remains unchallenged among handset vendors, of course, and its focus on location-aware devices could make it the manufacturer of choice for GPS-enabled handsets. But even as Nokia continues to gain ground in emerging markets, it’s worth asking whether the world minus the U.S. truly is enough.

    Image courtesy Flickr user Mr. Wind-Up Bird.

  • Google’s Chrome OS: Why It’s Not a Layup

    Whether it fails or succeeds, Google’s upcoming Chrome OS will be one of the biggest technology stories of 2010. As predictions of its future success in tablets and elsewhere proliferate, though, the hurdles that this operating system faces become clearer.

    The Challenge of Tablets and Touch Interfaces. The developers working on Chromium, the open-source core of the Chrome OS, have already shown photos and videos of tablet concepts running Chrome OS, many similar in form factor to Apple’s iPad. (Google has only announced its intention to put the OS on netbooks, but is widely predicted to pursue tablets.) In the video below, courtesy of the Chromium Blog, you can see numerous interface concepts for how Chrome tablets might work with touch interfaces, including some that differ from how Apple’s iPad works. (Multitouch features are now on their way to Google’s Nexus One phone.) It’s worth remembering, though, that the iPad’s OS and interface components have been developed by and improved upon by Apple for years now. Google has less experience doing advanced interfaces for operating systems, and if it spreads out beyond netbooks with Chrome OS (GigaOM Pro, subscription required), that could matter a lot.

    Chrome OS Has to Speak to Other Hardware. If Chrome OS does show up on a widespread basis in netbooks and tablets, and if some Chrome OS-based tablets are on a collision course with the iPad, then Google has to work carefully to deliver compatibility with other hardware devices that’s on par with what Apple and Microsoft typically offer. Since Chrome OS is based on the Ubuntu Linux OS and has worked with Canonical on OS development, it will take advantage of existing driver libraries and hardware compatibility software layers. However, people can get quite disappointed when their brand new, shiny hardware device can’t print, and Linux distributions don’t have the best reputation for exhaustive hardware support. As PCMag notes, netbooks now offer a pretty comprehensive level of hardware support, ranging from slots for multiformat card readers, to (in some cases) sophisticated video components.

    Who Calls Google for Support? Contrary to what some may believe, Google does provide support for its product offerings, including for the paid versions of Google Apps. However, not many of us would cite frequent calls to Google’s support folks. But not only will it have to offer robust hardware compatibility, it also has to answer hardware support questions when things don’t work. Google is already facing this issue in trying to support its Nexus One phone, amidst criticism. How much will Google’s lack of experience in this area, compared to Apple and Microsoft, matter?

    The Cloud Question. As I’ve noted before, Google is taking a big gamble with Chrome OS by asking people to work with all data in the cloud. The lack of ability to work with local applications, utilities and data is a decision that I expect Google to reconsider over time. After all, quite aside from the potential data security issues involved in cloud storage, don’t you have a few local utilities and apps that you love on your PC or Mac? Would you want a system that treated them as non-existent? As further evidence of Chrome OS’ blithe attitude toward jettisoning local software, if it  detects malware it will wipe the operating system completely, then re-image it.

    Commitment to the OS. I’ve been a technology editor for long enough to remember the early versions of both Windows and the Mac OS. They were very stripped-down compared to today’s versions, and it took years of expensive development and commitment to improve them. Even with several years of OS development under its belt, Microsoft still stumbled with Windows Vista. Operating systems are complicated beasts requiring ongoing commitment. Google CEO Eric Schmidt has all but said that a big part of the reason for Chrome is that users of a Google OS will naturally feed into the company’s lucrative search-and-ad ecosystem. One has to wonder if that signals complete dedication to ongoing development of a world-class operating system.

    Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited to see Chrome OS roll out, precisely because it takes some risks. There have already been many glowing reports about how the OS boots in seconds — even from a USB key — and more. However, in a world that seems to automatically embrace all things Google, it’s worth remembering that many projects at the company have fallen by the wayside. Chrome OS may well succeed, but Google’s going to have some significant hurdles to jump over first.

    Related GigaOM Pro Content:

    Thumbnail tablet image courtesy of the Chromium Blog; in-post image courtesy of Google.

    tablet_concept

  • Mobile Industry Dances Toward Consolidation

    Rumors of a tie-up between Leap Wireless and rival MetroPCS are flying again following yesterday’s report in the Wall Street Journal that Leap is seeking a buyer. But will Leap strike a deal with MetroPCS before T-Mobile USA finds a partner in what looks to be a coming wave of carrier consolidation?

    The U.S. wireless market has striated into first-, second- and third-tier carriers, and AT&T and Verizon Wireless continue to increase their leads over the rest of the field. The saturated market leaves little hope for Sprint and T-Mobile to turn things around in terms of subscriber adds, plus T-Mobile is in a sticky position when it comes to having enough spectrum and the funds to acquire more for next-generation wireless technologies. In the meantime, there’s pressure from prepaid carriers attacking from below and high fees paid to other telecommunications players for Sprint’s and T-Mobile’s mobile backhaul that’s cutting into profits and revenue.

    That’s the case for both Sprint and T-Mobile to find a dance partner, if not to pair off together. A MetroPCS buy of Leap primarily offers cost synergies that would help the two lower their costs for running the network and serving customers. They already have an agreement signed in 2008 that lets customers of each roam onto the other’s network, which was a big step in giving them nationwide coverage. So really what they need is a deal that allows them to cut costs as they try to stay ahead of the brutal price wars in pre-paid.

    The reality is that at this stage in the game, finding the right dance partner is a challenge. Deutsche Telekom in November said it was keeping its options open regarding T-Mobile’s fate, leading to speculation about potential tie-ups. A Sprint/T-Mobile merger has long been rumored, but network incompatibilities and antitrust concerns make that scenario unlikely. A merger between T-Mobile and MetroPCS makes more sense. Unlike Sprint, both T-Mobile and MetroPCS are headed down the LTE path, and a tie-up could help T-Mobile compete without setting off antitrust alarms. I’m hoping that this year, we’ll see who finds a partner and who has to sit out as mobile broadband and wireless service drive technological innovation.

    Image courtesy Flickr user teo_ladodicivideo.