Blang!

CNN continues to circle the drain. What happened to this former “most trusted” news authority? I’m consistantly stunned by what a joke it’s become. I guess they are trying to emulate Fox?

Anyhow, the premise of this story is that Google, for all it’s cash and prestige, actually never releases a “killer” anything. It’s fair comment that Google has had many unsuccessful “product” releases, but, it seems this particular “business insider” hasn’t been paying attention.

First, the dismissive claim that the only thing Google has ever done well is its original search engine. Uh what?

First of all, even if that were true, search is still the most important application on the web and Google’s turned it into gold not only by making the best search engine, but by creating adwords. The dominance of search can not be dismissed. It still makes Google is still the most important company on the web and if Google never did anything else, they would still make a zillion dollars.

But setting aside search for the moment, somehow, Dan Frommer has never looked up an address on Google maps, or watched his own channel (CNN) zoom in on a map using Google Earth. What about street view? If ever their was a “killer-app” on the web, that has to be it. He says, “Google is no product-killer” ? Perhaps he should go ask the map makers at Rand McNally or map-quest their opinion on that?

And what about that gmail thing? Granted that Google hasn’t destroyed anyone, but GMail slammed hotmail and does anyone still have a yahoo mail account? I guess they do if they love spam.

How about phones? The article makes a big deal about how Google launched, the canceled it’s Nexus One phone making it sound like Google’s attempt at getting into phones was over, case closed… This must be intentional ignorance. The Nexis One was introduced to demonstrate the power of Google’s Android phone operating system which is now gaining market share at stunning rate. While the “iPhone” gets all the press, Android is steadily gaining market share.

As I’ve pointed out before, unlike Apple which is the only company that can release iX-ish products (iPad, iPhone, iPod, etc) Android can be taken and used by anyone. Thus it’s starting to appear on phones, tablets, set-top boxes, netbooks, and the list continues to grow.

I think maybe CNN is a bit sore over that other “non-killer-app”, Google news. Ya, the one that is so not important that every news outlet in America has been whining about the “death of real journalism”. Or maybe it’s the threat that youtube will replace news channels where you have to sit through hours of garbage just to see a few solid news stories?

Let us not forget the punch line to all this; Apple and Microsoft buy adds on CNN, Google does not. But of course this would never have any influence on a company with true journalistic integrity would it?

I’m really not that strongly anti-Apple, but I keep coming across these prominent stories on digg about how people are switching away from Apple.  The latest of which is “Switching from iPhone to Android”. Choice quote “Android is looking good nowadays, and Apple’s creepy corporate culture is wearing me down.”

Just in case you’ve not ready any of my other posts on the topic, I predicted Android will rule the world because it’s open and therefore it can run on anything. In much the same way that VHS ultimately crushed Betamax, (or the Phillips screw beat Robertson’s design), (a perceived) technical superiority is no match for proliferation. Devices running Android will starting appearing out of the woodwork while the next Apple gadget has to wait for Apple.

But I digress; the topic of this post is actually digg’s ability to predict the future. For a long time I thought digg wasn’t anything special, just another site rehashing stories from other sites. But then the 2008 US presidential election came along.

Long before his name was ever mentioned in main stream media, while everyone was still talking about Rudy Giuliani or Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama was generating buzz on digg. And against all odds he actually won! From nowhere to the first black president, and all predicted on digg. Was it just a fluke? I don’t think so.

Since then I’ve noticed that I read about new movies on digg long long before anyone else has even heard of them. A recent example is Avitar. It was getting “buzz” on digg before anyone even knew what it was about and now it’s the most successful box office movie of all time.  Another example was “The Dark Knight”. Heath Ledger was getting “buzz” as the Joker long before he died. His death may have propelled the movie even higher, but I have a feeling that it was going to be a smash hit even if he hadn’t passed away.

However, there is one thing to be cautious of, does digg reflect the true feeling of the people, or is it just the result of clever marketing planting stories? Or a better question, does it matter? If all we care about is predicting the future, then whether or not the buzz is real or artificially generated, the result is the same.

So is digg predicting the future downfall of  the iPhone, or is Google just planting all those positive Android postings? Either way, if recent digg history is any indication, Apple should be worried.

“Ultimately, my reason for switching can be summed up thusly: I used to feel that, to get the best smartphone software and hardware experience, I had to live in Apple’s walled garden. Now, the walls are getting higher, and life outside the garden looks better and better.” full article

In a way, the most telling thing about this article in PC World is that the name “Microsoft” isn’t even hinted at. Lots of people upgraded to Windows 7 so profits are looking pretty good at the moment, but chances are that by the time Microsoft comes out with their next major release, mobile devices will be king and they won’t be running Windows…

Just a couple news shorts:

When did Apple become uncool?

This started me thinking, just when did I start to dislike Apple so much?

Android now #2 best selling mobile OS

This conclusion is based on sketchy data gathered from surveys, not from actual handset sales, but still, it shows that Android is poised to become an unstoppable force.

You know Apple’s “coolness” factor is in serious jeopardy when you’ve become the target of ridicule on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show. A partial transcript:

“Apple – you guys were the rebels, man, the underdogs. People believed in you. But now, are you becoming the man? Remember back in 1984, you had those awesome ads about overthrowing Big Brother? Look in the mirror, man! …It wasn’t supposed to be this way – Microsoft was supposed to be the evil one! But you guys are busting down doors in Palo Alto while Commandant Gates is ridding the world of mosquitoes! What the fuck is going on?!”
It’s becoming more and more clear that Apple has become arrogant and out of touch. Case in point, Steve Jobs actually had the gall to state that one of the main reasons Apple won’t allow Adobe Flash on the iPhone is because Flash is  “not open”.

Let me get this straight…  You won’t allow Flash on your completely closed and proprietary iPhone platform because Flash is closed and proprietary?!? Only someone who is completely oblivious to the way Apple acts and is perceived in the real world would make a statement that ridiculous.

So if Steve believes Adobe Flash is doomed because it’s closed and proprietary, what is he predicting for Apple? Again, clear evidence he is out of touch.

It seems that with the launch of the iPod in 2001, the whole world forgot that until that point, Apple had not had a hit product since the Apple IIc. In fact, the company was such a looser it was flirting with bankruptcy. Failure after failure meant things were so bad that in 1997 Apple had to be bailed out by Microsoft, a fact that causes Apple fanboys to cringe to this day.

Sure the Macintosh generated a lot of hype, mostly on the back of the famous Ridley Scott directed “1984″ commercial that launched the product, but it never had any significant market share and Apple did nothing significant in the 1990s. It’s only accomplishment during that time seems to have been influencing the design of Microsoft Windows.

In 2007, Apple released the iPhone. Without question this has been Apple’s biggest accomplishment. Apple proved that with careful design, Mobile computing can be a compelling segment of the market. So what to do next?

Based largely on the halo effect generated by the iPod and iPhone, systems running Mac OS are up marginally but show no signs of displacing Microsoft on the desktop, _ever_.

Meanwhile, eReaders and Netbooks are generating a lot hype so Apple is tempted to enter that segment of the market and thus we have the iPad. As Steve Jobs infamously said in his own speech, “netbooks do nothing well”. Unfortunately, the rest of that sentence is “and the iPad does them worse.”

Basically the iPad is an over-sized iPod-touch. I don’t know anyone who uses an iPod-touch for anything useful. Furthermore, the display might be nice compared to an iPod or iPhone, but sure as heck doesn’t replace a desktop and it’s glare prone illuminated touch-screen sucks as an eReader since it won’t be visible in bright light. At .73kg, it’s three times heaver than a Kindle! Who wants to lug that around?

There is nothing an iPad does that isn’t already being done on the much more portable iPhone, or a much more versatile MacBook, or a much cheaper NetBook, or an easier to read eBook. In short, it’s an “in-between” device that’s so in between everything that it serves no purpose.

Need a truly mobile device? Get an iPhone. Need a portable computer? Get a laptop. Need a cheap portable computer? Get a Netbook. Need to read electronic books? Get an eReader.

Need to prove you’re still an Apple fan-boy? Get an iPad.