Android and Apple iOS will not beat BlackBerry

Sunday, November 7th, 2010

Fanboys had better sit down before continuing, as I have some bad news for you, unless your particular tech obsession of choice is CrackBerry or Windows flavoured. Neither Apple iOS nor Android will beat BlackBerry or Microsoft as a mobile business platform any time soon, according to the latest market research.

But more of that later, first let’s start with some confusing jargon. A newly published study conducted by Plantronics reinforces what I already know, namely that more and more people are working outside of the traditional office environment these days.

Well, actually, that’s being a little disingenuous as in reality it confused me greatly by suggesting that people increasingly work in ‘transitional spaces’ and, to be honest, I had no idea what that really meant.  Delving a little deeper, it would appear that it means ‘public spaces used while in transit’ according to Plantronics. Translated into normal-speak I think what the survey was actually trying to say is that people are doing more work while on the bus, train or plane. And in hotel rooms, airport lounges or coffee shops for that matter. Anywhere outside of the office, other than the home environment in other words.

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Silverlight RIP?

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

The battle royal between HTML5 and the two major plugin runtimes of Silverlight from Microsoft and Flash from Adobe continues to rumble on.

To the intense annoyance of both firms, it appears Apple is holding sway here with its insistence that neither Silverlight nor Flash will be allowed on the iOS platform used in the iPhone and iPad. And that, in its opinion, HTML5 is the future.

Well, there is no doubt that HTML5 is the future, in that the current HTML5 implementation leaves much to be desired and it will take time and work for this to be fleshed out. But Apple says no, use native code on iOS or use HTML5. (more…)

Death of the sales channel

Tuesday, October 26th, 2010

The news that Microsoft will have a software e-shop for Windows 8, and that Apple will be doing the same for its forthcoming Lion version of OS X, should be ringing alarm bells in the boardrooms of the high-street vendors, and the online e-shops.

The reality is that customers like buying from a curated store, with easy installation, payment and updating. And they like the low prices that this method tends to bring. In addition, developers love it because it allows for them to concentrate on app design and not on website design, credit card handling, and the huge overhead of keeping in touch with customers for updates.

However, if you’re in the business of selling packaged software, then you are about to have your Titanic moment. (more…)

Why Mozilla needs to pick a new fight

Monday, October 25th, 2010

One of my very first gigs when I started at PC Pro in 2007 was to interview Tristan Nitot, the president of Mozilla Europe. He was an affable chap, full of engaging answers to questions he’d no doubt heard a hundred times before. The interview practically wrote itself – though for the sake of appearances I held the pen.

Safari for Windows had just been released and I asked Tristan what he thought of it. “I want Safari to have a significant market share. We want choice, we want innovation, as a company that’s what we stand for,” he told me.

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Windows Phone 7: handset first look

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

Big, bold, beautifully designed and with a super bright screen, the Samsung Omnia 7 was the most impressive of the Windows Phone 7 handsets at launch.

But the first thing that struck us when we grabbed it for a quick hands-on wasn’t the look of it, or its impressive list of specifications; it was its sheer speed. Menus fly by smoothly and without shuddering, animations leap and swoop like leaves falling on a still Autumn afternoon, and the camera fires up very quickly indeed.

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Windows Phone 7: The UK handset line-up

Monday, October 11th, 2010

Microsoft has finally shown off the hardware that will run Windows Phone 7. Six phones are headed to the UK, five of which will show up 21 October (for some unknown reason, Dell’s Venue Pro is delayed until “before the holidays”).

Here they are in all their photographic glory, with some of the key specs.

To start, there’s a trio from HTC:

On the left is the HTC 7 Mozart, in the middle is the HTC HD 7, and on the right is the HTC 7 Trophy. HTC also has two other Windows Phone 7 handsets launching in the US, with no word yet if they’ll come to these shores. (more…)

I cannot uninstall Microsoft Office 2010

Friday, October 8th, 2010

The press release said that a survey of 600 sales, marketing and IT professionals from companies in the UK, France and Germany had revealed millions of pounds were being wasted every year on unused applications. Actually, it said millions of Euros but I knew what it meant. Actually, at first I didn’t know what it meant as my thoughts turned to smartphones and while I appreciate that the iPhone, BlackBerry and assorted Android devices are doing well, I wasn’t swallowing a survey which reckoned that business were wasting millions every year on apps they don’t even use.

Then I read the document again, and everything became clearer. This was a story about data governance rather than Angry Birds in the office, and don’t even get me started about that one or the wife will kill me. According to Informatica, the outfit that provided me with the research data, some 81% of those IT professionals questioned said their corporate networks were hosting unused applications and data. Which isn’t really any surprise at all, is it? I’ve just looked at my own corporate network and it’s full of applications that sounded like a good idea at the time but turned out to be a waste of money as they are never used. Microsoft Office 2010, for example.

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Should Microsoft buy Adobe?

Friday, October 8th, 2010

Now this is interesting. The New York Times has just reported talks between Microsoft and Adobe and possible discussions of a takeover. There’s certainly an apparent logic at work. The PC Pro news story quotes analyst Toan Tran saying “It may be a case of ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ and both Microsoft and Adobe have a common enemy in Apple.” With both companies suffering under the current Apple surge, perhaps such consolidation makes sense.

On the other hand there are lot of arguments against.

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The top fallacy in statistics: sample size

Thursday, October 7th, 2010

In my foolishness, I signed up for a ten-week module on statistics whilst studying for my Maths degree. And I hated it with a vengeance. It soon became crystal clear that I found 99 out of 100 topics exceptionally dull.

However, with the spiralling number of surveys appearing in the media with each passing year, having a certain amount of knowledge about statistics has come to my aid on numerous occasions. Because it turns out that even intelligent people don’t really understand statistics at all.

Here, I’d simply like to address the number one, burning misunderstanding people have about statistics: the sample size has to be similar in number to the total population in a study.

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What Microsoft employees think of Steve Ballmer

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

We can guess what Steve Ballmer thinks of Steve Ballmer’s tenure as Microsoft CEO, as he says his firm is doing just fine. “We’re a company that will make $26 billion pre-tax [this year], so I’m not going to be apologetic for our financial results,” Ballmer told the audience at a speech in London this week.

And we have a pretty clear picture what his own board feels, after it awarded him only half of his possible bonus. While that still puts an extra $670,000 in his pocket, the board chastised the CEO for his failings in the mobile space.

But what do those actually working at Microsoft think of Ballmer? Website Glassdoor lets employees rate their companies, giving advice for would-be workers on whether it’s a good idea to work there.

Of the 1,116 ratings on Glassdoor (out of 91,000 Microsoft workers worldwide), only 50% approve of Ballmer’s efforts. Of course, it’s probably biased: angry people head to the web to rant, not happy ones.
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