LIVEdigitally

Microsoft To Launch Tablet at CES: Again

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If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, then Microsoft needs a straitjacket.

How many times has Microsoft tried a tablet? At least four, over the past eleven years. How many times have they failed? Four. Today the New York Times is reporting that Microsoft is taking aim at the iPad and will introduce several tablet PCs at CES next month.

People familiar with this device said it will run the Windows 7 operating system when in landscape mode, but will also have a layered interface that will appear when the keyboard is hidden and the device is held in a portrait mode.

[SNIP]

The applications will not be sold in an app store, as with the Apple iTunes model, but Microsoft will encourage software partners to host the applications on their own Web sites, which will then be highlighted in a search interface on the slate computers. It is unclear if these applications will be ready for C.E.S. as most are still in production.

Making hardware is not that hard. Almost anyone can build a tablet computer these days. Making a great tablet is very hard. I’d even wager that the team behind the iPad looks at their product and all they can see is future improvements. That said, it is clearly the best tablet we’ve got so far. It is hard to replicate the iPad’s usability. It is hard to capture intuitive and repeatable gestures. It is hard to capture Apple’s mindshare and market position.

It seems these days that Microsoft is reacting instead of leading. Their fundamental approach is “iPad is not that good and doesn’t meet the needs of business professionals.” And that plan just isn’t working out for them.

What happened to the Microsoft that invented Windows? Remember Start Me Up? What happened to the company that built Office and the Xbox? I want to root for Windows and Microsoft. I want Microsoft to deliver simple, beautiful technologies to people.

And just like I have for the past few years, I’ll be skipping Ballmer’s CES demo. Not that I don’t want to be there. It is that I feel like I have been there before. I will hope for something amazing. I would love to discover that I missed the best keynote ever. But instead, if it even mentions Microsoft one note, someone should have a straitjacket on hand just in case.

My cord-cut TV set-up

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Following my last post, I thought I would explain my personal cord-cut situation and highlight what is working for me (and what isn’t) as I try to enjoy TV without cable.

First off, the main source of video entertainment (both TV and movies) is Netflix accessed via a Roku box.  Yes, we don’t get the latest content and yes, the selection is somewhat restricted, but there is enough there that keeps our interest.

I’m also a huge fan of webTV, which I access on Roku or online from my computer (my wife thinks I’m nuts, for a bunch of reasons of course, but my webTV hobby is one of them.)

The big gap here is sports. I get around this because I’m simply not a sports fan, so even if I had cable I wouldn’t watch a lot (or any) sports. (Full disclosure: I saw, and loved, the Vancouver Olympics on cable before I cut it)

I did get an MLB.com account (and jump on the bandwagon) to watch the SF Giants in the World Series. I loved the experimentation of it all and found the experience to be good.

The one sport I do enjoy (and miss dearly) is Formula 1 racing. Right now, I have no good way to follow my favorite fast cars. I read some of the updates online but that is a very sad alternative to watching a thrilling race live.

Also, HBO… That is another huge gap in my viewing pleasure that I miss. We get a lot of the shows on DVD via Netflix but it would be beyond fantastic to have a streaming solution.

As far as news and current events, I get that online, in magazines (I love magazines) and increasingly via electronic magazine purchases on my iPad.

My next moves? Well, I’ll be getting an HD antenna soon to watch over-the-air TV. This will let us watch some interesting shows and hopefully some big events, like the Oscars. I was considering Hulu Plus on Roku but it sounds like that offering isn’t as complete as it could be, so I may wait it out.

Two other disclosures:

1) I’m actually skeptical that this whole cord-cutter thing is a really huge trend. I think people will come back to cable once the economy improves and once cable companies up their PPV game. Cord-cutting will increasingly be a viable option, but it won’t have huge adoption in the mainstream.

2) For the record, I’m not a cord-cutter out of some religous hatred for cable companies. They aren’t my favorite companies in the world but they’re better than oil companies. I’m a cord-cutter for fun. I think it is fun to fiddle with gadgets and find ways to watch TV on my own terms.

Plus I’m super-cheap and I love saving the $60 a month. (If you cancel Comcast Xfinity triple play and get Internet and a landline separate, the savings is about $70… not a lot but I’ll take it.) Factor in the $10/month for Netflix and you walk away with $60 in your pocket and a chance to play with all the inputs on the back of your HDTV.

Is cord-cutting real?

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We’ve all heard about the recent declines in cable subscriptions as of late and the digerati are breathlessly declaring this to be the ear of “cord-cutting”. The real test of the cord-cutting phenomena will be once (or if) the economy ever picks up. As stated:

Neil Smit, president of Comcast Cable, acknowledged in a recent call with investors that some customers had dropped cable for free signals. Company executives also said they expected business to rebound with the economy.

That may very well happen.

Thus far, despite all the brou-hah-hah, the relative number of cord-cutters has been small and it has mostly been low-margin customers, the type of customers cable companies don’t want anyway.

You could reasonably assign those customer losses to the crappy economy and anticipate customer increases once things get better. If that happens, then “cord-cutting” has been a fad. But if the downward trend in customer subs (or the upward trend in cord-cutting) continues when (or again… if) housing and/or employment picks up, then the cable industry is in trouble.

I’m a fan of the cord-cutting movement (as a cord-cutter myself), but I’m skeptical about how real this trend is in the mainstream.

There are a number of wild-cards out there besides just the economy. For example, high-profile channels like HBO start making their own moves could nudge cord-cutting from fad to trend:

(Time Warner Inc. Chief Executive Jeff) Bewkes has suggested recently that HBO could be sold directly to consumers on the Web.

HBO going online is a big WOW.

Also, the big question is of course sports, and how/if you’ll be able to access outside of a cable subscription.

The question ultimately comes down to money. Yes, Netflix may have almost 17 million subscribers, but under its current deal Starz, a key supplier of content  to Netflix, makes only 15 cents a subscriber, compared to the $2/subscriber it makes off of cable companies.

Until content owners and distributers start making that kind of coin, marquee content will remain elusive on cord-cut TVs, which may squash the cord-cutting revolution.

Why Trying To Destroy Online Information Is A Dumb Idea

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Trying to put a muzzle on the internet is dumb. The nature of the web encourages users to create and share material easily and information wants to be free.

As we should have learned from the Streisand Effect, attempting to remove online information can have unintended consequences. That is, trying to delete “unwanted” websites only draws more attention to the content on said websites and makes the person attempting to stifle information look like a complete tool.

Take the recent outcry against Wikileaks. In attempting to remove the informationfrom the web, critics have only amplified the reach of the Wikileaks website. And even if the site is shut down, the information on the site can never really be destroyed.  Further, if it goes away, there’s a more-than-average probability that something else will return in its place, only less individually targetable.

Remember the end of Star Wars (the real one, not the one with the racist puppets), Obi Wan Kenobi tells Darth Vader that he can never really be defeated. If Wikileaks is struck down, it will only become more powerful than we could possibly imagine.

The recording industry and Napster serves as a classic example of what not to do online. The RIAA saw their files getting shared by music enthusiasts and immediately tried to shut down the system through legal means. The results? The RIAA did get Napster to go legit. They also then birthed distributed clones, now in the form of bit torrent sites around the world.  Only this time they are unstoppable.

What if, instead of the world of RIAA lawsuits, underground file sharing and billion dollar iPods, there was a different industry response? What if the music industry had worked with music fans to share content (for free and for profit), connect people with bands that they love and help individuals, music and technology converge in a positive, fun way? Isn’t that vision preferable to the world we inhabit today?

What is true for the record industry specifically is also true for the internet in general. When information appears that outrages, shocks, angers or offends you, the answer is not to destroy that information. This only leads to more websites, prolonged lawsuits and increased attention for the unwanted content.

Instead, individuals and organizations should recognize that information – once it is online – is almost impossible to erase. A better engagement strategy works with established structures of information and tries to compromise, collaborate and adapt. Do not try to forcibly take things offline.

I don’t exactly know what “should” be done with WikiLeaks.  I just know that taking it down is unquestionably part of the path to the Dark Side.

Is the Smart Phone also a Smart Remote Control?

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photo source: Engadget. markup: JT

Over the past few months I’ve seen tons of speculation, demos, and implementations of companies building apps and technology to turn smartphones into remote controls.  Now I get the vision, and yes, for some folks, this is going to be a wonderful marriage of technologies.  But when I say “some” I mean few.  I just don’t think people are really thinking it through in an actual home with real people.

Here’s what I think is going to happen:

  1. User downloads smart remote app to phone
  2. User manages to get said app working
  3. User controls TV with phone
  4. User is psyched, declares new configuration as “hella cool”
  5. One of the following occurs:
    1. Phone battery dies terribly rapidly due to persistent wifi connection.
    2. User takes remote control to bathroom during pivotal moment of show.
    3. Phone call during even more pivotal moment of show.
    4. etc
  6. User goes back to using regular, reliable remote.

Sounds great on paper, but I think it’s one of those problems that people aren’t going to typically face until they actually run into issues like I describe above.  But once they do, the safe prediction I can make is they stop using it that way.  For more, here are the 9 reasons a smart phone makes for a dumb remote, in my latest column at Crave on CNET.

Introducing NudgeMail!

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I am so excited to announce Stage Two Labs newest creation: NudgeMail.

NudgeMail is the world’s first fully email-based reminder system. There is nothing to download, nothing to install and no username or password to remember. NudgeMail works on all connected devices and all email clients.  It’s simple, refined, elegant, powerful, and I’m loving it.  Seriously.

We’ve been testing it for a few months now, and in that time NudgeMail has simplified my email and my life. In the past, my inbox would be overflowing with hundreds of emails, the great majority of which I needed to deal with later.  Now?  My inbox sits with an average of 12-25 emails pending, with only 4 of them being more than 2 weeks old.

I can’t prove it, but I can certainly claim anecdotally that seeing an inbox with no scrollbars makes me feel like I’m in much more control over my time than I was before.  It’s a great feeling.

I recognize that some people like things like tasks, calendars, apps, widgets and external reminders. More power to them. I also know that there are many people like me who can’t make these other reminders work, but they can get email to work. My hope is that NudgeMail provides real value and benefits to people who need to organize their inboxes and their work flows.

For more on the story of how/why we launched NudgeMail, read here.  For a bit more on the design philosophy behind the product, read this.  For some third party opinions, you can read more about NudgeMail at the New York Times, Geek.com, Mark Evans Tech, TechVibes (includes a video interview with Adam and myself), and CNET.

Crave post: Top Ten Tired Movie Tech Tricks

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Sorry I couldn’t pull off the perfect alliteration above, I couldn’t find a t-word for “movie” other than “talkie” and that just didn’t flow so well.  Sigh.

go ahead, try it at home.

But in good news, I’m going to contribute a column to Crave, which I’m pretty excited about.  First, I like the blog already.  Second, it’s a place where a little bit of irreverence is a-okay.  I could preach on about how desperately the tech blogging scene needs a lot less bandwagon-jumping and a lot more (1) looking at itself less seriously (2) less groupthink (3) more counterpoints and debate, but well, point made.

My first post at Crave is now live, it’s the “Top 10 tech tricks we’re sick of seeing in movies“.  Here’s one of my favorites to get you started:

7. Beep! Blort! BING!

You can tell characters are using computers in film because of all the beeping, whining, and whirring noises coming from their devices. From the bird-like chirping of “Star Trek” communicators to the squawking of Ziggy, the handheld computer from “Quantum Leap,” there always seems to be some kind of racket when technology comes onscreen.

If these gadgets were real, those bleep and bloops would drive any user crazy. We get that the characters are using technology. Enough with the bells and whistles.

You can read the rest over at Crave!

A Million (free) Angry Birds Downloads Exposes Critical Android Platform Fail

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One of the most popular iPhone games has come to Android, it’s called Angry Birds.  While I’m not personally a big fan (no offense, team Rovio, just not my kind of game), the game has well over 11 million downloads on the iPhone worldwide, and as of August had sold 6.5 million copies.  So if my simple math holds up, at 6.5 million copies at $0.99 per sale, that’s a gross of $6,435,000, and after a 30% cut to Apple, it’s a net of $4,505,500.  Today’s accomplishment of 1 million Android downloads (which truly is impressive, congrats Team Rovio!) results in a net of $0.  But they could make some money down the road if the ad revenue shows up.

I’m not saying Rovio won’t make some decent money off the ad platform, after all Google did blow out revenue last quarter, and is apparently making a cool billion dollars a year on mobile ads already.  But the reality here is this is a weak solution for any developer to bank on.  Ad revenue for a platform game is a highly unproven model so far, and while there will certainly be wins for some, the concept that ads are the only way to make money off Android apps is pathetic.

First, it clutters the experience.
There is no possibility that an ad-laden video game is better than one without ads.  None.  And in the mobile space, where screen real estate is precious, it’s even more impactful.

Second, it’s not bankable.
A video game, even a casual one, is generally a pretty engaging activity.  Imagine lining up your purple bird in the slingshot, ready to take down some well-defended pig to clear the level (finally!), and lo and behold, there’s an ad for something.  What’s it for?  Who knows, because you’re never, ever clicking on it, you’re taking down that pig.

Third, it’s a band-aid at best.
I’ve actually purchased an Android app (Robo Tower Defense – pretty fun actually), just to make sure I’ve gone through the experience.  It is unpleasant to say the least (fanboys who are reading this, please click here prior to commenting, thank you very much).  Did you know there are apps in the Android Market whose price points are listed as, wait for it, approximate amounts!?  Now there is a reason behind it – international developers – but it’s just so awkward to see.  Further, the effort it takes to even find half-decent stuff is painful.  I’ve honestly found the best way to find apps is using the barcode scanner app, and simply won’t bother with paid ones.

Fourth, and most importantly, I don’t see it radically changing, ever.
Android comes from Google, who obviously knows how to monetize spam, SEO, and domain squatters advertising, but just doesn’t get user experience at all (SIX years to let us turn off Conversation View? Really? Really?).  So their DNA, their “mode de vie,” is about enabling ads, not making amazing consumer-facing experiences.  This, coupled with the issue that Android is an “open” operating system, means no single serving method of enabling simple transaction systems.  And, because any carrier and manufacturer can bring any product to market, there’s no single source for developers to work with.

In short (too late): the Android platform cannot possibly offer a one-stop-shop approach to developers wishing to monetize application development, other than advertising.

I’ve been musing a lot on the topic of Android having a “missing link” problem recently.  This may just be a hiccup in the path to having the prime mobile operating system, or it may be a fatal flaw in its ability to have serious legs.  Either Google themselves will need to step in and create a core payment infrastructure to enable developers, carriers, and consumers to all work together – which seems radically unlikely – or we’re going to see even more fragmentation of the Android market, and probably in the short-to-medium term at that.

New TEDTalks iPad app is good – here's how to make it great

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I was thrilled to discover the new TEDTalks app for my iPad this morning, and quickly installed and liked much of the experience.  There they are, over 700 amazing Talks to listen to.  This is particularly sweet for me as I watch a TEDTalk on my iPad virtually every morning whilst on the bus to the office, currently obtained through the suboptimal process of subscribing to the podcast in iTunes, and syncing to the iPad.  And if I may slide for a moment here, I can’t believe in 2010 there’s still anything that has to “sync” via a wire.  But I digress, back to TED.

In just a few minutes of use I quickly realized the app was content-rich, but not feature-rich.  While the “Inspire Me” feature is extremely well done (it’s all about length of video – this is a key realization most entertainment/content people need to clue in on), I felt it was otherwise a little flat. In fact, it’s not going to be very useful for my personal needs, and I’m concerned that’ll be true for others as well.  So in my support of TED, and by the way – I genuinely believe that if all people watched TED Talks the world would actually be a better place – I thought I’d quickly jot out the notes to make it better for users such as myself.

  1. Add search
    The browse works great, but there’s no search.  So when I see a tweet from a friend about a given TED Talk, I can’t find it without browsing for it.  And, to boot, I need to know the category/tag that applies to the talk to find it.  While we’re at it, make search by keyword and author too.
  2. Add alphabetical browsing
    Per above, at present you need to know how the Talk is categorized to find it.  Personally, I’d like to find something just by browsing a list of titles.
  3. Add sharing features
    At the end of virtually every TEDTalk, I want to share it with someone, whether a peer, my team, a friend or family member, or the entire world on Twitter.  Add simple “tweet this” and “like this” and “email a link to this” TEDTalk to every clip.  Also, the link should probably share the YouTube or TED.com version of the clip.
  4. Add a history/watched list
    Once I’ve watched a few dozen videos, I find it hard to remember if I’ve seen one, or hard to remember the exact title of one if I want to reshare it.  A simple history feature is essential.  And in the would-be-nice category?  Show me “You Watched this on MMDDYY” on the video preview page if I come back to it.  Also, add a “mark viewed” feature along the way, in case I’ve watched the Talk on another platform.
  5. Incorporate social features
    Since everyone’s busy “liking” everything else via Facebook these days, would be great to see in a video profile page that friends of mine have liked something.
  6. Add download controls
    Once I begin a download, there appears no way to delete the download, queue for later, or otherwise manage whats going on.
  7. Add more “cool views”
    Timelines. Maps. Duration.  etc.
  8. Integrate with other platforms
    There’s the TED site, YouTube, the iPad app, a forthcoming iPhone app, a Boxee app, the iTunes podcast, and I’m sure more to come.  Assume I am using more than one method to consume the content, then allow me to integrate from one to the other.  In other words, let me favorite something on your site, then see that on my iPad app.

I think the “1.0” version of the app is probably pretty decent for most people.  If you have even a few free minutes and an Internet connection and want to get inspired, this app will certainly do the trick.  Hopefully these ideas can help inspire team TED to take it just a bit further!

How to Succeed at I-Stage 2010

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Next week 9 companies are taking the stage, er i-stage, to showcase their aspiring visions of future gadgetry.  This is the third year for I-Stage, and I’m pleased as punch to participate as a judge (along with ReadWriteWeb’s Richard MacManus, TechCocktail’s Frank Gruber, and Best Buy’s Rick Rommel).  This is not my first experience with the event, as I was supporting Boxee at the inaugural event two years ago.  That experience plus my time at CES and my numerous times at the Under the Radar events has me putting up this post, with some final words of wisdom (?) to this year’s finalists.  This list is not in any particular order.

  1. Practice! You have a week to go, if you are spending any less than an hour a day, you are not devoting enough time to the demo.  If you think Steve Jobs “wings it,” try holding a MacBook on the tips of your fingers and keeping it perfectly level for more than a second.  This Friday I’d spend as much as half of your day rehearsing, then keep it light over the weekend – think about how marathoners practice.
  2. Practice in front of an audience and/or camera.  Every rehearsal should either have a live audience (peers, friends, employees, strangers, spouses, pets, whatever) or be in front of some form of video camera (we use Flips at our office).  You’ll never take it seriously if you don’t feel there’s some form of audience, and it’ll help you find areas to improve.  BTW, I’d think it goes without saying, but watch the videos after you are done!
  3. Lock things down. You should be playing with your “Real” demo right now, and avoid changing your codebase as much as possible.  Further, if you feel you must continue to tweak, keep backup builds/demos ready so you can revert to stable versions.  And bring those with you, just in case.
  4. Be very redundant.  Need an HDMI cable? Bring two (or three).  Have a local server?  Have a second laptop with an identical build.  You might be able to run out to Radio Shack the morning of, but you really don’t want to.  This goes for mid-presentation as well – if you had planned to do something, and it just isn’t working out, be ready to swap out with a secondary version instead at a moment’s notice.  You should probably practice that too.
  5. Make sure we understand your… (whichever are applicable, odds are most of them)
    1. Vision
    2. Product
    3. Target Market
    4. Pricing
    5. Distribution
    6. Differentiation
    7. Technology
    8. Strategy
    9. Plan
    10. Benefits
  6. Emphasize benefits. As an example, the technology behind SMS is uninteresting, whereas the benefit of being able to send short text-based messages to your contacts is huge.  Focus on the way your technology & features benefit your target users, not the technology & features themselves.
  7. Prune your pitch.  You only get 3 minutes, which is NOT much time!  Your pitch should be fine-tuned, with literally every word mattering.  Don’t show esoterics, don’t show fluff, and don’t try to wow us with “me-too” elements of your features (“look, it even tweets!”).
  8. Show off. Show us what makes you special, different, distinct.  Show the steak and make it sizzle.  Show the amazing features and the corresponding benefits.  Show the vision.  There’s a huge difference between “fluff” and “sizzle” – find it, and show us!
  9. Plan on reliable stuff. Power is reliable.  Computers are pretty reliable.  WiFi can be unreliable.  Cell networks are unreliable.  Prototypes are unreliable.  Beta software is unreliable.  Real-time is very unreliable.  Waiting for Internet results for anything is highly unreliable.  You should not have anything unreliable in your demo – as I said before, with only 3 minutes you don’t have much wiggle room if you are depending on a real-time Internet lookup of something over a 3G network with geo-tuned services.
  10. Entertain us.  Now that your demo is all set, you’ve practiced, it’s reliable, your pitch is solid, etc, it’s time to add a little charm.  Make a joke.  Do something interactive with the audience.  Show some color.  Do something that takes your pitch beyond “just a demo”.  At the very least, smile and make eye contact!
  11. Avoid cliches. Please, no references to jetpacks, flying cars, or laser guns.  Seriously.  And nothing about lists that go to eleven.

Good luck inventors and entrepreneurs!  We’ll see you next week.

ps – one more tip: pack layers, its cold in San Francisco.

The most dangerous media company in the world

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Apple.

Yes, Apple.

Even Apple is afraid of this company (I think). If they weren’t, then why would they let them come standard on the new AppleTV and offer a service that is essentially a competitor to their iTunes movie rental business?

The company I’m talking about is Netflix. If there is one company that should have everyone from Apple to the cable companies quaking it is Netflix.

The announcement that Netflix is standard on AppleTV solidified the company’s position as the default service to get content over the Internet. Over the past 10 years or so, while content producers, cable companies and others fiddled with Hulu, pay walls, and other ideas, Netflix built  the library and the audience and to take over the steaming content market the same way Apple took over the gizmo market.

Sure, Amazon and HuluPlus also have interesting offerings but they are more a compliment to an existing Netflix account, not a replacement. Yes, Amazon and HuluPlus offer some content you can’t find on Netflix, but there is also a lot of overlap (Why do I need to watch 30 Rock on HuluPlus with commercials when I can watch it commercial-free on Netflix?)

Even the bankers are getting in on deal! The other week CrediteSuisse pretty much called out Netflix as one of the main (among the many) nails in the coffin of cable companies. They estimated that a third of viewers age 25-34 use Netflix to cut their cable. While sadly I’m no longer in that prized demographic, I am among the Netflix-powered cable cutters.

Netflix is more than just a clever movie streaming service, it is defining the new content distribution model. When the history of online content is written Netflix will be lauded as one of the main agents that dismantled the old system and founded the new.

Quick Hits: Sony Remote Monstrosity, Early Revue Reviews, Android #1?, iPhone-to-TV, Congrats Foundry Group!

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Sony Remote Monstrosity
Engadget got a sneak peak of the Sony/Google TV remote control.  It’s either hideous, or simply an internal prototype used for them to develop with.  I wish it was the latter, but bet it’s the former.  Over on the Stage Two blog (I’ve been doing a lot more blogging there recently, it’s not just us pushing client work, give it a read!) I go into specifics of what’s wrong with it, and also tangible steps on how to improve it.

Early Revue Reviews
Saw a quick hit on CrunchGear today, I’m in complete disagreement with everything they say that makes it “good”.  My highlight nitpick is their closing remark: “As we said before, the real initial value will come from the camera that Logitech is selling for video chats on the TV.”  The real value of a $299 device is that you can hook up a $149 camera to it to do video chat?  Really?  That is going to move the needle on Revues?  Hint: no way.

Elsewhere, my friend Harry calls it the Swiss Army Knife of Internet TV products.  I’d say that’s a great analogy, but follow up with my biggest concern: the TV is the one place we don’t want something like a Swiss Army Knife. See, those Knives are handy to have around in a pinch, but in every way fall short of being really useful for a long period of time.  Yes, it’s cool to have a philips head screwdriver in your back pocket when camping, but I wouldn’t put together IKEA furniture with one, that’s when you need the actual screwdriver – aka the single purpose product that works really really well.

I’m maintaining my position that Google TV 1.0 is not ready for consumer primetime, and neither the Sony nor Logitech solutions are compelling to the mainstream.  Sorry to my friends who work at those companies, but this just isn’t what it needs to be for a big win.

Android #1?
I saw one of those big flashy attention-grabbing headlines today “Android Most Popular Operating System in U.S. Among Recent Smartphone Buyers”.  Beyond my general disdain for Android (though I will freely admit the HTC Incredible running Android 2.2 is leaps and bounds ahead of my old Eris, but still has lots and lots wrong with it – for another time), I hate headlines like these.  What would be MORE interesting?  What is the popularity of Android specifically on AT&T?  That’s at least apples-to-apples comparison (pun fully intended). Of course Android is going to hit the top spot, this is inevitable, not interesting.

Now what would be interesting?  Well, since this is arguably all about a landgrab for developers to adopt platforms, how about an analysis that talks about which platform is making the most money to developers? Until Android/Google makes the process of buying (and selling) apps easier for everyone, the money is still flowing to Cupertino.

iPhone-to-TV
The newest version of Netflix for iPhone enables watching the movies on a TV, rather than on the phone itself.  Very cool, nice novelty feature.  But when I see a phrase like “Who needs an Apple TV now?” I get reminded of how often people in the industry aren’t thinking these things through very much (no offense to the author of that particular blog post).  To be clear – a phone, even an iPhone, does not replace a TV dedicated device, now or ever.  Wrong device for the wrong purpose.

What if you need to make a phone call mid-movie?

What if your phone runs out of battery?

What if your phone drops the signal (apparently those iPhones are known to do that from time to time)?

What if you want to put the movie on, then sit 8-10′ away from the TV, and, say, pause or rewind the movie?

etc.

Congrats Foundry Group!
Just wanted to take a second to congratulate Brad, Ryan, Jason, and Seth at Foundry Group for raising their latest fund! I’ve had a long history with the guys and a lot of their investments, and since they are one of the few VCs who love the consumer gadget space, wanted to give them a little shout out here.  Keep up the great work, and keep finding the cool gadgets!