Quite simply, between Blackberry, Android and iPhone the market is essentially tied up. If you speak to the owner of any of those platforms they’ll basically defend their choices to the death. However, those devices certainly aren’t cheap enough for everyone to afford and you could argue that the market of people that would buy a high-end smartphone is saturated and everyone already has made their choice.

The new battle it seems is for the middle end of the market or if you’d have to be specific (at least in South Africa), the R150 a month or for those with dubious credit records about R3500 to outright buy the phone.

This week saw the release (or at least the announcement) of both the Microsoft Kin devices and the Nokia C3,C6 and E5. These devices feature smaller screens than high-end smartphones, a resistive rather than capacitive touch screen (if there is a touchscreen) and at best an 8 gig memory that usually comes in the form of an SD card not an internal memory. Wifi and GPS seem fairly standard. The Nokia devices run Symbian, an operating system I’d define as smart but not in Android territory quite yet and the Microsoft phones come with their own unique subset of Windows Mobile 7 that seems smart enough if not stripped down. While I’m fascinated that phone companies are trying to get to the middle of the market I think they’re going about it totally wrong.

You see, these phones are generally around two years behind in terms of current high-end specs of a phone, roughly the length of a modern day cellphone contract. My theory is that manufacturers shouldn’t even bother wasting their money developing devices for the middle and low end of the market but rather devote all their time and resources to creating the most amazing, high end phones (in various form factors such as QWERTY and touch) and then every year these new models. Basically you’d have a range of phones released once a year that would serve everyones needs. In order to to service everyone else what was high-end one year becomes middle of the range the year afterwards and then becomes slightly lower end the year after. Apple is doing this to a small extent by still offering the iPhone 3G but the price difference between that and the iPhone 3GS is actually fairly negligible that the 3GS is a no brainier.

I’ll give you a perfect example: I’m due for an upgrade on my Nokia E71, a phone I’ve loved and still love due to its great range of features. Now instead of pushing this phone down into the mid range buyer the phone will be phased out in favour of their new range of mid level phones. It’s both environmentally and financially wasteful considering how great a phone the E71 is in terms of hardware and in terms of software, Symbian has hardly changed or could be updated with a firmware update.

This system is not only great for the consumer in that they’ll have better technology diffused down to them faster but for developers of apps they’ve got an easier job in that they know they’ve got a steady stream of devices to create apps for.  Of course we don’t live in a world where people like the same devices and everyone has different tastes. I’d recommend catering for the most popular subsets of people.

Will this happen? Unlikely as this would take years to get diffused down from high-end to low-end. If I were a high-end cellphone manufacturer I’d stop production of middle and low end phones in order to sell my “old” designs to the middle of the market.

However, with the new iPhone coming soon, Android expecting multiple releases and Nokia releasing a new version of Symbian as well as having Maemo in the wings I can’t help but wonder if we’re overly spoilt for choice. In actual fact, Samsung just released the Bada operating system at the Mobile World Conference and Palm’s WebOS is still a decent OS despite USA only hardware not to mention good old Blackberry.

You see, no matter what operating system you might have on your super phone it all comes down to apps these days. While the Android Market and the Nokia Ovi Store are good, they’ll never beat the iPhone app store, not at the moment. It’s simply a case of momentum, Apple has about two years lead and a single, unified device to develop for meaning apps gets made faster. In the end game, Nokia and Google have the ace up their sleeve that they provide hardware for multiple types of users as well as multiple price points but this is something for another time.

What Microsoft does have is the world’s biggest desktop operating system and with that, access to the worlds biggest development houses. Companies such as Adobe, Corel, Intuit as well as massive providers such as SAP and Oracle all provide Windows desktop software. On top of this, you’ve got the best Office software bar none with the Microsoft Office software you’ve got a killer team. Now add in game developers and you’ve basically got the ultimate development teams for your new phone OS.

My thoughts are that this choice in mobile phone OS is all that will eventually differentiate the top end when hardware starts to get fairly standardized. The problem with this is that the amount of development time that goes into building an app for every platform means that development houses will have to make a choice in what system they develop for.

I hope in the future we tend to have more of the traditional Windows/Mac/Linux setup on mobile phones like we currently have with desktops. This way, you’re spoilt for choice but developers can choose their playing field based on specific characteristics.

That said, Series 7 is a huge step forward for Microsoft and if they pull it off, something they should be really proud of.

Firstly, all these devices are purely touchscreen based devices and if there is one thing I can’t stand for real work it’s a touchscreen. As such (at least for me) a tablet will purely be a device to consume the Internet with. At the most I’ll be typing URL’s into the device and even then you’ll have to use one finger rather than two like the iPhone as the size is prohibitive to use both hands. The argument about us consuming more and more media on our phone’s and thus a tablet making sense as it can really give you a “web” like experience and I think a tablet would be a great device if it can overcome the following issues:

The first problem is that of connectivity. Obviously as a base connectivity option there needs to be wi-fi to connect to home networks and coffee shops but the next logical connection is that of a sim slot to connect to a 3G network. This unfortunately costs a fair amount of money and means that you’ll probably end up buying another contract either to subsidise the price of the device or just to get online. Now if you’re an iPhone Acolyte chances are you’re selling your first born child into slavery to afford an iPhone. This means for you to afford the data for an Apple tablet, you’ll have to sell your house and live in your car. I’m struggling to see a reason for a tablet and without a 3G connection I literally see no reason for the device.

The second issue is that it’s another device to carry. I’ve got a phone, a laptop and a Kindle (which I’ll use as a reference for a tablet) and quite frankly the Kindle stays in my bag when I take it out with me. Having an extra device isn’t necessarily going to make the web experience better and most importantly, I have a laptop for when I want to do something more than just check my mail or Twitter on my phone. A tablet would be another device I’d shove into my bag while running out the house that I wouldn’t really have a chance to use. Sure, if I was travelling on a bus or subway everyday then being able to use a tablet might come in handy but sadly I drive everywhere myself and can’t multitask well enough to do both. I check my mail and twitter on my phone while I’m in bed in the morning as it’s simple and I don’t have to find some ten inch device and fight through two menu’s to read my mail.

The third and probably most important point is the price point. It’s fairly likely that most tablets will use either an ARM processor or an Intel Atom chip for less power drain while still providing enough power for their stripped down operating systems. What this means is an inevitable comparison to Netbooks. In 2010 we’re seeing Netbooks reaching below the three hundred dollar mark. Yes, a tablet screen will cost more to build than a junky Netbook keyboard but you’ve also got to remember that it’ll be difficult to justify a tablet that costs more than six hundred dollars if you consider that for this price point you can buy a Netbook and a Kindle to perform any potential computing and reading requirements. If an Apple (or any other manufacturer) goes for the subsidised model which requires you to buy a twenty-four month data contract then you’re looking at thousands of dollars over and above the initial cost of the tablet.

I can’t help but wonder if the move towards a tablet PC is an aim to get “one device that does everything” and I’m fairly sure that this is a terrible approach to computing. The Kindle works so well as it’s a highly focussed device while the average smartphone tries to be a mobile computer and always has some sort of niggle that prevents it from excelling in all it’s attempted fields.

Of course this is all based on supposition and my vague opinions on a device (and category) that basically doesn’t exist yet. It will be interesting to see what happens at the end of the month when the Apple tablet is inevitably announced but I won’t be that guy camping outside a Vodacom store to spend even more money on a subsidised Apple tablet.

Take a look at Motorola and to some extent Samsung. Motorola have basically used their last dying gasp of breath to create Android phones such as the Droid and the Cliq. These devices would have always been decent hardware but terrible software when using a Motorola operating system. Until today, the Droid was the hottest Android phone out there with Android version 2.0.1, a large screen and a relatively fast processor. Today though, all the money spent on developing and promoting the Droid is irrelevant as there is a bigger, better and badder phone on the block.

Sure, technology moves on but the important issue here is that this is a Google phone with the latest hardware and software, not a partner device. The big G’s intents here are fairly obvious, they want to run Android and partners be damned. Sure you can technically buy any other Android device you’d be fairly stupid to do this considering the technical advances of the Nexus One.

As a partner in the Open Handset Alliance I’d pretty much give up the game as the precedent has been set, Google made hardware will seemingly always be the top of the pile. In addition to this, devices such as the Nook and (as an example) tablets that use Android are not considered certified devices as they are not cellphone’s and are unable to access the app market.

Maybe it’s just me but this all seems a bit draconian for a company that has a mission statement to “do no evil”

Today the Nexus One Android phone is to be announced at a Google press conference and it is obviously an assault on the iPhone. Android is growing in leaps and bounds and has the potential (save for maybe Maemo but that’s not consumer friendly yet) to be much bigger and better than the iPhone has and ever will be. Unless Apple pulls something amazing out of the bag, the 1 Ghz processor and bigger screen on the Nexus One is a fairly appealing prospect. WIth Google buying Admob it makes sense for them to want to get more and more people mobile. Speaking of mobile advertising, Apple has recently bought “Quattro Wireless”, a direct competitor of the Admob network. See what I’m getting to here?

That said, the war between Google and Apple is not going to happen just in the mobile world. The Internet has been literally swamped with reports about an Apple Tablet but now there is also a report of how Google and HTC are creating a tablet running Android, a direct competitor to the supposed ‘iSlate”. The two companies compete in the browser space as well as online cloud services. Millions of people use Gmail, Google Calendar and other free services that Apple’s MobileMe will cost you $79 a year for.

While they don’t exactly compare Chrome OS to OSX there must be some thought on the side of Google to create a decent competitor to OSX. At the moment it’s a fairly ridiculous concept but has the potential.

The reality is that Apple has no choice but to use Google products. For example, Google search is the default option when making a search on the iPhone and realistically, if Apple wanted to totally lock out Google their only other options would be Microsoft’s Bing or Yahoo search. Both of these options are totally unrealistic.

Historically you’d expect Apple to totally shut out Google from their systems but as I’ve mentioned, this is totally impossible. What would be interesting is if Google cuts Apple out although the chances of this are minimal as it costs nothing for Google to be the default search provider for Apple.

I’d be surprised if Apple doesn’t pull a fairly aggressive move and decide to cut Google out completely to make sure they don’t loose any revenue to the Google. You’ve also got to remember that (as a category example) there is more than enough space with Smartphone’s as the category continues to grow. Nokia and Microsoft are also biding their time with competitive hardware and software platforms and have the potential to eclipse both Google and Apple as they squabble over a turf war.

Either way, I foresee a big spat between the two giants with 2010 having the opening salvo.

The tech world is buzzing this week about the beta launch of the latest Google product, Chrome OS. About a year ago Google released their Chrome Browser to compete against both Internet Explorer and Firefox. The browser has made some pretty impressive strides in its time and runs much faster than either of its main rivals. So far, so good.

This week though, Chrome OS was finally shown to the world in a press event. What we do know about the OS is that it takes a very minimalist system and is essentially just a browser but what makes it an operating system will be support for drivers. It’s quite literally the hardware interface with an attractive browser built on top. With Google investing so heavily on Cloud services such as Gmail, Google Docs, Contacts and many more, the system won’t have programs installed but will rather use the Chrome browser to interface with these services. Traditionally when you needed to write a document, you’d open MS Word or Open Office while now you’ll be opening the Google Docs interface. I may have missed something but Google does provide an interface (Google Gears) to use those service such as Gmail and Docs offline so one can assume you’d still have a system with a fairly large drive. Considering you can’t install software in the traditional Windows model, you shouldn’t need a particularly large hard drive and could probably get away with a smallish flash memory drive.

On first impression this is revolutionary, game changing and since it’s specifically for netbooks it’s playing in an arena where people care more about price and only require a small amount of functionality, specifically web surfing. I think Google is on the right track, I just think they’re going about it in the totally wrong way.

Here’s the thing, Chrome OS is built on Linux and is in conjunction with the people that make Ubuntu. Considering Ubuntu is also free, also offers a browser but at the same time so much more it’s all a bit confusing. You’ve also got to remember that a company created a version of Linux called “GoS” which basically interfaced with Google cloud services although you’ve probably never heard of this OS as it was a critical failure. Here’s the thing, Google already has the Android platform they use for their cellphones and it has already been ported to Netbooks. If Google used Android there would be more emphasis for developers to make applications for multiple devices. This is great for the developers as there are more revenue streams for them. If we look at trends from the past the iPhone originally started with purely web applications, something that users hated and was rapidly changed in favour of actual apps. If developers were pushed to create apps for phone’s and Netbook’s, Google wins the war on both fronts.

Another important issue is that of price. With Netbook’s costing anywhere between $300 and $450 how on earth do you actually cost a machine with Chrome OS on it. Previously, Netbook’s that came with Linux were about twenty dollars cheaper than their Windows counterparts. For twenty dollars I’d much rather have the Windows license to use if I want and then install a free Linux operating system myself. The problem for Google is that they’re going to have to make the price point particularly appealing, in excess of fifty dollars cheaper than a Windows Netbook to be a fair proposition. Microsoft won’t stand for that and will likely lower the costs of Windows 7 for Netbook’s (starter edition) to compete. Considering how a Netbook is supposed to be a cheap and cheery device, a cloud services only device ruins the appeal for many in the third world.

Living in a third world country with dubious Internet I still find the cloud unappealing. In my experience trying to work on an Excel spreadsheet in Google Docs is pretty painful on a 384K ADSL connection. I’m also somewhat reticent with regards to sending all my documents, information and contacts to the Google cloud. I’m not perturbed with Google having the information, I’m just worried about them loosing it.

In the past day or so Sergey Brin of Google has come out to say that Chrome and Android will probably merge into one platform but I think they need to skip the teething problems of Chrome OS and go straight to Android desktop.

Impulsively I went onto the Amazon site and added two Kindle’s and a protective case for each one. Before I went to the checkout though, I felt an urge to see what books I could find on the site. I’d heard this horrible rumour that the book store was basically neutered so I thought I’d check it out. Sadly, I was correct and once I logged into my Amazon account I was taken to the “African” store.

In the African store the bestseller is a book called “When Night Falls” which is according to the categorisation, a romance novel. Of the top 5 bestsellers, three are romance novels. Now I love a bit of saucy literary works but surely this lack of books is a major turn off for most people?

In order to make sure it wasn’t just African users having terrible taste in books and thus artificially affecting the bestseller list I did some random searches. First up, I looked for Ayn Rand as I’d really like to read both “The Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged”. I found about ten different copies of her first book “Anthem” but none of the other books. Still, Ayn Rand isn’t exactly mainstream so I decided to search for popular illiterate, Dan Brown. Strangely enough, there was no Dan Brown books in the African Kindle store. We also get the free books that you can get in the US store for two dollars which is basically the premium we pay for not being in the US. While it’s a bit ridiculous to pay an extra two dollars for a book, it’s still cheaper than buying it in SA.

My moral is this: If you want to buy a Kindle then just make sure you can find the books that you might actually want to read rather than Project Gutenberg rejects. I cannot for the life of me understand why there is a specific licensing issue considering we’re actually paying for the content. Let me put it this way, the moment the store gets better books or is opened up to all the books available in the US store there will be a Kindle with my name on it shipping to SA. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy those saucy romance novels.

I always used being a student as an excuse for pirating goods and now that I actually have money I’ve decided to act above the law and buy computer software. I bought Snow Leopard when it came out a few months ago and now that Windows 7 is out I thought I’d pick up a copy. Incredible Connection were having a special on for a desktop PC and I went and bought one (disclaimer it wasn’t actually for me but for a family friend I occasionally help with when it comes to their computers) and was happy as it “qualified for a Windows 7 upgrade”. Now I assumed they’d just throw in a copy of the software considering it had been out for about four days when I got the PC. How wrong could I be!

You see, you need to connect to the Internet (problematic if you don’t have the net) and send in the details of the PC to Microsoft who will then send you a copy of Windows 7 in “7-10 working days”. The problem here is that it’s pointless to start using the PC as Windows 7 doesn’t allow you to do an upgrade and will require you to re-install your programs when you finally do go the Windows 7 route. To add insult to injury they want me to pay them $50 for the pleasure of shipping me the disc. Yes, that’s right: Microsoft want me to pay for the shipping. I phoned up Acer and they wouldn’t give me a copy as they don’t ship it. So basically I have to pay close on four hundred rand on top of the money I spent on the PC because Microsoft doesn’t understand that they have a local office and I need to get it from overseas.

So here’s my theory: for four hundred rand I can buy close on eight gigs of ADSL data. With that eight gigs I can download both the 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows 7 and install them on any PC I want. You see, when it comes down to the economics, piracy is actually the better option here. Best of all, I can download that file over two evenings and have it before “7-10 working days”. Considering I’ve paid Microsoft already, I feel nothing against doing this. Making me pay extra for shipping is rubbish, there is no way in hell a DVD costs $50 to send. Send a whole bunch to your local offices and they can send it in the local post for a few dollars.

I’m going to call Micrsoft’s local office tomorrow and see if they can help me out. Failing that, it’s time to start up that copy of uTorrent.

The benefits of this are obvious in that there will be less paper used and that you can store millions of textbook’s on a device the size of one A4 book. Benefits aside, I think this is a terrible idea.

In our hyper-connected world where you’re fielding information from Twitter, Facebook, SMS and (perish the thought) face to face communication it tends to get difficult to concentrate on one thing. When sitting at a breakfast this morning I couldn’t help but laugh (and then shudder) how we spent time checking our Twitter over breakfast. Now imagine if you were brought up in a world where micro interactions such as Twitter were not only acceptable but the norm.

As such, if you were in a class or lecture with a computer in front of you, would you really concentrate on that lesson if you could be speaking to friends or surfing the net. Sure, you can disconnect the kids wireless connection but realistically every single cellphone these days is a modem to a world of wireless entertainment. To be honest, I cannot think of any reason why you’d need a computer in the class. I do think an e-book reader is a better option but again, you can easily pop the latest comic or novel on that reader as easily as a textbook.

If the future of learning is computer based then I for one am worried if it carries along the specific path. If a PC were to replace teachers (which I sincerely hope never happens) as a supplement rather than a replacement then I feel we might be on to something.

It only takes a story like this where a University has entirely scrapped their library to realise that we’re in some sort of trouble here. I’m not saying that we should stick to books forever, I just think we need a better solution than outfitting our students with technology and helping to create a generation of socially inadequate misfits.

For a long time I’ve been a pirate. Yes, I’ll admit to not buying music legally. The thing is, buying music from a physical store is a tiresome process. You’ve got to get in your car, fight the crowds in the mall and then once you actually get into the store you’re left having to deal with a sales attendant who can barely help you. Once you’ve bought the disc I end up ripping it and putting it on my PC/iPod/Phone/Music player and then the CD gets stored on my shelf for posterity. Simply put, buying a CD for me these days is akin to buying a hundred and fifty rand coaster. I tend only to buy the albums from bands that I really want to collect even though I mostly have downloaded that album off Bittorrent two weeks before release anyway.

Being a pirate doesn’t keep me awake at night but I certainly don’t mind paying for decent music and while I couldn’t care if Lars Ulrich has to fly in first class rather than his own private jet, I do feel pretty bad stiffing South African bands out of their money.

A few months ago, the Nokia Music Store was launched and at ten rand a track it was pretty reasonable. Other services go for about sixteen rand a track but the real appeal of the Nokia Music Store was that of buying an album (no matter how many tracks) for a flat hundred bucks. I’ve probably bought three albums and about ten tracks off the service and it’s been fairly excellent in that time.

This previous Thursday I was invited to the launch of the newest extension to the Nokia Music Store, a service called “Comes With Music”. Basically you buy either a Nokia 5130, 5530 or 5630 and you get unlimited music downloads on either the device or one computer that you initially set the phone up on. Considering you get access to over five million tracks on the Nokia Music Store for twelve months, this is worth the price of entrance. I’m not entirely sure of the monthly cost of the other two devices but the 5130 costs a mere R100 a month.

At the event we were given either a 5530 or 5630 to test for an entire year and I chose the touchscreen 5530. Now it only has a 2G Internet connection (there is wi-fi though) but the 5630 is a T9, candybar device which is something I personally don’t like. The touchscreen is a mere (compared to my N97) 2.9-inches but is actually the most responsive Nokia touchscreen I’ve ever used. Needless to say, this beats its predecessor the bigger, more feature-filled 5800 in almost all ways. While the device comes with a stylus I’ve been typing perfectly on its full on-screen keyboard with my fingers. I’m sure it would get tiresome typing like this while on the move but this is more of a touchscreen device issue than a problem with the phone.

While the phone is exceptionally capable it really comes alive with “Comes With Music”. I’ve had this phone for three days now and I’ve burned through about a gig of music downloads. If you consider that for as little as a hundred rand a month you’ve got access to unlimited music. I do actually think this is probably the most revolutionary service to happen to the music industry since the introduction of the CD. Combine “Comes With Music” with a program such as Shazam (that identifies a song just by hearing the audio) and you’ve got the ability to download any song you hear on the radio, TV show or even when you’re out at a party.

Do yourself a favour and get “Comes With Music” if you can, it’ll change the way you consume and enjoy music.