Open Question: What makes the iPad Hot and Android Tablets Not?

Ok, I've used an iPad occasionally for  testing apps and such, I'll admit I've not used one as a daily use device and only used one for a limited number of purposes. I own an Android tablet, on which I've just put Honeycomb 3.2, the Tablet specific version of Android.

On my Android tab I have 5 fully customised screens with icons laid out how I want and widgets showing app updates. All I need to do is glance at my tablet and I see my latest 3 calendar events, latest 5 e-mails my combined accounts and the 3 latest new headlines in tech, uk and world news. That's just my main screen, I have other useful stuff on my other screens.

I can wirelessly browse the contents of my PC and watch any music/videos/pictures on my tablet streamed from PC over WiFi, I can copy any files and open them over wifi as if my computer was just an SD card. I can hook up any generic usb hub, pen drive, keyboard and mouse, my PS3 pad (via BT or usb) or xbox pad, 3G dongles and webcams as if it were a PC. I can plug my tab straight into my TV's HDMI and watch movies or I can use it as a VLC player remote control (or remote desktop client) for my PC. I don't need to go through any programs to transfer files, just drag and drop.

What I don't get is that iPad can't do any of that yet they're still the definitive pad to have. they still have the phone-style "collection of apps" interface and are quite restrictive about what they can do. If you want to check for news/twitter/facebook/calendar updates you have to open it's specific app, you have to use them how Apple tells you and not how you want to. I know there are more tablet specific apps for the iPad, if you can afford them, but theres nothing it can do that an Android tablet can't as far as I know. The marketing makes them sell well yes and the fact they have the industry known name, iPad is to tablets as Hoover is to Vaccum cleaners. That doesn't show why they get good reviews and people still stick by them though.

What is it that makes the iPad so impressive for so many people, why is it peoples tablet of choice?

*Disclaimer this is a genuine question, I want opinions. I want to know what I'm missing out on*

What is the net and why is it important to your business?

Sitting on the train musing over the days events I began thinking about how to best explain the web to businesses that are scared of it or don't understand it. The fact is that getting online isn't so scary or different from doing offline business or marketing.

The web is just one big library, but this library holds every type of document you can imagine, from shopping catalogues to travel brochures and business cards. This library is the most used and most influential library ever known to man. At this very moment in time there are tens of thousands of people within a bus ride from here looking at something on the internet. The techy people like to make things confusing. Online they don't call things catalogues or brochures they call them websites, and because they're not on paper you can do extra things with them. You can put your e-mail on there so people can contact you, you can put up job quotes or pricing guides. People can browse your goods and you can sell them as if it were a catalogue shop. Builders or Landscapers can show photos of their best jobs, Theater Groups can show clips of performances and pubs can keep locals updated on upcoming events. There isn't a company that would find no benefit in having there presence felt in the vast library of the net.

Now as I'm sure we've all experienced at times, even in a small library it can sometimes be hard to find what you want. You've either got to ask the librarian or go and look on the library computer or index. As you well know just going in and placing a copy of a book on a library shelf won't make people notice it, now imagine just dropping a book into a library with billions of books. You've got to properly catalogue and described your site so that the librarian (Google) can add it to the library catalogue and people can find it. That's the basics of SEO or Search Engine Optimization, to make sure your website comes up when people search for anything relevant to your business. Of course a little more marketing never hurts (unless it's intrusive and offensive) and that's where things like Google ad-words come in, by bidding on key search terms that are relevant to your business you can appear in sponsored adverts that are placed in searches or on websites, the best bit? You only pay when people have noticed your advert and click to visit your site, you don't get that with advertising in the local paper or the yellow pages!

Windows Phone 7 - Is it worth the risk?

Buying into a new phone OS is risky for both developers and consumers. Consumers need something useable, stable and enjoyable with enough developers to give a decent choice of apps. Developers need a manageable and profitable platform with a large number of consumers. Both need something that will last and be supported for a decent amount of time. As both a developer and a consumer I spend months researching markets before investing my time in a new platform. Android and iOS are currently the big dogs, the have good support and are widely popular, no-brainer choices. Even more so a no brainer since I’m currently developing for Android and often work with iOS projects. Strangely though on renewing my 2 year contract I found myself getting neither of these, instead I got a Samsung Ominia 7 running Windows Phone 7 (WP7). Not a logical choice for someone whose currently stuck testing their apps on an Android tablet and would have to borrow their girlfriend’s iPhone to test iOS apps. I’m not a person who takes uncalculated risks (when sober), there is method to the madness.

So why am I taking this gamble on a 7 month old OS that isn’t doing well? Is it a risk worth taking for you? There are many windows phone 7 reviews out there, but most focus on what it is like now, few actually try to work out whether it’s worth the investment in the long run. The success of a platform not only relies on how well it works it relies on how well the platform is supported by the owners, third party developers, consumers and retailers.

Things don’t seem brilliant for WP7 at the moment. The OS was released about 8 months ago and it’s not had massive sales, with some estimating only 1.6 million since release. Microsoft is quite tight lipped about actual figures, which suggests they’re bad. There’s not much public awareness of WP7, in the UK at least, phone shops aren’t stocking many handsets and what they have isn’t promoted in store. Microsoft have been advertising, but the push seems to have gone quiet, most people probably don’t even realize WP7 exists. At the end of the day though, it’s not all doom and gloom for the new kid on the block. Android suffered the same problems at first, slow sales and low awareness, Android is only recently becomming popular and known in the UK. Android and iOS devices certainly dominate the market with Blackberry’s RIM and Nokia’s Symbian struggling and losing market share. That doesn’t mean that there’s no room for another OS. If you’ve ever been looking for a new cell phone you’ll have noticed how confusing and complex picking an Android devices is, there’s just too many, but if you want an iPhone you’ve got to pay a premium and have no choice. All these hardware and software versions of Android can make developing for them complicated. Android has little monitoring of what is published in it’s app store, with a confusing promoted apps policy and many free apps. This leads to Android users not tending to buy paid apps. The iOS AppStore has high sales figures, but is extremely overcrowded and can be hard for new developers to make a break in the midst of all the big companies. The market definitely has a gap for a unified platform that offers both stability and variety for consumers, whilst having a profitable app portal for developers. WP7 could offer a good answer to this. The marketplace already has a decent number of apps, enough for most people, yet few enough to leave lots of room for developers to add more. Handset specs must follow Microsoft’s designs and updates are shipped to all win 7 devices (so far), this avoids for the most part the mass fragmentation Android suffers from.

WP7 is receiving good reviews and feedback, personally I love it. It’s a very sellable and useable product, apart from a few nuances, which will hopefully be fixed in future updates. The WP7 interface is fast, intuitive and great to use, live tiles look great. WP7 feels like a unified product, rather than other systems which tend to feel like a collection of apps. The social features and gaming integration are excellent and there’s built in office and other tools for business use. The next big WP7 update (Mango) will add over 500 new features. I keep my reservations on the new update due to the fact there are a few WTF “features” with the OS that make you wonder what the designers were smoking. For example you’re not able to control ring/media/headphone volume independently. As of today (21/06/11) there’s been no mention whether the volume is fixed in any reviews of the Mango beta. Mango does, however, introduce many brilliant new features for users and APIs for developers. The next couple of years software wise look good at least, that’s as long as Microsoft keep up support. The best thing about WP7 is that Microsoft isn’t making the hardware, just the software, which is what it does best!

So what? WP7 is a good OS and fits a gap in the market, but it isn’t selling well yet and as soon as it fails won’t Microsoft just ditch it for something that will make them more money? Well no, that isn’t quite the case. Have you ever wondered why Sony initially sold PS3’s at a massive loss or why Google seemingly gives away all it’s products for free and is so keen on developing Android? The key here is holding the key to a communication gateway. Sony may have lost on PS3 hardware, but it made Blu-Ray win the format wars and gave them avenue to make profit from software sales and their Playstation marketplaces. Google sells advertising space, it controls the advertising space within Android apps and has access to more people’s information than ever. Windows Phone 7 is more than just about money selling the OS and app sales. WP7 gets people to use Microsoft services such as Zune, Bing, Xbox Live and Windows Live, some of which are in dire need of a popularity boost, all already have heavy investment. Combine this with the recent announcements that Nokia are joining forces with Microsoft and that gives two companies with massive vested interests in the product, both have brand names needing a boost.

Both Nokia and Microsoft are known for generally running decent marketing campaigns (though there are a few that miss the mark). There are massive vested interests in WP7 combined with companies that know their marketing. There’s no doubt in my mind that once Mango is released and the first Nokia WP7 handsets come out there will be huge marketing pushes and WP7 sales will kick off. I highly doubt that either company will give up on the project for a couple of years. Microsoft will use pull strings to keep WP7 going even if Nokia drop out, it wouldn’t surprise me if Microsoft subsidised manufactures to get the handsets out cheaply if they had to. Of course dealing with Nokia and giving them special privileges could backfire for the platform, causing fragmentation with special “Nokia only builds” or putting other handset manufacturers off creating WP7 handsets as Nokia ones will be better, but all that remains to be seen.



Overall I would say that I’m in virtually no doubt that WP7 will succeed. It’s a great product and it is appealing for both general consumers and developers alike. Now might be a good time to invest in WP7 prices seem to have during this quiet interlude after initial release, but before Nokia and Mango. The app marketplace is very open for new developers and people who own the device will be buying apps. I’m not saying it will overtake Android or iPhone, but it should be up there if all goes well. There is definitely a spot for WP7 in the smartphone market, somewhere between the overwhelming chaos of Android (if you’ve looked for a new mobile recently you’ll know how overbearing the options can be) and the lack of choice plus high cost of Apple devices. There is a risk that it won’t take off, but I don’t believe it is much of a risk at all. For consumers this isn’t much of an issue as WP7 will remain supported and works well, for developers, you can always publish to Xbox live or port your app to another device, you’ll probably still have as much chance of selling your app as you would on Android anyway. Personally I’m planning on having WP7 as the second platform I focus on after Android. On WP7 it will be far easier to be seen by consumers and the XNA toolkit is great to use (I might also get some freebies off Microsoft as they do their developer buttering up :D )!