They say a picture is worth a thousand words. A chart can say so much more. Earlier today, Apple announced 2 billion downloads from its mobile App Store and 85,000 applications available. Silicon Alley Insider put that apps into a shocking chart.
Adobe Flash should have a place on all mobile handsets, and Adobe is planning to make version 10 available for smartphones. But not iPhone. Now why is that? I’m going to tell you.
Analysis. I believe rumors that Apple is preparing to launch not one, not two but four new iPhone models. If not, something is seriously wrong down One Infinite Loop. Such a move would lower the entry price to $99 and to free, if AT&T has any sense about rebates. Apple could unveil new iPhones as early as Monday, during its Worldwide Developer Conference.
Apple’s iPhone is supposed to be about the cool, new future. But using the smartphone reminds me too much of the past. The beautiful, ergonomically-designed iPhone has a fatal flaw: The battery. Apple wrongly chose to put form before function. This flaw reminds me of MS-DOS PCs’ 640k memory limit. Microsoft used digital steroids—extended and expanded memory—to bulk up MS-DOS. But it was never enough to make up for what memory limitations took away from DOS’ performance or stability.
My initial reaction to Nokia’s Ovi Store is “Huh, this is it?” Today, the mobile application marketplace opened for business in nine countries—Australia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Russia, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom and United States. I really expected more, as in content. Where are those supposedly tens of thousands of applications already available for Symbian OS variants S40 and S60?
Simply put: Apple doesn’t play by the rules. It reinvents them.
The March 11, 2009, The New Yorker magazine features story, “How David Beats Goliath.” Writer Malcolm Gladwell could easily have written about Apple; his examples are 12-year-old girls basketball and T.E. Lawrence.
