Hot on the heels of the new iPhone 3GS, Palm released the Pre, another intensely anticipated phone. Within hours of it being released, the usual community of developers had already flashed the firmware and created another homebrew application scene for the Pre. Eagerly anticipating the potential growth in the applications but more importantly media support with iTunes, the Pre managed to access iTunes in a manner that Apple calls illegal, developers call questionable and consumers call “unique”. Resultantly, a slew of corporate press releases and open threats ensued between Apple and Palm.
The core issue that Apple is contesting with Palm is that the Pre accesses iTunes by mimicking the software identity of a standard iPod. Apple has openly claimed that this means is illegal. Palm’s response is that Apple’s rather draconian actions will hurt consumers overall as they will be denied a “seamless synchronization experience”. After trading many barbs and considering that former Apple employee, Jon Rubinstein, is now currently the CEO of Palm; tensions are running high. Apple’s response has been to immediately block the Pre from syncing with iTunes, while the Pre development community has refused to update iTunes and resultantly began looking for hacks to bypass the new update. (continue reading…)
Locking potentially lucrative customer base on the basis of network technology is never really conducive to the growth of mobile applications. Recently, Android’s released a new SDK (Version 1.6) that has allowed CDMA developers to access a potentially massive market of CDMA subscribers. The new update allows for Android phones to run on CDMA cell phones rather than the traditional GSM network compatible phones. This update is important when placed in the context that most Android phone manufacturers have been traditionally pushing phones that are only GSM compatible. HTC has been the biggest supplier with phones such as the Magic, Hero, Touch Pro 2, and a whole slew of variants. Although GSM networks are prevalent all over the world, the penetration of GSM networks in the technologically developed areas of the world has been surprising low. As a result, developers have been locked out of the CDMA market for quite some time. (continue reading…)
The release of the new Android SDK (Version 1.6) has triggered the boom in Android application development after being overshadowed by the growth in iPhone development in the early stages of the platform launch. The primary reason of this new trend in the growth of Android development is attributed to three factors:
1.Improved functionality and features in new SDKs,
2.Maturity cycle in iPhone development and hardware,
3.Organization of Android Marketplace similar to iPhone.
The contribution of these three factors have allowed the development of Android to gain a significant impetus and structured growth in comparison to the wild unbridled growth of iPhone applications. (continue reading…)
Google recently pushed out the release of a new SDK for Android (version 1.6) in September 2009, unfortunately, this left many of the traditional phones that run the Android platform fairly delayed in comparison to the projected release dates. However, there is good news for developers; the new release takes into account the varying new specifications of the new phones in terms of processor power, screen size, text-to-speech features, and a plethora of features that are standard on these phones.
The new release also deals with an improved ability to deal Web 2.0 features. There are a number of phones that plan to be released in the fourth quarter of this year with major carriers such as Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint. The high-end phones are coming from major manufacturers such as Samsung, HTC, and Motorola. However, the biggest probable focus for many carriers will be the improved CDMA support which gives Verizon and AT&T customers the ability to access some of these high-end phones. (continue reading…)
Currently, the world has eagerly sat in anticipation of Microsoft’s second attempt at the music player market with the newly launched Zune HD. Interestingly enough; the Zune was shipped software-wise dead to customers before Zune Marketplace went online. Customers were enticed by the overall ability to see what they had purchased and left with a further eagerness to see how Marketplace would perform with their new Zunes.
The traditional competitor to the Zune had been the iPod touch. With the launch of the new Zune HD and new generations of iPod Touches, Apple and Microsoft started a new round of battling amongst media players.
The Zune was considered an outlier in the general portable music player market with its software, hardware and marketing concept. Generally speaking, if you wanted reliability, style and ease of function, people just automatically clicked with Apple products, namely the iPod Touch. The Zune was not immune to the problems people faced with weak video support coupled with the lacking Wi-Fi capabilities.
