It’s finally happened, a few months ago AT&T’s CEO, Ralph de Vega was talking about how AT&T would have to eventually branch from their exclusivity from the iPhone (our blog). At this year’s CES, AT&T shocked critics with the announcement of supporting webOS devices on their network. The two webOS devices will be running on three handset manufacturers namely, Dell, HTC and Palm.
New devices for AT&T network
The focus will primarily remain on Dell and Palm. Both device manufacturers have recently entered the smartphone market with new devices clamoring for the same type of attention as the iPhone. Dell has entered the market after a long hiatus while Palm’s Pre and Pixi have been needed the endorsement of a growing network. Although already overloaded with the iPhone, it seems that the addition of the new webOS devices will add much needed diversity to the network. Although AT&T’s network has been facing issues iPhones utilizing the data bandwidth, the Palm Pre and Pixi less data hungry in comparison; a good point in comparison to the existing iPhones. The exclusivity component still remains for AT&T due to the exclusive launch of the Dell Mini 3 along with the agreement with Palm.
Network improvement
The AT&T Developer Summit re-emphasized the focus on how AT&T plans to improve their network with increased partnerships and cell phone tower construction. Ralph mentioned how quickly the mobile app market was growing and as a result there was a need to ensure a better 3G network for users.
RIM is a company known for its BlackBerry product and service that business professionals all over the world rely on to keep in touch with their business operations. However, the attitude taken towards the development of its OS is rather restrictive in nature. RIM does not let developers easily access their SDK while most of the app development for BlackBerry happens in a J2E environment. This situation does not assist in specific app development since there are significant problems porting apps to phones that have varying screen sizes and require changes in icons, etc. Considering that many platforms encourage and support porting of apps; BlackBerry has been limiting the development of apps in this dimension.
This limited growth potential for app development is what has been holding the BlackBerry app development from gaining significant impetus in comparison to the unbridled growth in the iPhone and Android platforms. Resultantly, BlackBerry has realized the growth potential of both these platforms will overshadow their own platform. In response to the looming threat of the iPhone and Android platforms, BlackBerry is hosting a developer’s conference in November in an effort to generate interest in the platform.
The nature of J2E is focused and touted as being cross-platform friendly; the BlackBerry OS is not cross-platform friendly and has caused numerous developers to shift to other app development platforms.
Palm’s Pre has been touted as one of a series of rival phones that has the potential to remove the iPhone from the top spot in smart phones. However, the Pre has had a painful birth into the smart phone era with lawsuits from Apple along with launch issues ranging from availability to pricing problems. Nonetheless, this has not stopped the Pre team from steaming ahead at full speed to help with the development of apps for its webOS.
Initially, Palm felt to ensure build quality of its apps, it would be handing over its SDK, Mojo, to a few select developers that Palm selected. A smart move considering that a majority of the quality developers are working for the iPhone platform or moving towards Google’s Android platform. By releasing to selected developers, Palm provides them with a strong first mover advantage which may help in retaining key long-term developers that would eventually help Palm establish a credible developer base.
Looking over at the website, http://www.palm.com/us/products/software/mobile-applications.html, the overall feel is similar to the Android Marketplace along with clear well-defined categories. Screenshots are available for each of the apps listed. Interestingly enough, most apps have been produced by strong content or service providers which are a good way of ensuring the build quality of the apps. An example being the Fandango app which mirrors the real life service for movie fanatics; such apps help build the base for other apps to be developed with equal quality since a high standard has been established.
The overall range of apps is impressive while the depth of apps is lacking when compared to the number of apps developed for the iPhone and Android-compatible phones. However, these initial offering shows how Palm plans on maintaining a strong quality focus on its apps and enticing customers with apps developed professionally. It also signals other professional developers of the importance that Palm is giving to its initial developers.
Palm is holding a conference in December 2009 to help boost the app development process and lure developers to its platform. Previously, Palm thought SDK release exclusivity to certain developers and the concept of being a serious competitor to the iPhone would be enough to generate a large developer base. Unfortunately, the impetus that Google’s Android platform has been garnering is now growing evermore popular and receiving significant financial and marketing support. Palm was left out in the dry in terms of the anticipated enthusiasm and consumer attention it needed.
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…)
