Just for the guys

How to Shoot an Anvil 200 Feet in the Air
[Via Daring Fireball]

Now you know.

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Big Jim McBob and Billy Sol Hurok would have liked the anvil blowing up a lot. ‘It blow’d up, blow’d up real good.’

UPDATED:Fewer updates when the hardware is supported by someone different than the OS creator

Why U.S. Galaxy S Phones Still Run Android 2.1
[Via Daring Fireball]

Samsung isn’t building a software platform. They’re just selling phones.

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This is the real difference between a world with iPhones and a world without. Without an iPhone, the carriers determine exactly what the customer can and can not do with the device, all to get more profits for them. They used to charge more for a ringtone than the whole song the ringtone was based on, for example.

Becasue of the iPhone, this link has been severely damaged, and the customer has much greater choice regarding just what they want to do with the iPhone.

Not so in the world of Android. As seen here, a user can not even get the newest OS upgrades because of the control by the carrier.

Handset makers and wireless carriers have little incentive to upgrade their phones on their own with new OS updates that are not maintenance or security related. It costs them money without much apparent benefit.

Of course, iPhones are upgraded through Apple, both the maker of the hardware and the software.

On the Android side, those roles are taken by several companies, each with their own incentives, which do not always meet their customers needs.

So, Samsung has created a system where once you buy their handset, you are stuck with that version of the operating system for the length of the contract. Two years is a horribly long time in the mobile software world.

Samsung wants to make money off of upgrades which the wireless carriers do not want to pay. So the customer is just stuck.

Update: Samsung denies that they do this. So why is the handset not using the latest version of Android? This is the fragmentation of the Android market that many are worried about. Almost 90% of iOS users are running iOS 4.

Pictures are all some iPad competitors have

 

by inacentaurdump

Engadget Has ‘Renders’ of Upcoming WebOS Tablets From HP/Palm
[Via Daring Fireball]

Reminds me of something I’ve seen before.

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A totally new OS in addition to iOS4, Android and Windows Phone 7. No real word on real-life specs, price, battery life, apps, etc. Just a computer rendering of something that we won’t see until September.

One of the things Apple has done is to only announce a product when they have a set day it can be bought. Here we have pretty pictureswhose only real use is to try and create some FUD, hoping people will put off buying a competitor’s device until the Fall.

But many of the commenters are just ecstatic about the computer renderings. Just as I am by the boat-wagon-blimp rendering of the perfect transportation vehicle above. Both exhibit about the same level of reality.

I have questions.

Of course, what will developers be doing on all the other devices by then? And will the new OS be so compelling that it will move people away from the ecosystem they already have?

If people already have 60 apps per iOS device, why should they throw all those away for WebOS?

The damn thing would  have to be better than the iPad and cost less, with as many apps. Then I might think about it. Not.

After selling maybe 20 million iPads or more by September, maybe a couple of million Samsung Android-based tablets and a few thousand others, who will be left to buy this device that exists as a computer rendering?

And, they actually will be selling two different models.  A lot of handset makers have noticed how little media play their wonderful new devices are getting. Apple eats up all the oxygen and what little is left gets split 100 ways. Having two different models just makes it even harder to differentiate.

What they mean when they say Apple defies expectations

Claim Chowder: How Many iPads Sold in 2010
[Via Daring Fireball]

Back on April 2, on Fox News’s Strategy Room, host Clayton Morris asked how many iPads Apple would sell in 2010. This was one day before the Wi-Fi version went on sale. The answers from his guests:

• Jason Snell: 3 million
• Andy Ihnatko: 3 million
• Yours truly: 8 million
• Mike Rose: 4.5-5 million
• Ross Rubin: 5 million
• Natali Del Conte: 5 million
• Clayton Morris: 9 million

The actual answer: 14.8 million.

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John Gruber came closest but he was only 54% of the actual number. Some were only 20%.

It is like The Price is Right where the washer is $1500 and saying the answer was $300. The audience would be screaming “Higher, higher.”

I wonder if anyone will get closer this next year? Perhaps include how many iPhones will Verizon sell?

Apple’s competitors are where?

by meedanphotos

Apple’s Apple seen selling 100 million iPhones, 40 million iPads in 2011
[Via AppleInsider]

Any drop in Apple’s share price tomorrow “presents a buying opportunity ahead of earnings,” according to the latest analyst to weigh in on the impact Steve Jobs’ leave of absence may have on investors, noting an improved outlook for iOS and more favorable component costs than previously expected.

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Apple has competitors  but they simply do not match the system that Apple has put together. Jobs said that they were 5 years ahead of their competitors in 2007 on software for mobile devices. Four years later an no one else is running a desktop OS on a mobile device. It does not appear that anyone will anytime soon.

Apple has made it very easy for developers to create software for anything from the desktop to the cell phone because underneath the hood, they all run the same OS. No one else does.

This means that every device has a huge number of things it can do right out of the box, from playing music to playing games. All can be bought from the device itself. Do Android phone users have an average of 60 apps per phone? What about any Android tablets? Apple has paid out $12 billion to music suppliers for iTunes. Apple sells  3% of the industry’s phones but makes 39% of the profits.

So, while Android has some nice phones, there is little connection to laptops. The total connection between software and hardware over all device forms gives Apple the profits and the muscle to dominate.

It may be possible to chip away at some points but no one device connects to the rich ecosystem that Apple provides.

It will be hard for individual companies to match everything Apple has across all device forms.