Apple netbook/ umpc??

I see the tech blogs rooting for Apple netbooks. I say apple will not and should not get into the netbook business.
In fact, I say they have already have a netbook. It's called iPhone/ iPod Touch. Serves the same market fairly well. They do not need to design and market yet another device.

Steve Jobs chickened out??

The reviews of the iPhone from the hand picked reporters is out a couple of days ago and the verdict is Unanimous.
Apple iPhone is a ground breaking product and is fun to use. But ATT sucks.

I can't help but wonder how similar all these reviews sounded, right from the keyboard and the testing for scratches. As if they got step by step instructions on how to test this product. In particular each of these guys said the same thing about the keyboard, that u'd get used to key less keyboard. hmmm, can't imagine if any of these reviewers would patiently test a product for 5 days to get used to in order to give a positive feedback on the keyboard. May be a call from Jobs himself helps. yes he did spoke personally to each of the reviewers. That shows the marketing genius of Steve Jobs.

But even after all these every one is disappointed with ATT service. We are told that Jobs even considered taking the MVNO route like Helio. But he seems to have chickened out.

If he wanted to give out the best ever product to the customer, he could have opted for 3G and go for an MVNO and could have controlled the entire eco system, just like he does with itunes - ipod, mac os x - ilife - .mac. As far as availability of edge in more places than the current 3G service like HSPDA/ EVDO, they are covered in the places that matter, that is most the cities across the US where the bulk of the iPod market and also the smartphone market is. And having 3G doesn't mean that the phone do not work in the non coverage area. He seems to have gone for the ATT option and EDGE for two reasons, not daring to go all alone for the afraid of losing? And for better battery life and the device size?? (Then why do you put up charts comparing the talk time and size of an EDGE phone with 3G counterparts). Also, he must be getting a lot of subsidies from ATT to control the price to $599.

I think he could have gone all alone and could have succeeded to the same extent. Who is buying iPhone for features anyways? He should probably comeup with a UMPC on the same platform with GPS and other extra features like GPS sans phone.

Bring in the JOY!!

I recently bought a camcorder for my sis, a Panasonic gs85. And it has got this joystick as one of the input devices on the camera. And I realised what an amazing input device joystick would make for many many devices. I'm not a gamer, so I didn't use a joystick or any similar input devices much before using this camcorder, so this is revealing to me. No need to use the touch screen, just use the joystick to go up and down the menus.

Take my favourite, television remotes as an example, there are separate buttons for channel up and channel down, page up and page down, volume up and volume down resulting in a device every one hates. Replacing it with joystick doesn't need any drastic technology changes, it should still be able to work with the same RF and IR technologies that remotes use now.

Or take any mobile devices, be it mp3 players or phones or pdas or GPS devices or digital cameras or UMPCs, most of the browsing we do on the menus are these same controls, that is up down, left and right and page down. How easy it would be to browse your menus with a joy stick. You don't even need to worry about technology as it is on device and you can keep what ever you want on these devices.

I know quite a few devices already have joystick. But still the percentage is very minimal, when compared to the number pad. I can think of many amazing things that you can do with out lifting your finger if you have the right interface. So, spread the joy.

Forget PCs

The clock on home personal computers as we know them is ticking, especially with emergence of the newer markets like India, China. The future is with mobile phones/PMPs with larger screens, that you can hold in your palm and large HD televisions. There majority would have mobile phones in a few years with most of them having seen or used a PC.

What do you your PCs for at your home? To communicate using emails, messenger and to get entertained with your music, videos and to get information on weather, tv shows, movies. It's about ICE, Information, Communication and Entertainment.

• Gaming is moving to hard core consoles with fancy controllers,
• Digital Music moved to high capacity ipods and PMPs ,
• watching digital movies and browsing multi megapixel photographs are moving to High def Television,
• emailing and messaging and social networking is moving to mobiles and smartphones
• Browsing news and getting weather and traffic information would move to the 3G mobiles with RSS feeds and easy to use search apps (yahoo onesearch) and TV sets with IPTV/TiVo/Xbox/Wii/AppleTV connections and qwerty remotes.
• With more applications moving to web based solutions, ofcourse to a host of enterprise solutions that are moving to hosted models, the browser is going to be the only software that you need. Thanks to google, you now don't need to download docs, pics, mp3s when you get them in email. (eventually videos).

All this is pointing to the decline of the time share for a Home PC. And the functionality would move away to TVs and Mobiles and possibly UMPCs. They might be only used to serve content, (Windows Home Server?? anyone).

At work? You are struck with PCs for your life time. Corporates cannot move and adapt as fast as consumers do.

Samsung Q1 Ultra UMPC

Samsung update the Q1 UMPC. And seems to be a great improvement interms allround.

• performance (dual core processor),
• battery life (3.5 hours or 6.8 hours),
• ease of use (qwerty keyboard, jorstick, mouse, touch screen, stylus)
• connectivity (Wi-Fi, bluetooth, Wi-Bro, GPS (optional), HSPDA, over the air TV - DMB)
• features (2 cameras for photography and video conferences, fingerprint recognition for uname/passwords)
• software (It has got vista, and so all the software that is available on Vista)

I am all for a new formfactor that goes inbetween the mobile/pda and laptops. And it does more than any laptop can do in an extremely protable form factor. It can be just an mp3 player or a full fledged PMP, a Navigation system, Just plain web browsing and messaging system, a book reader, a notebook replacement. It's great not just for the road warriors or business travellers, its extremely useful to even the daily commuters who travel by publich transportation in big cities, or even at school for students and the possibilities are endless.

This is a dream convergence device. Only downside and the most important downside is the price $1300 to $2000. OOPS!!

But I'd think this form factor wouldn't make it big for atleast 4-5 years unless Apple comes up with Newton II.

R U excited about Origami??

You bet I am!!

There is definetely scope for another PC form factor. This is going to be huge hit with business users.

It can play music, It can take pictures and above all it runs a full featured OS with all the productivity applications and also your favorite web browser. Exactly what is prescribed for the enterprise customer!! Best solution when you are on the road.

As clearly stated by microsoft, it is not an ipod killer (there are many ipod killers on the way - check with me same time next year), it is not a replacement of the smart phones or the laptops (with a wireless connection it could very well blow them off).

3 things if taken care of would make it a blockbuster.
price tag around $500-$600
seamless connectivity with dummy proof setup (wifi AND wirelesss n/w, aided with bluetooth)
atleast 8 hrs battery life.