en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/1069365 Comments by vangrieg http://www.asymco.com/2011/02/25/the-platform-as-a-promise/#IDComment131068423 This can change of course but wouldn't it require some effort from Google? I'm also not at all sure that the basis of competition is shifting to software. It's akin to saying that the basis of competitions in the car industry is shifting to wheels. People buy phones, and the phones must be capable, finger friendly or what not, which requires a modern capable OS, sure, but the OS capabilities are increasingly becoming (and will be even more) similar. Like I said earlier, I see zero signs of brand effect in "platform-based" phone sales, and Android is moving in a direction opposite from the one that is needed to create some serious positioning and identity. Sun, 27 Feb 2011 14:09:35 +0000 http://www.asymco.com/2011/02/25/the-platform-as-a-promise/#IDComment131068423 http://www.asymco.com/2011/02/25/the-platform-as-a-promise/#IDComment130646005 An interesting thing to think about here is that Google's not-so-exciting UI endeavors and the messy Market are probably not so much an execution failure as a result of Google's priorities and modus operandi as a whole. If you think about how they make money, it's by being a gateway between a disorganized chaotic mess which is the internet and everybody on Earth with access to internet. They are (consciously or accidentally) recreating the internet in their phone OS, with its anarchy and "business darwinism" because it's essentially who they are. Their primary instrument is being everywhere (browser search bar, phone, TV, refrigerator, anything), and being ubiquitous is so much more important than being polished that they just won't waste time on such minor stuff. They also don't care about differences between customer segments as their purpose is serving each and every living soul on the planet - how can you polish something that's for everybody? And above all - the messier and more disorganized the environment the more familiar and benefitial it feels for them - they genuinely don't get why people talk about fragmentation. So Android is and probably will be huge, but it's not much more of a brand than "internet" is. And it's not a failure on Google's part, it's just what they do for living. They thrive from diversity and complexity, these are the cornerstones of why they are necessary in this world. Branding and image and what not is just fluff for their data-driven "numbers game". Microsoft is a totally different company - one of their most used words is "partners". That's who they work for, that's who they get feedback from, and that's why they time after time fail to get the consumer and "miss whole cycles". Their necessity for the end user comes from the mere fact that they manage to be so important for everyone in the food chain. In theory, OEMs could remove Windows and put Linux instead on all PCs, consumers would whine but learn to live with it. It just doesn't happen because everybody is in this Microsoft's web making money. This obviously doesn't work for smartphones, and MS is now trying to do something of epic newness for them - doing a product for "partners" yet trying to market it to consumers. If any platform has a chance of becoming a brand at all, WP7 is it. It's just hard to imagine Microsoft excelling in this area. Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:54:32 +0000 http://www.asymco.com/2011/02/25/the-platform-as-a-promise/#IDComment130646005 http://www.asymco.com/2011/02/25/the-platform-as-a-promise/#IDComment130586773 Overestimated, yes, I haven't seen a "valuation" of Android as a brand, so shouldn't have used that term - something like that (I'm talking about the brand, not the platform as a whole). Wide name recognition doesn't say anything about customers' attitudes, emotional attachment, loyalty, anything of that sort. I don't see it allowing OEMs to price handsets at a premium, or even additional sales effect. If you take the number of Android devices sold and divide it by the number of handset it's on, you'll get sales per model similar to those of WP7, accounting for distribution and availability differences. If you further subtract sales of hits such as SGS (they aren't huge because the phone carries Android, otherwise it would work for others as well), you'll get VERY similar sales per handset. That's a very rough metric, I agree, but it just shows that Android behaves like a typical commodity platform - i.e. its overall sales are a function of number of handsets and distribution rather than the platform's unique branding. Fri, 25 Feb 2011 14:26:07 +0000 http://www.asymco.com/2011/02/25/the-platform-as-a-promise/#IDComment130586773 http://www.asymco.com/2011/02/25/the-platform-as-a-promise/#IDComment130585129 Whatever, "anti-Apple smartphone" is just as meaningless unless you are somehow religious about all this openness/control stuff. Fri, 25 Feb 2011 14:16:34 +0000 http://www.asymco.com/2011/02/25/the-platform-as-a-promise/#IDComment130585129 http://www.asymco.com/2011/02/25/the-platform-as-a-promise/#IDComment130541509 I suspect that the value of Android as a brand may be somewhat underestimated. It is strong in that it is very well known, of course, but I seriously doubt it conveys a lot of meaning and/or has a well-defined and entrenched positioning in the minds of the general public. It basically means "non-Apple smartphone" at this time, which is great only insofar as there's nothing else really. There's obviously a very loyal group of followers who are very emotional about it and are very vocal, but I don't think that their share of voice is proportional to Android's share of minds. Fri, 25 Feb 2011 10:28:25 +0000 http://www.asymco.com/2011/02/25/the-platform-as-a-promise/#IDComment130541509 http://wmpoweruser.com/carrier-billing-in-action-on-windows-phone-7-provides-an-end-run-around-itunes/#IDComment102488638 Carrier billing will always come with a surcharge. I doubt there's anything exciting in it. Tue, 5 Oct 2010 15:35:44 +0000 http://wmpoweruser.com/carrier-billing-in-action-on-windows-phone-7-provides-an-end-run-around-itunes/#IDComment102488638 http://wmpoweruser.com/htc-t8788-windows-phone-7-revealed-in-all-its-glory-shows-a-speaker/#IDComment95120947 I can't say I hate it, but the speaker is an absolutely useless gimmick for me personally. I won't use it but it'll make the device thicker, which is bad. So I'll pass on this hardware (and all other HTC phones leaked so far). Wed, 25 Aug 2010 10:04:17 +0000 http://wmpoweruser.com/htc-t8788-windows-phone-7-revealed-in-all-its-glory-shows-a-speaker/#IDComment95120947 http://wmpoweruser.com/does-windows-phone-7-need-a-task-switcher/#IDComment93519946 Well yes, but they won't do it. Mon, 16 Aug 2010 22:00:13 +0000 http://wmpoweruser.com/does-windows-phone-7-need-a-task-switcher/#IDComment93519946 http://wmpoweruser.com/does-windows-phone-7-need-a-task-switcher/#IDComment93517173 IE's interception of the Back button is really annoying. There could be a solution though, hitting Back in IE could bring up a page with visual history (like it does in Opera when you enable this hidden option) so you can swipe back and forth to find the page you need, but hitting the Back button once again would immediately bring you to your previous app. Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:40:30 +0000 http://wmpoweruser.com/does-windows-phone-7-need-a-task-switcher/#IDComment93517173 http://wmpoweruser.com/reaction-from-the-backstage-event-addressing-speech-recognition-in-wp7/#IDComment92659917 Whatever. This, and video calling, are probably the most overtalked features ever. I've never in my entire life been able to use any of the systems, be it TellMe, iPhone's thingie or whatever. Not to mention that it looks utterly stupid when you try to talk to your phone in public, and there's probably a couple dozen weirdos who use it on a regular basis. They certainly have more important areas to focus on. Fri, 13 Aug 2010 00:28:04 +0000 http://wmpoweruser.com/reaction-from-the-backstage-event-addressing-speech-recognition-in-wp7/#IDComment92659917 http://wmpoweruser.com/the-great-microsoft-facebook-social-alliance/#IDComment92373799 Never underestimate the weird stubbornness of content owners. iTunes wasn't an idea that didn't come to mind to anyone but Jobs. He was just the first one who was able to convince labels that they can entrust their precious bytes into the hands of a tech company. Really. It does take years of negotiations, and even when you can sell music it doesn't mean you can stream it. Also, selling it in a relatively closed ecosystem like iPod/iTunes or Zune is a different beast from selling it in the wild. Wed, 11 Aug 2010 23:19:32 +0000 http://wmpoweruser.com/the-great-microsoft-facebook-social-alliance/#IDComment92373799 http://wmpoweruser.com/two-apps-showcasing-metro-ui-in-its-full-glory/#IDComment91725812 Third parties cannot use the hardware search button, unfortunately. So if you want to search something within an application, you'll have to have another button in the UI somewhere. Mon, 9 Aug 2010 10:39:41 +0000 http://wmpoweruser.com/two-apps-showcasing-metro-ui-in-its-full-glory/#IDComment91725812 http://wmpoweruser.com/two-apps-showcasing-metro-ui-in-its-full-glory/#IDComment91709588 I wonder when I'll see a useful application for WP7. I'm not complaining, the OS isn't out yet etc., but all the demos so far have been fairly useless (or intended for some very narrow audiences). Mon, 9 Aug 2010 08:12:24 +0000 http://wmpoweruser.com/two-apps-showcasing-metro-ui-in-its-full-glory/#IDComment91709588 http://wmpoweruser.com/previous-asus-article-thoughts-explained/#IDComment91542926 That pinky Android thing is a hideous atrocity. Sun, 8 Aug 2010 10:26:38 +0000 http://wmpoweruser.com/previous-asus-article-thoughts-explained/#IDComment91542926 http://wmpoweruser.com/no-concrete-plans-for-html-5-support-for-windows-phone-7-browser/#IDComment90939697 Would you care to give an example of a real-life web site where HTML5 is needed right now? Granted, there are some where you can use either Flash or HTML5, but are there HTML5-only ones? Thu, 5 Aug 2010 06:12:31 +0000 http://wmpoweruser.com/no-concrete-plans-for-html-5-support-for-windows-phone-7-browser/#IDComment90939697 http://wmpoweruser.com/open-source-audio-and-video-codecs-come-to-windows-mobile-media-player/#IDComment90767467 Just about time :) Wed, 4 Aug 2010 10:59:23 +0000 http://wmpoweruser.com/open-source-audio-and-video-codecs-come-to-windows-mobile-media-player/#IDComment90767467 http://wmpoweruser.com/oh-no-microsoft-dont-kill-html-email-again/#IDComment90736624 Why what is where? Like I said elsewhere, after reading a message you can choose to close it, go to the message list and select your next one. Or just go to the next message bypassing the list. I do the latter of course, it's much faster. But I obviously don't see what the next message is about. Wed, 4 Aug 2010 05:49:17 +0000 http://wmpoweruser.com/oh-no-microsoft-dont-kill-html-email-again/#IDComment90736624 http://wmpoweruser.com/oh-no-microsoft-dont-kill-html-email-again/#IDComment90736033 When you open a message and read it, you can close it and go to the message list, or go to next message. That next message can be spam. Wed, 4 Aug 2010 05:45:47 +0000 http://wmpoweruser.com/oh-no-microsoft-dont-kill-html-email-again/#IDComment90736033 http://wmpoweruser.com/oh-no-microsoft-dont-kill-html-email-again/#IDComment90608227 Where did you find tap and scroll in WP7? If you want to see the images, tap and see them, that's all you need to do. Because you obviously don't understand why the measure is there, you certainly shouldn't get the option to download images automatically, for your own good. And of course you can decide how much data to download. This particular thing is just not about data. Tue, 3 Aug 2010 16:09:29 +0000 http://wmpoweruser.com/oh-no-microsoft-dont-kill-html-email-again/#IDComment90608227 http://wmpoweruser.com/oh-no-microsoft-dont-kill-html-email-again/#IDComment90569844 Re spam - yes, I'm serious. Neither gmail nor hotmail are perfect, so some spam mails do get through. What's worse though is that they're even less perfect at recognizing legitimate emails, so I get quite a few false positives and therefore have to check the spam boxes every once in a while. That's certainly enough for me to be cautious and object to downloading all images automatically. Re dev device - no, I don't have one. But why would it be different? Historically, that's how all mail clients including Outlook in WM behaved - there was no refetching of messages, just downloading the images. Technically, there's absolutely no point in downloading messages to show external images as the latter aren't stored on the mail server by definition! You would only need to refetch messages if the images are attached to the message. Would whitelisting be nice? Yes, but a) it wouldn't make things easier for my mom; b) there are more important features missing in WP7 so I'd rather they concentrate on those; c) people need to stop behaving like it's the end of the world, WP7 is crippled and MS kill HTML email. In WM, the "Tap to scroll right" thing is horrible, but it seems to be gone. Tapping once to view images is not a big deal. Really. Tue, 3 Aug 2010 13:40:09 +0000 http://wmpoweruser.com/oh-no-microsoft-dont-kill-html-email-again/#IDComment90569844