Tag Archives: tablets

Flash did turn out to be Adobe’s Achilles’ Heel

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Adobe’s decision to halt the development of Flash Player on the Mobile came as a blow to the company’s 2+ year long commitment. They almost went to war with Apple to protect it. And now this. Adobe’s shift in focus from Flash to HTML5 for Mobile Browsers was taken keeping most developers out of focus. It has left them stranded.

What happens now? Adobe says despite discontinuing development they will continue to release bugs and security updates. That’s all for the show. They will drop support for all future device upgrades. This is a rash decision and disrupts the developer ecosystem who were dependent on Flash for mobile integration.

Adobe tried hard implementing Flash into mobiles but performance reports showed poor results. It almost led to diverging of the mobile development, which either for-sided flash or not. This was yet again, not in anyone’s favor. Flash, as Jobs said, was made for the PC-Era. It couldn’t  adapt to the newer standards. It altogether needed a replacement and a gradual shift but continuous upgrades to same old thing wouldn’t do the trick. Adobe failed to understand it and the reason too is clear, it was and is (On Desktops) its cash cow.

They decide to channelize their advancements onto HTML5, the newest open standard for web development. As the market changed, media consumption habits altered and as everything moved to faster performance – Adobe slogged. The Cost was high. Today, the entire brand identity is at stake. Obviously, by letting mobile phones go away, it’s already running a race to lose. Who would want to develop applications for Flash despite its great features if it offers no reliability. Who would want to waste their hardwork?

This would shake any developer’s faith in Flash on ANY platform. How can you suddenly stop supporting a widely distributed client for the newer devices with one blog post? The last two decades, when closed standards were treated with respect, Flash rose to power. Now it’s time that industry moves to Open Standards like HTML5, CSS and Javascript which offer more reliability and if not provide features like Flash but at least turn out to viable alternatives (for now).

There are several reasons why Flash failed.

  • It didn’t garner support from Apple. They hold a lot of Mobile Market Share. A lot of.
  • It really wasn’t that good. Performance sucked and it didn’t go with the concept of newer devices.
  • It had a premium tag for its developer tools. Premium tag for making something while you could run the same trick with Open Standards turned out a price too high to pay for Adobe.
With Flash going, the industry that suffers the most is Gaming. Zynga built an entire platform on Flash, it is now going to have a tough time. Even the newer standards don’t support something that advanced as of yet. What’s the only option left to developers is to start focusing on making native apps for the Mobile OS’s. This step will of course be readily be welcomed by phone companies who desperately want to expand their App Stores.
Conclusion is that this move is going to cost Adobe everything. ABI Research data suggests that HTML5 adoption on mobile devices will be 2.1 Billion in 2016. Flash could have been there but now it will not.

Ubuntu Linux to come to Tablets and Smartphones by 2014 : Do we need one more OS?

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It’s never bad to have alternatives, right? Windows and Mac are the current highest market share holders in the computer OS area, but we always require an alternative. To prevent market domination or to enforce healthy competition. Ubuntu was made for this purpose, or even if it wasn’t, it’s still doing it.

Ubuntu was destined to enter the smarphone and tablet market. It’s very obvious because if it wants to survive it has to adapt to the changing computing devices. Canonical (Creator of Linux) founder, Mark Shuttleworth is going to announce the future plans at Ubuntu Developer Summit. He says Version 14.04 – April 2014 will see the launch of the OS on tablets and phones.

Ubuntu Unity Interface

They have been in talks with partners for over 18 months and the OS is going to land on ARM powered tablets which are predicted to be out next year.

I can’t deliver a product schedule yet, Ubuntu is already working with hardware partners to bring products to market. As progress is made Ubuntu will take the device-specific code, open source it, and roll it into standard Ubuntu ~ Mark Shuttleworth, Founder – Canonical.

Even Ubuntu’s desktop interface moreover looks like it’s meant for a tablet. It’s too simple to be on a Desktop. The release of the new unity interface was a signal that they’re eyeing touch devices. I don’t think they can really melt a rock because they cannot match the magnitude of iOS or Windows Developers in just few years. Via ZDNet.

Steve Jobs wanted to create tablets ever since Apple’s Inception : Steve Wozniak

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Sometimes, I feel sad because Steve Jobs takes all the limelight. Not just once, ever since. Always. Steve Wozniak, the infamous co-founder of Apple willingly takes the backseat.

Years after his leave at Apple, at a keynote on Storage Networking World in Santa Clara, California he was questioned as how tablets could change the computer industry. I expected some sort of answer and he fulfilled my wish. He compared them to TV’s.

Moreover he called them, “It’s for the normal people in the world”.

I think Steve Jobs had that intention from the day we started Apple, but it was just hard to get there, because we had to go through a lot of steps where you connected to things, and (eventually) computers grew up to where they could do … normal consumer appliance things

He even expressed his desire that Android tablets shall never surpass iPads. Why? Ofcourse, somehow the technology that powers iPad is the highly evolved version of the technology that Steve Wozniak had designed in 1980.

The question that bugs most of people who follow Apple is that, Why did Wozniak ever leave Apple? Steve Jobs and Wozniak had different vision for the company. Wozniak was inclined towards the engineering side while Jobs was interested in running a business and a company. [Source]

How much did people spend on tablets (iPads) in 2010?

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Firstly, Analysts reported that 100% of tablet sales in 2010 consisted of iPads. Yeah, its quite an advantage being the first in the line to introduce tablets to the world.

Number two is that the world had spent about $9.6 Billion on tablets that same year with $9.566 Billion going to Apple for iPad. Insanely Great. [Source]

But Past is gone and Future awaits so the Real war will be in 2011 it is said sale of tablets may go up to $29.4 Billion this year. It is also being said Apple is going to grab 70% of the market this year. 2011 is surely going to be the War of the Tablets.

Steve Ballmer speaks about Future Plans for Microsoft [Video]

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At IndiMix’10, the best part and perhaps the only thing that interested me was Steve Ballmer’s Keynote. Obviously, we could get know much more what the worlds 2nd Biggest Tech Giant [ ;) ] is planning to do.

Steve went on to discuss the future of all products pointing towards just one keyword – CLOUD. Other web technologies like HTML5 and Silverlight are also focused on.

Almost all our key products are evolving towards cloud

Thats exactly true and you will get a glimpse of it with Microsoft Office 2010. Windows, Live, Xbox and almost everything they’ve got, they are probably risking it on the cloud. Someone said, Cloud would be all dum devices speaking to one cloud but Ballmer cleared it with a much better conceptual understanding. It’s Fusion of Internet, Enterprise Data Centre, TV, PC and everything digital. Clouds will create opportunities, No new servers and global deployment would be as easy as taking a hot bath.

Clouds over, now Bing. Bing is what they know of users and what they know of web. Now the most interesting part, they say 30 more Windows Phones will be launching next quarter, while last year they released 50 phones. Great, 30 phones in just one quarter? Raining Windows Phone 7!

Ballmer rolled a video too which caught our eyes, which shows technology of future and also what all you might expect from Microsoft in future. BTW I think the usage of Pen in touch devices is what Microsoft is betting on, almost all tablet type devices. The idea of courier is also somewhere in the video. Lookout!

RIM BlackPad to give Apple iPad a Facelift?

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Remember the Apple iPhone Vs. Blackberry storm? Ah, storm lost terribly, Design (though some say it won), OS, and the huge comparison between app store.

If reports are to be believed, Research in Motion (RIM) which is blackberry’s parent company has ordered 8.9″ display screens from producers, Hon Hai. This proves the probability of another tablet in the coming. After a huge trail of iPhone Killer posts, time has come for so called iPad Killer posts!

Sources claim that the tablet has been codenamed BlackPad or Charcoal and it would be equipped with complete Blackberry OS compatibility and functionality. The device is currently in just prototype development phase, and thus its surely not going start to ship before next year when iPad two rumors would be raining.

Blackberry overcoming the iPad could be lot of hard work, especially with the huge bounty of Apps trapped in Apple’s app store but if RIM has got that sensational touch, it might overthrow the iPad. No matter what it is, it will surely give customers some fresh concepts (hopefully!) and not another iPad rip off!


HP + Palm, on the fence with fingers crossed

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This is a guest post by Annkur P Agarwal who is a gadget lover and a biased Palm fan :P , you can read his ramblings about the tech industry on OnlyGizmos.

Late reaction here from me and to be honest I missed the original news as my GPRS connection failed me during travel, but the initial reaction when someone told those to me at a late night tweet-up in Pune was a scream – NO!

I was personally hoping for (if at all) someone like HTC to buyout Palm (if at all) who can bring in superb hardware backing along with $ to make the most of the webOS and speed up release of new devices. Why HP didn’t sound good to me was simple, they just aren’t a smartphone company. The last HP iPaq phone I handled was by all means pathetic and I so preferred my Treo 650 over them.

While thats some reason for me to be skeptical, its accepted that there wasn’t a great smartphone / handheld presence by HP and that’s where they want to fit in Palm. Certainly HP realizes that windows mobile isn’t the most happening thing here. Palm has done well to rise from a near dead level and come up with impressive products. Part of my reaction arises from the fear that we might just see a great innovator just dissolve in the deep sea.

But then I am so hoping that Jon Rubenstine has striked a good deal and HP is committed to preserve the Palm DNA. At its current pace and given the market competition, I am so sure that Palm wouldn’t have been in a position to expand and innovate to its full potential. With a big daddy like HP in picture I see a better chance to handle the nextgen Palm device back here in India. Not to forget some other cool products apart from smart phones that can show up. My wish, HP preserves Palm … Fingers crossed.

Editors Note : HP’s decision could give rise to a new business model in future. With HP eyeing the tablet market, it would probably mean the entry of Palm’s Web OS into the tablet arena and it might just work out. You never know, developers and customers are unpredictable these days!