Archive for August, 2012
What Does Microsoft Have Against Email?
Email in Windows 8 is a catastrophe.
I know the cool kids think email is last decade’s technology, but the fact is that it remains a vitally important communications tool for both businesses and consumers. But it gets no respect from …
A 7-inch iPad Presents Challenges to Apple’s Competition
A 7-inch iPad will put Apple in some very unfamiliar territory in the tablet market — it’s an area currently dominated by Android-based devices. However, Apple’s entry into that segment will also present some seemingly insurmountable challenges to those same …
The Twitter Kerfluffle: You Gets No Bread With One Meatball
The world of Twitter has been a-twitter for the last few days over changes the microblogging service is making in the third-party access to Twitter APIs. In general, the rules restrict or outright block the access of many third parties. …
Why We Hate Carriers (AT&T Edition)
Watching folks try to untangle themselves from messes of their own making is often painful. No, I’m not talking about Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin, but AT&T and the trouble it has made for itself by restricting the use of …
Tech Journalists Need To Learn Something About Business
A week ago, Engadget published a thinly sourced report that Microsoft would sell its new Surface tablet for an improbable $199. Despite a lack of any further confirmation, the report was endlessly repeated, commented upon, and used as the basis for …
Observations and Opinions About Apple Retail
Credit: Apple
As Tim pointed out earlier in the week, Apple competitors have many things to be worried about. Strategically, however, Apple’s retail presence would be one of the biggest things keeping me up at night if I …
How Significant is the Synaptics ThinTouch, ForcePad and ClearPad Technology?
As I have cited previously, human computer interface (HCI) changes have defined the winners of the last decade in the phone, tablet, and premium PC and game console markets. I believe this will continue into the future. As important …
What Really Scares Apple’s Competitors
I was recently talking with some of Apple’s competitors and they gave me some interesting feedback on how they feel about Apple. The first thing they told me is that they really respect Apple and find them to be very …
Microsoft’s Surface Tablet for $199 –Think Again
There were various reports about Microsoft pricing their Surface Tablet for $199 this week and it caused a lot of media and even consumers to hyperventilate about this possibility. Sure, many with wishful thinking would like it if the Surface …
Musings on Apple v. Samsung
As you may well know, the tech industry is currently enthralled with the Apple v. Samsung, Samsung v. Apple patent and trade dress trial. I’ve been reluctant to talk about the trial. As a wise man recently told me, the …
Dear Industry: Time To Rethink Attitudes About Age
Last month, I officially crossed the line into geezerhood.
Entering the land of Medicare as part of the baby boom vanguard has served the heighten my irritation at the tech world’s frequently patronizing, even pitying attitude toward what it regards as …
Deciphering Microsoft’s Latest Windows Blog on Windows RT
For over 20 years, I worked with Microsoft as a customer or a technology partner. Microsoft has a huge job in guiding their enormous Windows ecosystem down certain paths, and over those two decades I have seen …
The Trouble With Open Source: My Sage Saga
At a recent conference of mathematicians, I heard a lot of talk about Sage, an open-source project designed to create an alternative to powerful but pricey mathematics packages such as Wolfram’s Mathematica, Maplesoft’s Maple, and MathWorks’ MatLab. Do I decided …
The One Feature I Still Want From My Smart Phone
I love smart devices and more to the point I love the potential for smart devices. At the core of my work as an analyst I try to the best of my ability to look at what smart devices do …
The Opinion Cast: All Smart Devices are Simply Cloud Endpoints
A few weeks back I got into a light hearted Twitter debate with friend and colleague Roger Kay over tablets as PCs and the general number counting strategy of many firms. So he and I agreed to continue …
Who's Reading What
- The Definitive Answer Guide to Which Smartphone You Should Buy
- Google’s Android And The Path Not Taken
- When Reporting Sales Numbers, Honesty is the Best Policy
- Microsoft is Missing Apps the Same Way They Missed the Early Internet
- Only Apple Can Play Apple
- Samsung’s Real Threat to Apple
- Can Microsoft Compete in a Post-PC World?
- Bloomberg, the Internet, and Trust
- A Significant Product Differentiation
- Our New Look
- Can Microsoft Compete in a Post-PC World?
- The Definitive Answer Guide to Which Smartphone You Should Buy
- Our New Look
- Big-Box Retailers are Not Helping PC Sales
- Samsung’s Real Threat to Apple
- Apple In Perspective
- The Soft Improvements in new PCs Could be their Biggest Draw
- The PC Industry of the Past Is Not the PC Industry of the Future
- Apple Is Playing Chicken With The Mobile Carriers
- Windows vs. Mac In Schools: All the Wrong Reasons