Hunting for evil-doers during your next trip to the Pakistan frontier? There’s an app for that.
Thanks to the good people at Parrot, we now have the personal drone. You can not only control the new AR.Drone from your iPhone, you can enjoy the drone’s-eye view right there on your iPhone screen. So with just a little creativity, you can probably violate multiple laws at once. Hellfire missiles not included.
(Just debuted at CES. No word on availability yet.)
Invest in Android. Check. Sign up telco partners for Android. Check. Develop our own Google-branded phone. Check. Rehearse big launch event for Nexus One. Check. Open online store. Check. Set up customer support system. Uh… whoops.
Looks like someone at Google forgot their Boy Scout motto. Thanks to a surprising lack of preparedness, Google’s support forums are now flooded with Nexus One owners searching for answers. No luck with T-Mobile either — they just send you back to Google, where the best you can do is send an email and wait up to 48 hours for a response.
Chalk this up to Google’s rookie status in the hardware biz. It took Apple many years to build a seamless, positive customer path from ads to Apple Store to packaging to post-purchase care. At this point, Google’s phone business is, to be kind, just a wee a bit looser.
No company battling for the hearts and minds of customers can rest on the the laurels of hardware or software. They have to build a rich and happy customer experience. There are many ways Google can do this — but they might start by answering their phone.
He can empty a room as quickly as he fills it. (Photo: Laura Rauch/AP)
For several months, the boys at Google have been working toward January 5th: Nexus One launch day. For several months, Apple has been working toward January 27th: tablet launch day. For several months, Microsoft has been working toward January 6th — and two days later, it’s hard to figure out why.
As near as anyone can tell, it’s because of tradition. Microsoft always gives the keynote at CES. But in this ultra-competitive world, tradition is hardly a reason for Steve Ballmer to stand up and make himself look small.
It pains me to be compassionate to this man, but I imagine it’s a near-impossible job to create front-page news from a few scraps. Microsoft has a number of things to brag about — it’s just that none of them are on the scale of Google unveiling a smartphone or Apple unveiling a tablet.
So our man Steve is left holding the script that says “Make big splash here,” when the genuine splash-makers have purposefully organized their own events to pull the rug out from under him. Surely this week Steve’s competitors are shaking their heads and wondering why this guy makes it so easy for them.
The hot rumor before Ballmer’s speech was that he would present a super-cool HP tablet in an effort to dilute Apple’s pending anouncement. He did so with only a passing mention. Maybe HP realized that this was a no-win situation for them with all the expectations for Apple’s new tablet. If they’re smart, and their tablet is that hot, they’re already putting the finishing touches on plans for their own event — sans Ballmer.
Suggestions for Steve: Be a renegade. Skip the damn show if you haven’t the weaponry. Never go anywhere simply because people expect you to. It’s just Showmanship 101.
Andy Rubin is the founder of Android and currently VP of Engineering at Google. In the afterglow of the Nexus One unveiling, the Washington Post ran an article noting his similarities to Steve Jobs.
Unfortunately, our friend Andy is actually sounding more like Steve Ballmer.
When asked when existing Android phones will be upgraded to be on par with Nexus One, Andy explained that “older” Android handsets may not be able to support the “full experience” of the newer Android releases — just as older PCs may not be able to run the newest version of Windows.
Come again? I could have sworn that the planet’s entire supply of Android phones was less than six months old. (Turns out HTC, manufacturer of Nexus One, did start making them at the end of 2008.) Whatever, it seems incredibly early to be talking about creeping obsolescence.
Remain calm, Droid enthusiasts. Motorola says you’re definitely getting the upgrade. As for the others, Google says they’ll make the software available within days, but it’s up to each manufacturer to decide when — and if — the update gets rolled out to their devices.
So. If Google was indeed harboring dreams of becoming the Microsoft of the phone world, I’d say they’re well on their way.
This should further fuel the debate over open systems (Android) vs. closed systems (iPhone). Yes, you get a lot more choices when you shoot for ubiquity — but things can get messy quick.
A Nexus One Q&A, including Andy Rubin’s comments, can be found at Computerworld.
Stand back — another iPhone killer is born
Droid, Pre, Storm, Cliq — kindly step aside. The real Clash of the Titans is taking shape. In a single day, ad giant Google unveiled the Nexus One while phone giant Apple bought itself a mobile ad company. This should be fun. But first things first. A few instant reactions to Google’s new baby:
Name. Lame. You’ve got a killer brand, a high-end entry into the world’s hottest market, months of global anticipation for a “Google phone” … and you call it what? Ya know, sometimes obvious really is best. Ask iPhone. GooglePhone, Gphone, take your pick. (Oh, and if you really, really had to go this route — and you didn’t — was that “One” really necessary?) Extra points for iPhone before the rumble even starts.
Features. Overall: spotty. Some cool things (better screen than iPhone, 5-megapixel camera, voice-enabled so you can write an email simply by speaking). Some duds (no multi-touch, a microscopic 190MB allotted for downloaded apps, wimpy app store, dismal music player).
OS. Google presented Nexus One as “the best Android device.” Brazen, considering the co-CEO of Motorola was in attendance — presumably with the second-best Android device, Droid, in his pocket. Wouldn’t there be fighting in the streets if Microsoft suddenly started selling “the best Windows computer”? Google says it’s not trying to reap profits from the sales of Nexus One, just “broadening the availability of Android handsets.” Uh huh. Already, Nexus One has features that are merely “coming soon” to other Android phones.
Price. $529 unlocked, $179 with a 2-year T-Mobile “subsidized” contract. To be honest, this industry-wide subsidy thing has always sounded fishy to me. If Apple can haul in the cash selling a 16GB iPod touch for $199, how much more can it cost to add telephony to that? Conspiracy theorists, unite!
Design. Hmm, now where have I seen this look before…
I’m eager to see some real reviews now that Nexus One is among us. I think the competition between former buddies Apple and Google will be good for the industry and riveting to watch. But make no mistake: there will be blood.
Anyone can have a joke fall flat at a party. It takes some real effort to flop on a global scale.
Yet for every campaign that has just the right kind of humor to succeed (like Apple’s Mac vs. PC), there seem to be a dozen dismal flops (like Microsoft’s Bill & Jerry).
You can analyze that to death — and some clients do — but what it boils down to is this: humor is just so damn subjective. Your brilliant bit of comedy may not seem quite so brilliant to the client, the focus group or even the director you fought so valiantly to sign. There’s also a far more horrifying possibility: your idea may not be as brilliant as you think. Hey, it happens. It’s not like the greatest creatives in our business haven’t made some colossal misjudgments.
Whatever. I was only thinking about this because I was struck by a series of videos that came my way before the holiday break. They make an interesting point about scoring with humor — regardless of the size of the budget. Some PC fanboy created his own satire of the Mac vs. PC spots, making PC the hero. Here’s an example:
Yes, it’s a total rip-off of the Apple spots. But you know what? This actually makes a better anti-Apple case than anything I’ve seen Microsoft do in the last year. With humor, it points out the fallacy of Apple’s argument (at least the fallacy from PC’s point of view). It amplifies some things people are already willing to believe about Apple. And, as Apple demonstrates daily, the intelligent use of humor makes it possible to deliver a brutally competitive message while remaining perfectly lovable.
I don’t suggest that Microsoft just rip off their competitor’s campaign. (Although they already directly acknowledge Apple’s campaign in their marketing, with little elegance.) My point is that humor, based on insight and intelligence, is an incredibly effective tool. It’s just that humor, insight and intelligence don’t often travel together.
(If you’re interested you can see a couple more of these PC-centric YouTube satires here and here.)