Mobile

29 Dec 2009

I initially wrote this as a comment in my previous post: Why Adobe's mobile strategy is fundamentally flawed as a response to Rachel Luxemburg's comment but it grew somewhat so, in the interest of keeping comments short and succinct, here it is in its own post:

"Frankly, if you’re that convinced that Flash simply isn’t suitable for the mobile space, then you’re right, you’re going to get very frustrated at Adobe for not giving up and going home." (Rachel)

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Follow-up: Why Adobe’s mobile strategy is fundamentally flawed

I'm not asking you to give up and go home. I'm asking you to stop playing the wrong game.

28 Dec 2009

I can only assume that the source cited in this article on the rumored Apple slate was either misquoted or clueless when s/he stated:

"They've told select developers that as long as they build their apps to support full screen resolution - rather than a fixed 320x480 - their apps should run just fine"

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Does Apple’s iSlate contain Magic Interaction Design Dust?

As nice as it might sound, you can't simply scale an app designed for a small screen and have it provide a good user experience on a large screen.

26 Dec 2009

Tim O'Reilly has an interesting post titled Why Using ShopSavvy Might Not Be So Savvy in which he states that using applications like ShopSavvy and RedLaser to do price-checking while in a store is ultimately unsustainable as widespread adoption of this habit will eventually lead to brick-and-mortar stores going out of business.

I got alerted to the article by a friend since my own iPhone app, 'avit, is mentioned in the comments by Michael R. Bernstein: (more...)

Are bookstores doomed to extinction?

What bookstores need to do in this new age is to find new ways to compete. And I sure hope that they do because I, for one, love bookstores.

26 Dec 2009

Adobe's current mobile strategy is very similar today to what it always was: get the Flash Player on as many handsets as possible. Let's qualify that statement, however, with some all-important details, starting with differentiating the two types of Flash support that Adobe wants to implement on devices:

  • In-browser Flash support (plugin)
  • Standalone Flash application support

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Why Adobe’s mobile strategy is fundamentally flawed

A virtual machine is always going to be a couple of steps behind native applications in terms of device-specific support. It's a losing game. The focus is wrong.

24 Nov 2009

Last week, my friend Mike Downey (who now works at Microsoft) tweeted:

Wow - can't believe we are giving away free laptops to all paid PDC attendees! Very cool! #pdc09

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Microsoft may suck at life but they understand developers

Yes, giving away free laptops to developers is desperation. But it's the same desperation every platform vendor should be feeling.