Editorials - SlashGear

Posts Tagged ‘editorials’

Windows Mobile: Don’t write it off yet

By Michael Gartenberg on Thursday, Aug 20th 2009 15 Comments

casio cassiopeia 1 Windows Mobile has been around for a long time. It started life in 1996 as Windows CE (which some say stood for Consumer Electronics and Microsoft insisted was an acronym for nothing) with the first clamshell device coming from Casio, called the Cassiopeia. Over time, it’s evolved into a stable platform, with both enterprise and consumer appeal and devices from multiple vendors available for carriers around the world. Despite selling 20 million devices last year, there’s still a lot of negative buzz about the platform. Bloggers, analysts and journalists have all called the platform’s future into question (while still calling for a mythical Microsoft-created phone) and continue to raise the question of platform viability. I think the latest version of Windows Mobile, 6.5 addresses many of those issues along with strong support from OEMs who are still committed to the platform and will help drive business adoption further over the next 18 months.

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Understanding the Mobile Rule of Three

By Michael Gartenberg on Wednesday, Aug 12th 2009 6 Comments

It’s an interesting challenge. Lots of mobile devices that are all vying for the consumer pocket (and wallet). But just how many devices will consumers carry with them at any one time? The answer is important as that also helps define which devices will be successful and which ones will fail. Conventional wisdom holds that most consumers prefer to carry only a single device, and while that wisdom is correct it only tells a partial story. We’ve done some interesting research at Interpret that says there’s more here than conventional wisdom would indicate and that consumers are willing to carry more than one device; however there’s also an upper limit on that number.

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The Wright Brothers and Frequent Flyer Programs or Why Predicting the Future is So Hard

By Michael Gartenberg on Tuesday, Aug 4th 2009 No Comments

Life as an analyst is exciting. For fifteen years, I have had the privilege of standing at the center of the technology universe, observing the technology landscape, charting the major tends and offering my predictions for the future. In that course of time, I watched as fundamental changes occurred. Changes that were large enough to alter the course of the industry. Changes that were sweeping in nature. The funny thing is they were all changes that were almost universally missed by the pundits and experts.

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Time for Apple TV to go from Hobby to Strategic Product

By Michael Gartenberg on Wednesday, Jul 29th 2009 5 Comments

With the successful launch of the iPhone 3GS last spring and a new version of OS X and a new crop of iPods expected this fall, one player in Apple’s lineup seems to have gone missing, namely Apple TV. On Apple’s financial conference call, the device that Steve Jobs once described as “a hobby” was not mentioned once. I hope Apple hasn’t given up on this category as there’s a lot of value and function in Apple TV that has yet to make it into other products in this space.

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SlashGear welcomes Michael Gartenberg

By Chris Davies on Thursday, Jul 9th 2009 5 Comments

We’ve a new voice here at SlashGear, and one we think will bring a fresh and different perspective to our discussion on technology and consumer electronics. Michael Gartenberg is a well known journalist and analyst, currently VP of strategy and analysis at Interpret LLC, and now adding a weekly column for SlashGear to his credits.

Michael has previously worked with Jupiter Research, Gartner Inc. and Microsoft, but here he’ll be offering a topical and outspoken opinion on the biggest news in tech. In the first of his weekly columns, he discusses Google’s new Chrome OS and how after just a day in the public eye it’s already being labeled a “Windows killer”.

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SlashGear talk GSM Pre with Palm and O2

By Chris Davies on Tuesday, Jul 7th 2009 No Comments

Palm’s big news for today was it’s announcement of the GSM Palm Pre and the exclusivity deals the company has carved out with O2 in the UK, Ireland and Germany, and Movistar in Spain. We had the opportunity to sit down with Palm and O2 today, and talk about what changes they’ve made to the smartphone, how they see it sitting in a range dominated by the iPhone 3GS, and why European customers will have to wait until the Christmas holidays before they can pick one up.

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Palm Pre and the WSJ: why Walt will kick-start this smartphone revolution

By Chris Davies and Vincent Nguyen on Tuesday, May 12th 2009 No Comments

Recent news that Palm are tipped to be working with the Wall Street Journal to announce the Pre’s launch date on May 19th, and word that Best Buy are expecting stock of the distinctive Touchstone inductive charger on June 7th has again fueled speculation that the smartphone is imminent. It already seems likely that Pre-buyers will be queuing up for the new handset, and potentially doing so on Sunday June 7th, but it could be the week or two beforehand that makes the biggest difference to its reception.

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iPhone OS 3.0 and Palm Pre: compare & contrast

By Chris Davies on Wednesday, Mar 18th 2009 No Comments

There’s seldom a clear-cut decision in the gadget world, and picking which smartphone you want to commit two-years of your contracted life to is perhaps one of the hardest. Right now the primary battle is between the Palm Pre and the latest iteration of Apple’s iPhone software, OS 3.0, as demonstrated yesterday. If you’re wondering what the announcement means, check out our full comparison over at My Pre.

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Dell Adamo 9 + VIA Surfboard C855 = Best 1080p netbook ever?

By Chris Davies on Tuesday, Mar 17th 2009 1 Comment

Dell had already confirmed that the 13.4-inch Adamo ultraportable was merely the start of a new high-end series of luxury computers, but signs of what’s likely to be the next model – the Dell Adamo 9 – have already been spotted. As we said at the time, the main question is whether Dell make what’s presumably a 9-inch ultraportable into another Atom-based netbook, picks a more mainstream processor as you might find in the Sony VAIO TT, or takes another route. Coincidentally, VIA announced their 1080p-capable Surfboard C855 reference design today, something that could well supply Dell’s “another route”.

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Toshiba TG01 – why am I not excited?

By Chris Davies on Wednesday, Feb 4th 2009 5 Comments

Yesterday Toshiba took the wraps off their latest smartphone, the TG01, and with it catapulted themselves into the must-see category at Mobile World Congress next week. We’ve got details, photos and high-definition video of the TG01 if you need to get fully up to speed, but basically it’s a 9.9mm thick WM6.1 smartphone with a 4.1-inch touchscreen, all the usual 3G and GPS connections, and a custom GUI as is so common now among users of Microsoft’s mobile platform. There’s no denying it’s a slick, attractive handset – so how come I can’t get excited?

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