Clazh » iPhone

Microsoft We Screwed Up Windows Mobile, iPhone Competitor Silverlight Mobile 2010

Arpit Jacob — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:51:44 +0000

I just returned from the round table discussion Microsoft MVPs and MVP Alumni had with S. Somasegar the Senior Vice President of the Developer Division at Microsoft, at the Sheraton Hotel in Chennai. I was the first person to land there and the only one dressed up casually in a T-Shirt and Jeans not surprising since most of the MVPs had regular jobs or worked as developers for companies.

S. Somasegar VP at Microsoft

Its very rare to see an executive of such high level come down to meet with developers and mix and mingle with them. Its people like Somasegar who connect and engage with the community that increases the appeal Microsoft has as a Company and separates them from Apple or Google. A down to earth person he candidly answers all the questions that were fired at him.

He began by explaining Microsoft’s Vision and how they always plan and develop things which would be relevant 5 years down the line, the next version of .NET 4, Visual Studio 2010, new features introduced the completely redesigned UI based on WPF for the IDE. Most of the discussion centered around .NET and the developer tools. But Missing from the whole talk was Windows Mobile. While I been a .NET developer for 3 years before I quit to become a freelancer, I was more interested in what Microsoft was doing with Silverlight and its Mobile Platform, and how they were looking to compete with the iPhone OS and Android Platform.

Yes We Screwed up with Windows Mobile

I pointed out Windows Mobile and the lack of innovation and stagnation with regards to features, User Experience, Design and interface his answer was extremely candid and frank. “Yes we screwed up Windows Mobile, and let it stagnant. In fact you are being very polite in pointing this out.” He went to say how the initial vision of Windows Mobile had been long term and well planned but along the way the lost the game.

Microsoft Secret Plans For Windows Mobile, Silverlight for Mobile

While he was very mum and secretive about what Microsoft had planned for Windows Mobile, he did let out that a few things about what Microsoft was doing for the mobile platform, they had revamped the whole Windows mobile team and rebooted the process similar to what they had done with Windows Longhorn. I see it more like a comparison of what happened with Windows Vista Vs Windows 7.

Some of the Key Points he made were.

Rebooted Windows mobile Strategy.
Brand New Windows Mobile Team
Microsoft is laying its bet on SilverLight
Silverlight for mobile will be the competitor for iPhone and Andriod.
Silverlight for Mobile will be announced at MIX 2010

Things Microsoft got wrong

They are too late in the game.
They are taking too long to come out with a competing product and keeping with the trends.
Billions spent on R&D hard to believe nothing concrete on the Mobile front has come out yet
Clear Disconnect between Microsoft Design team and products. Do they even have a Design R&D team?

© Arpit Jacob for Clazh, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Catergories: Microsoft, Software, Technology Tags: iPhone, Microsoft, Mobile, Software, Web-Development

Apple Numbers

Arpit Jacob — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 06:38:46 +0000

With this whole hype of the iphone, Mac OS X Leopard, new ipods and the new imacs, much of the attention is focused on Apple. Bad luck Microsoft! But has Microsoft released anything in past 6 months? The answer is ‘Yes’ and they are:

Windows Home Server 2008
New Microsoft Zune models
Halo 3
Windows Live services

Since the attention is focused on Apple, here are it’s earnings, market share and sales:

On the Apple earnings call, CFO Peter Oppenheimer cited some research from Strategy Analytics placing the iPhone as the â€œfourth highest selling handset in the U.S. market in the September quarter.â€ (The Motorola V3 was No. 1).

Apple has sold 1.4 million iPhones in a little over a quarter. It took the iPod more than two years to reach the same number of sales. The price cut helped it reach that number, by nearly doubling the daily sales of the iPhone. And Apple says it is on track to sell 10 million iPhones by next year.

Of those 1.4 million iPhones, Oppenheimer estimates 250,000 (or 18 percent) were unlocked to work on networks other than AT&T. (That explains why Apple was so aggressive in bricking those iPhones. Apple only gets paid by AT&T for iPhones connected to its network).

The iPhone starts selling in the UK (with O2) and Germany (with T-Mobile) on November 9th, and in France on November 29th (with Orange).

iTunes has now sold 3 billion songs, and 100 million TV shows.

Appleâ€™s retail strategy continues to power an increasing portion of its sales. In the September quarter, 57 percent of Appleâ€™s sales were direct through its stores or Website, compared to 53 percent a year ago.

[Credit/data: Tech Crunch]

This post is by Michael. Find out more about him HERE

© Arpit Jacob for Clazh, 2007. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Catergories: Apple, General Tags: Apple, iPhone, iPod, Mac, Mac OSX, Microsoft

iPhone Nano Can It Be True ? Naaa

Arpit Jacob — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:22:48 +0000

Alright I been sick of all the iPhone this iPhone that news. But now rumors are floating that there is a iPhone Nano in the works. I bet its Apple secret hype machine working overtime. I liked this quote from righton

The mainstream media is VERY easily duped in the past and basing speculation on patent reports has proved futile about one BILLION times in the past.

Using words like “we believe” and “makes sense” just do not convince me that the journalist has any more sense of what he’s speculating on than anyone else.

Yet another Apple rumor that COULD come to pass.

Just because they file a patent, doesn’t mean it will pan out into a product.

© Arpit Jacob for Clazh, 2007. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Catergories: Design, Technology, iPhone Tags: Apple, iPhone

iPhone Demo and iPhone Video Online

Arpit Jacob — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 16:47:21 +0000

Every one has been all hyped up about the recent announcement made by Apple about the iPhone. If you dont want to watch the iphone demo video on Apple site because its in a Quick Time format then you can watch these iPhone Demo Videos in Flash. These are high Quality videos of the iphone taken directly from Apple’s site.

Iphone Demo Flash Videos

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Catergories: Apple, General, Internet Tags: Apple, iPhone

Confirmed iPhone To be Launched on June 29

Arpit Jacob — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 16:53:15 +0000

Well all the hype, speculations and rumours can now come to an end. Apple itself has revealed that the iPhone will launch on the 29th of June, watch the new iPhone ads here. No other product has ever been able to create this much hype and speculations. Personally I think the iPhone is a cool product, cool but not practical I like Paul’s post on why he might not be getting a iPhone even though he is a huge Apple Fan.

While you might have read umpteen post on why the iPhone Rocks.

Some Reasons not to get a iPhone.

Only 2-megapixel camera.
Low battery life. Non removable battery.
Not Upgradable.
No 3G: EDGE.
Over Priced.
No Support or Limited Support for Third Party Applications.
The Interface is most likely to get scratched after sometime.

© Arpit Jacob for Clazh, 2007. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Catergories: Hardware, Technology, iPhone Tags: Apple, iPhone