Over the years, we have seen how much desire everybody gets onto iPhone.  It’s no doubt that there is definitely somebody out there owning an iPhone!

Marketing the iPhone

Let’s backtracked a little… The very reason why people are buying iPhone is simply because it is a mobile phone with Internet access.  Before iPhone was born, I was already using Nokia N95, which is already an Internet-enabled mobile phone.  Nokia has been the leader in the phone industry for many years (at least in my opinion!).  They gradually put in Internet applications as the mobile phones are enabled by 3G internet.  (So are other brands like Motorola, Sony Ericsson, etc)  But at that time, I don’t really see a lot of my friends using any of the Internet applications with their mobile phones.  It is really nothing new when iPhone was introduced.  Probably because they are adopting a touch screen technology with it… Probably because they look really sleek… Probably because they are simply known for this formula = Internet + Phone…

Interestingly, a mobilephone salesperson created a hilarious video about this (and he is probably losing his job because of this video). Watch it below!

You can read about this mobilephone salesman’s story at TechCrunch.

Marketing the iPod

Another scenario will be with the iPod.  I can still remember that the MP3 players have been around for quite a while… They were marketed by many other companies.  It seems like when iPod came into picture, the whole world became obsessed with having an iPod – where it works like a MP3 player but it only plays its own format of songs and not MP3.  It’s really amazing to see things like this happen!

Marketing the iPad

Next, it will be with iPad.  Tablet PCs and ebook readers have been around for a number of years.  It seems like people are more acceptable to iPad when it is released.  But for this case, I think Apple has done a good job.  Tablet PCs have never got a real good user experience of its touchscreen technology; there is bound to have a problem somewhere which is not so well-done.  And as for ebook readers, the eink technology has no doubt convinced me to buy (i didn’t buy in the end) but the software applications are not very fantastic with its costly price tag.

What can we learn from here?

I find that it is not necessary for us to reinvent the wheels in order to lead the market.  When a new technology is being released in the market by any particular company, it does not necessarily mean that this company will win the game.  They are usually the geeks (I admit I used to be one of them) who are willing to adapt the first wave of devices.  Plus, it is usually more expensive to buy the first wave!

When the first wave of technology has been introduced by a company, the next company will usually win the game simply by finding an edge over the same technology.  All that the next company needs to do, is to package the same thing nicely and create a new value proposition over it.  I find that it usually works with the ladies when you can make the device look really attractive to be associated with it.  (By the way, you don’t have to have all the functionalities built-in… Oh, how do I bluetooth a file to you?)

Branding is still important as a person will want to buy it simply because it’s from that brand.  It’s the promise of the brand, and the feel of owning this device.  I must admit that it really feels good to have an iPhone in your hand.  And I think that the antenna problem that they are having with iPhone 4 is just a matter of time to be resolved.  Ultimately, the phone must still function well at the very basic level.

P/S: I am probably going to buy a HTC Desire very soon!

Image credit: whitesnowsphinx

I was talking to Andrew whether a person should buy Android or iPhone.  Andrew was comparing the differences between Android and iPhone (we are talking about iOS 4 here), and he had concluded that Android is a much better choice.  Andrew listed down all the various reasons to me, and I volunteered to post it up to let all of you know.

Let’s find out the 12 reasons below:

1. Flash support (try booking tickets on www.gv.com.sg or other movie sites without an app using an iPhone)
2. MP3 and videos files can simply be copied into Android devices for playback
3. Third party app Wi-Fi tethering support (will be standard in Android 2.2)
4. True multitasking (Android apps run in background as opposed to iPhone which pauses them to switch to another)
5. Full screen widgets (like HTC’s friends and twitter stream)
6. Can Bluetooth files to other devices
7. Use industry supported, Open Mobile Terminal Platform (OMTP) endorsed micro USB connector that allows all Android devices to share connectors and chargers
8. Greater developer access to phone features
9. Greater hardware device variety to choose from
10. Have removable battery that can be replaced if it weakens
11. Have micro SD expandable storage
12. (For the ultra geeks) Can root Android devices and install custom OSes like CyanogenMod

Nevertheless, there are definitely some advantages why iPhone is gaining market share in the mobile phone industry. There is a higher possibility of somebody amongst our friends owning an iPhone, while there is a lower possibility of our friends owning an Android phone.  Let’s find out what are the 5 advantages of iPhone over Android here as well.  (Yes, I only got 5 iPhone advantages from Andrew…)

These are the 5 advantages of iPhone 4 over Android:

1. (Arguable) Better surfing experience and user interface
2. Better audio quality than most Android devices (except maybe Sony’s Experia X10)
3. Excellent and familiar iTunes UI for music
4. Huge variety of aftermarket accessories
5. Higher screen resolution

From the time that the websites started to embrace Flash from Macromedia (Adobe acquired it later), I have always made my stand that not all browsers are supportive of Flash.  Even till today, Flash has always been my second priority while pure HTML/CSS/Javascript is a much better choice.  But with the trend of Flash videos, this is something where I find it really useful because there has never been a standard of playing a video on a website before.  This is because of the gigantic sizes that videos typically have, which is at the disadvantage of the Internet speed, even though we have a speedier Internet access than ever.  With Flash videos, it has become a standard factor to use since the file is being compiled into an even smaller size, which is much suitable for video streaming.

As Flash evolves, I started to accept Flash as one of my choices to use when creating a website.  It has created numerous games in various websites.  It’s especially useful in Facebook where many of my friends are playing a lot of games where it is almost impossible to create if not for Adobe Flash!

Now that iPhone has rejected third party from creating a layer over iPhone apps (for easy creation of applications using their familiar interfaces such as Flash), it has effectively cut ties with Adobe Flash from existing in iPhone.  It was just recently that Adobe announced Flash support for iPhone application, and Apple has rejected such a support indirectly.  I can feel how much hatred has been created between the two companies now.  I don’t think we should blame Apple for not supporting Flash… After all, they are still valid to say that third-party programming may cause potential performance problems.  It’s a fact actually.

I think it’s all about compromising between speed or to have a potentially wide variety of applications.  To the third party developers, they have the advantage of allowing their applications to support a wide variety of operating systems easily.  It means that they only need to programme once, and it shall be workable on all platforms!  Now, they have to programme once for most platforms, and to programme a separate application just for iPhone OS.  I think it’s really to the disadvantage of Apple… But anyway, they are taking over the market by storm!  It’s just a matter of time whether the world will continue to embrace iPhone or not in the future… That’s because the lifespan of a mobile phone is pretty short… Moreover, iPhone’s battery is not replaceable… It’s just within 2 years’ time that a typical mobile phone user will switch to another new phone.  Who will know what’s the next Apple strategy?  Apple has always been surprising me with all sorts of news…

Anyway, I don’t think Flash is dead yet.  In fact, they have been embraced by several other mobile phones i.e. Android, BlackBerry, Palm webOS, Windows Phone 7, LiMo, MeeGo, and Symbian… It’s just a matter of time that Apple may go back to support Flash because of another surprising reason.. And I strongly encourage them to support Flash again!

Anyway, I am thinking of getting an Android phone (If my 2.5-year-old Nokia N95 is failing on me… But the truth is that it is still alive and kicking!)  Any thoughts about Flash for your iPhone?

Photo credit: archtron

I have been wondering… Since the days when we talk about Apple versus Microsoft, the impression of Apple is that you are always up with the trend when you own an Apple device.  And if you own something from Microsoft, you are considered as a geek.

But come to think of it in another way… It seems like Apple has been focusing more on trying to be standalone while Microsoft has been more towards the open market… When you own an Apple device, you have no other choice except to use Apple peripherals… But when you buy a Microsoft operating system, you will have a wide range of hardware to choose from.  As such, the games seem to be all available on Microsoft platform.

Now, think about iPhone and iPad.  There has been a lot of reasoning why Apple chooses not  to use Flash… But ultimately, I seriously think this is going to be the deciding factor for me not to choose iPhone as my next phone.  And when they also thought of switching to Bing (from Google), I am more and more firmed with my decision.  No doubt that iPhone has been a great device… It has a lot of interesting applications and that I can share information with my friends (most of them are having iPhone!).  I just can’t imagine sticking myself with iTunes where the interface is not really sleek in my laptop (yes, I am using Microsoft Windows 7).  And to imagine that it is not supporting the usual MP3 format (it is standing by itself again with its own format…), I am feeling so restricted more than just using the phone.

Of course, I don’t have a lot of iPhone experience to begin with… It seems to be the definite decision for anyone to buy an iPhone 4 now… I am struggling with myself to know if I buy an iPhone, will I ever be drifted away from my favorite companies Adobe and Google?!?!

Of course I won’t mind if somebody is going to give me an iPad… I would most likely use it as my ebook reader replacement!  I have been waiting patiently for the e-ink technology to evolve into color version… And indeed, it has launched!  Now, I am waiting for the various companies like Amazon to launch their color-version of ebook readers.

Take a look at the support of HTML5 from their website. http://www.apple.com/html5/

Over there, they are actually saying that HTML5 is only supported by Safari… How is that possible when I am using a Google Chrome right now?  They are simply trying to stand by themselves again…

If you take a look at the number of factors above, you will start to see that Apple has deliberately stand by itself to set the standards.  They had been trying this for numerous times in fact!  They have a couple of new inventions along the way, but it’s only the Mac, iPhone and iPad have been able to set the trend!  I don’t think the iPod has been successful at all, but they will continue anyway since it is still in the production…

There was quite a big discussion out there saying that they are preparing to quit Facebook.  Most of them reasoned that their privacy is being infringed…  Some simply don’t like Mark Zuckerberg… And others are just followers…  QuitFaceBookDay.com was started to gather a community of such people!  (See screenshot above.)

On the surface, it is not possible for Facebook to go out of business

While it seems to me that people are looking out for alternative websites to Facebook, it is just not feasible for any of us to quit Facebook just yet.  The trend is still here, we are not prepared to move on to the next thing (till somebody created that next big thing!).

Taking a look at how my surrounding friends have been using the Facebook account… It is nearly impossible to put a dent to the Facebook website just because 34k people have quitted Facebook.  My friends, colleagues, vendors and clients are all using Facebook as part of their communication.  It helped them to keep in touch and it has helped a lot of us to find our long lost friends. Some even found their true loves through Facebook.

History tells us that it is possible to destroy Facebook

On the other hand, it may be possible for all of us not to use Facebook anymore.  That’s unless we have all moved on to a different platform!  I can still remember how one site goes up, and another goes down… Friendster, ICQ, eCircles and so on… they are all almost forgotten although they have been used by many of us many years ago.

Dominating giants are good for the Internet

I don’t think I will ever join this anti-facebook group… Let me tell you why below.

It is a rare case that we are able to find a single web platform which we can all leverage on.  Most of the websites out there are very decentralized in terms of their membership… And when the whole world decides to use the same web platform, it makes a lot of things much more easier in terms of both business and personal…

Without players like Google, Yahoo, Facebook, eBay and Amazon, life can be really hard for all of us who are looking for information online.  It is even harder for businesses who have to look out for so many websites to market their products.

Hence, my answer is no!  I won’t delete my Facebook account… Anyway, it seems to me that Mark Zuckerberg is always on the lookout to amend his privacy policy.  At least, he is trying to be nice to all of us still… Why must any of you treat him so badly?

This is a subsequent episode of my previous post about more powerful servers are required with the increasing needs of the Internet.

As I have been playing with the Internet in a variety of ways… i.e.

1. Checking my emails
2. Coding and designing my various websites up (hitting about 40 of them)
3. Hanging around in the social media to get more exposure with the various users on the Internet
4. Learning how to do copywriting for my websites
5. And obviously, surfing the Internet… (i.e. watching videos, reading the web, online shopping, etc)

it has become apparent to me that the Internet is the new way of using your computer.  Google has been an evangelist to educate the whole world that you don’t need any other applications other than a web browser.. Well, I think it’s true that most of our time, we are only opening the web browser.  Do you really open any other applications, frankly?

Well, Google has come up with this new operating system for your computer.  I don’t view it as a competitor to Windows, Macintosh and any other open source operating systems such as Linux or any BSD.  That’s because they only focus on the single function… That’s to focus your whole computer to dedicate every single resource on the Internet.

It makes the whole browsing experience even better since you don’t have to wait for your computer resources (e.g. hardware and other software) to load when you don’t need them.  You don’t even need to wait for 50 seconds!

Here’s the deal that Google has promised… Check the video out below.

Well, if you do use computer only because of the Internet access, why not just give it a try by setting up your computer to boot up Google Chrome OS from a USB drive?

While Google is still testing and fine-tuning Google buzz, will you actually start using it when you are already using Twitter and friendfeed?

There has been a lot of controversial topics about using Google Buzz.. Some reject the idea of using Google Buzz because they are already dedicated their time on twitter. Some embrace the idea of using Google Buzz because they do think this is the next big thing to work on.

But come to think of it.. If Buzz is released by an unknown startup company, will it ever come to this stage of creating a dent on twitter, facebook and friendfeed? I doubt so.

I do believe that it’s all because of Google, everybody takes Google Buzz seriously. But one thing to note is that Google don’t have much experience in starting something the social media world. This step will actually determine that there is a possibility that they will eventually start even more social media websites.

I think there are some resistance out there to use Google Buzz.  It has brought to my attention that a lot of twitter folks seem to be feeling that they have spent a lot of time on twitter, establishing themselves over there when there is a new upcoming social media (Google Buzz) for them to work on as well.

Twitter is already draining a lot of our time as we want to establish our brand awareness.  But it seems to me that the Google Buzz is created simply by taking the best out of Twitter, Friendfeed and Facebook.

In my own experience, I think that:

• Twitter is for us to broadcast and speak to our followers whether they are replying or not.
• Facebook is for us to update our personal status and thoughts currently.
• Friendfeed is more like a place to aggregate whatever that we have done so far for social media.  It’s also a place where we can see comments being shown for what we do.
• What about Google Buzz?

I would like to think of Google Buzz as a place where we can put up a topic to discuss about in an open fashion.  I am trying not to merge my twitter with my Google Buzz because I want to attract the right crowd in the right place.  Many of us are still experimenting with Google Buzz.  Whether Google Buzz is going to be worthwhile for us to spend our time or not, we cannot deny that there is some potential for this social media to grow.

Moreover, I actually think that Google Buzz is more like an extension to my Google Reader subscribers.  I have an account with Google Reader that people can subscribe to what I would like to share with them about.  And Google Buzz has actually merged them nicely together.

Whichever the case, I am still trying out Google Buzz, and would want to be one of the pioneers to find out how to mould this little social media tool into something that is useful for the rest of the world.

No, I don’t own iRiver Story Ebook, Hanlin or Amazon Kindle yet.

I was on the lookout for an ebook reader for all these while.  It’s mainly because of the emerging Amazon Kindle, I finally thought of getting an ebook reader.  It’s also because I have a lot of PDF files to read, and reading off from the laptop can be tiring to my eyes.  However, Amazon has discouraged me from buying when they are not supporting delivering the Kindle device as well as the Kindle contents to Singapore.  Although I have found a way to get the Kindle, it turned out that it may not be a good idea to get Kindle since it is not supported and it is really an expensive device.

Hence, I looked out for more choices.  Then, I found Hanlin at a blog after doing some google search around.  She gave a very detailed understanding of how the ebook device works.  I went ahead and look out for more ebook reader and found iRiver Story E-Book from the Challenger store at VivoCity.  I have mixed feelings about this, and even thought of buying it as I held it in my hands…

I will leave the technical details of iRiver with the HardwareZone website to explain to you.

My first impression of iRiver is with my experience using their MP3 players.  I could still remember how “fragile” it is even though it has so many functions all packed in one player.  It spoils quickly… And that was when I was still schooling… It’s quite disappointing at that time.

Hence, on my first day at the Challenger store, I played with this ebook reader for a very long time, and reading the contents within.  The screen feels like I am reading from paper… That’s because it is using e-ink technology.  According to my understanding in their press release, it looks like color version of e-ink version is just a matter of time as the technology giants are just playing with the market, pampering the color version only at a very later stage (so that they can continue to stay in business?).

In any case, I think black and white version is pretty good enough to last me for quite a while (if I ever had my hands on it…).  I went through the matrix comparison of different ebook readers.  After a couple of rounds, I have come to a conclusion that Hanlin is the best choice so far.  It supports the widest range of file formats, and even has wireless version.  The only unknown factor is whether it is supporting the reading of RSS feeds.  I had contacted Jinke and I am aiming to get my hands on their new A9 series…

Another reason why I am thinking of getting Hanlin A9 is that their ebook readers support APIs so I can develop or to get any additional applications out of the ebook reader!  In any case, I just wish I could get my hands on Hanlin as soon as I can!  (Possibly by my birthday? That’s only if Hanlin can fulfill that… But they will only do mass production in Q2 of 2010…)

I have followed about 500 tweeps.  I found myself really hard to categorize them in different lists.  Not that I don’t want to list all of them, 500 is just too time consuming.  I wonder for those who follows over 1000 tweeps, how did you manage with your following and listing…

Ever since Twitter has introduced list, this is somehow going to be used as a measure of what people are perceiving you, which gives a very good idea to all of us.  If someone lists you as a web designer, I will know that I can think of you when I need a web design.  When someone lists you as a problogger, we will know that you are a professional blogger over here.

I will want to list all the tweeps that I have followed.  If not, I will have followed them for nothing.  If I ever have a problem listing them, it’s probably I just don’t have any chemistry with them since I still don’t know them after following for so long.

Sometimes, do you wonder who you really follow?  There is an information overload here.  Information is following too quickly with the tweeps that I have followed.  Listing is a good idea of categorizing them, but can we use these lists in the various Twitter APIs?  I will hope to see a major improvement in TweetDeck to use the list function!