Linked List: June 30, 2011

Thursday, 30 June 2011

HP Says Apple Is Not TouchPad’s Target ★

Jim Dalrymple, interviewing HP’s vice president of worldwide developer relations Richard Kerris:

HP acknowledged Apple’s dominance in the tablet market, but said Apple wasn’t its target with the TouchPad.

“We think there’s a better opportunity for us to go after the enterprise space and those consumers that use PCs,” said Kerris. “This market is in its infancy and there is plenty of room for both of us to grow.”

Smart. Reminds me of that Steve Jobs mantra from the late ’90s: “We have to let go of this notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose. We have to embrace the notion that for Apple to win, Apple has to do a really good job.”

Restated for today, mobile OS competitors need to let go of the notion that for them to succeed, Apple has to lose. Compare and contrast HP’s attitude with RIM’s.

Yeah, Sure, That’s the Ticket ★

Matt Hartley, reporting for The Financial Post:

Research In Motion Ltd. will create a committee that will examine possible changes to its corporate structure, including the possibility of separating the co-chairman and co-chief executive roles of its leaders Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, after a shareholder group threatened to put forth a motion to consider the changes at the company’s forthcoming annual general meeting.

So they have a plan, to create a committee, which will conduct a study and produce a report. Well then, problems solved.

Open Letter From an Anonymous ‘High-Level RIM Employee’ ★

Devastating and comprehensive examination of the hole RIM is in, purportedly sent to BGR from a company insider. (RIM’s version of Mini-Microsoft?) Their products offer uncompetitive user experiences, their management is riddled with bozos, their plans are unfocused, they have no expertise in the areas where they lag the competition, and their marketing stinks.

Amazingly, RIM responded, hours later. 330 words to say nothing.

HP’s Uncomfortable Relationship With Microsoft ★

Austin Carr, writing for Fast Company:

“I’m limited to what I can talk about with Windows 8,” McKinney says. “We’re working very closely with [Microsoft], and I’m going to leave it at that or I’m going to start getting myself into trouble.”

Any chance of a Windows 8 tablet, though? “We currently have a product shipping today called the Slate 500, and to be quite honest that product has been doing quite well,” he says. “So that’s a Windows 7 version, and then we’ll have the TouchPad coming out [with WebOS].”

So is it safe to assume there will also be a Windows 8 tablet? A long pause.

HP is the number-one seller of Windows PCs in the world, but they’re charting their own course in mobile with WebOS. They might even license WebOS to other hardware makers — whatever you think of the merits of that idea, there can be no argument that doing so would put HP in direct competition with Microsoft.

All Things Chickenshit ★

Federico Viticci at MacStories noted an iPad milestone today:

Either specifically targeting the tablet, or released as universal updates to existing iPhone apps, at the moment of writing this there are 100,161 iPad apps in the Store. How do I know? The App Store app itself on my iPad shows that.

Ina Fried, reporting for AllThingsD, credits the scoop thus:

As noted by an Apple enthusiast site, there are now more than 100,000 iPad apps — either apps that run only on the iPad or those that have been optimized to take advantage of its larger screen.

No credit by name for Viticci or MacStories. That’s chickenshit. Until this is fixed, no more mentions by name of “All Things D” or anyone who writes for them. I’ve corrected this piece from earlier today accordingly.

Amazon Associates Program Terminated in California Immediately ★

Joel Falconer at The Next Web:

Amazon informed Californian users of the Amazon Associates program earlier today that they’d no longer be permitting Californians to participate by the end of September if the online retailer sales tax bill was made law. The governor today passed the bill, and Amazon says it has been forced to move the deadline up.

They aren’t wasting any time. As of today, June 29, 2011, Amazon says, Associates contracts with Californian residents are terminated.

Amazon did the same thing in Arkansas, Connecticut, and Illinois. Update: Colorado too.

American McCarver: Your Sports Blog ★

In case you missed it, my new sports gig, with an all-star staff of writers, and Mike Monteiro.

In U.S., Smartphones Now Majority of New Cellphone Purchases ★

Nielsen:

According to Nielsen’s May survey of mobile consumers in the U.S., 38 percent now own smartphones. And 55 percent of those who purchased a new handset in the past three months reported buying a smartphone instead of a feature phone, up from 34 percent just a year ago.

34 to 55 is a huge year-over-year leap. What will the number be a year from now?

Nielsen Survey Claims iPhone Up, Android Flat in U.S. Smartphone Growth ★

Shouldn’t be surprising to anyone. This is the effect of Verizon carrying the iPhone. The most important trend isn’t iPhone vs. Android phones. It’s how smartphones as a whole — or better put, app phones — are subsuming the entire U.S. phone market. (It’s the separation between smart phones and app phones that explains BlackBerry’s collapse.)

Pogue on the TouchPad ★

The good:

First of all, the TouchPad is beautiful. It’s iPad beautiful. The case is glossy black plastic — a magnet for fingerprints, unfortunately, but it looks wicked great in the first five minutes. The WebOS is beautiful, too. It’s graphically coherent, elegant, fluid and satisfying. That, apparently, is the payoff when a single company designs both the hardware and the software. (Android gadgets, by contrast, are a mishmash of different versions and looks.)

The bad:

It supposedly has a blazing-fast chip inside, but you wouldn’t know it. When you rotate the screen, it takes the screen two seconds to match — an eternity in tablet time. Apps can take a long time to open; the built-in chat app, for example, takes seven seconds to appear. Animations are sometimes jerky, reactions to your finger swipes sometimes uncertain.

Very strong consensus among all the reviews I’ve read.

Some Guy With a Goatee on the TouchPad: ‘Simply No Match for the iPad’ ★

No grading on a curve here:

I’ve been testing the TouchPad for about a week and, in my view, despite its attractive and different user interface, this first version is simply no match for the iPad. It suffers from poor battery life, a paucity of apps and other deficits.

Josh Topolsky Reviews the HP TouchPad ★

He seems largely in agreement with Snell overall, and has a detailed look at the Mail app.

Jason Snell Reviews the HP TouchPad ★

Best review of it I’ve seen. If you’re only going to read one, make it Snell’s. He covers it all: the great UI design, WebOS’s excellent card-based switching interface, the solid hardware, the shortcomings, what seems unfinished, WebOS’s seemingly endemic lagginess, and the miserable performance of Flash Player.