Windows "everywhere" may boost e-books

[wayspooled]

I think some of y'all are missing the point which is - "new" things coming, in one case with a familiar and perhaps to some, despised name branded on them but - they're new things regardless and address most of the things we've talked about being most desireable. A step forward, major progress, not a leap across the finish line.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by sianon

I suspect E-readers are at the 8 track cartridge systems phase, this is what was in place prior to cassette decks in cars. A fairly primitive system that worked relatively well. Yes Yes I know I am a dinosaur to remember these.

I remember MS-DOS 2.0, MS-DOS 4.0, MS Bob, Windows 3.0 and ME, and now Vista. All dogs which were rapidly replaced (well, except for Bob which was just scrapped) 'cause M$ knew they were dogs.

The analogy has spread beyond M$ to to the rest of the industry, but still holds.

With smartphones, I'd say we are about where NT was replaced by Windows 2000. There's nowhere to go but up folks! But there will be Vistas along the way. And don't forget the hardware! In order to truly upgrade an OS you have to have the hardware to run it.

I think the current Vista -> Windows 7 fiasco was excellent, if unintended, strategy. Vista forced everyone to upgrade hardware, then backed off on the hardware requirements with Win7. Worked for me!

[ThomasMc]

The problem is most of the people in this society don't read, unless they absolutely HAVE to. Vegetating on the couch in front of the TV takes up all their free time, so there is little market for something so "exotic" as reading. Complex DVD players, on the other hand, can be bought for under $20.

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by yagiz

In the smartphone arena, iPhone is the leader by far. I, personally, trust that Android has a bright future.

What measure are you using when you claim the iphone is the leader because it certainly isn't sales, in north america the leader by a significant margin in smartphone market is the blackberry and globally it is nokia that still leads the way in market share.

Now that their various exclusive deals are starting to expire, the iphone's global market share should improve a bit, but in general people don't mind changing networks so it may not actually be that big a boost, the one size fits all arrogance of apple when it comes to form factor compared with their rivals is likely to become a steadily bigger issue for them as time goes by.

Not sure where RIM is going. If they don't reinvent themselves they're in danger of becoming much smaller when iPhone and Android get into business devices/apps market.

There is no need for rim to reinvent themselves, what they need to do is exactly the same as all the other hardware companies, keep improving their products and address their weaknesses.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by Crowl

There is no need for rim to reinvent themselves, what they need to do is exactly the same as all the other hardware companies, keep improving their products and address their weaknesses.

RIM and more recently WinMo have THE advantage in business messaging (email) in that they are the only platforms supporting S/MIME double-des (FIPS 140-2) encryption (the only one approved by the US NSA).

Without this, no platform can claim "Enterprise" class business catagory. The Pre and the iPhone claim "Appliance" class, second from th bottom.

Palm and Apple, and RIM are not even in the same arena.

[Crowl]

Yeah, it is surprising just how much people underestimate things when the casually mention the other companies getting into the enterprise market, the security is a major thing for some companies and the amount of control/manageability in general you get with bes is a big deal too.

Compared with other devices, the main weakness of a blackberry is probably it's browser, but they recently bought a company that will presumably help them implement a webkit browser on future software.

[yagiz]

Originally Posted by Crowl

What measure are you using when you claim the iphone is the leader because it certainly isn't sales

iPhone Makes Up 50 Percent of Smartphone Web Traffic In U.S., Android Already 5 Percent

...and this is 6 months ago.

Doing "But 1 get 1 free" kind of deal helped RIM's sales, which is very "unusual" to say the least .

More Blackberrys may be in people's pockets but if you can't use them to do anything other than business e-mails and calendar, they're in a dangerous territory. Most of the time people don't even buy them, they're just given one.

Furthermore, RIM are still asking $200 to get into their developers program, from which you can submit up to 10 apps. This is more expensive and more restrictive than the basic Apple program. And obviously more than developing and submitting Android apps. If they think that they're safe in the enterprise market, they're wrong... Time will tell... Soon...

Update: I just came across this now:

Report: iPhone takes 40 percent of mobile browser market, besting Nokia

The Apple iPhone and iPod touch web browser has increased its mobile browser market share to 40 percent from 33 percent, overtaking Nokia, according to AdMob's August Mobile Metrics Report. In the U.S. alone, the Apple devices account for 52 percent of mobile browser use.

Nokia dropped to 34 percent of the market share from 43 percent in February, the report says, even though the company's handsets continue to lead the number of smartphones listed in the global study.

Google's Android saw a steep increase to 7 percent from 2 percent and webOS took 4 percent of the market since the Palm Pre was launched. RIM's market share decreased slightly to 8 percent and Windows Mobile's share fell to 4 percent.

[DawnFalcon]

"Smartphone" is a relatively restricted high-end market in itself, I'd note.

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by AprilHare

Just what e-book devices don't need: Windows: bloatware and unstable..

I run Linux on my main system, and I would love to see Windows on a dedicated reading device, just because of the number of formats it supports: including multiple DRM formats. It has its strengths.

A stripped-down WinXP on a reading tablet would give you everything except Kindle (including DRM formats) on a single platform. Nothing else can make that claim.

[Hellmark]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

I run Linux on my main system, and I would love to see Windows on a dedicated reading device, just because of the number of formats it supports: including multiple DRM formats. It has its strengths.

A stripped-down WinXP on a reading tablet would give you everything except Kindle (including DRM formats) on a single platform. Nothing else can make that claim.

That's debatable, depending on how crazy you want to go. It is theoretically possible to use VMs to enable additional support, on virtually any system.

Not to mention, the iPhone has support for nearly everything, including Kindle, except ADE. Half a dozen of one, six of the other.

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by yagiz

iPhone Makes Up 50 Percent of Smartphone Web Traffic In U.S., Android Already 5 Percent

...and this is 6 months ago.

Interesting stats, but realistically web traffic clearly doesn't equate to market share in any sense when you aren't discussing either websites or browsers, especially when you have far more valid figures such as handset sales etc. to compare instead.

Originally Posted by yagiz

If they think that they're safe in the enterprise market, they're wrong... Time will tell... Soon...

What gives you the impression that they ever consider themselves safe in the enterprise market though, while they keep taking steps further into the consumer end of the market, they do continue to improve features for the business market too e.g. the new version of their server software has only recently come out.

It is quite strange to see the way people are so quick to write off rim's future chances whenever anyone else comes near the same markets as them, the same thing happened with windows mobile when that came out and look at it now, rim is still the target of others and winmo is the one thats practically on life support as android eats into its sales.

Now obviously, nothing is certain in any industry, but I think most reasonable people would say that rim have shown in the past that they can adjust to changes in the market and judging by them buying a company that specialises in webkit stuff and their continuing efforts with their own app store, they do know what stuff they have to improve on and are doing so.

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

"Smartphone" is a relatively restricted high-end market in itself, I'd note.

It is actually a term that covers more and more of the mobile phone market each year though as hardware advances give the makers less reason to make the simpler phones for established markets.

[ZJH]

[QUOTE=M0zza;611532]The ARM processors maybe a little slower, but they are more energy efficient, cheaper (I think), and here now.QUOTE]

ARM is king in handheld devices today, and it will compete with Intel head-on in high-end handheld, smartbooks and netbooks.

ARM is much cheaper. You can get an ARM11 (up to 600MHz) for less than 10 USD, whereas Atom or Pine trail solutions (CPU + North/South bridges) will cost no less than 50 USD.

Intel cannot compete in terms of power consumption, and it has got years of work to do; ARM cannot compete in terms of computing power, and it has got years of work to do, too. But both are gearing up, and soon they will fight on the same turf.

[bjergtrold]

Some days ago I read this insightful rant about not recommending Windows software.

[spoon]

Microsoft has had over a decade to develop their mobile software, they've robustly failed to deliver anything innovative for 9 years. As far as I'm concerned Windows "Everywhere" is precisely the reason we are (apparently) still waiting for a killer E-reader. Microsoft have brainwashed the public, businesses and OEM into thinking that a computer was something capable of running a full bloat Windows OS. Windows "Everywhere" will never work because Windows will never be a flexible OS because Microsoft will never be a flexible company. It's only in the last couple of years thanks to Nicholas Negroponte, the iPhone and Asus that people have become flexible in their idea of what these devices can become. Microsoft don't innovate, don't look to them for your holy grail device.
The mobile future belongs to iPhones, Androids and Linux. And maybe Asus
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/...cle6822723.ece