Mobile Industry Insider's Opinon of the Smartphone and Mobile Platform Landscape

This opinion written by Abdi  Zadeh, former REGARD VP of Professional Services...and redistributed here with his permission.  So, these are not my opinions, however, Abdi is spot on for the most part here...
Steve Beauregard
For the past 6 weeks, I’ve gone through an array of smartphones and tablets. I thought I’d share my experience:


Smartphone Landscape:

BlackBerry Torch: This is the phone that RIM should had come out with 12 months earlier than they did. Nice display, form-factor, and great battery life. This device won’t win any non-BlackBerry user over, but provides a nice stop-gap for existing BlackBerry users.

iPhone 4: This is great phone. Easy to use, good battery life, and nice form-factor. In fact, the only flaw is the lack of Flash support, which is quickly becoming a non-issue with the adoption of HTML 5

HP Veer: This is a cute phone, but definitely not for power-users. The form-factor is weird and the screen is too small. This runs on WebOS 2.0, which lacks quantity of apps. I’d wait for next generation devices from HP supporting WebOS 3.0

Samsung Galaxy 2 – Epic 4G: I really liked this Android 2.2 phone. Very nice touch display and full qwerty keyboard is nice for those of us that can’t type on screen displays. Battery life is definitely an issue, especially when the 4G, Wi-fi, or or GPS toggles are active. Also – the qwerty keyboard is too wide, making text-entry difficult with 2 thumbs (even for my long fingers). The accelerometer, which monitors device orientation and directional-navigation, seems to have some quirks as well.

Samsung Droid Charge: This is my current phone and I LOVE it. Incredibly fast 4G LTE with surprisingly sufficient battery-life. The Charge runs on Android 2.2, has a large touch display, and is extremely light in weight. The front facing camera is pretty cool too. My only issues with this phone are that main nav keys are hard buttons as opposed to screen-displays, which makes it a weird experience going back/forth from screen to buttons. Also – there’s no toggle between 3G and 4G. You have to use 4G where available.

HTC Thunderbolt: Hate it! Horribly outdated form-factor. It feels like a clunky PDA from Palm-4 days (late 90s). Battery life sucked

Samsung Focus: LOVE IT! I can’t believe Microsoft finally delivered a solid Mobile Platform. Running Windows Mobile 7, which introduces some new interactions with the finger gestures, the Focus provides new intuitive ways of navigating through apps and content. The battery life is on par with iPhone. The only negative is the lack of apps. The question is… can Microsoft win over consumers after so many horrible mobile platforms in the last 10 years?

Tablet Landscape:
iPad: This is still the best tablet out in the market. Best display, weight, form-factor.

BlackBerry Playbook: In my opinion, Playbook is the only device that comes close to iPad. Great hardware and experience. There’s a slight learning curve for new users, but once you get over it – you realize its brilliant design. What I don’t like; at 7”, I wish it were bigger. I also wish they would have launched with Android App support, which is expected in early Q4.

Motorala Xoom: A ridiculously overpriced paper-weight! The display is visibly cheap. When you hold it up to your phone or other tablets, it’s visibly less bright and sharp. It’s extremely heavy in weight and the power button is hidden on the back of the device (stupid). The processor chokes on interactive content, such as AJAX features.

Mobile Platform Landscape:

Apple’s iOS: Still the best, but others are catching up quickly. I believed that lack of Flash support would be their downfall, but with the growing adoption of HTML 5, Apple may have killed Flash. The only negative - for PC users, it sucks to be forced into using iTunes to sync/transfer content.

RIM’s BlackBerry: As a longtime advocate of the BlackBerry platform, all I can say now is that RIM’s days are numbered. RIM is so infused into corporate culture that it will be a slow death (ala Novel). They are trying to retain users with a big push in Latin America and Asia, but are hemorrhaging U.S. market-share. The Torch and Playbook are OK, but too little, too late.

Google’s Android 2.2 and 2.3: I’m a big fan, but they need to figure out their battery-management issues. They have the advantage of having multiple Manufacturers building hardware and interfaces for this platform, creating competition - which is always better for consumers. The funny thing about this is… Google’s Android Apps (e.g., Gmail and Google Docs) are really poorly designed.

Microsoft's Mobile 7: They finally did it! They finally put out an platform that wasn't ridiculously bad. In fact, it's pretty good. They introduce some new gesture interactions that allow for both vertical and horizontal navigation of content. The biggest challenge for this platform is the bad reputation Microsoft has in this space.

HP’s WebOS: I’m a fan, but have never seen any strong push or implementation of this platform. Since HP acquired Palm over a year ago – they’ve gone into hibernation. In Q4 of this year – we can expect new HP phones and tablets using a new WebOS 3.0 (with improved gestures for touch-screens). I’m sure HP will have a marketing blitz for developers and consumers. This is a very enticing platform for developers, as all you need to know is Javascript (even the native device APIs).

Qualcomm’s BrewMP: Stick to your hardware, chipsets, and Snapdragon Qualcomm! Mobile o/s is not your game! For a long time, I have predicted that this platform will die soon. I have inside info that suggests the time has finally come. It looks like Android will be the sole platform for Snapdragon devices.

Facebook for BlackBerry 1.5

Yesterday, Research in Motion officially released Facebook for BlackBerry 1.5 as the upgrade to v1.2. This has been a long time coming as I was getting really tired of the year long "Smack-Talk" I have endured from my iPhone zealot friends.

There are two new features that alone make it worth the upgrade from 1.2 to 1.5. First, the ability to comment on my status and the status of friends....FINALLY! I find the order in which the comments display to be slightly confusing, but it works and it gives me the immediacy of mobile functionality I have been renowned for since 1998 (When I first started using the BlackBerry.)

The second key feature is my favorite! The integration of Facebook notices into the Message List. RIM has taken what had become an annoyance and made it an enhancement. Now from my regular Message List, I can click on a Facebook notice and it drops me right into the Facebook app for BlackBerry. I have noticed a little processing delay on my BOLD when first bringing up the message, it take a few seconds of processing time to figure itself out.

There have been some nice enhancement so the "Friends" interface allowing you to direct dial from facebook profile information or to connect and add Facebook contacts with you Address Book.

Some basic "look and feel" touches add sexiness such as the screen wipe and auto refresh, but those are just window dressing and don't really add much to the features. I would have preferred RIM spend that time on selecting Categories for new friend requests or adding comments to Notes which didn't make it in this release. Hey...but what do you want for free?

I was a little skeptical of a few of the other integration features between Facebook and my enterprise calendar and contacts. In fact the BlackBerry Contacts Application checkbox disclaimer reads "enabling this feature will periodically send copies of your BlackBerry device contacts (thus my Outlook contacts) to Facebook, Inc...." I'm actually OK with this so far, because I do this with Plaxo as well. BUT THEN ... it goes on to say "...and you acknowledge that access to this data will no longer be subject to your and your Facebook Friend's privacy settings once stored on your BlackBerry device"

HOLD THE PHONE (no pun intended)!!

The new Facebook app for BlackBerry is going to circumvent my privacy setting and those of my Facebook friends? This gave me pause...having worked with RIM as a partner of a dozen years and knowing their infamous legal department...how did THIS sneak through the cracks?

Upon further inspection, this is no different than any other Facebook app...RIM is just pointing out what millions of Facebook users have fully understand....Every time you allow a Facebook app to access your profile, your information and that of your network of friends is being downloaded into another company's database. Facebook ceases to have any control whatsoever over that data from that point forward. In the case of the BlackBerry app, the data is going into the persistent data store of MY BlackBerry and RIM is telling me that they and Facebook are no longer responsible for the security of that data. I am far more comfortable and have now rechecked the "BlackBerry Contacts application." I just hope it doesn't start sending out unbeknownst to me and making Facebook Friend requests!

The Enterprise is "All About BlackBerry" ... Still

The "BlackBerry Killers" still come and go. Meanwhile, the BlackBerry has been creeping into the hands of consumers at an eye-opening rate. As Tom Taulli points on in his latest Bloggingstocks article, RIM expect 15% to 20% increase in subscriber growth last quarter over earlier projections.

The increase demand seemed to be due, in large part, to unexpected demand during the Christmas shopping season. I think it is very safe to declare that BlackBerry is NOT just for the Enterprise any longer!

The Curve is the best Enterprise to Consumer crossover product on the market. As one of the first BlackBerry application development companies, REGARD is looking to develop broader consumer centric application to meet the growing demand.

BlackBerry - Not Just for Business Anymore

We are quickly closing in on a decade that RIM's BlackBerry platform has owned the enterprise messaging space. Hands down it has dominated all would be "BlackBerry Killers" with ease. Some newcomers overheated, some overrated, some oversized, and ALL over-promised!

With that, RIM has been late to the game of consumer features such as integration of camera, removable memory, and most notably multi-media functionality. This is all predictable as these features were not in high demand especially among security conscience IT types.

In the September 2007 edition of Entrepreneur Magazine (page 38), I am quoted as saying “the BlackBerry isn’t just for business anymore.”

When REGARD released the RV-Pileup game for Sony Pictures Entertainment, my kids began fighting over who is going to play games on my BlackBerry. It got so bad, that I put together three older units from spare parts in the REGARD BlackBerry graveyard and loaded them with every game I could find.

Everyone was happy until I switched to the BlackBerry 8300…now the new fight is over who is going to use my BlackBerry to take pictures.

Our children are growing up in a vastly different high-tech world! Below is a picture my 4 year old took this morning in my office using the Curve…ironically of Robin Williams on the RV movie poster. Don't expect too much...she is after all just 4!

Let the Smartphone WARS Begin!

BlackBerry Curve vs. Apple iPhone






Today marks the beginning of a new era in the Smartphone battle in the consumer space. RIM, as the category killer for mobile email and PIM integration in the enterprise market, first invaded the consumer Smartphone market with the introduction of the BlackBerry Pearl last year. Albeit lacking the needed integration of the multimedia functions to make it a meaningful consumer competitor, the Pearl was a very solid first offering which was quickly reflected in the stock price (NASDAQ: RIMM). Further, the Pearl did give the enterprise users already familiar with BlackBerry their first taste of a camera phone experience whetting their appetite for more consumer centric functionality.

With all of the iPhone hype, I decided to upgrade to the BlackBerry Curve (8300) to see (i) how the BlackBerry multimedia offering has advanced and (ii) to prepare myself for a comparison to the iPhone features.

Let me preface by disclosing that REGARD is one of RIM's longest standing BlackBerry partners and I have tried every single BlackBerry model RIM has released with few exceptions.

In a word... "WOW" ...Not since the introduction of the 7200 series has RIM made such a GIANT LEAP FORWARD!

Thankfully, they have once again "nailed" keyboard feel. After a few mediocre efforts, the Curve returns to an easy to use, hard to "fat finger" layout. The trackball is solid and more efficient than repositioning the hand to use the TrackWheel. It is the best composing experience since the 950 (and that is saying A LOT).

Now this is where the fun begins...within minutes of activating my 8300, I had loaded a 2 GB memory card with pictures of my wife and kids. I also loaded hundreds of songs with playlists which I listened to on the stereo headset at the gym. When a phone call arrived the Curve paused the music. I made dinner plans to meet another couple at Boss Sushi (highly recommended on Yelp and now by me) and, upon disconnecting from the call, the BlackBerry resumed the music right where it left off...a very nice experience!

After sushi, we took our friends at a Hollywood night club. Despite the dim lighting, I took a group self portrait and forwarded it to Flickr right from the BlackBerry Curve.



Today the iPhone was officially launched exclusively on the AT&T network today. I have read much of the iPhone hype and, being an iPod consumer that has also purchase car and external speaker accessories, I am very much looking forward to trying the Apple offering as well.

A few words of warning to those anxious customers that leaving their current carrier in the mad iPhone rush to AT&T. The iPhone "suggested" rate plans top at $99 plan giving you only 1350 voice minutes a month. The profile of consumer that will drop the $500+ to purchase the Smartphone, will likely blow through 1350 minutes very quickly. So if you simply ask for the top iPhone plan, you are likely to get hit with huge overage charges. There are 2000, 4000 and 6000 plans also available, but you have to know to ask for them.

This is amazingly clever of Apple and AT&T to craft these plans a such. Almost as clever, that is, as RIM announcing blockbuster earnings on the eve of the iPhone launch and skyrocketing their stock (NASDAQ: RIMM) $34 in one day!

WES 2007

The annual “BlackBerry Lovefest” (formally known as RIM’s Wireless Enterprise Symposium or “WES”) draws to a close today in Orlando Florida. If the movement in RIMM stock price this week is any indicator, it was a very successful show for RIM.

Having now attended all six WES events, I’d say this year had an especially unique blend of old and new faces with many of the veteran BlackBerry Alliance Partners opting to send smaller teams and, in many cases, not exhibiting on the showcase floor. With overflowing enthusiasm, the new kids on the block sent large teams to explain to the BlackBerry faithful how their new product or service is a little bit better than the competitor across the floor.

RIM filled up any idle booth space advertising their new “Top Shelf” professional services, training and accessory offerings. These offerings have been years in the coming and will effectively serve the largest customers in North America. These teams are intentionally lean to keep overhead down with the tradeoff being scalability.

The prevailing theme at WES was “BlackBerry is not just for business anymore…it is an integral part of your personal life.” Based on the number of people walking around the show at all hours of the day and night frozen in the "BlackBerry Prayer" stance, I would have to agree.

I was very encouraged that the other prevalent theme was “wireless applications.” This was true among RIM, the carriers and customers alike. Even Jim Belushi at the evening party used the term 2 or 3 times during his performance as did the Robin Wilson (lead singer of the Gin Blossoms) during the AT&T Wireless Party at the House of Blues.

New BlackBerry Smartphones

This consumer focused impression perfectly introduced the BlackBerry 8300 or “Curve”. This sexy little number morphs the QWERTY keyboard with many of the features that made the Pearl such a winner. The Curve gets an upgraded 2 Megapixel camera, a stereo headset jack, stereo Bluetooth A2DP capability and spell checker. To round out the multimedia offering, more formats will be supported (i.e. WMA files) and Roxio for BlackBerry will be provided on the desktop to manage all the pix, movies & music files.

The other exciting smartphone announcement was the BlackBerry 8830 for US based Verizon Wireless and Sprint. This little beauty will be the first of its kind offering seamless international roaming on GSM/GPRS while connecting via the CDMA/1x/EVDO antenna when in the US.

BlackBerry Software Roadmap

As a natural evolution, RIM continues to enhance the handheld and server side software marginalizing the ISV Alliance Partner offerings. Many thrifty ISVs were whispering among their colleagues as RIM announce their future intension to bake-in monitoring, roles based security, .Net and Eclipse snap-in for developers and a number of other features under partner NDA.

After years of trying to downplay the need for the Desktop Manager, it is BACK! It will become the mechanism to manage multimedia files on the BlackBerry family of smartphones.

ISV Partner Products and Services

There were few products and services that I would categorize as new or revolutionary. Many things that one would naturally expect to be built were now being demoed. There were RSS readers, geo positioning & emergency contacts and the like. Most were varying twists on one of the following themes: CRM, Dispatch, Geo-tracking / mapping / directions, business process improvement, content / document management, voice recognition, IT admin tools (monitoring / remote control / security / failover), software "middleware" platforms and 31 flavors of professional and hosted services.

I saw many strong and valuable products for customers to solve unique problems. Of the products that I reviewed, I found the following to be most memorable.

GPS Snitch offers BlackBerry client for 8800 (or GPS puck) that reports back via the cellular data network the precise location of the device. Projecting forward, the service could be used not only for monitoring, but also for social networking purposes. eTrace is an on-demand enterprise dispatch service based on the same technology. Both products can monitor and alert users if a driver is speeding or not where they should be.

Chalk Mobile’s Content Management Solution showed very well. From a BlackBerry 8800, Chalk showed a technician’s training demo complete with audio and video (stored on MicroSD not streaming) with step by step instructions and a test at the end of each section. The results were tracked back at the server. The Chalk demo was the best produced at the show.

REGARD’s R-Approval v3.0 product which enables traveling managers to receive approval requests for timecards, expense reports, purchase requisition and the like into a unique approval inbox received a lot of interests from tier 2 US carriers and tier 1 international carriers. The goal of this carrier class is to find sticky solutions that are easy to install, support and deliver high utility out-of-the-box.

WES Summary

Year after year RIM continues to produce a high quality show that continues to grow among the customers, partners and carriers internationally. The momentum of the Eco-System they have built is very compelling and should be for some time to come.

I remember the first meeting I took with RIM in 1998 they told me they felt they had an 18 month lead on their nearest competition. I believe they continue to extend that lead as they push into more international markets.

In the News

A number of customers and colleagues recently asked me what I thought of Jim Balsillie's resignation as chairman of Research in Motion (RIMM).

From the time I saw my first BlackBerry in 1998, I knew a revolution on par with the introduction of the laptop computer was coming for mobile professionals.

I first had the pleasure of meeting Jim Balsillie in 2000. What was immediately evident was Jim's deep passion for driving this revolution according to his vision. He was already speaking like an evangelist of applications beyond email and PIM data before those "mobile killer apps" had been adopted in mainstream corporate culture.

It was Jim's leadership and passion that encouraged partners like REGARD to adopt the slogan "Liberating People From Their Desks" and to develop products like R-Approval & R-Charter. Mobilizing critical business application to BlackBerry Smartphones today is the realization of Jim's late 1990's vision.

I feel regardless of Jim's decision to step down as chairman, he will continue to pour much of his heart and soul into RIM products as ever. After all, Jim has not stepped down as co-CEO.

That said, Jim's recent highly publicized purchase of the Pittsburgh Penguins leads one to believe he may begin to pursue other interests as well. Clearly, he has earned it!

Perhaps we will see the Waterloo Penguins before long?

Below is a link to my comments in Computer Reseller News (CRN).

http://crncanada.ca/content/networking/balsillie-steps-down-as-r.shtml

2007 Changes at REGARD

Over the past 12 years, REGARD has supported a wide diversity of customer's IT needs. With technologies and best practices changing at a frantic pace, we have found it impossible to be an effective partner to our customers in both software development and IT Support.

In order to continue to delivering the quality of service our customers demand and deserve, REGARD has set focus on project based software development of mobility solutions. Our sales priority will be focused on solution surrounding our R-Approval, R-Charter & R-Survey products for wireless handhelds.

I would like to personally thank all of our customers for whom we have been a trusted technology partner over these 12 years, and I hope you will consider REGARD should you have software development or mobility solutions needs (such as Microsoft .Net, Java, J2ME, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and the like)

******************************************************

-Steve Beauregard

REGARD – “R-Solutions Liberate People From Their Desks”

310.883.2205 (direct dial)

310.450.2400 (main line)

http://www.regard.com (Corp Website)