I watched both days of Google IO keynotes in their entirety (yeah I know, I have no life). Due to my interest in mobile I paid particular attention to yesterday's announcements and demos. After the dust settled, I finally came to my own conclusions and while I'm a big fan of Google's work, what they showed yesterday may just be a case of "too little, too late" or a mediocre approach. Overall, we as users win. It gives Apple some artificial competition while Microsoft gets its act together and wakes up. Don't count MS out yet! My thoughts on IO, Froyo and Google TV below:
See, with iPhone 4 and the new iPhone coming out next month there's nothing (or should I say, not much) that Google showed yesterday that Apple users won't be able to use. On top of that, Apple's usability still tromps Google in its worst day (has Google ever used the keyboard on an iPhone, the Android one blows and the one by HTC is nothing to brag home about).
So let's see... where do we start:
1. Oh yes, the "Internet" pun Google emphatically kept up bringing yesterday. Well, it turns out that with Apple's purchase of Lala (which has the patents for much of what Googled "demoed" yesterday), iTunes will do the same and a bit more. On top of that, a good portion of iPhone users can just buy music as well as video, over the air, or as Google refers to it... the Internet, right from iTunes on the phone. Apple already has a half-assed version of the App Store online. With Lala, they'll complete the circle.
2. Tethering has been available in just about every other carrier for the exception of AT&T for almost a year.
3. Wifi hotspot. This feature is not available on the iPhone and I know why. It kills the battery and the phone gets super hot. Trust me on this, I have MyWi on my iPhone and while it's great to have as a feature, you'll only use it if you can plug the phone and have the AC on.
4. Seamless web While this feature will probably arrive first via an app, I won't be surprised if a lot of the functionality Apple ends up implementing gets split between iTunes (sending music and videos from the iTunes Live site), Safari (for sending web pages) and the online version of iWorks (docs, presentations, etc.). What Google didn't mention is Mozilla's implementation, Weave, which will probably get integrated as a Firefox plugin in the not too distant future.
5. Advertising Google sarcastically said that "they know a thing or two about advertising" and showed some demos of things one can do today with their services as well as some they'll release in the future. Indeed, to doubt their proficiency in advertising would be foolish. However, while Google has written the book on advertising, Apple wrote it as an advertiser. I think that's the big difference here. Apple with iAds is creating a platform they would self use. And when it comes down to it, Google has a lot to learn from Apple on how to advertise (as in influencing people's perception). A lot of Apple's DNA in advertising is going into iAd and the patents showing up make a lot of what we know today look like last century's interpretation.
6. Cloud messaging vs. push notification Is there much of a difference here, really? I'd love to get Jonathan George's impression. He's the creator behind the very popular Boxcar. I need to learn more about Google's implementation from a developer point of view to get a better sense of it all.
7. Flash While I'm not a flash hater and don't mind flash on the desktop, all the flash lite implementations I've used in the past with Nokia phones for the browser sucked. It still takes too long, the video is choppy and the interaction tends to be mediocre at best. Given the 5+ years that Adobe has been working at this (yes, it's been that long, ask Nokia) they should have a decent offering by now. They're still a year away from something that really "just works". Moreover, HTML5 keeps getting better and better. If Apple offers an HTML5 IDE for iAds and apps soon, Adobe could be in real trouble given their dependence on tools as their cash cow.
8. Voice recognition Google here has a fantastic offering, but the crown jewels behind voice recognition (and patents) were just bought by Apple with their acquisition of Siri. DARPA paid a lot of money to those guys to make something that works and it does. It won't take long before it gets integrated in the iPhone and the rest of the OSs. Besides, with Google's strategy, an app for the iPhone has to be in the works. I can already use the voice search features in the Google app for iPhone.
9. Google TV I'm loving what Google is offering here. With iPad and iPhone OS it won't take long before Apple's hobby - Apple TV - gets a revamp. With Jobs other hat as an entertainment head, I won't count Apple out on this one. Additionally, I'll bet that an Atom version of Apple TV will be cheaper than what Logitech and Sony will release this fall. I would bet that an Apple TV offering with iPhone apps would be more enticing than Android, Google TV and Android apps. If the world was to freeze today, I'll take iPhone apps over Android apps without a doubt.
10. Nickelodeon Anyone with an iPad can go to www.nick.com and enjoy the site. The example that Vic showed yesterday was picked like a needle in a haystack from that site. I wonder why he didn't show the rest of the site? Could it be because the rest of it (because it's not Flash based) mainly works.
11. Apple bashing This was fun, but at times embarrassing. A lot of the comments looked at times, uncalled for. The worst that Apple has said, AFAIK about Google is that Android is "porn friendly". Yesterday, between Google and Sony, they had a field day. Personally, I wouldn't want to badmouth the most innovative and followed company of our times. Did these guys forget that Apple spends more on advertising than just about any other company on the planet. In a fight for mindshare, I think Apple would make Google and also-ran Sony a spank. Not a good move Google, not a good move. If anything, we're probably going to see Apple in competitive mode. Microsoft wasn't really competition for Apple. This time, Apple may start to put its billions of dollars in the bank (most than any other company, including MS) and portfolio of never used patents on display. This will be the best time to be an Apple fanboy. At least, it'll be justified. Lol
I think that's enough for now. Oh but wait, I almost forgot the best one. What Google showed with Froyo and embarrassingly demoed with Google TV won't be available to anyone for another 4-7 months. In about 20 days Apple will not only show most of it working, but will release it with the next generation of the iPhone and iTunes and all the other "there's one more thing" curtains.
Before Google starts to poke at Job's world, they should, as DAS EFX used to say: "check yourself, before you reck yourself". For example: Why is it that the Incredible and EVO users (next Android flagship phones) will have to wait 8 months to be able to use more than 300Mb-1G to install apps even when the device has gigs of storage available? Why is the on-screen keyboard so bad? Why can't an Android phone last more than 18hrs of regular use without charging? Why, if they believe in freedom so much, not create a pentaband Nexus One as Nokia is doing with the N8 (the N8 will run on T-Mobile and AT&T with full 3G support allowing anyone to switch GSM carriers at will)? Why can't they think about users privacy before desperately releasing Buzz? Why are they deceivingly making people think that just because Android had decent market share in one quarter (the quarter no one is buying iPhones because they know the new one is coming) that Android is going to overtake iPhone any day now (the iPad is selling over 246,000 units per week and last thing I checked that runs iPhone apps)? I'm just saying...
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