Search for Balance

Toys For Adults

No, not that kind of toy…

Although if Apple got into that business they’d probably do pretty well there, too.

What I’m talking about is why I think Apple is doing so well in the electronics game while companies like Circuit City are dying off en masse, and Microsoft is losing market share at an accelerating pace.

While some argue they have a superior product, and at least it is more appealing to the eye than most others, I’m going to suggest an additional reason I think they are doing well — especially when it comes to expanding their market into the mainstream.

Apple stores are like a toy store for an adult.  You can come in, play around with everything, all their stuff is out in the open and you can tinker with it.  Because of the openness, you can see other people playing, too, making you want to try it out.  Even their products are shiny and rounded like little toys.

The feel however, isn’t like a toy store.  The stores are refined and sophisticated, taking great lengths to avoid any suggestion of childishness.  This is very appealing to the mainstream, mall-going crowd.  At some level I think they surreptitiously plan it this way — draw them in to play with the toys but tell them they aren’t playing with toys, they are still very grown up, sophisticated people.

Microsoft is losing the mainstream because they aren’t engaging them, or more accurately, their resellers aren’t.  Their resellers are places like Circuit City, Best Buy, Office Depot — which aren’t in the mall, so they aren’t in the mainstream.  They make you come to them rather than putting themselves in front of the populous.

I wonder what kind of success a Windows-based (or even Linux-based) reseller would have if they spent some time on industrial design and emulated the Apple store’s strategy of the mall adult toy store.  It certainly couldn’t hurt their market share.

A sneak peek at the downturn & its effect on Google

This evening my wife and I were driving around Issaquah looking for a place to have dinner.  Neither of us know the area very well, so I was searching for restaurants on my G1.

Our results were very interesting: 30-40% of the places we found via Google maps had closed their doors.

You can’t really blame Google, it appeared these were all fairly recent closures, and it isn’t as if Mom from Mom & Pop’s Bar & Grill phones Google to let them know they are out of business.

It does have a very negative impact on the Google experience, however.  If I have this much trouble now, what will it be like in 6 months to a year when things are really bad?

Google’s approach at curation is to let the relevant percolate to the top.  This works for active areas of interest, but once your focus narrows enough, you end up with derelict pages, old information, or closed restaurants.

Maybe some other company will come along with an innovative solution to what I see as a growing curation problem by culling no longer accurate results, or maybe Google will make progress in this area on its own.

Either way, I’m guessing this experience is only going to get more commonplace as stores and restaurants close, dotcom companies go dark, and people no longer have time to work on their blogs, open source or other pet projects.  Who’s going to clean up the mess?

T-Mobile G1 Review

I’ve been using the T-Mobile G1 now since launch day, and *finally* I’m getting around to writing my review.

I’ll start with the downsides:

• Applications only install to built-in memory

You can only install Marketplace applications to the built-in memory, so even if you add an 8-gig MicroSD card, you can still only fit a handful of applications on the phone because of the small amount of internal memory.  This means if you want to try out apps you have to consider their size carefully and routinely have to play a game of app survivor when something new comes out you want to try.

• Tethering

Still no tethering.  I was really expecting to have that by now, so I’m fairly disappointed.

• Keyboard not as good as I would have liked

The keyboard is pretty good, but not great.  After having it a few months now I’m still not touch-typing with it.

• Battery life

The battery life isn’t great, but with my normal use I can get a full day out of it.  Anything heavier than the occasional chat, web page, or map use will cause you to want to charge it mid-day as well.

And the upsides:

• Back-grounded Apps

Hopping around between applications is great: someone IMs me a link.  I click the link, see the page, and then I can copy that link and switch right over to IRC and paste the link in there.  All of those are constantly running, receiving data, and operational while I’m doing anything else on the phone.

• Built-in Gmail

The gmail app is great.  Well built, well integrated, does everything you’d need it to.  It is effectively push, I always get alerted to new messages on the phone before anywhere else.

• Google Talk

Google talk (IM) is seamlessly integrated.  People have no idea I’m using it from my phone rather than a computer, it just works.  And since it runs in the background, it is a decent replacement for most of the SMS messages I would typically send.

• Openness

While as of yet the openness of the platform is relatively unexploited, I can see how this will be a major benefit in the future.  Having the platform rolled out to multiple devices, having the ability for people to tweak things however they want, and not having a draconian overseer approving all of the applications are all potentially huge wins.

I’m definitely keeping the phone, and for the most part I’m pretty happy with it.  For now I will miss some aspects of the iPhone, most notably the larger audience and the attention that gets from developers, but I think that the G1 ends up being more like a portable computer and thus more useful to me.  The first week I had it I found it remarkable how much more useful a phone like this is than a normal  cellphone for marginally more money.

There is certainly room for improvement, but luckily most of my complaints about the phone are software issues.  I’m looking forward to seeing what Google, handset manufacturers, and the developer community do with the platform.