The day after Google announced its answer to Apple’s iPhone App store, it has announced the winners of a contest wherein developers win $275,000 or $100,000 for developing a top app for Google’s upcoming Android mobile phone OS. To get an idea of where the trend in mobile computing is heading, all of the top ten use location-based data via GPS. Check out the winners.
“27 year old Frisian developer Eric Wijngaard won $275,000 in Google’™s Android Developer Challenge for his ‘PicSay’™ application.
In an interview with a Dutch website he says he likes Google’™s SDK but ‘What I really wanted to do was develop an iPhone app. The iPhone SDK wasn’t out yet, though.’
Asked what he would do with the cash, his response was ‘I guess I could invest it in my software company, but first I want to port PicSay to the iPhone.'”
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2008/08/29/gratitude
Edited 2008-08-30 16:48 UTC
For me the big question in the iPhone vs Android battle is whether the big money and geek cred that Google brings to the table will be enough to overcome the combination of Apple’s head start and what will probably be a rather chaotic hardware situation. (Android’s strength, openness, could prove to be a big challenge when it comes to a trouble-free user experience)
[cliche alert]
Those who do not understand history, are bound to repeat it.
The last time a closed and controlled computer platform took on an open and uncontrolled platform, the former lost. The open and uncontrolled platform wasn’t better, but it was good enough, and it was a platform that allowed competition on price AND quality, not just quality.
I’m of course referring to Apple vs. the IBM PC.
History is repeating itself. Google is offering the IBM PC in the form of Android, and Apple is still offering basically the same thing as 25 years ago.
The similarities are so striking, it’s almost sad that no one is really seeing it coming. We had a diverse phone platform market. It started with limited devices – devices that slowly gained features, becoming evermore advanced. There are a lot of players in the phone market, but no one has gained a dominance yet [just like in the early home computing days]. Apple is repeating its past mistake of thinking that people will pay for quality – whereas Google took a long hard look at IBM/Intel/Microsoft, and quickly realised that people are willing to settle for “good enough” as long as it’s cheaper.
Mark my words.
Edited 2008-08-30 18:09 UTC
There is a significant difference though. In the Apple vs PC battle the Apple hardware was significantly more expensive than a comparable PC. The cost involved in the Apple made it a significant investment.
The iPhone is within the same cost range as other smartphones at this time, (arguably) has a better User Interface, great marketing, and the fickle consumer mob working for it.
I am hopeful that the android platform will be a success but being open to hardware manufacturers won’t be enough to push Android to the front. It needs a good UI and a viable software ecosystem. I plan on picking up the Android device coming to T-Mobile but it will probably not be replacing my Artemis just yet.
The iPhone is only available on AT&T in the states. The android platform is going to be available to any manufacturer on any network…that’s a big plus in my books
Poppycock! By your logic, Linux would have swept away Windows / Macs on the desktop and Sun / HP / IBM on the servers a long time ago.
And we heard exactly the same arguments about how the ‘closed’ iPod/iTunes will loose after it’s initial success against the ‘open’ Creative / Dell / Napster / “Plays for sure” / Zune / <whatever> on the long run (as if the freedom to pay licence fees to Microsoft has anything to do with ‘open’ or ‘free’).
It’s rather simplistic to predict future events on some selected past events. Wishful thinking, I guess. Still problems to accept that Apple has not surrendered against mighty (boring) Microsoft?
Linux has some problems that keeps it from getting really popular. (It’s getting better though, I bet Linux will start growing slowly but steady in desktops in a couple of years…)
Anyway. Android seem to be stable, and it’s a bit different computers. Macs, and maybe esp. Linx haven’t taken over partially because they’re not included on a lot of computers. Few people bother with actually installing another OS than the one that came with it. (Or even understand this!)
Same with mobile phones. However, buying a new mobile phone is a a much smaller step than buying a new computer IMHO. Mobiles are cheaper. And besides: people break them all the time, so they need new ones!
Just my cents(or ører to be exact)…
Maybe Android will have those, too?
??
On what hardware is it ‘stable’? And BTW: Android is a beta.
Neither will be Android.
Not when it comes to smartphones. Prices are not that much different. And maybe you have less data / apps on a smartphone than on a Mac. However, moving data / apps from Mac to Mac is a lot easier. On the other side, moving data / apps when you change to another smartphone OS, things get more difficult, especially if you think of the time you need for similar apps on the new OS and setting up the device like configure data syncing between desktop / mobile or configuring mobile mail, etc.
And why did the iPod survive? Buying a new MP3-Player is even easier.
Sometimes, people are not satisfied with ‘good enough’, when ‘better’ actually means ‘not more expensive’, ‘better support’, ‘easy to use’, ‘hipp’, ‘good quality’, ‘don’t need a weekend to configure’.
Excuse me what planet you live. Ever heard Nokia and its S60 platform? Strike 1! Also why you say things look similiar since they aren’t. Back in IBM vs Apple battle most people didn’t have computers, now almost everyone has mobilephone, strike 2! Also Android phones are gonna be more expensive than Nokias and other traditional manufacturers phones offering all that most people need for mobile phone(calling, SMS, MMS and internet). Strike 3! Your comment is out really.
>Also Android phones are gonna be more expensive than Nokias
And who told you that?? Only the non-touchscreen phones by Nokia MIGHT be cheaper, not the S60 4.0 touchscreen ones. People who want a real modern smartphone will go for touchscreen, so prices between Nokia and Android might not be as far off as you think.
Have you seen specs for HTC Dream(500Mhz processor!)? Fact that Nokia N95 which has touchscreen uses only 333Mhz which is cheaper to buy(not to forget pure fact that Nokia pays less per HW than most of the other manufacturers). Ones Nokia start kicking out touchscreens as standard part the cost of those phones will sunk.
So far for HTC Dream we have heard it costs about 200$ with 2 year contract, isn’t that same as iPhone? So my point is that during price war Nokia has tons of advantages against something like HTC 1) It’s the biggest manufacturer 2) it has most streamlined production 3) it buys parts cheapest. Again the geeks will atleast try Android but standard users might be happy what they use now and in many cases it’s Nokia S40/S60 UI which they are familiar.
Also as inside info I know that Nokia had emergency meetings when Apple announced iPhone, they didn’t have those now so Android is less threat than iPhone.
You might want to read up on that. They say Google wants a sub-$200 phone price.
That quote is both a good and bad reflection on Apple. It indicates that the dev finds the iPhone compelling and would like to develop for it, but it also indicates that Apple has cost themselves a potential third-party dev (temporarily, at least).
How do you figure? The person gets the prize and will focus on the iPhone platform.
Apple’s not lacking Developers for the iPhone or OS X platforms.
How do you figure? [/q]
Uh, the first sentence of the quoted text:
“What I really wanted to do was develop an iPhone app. The iPhone SDK wasn’t out yet, though.”
He’s expressed interested in porting a single app. That’s hardly “focusing.”
Eh? Who has contended otherwise?
Or maybe it’s just that the iPhone is here now but Android phone do not exist yet..
It’s not easy to sell SW for non-existing phones 🙂
Except that this quote was a completely wrong translation of the Dutch quote:
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2008/08/31/wijngaard
Or for those who are lazy:
Then a follow-up question about what’s next and if there will be an iPhone version. This was my reply:
“Right now, I am focusing on Android and I want to make sure that PicSay will run on the actual Android-based phone when it is launched. It is possible to create an iPhone version of PicSay, and I would like to do that some day, but there is no time for that now.â€Â
Even more miraculous the above ended up as:
“I guess I could invest it in my software company, but first I want to port PicSay to the iPhone.â€Â
I hate to link to my blog from here, but thing is, I have blogged in detail about these third party apps back in June, in the first round of the Android challenge. I personally don’t need these apps. And I am a person who uses gadgets for everything. While they might be useful apps for some, to me personally, they are utterly useless.
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2008/06/14/third-party-apps-for-phone…
I mostly need “stationary utilities”, ranging from Bluetooth features to cut/copy/paste, to VoIP, to multi-IM with video support fully integrated to the UI, to functional apps like word processing, spreadsheet, and yes, even a mini-video editor for my phone camera videos, rather than things like “find all pizza places in your area that your friends have also visited and highly rated’. Give me a break. What’s next? “Find all myspace users in your area who also have a facebook account and are vegetarians?”
I don’t disagree that this might be the way of doing business and living in the future (e.g. finding a good dentist in your area), but for the years to come, I find all that being too, I don’t know, disturbingly superficial. Or, maybe I am just getting old and I don’t get enthusiastic about life start working differently than the way I expect it.
Spot on.
I guess with all the 3G feeber is not a surprise.
I found the application that notifies you where a member of your family is a jewel.
What I find significantly missing is a business oriented contacts/calendar app. The default one is ok but far from great. Look at Pocket Informant or Agenda Fusion for Windows mobile as examples of what I mean. Heck I find the lack of any business oriented apps at all in the finalists surprising.
Social networking apps can be great, and many of the apps are interesting, but not terribly useful to a business user. Or at least not the ones that made it to the finals in the contest.
I hear you. The only one in the list I found even remotely interesting was the one that used the phone camera to scan a barcode and find the best price in the area. I mean, 2 or 3 apps to help you figure out your carbon footprint? C’mon.
I agree with the other gentleman in that the lack of a good calendaring app is puzzling. I currently have a Windows Mobile smartphone, and by far my most-used app on it is the appointment book/calendaring. Nothing else I’ve found for it is really good enough to make me give up a laptop or other purpose-built device.
First and foremost, it must be a good phone. After that, the calendaring. Good GPS software would be nice, as would a good camera. I can’t think of much else I’d use it for.
Edited 2008-08-31 03:23 UTC
I completely agree with you. Call it a generational gap. Being 39 I’ve entered in the early 90s to see enteprise computing soaring and now we’re in the self-absorbed look at my ass generation of apps.
Most of these apps cater to being out and about with your posse and check it out I just took a shot of this chick’s fly ass, ooh I better IM my buddies and he/she can use the same apps to show me what I’m missin’ across the city or elsewhere.
Very masturbatory and right up with the generation X better known as the ADD generation.
You’re description of my generation is depressingly accurate. =/
That being said: at least some of them seem to improve a lot once they hit their twenties…
Yeap, getting old, babe.
hehehehe, so mean ɖC8 =
Well, you see, that’s the good thing about getting old: you get wiser.
And bitter
Don’t expect Apple to lose all of a sudden. It’s not the Apple of the 80s anymore, it’s a huge machine packed with clever people who will probably stop at almost nothing to keep the money flowing. They have the power not to lose now. And so far they’ve been doing quite well if you look at the smartphone stats in the US. Hardly can be compared to the IBM PC situation back in the day. It wasn’t about openness per se anyway. iPhone has a *huge* momentum right now and whether Android will have that too or not is not yet certain.