Microsoft Street Slide: Better Than Google Street View

Microsoft Research demonstrated a new street-level image viewing option that way better than Google Maps Street View last week.

 

From Microsoft Reasearch:

“Street Slide is a novel browsing interface for street-level imagery that combines the best aspects of the immersive nature of “bubbles” with the overview provided by multiperspective strip panoramas, figures to attract significant interest, in large part because of the ingenious way in which Microsoft Researchers tackle problems with current street-side imagery on the web.”

 

 

This looks great, but Microsoft is great at teasing us by showing us really clever technologies that they have developed. The problem is that they tend to show us these great ideas well before they can deliver them to customers.  One example would be MS Surface.

Google and Apple, on the other hand, tend to develop without any public updates or rumors and then drop a new product (mainly for increased hype). Pretty much saying, “Look at this cool technology! It’s ready for you to use”.

Both business approaches have their own merits, but it seems like Microsoft previews these amazing technologies to far in advance of launch, if they launch at all. Basically showing their hand to the competitors and giving them time to develop a competing product doesn’t seem like a smart business strategy.

 

What do you think of Microsoft’s new Street Slide?

Posted via email from Neville's Blog

Android Surging in U.S. Smartphone Market; RIM Still Tops

USA Today is reporting that BlackBerry maker Research In Motion is king of the smartphone hill, according to data released by researcher comScore.

RIM had a 41.7% market share among smartphone platforms, topping Apple (iPhone) 24.4%, Microsoft (Windows) 13.2% and Google (Android) 13.0%. Palm, which was recently acquired by HP, lagged with a 4.8 % share.

The folks at RIM may not want to get overly giddy. The numbers reflect the three month period ending in May 2010, prior to the iPhone 4's release and before a slew of new Google Android devices invaded the market, including the HTC Evo 4G from Sprint and Motorola's Droid X from Verizon.

Most of the momentum indeed points to Android. Google gained four percentage points compared to the previous three month reporting period of February 2010, the only smartphone rival with a positive point change in market share during that time.

Still, comScore says overall smartphone ownership continues to grow, with 49.1 million people in the U.S. now owning such a device, up 8.1 percent over the corresponding February period.


I suspect that RIM will be king for another 1 - 2 years as companies relax use of non-blackberry phones on their networks. With the failure of KIN, Microsoft needs a home run with Windows Phone 7.

The competition in the mobile phone market will only get more fierce as more users move to smartphones. We are not even near 80 saturation of the smartphone market, so this a great time for companies to build device/brand loyalty.

How long do you think RIM can hang on? Let me know in the comments!

Read the post at USA Today.

Posted via email from Neville's Blog

"Embarrassment All Over Campus" From Kin Failure

The fallout from Microsoft killing the Kin is being felt by the "Rank and File" within the company. Microsoft's Kin failure sank morale at the company's Redmond campus according to an employee.

 

"Embarrassment all over campus from the rank and file about the Kin announcement," said this employee. The problem is that, "no one thought it was a great product to launch anyway to begin with," and "Credibility in Mobile space is further eroded, as if that were even possible!"

 

This epic fail has opened up Microsoft for a vicious attack from the New York Times which wrote, "the Kin debacle is a reflection of Microsoft’s struggle to deliver what the younger generation of technology-obsessed consumers wants. From hand-held products to business software, Microsoft seems behind the times."

 

The Microsoft employee continues:

We had a huge launch party on campus and I bet that party cost more than the amount of revenues we took in on the product.  As an employee, I am embarrassed.  As a shareholder, I am pissed.  It's one thing to incubate products and bring them to a proof-of-concept to see what works, but it's something else to launch.  I suspect we launched because we felt like we HAD to so we could save face because we were trying to build buzz, but overall - HUGE fail.

 

I have said before this does not look good for their image and apparently everyone else thinks the same. Heads need to roll on this failure. Clean house Microsoft!

 

Mobile computing will be huge over the next 5 years and Microsoft needs stay competitive. I do not believe Microsoft seems "behind the times", it just seems like everyone internally is out for their own and not the benefit of the company.

 

What do you think about Microsoft's current problems? Comment!

Posted via email from Neville's Blog

T-Mobile Dropkicks The Sidekick

Less than 24 hours after Microsoft killed Kin dead, T-Mobile has abandoned the granddaddy of messaging phones. Sidekick sales will cease tomorrow, July 2nd, and honestly? No one will care.

 

There’s no bug, defect or data loss SNAFU to blame; just the cold realization that there’s no room for such a product in a smartphone obsessed nation. Here’s how T-Mobile is spinning it:

As T-Mobile looks to further innovate and raise the bar for the next iteration of the T-Mobile Sidekick, as of July 2, the Sidekick LX and Sidekick 2008 will no longer be available through T-Mobile, including retail stores, care, telesales and online. While we work on the next chapter of our storied Sidekick franchise, T-Mobile will continue to provide our loyal Sidekick customers with product service and support. Stay tuned for exciting updates in the months ahead, which we expect will provide customers with a new and fresh experience.

 

Two Microsoft feature phones killed off in two days? As I said in my previous post, this is not looking good for Microsoft. I hope Window Phone 7 can live up to the hype.

 

Will Sidekick come back ever? It may, but my gut tells me no. It reminds to many people of the past in mobile technology. It's still a strong brand even if the products are obsolete and If it does return, it'll have a real OS behind it.

Posted via email from Neville's Blog

Is Google Chrome Coming for Firefox?

Chrome overtakes Safari for first time to claim third place in US Internet browser market

 

Google Chrome continues to gain browser marketshare, edging past Apple’s Safari in the U.S. and, apparently, also taking some users from Mozilla’s Firefox according to StatCounter. The firm's research arm StatCounter Global Stats reports that for the week beginning 21 June Chrome overtook Safari to claim third place in the US browser market.

 

Aodhan Cullen, CEO for StatCounter commented:

This is quite a coup for Google as they have gone from zero to almost 10% of the US market in under two years. There is a battle royal going on between Google and Apple in the internet browser space (Chrome v Safari) as well as in the mobile market (Android v iPhone).

 

 

To see how much Chrome has grown over time, check out these extended stats, which go from October 11, 2009 through the end of June 2010:

 

 

Chrome with 8.97% took third place in the US browser market ahead of Safari with 8.88%. Microsoft's Internet Explorer still dominates the US Internet browser market with 52%, followed by Firefox (28.5%).

 

Globally Chrome has been well ahead of Safari for some time with 9.4% of the market compared to 4% for Safari. Microsoft's Internet Explorer has 53% of the global market followed by Firefox on 31%.

 

The data is based on an analysis of 3.6 billion page views (874 million from the US) for the week 21 to 27 June 2010 collected from the StatCounter network of over three million websites.

Posted via email from Neville's Blog