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On Screen Size, Apple is From Mars, Samsung from Venus

2013-04-24T15:57:29Z

For many years now I have waxed poetic about the need for Apple to create a large screen phone. With the latest iteration of the iPhone, the “5” they decided to elongate the device but not make it wider. To me, this mistake is the worst that Apple has made since ignoring the market for seven-inch tablets and then playing catch-up with the iPad mini.

At first, when asked about larger screen phones, Apple said that they didn’t fit in the hand. Of course this was a shock to many people who not only were able to fit larger phones in their hands but to those of us who saw the ad for the iPad mini where the company showed it FITTING IN A HAND.

Now the story from Apple has changed – Apple’s Tim Cook said yesterday that large screen phones require trade-offs. Specifically he said:

My view continues to be that iPhone 5 has the absolute best display in the industry. And we always strive to create the very best display for our customers. And some customers value large screen size, others value also other factors such as resolution, color quality, white balance, brightness, reflectivity, screen longevity, power consumption, portability, compatibility with apps and many things.

Our competitors had made some significant trade-offs in many of these areas in order to ship a larger display, we would not ship a larger display iPhone while these trade-offs exist.

Some of these points actually do make sense and I speculated as such last September but perhaps the most important aspect of a portable device like a smartphone is its battery life and no one gets a whole day of use from an iPhone 5 if they actually use it for much of the day.

In other words, Apple already made a major trade-off sacrificing a full day of battery life to keep the iPhone 5 thin and light.

And every day Apple Store employees get hammered with the question, “When will Apple come out with a larger screen phone.” How do I know? Because I ask them, and this is what they tell me.

The biggest weakness Apple has right now is a device which fits between the size of the iPhone 5 and the iPad Mini. What smartphones does Samsung sell which are bigger than the four-inch iPhone 5? The list is extensive. The Galaxy S3 is 4.8 inches in size, the S5 is five inches in size. The Galaxy Note 2 is 5.5 inches. Want a tablet from Samsung, you can choose from the following sizes: 7”, 7.7”, 8.0”, 10.1” and 11.6”. Apple has merely two tablet sizes. Let’s stipulate for the moment that the iPad and Mini give enough options to consumers looking for a large and small tablet… Even so, we have to agree that Apple needs at least one wider smartphone.

I have consistently warned Apple of the multiple device threat starting on July 8^th, 2010. I saw Apple’s Achilles’ heel as being its limited product line competing with myriad screen sizes from a plethora of competitors. I saw how the PC market overtook Apple in the eighties due to improvements in price/performance from a multiple vendors and I realized screen size was the equivalent differentiator in the mobile space.

Yet Apple has changed its story on the topic – first telling us that larger phones don’t fit in the hand (how do they look at themselves with a straight face?) and now that they have trade-offs. The trouble is, these product trade-offs are causing customers to walk across the Verizon store from the Apple section into Samsung’s arms.

I have tremendous respect for Apple but when millions of customers vote with their wallets and tell you they prefer a larger phone – even with trade-offs, you have to listen to them. Or am I wrong? Let me know.

For more – see the post which shows how hand sizes vary widely and making a statement that “our phone fists in the hand” doesn’t take into account how much hand sizes vary.

With Tablets and Smartphones Eating the PC, What Can Microsoft Do?

2013-04-11T21:48:24Z

These are very dark days for people who work for many divisions of Microsoft as tablets and smartphones have absolutely decimated the PC market as evidenced by a decline of 14% in sales of PCs last quarter. This news comes on the heels of the Windows 8 launch, the new OS which fuses the best of the tablet and Windows experience in one platform. The only problem is the new OS with all its marketing and slick new form factors isn’t cutting it, as consumers gravitate towards smaller screen devices.

Expect many calls for Steve Ballmer to be fired and when you consider how many markets Redmond has squandered since 2000 you could make a solid case for pushing him out. Tablets, music, cloud and smartphones are just a few. 11 months ago, one reporter had the foresight to say he should have been fired already.

It’s worth noting that Samsung has been one of the few companies besides Apple to capitalize on tablets and smartphones and other companies in this space which enjoyed leadership positions such as Blackberry, Nokia and HTC are also struggling.

Redmond will definitely see sales from corporate customers who upgrade PCs from XP and other operating systems to Windows 8 and of course its developer, server and Exchange lines of business are in no jeopardy at the moment.

Still, you have to wonder why the company isn’t leading the market in app sales on Android and iOS. It is common knowledge that users want Office on their iPads for example… What is the delay? The latest rumors say the market needs to wait a full 18 months from now to see its debut! The company makes games as well so why not try to dominate mobile devices with your game development?

The additional challenge here is Microsoft already tried to fight Apple with the unveiling of Windows 8 and it seems this isn’t a successful strategy. In fact, this polarizing OS seems to be pushing people to tablets and smartphones.

This strategic shift in the market requires Microsoft to refocus like it did when it missed the internet in the nineties – but this time, Google and Apple have precious few vulnerabilities to go after.

When Borland owned the desktop database market and could charge $650 for its software some decades ago, Microsoft stunned the world by rolling out its Access competitor for only $99. When Netscape owned the desktop browser market and charged for its software, Microsoft rolled out Internet Explorer for free.

This time, pricing isn’t going to help the world’s still-dominant OS provider attract massive amounts of new customers. Innovation is about the only thing left to try and they are losing the innovation battle to Android and iOS. The scary thing is Adobe Flash for the moment is still a major reason to us PC products but once HTML5 gets established, PC sales could slow even more.

Microsoft needs to do something to change this momentum and it needs to do it fast as not only are customers signaling discontent but financial analysts and investors are joining in.

Learn more about HTML5 at the ultimate HTML5 developer conference DevCon5, July 24-25, 2013 in NYC.

Apple Email Swings Back at Galaxy S4

2013-03-16T21:11:09Z

For Apple, this past week has got to have been the biggest nightmare the company has faced in well over a decade. Cupertino went from being on top of the world in the eighties to crashing in the nineties to soaring over the past decade as the company became synonymous with the mobile revolution. Samsung has been improving its Galaxy S line and the latest iteration, the S4 actually had as much hoopla around its introduction as an Apple event.

Finally there is a mobile competitor to Apple which can generate as much buzz around a product launch.

In response, Apple sent an e-mail to its database touting the benefits of the iPhone 5 starting with winning the J.D. Power award for customer satisfaction eight years in a row. From there the email goes into detail about perhaps the biggest external difference between it and the new Samsung Galaxy S4... It reminds the reader of the iPhone 5's sleek aluminum enclosure which is more like a fine watch than a smartphone. My colleague Tony Rizzo certainly would agree - he is no fan of the Samsung plastic case. The Korean company for its part is quick to point out the technological achievement it has attained with this new phone - implying its more important to worry about what's inside than outside. A side benefit of course is you can change the battery.

The next point the e-mail makes is the Retina Display as it explains the iPhone "ushered in the era of super-high-resolution displays." While this is true, the Galaxy S4 has thee same resolution as an HDTV - it seems like we need to call a truce to the pixel wars as we are beyond the limit of what our eyes can discern.

The next benefit the email touts is the iPhone 5 has great battery life without a great big battery. It seems this statement is only accurate if you don't use the phone that often. This is the equivalent of a car company touting a three-ton truck with a V-12 6.0 liter engine as being a fuel-efficient vehicle.

The rest of the email talks about the camera, processor, 4G-LTE support, Siri, iOS and iCloud but it seems to smack of desperation. The iPhone 5 is a great phone - Apple has screwed up by not making it larger - we are also sick of complaining about this. It's it is a solid device which has a huge PR problem primarily becasue Samsung is on a roll coming out with great devices in a variety of sizes. Although many in the press such as Rizzo aren't impressed by the Galaxy S4, the average person on the street is talking about this new phone that can sense your finger hovering over it and can respond to the position of your face.

Apple has a problem on its hands and needs to pick up the pace of innovation while understanding the market may want a phone form factor it didn't invent.

The email points to a web page with similar information titled There's iPhone And then there's everything else if you are interested in reading it for yourself.

Advertising - A Key Part to Samsung's Success

2013-03-14T20:56:12Z

Being in the tech field I often get to speak to lots of engineers who explain to me they aren’t swayed by advertising. Quite often they tell me they don’t think people in general are swayed either. What they do is project their personal feelings on a broad population which is normal.

Many of these engineers run tech companies which typically don’t do so well.

This group would likely be fascinated to learn that Samsung’s success these past 12 months have been extraordinary and much of the credit goes to – sit down and take a deep breath… Advertising!

Remember, Samsung doesn’t even control the OS they sell. You could argue they have superior products but for the most part many Android phones and tablets are quite similar. Business Insider has a great chart showing how a jump in spending in one year has rocketed the company to the top spot in the smartphone mindshare race. Moreover, the company is now spending $4B worldwide on ads.