Links for January 6th

A little something extra…

Google has a tough row to hoe when it comes to beating the iPhone. What I’m excited about with the Nexus One and Android phones is to put pressure on Apple and it’s telco buddies to be more open or, at least, give us some innovations that out-weigh the closed nature of the iPhone. If Apple doesn’t change, beating them will be easy as Apple’s own history has shown. It’s also a weird time for Apple where people are wondering how much more longer Steve Jobs can run the shop – things don’t seem to go well when he’s gone, and I’m not sure there’s really a succession plan.

Off all times to battle against Apple/iPhone, this is the time to start, but it’ll be tough. As the lone subject in the informal smart phone usability “test” post from Peter-Paul Koch below puts it: “Oh,” B. said, “so this is how a touchscreen is supposed to work.” And then: He concluded that he understood the iPhone hype fully now; all the praise was well deserved.

Yup, it’d be like beating Google.com.

Links

• QuirksBlog: A basic usability test on ten phones
  Fantastic write-up of a one person usability test across various smart phones.
• Adobe testing automatic updater for Reader, Acrobat
  Adobe Update complainers of the world take notice: your problems may be over soon!
• Nexus One vs iPhone, Droid & Palm Pre – Total Cost of Ownership
  The upshot is that the iPhone is more expensive by a long shot for unlimited, but only slightly more expensive for "average plan."
• Google tries to quietly trample on Apple's toes
  "So the Nexus One will be a moderate success, bringing in a little revenue for Google and serving as a reference platform for Android developers who will flock to get one spurred on by effective on-line advertising. But the general public will continue to buy the iPhone until Google comes up with some sort of killer feature to take away Apple's crown."
• Google uncloaks the Nexus One
  Trackball, eh? I bet Blackberry people will like that. Like the Track Stick on ThinkPads, I bet there's an emerging cult.
• Microsoft's 'almost ready' Azure set for April delivery?
  Developers! Get ready for some exciting pricing confusion and spreadsheet magic in your future: "The service bus will now be charged per application or service connection at a rate of $3.99 per connections a month, instead of the previous "message operations" charge. Microsoft also plans to make connection packs available priced in batches of five, 25, 100 and 500 connections starting at $9.95 and going up to $995.00. Access Control, meanwhile, will be charged by number of transactions instead of "message operations" at a rate of $1.99 per 100,000 transactions." Come to think of it, a product that helped estimate and optimize your cloud payments for stuff like that would be good. Nice SalesForce, IPP, etc. add on.
• As Gartner Expands, So Does the Competition
  Several comments from "independent analysts," including myself and RedMonk's James Governor.

Disclosure: see the RedMonk client list for clients mentioned.