Hasta La Gadget!

We heard a rumor last week that Sony was working on new handhelds to compete with devices like the iPad. It sounds like a great idea: a PSP with integrated telephony and e-book functionality could perhaps give everyone in the market a run for their money. But I’m a little skeptical — Sony’s Clié line once defined state-of-the-art PDA, but the company ceded the market to Palm long before the PDA was eventually reborn as the smartphone. If Sony’s seriously thinking about getting back to the handheld space, here’s some lessons it might learn from its efforts back in the PDA day.

1. Innovation is great but only when you really innovate. Sony led the market in innovation when it entered the PDA space. It offered the first Palm OS devices with removable storage, the first devices that could play back audio and video, and the first high-resolution color devices. All of these clearly drove the market forward. Then the innovations became less innovative and more “gadgetry.” There were 3D interfaces for the launcher that were confusing and awkward. Some devices had Bluetooth support but not others. Devices like the NZ-90 (pictured above) added so many features into the mix that it was big, bloated, and nearly useless.* In short, the innovations became less compelling and eventually stood in the way of. I’m worried that Sony’s meshing the type of functionality rumored to be its new device without any thought how it all has to work together.

Continue reading Entelligence: Aiming high or another Mylo?

Entelligence: Aiming high or another Mylo? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

In the 10 billionth song that Apple sold through iTunes, Johnny Cash’s “Guess Things Happen That Way”, a man other than Steve Jobs famous for black attire bemoans the happenstance of his romantic misfortune. But nothing could be further from the story of iTunes, in which Apple’s meticulously crafted ownership of the end-user experience led to a dominant position in music sales. Now, on the dawn of releasing a new device that could be to television shows what the iPod was to music, Apple has an opportunity to create as commanding a lead in TV distribution — if it is willing to again capitulate to consumers’ media consumption habits.

Apple has enjoyed great success with iTunes in part because it adopted the purchase-to-own model that had been so successful with CDs and records before them. However, Apple didn’t simply mirror that model. By allowing consumers to purchase the vast majority of songs as singles, it provided better perceived value, Such an option was also a natural fit for the iPod, where playlists made it trivial to create the digital equivalent of “mix tapes.” The iPod’s capacity for thousands of songs was also no match for most albums that typically had a dozen or so songs.

Continue reading Switched On: Why it’s time for an iTunes TV subscription

Switched On: Why it’s time for an iTunes TV subscription originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

In its introductory press release, here’s what Sony has to say about the Dash, a “personal Internet viewer” that it announced at CES: “Featuring a vivid 7-inch color touch screen… Dash utilizes an existing home wireless connection to continuously deliver Internet content to its viewers.” And according to its SonyStyle.com site, here’s what that Dash has to say about itself: “I use over 1,500 free apps and your Wi-Fi connection to deliver the information and entertainment you crave… right to your bedroom, kitchen or office.” But Dash also has something to say about Sony, and for the most part, it’s an encouraging message.

Dash was one of the more distinct category-blurring products to emerge from Las Vegas in January. Its hardware is a hybrid between an alarm clock and digital picture frame and its content is a content mashup between Chumby widgets and Sony’s Bravia Internet Video Link offering. Dash was introduced just a few months after HP introduced its DreamScreen, another product that provides “glanceable” information from the cloud.

Continue reading Switched On: Sony’s forward Dash

Switched On: Sony’s forward Dash originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

How many apps does it take to screw in a light bulb? That was the question facing Microsoft as rival mobile operating systems backed by Apple and Google added tens of thousands of applications giving users stylus-free access to a wide range of capabilities. For a company whose co-founder trumpeted the notion of information at your fingertips, it was a bitter position. The light bulb wasn’t screwed, but Microsoft looked as though it was.

Finally, though, the light bulb has turned on, and it has lit a path in the opposite direction from the guiding user interface philosophy that characterized Windows Mobile, née Windows CE, since it powered devices known as Pocket PCs. With its miniature Start menu, menu bars and icons, Windows Mobile had been designed to present a familiar interface to those used to using Windows 95. In this case, however, familiarity bred contempt. As Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore repeated several times during his introduction of the new Windows Phone 7 OS, “the phone is not a PC.”

Continue reading Switched On: Making it different versus making a difference

Switched On: Making it different versus making a difference originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It was quite the week for Apple, first with its best-ever earnings and then the launch of the iPad. While Apple didn’t create this category of device, it did answer the fundamental question of why this form factor needs to exist. The meta lesson is that the story told is as important as the hardware, software and services being sold — and while everyone may not be convinced, I do think Apple will win over the majority of a skeptical audience with high expectations. But there’s also four important lessons that Apple taught the market this week, as it enters a space that’s been mostly a failure.

1. Define what your product does. The first thing Apple did was answer that question immediately and then define what the product needed to do. Apple explained what capabilities need to be in the this class of device and then went on to show how each of those features not only worked but were optimized for the iPad. That’s something we’ve seen lacking in this category to date.

2. Leverage what you’ve done before. I believe the iPad is likely to do well with consumers as it leverages Apple’s previous successes with the iPod and the iPhone. At the base level, that’s compatibility and synchronization with iTunes as well as backward compatibility with existing applications. That’s important — as a user I can use my existing content library and my application collection. It also means that iPad has 140,000-plus applications at launch. But it’s more than that. Apple is not only leveraging its ecosystem of devices and software, it’s leveraging the lessons it spent a decade teaching consumers. Apple taught its market about MP3 players, digital music, smartphones, capacitive multitouch screens and mobile apps. It can now go directly to selling the form factor, as well as new features such as productivity and e-books.

Continue reading Entelligence: Lessons from the iPad launch

Entelligence: Lessons from the iPad launch originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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