Top Bananas | Tag Archives: Android

Essential Smartphone Not So Essential After All

Posted on May 25, 2018 by admin Posted in Business, Hardware Leave a comment

What it is: Andy Rubin, the co-founder of Google’s Android operating system, started a company called Essential, which is now trying to sell itself.

There’s a mistake people make all the time. If one person has success, they automatically assume that person will always have success from now on. What they don’t realize is that sometimes success is more of an accident than a well-planned operation.

Such is the case with Andy Rubin. Andy helped create the Android operating system which originally was designed to mimic Blackberry OS since Blackberry smartphones were considered the elite smartphone at the time. When Apple introduced the iPhone, Andy immediately knew Android’s future had to mimic the iPhone. Because the iPhone was limited to a handful of carriers at first, Android could mimic the iPhone and give people an iPhone-like experience without getting an iPhone.

Andy later left Google to form a company called Essential, which tried making their own line of smartphones. Amazingly, investors once valued Essential as a $1 billion dollar company before they even shipped a single product. All of this high valuation came about because Essential was created by Andy Rubin who also created Android. Therefore, according to investors’ logic, Essential should also be valuable because it would soon dominate the smartphone market like Android did.

Of course what people failed to realize was that Essential created nothing more revolutionary than another Android smartphone. With Android smartphones available from dozens of manufacturers, there was no compelling reason to buy an Essential smartphone just because it was made by a company run by the creator of Android. People don’t care who makes a phone just as long as it’s cheap enough and useful enough for their needs.

Essential had to cut the prices of their smartphones to sell more and now they’ve announced they won’t make any more smartphone. That’s because they never had a viable business plan in the first place. Why would the world care about another Android smartphone when most Android smartphone makers are losing money selling smartphones?

Essential likely will disappear from the world because it literally has no reason to exist in the smartphone market. The company may try to survive as a smartphone device manufacturer and that may give them more success, but as another Android smartphone maker? Even LG Electronics and Sony have trouble making money selling Android smartphones. Why did anyone think Essential would have an easier time?

Human beings are basically illogical. The Essential smartphone wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t anything special either. The Android market is tough because Samsung dominates and most other companies just lose money selling Android smartphones. Even Google can’t make money selling Android smartphones, so why did anyone expect Essential to have massively better luck?

Because Android is a free operating system, it’s turned Android smartphones into a commodity, and if you can buy an Android smartphone from any company, there’s little reason to stay loyal to any particular company. Android may have massive market share, but its worst enemy is itself.

Beware of Pre-Installed Android Malware

Posted on May 24, 2018 by admin Posted in Software Leave a comment

What it is: Anti-virus company Avast has found malware is pre-installed on many cheap Android phones.

Originally Android was designed as a Blackberry clone because Blackberries were the most popular smartphones available. When Apple introduced the iPhone, Google quickly rewrote Android to become an iOS clone. While Android and iOS continue to copy each other, the bottom line is that Android wouldn’t exist in its current incarnation if Google didn’t deliberately redesign it to mimic iOS on the iPhone.

As an operating system, Android is decent and there are many features of Android not found in iOS (and vice versa). The huge difference between Android and iOS lies in security. Because Apple curates apps on its App Store, the chances of malware getting displayed on the App Store is minimal although it has happened several times. On the other hand, Android allows anyone to install apps with no curation at all, which means users can often be tricked into installing malware.

While many people can avoid malware by simply avoiding visiting suspicious sites, Avast Threat Labs recently discovered that many cheap Android phone makers are pre-isntalling malware on the phones before anyone even buys or uses it. Thus you can buy an infected Android phone and not even know it.

The problem isn’t Google’s fault but the fault of dishonest Android phone makers. If you’re going to buy a smartphone running Android, make sure your smartphone is certified by Google. Failing that, make sure you run anti-virus software to keep your Android phone clean. For even less hassle, just buy and use an iPhone.

Malware is the main reason why Android’s open source policy isn’t always a benefit. The main idea behind open source is that users are free to install any apps they wish from any place they wish. The drawback is that users must also watch out for malware.

The iPhone isn’t immune to malware but because of its walled garden approach to apps, it’s far less likely to get infected by malware. No device is immune but given a choice between minimal risk or maximum risk, why would anyone want to choose maximum risk?

ARKit Advancing Augmented Reality on iOS

Posted on December 30, 2017 by admin Posted in Software, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: When Apple introduced ARKit at their developer’s conference, they helped make augmented reality accessible and commonplace.

Pokemon GO was the first major augmented reality app that most people heard about, but the makers of that game had to create their own augmented reality code. With the introduction of ARKit by Apple in the summer, anyone can easily add augmented reality to their apps with little extra coding. ARKit essentially takes care of the hard part of calculating locations and identifying flat surfaces so your app can focus on supplying the augmented reality content.

With ARKit, Apple introduced millions of people to augmented reality since it can run on the latest iOS devices such as the iPhone 6s. In comparison, most Android devices cannot run Google’s original augmented reality framework called Project Tango, which Google recently dumped to focus on a new framework called ARCore. The big problem with ARCore is that ARCore supported apps aren’t available in the same quantity as ARKit supported apps are on iOS devices.

Once more Android devices support ARCore, you can expect more augmented reality apps to appear on Android so iOS’s lead right now is only temporary. However, the real key is how augmented reality will become commonplace on mobile devices. Once ARCore and ARKit become adopted by more developers, expect more augmented reality apps to appear simultaneously on iOS and Android. That means more augmented reality apps to push the public into accepting augmented reality as something as ordinary as voice-activated assistant like Siri.

Augmented reality is going to move beyond games and simple gimmicks to practical applications. When people start relying on augmented reality apps for everyday use as often as people use driving directions, that’s when you’ll know augmented reality will no longer seem like an exotic technology but something that just works, much like the processor, the voice-activated assistant, or the touch screen on your mobile devices.

Microsoft as a Software Company

Posted on October 28, 2017 by admin Posted in Business, Hardware, Software Leave a comment

What it is: Major corporations are offering employees a Macintosh instead of a Windows PC.

At one time, Microsoft made software for other operating systems. When Microsoft bought an operating system and named it PC-DOS for IBM, they renamed it as MS-DOS for IBM compatibles. Pretty soon businesses standardized around MS-DOS and later Windows. Microsoft then ventured into the application software market to compete in the word processor, spreadsheet, and database markets that were formerly dominated by WordStar and WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, and dBASE.

With the shift to Windows, Microsoft had the only major applications ready for Windows, so the corporate world that shifted to Windows also shifted to Microsoft software. When Microsoft sold both Windows and Microsoft Office, they completely dominated the software market for decades.

Then something happened. Microsoft took too long to update Windows XP and when they did, they came out with a loser called Vista. Vista taught everyone that operating system upgrades were no longer necessary. To this day, you can still find many corporations running Windows XP.

Then Apple came out with the iPhone and iPad to go along with he Macintosh. Suddenly people were bringing their iPhones to work and ignoring the corporate standard of Blackberry smartphones. That helped usher in the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) movement that shifted enterprise computing from largely Microsoft solutions to a mix of Microsoft, Android, and iOS solutions.

Now that people have gotten a taste of Apple products through the iPhone and iPad, many are also choosing the Macintosh and influencing corporate decisions. Delta Airlines, General Electric, and IBM are just a few major corporations that now offer employees a choice of a Windows PC or a Macintosh. Not surprisingly, the enterprise market is discovering that the Macintosh may be more expensive initially, but offers lower maintenance and support costs over the long run. That means a Macintosh is simply more cost effective than a Windows PC while giving workers greater satisfaction.

Put simply, more people prefer a Macintosh than a Windows PC.

With companies standardizing around iOS, Microsoft is now reverting back to a software company for other people’s operating systems. Microsoft makes plenty of mobile apps for both Android and iOS along with macOS. As the Windows monopoly fades under the dual pressure of the iPad and Macintosh, Microsoft’s fortunes lay in other areas beyond operating systems. Microsoft lacks a mobile operating system and a wearable computing operating system, yet the future is mobile computing and wearable computing. The future for Microsoft points to supporting other people’s operating systems as Windows fades from relevance.

Microsoft will still be around. People just won’t rely on their operating systems any more no matter what it’s called (Vista, Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows Mobile, Windows CE, etc.), and that’s perfectly okay.

Project Tango vs. ARKit

Posted on October 21, 2017 by admin Posted in Hardware, Software Leave a comment

What it is: Apple introduced augmented reality with the latest iPhone, but Google actually had it first.

Apple rarely is the innovation leader. That award usually goes to Apple’s numerous rivals such as Google, Microsoft, and Samsung. The big difference is that Apple provides a reason to use new technology while other companies just toss new technology out in the market and hope people will magically find reason to use it.

Just witness all the companies flushing money down the toilet for virtual reality headsets. Even though nobody has a compelling reason to use virtual reality (beyond a handful of games) and virtual reality ties you down to a fixed location where you don’t have to worry about running into walls or other people, companies still are pushing virtual reality without showing a single compelling reason why the average person should buy and use it.

That’s why Apple takes its time refining technology until it’s ready. Google beat Apple to the augmented reality market with Project Tango, released in 2014. Then they let the technology l anguish while never offering a compelling reason to use augmented reality in any of their Android smartphones. Meanwhile, Apple carefully crafted software frameworks to help developers create augmented reality apps, and then they showed compelling examples of augmented reality such as using your iPhone as a virtual ruler to measure distances.

Now that Apple has released ARKit to give iOS augmented reality, Google has to rework Project Tango to offer similar augmented reality features for Android. The big problem is that Project Tango won’t work with the vast majority of Android devices on the market. That drastically limits augmented reality on Android. Android is always playing catch up to iOS and with the iPhone advanced rapidly with massive hardware improvements and staying updated with the latest version of iOS (while Android users rarely get updates for their devices), the world of iOS keeps forging ahead and the world of Android keeps falling behind.

It’s never a matter of being first, although that helps. What matters is being the best whether you’re first or last. Microsoft had a ten year head start on Apple with tablets but botched the whole concept with their Tablet PC devices where the screen twisted and folded flat over the keyboard, creating a heavy and bulky tablet. Even worse, Microsoft never developed compelling tablet programs to make a Tablet PC a necessity. After wasting a ten year head start on tablets, Microsoft watched Apple introduce the thinner and lighter iPad, which defined the tablet market and killed Tablet PCs once and for all.

Apple is slowing pulling ahead of Android in smartphones, tablets, and wearables. Pretty soon the gap will be so large that there won’t be any reason to buy an Android device except for a low price. Android will gobble up the low-end market of razor thin profit margins while Apple will gobble up the high-end market of massive profit margins, which can fuel further research into making the next iPhone and iPad even better than before.

As Project Tango demonstrates, Android can be first and still wind up last. if you want to see the future of computing, it belongs to Apple.

General Electric to Standardize on the iPhone and iPad

Posted on October 18, 2017 by admin Posted in Business, Hardware, Software, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: Apple has made deals with various companies to standardize on iOS.

In the early days of the PC, corporations wanted stability so they standardized around the IBM PC which ran MS-DOS. That meant Microsoft became the dominant computer company for the enterprise market for the next few decades. It’s too late for corporations to dump their Windows PCs and switch to Linux or macOS en masse, but the world has moved on beyond PCs to mobile computing defined by smartphones and tablets.

In the smartphone and tablet markets, there are only two viable choices: Android and iOS. The problem with Android is its persistent security concerns and fragmentation among multiple devices running different hardware and older versions of Android. To standardize around Android, a company would really need to standardize around one particular Android device maker such as Samsung. Even then, that still means operating system upgrades may never arrive since Android device makers don’t always allow upgrades to older devices.

While Android may dominate the smartphone market, Android only dominates the low-end tablet market. High-end Android tablets are rare because if you’re going to spend a lot of money buying a tablet, it makes more sense to buy an iPad instead for greater security. That’s why the enterprise market is slowing standardizing around iOS to focus on the iPhone and iPad.

As more corporations standardize around iOS, expect the iPhone and iPad to become the corporate standard. That leaves Windows still clinging to the declining PC market and leaves Android clinging to the low-end consumer market. Once the enterprise market standardizes around iOS, that’s where developers will go and that’s where more corporations will go. The future is iOS in mobile computing.

Apple’s latest deal is with General Electric to standardize around iOS to retrieve data from industrial data. Expect more large companies to standardize around iOS as well, which will simply define iOS as the corporate standard for mobile computing.

Of course, once iOS gets in the corporate market, it will be much easier to accept the Macintosh and Apple Watch as well. In the health industry, the Apple Watch is already becoming the standard over rivals like Android Wear or Fitbit. Apple promises to dominate the enterprise market just like Microsoft did with MS-DOS and Windows.

As more corporations adopt iOS, it’s easy to see how they might also adopt macOS and watchOS as well. Windows may still be the dominant PC operating system in the corporate world, but iOS will dominate the mobile computing market in the corporate world as well. Getting Windows to co-exist with iOS might not be hard, but this will just make tighter integration with macOS more appealing to convince corporations to switch to macOS since a Macintosh can still run Windows.

As Apple continues making deals with corporations to get the iPhone and iPad into the enterprise market, the future is clear. Mobile computing and iOS in particular are the future.

To read about Apple’s latest deal with General Electric to standardize on iOS, click here.