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2010년 4월 26일 월요일
‘클라우드 컴퓨팅’과 ‘스마트폰’ 이야기
이 기사를 읽어보면 마치 구글과 애플의 전쟁인 듯 느껴집니다만, 구글이 승리를 예감하는 이야기입니다. 안드로이드 OS를 개방한 구글은 Web 2.0, SaaS(software as a service)와 같이 최근 잘 알려진 기술 경향들과 연관성을 가지는 일반화된 개념으로서 사용자들의 컴퓨팅 요구를 만족시키기 위해 인터넷을 이용하며 결국 구글의 검색과 광고 수익을 보장할 수 있는 최고정점에 구글을 위치 시킬 수 있는 것입니다. 반면 앱스토어 등 다양한 어플리케이션과 놀라운 사용자 인터페이스를 자랑하는 애플은 제조업체 등과의 호환 문제점을 가지고 있습니다.
‘그리드 컴퓨팅(Grid Computing)’과 같은 개념에서 출발한 ‘클라우드 컴퓨팅(Clouding computing)’도 마찬가지 입니다. "클라우드 컴퓨팅이란, 인터넷 기술을 활용하여 가상화된 IT자원을 서비스로 제공하는 컴퓨팅으로, 사용자는 IT자원을 필요한 만큼 팔려서 사용하고, 사용한 만큼 비용을 지불하는 컴퓨팅을 지칭한다."
<클라우딩 컴퓨팅 분석 : 박근채, 백승욱>
클라우드 컴퓨팅은 IaaS(Infrastructure as a Service), PaaS(Platform as a Service), SaaS(Software as A Service) 등의 중요한 개념이 있어 사용자는 인터넷 이용에 대단한 효율성을 가지게 만들어 줍니다. 당연히 SaaS 개념과 같이 소프트웨어는 최소화된 서비스의 개념으로 이해가 돼야 합니다.
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이들의 장점과 단점, 그리고 보안
스마트폰, 클라우드 컴퓨팅 등은 모두 효율성(Efficiency)을 극대화하는데 초점이 있습니다. 경제는 정치와 연관하여 효율성과 공평성의 조화이라고 합니다. 효율성이 모든 인간사회에서 중요합니다.
에릭 슈미츠 구글 CEO는 지난해 말 한 포럼에서 "5년 후 10억 명이 주머니에 슈퍼컴퓨터를 넣고 다닐 것"이라고 말했습니다.
‘안드로이드 스마트폰 OS’, ‘크롬 OS’ 등은 공개되고 복잡한 OS의 기능을 최소화하고 브라우저 하나만으로 워드, 엑셀 등 문서작업까지 모두 웹에서 빌려 쓰는 클라우드 컴퓨팅 개념을 적용합니다.
OS 기능을 축소, 바이러스나 악성코드가 침투할 여지도 줄일 수 있다는 것이 구글의 설명입니다.
클라우드 컴퓨팅에서도 사용자를 위한 저비용 컴퓨터가 가능하고, 다양한 서비스의 가능, 다양한 접근 기기 활용이 가능하며, 소프트웨어 비용 절감과 편리한 업데이트 등이 장점입니다.
하지만 정보를 저장하는데 있어 인터넷 등에서의 서버에 의존한다든가(Confidentiality, Integrity) 인터넷 및 서버 장애의 경우 사용에 문제를 일으킨다든가(Availability) 하는 등의 문제점이 있습니다.
아래 그림을 보면 저는 기존 인터넷과 이동무선망은 어차피 복합화 된 ‘유무선 통합망’을 지향하기에 기존의 인터넷 환경과 스마트폰 환경이 다르지 않다고 생각합니다. 무선통신사업자(Mobile Carrier)는 무선망을 기본으로 하지만 기존 유선망에도 같은 스니퍼(Sniffer)가 있지 않습니까? 유통되는 정보를 가로채 유출하고, 변조하고, 서비스를 위장(Fake)하며 서비스를 방해하는 것은 같은 논리입니다.
모바일OS가 지금까지 낮이 익지 않았다는 것뿐입니다. 아마 스마트폰 제작 업체가 감시, 탐지, 치료하는 방안을 잘 해나갈 것입니다. 모바일 악성코드도 일반 악성코드와 마찬가지로 진행되지 않겠습니까? 공인인증서 등의 문제점도 모바일 환경에 의한 것이 아닐 수 있습니다.
SaaS(Software as a Service), SaaS(Security as a Service)/Security Service on Demand
사용자가 보았을 때 SaaS는 엄청난 이점이 있습니다. 엄청남 금액과 인력, 절차에 드는 비용보다 SaaS업체가 제공하는 서버에 인터넷을 통하여 접속한 후 요구하는 소프트웨어를 필요한 기능, 필요한 기간만큼 이용하여 사용한 만큼만 비용을 지불하면 되는 것입니다.
예를 들어 구글, 네이버 등 포털 업체가 제공하는 문서작성, 엑셀 등을 이용하며, 네이버 백신 등을 무료로 이용하면서 자신의 PC를 악성코드로부터 보호하는 것입니다. 다만 SaaS를 이용할 때 결과물인 출력 데이터 등이 제공서버에 남을 수 있고 제공하는 인터넷 서버의 안정성이 중요하지요.
저는 소프트웨어가 아닌 보안(Security)으로서 SaaS를 혹은 요청에 따르는 보안 서비스를 생각하고 있습니다. 'Traditional Software'를 'Traditional Security Solution'으로 본다면 엄청난 액수의 비용적 부담을 안고 가야 하는 문제에 봉착하게 됩니다. 또한 비즈니스 경향도 다음을 따르고 있습니다.
- 컴포넌트의 유연한 통합을 통한 작은 규모의 패키지화
- 비용효과적 접근
- 손쉬운 적용과 재구성, 업데이트의 용이성
- 산업어플리케이션 표준 적용
하지만 고전적 접근은 매우 큰 규모의 패키지에 따르는 고액의 도입 및 유지 보수비용이 요구됩니다.
특히 비용 문제는 다음 그림과 같은 예상하지 못하는 비용(Hidden Cost) 문제를 고려했을 때 SaaS가 더욱 저렴합니다. 전통적인C/S 환경에서는 구현, 하드웨어, 인력, 유지보수, 훈련 등에 90%가 소요된다고 합니다.
위키피디아에서는 SaaS에 대한 정의를 다음과 같이 내리고 있습니다.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_as_a_service)
SaaS는 사용자의 요구에 따르는 인터넷 기반 보안서비스를 의미하고 이는 ‘Everything as a Service’라는 비즈니스 경향에 근거합니다. 특히 ‘Anti’가 붙는 각종 응용인 ‘안티바이러스(Anti-Virus)’, ‘안티스팸(Anti-Spam)’, ‘안티스파이웨어(Anti-Spyware)’ 등이 대표적입니다. 물론 무료 제공이지만 ‘네이버백신’이 대표적입니다. 기업차원에서는 ‘로그관리’, ‘자산관리’ 등이 포함됩니다. 2001년부터 시큐어 웹 게이트웨이(SWG, Secure Web Gateway) 활동이 시작되면서 데이터센터의 어플리케이션 접속 정책에 따르는 웹 트래픽(Traffic)을 통한 서비스를 제공하는 것입니다. 관련 기업은 Symantec, Brightmail (acquired by Symantec in 2007), Watchfire, Syntensia, Jamcracker and VeriSign. Webroot, Comendo, Comsenso, MessageLabs (acquired by Symantec in October 2008), Internet Security Systems, McAfee, Grove Group, HP Software, Optenet, Perimeter eSecurity, Panda Software, Purewire, Qualys, ScanSafe, Trend Micro, Tricipher, Trustwave, VeriSign, Vigilar and Zscaler 등이 있습니다.
이러한 SaaS 기업들의 특징은 다음과 같습니다.
- 외부 위협에 대응하는 정기적인 업데이트가 요구되는 시장, anti-virus, anti-spyware 등
- 스스로는 관리하기 어려운 고수준의 서비스이며 원격관리가 요구되는 유자보수, 보안스캐닝, 패치관리 등
- 외부 아웃소싱 관리비용이 더 저렴하고 효과적인 로그관리, 자산관리, 인증관리 등
SaaS는 다음과 같은 특징이 있습니다.
- 솔루션에 비하여 비용효과적인 보안서비스 제공
- 매우 빠른 속도로 문제점을 파악하고 결과를 통보하여 보안 QA 체계 정착 지원
- 개발코드 수정을 잘 할 수 있도록 도와주는 Practice 기반의 컨텐츠 제공
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Why Cloud Computing is the Future of Mobile
The term "cloud computing" is being bandied about a lot these days, mainly in the context of the "future of the web." But cloud computing's potential doesn't begin and end with the personal computer's transformation into a thin client - the mobile platform is going to be heavily impacted by this technology as well. At least that's the analysis being put forth by ABI Research. Their recent report, Mobile Cloud Computing, theorizes that the cloud will soon become a disruptive force in the mobile world, eventually becoming the dominant way in which mobile applications operate.
You may be wondering: what does the term "mobile cloud computing" really mean? Basically, it refers to an infrastructure where both the data storage and the data processing happen outside of the mobile device. Today, there are already some good examples of mobile cloud computing applications including mobile Gmail, Google Maps, and some navigation apps. However, the majority of applications today still do most of the data storage and processing on the mobile devices themselves and not in the cloud. In a few years, that could change.
Why Mobile Cloud Computing?
With a Western-centric view of the world, it can sometimes be hard to remember that not everyone owns a smartphone. There are still a large number of markets worldwide where the dominant phone is a feature phone. While it's true that smartphones will grow in percentage and feature phones will become more sophisticated in time, these lower-end phones are not going away anytime soon. And it's their very existence which will help drive the mobile cloud computing trend.
Not only is there a broader audience using feature phones in the world, there are also more web developers capable of building mobile web applications than there are developers for any other type of mobile device. Those factors, combined with the fact that feature phones themselves are becoming more capable with smarter built-in web browsers (and more alternative browsers available for download), will have an impact on mobile cloud computing's growth.
How Will Mobile Cloud Computing Become a Disruptive Force?
There are two primary reasons why ABI believes cloud computing will become a disruptive force in the mobile world. The first is simply the number of users the technology has the power to reach: far more than the number of smartphone users alone. The second reason has to do with how applications are distributed today. Currently, mobile applications are tied to a carrier. If you want an iPhone app, for example, you have to first have a relationship with the mobile operator who carries the iPhone. If you want a Blackberry app, the same rule applies. But with mobile clouding computing applications, as long as you have access to the web, you have access to the mobile application.
Moves by PaaS Players Could Change Everything
When you think of Plaform-as-a-Service (PaaS), one of the first companies that springs to mind is probably Salesforce. With their Force.com platform, business applications can be built and run "in the cloud." But Salesforce is not the only major PaaS player out there today - Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google's App Engine are also two platforms that could have a major impact on this trend.
Currently, AWS is used by over half a million developers and Google's App Engine hosts 45,000 applications. Now imagine if those two companies along with Force.com all of a sudden started aggressively marketing their mobile capabilities. Today, neither AWS nor Google offers this, and Salesforce's mobile offering is limited to smartphones (Windows Mobile, Blackberry, and iPhone). But if the companies decided to make building for the mobile web as easy as building for the web, you could have a mobile revolution on your hands.
But People Like Apps!
Saying that "mobile cloud computing" is the future doesn't mean phones will be filled with links to websites that work in any browser instead of special, downloadable applications, some of which you can even purchase. Instead, mobile applications will exist in both formats. As for the downloadable applications themselves, they will still appear to be your typical mobile app - end users won't even notice a difference. However, there will be a difference - it will just be on the back-end. Mobile applications will begin to store your data in the cloud as opposed to on the mobile device, and the applications will become more powerful as processing power is also offloaded to the cloud.
The first mobile apps powered by the cloud will likely be business-focused mobile productivity applications where collaboration, data sharing, multitasking, and scheduling are key factors. For consumers, though, navigation and mapping applications will be the most obvious examples of the trend. Plus, there are some specialty applications today which already function as mobile cloud apps - for example, Schlage offers a remote keyless entry system which lets you mobilely control your home from a distance. You can let someone into your house, manage your lights, your thermostat, your camera system, etc. There are also a few applications in the iPhone app store that let you remotely manage your PC and your DVR, too.
Potential Problems
Of course, there are some potential issues that could be barriers to this shift in mobile computing. The most notable problem is the lack of speedy mobile Internet access everywhere. Here in the US, for example, 3G coverage is spotty outside urban areas, leading to intermittent connection issues and slow speeds. Other markets may have it even worse.
However, new technologies like HTML5, which does local caching, could help mobile cloud apps get past those sorts of issues. And there's even a chance that the browser could one day be replaced - at least in some markets - with another technology altogether which provides a better way to access the mobile web. ABI Research mentions initiatives like OMA's Smartcard Web Server, essentially a souped-up SIM card that connects directly with the carrier to push applications to mobile phones. There's also TokTok, a technology that allows access to web services like Gmail and Google Calendar by voice. With voice-enabled search like this, mobile apps could talk directly to the service itself which sits on the edge of the network, as opposed to needing the user to launch a web browser and navigate through the mobile web.
When Will Mobile Cloud Computing Really Take Off?
According to ABI, this change is only a few years away. By 2010, we'll see one or all of the major PaaS players marketing their mobile capabilities, they say. But first, API standards from open-source mobile collaboration group BONDI will go into effect. Later, in 2011, we'll see more of HTML5, and the OneAPI standard will come into play. (OneAPI involves standardized apps for networks allowing developers to consistently access parts of network providers' capabilities, such as location services). All these factors combined will help drive the move to the cloud.
The changes will occur with differing speeds depending on the market. Markets with higher Internet participation will obviously lead the way, as will markets with higher subscriber penetration. That includes Western Europe, North America, and parts of Asia. Other markets will then follow. By 2014, mobile cloud computing will become the predominant application development strategy. By that time, our PCs will be more like thin client devices than they are today, and now it seems our phones will too.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/why_cloud_computing_is_the_future_of_mobile.php
Dell leak outs Smoke, Thunder, Flash, and Lightning smartphones
It looks like some internal Dell material has spilled out onto the internet, but am I the only one who finds this stuff suspect? I see lots of spelling errors and some questionable features. The vagueness of some of the specs and the very un-Dell phrasing of a lot of this stuff makes me think this is an outside contractor pitching Dell with some design ideas. If they are real, I’m guessing this is a mockup team inside Dell that’s pitching mobile division higher-ups with their idea of where Dell should be heading in the smartphone world. At any rate, there are pretty pictures, so let’s take a look.
Here we go:
Lightning
If this thing is real, it falls under the mystery third chassis category. Portrait slider? Sure, why not? To add to the skepticism, though, the listed specs do not have the mandated minimum of 8GB of onboard storage. Could just be a mistake (or a misunderstanding of the specs on my part), but in a presentation like this, to ignore one of the basic specs? Shameful.
Flash, Thunder, and Smoke
Here we have three Android-based smartphones. The Flash (left) looks pretty freaky, with “curved glass” sides and Photoshop errors on the top in that last slide – or reflections, its so hard to tell. Its main thing is going to be a huge screen and media editing on-phone. Good luck doing that with any precision using your big ol’ fingers.
The Thunder (middle) is just a gigantic lozenge with an even bigger screen (4.1″) that will also be used for on-device editing and, perhaps, if you’re good, even a Hulu app. Also has that curved glass somewhere about it, though drat me if I can find it.
Do you like tall phones? Like freaky tall? Then the Smoke (right) is for you. I guess they call it that because it has the same form factor as a cigarette. Seems like the weight of the screen would make it uncomfortable to thumb-type on. And if the screen is 2.8″, that means the whole thing is about 3.5″ diagonal total. Kind of small, I’d say.
My fingers are getting cold, so I can’t get into any more detail.
New market study shows iPhone continues to be big in Japan
A lot has been written on how the iPhone performs in Japan, the world’s most advanced mobile nation, but the general consensus in this country now is that it sells very well (even though both Apple and provider SoftBank Mobile refuse to break down Japan-specific sales numbers). It’s rumored that the number of iPhones sold in Japan has passed 3 million.
There are reasons for this success (super-low pricing, aggressive marketing, Apple’s pre-iPhone brand popularity in Japan, clever product positioning by SoftBank, etc. etc.), but we’re talking about a country in which basically every cell phone is a smartphone, a country where you’d be hard-pressed to find a handset without a digital TV tuner or e-wallet function, for example.
And that means that the 4.9% share the iPhone now commands in the entire Japanese cell phone market, as reported [JP] by a Japanese research insitute today, is more than impressive (Sharp, with 26.2% market share, is the number one).
The MM Research Institute also says that among those phones that have a non-Japanese OS (i.e. Android, Palm OS or Blackberry), the iPhone even boasts 72.2% market share (see graphic above). In this (relatively small) segment, HTC is ranked second (11.1%), Toshiba is third (6.8%) and Blackberry / Sony Ericsson are both ranked fourth (4.3%).
We reported about another smartphone market study from a Japanese source back in December. All statistical and other issues aside, both reports indicate that the iPhone seems to do much better than many people believed when it launched in the world’s No. 7 mobile market in 2008.
Via Asiajin
http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/04/23/new-market-study-shows-iphone-continues-to-be-big-in-japan/
How The iPad Will Change The iPhone Game Industry
Apple is hailing the iPad
as a “magical” and “revolutionary” device. Perhaps, but the feature set accompanying the first version leaves many of us skeptical of that claim. We’ve all seen tablets before and we’re already seeing similar ones coming out soon with better specs. What we need to consider more than the device itself are the effects its release will have on the market.
The iPad could potentially usher in a new set of casual users who may not already be iPhone or iPod Touch owners. This is good for business across the board, but the area that may be impacted the greatest is the iPhone gaming industry.
The current iPhone and iPod touch gaming landscape consists of pick-up-and-play micro games, watered down console ports, and some in-between titles. It’s hard to consider the iPhone a true gaming platform. The lack of physical buttons, coupled with the scarcity of deep, quality titles, may prevent the iPhone from ever becoming a true competitor to the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP. Unfortunately, there are even more issues that further intensify this problem.
The first is price point. Given the average game is sold for $.99 and the most expensive are $9.99, App Store prices differ wildly from other game markets. Even the downloadable casual games industry spans $10 – $20 on average. Think about this. Many of these are the same games that get ported to the iPhone. Not only are the games the same, but the target demographics as well. So how did this happen? The fault lies with developers and consumers alike.
Price is extremely psychological and both sides equally contribute to setting that standard. Prior to being involved in the iPhone industry, I worked for years in the casual games space. I saw the evolution of downloadable gaming go from the traditional core download.com-style shareware model to a full-blown casual gaming industry that catered primarily to 40-something women. To say the least, it was a stark contrast. Now, the most interesting component was seeing how price was affected when it moved from the underground to the mainstream. In the old shareware days, pricing was not uniform. It was the Wild West. But when the big guys (AOL, Yahoo, EA, PopCap, Big Fish, etc.) started to catapult the casual space, pricing had to be regulated for the psychological comfort of mainstream audiences. At the time, the sweet spot was $19.99. Some of those portals would sometimes try to undercut one another, but in the consumer’s mind, it felt suspect to pay significantly less. Alternatively, these portals went another route – subscription services, which offered deeply discounted pricing models.
I bring this up to provide a better understanding of pricing psychology. It first starts with what the industry as a whole unofficially agrees the average price of a similar product should be. This is determined with some guesswork and tweaking, while waiting to see what the market will bear. As time goes by, competitors start to undercut each other and the industry either follows suit or holds steady to that original average. Unfortunately, the iPhone game industry chose the former. I say ‘unfortunately’ because it is severely crippling the gaming space.
When the 3G was first launched, $9.99 was the average price of a decent, quality game. At the time, it was a fantastic price when we considered what DS games, downloadable titles and even those budget CDs at Walmart cost. This was not a lasting trend, though. As more developers flooded the market, prices continued to be pushed lower and lower. What drove this price drop was mainly gimmick apps and cheap games. The problem was that even though these products were clearly of lesser value and depth, the damage had already been done. In the minds of the consumers, paying $10 for an iPhone app, let alone more, had become a huge stretch. Instead of buying a new title at $9.99, most consumers simply waited for “the drop” – the inevitable price slash that developers enacted shortly after a game’s release. It was no longer a value proposition; it was a somewhat illogical psychological standard that had been created.
Most developers had to learn to flow with this changing market, embracing the fact that shear volume could often make up for their development costs. Typically though, these development efforts were focused on low-priced impulse apps. This is where the damage to the industry comes in. Since expected pricing is so low, it discourages quality game contenders from entering the space. The cost investment is still high to produce a quality product, especially considering the average sale prices are so low. To address this problem, one rumor we heard a number of months ago was the possibility of Apple opening a premium game space on the App Store. The intention would be to feature higher priced, higher quality games. So far, nothing has come of this.
In effect, this is keeping the iPhone gaming industry as still just typical mobile fare, with the occasional big game. As much as Apple wants this to be a serious competitor to the DS/PSP, it will never make it unless there is a shift. Indirectly, this is where the iPad comes in.
The iPad is not a pocket product
One of the biggest reasons that gimmicky apps and quick pick-up-and-play games have done so well is because the iPhone and iPod Touch are products that fit in your pocket. Typically, you take them everywhere and they are always within reach. This allows for the majority of use to occur within short periods of time (i.e. waiting in line, on the bus, during a boring meeting, etc.). To fill the needs of those sorts of time constraints, short-use applications fit the bill. This limits the desire for a deep experience or time consuming game.
The iPad changes this. As a device that works as an in-between for your mobile device and your desktop, the time use allowance goes up dramatically. In most situations, you won’t pull out your iPad while waiting in line at the post office. It won’t be carried everywhere you go. While some will treat it as a netbook substitute, I anticipate a lot of its use will occur casually at home.
Since the iPad is not a pocket-sized device like the iPhone and iPod Touch, time constraints become less of an issue. This means that bite-sized games or gimmicks will feel less at home here. Something like Doodle Jump will most likely not do so well on this platform. This is likely to cause the market to desire more fulfilling experiences, especially in the games space. In effect, developers will respond accordingly to meet this new market need. This acts as one phase of the changing landscape.
Price sensitivity will go down
There is an additional psychological component that hasn’t yet been addressed in regards to pricing: size does matter. Whether it makes sense or not in terms of value proposition, the actual size of a product can have some bearing on how we perceive its value. The small screen size of the iPhone and iPod touch causes us to perceive, whether consciously or unconsciously, that the applications are worth less than something you can interact with on a big monitor. Diner Dash on the iPhone is identical to Diner Dash on the PC. Yet, the price points are dramatically different. One aspect is market-determined pricing averages and the other is perceived value. Many consumers perceive a higher value from their larger screened PC experiences.
The additional screen real estate of the iPad makes apps feel more like “real” applications. Visual interaction with the iPad screen feels closer to that of a monitor or TV. It removes the notion of the “pocket-sized time waster” and seems to provide a more substantial experience. Take a game like Civilization Revolution. Which experience feels more enriching: playing it on the small screened iPhone or playing it on a full sized device with many times the screen real estate? Despite being the same game, more breathing room provides for a deeper and more enjoyable experience.
This will start a new cycle for the App Store. Reduced price sensitivity will create opportunities for deeper games and apps, which will then help set a new pricing standard. $.99 gimmicks will always exist, but now alongside a new wave of higher quality products.
Shallow apps will decrease across the board
The goal of developers is to increase revenue at every possible avenue. This means creating a product that can span multiple platforms. Unless highly specialized, apps work just as well on the iPod Touch as they do on the iPhone. The same should hold true for the iPad. By reducing focus on one of the platforms, you start losing a whole market segment – and additional revenue source.
However, simply upscaling current applications is a very short-sighted solution. It is a way for Apple to capitalize on the 150k+ apps out there for their new device, but this isn’t going to work for the longterm. Using an application unoptimized for a larger device, and not tailored for the iPad’s greater screen real estate, will feel like a tacked on experience. Because of this, more users will want to download iPad-specific applications to take advantage of their shiny new device. For some products, such as 3D games like N.O.V.A, upscaling may not be an issue. These games can scale with ease, with only slight modification to interface images. But for the rest of the app work, doubling the pixels is going to be a complete mess.
Now what effect does this have on gimmicky apps and games? It forces these developers to rethink their model. As we discussed, when you develop an app, you want to capitalize on all revenue streams possible. If you produce a product that only makes sense on the iPhone, you will miss out on new opportunities provided by the iPad. Short lived gimmicks and micro-gaming experiences are unlikely to fare well on the iPad. The effect of this realization may likely cause a decline in small sized, $.99 apps as a whole. There will always be a place for these, but to really maximize profit potential, focusing on them solely is a short-sighted plan.
The iPad is a device that may be misunderstood for a while. It’s certainly not revolutionary in the typical sense, but its subtle influences may eventually justify that characterization. We can surely expect to see even more casual users jumping on the band wagon and certainly a spike in casual game development for the device. As the product evolves, becoming more powerful feature-rich, it may become even more ubiquitous than we expect. This will be an extremely interesting space to watch within the coming months and years.
Read more: http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/24/how-the-ipad-will-change-the-iphone-game-industry/#ixzz0mALRcEpN
Stats: iPad Users Consume 3X Videos As Other Users
Despite the now-infamous absence of Adobe's Flash, video aggregator MeFeedia says that video on the iPad is a flourishing and growing trend according to the data the company has collected over the past three weeks.
The company offers a few stats and postulates that, among other reasons, the "lack of distractions mean people watch more video, for longer."
MeFeedia added HTML5 video support earlier this month - one of several alternatives available for video on the iPad - and says that its internal numbers show the iPad to clearly be a media consumption device, more so than other users.
The company offers the following observations on its blog, noting that the "iPad was only launched a few weeks ago & this sample is for MeFeedia and MeFeedia Network only."
- iPad is now the 5th most popular mobile device* *In terms of unique users, trailing only iPhone, iPod Touch, SymbianOS, and Android (in that order)
- iPad users consume 3X as many videos as web users (up from the 2.5X number that we first reported a few weeks ago)
- iPad users spend 4X as long watching videos as web users (up from 3X)
- iPad users consume 5X as many videos as iPhone users (up from 3X)
We think that the lack of multitasking as a reason for people to watch more video, longer, is likely a fair point. And, as we've previously argued, the iPad makes a great media consumption (rather than creation) device.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/stats_ipad_users_consume_3x_videos_as_other_users.php
SugarSync: 2 Petabytes and Counting - Welcome to the Personal Cloud
SugarSync is one of several companies competing these days to benefit from the disruptions in the market created by the new ways that people organize and share information from the any number of devices they use in their day.
That's a fundamental shift that is happening as people move beyond the desktop as a place to keep their documents, their media and their productivity applications.
Services like SugarSync serve in many ways as personal clouds that people use for their own work. They seem like plain vanilla services but that as well is the benefit the services provide. They are very simple to use. Data is automatically backed up to the cloud.
SugarSync's latest hosting numbers are revealing as they demonstrate how much data people are storing online.
SugarSync reports that in the past year, the amount of data added to the SugarSync data centers went from an average of 1 terabyte of data to 5 terabytes of information. In total, the company now hosts two petaybtes of information.
What's fueling this growth? The customers may provide some clue. About 33 percent of customers are from outside the United States. Mobile devices are far more predominant outside the U.S. It makes sense that people would need an alternative place to store infromation besides their smart phone or netbook.
In light of the booming mobile device market, SugarSync, Dropbox and a host of other services are companies that seem like it would make most sense to develop mobile apps. That appears to be true. In the past 18 months, Sugar Sync has released apps for the Android, BlackBerry and iPad.
Services like SugarSync show how the data we create will become part of a personal cloud network. These services lay the grounwork for a new generation of personal and business offerings that work with users to create data as a service opportunities.
That's down the road a bit but people do want so share. And they want to share outside the borders of a social network. Personal clouds could be a means to do that.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/cloud/2010/04/sugarsync-2-petabytes-and-coun.php
Android Ported to iPhone
Hacker Planetbeing has apparently ported the Android to the iPhone. The Android OS is, in this video, apparently running successfully on the Apple phone.
Planetbeing has offered the Android-to-iPhone "pre-built images and sources" as a torrent download
For the time being, it looks like the porting only works on first-generation iPhones.
"It should be pretty simple to port forward to the iPhone 3G," says Planetbeing. "The 3GS will take more work. Hopefully with all this groundwork laid out, we can make Android a real alternative or supplement for iPhone users."
As Alexander Vaughn points out on AppAdvice, "Just like you can do Bootcamp on your Mac to access PC apps, you'll be able to go on Android to try all these apps that don't exist, or were not allowed on the iPhone."
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/android_ported_to_iphone.php