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For weeks, I’ve been hearing Apple fanboys pan Verizon’s Motorola Droid ads as too geeky and unappealing for the mass market. I’ve been hearing fanboys claim that nongeeks can’t understand “open development”, that they’d be scared off by images of stealth bombers. Then I read an essay by Paul Graham about the abuses of the iPhone app store, and I suddenly realize the genius of Verizon’s nongeek-alienating marketing strategy. [Read more…]
Originally posted on November 20, 2009 @ 10:33 am
The road to application approval hasn’t always been smooth, with apps approved and then pulled, or outright banned on rather shaky grounds, but that hasn’t stopped Apple powering to 100,000 approved apps in the iTunes App Store.
The web site Appshopper.com has counted 102,485 approved applications and 93,659 available.
That’s a mind-boggling number, and unfortunately says nothing about the quality of those applications. Bear in mind that there are many variations on the same theme, and some (a lot) of them are complete and utter rubbish. [Read more…]
Originally posted on October 30, 2009 @ 11:01 am
Mac fanboys like to parrot Apple’s claims that Macs are more secure than PCs. This should come as a nice kick in the balls to those smug bastards. Apparently, those three-thousand-dollar desktop decorations are worth forty-three cents once compromised. [Read more…]
Originally posted on September 28, 2009 @ 8:45 am
Some countries that had the “privilege” of getting the iPhone early on, such as the US and UK, have been shackled to one telecoms company since the outset.
While AT&T may still have Apple fans tied up, there is at least some hope for UK users who either object on principle to exclusive deals (common though they are), or don’t like the O2 network because of its reliability or customer screwing tactics. [Read more…]
Originally posted on September 28, 2009 @ 4:42 am
Great news for those who favour competition in the mobile marketplace — Vodafone UK will sell the iPhone alongside Orange and, of course, O2.
Again, the details are sketchy. All we’re told is that the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G S will be available in the UK and Ireland “in early 2010”. That’s possibly a few months later than Orange will be releasing it, though we don’t have any juicy details yet.
Vodafone has had a bit of a love/hate relationship with the iPhone, with successive CEOs either praising or dismissing the handset. Nevertheless, you can be sure Vodafone is pleased to get a share of iPhone action in the UK’s competitive mobile space.
So, come early next year we could see a real price and deals war going on in the UK. About time, too.
Will we hear a similar announcement from T-Mobile in the next few days? It’s possible.
Originally posted on September 29, 2009 @ 6:03 am