Thursday, November 19, 2009
The Apple Tablet Is Delayed? So What?
Apple has reportedly decided to postpone the launch of its rumored tablet/slate until the second half of 2010. That’s the latest rumor from the occasionally reliable Digitimes, which claims that the device’s original March 2010 debut target became untenable after some component changes. The report, should it prove true, will no doubt be a disappointment to overanxious tabletites awaiting the mysterious device’s arrival, but really, that’s immaterial to Apple.
Speaking at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans this past July, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said of Google’s forthcoming Chrome OS, “Who knows what this thing is?” Today, he found out. The operating system, a direct challenge to Microsoft Windows, was on display at a media gathering at the company’s HQ this morning, and in the words of Sundar Pichai, Google’s vice president of product management, it is intended to make computing a “delightful” experience.
Before AdMob accepted Google’s $750 million takeover offer, it was approached by Apple. This according to “people familiar with the matter,” who tell Bloomberg that Cupertino was also interested in the mobile advertising company. Odd to learn that Apple was considering such a move. After all, advertising isn’t exactly one of its core businesses.
After nearly three years of rumor and speculation, Dell is finally entering the smartphone market–in China and Brazil. Later this month, China Mobile and Brazil’s Claro will begin selling the company’s Mini 3, a handset designed around Google’s Android mobile OS. 
“I’m Steve Ballmer, and I’m a Windows 7 PC.” With those words, spoken at a big company event in New York City, the Microsoft CEO launched the newest version of Windows, the one he hopes will regain the customer goodwill lost with its predecessor, Vista. 
Apple has finally acknowledged that a bug in its new Snow Leopard operating system can, on rare occasions, result in a catastrophic loss of data. The glitch, which first surfaced in support forums in early September, is triggered by logging in and out of a guest account and wipes the main user account of all data. Clearly, this is not what Apple meant when it claimed the OS would free up as much as seven gigs of space upon installation.
Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney says Google’s Android OS will claim 14 percent of the global smart-phone market by 2012, putting it ahead of Apple’s iPhone but behind Symbian, which currently runs on about half of all smart phones. While this might seem optimistic, it’s not entirely unreasonable given the distribution deals Google has been lining up. Yesterday, the search giant announced a deal to bring Android-based devices to Verizon Wireless. Now comes word that Dell is building an Android handset for AT&T.
It has taken far too long, but AT&T has finally warmed to the the idea of voice-over-Internet services on its wireless network. On Tuesday afternoon, the carrier opened its 3G network to telephony apps, ending a restriction that had limited them to Wi-Fi.
The majority of Windows Mobile users have no idea what operating system is running on their phones, a recent survey from the CFI Group found. Microsoft is hoping to change that with the release of Windows Mobile 6.5 and the opening of Windows Mobile Marketplace, its long-awaited answer to Apple’s iTunes App Store.
The Cliq, Motorola’s first phone based on Google’s Android operating system, is headed to market and will arrive there Nov. 2. Sales to existing customers will begin Oct. 19 and open to the general public Nov. 4. T-Mobile USA has priced the handset at $199 with a two-year contract, which seems a bit dear considering you can get a 16GB iPhone 3GS for the same price. 
Perhaps Palm really does have the “special sauce” needed to attain smart phone leadership, as RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky recently claimed. Reporting first-quarter results this afternoon, the company posted a narrower-than-expected loss, said it shipped 823,000 smart phones during the quarter and announced plans for a common stock offering of 16 million shares.
After nearly a year out of the public eye, Apple CEO Steve Jobs returned to it yesterday at the company’s annual music event. It was his first public appearance at an Apple gathering since Oct. 14, 2008, when he uncrated the company’s new unibody MacBooks, and it far overshadowed the new products he was about to announce. In fact, it could be argued that public confirmation of Jobs’s health since his return to the company was truly the most significant announcement of the day.
Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, the latest iteration of Apple’s operating system, arrived at market today–about a month earlier than originally anticipated. And while it doesn’t really deliver the GUI enhancements we’ve come to expect from Apple and some incompatibilities are riling people up, Snow Leopard’s under-the-hood improvements and price point appear to have struck a chord with critics. After the jump, a selection of early reviews.
