A question came up on the boards.ie programming forum a week or so ago about whether to write apps for the iPhone or the Android platform. With Suura, we’ve been looking at what platforms to write clients for (and which to write for first), and it occurs to me that the data on what’s actually going on and what the hype is pushing are monumentally disparate. Believe the hype and the competition is all between Android and WebOS.

Thing is, all that noise is ignoring a few details. First off, both are tiny. In the telecoms market, even the iPhone is a niche player. Take mobile internet usage – yes, it’s growing, and at a rate noone expected, but look at how much of the overall total is made up of phone browsing compared to laptop browsing in these statistics released by Boingo in June this year:

Yes, it’s rising and I’d be surprised if it tailed off tomorrow, but it’s still only a small part of a niche market – don’t forget that the telecoms market is seeing 50% global market penetration at the moment and is looking to improve on that. That’s one mobile phone (of any type) for every two humans on the planet. Unless you’re talking clothes or food, odds are you’ve never even seen a commodity that sells that well, let alone a high-tech one. So the mobile internet is still quite a small part of the overall picture here.

But even setting that dose of perspective aside, and looking only at the niche of the niche, what’s the breakdown of devices? Again looking at Boingo’s statistics reveals an interesting story. Everyone says the iPhone was a gamechanger, but you really have to look at the figures to see how true that is:

And … Read the rest

After a week spent testing one of our development models, I took the plunge and bought one for myself. No regrets so far!

At the moment, I use a Sony Ericcson k750i as my phone. It’s solid, has good reception and audio and battery life. It has an easy-to-use camera with a flash which is important for me because that’s how I record and store whiteboard sessions. It has bluetooth for file transfer (of the whiteboard photos) and hands-free headsets (it’s illegal in Ireland to drive while using a mobile phone, so the headset – and the voice recognition dialing – are quite useful). It has an FM radio and an MP3 player for when I’m on the train. I’ve got Opera Mini installed on it so I can even check my email and websites, though writing anything with T9 is something a sane person only takes on in extremis. It’s even red It’s been a very good phone for me and I have almost no complaints about it.

But it’s time for a change.

Why? Well, the most cosmetic thing is that it’s not exactly shiny anymore. I’ve had it for two years now, and two years living in my pocket next to keys, tools, pens and general lint has taken its toll. The lens is still fine, the sliding cover was a good design idea and more phones should use one, but the facia around the keypad is almost paint-free and is coming loose and while the joystick is still functioning, it is starting to finally show glitches. A friend who had the k750i before me had the same problem – and it very quickly stopped working alltogether.

There’s also the issue of SMS messages. For those not in Ireland, you have to understand that SMS messaging in Ireland is enormous, it’s almost as big as email and in large swathes of the market it’s bigger than voice. So when … Read the rest