Learning from competition
marco.org
marco.org
It's pretty clear to me that each new version of Android takes inspiration from iOS (and vice-versa, not to mention things they've both seen in WebOS). I think it's great -- the competition is definitely driving both platforms forward. Methinks there is some prejudice at play if you can't acknowledge this.
The issue with their ideas was that we weren’t facing a market problem. The customers were buying; they just weren’t buying our product. This was not a time to pivot. So I said the same thing to every one of them: “There are no silver bullets for this, only lead bullets.” They did not want to hear that, but it made things clear: we had to build a better product. There was no other way out. No window, no hole, no escape hatch, no backdoor. We had to go through the front door and deal with the big, ugly guy blocking it. Lead bullets.
Wow. Cannot disagree more. The past year has seen Android 2.3, 3.0 & 4.0.
Google is changing at a faster pace than its competition.
It's not even really fair to call it change when nothing changed and nothing is about to change for almost every Android user.
AppBrain puts the SII at a staggering 11% marketshare... so tomorrow only 84% to 95% of Android users will be excluded.
Even if you discount the updates that are about to start (as Fruntal highlights), the next generation of Android phones has been completely transformed by ICS. That is clearly the low-hanging fruit, but it is still real, meaningful change.
According to Google, Motorola will still run independently.
Why hasn't Google learned this from their competitors yet?
I just got Android 2.3 for my Samsung Galaxy S and don't expect to EVER see 4.0 on this phone, even though it's only 18 months old and no doubt plenty powerful enough to run it.
If I had gone with an iPhone4, I'd have iOS 5.1 right now. I wouldn't have to wait 9-12 months after release to get it.
This is a HUGE weakness of Android devices. HUGE.
No, Google is not entirely to blame, but they don't seem to even be trying to fix it. They seem to be perfectly fine with this gaping flaw.
These clients will continue to be dumb readers where Flipboard and (future) ilk will allow content providers to craft rich, custom experiences. The weapons of design are powerful and in the wrong hands can create a horrible experience but companies still want that chance.
And if Marco actually did learn anything from competitors, he would actually hire someone to make an Android client instead of continuing to ignore a huge section of the market for not meeting his delicate sensibilities.
His business model is based on selling a paid app, and based on his numbers, doing that on Android won't pay for its development.
So iOS > Android for people who actually pay for software, or for anything where you want to keep credentials or data secure against loss/theft of a phone. You could maybe get away with using Good or something on Android, but that makes developing an app a lot harder.
http://www.marco.org/2011/12/07/standing-up-for-android
(he's also made the same point in his podcast)
He must not have seen the smear videos Microsoft has put out about Google recently. They certainly haven't shut up about their competitors.
Perhaps the fact that they continue to publicly attack Google means that they don't think they need to respond with a strategy change.
In mobile, Microsoft's competition is Google, not Apple. Meanwhile, on the desktop, Microsoft's biggest competition is its own installed base, not the Mac.
Nice random Apple bashing. You Microsoft fanboys can't resist, can you?
"Learn from your competitors."
When introducing new versions of OSX, Steve Jobs used to joke about how quickly Microsoft would copy them, so the image of an arrogant MS that paid Apple no notice is off. The new prominence of design in Google products (including Android) exhibits at least a little bit of competitive influence from Apple, so it's strange to refer to them as arrogant and unresponsive competitors.
I think Readability could be the best thing that happened for users of Instapaper.
The competition is forcing him to do things he wouldn't have done earlier. Apart from fonts issue he addresses here, he also recently upgraded the bookmarklet to support paging - a pretty big feature he had put off with justification for some time now (http://www.marco.org/2011/07/19/siracusa-multipage)
The article also links to his earlier post on Readability, which too was a welcome break from what one generally tends to see in the tech. scene.
Adding a link here (again), in case people missed it: http://www.marco.org/2011/11/16/readability
Has build and analyze improved any? Because I like Marco and I think he has some good points here and there... It's just that his podcast was waaaaay whiny...
For technical matters, the Hypecritical podcast is way way better.
From the the Instapaper guy, all I want to know is what he thinks about web/iOS development and running his own business. I get the impression lately that Marco is either out of material on development topics, or just not interested in discussing them.
EDIT: That said, here's hoping Marco blasts out some awesome changes and makes Instapaper even better, love him or hate him he's an inspiration to one-man shops, and produces some great stuff.
Of course, Microsoft has billions to sit on while they iterate. Most companies don't have that luxury.
I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft manages to get an xbox-level win out of Windows Phone just by throwing absurd resources at it, along with great integration with their platform, as RIM self destructs.
Especially if Microsoft can use Nokia to pitch itself as the "European alternative" to Google or Apple, that plus enterprise is a pretty big protected niche.