dbreunig

I agree with you: the G1 (and G2!) is a very capable device. As Android is adopted by more and more device manufacturers, Android could very well become a ubiquitous, ambient computing environment.

The reason I focus on the iPhone is for two reasons. First off: it's hardware. No matter how good the G1 is, the crux of the phone is it's OS. That's the standard being pushed in that case. With the iPhone, they're pushing the hardware and software standard.

Second (and this is by far the larger reason) is the install base. There's 40,000,000 iPhones and iPod touches in the market! The ubiquity and large adoption of this device is why it's "White Label." People already have it. For comparison, as of Jan 09 the X-Box 360 had ~28 million units in market. A large % of which might not even be on X-Box Live.

The penetration of the iPhone is what makes it special in this case.

Use this as motivation to make yours better.

Twitter wasn't just on display. It served a real function. The audience WAS the conference goers. You can't really use it as a comparable example in this case. I seriously doubt a social network aimed at kids will achieve even a fraction of growth from TC50.

Oh, and let's not forget the social context: if there weren't people there they wouldn't care about not appearing expertish.

Google is moving to Apple, becoming a challenger rather than the usual innovator.

The New Atlantis is quietly a very conservative publication. Just FYI.

http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/SLOM/

I recommend watching them all. Great stuff.

Solve a problem and find the people to whom that solution is most valuable. Start there, cater to them, make them passionate, and voila: there's your base!

No need for a merger, and the fact that Android is still vaporwear shows that Apple has the advantage and doesn't need Google by any means. Google needs Apple to execute the front-end.

Do you really think they'll avoid this problem on a phone, which has MUCH less forgiveness for bad content organization?

Any product with the promise of 'simplifying complexity" has to overcome this problem, and no one has solved it as of yet.

Give an Android phone to your mother and see how often she calls for help (if she can figure out how!)

Zuckerberg has created something that may amount to a trend, has yet to make a dime, and is still playing catch up to MySpace in many ways. Hell, Zuckerberg isn't smarter than Murdoch.

As it relates to business: the show is a veritable collection of case studies revolving around people, culture, and science. Myself: I'd recommend the Space episode.