Ramblings
Been a while since I posted. Lots of interesting developments lately.
First point would have to be more Google news. Looks like they have lost Motorola's battle against Microsoft for their insane royalty rate for them. Turns out Google had previously entered into a license agreement which Motorola, being wholly owned by Google must abide by. End result looks like it is going to be that they need to give a license to Microsoft on terms much more reasonable than their desired 2.5% of the purchase price of the end product. For those not in the know... that means that Motorola wanted $25 in royalties for the sale of a single $1000 ultrabook because it includes a $0.25 chip that provides a portion of the functionality required to do a single task on the OS. Anyway, whether you agree with the Googlorola licensing approach, this was a dumb move by Google. They seemed blind-sided by their own existing license.
Next is the battery life on my Lumia 800. Wow! I've started using the phone itself more heavily recently and was getting to the point where I felt I needed to charge it twice a day (partly my fault, if my phone dips below 25% I have no confidence it will last if I go out). So I set all 3 of my email accounts to sync hourly only, and then manually sync'd them at the same time so that all 3 syncs were roughly in sync as well, now and I'm on track to get 3 and half days out of a single charge. If I could tolerate the "Manual" option I think this phone could last 5 days or more. Actually brings it back in line with some of my old non-smart phones.
In other news. Microsoft making smart moves with Windows 8. $40 to upgrade and it is to the Pro version. My take on the upgrade topic, I think the $40 price tag is wrong. While it is MUCH cheaper than their norm and I do feel a step in the right direction. But unless $40 is their break even price for royalties and licenses I think they need to get this puppy as close to free as they can. They need to get people into the Marketplace and computers upgrading to Windows 8 likely won't have touch screens or all of the other new hardware to take advantage. Add in the Vista 2.0 image it is garnering, and you have 2 very compelling reasons for people not to upgrade. A lower price will help overcome this.
Another item and this time a rumour is scrapping traditional retails versions and offering a cheaper OEM like system builder version. My take on the Single SKU thing is; I hope they are doing this. I still think the price will be wrong. The OEM prices were released and still put OEM copies at $60-$100, so it will likely be in this range or more likely, a little higher. If I feel like $0-30 is right for an upgrade, I think $50-75 is the sweet spot for new sales.
What I actually think would be an even better idea. Charge whatever you want... and include a voucher for some percentage of the license price to use in the Marketplace (so $100 license comes with say $50 to use in marketplace). Get people in the doors of your marketplace. Hasn't that always been the largest problem for any store? Getting people to come in. Even if it is a virtual store and only a click away, many people won't use it without a reason. Sell them a reason :)
RIM takes the next spot. BB10 delayed again. RIM = Dead. I may dedicate a whole rant to this topic another time. So I'll basically leave it at that.
And finally; Windows Phone 8. I could rant for ages. I own a Lumia 800. It sucks that I won't get WP8 on it. But let's face it, I just got a recent upgrade with new features, in a few months I'll get 7.8 with more new features (or at least a shiny new UI). Nokia is doing a great job with regularly adding exclusive apps. Again, maybe a topic I could rant on in itself, so I'll leave it here.
Anyway, this is getting long and I'm thinking about going back to some coding now. Later.
First point would have to be more Google news. Looks like they have lost Motorola's battle against Microsoft for their insane royalty rate for them. Turns out Google had previously entered into a license agreement which Motorola, being wholly owned by Google must abide by. End result looks like it is going to be that they need to give a license to Microsoft on terms much more reasonable than their desired 2.5% of the purchase price of the end product. For those not in the know... that means that Motorola wanted $25 in royalties for the sale of a single $1000 ultrabook because it includes a $0.25 chip that provides a portion of the functionality required to do a single task on the OS. Anyway, whether you agree with the Googlorola licensing approach, this was a dumb move by Google. They seemed blind-sided by their own existing license.
Next is the battery life on my Lumia 800. Wow! I've started using the phone itself more heavily recently and was getting to the point where I felt I needed to charge it twice a day (partly my fault, if my phone dips below 25% I have no confidence it will last if I go out). So I set all 3 of my email accounts to sync hourly only, and then manually sync'd them at the same time so that all 3 syncs were roughly in sync as well, now and I'm on track to get 3 and half days out of a single charge. If I could tolerate the "Manual" option I think this phone could last 5 days or more. Actually brings it back in line with some of my old non-smart phones.
In other news. Microsoft making smart moves with Windows 8. $40 to upgrade and it is to the Pro version. My take on the upgrade topic, I think the $40 price tag is wrong. While it is MUCH cheaper than their norm and I do feel a step in the right direction. But unless $40 is their break even price for royalties and licenses I think they need to get this puppy as close to free as they can. They need to get people into the Marketplace and computers upgrading to Windows 8 likely won't have touch screens or all of the other new hardware to take advantage. Add in the Vista 2.0 image it is garnering, and you have 2 very compelling reasons for people not to upgrade. A lower price will help overcome this.
Another item and this time a rumour is scrapping traditional retails versions and offering a cheaper OEM like system builder version. My take on the Single SKU thing is; I hope they are doing this. I still think the price will be wrong. The OEM prices were released and still put OEM copies at $60-$100, so it will likely be in this range or more likely, a little higher. If I feel like $0-30 is right for an upgrade, I think $50-75 is the sweet spot for new sales.
What I actually think would be an even better idea. Charge whatever you want... and include a voucher for some percentage of the license price to use in the Marketplace (so $100 license comes with say $50 to use in marketplace). Get people in the doors of your marketplace. Hasn't that always been the largest problem for any store? Getting people to come in. Even if it is a virtual store and only a click away, many people won't use it without a reason. Sell them a reason :)
RIM takes the next spot. BB10 delayed again. RIM = Dead. I may dedicate a whole rant to this topic another time. So I'll basically leave it at that.
And finally; Windows Phone 8. I could rant for ages. I own a Lumia 800. It sucks that I won't get WP8 on it. But let's face it, I just got a recent upgrade with new features, in a few months I'll get 7.8 with more new features (or at least a shiny new UI). Nokia is doing a great job with regularly adding exclusive apps. Again, maybe a topic I could rant on in itself, so I'll leave it here.
Anyway, this is getting long and I'm thinking about going back to some coding now. Later.
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