Google Wear + iPhone and Windows 10 won't save PCs?
Google is doing what I suggested wearable makers do (to some extent) and opening up their Google Wear (wearables platform, almost exclusively watches at present) to work with iOS devices.
This is a smart move. It doesn't go far enough. But it is a step in the right direction. I've argued in the past that wearables are currently, and for the foreseeable future will remain, a niche market. Without smartphone like subsidies and being primarily lifestyle and/or fashion devices they are a MUCH harder sell than a smartphone and will never become as ubiquitous as those devices. Even if the prices drop.
Basically, with wearables, the smart companies will make their devices work with the widest range of companion devices possible. Now, by adding iPhone to the supported list they nail down as much of the market as matters percentage-wise. But, what we really need is an open solution. The problem is several fold. People don't want to feel like they are restricted, even if that restriction only hurts something like 5% or less of the market. The other major problem is that no one seems to have done this integration right yet. An open protocol for communicating with these devices would mean a Windows Phone or BlackBerry app could be built, or that 3rd party devs could develop their own for Android or iOS to fill in functionality gaps or turn it into something no one had envisioned.
Platform makers are forgetting what made them big. Both Android and iOS skyrocketed on extensible platforms and app stores. "There's an app for that" never would have been a slogan with 3rd party developers, and both Android and iOS would be nameless rejects in the annals of time without those app stores and 3rd party devs.
Introducing new categories, but leaving them locked down in very important ways deters developers who would already have a hard time wanting to jump on board with the dismal numbers. And that hurts innovation.
But, right now and with this move, Google is now the best of what is still overall a bad lot.
I own a Windows Phone, so I'm still SoL. But I can start to believe that we aren't too far off a future where if I want to use a particular smart watch or other weable that it will either be supported on my platform, or something I can write up an integration for on my own.
The next was a topic which is popping up every so often lately with experts wasting oxygen and keystrokes proclaiming that Windows 10 won't save the PC industry. I wasn't aware it needed saving. It is shrinking. Sure. That is natural. It will likely never get back to the levels of demand or growth we were seeing over a decade ago. But that doesn't mean it is dying or "needs saving".
People still buy PCs. They buy laptops mostly, but also desktops. They just don't replace them every few years as they used too. They aren't status symbols anymore. But they are still useful tools. I couldn't point you to a single household that doesn't have one. And I can't point you to one that wouldn't replace it if their current one dies either. That doesn't sound like an industry that is dying or is on life support or any critical health term. If we want to put the industry in terms of human life... it is an industry that has settled down with a wife and kids and isn't growing much any more. It is a market which is stabilizing.
What is interesting is the scrutiny PCs get where there is actually almost no mention of the tablet market which is in MUCH worse shape. It is a younger tech and *should* by most accounts still be growing. And yet it has already started slowing down, despite having not even surpassed PC sales yet, which have been on the decline for some time now and never reached a level of profitability PC makers enjoyed in their prime.
Tablets, I think, generally pan out as a stealth disappointment. With iOS and Android being the clear winners in the market... it means that the average tablet is no more functional than the average phone. While the average phone remains much more accessible.
So, while people generally don't complain about their tablets (as it would also mean complaining about the phone OS they love in most cases), they simply find themselves less motivated to replace them if they break or upgrade them early than they would be with their PCs. They have faded into obscurity without anyone really noticing and done so at a much more rapid pace than any tech to come before them.
But, don't take that to mean that I think tablets are dying either... I think both PCs and tablets will level out with very similar annual sales when they stabilize. Tablets may land slightly ahead when the dust settles due to portability, cost and the fact that most people don't need to do much more than their phones afford them on a daily basis. Tablets are a great way to do the sorts of things your phone can do when you're at home without draining the battery in the more important device (the phone). So, people will keep buying tablets.
I guess the news and forecasts are important if you're an investor. But then... it really shouldn't be news at all unless you're investing in the industry with absolutely no knowledge of it.
This is a smart move. It doesn't go far enough. But it is a step in the right direction. I've argued in the past that wearables are currently, and for the foreseeable future will remain, a niche market. Without smartphone like subsidies and being primarily lifestyle and/or fashion devices they are a MUCH harder sell than a smartphone and will never become as ubiquitous as those devices. Even if the prices drop.
Basically, with wearables, the smart companies will make their devices work with the widest range of companion devices possible. Now, by adding iPhone to the supported list they nail down as much of the market as matters percentage-wise. But, what we really need is an open solution. The problem is several fold. People don't want to feel like they are restricted, even if that restriction only hurts something like 5% or less of the market. The other major problem is that no one seems to have done this integration right yet. An open protocol for communicating with these devices would mean a Windows Phone or BlackBerry app could be built, or that 3rd party devs could develop their own for Android or iOS to fill in functionality gaps or turn it into something no one had envisioned.
Platform makers are forgetting what made them big. Both Android and iOS skyrocketed on extensible platforms and app stores. "There's an app for that" never would have been a slogan with 3rd party developers, and both Android and iOS would be nameless rejects in the annals of time without those app stores and 3rd party devs.
Introducing new categories, but leaving them locked down in very important ways deters developers who would already have a hard time wanting to jump on board with the dismal numbers. And that hurts innovation.
But, right now and with this move, Google is now the best of what is still overall a bad lot.
I own a Windows Phone, so I'm still SoL. But I can start to believe that we aren't too far off a future where if I want to use a particular smart watch or other weable that it will either be supported on my platform, or something I can write up an integration for on my own.
The next was a topic which is popping up every so often lately with experts wasting oxygen and keystrokes proclaiming that Windows 10 won't save the PC industry. I wasn't aware it needed saving. It is shrinking. Sure. That is natural. It will likely never get back to the levels of demand or growth we were seeing over a decade ago. But that doesn't mean it is dying or "needs saving".
People still buy PCs. They buy laptops mostly, but also desktops. They just don't replace them every few years as they used too. They aren't status symbols anymore. But they are still useful tools. I couldn't point you to a single household that doesn't have one. And I can't point you to one that wouldn't replace it if their current one dies either. That doesn't sound like an industry that is dying or is on life support or any critical health term. If we want to put the industry in terms of human life... it is an industry that has settled down with a wife and kids and isn't growing much any more. It is a market which is stabilizing.
What is interesting is the scrutiny PCs get where there is actually almost no mention of the tablet market which is in MUCH worse shape. It is a younger tech and *should* by most accounts still be growing. And yet it has already started slowing down, despite having not even surpassed PC sales yet, which have been on the decline for some time now and never reached a level of profitability PC makers enjoyed in their prime.
Tablets, I think, generally pan out as a stealth disappointment. With iOS and Android being the clear winners in the market... it means that the average tablet is no more functional than the average phone. While the average phone remains much more accessible.
So, while people generally don't complain about their tablets (as it would also mean complaining about the phone OS they love in most cases), they simply find themselves less motivated to replace them if they break or upgrade them early than they would be with their PCs. They have faded into obscurity without anyone really noticing and done so at a much more rapid pace than any tech to come before them.
But, don't take that to mean that I think tablets are dying either... I think both PCs and tablets will level out with very similar annual sales when they stabilize. Tablets may land slightly ahead when the dust settles due to portability, cost and the fact that most people don't need to do much more than their phones afford them on a daily basis. Tablets are a great way to do the sorts of things your phone can do when you're at home without draining the battery in the more important device (the phone). So, people will keep buying tablets.
I guess the news and forecasts are important if you're an investor. But then... it really shouldn't be news at all unless you're investing in the industry with absolutely no knowledge of it.
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