I’m drinking a bottle of Clos du Val 1999 Zinfandel. This is the LCBO’s Wine of the Month. Unfortunately… it’s just not that good. I can’t say that it’s in any way impressive. A nose of alcoholic, and slightly off, fruit. Fruity taste, with a long, slightly tannic finish. Imagine what a beaujolais vitner would do with zinfandel.
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Mark Evans writes about Microsoft’s new Blackberry Killer.
Before I go further, I will disclaim this by saying that I worked for Microsoft from 1992 to 2000, and for part of the time I ran the planning team that did the market research for Microsoft’s Windows CE group, including the smartphone team. I’ve also used multiple generations of the Windows CE smartphone, with all it’s quirks, and I am the proud owner of a Blackberry 7290.
I think Mark’s missing the point. When I switched from my Smartphone to a Blackberry it was because the coverage sucked with the smartphone (it had no 850 Mhz radio), and it was a major battery hog. But I loved the media features, and the web browser, and I miss those features the most in my new Blackberry.
Mark’s right on one thing. Blackberry email is a killer feature. In fact, if it wasn’t for the email I would toss the thing. The usability of the Blackberry is a nightmare (I defy anyone to find and dial a phone number in your address book, while driving). The media capabilities are non-existant (my unified messaging system delivers voice mail to my email inbox… but I can’t listen to wav files on my blackberry). The integration with Windows apps is good, but not as good as ActiveSync.
If I was in RIM’s shoes, I would be asking myself this… “What would Apple do?”. I would try to imagine what the iBerry would be like, and then build it. That would be a thousand times better than a Microsoft Smartphone because the starting point for a Smartphone is “let’s build a great Windows phone”.
What would the iPod of Smartphones be like?
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