Search Results for ‘Google Android’
With all the talk in the technology world as to how the new iPhone’s antenna is performing (not to mention the World Cup, a new Prime Minister, blah, blah), some may have missed this…
YouTube software developers posted on their YouTube API Blog on Tuesday a detailed, balanced an informative article about the pros and cons of using HTML5 vs Flash for video playback. The article backed the use of Flash saying that — in reference to the HTML5 video tag — “We need to do more than just point the browser at a video file like the image tag does – there’s a lot more to it than just retrieving and displaying a video.”
In addition to pointing out technologies that Flash video has over HTML5 video such as streaming, embedding, protection and camera access, they also claimed that the web should have an open video format, namely Google’s recently acquired video codec VP8 and WebM technologies.
This adds to arguably realistic, yet enraged sentiments expressed by popular video player software company LongTail Video as well as Adobe et al. It also brings us back to reality from the distorted hyperbole that is Steve Jobs’ perspective. Keep in mind that Google, the owner of YouTube, has a vested interest in both HTML5 (having one of their employees as the ‘creator’ of the specification) and Flash (being a close partner with Adobe in projects such as the Open Screen Project and Flash playback on the Android platform).
2nd July 2010
Simon
No, I’m not writing about those other seer-like trend watchers, I’m writing about Google Trends.
I’d known about Google Hot Trends for a while, but never found it that fascinating. What I do find fascinating is Google Trends. Google Trends allows you to search a database of search-terms people have put into Google between 2004 and 2010. I thought I’d have a play and post some results.
Search term: Apple (blue line), Microsoft (red line)
As shown above, searches for Microsoft have been steadily declining since 2004, with searches for Apple steadily increasing. I wonder if there is a correlation with market capitalisation?
Search term: iPhone (blue), iPad (red), Android (orange)
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For my next search, I thought I’d try the iPhone, iPad and Android to see how they’re going.
As is to be expected, the iPhone has the early movers advantage, having been released in June 2007. It’s interesting to note that the ’social buzz’ for the iPhone appears to have begun 6 months prior to launch, around December 2006. We can also see a significant spike in searches corresponding with subsequent releases of the iPhone 3G in July 2008 and the IPhone 3GS in June 2009. You’ll notice too that the trend takes a staircase like pattern (my term), jumping up each year, rather than being linear.
In 2007 and 2008, Android arrives on the scene, to little fanfare, much like somebody arriving late to a party and being too cool (or nervous) to announce their presence. 2009 marks the year when Android becomes more well known with handsets powered by Android starting to hit the market, the first of which was the HTC Dream. In 2010, the Android appears to be trending upward at a fast rate and well on it’s way to catching up with the iPhone, although another ’step up’ come July – and the release of the new iPhone – and “Android” may still be a way behind “iPhone”.
As for the iPad, it’s still the early days but Apple’s media magic seems to be working, with a huge spike in searches for “iPad” at the start of 2010 and another smaller spike occurring recently with the launch of the iPad.
Conclusions
Since i’ve written this much, I thought i’d put in some closing remarks.
Firstly, Google Trends is fun, although aspects of it require further work, such as the data displayed below the chart (not shown in this post) listing Regions, Cities and Languages. The bars look good but there is no scale or index like the chart. Anyway, have a go yourself and comment on any interesting comparisons you come across.
As for the results of my searches above, I’m particularly intrigued by the second chart. We all know that Apple are masters of media and ‘buzz’; and this shows in the chart. A familiar pattern seems to be that they ’seed’ some information about six months prior to launch using events such as MacWorld. They then get huge amounts of exposure at the actual launch. I don’t know how much of this is paid as opposed to general excitement, but here in Australia, the iPad seems to be on every breakfast/lunch/evening show on TV!
As for Android, it’s clear here that nobody is steering the ship in the same way as at Apple, however, as part of the Open Handset Alliance and with over 40 phones already using Android, as well as over 10 tablets, a few ereaders – and who knows what else – the future is surely bright for this one.
1st June 2010
Tristan
You’re about to get Mac-swamped and you know it. Mac OS X Snow Leopard, iPhone 3.0, etc, etc. So on the eve of the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference, starting in San Francisco tomorrow (our time), I thought we’d take a look at the latest in non-Apple technology and see how this relates to upcoming confirmed and rumoured Apple hardware and software.
Let’s start with the Palm Pre. This little device, recently released in the US, is a beautifully designed smartphone, which holds a slide-out keyboard as well as Multi-Touch on screen. The Pre runs on Palm’s brand new operating system, webOS. This system allows multiple applications to be running simultaneously, including a WebKit-based browser, email, calendar, instant messaging, maps, photos and video. Adobe has also developed a version of Flash for webOS, alongside it’s Open Screen Project, which it has launched with the participation of other mobile developers. Anyway, back to the Pre — what’s so good about it? I think alongside it’s bottom-up design approach to both hardware and software, it’s beautiful exterior and interface, it has a US price tag of $199 (after cash back). But I’m sure this will be an initial price to woo potential iPhone customers. You can read about the design process of the Pre as well as an interview with user experience designer, Michelle Koh (links via Gizmodo). Also check out Engadget’s review or the official Palm site for some extra cheesy vids.
Having used a virtual keyboard on the iPhone for over a year now, I think that the physical vs. virtual keyboard battle is actually a preference issue.
– Michelle Koh
Human Interface Team, Palm
Next up is the Zune HD. I’m really not going to spend much time on this one. I’d be better off doing a review of the Bing search engine. Or maybe, seeing as though there have been rumours of Apple tablets and such, how Asus looks to have made some R&D of its own.
And now on to Nintendo. The DSi seems to be quickly becoming a mobile platform with teeth. With it’s touch interface, multiple-user interaction and ability to create animation, it’s definitely a powerful device. Not to mention the Wii’s ability to track motion, keep track of your fitness levels and measure your heartbeat. But that doesn’t seem to stop CEO Satoru Iwata from believing that his products are not competing with the iPhone and the Mac. In an interview with VentureBeat, he said exactly that.
If I thought our companies were in direct competition, I would not use a Mac in my presentations… If, in the future, this overlap becomes bigger to the extent we should call it direct competition, I have to be more careful. I can’t bring out the iPhone during an interview anymore. Today, I don’t worry about it.
– Satoru Iwata
Chief Executive, Nintendo
Phew! Well, that’s all I have time for, and I didn’t even get time to mention Android. But thanks to TK, there’s plenty to read on that. Enjoy the WWDC announcement and may all your wildest Mac fantasies come true 
8th June 2009
Simon
Remember that paradigm shift I talked about a little over a year ago? Well folks, it is now upon us. I’m a bit late because I was overseas, and not really keeping in touch with the latest tech news (which I tend to do less these days anyway). But anyway, I’m onto it now, and thought I would post a quick update of where Google’s Android open-source platform for mobile devices is at.
Basically, late last year, the first ‘Android phone’ was released. To see how it looks, check out the youtube video below (WARNING: Not the most exciting video demonstration, they are engineers after all!):
Android demo and introduction (Official Google)
I don’t think the phone in that video actually features the Android phone released last year, that phone is in a demo for which I’ll post the link below. However, as I said in my previous post, the whole point with Android is that the hardware itself won’t matter. So again, further commodification of cellphone hardware, here we come. The iPhone has definitely kick-started this trend, and Android will only add to it.
So, where is Google going with all this? Well, I notice that Google now have “Offline” mode for both the Google Calendar and Gmail. Still in Beta of course. So, now, whether you’re connected to the net or not, you can access your google mail and calendar. Any offline updates will be synchronised once you connect again to the internet. Likewise, any new emails will be downloaded to Gmail offline once you connect.
Stay with me, we’re getting to the best part. Ok, so Google now has online and offline access to mail and calendars, from your desktop. From a mobile device, Google currently offer exchange like synchronisation through active sync on PocketPCs and I’m sure something similar on the iPhone.
Add Android to this and I think Google plans to basically have your mobile, your online computer world, and your offline computer world thoroughly covered. It will mean that, I can send an email to someone with a date, and straight from my mobile or computer (offline or connected to the net), add a calendar event which will then be syncronished across all platforms. Calendars can also be shared online through Google’s existing sharing capabilities, so we can have mobile-shared syncronised calendars. It’s basically what Blackberry does, but it will be much more thoroughly integrated into the internet world. For example, Facebook/’insert social networking site here’ events could be exported to calenders – even automatically exported once you register your attendance – and then being instantly synronised across all devices. All your emails, calendars, contacts, tasks, documents would then be accessible (but more importantly, syncronised) from your computer or phone, or from some random internet cafe computer in Inner Mongolia!
But we’re not done yet folks (and no I don’t work for Google, but they are welcome to make me an offer!). Add another layer to the information above, Google maps/earth, and you know add a physical, geographic layer to the information. So contacts could be viewed in Google maps/earth based on their location in this world of ours. The same is true of events and tasks, which could be visualised on maps based on location information from the event. If you were say, meeting a friend at Lounge in Swanston St Melbourne, Australia. That location could be viewed in Google maps, along with the time and date you’re supposed to be there, and perhaps information on the venue. You would just have to make sure that you don’t walk straight by the entrance while looking at you phone and being thoroughly anti-social!
And the best part of all this is that a lot of it will run on open or reasonable open platforms so communication between devices and platforms will be a breeze. Oh, and it will be free. As long as we keep clicking on Google ads that is! Although I imagine Google will also do a multi-tiered pricing system whereby corporate or sophisticated users can pay to get more storage/better features.
Whatever comes this way, I’m excited. It’s going to be an interesting year for cellphones and information.
Some links that may be of interest:
http://developer.android.com/ (Official Android developer site)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO7Yxyux1_k (Demo of the T-Mobile G1 Android phone, the aforementioned ‘Android phone’)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Android
http://personal.optus.com.au/web/ocaportal.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=Template_wRHS&FP=/personal/mobile/mobilephones/htcdream&site=personal (It seems Optus already has this phone available!)
24th March 2009
Tristan
Just as the iPhone has shaken up the hardware side of the mobile industry, so shall Google’s Android shake up the software side.
Needless to say, I think the mobile phone market is at a turning point and will look quite different in 5 years time.
Android is a huge paradigm shift in a market which has been built on proprietary (and thus closed) systems. The result of this was many different platforms and technologies to approach the same core functions (phone calls, messages, media etc). Now, what “I think” Google will be doing here is similar to what Microsoft did with Windows all those years ago with the PC.
So, if I were a hardware manufacturer, I would be worried. Focus on design and value adding or you will become a commoditised industry reminiscent of PC parts.
Now for the fun stuff. What Android means is that pretty much anyone can write their own OS for phones, well, the UI / software layer for functionality on top of Android (which is the real OS) the SDK is here:
http://code.google.com/android/download_list.html
Two quick points before I finished up:
1) I haven’t read all that much about Android yet to be honest, this is my surface understanding.
2) This is no different to what other people have tried to do in creating Linux based operating systems for phones. Google just has the brand and the resources to command much more respect and attention and quite frankly, that is all it really takes. Go Android!
For more info:
http://code.google.com/android/what-is-android.html
http://www.helloandroid.com/
16th February 2008
Tristan
