January 13, 2009
Palm Copies Apple’s Ego Trip
Valleywag
Owen Thomas comments on Palm’s new smartphone, the Palm Pre.
“No Silicon Valley company is more arrogant than Apple. But Palm, the smartphone maker, is trying to copy Steve Jobs’s knack for hubris – as well as everything else about its rival. Anyone would be forgiven for thinking the Palm Pre, the long-overdue smartphone unveiled today in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show, is an obvious iPhone wannabe, with a similar shape, a touchscreen, and a fancy built-in Web browser.”
Windows 7 Has Its First Blunder
Network World
Mitchell Ashley writes why Microsoft may ship Windows 7 ahead of its intended release date.
“The pre-beta’s been a lot less problem ridden than anyone expected, which has given rise to speculation Microsoft will ship Windows 7 before its stated 2010 time frame. The release of the Windows 7 public beta strengthens that belief as it doesn’t seem likely we’d have a public beta with solid software for a full 12 months or more. I for example fully expect to download and run the Windows 7 public-beta on my main laptop as a replacement for Vista as are many other techies and early adopters.”
Why the Budget All-in-One Desktop Will Fail
Wired
Brian Chen reveals what challenges companies will face who produce budget, all-in-ones and netbooks.
“The two products are competing with each other. And there just isn’t enough of an incentive to buy an all-in-one desktop as opposed to a netbook. Want to add to your netbook’s screen size? Attach it to a monitor. Need a keyboard and mouse? Plug them in via USB, just like you would with a desktop system. Budget all-in-ones are a truly nascent product – and we won’t know how well they’re performing in sales until we see some earnings reports. But we’re going to make an early call by saying this product category is going to fail very fast, very soon.”