Are the Big Phone Carriers 'Good Enough' These Days?

Last week, I got my hands on the brand new Nexus 5, and, as you might expect, I've been quite happy with it. The screen is fantastic. The size and weight are perfect, and the battery life is beyond anything I've had so far. But this isn't a post about the Nexus 5. It's about what I also switched when I changed phones - my carrier.

In the process of moving from my aging 2011 Galaxy Nexus on Verizon, I'm now on T-Mobile. This means in the space of five or so years, I've gone from an iPhone on AT&T, to an HTC Evo and Samsung Epic 4G on Sprint, to the Galaxy Nexus on Verizon and now the Nexus 5 on T-Mobile. You could say I've tried all the big carriers here in the US, and experienced their positives and negatives. And in my experience, what they deliver, for the most part, is good enough.

Those of us who were early adopters on the first iPhone here in the US remember that AT&T was the only option - and the service's flakiness was well-chronicled. Many thousands of words were spent in blog posts here and elsewhere decrying AT&T's seeming inability to scale up to the unprecedented data demands brought on by the iPhone. (See: Thoughts on AT&T: What Steve Jobs Should Have Written) Calls that would complete without dropping, even with both parties staying completely still, seemed impossible, and it wasn't unusual for the first words after calling back were something to the effect of "Stupid AT&T".

Moving to Sprint for me was as much a function of switching to Android from iOS as it was leaving AT&T. In 2010 I was making a bet on momentum, app choice and quality, and that choice looks to have played out correctly. But when my family moved across town, we unhelpfully ended up in a place where Sprint coverage was not great - meaning most of my successful calls would have to be made in the backyard. For a year, that was just fine, and we made do - especially as most of the time, we use our phones for data, including email or texts, than we do with phone calls.

In 2011, I switched to Verizon when the Galaxy Nexus came up, and data/voice have been very good. No complaints. But they weren't a partner on the Nexus 5 launch, and while I had considered either going Moto X on Verizon, or keeping my creaky Galaxy Nexus around just a bit longer, I wanted to take another experiment and move to T-Mobile. As Pokemon was best known for saying: "Gotta Catch 'em All!"

/via https://twitter.com/louisgray/status/374207342763442176

Prior to making the switch, I polled people in person and many whom I didn't (via Twitter), to see how they rated their own carrier, on a 1-10 scale, and what mobile OS they were using. Surprisingly, the overwhelming majority of people rated their carrier with a score of 8 out of 10 or above. I had expected to see a lot of lower scores, and to see some trends play out, be it low scores for AT&T on iOS, or lower scores for the smaller carriers, specifically T-Mobile and Sprint. But by and large, people seemed pretty happy - leading me to wonder openly if the only safe business to be universally disliked is that of airlines - who never get any credit.

/via https://twitter.com/louisgray/status/374252273930489857

At the time, my curiosity was as much tied to MotoMaker for the Moto X launching first with AT&T. Was AT&T good enough again to be forgiven for their 2008-10 era quality gap? Could I possibly think of getting back with AT&T after all the frustration I'd seen? I saw people on iOS, Windows Phone and Android all giving AT&T scores above 7, and those from other carriers also being quite favorable. There were no clear laggards.

So when the Nexus 5 came available on Google Play, my internal debate over how to move forward was a pretty simple one. I saw that T-Mobile's LTE coverage includes my work and home. I saw the pricing for T-Mobile was in line (and actually a bit cheaper) than Verizon, and practically the only risk I'd be taking is if it was weak when I traveled outside of my usual stomping grounds. And so far... no complaints.

There's no question that as more and more of us as consumers and businesspeople are expecting more from our smartphones and tablets, that the demands we're putting on our telecommunications infrastructure is dramatically increasing. We've gone from a society that exchanged voice calls and simple texts to one where we expect full HD video and streaming live audio. We expect high speed access on all our devices, practically everywhere.

To build and support that demand, all the carriers are racing to be sure they're not the one who ends up left behind, as all the smart consumers end up attached to the market leaders. It's been a long time since I've read a great rant on AT&T, or seen a wave of people reporting dropped calls. Verizon's commercials promise the widest LTE available, and they do have "the map for that", but the alternatives seem to keep up in users' eyes. So maybe, just maybe, we've hit a turning point when the carriers are pretty good, and the user experience is going to get even better as our hardware improves and the mobile software gets even more excellent. I'm glad we've gotten this far.

Usual Disclosures: I work for Google. Google builds Android, and shaped the Nexus 5. I initially received my first HTC Evo free from Google I/O 2010 before I joined the company. This post isn't aimed to indicate any bias or favor to any Google partners. That'd be silly.

Verizon's Big Year Is Much More than Just iPhone

After years of living in the barren AT&T wilderness, iPhone fans and desperate would-be switchers are eagerly awaiting the widelyreported planned announcement that Verizon will finally make it to the iPhone 4. Depending on who you read, it's thought the availability of iPhone in CDMA wearing a new carrier's clothes could boost Apple by another 10 million units. A good number of those will no doubt come from existing iPhone users switching to AT&T, while many more could be net new - a patient bunch who kept their loyalty to Verizon, and avoided AT&T, no matter their curiosity into the iOS. Part of me wants to be skeptical that this will goose sales as much as anticipated, but I've long learned to always pick the "over" when it comes to Apple.

That said, the iPhone is just one bit of good news for Verizon, which is becoming a go-to partner for some of the more intriguing devices elsewhere in the early adopter tech geek ecosystem. The ChromeOS-based CR-48 notebooks from Google come with a bundled Verizon 3G card, which offers freeloaders like myself 100 MB of bandwidth a month before even paying a dime. More costs extra, of course. Additionally, Verizon is going to be the go-to-market partner for Motorola's new Xoom tablet, which I saw demoed at CES this morning, and was awarded best in show.

CES was draped in banners from Sprint touting their 4G experience. It's what I use on the Samsung Galaxy Tab and the Samsung Epic 4G as well. Sprint has done well for my family, after we switched from AT&T and iPhone simultaneously this summer. But Verizon looks like the much-desired partner for the elite products, and when exclusives come up, Verizon is there.

Following up on my introductory post last week to the CR-48, I gave the notebook a run as being my primary device all of CES. I turned on the 3G access from Verizon yesterday morning, and took the laptop everywhere, avoiding power plugs, to test the battery, and disabling WiFi. Unsurprisingly, the laptop gave at least 8 hours of use without a charge, and the 3G speed from Verizon has been plenty fast, from the hotel, from the otherwise-congested CES event, and now at the Las Vegas airport.

Obviously, the CR-48 trial units are early days for the device. One would assume that if Google wanted to provide a strong experience for users, they chose partners carefully - as did Motorola. Verizon will also be there with the new Droid Bionic, which is expected to ship after the iPhone hits stores, possibly as soon as the end of the month.

My experience with Verizon on the CR-48 has been nice. While I haven't tested out a wide variety of geographies, I've never suffered for coverage, and the CR-48 is smart enough to tell me just how much data I have left on the free plan before I'd be asked to pay up. I've managed to crank out 75 MB of use in two days, so I have 25 left. If I were to turn off WiFi permanently, and just use the device over 3G, obviously, I would need a bigger plan and would be sending some dollars Verizon's way. The convenience of anywhere high-speed Internet can't be understated, of course. Behind Diet Coke, it's probably my #1 addiction.

We've learned to live in multi-vendor homes with tablets and phones and laptops everywhere. But for the most part, I think folks are sticking with a single carrier. Is it common to be paying out to T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T and Verizon each month? Probably not. If Verizon manages to continue as the go-to partner for Android, and can add on its share of tablets and notebooks, as well as the iPhone (finally), you could be seeing the kind of subscriber and revenue growth for them that AT&T has been getting the past few years thanks to Apple's exclusivity.

As for me? I've still got 24 MB on this free plan, and once I hit zero, it's either WiFi, or I add Verizon to my list of monthly bills. My wife will love that.

Android+Keyboard = Win: Switching to the Samsung Epic

The Samsung Epic 4G from Sprint

When I switched from iPhone to Android after Google I/O this Spring, one of the major reasons I gave for my move was the opportunity to choose between different handsets, if for whatever reason, one offered compelling options lacking in my current model. While there were many reasons I switched away from Apple's ecosystem to that from Google and its partners, the flexibility and many offerings made me more comfortable that I wasn't tying myself to a particular model, but instead, a platform. And after seeing a significant number of positive reviews and sales reports on Samsung's Galaxy S phone - as well as friends' comments that this Android phone "beat the iPhone in every possible way", I checked for myself and left behind the EVO I've been using since May, which had been a Google freebie from the conference.

A Sprint customer, now that I moved the family off AT&T, Sprint's model of the Galaxy S is the Epic, labeled as the Epic 4G, thanks to its using Sprint's slice of the 4G wireless spectrum for advanced features. In contrast to the EVO, which has been a reliable workhorse, the Epic is much lighter, seems more polished both in hardware and software, and - as a kicker - it offers a slide-out keyboard in addition to its virtual keyboard option. Much to the chagrin of my wife, no doubt, I have been gaga over this phone since getting it - wanting to show off each cool little feature, from its rapid shutter speed for photos, to its Apple-like gallery to display images on the device, to the UI details that put Samsung ahead of all other Android devices I've seen to date.

My Samsung Epic 4G Home Screen and Secondary Screen, With Widgets

I switched to the Epic not just because of its well thought-out hardware and software, and the addition of the keyboard, but two more reasons - first, to see how easy it would be, and second, to remove any need for disclaimers in the future, knowing I'd put down my own money for my own Android device, and wasn't living on Google handouts.

When I bought the Epic at the Sprint store in Palo Alto, less than a block from the Apple Store, where others were considering iPhone 4s, my phone number was practically immediately transferred from device to device. After connecting to my Google account, the device also pinged the Android Market and recognized all the applications I had purchased, allowing me to download them again for free. Without a centralized hub on the desktop, like iTunes, Google's over the air handling of this was seamless and almost invisible. Just about the only downside to this process was downloading the free apps, which were not automatically remembered. But as I had the EVO with me still, comparing the two's application libraries made rediscovery simple.

The Phone Pad on the Samsung Epic and Improved Notifications Area

When Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone and led us to start thinking about the touch interface replacing the keyboard or a stylus, it kicked off a revolution - one in place on all major smartphone platforms. But the ability to open up a real hardware keyboard on the Epic is a great backup for longer e-mails or text messages, or for typing in URLs not previously visited. For any experienced Blackberry touch typist, typing on the Epic is immediately familiar, and the slideout keyboard is very smooth.

Using the Keyboard to Tell My Friend A Happy Birthday Message

Thanks to Android letting manufacturers lead the way in terms of deciding how their phones should appear, there are small nuances between the EVO and Epic that took some relearning. For example, the EVO has its power button on the top of the device, and volume buttons on the right. The Epic has its power button on the right of the device and volume buttons on the left. The EVO's microUSB port is at the bottom of the device, and open, while the Epic's microUSB port is at the top of the device under a protective sliding door. Similarly, the Epic swapped placement for the Home and Menu keys to positions 1 and 2 instead of 2 and 1 on the EVO. It seems like an odd decision, but quickly comfortable.

Samsung's design UI is the best I've seen outside of Apple. The Epic even comes with a Dock with four icons (Phone, Contacts, Messaging and Applications) which are static on all screens. You can't customize them, like on the iPhone, but they are very handy. The Applications folder is especially useful, letting you rapidly access apps not on the home screen, and drop them in new places. You also, like on other Android phones, get the option to add widgets, bookmarks or folders anywhere you like.

In contrast to the EVO, even Samsung's phone pad options are well thought through. The keypad is well defined and colorful with fast access to the call log and contacts. During the call, options to add another call, mute or put the call on speaker are prominent and clearly marked if in use.

The EVO's most maligned drawbacks, its weight and battery, are much improved with the Epic, no doubt behind the Galaxy S's setting sales records in Japan. The phone is clearly easier to carry around than the EVO (and fits in the belt carrier I already had) and doesn't have me looking into buying external batteries, as I did with the other device.

Maybe switching phones every six months seems a little nuts. It's not my usual style. But I wanted to get access to a real keyboard, a clean interface, and experience the breadth of the Android ecosystem as the opportunities are available. Rather than waiting around 18 to 24 months for the next iterative update from Apple or praying it gets access to one more carrier in the US, I'm on a great network that works for me, with access to a fast-growing application marketplace that is now getting interest from the top developers. After all, we just got 45 more levels in Angry Birds today. And I've got a great new screen to play them on.

Funneling The Web's Firehose of Data Through a Thin Pipe

For the past several years, much like many of you, the fastest Internet speeds I have enjoyed have been at home. Very often, corporate networks, be they those at headquarters or client sites or shared networks at events and public settings, lag well behind my own home experience. For me, considering my devotion to being always-on, fast Internet is practically as important, if not more so, than good food or other more traditional human comforts, and any interruption of said flow is personally trying.

That would explain why when moving the family to our new house last Friday, getting access to high speed Internet again as soon as possible was a major priority, and finding a stopgap for the interim was just as critical. Luckily, Comcast took care of us Wednesday, bringing fast WiFi to our new home at great speeds, and for the five days previous, the HTC Evo did the very best it could, making the extra $30 a month I pay for its Hotspot capability, powered by Sprint, worth every penny.

In contrast to AT&T's sloth when it has come to empowering tethering and letting my previous smartphone reach its full potential, Sprint has been leading the charge in letting phones be as much about data as they are about voice. In the same month that AT&T eliminated their unlimited data plan and set their highest end plan at 2 GB, I not only flew past that point, but 3 GB as well. This is because, as I mentioned at the end of last month, I am using the wireless hotspot often - at client sites, at cafes, restaurants, shopping centers, and yes, in the last week, as the sole provider for Internet at our home. It might not have been the fastest Web ever, but it sure got the basics going.

If you have experienced full-speed always on Internet, only to have that taken away for a longer period, the available narrowband becomes much like a triage situation. YouTube viewing has to go away (much to my own kids' consternation and much iPad banging). Streaming music services (like Spotify) are a non-starter. Downloading movies or apps from iTunes was a pipe dream, and as great as the Hotspot is, only two computers can share at one time, so we found ourselves disabling one iPad to let another device - be it laptop or tablet - onto the Web. Survival of the fittest.

Sprint reported more than 3 GB pulled down on the Evo in June.

As someone who refuses to be out of the loop on information, despite such data hurdles, I found myself making time to get the most critical data and skipping out on more frivolous activities. I still powered through Google Reader, gnashing my teeth at photo-laden entries, and browsed Twitter mostly by phone, but activity on social networks was reduced - especially on Google Buzz, where the prospect of waiting for Gmail to load before getting to the network itself was too much to consider.

The good news is that Comcast not only turned on our Web access Wednesday, but the speeds are fantastic. After about 5 days of strained narrowband, we were more than happy to turn over our iPads to the twins and have them back to surfing YouTube - and it only took seconds for me to pull down the 40+ megabyte download for Safari 5.01 yesterday. In fact, SpeedTest.net shows 20 Mbps around the clock, so our broadband is back and kicking. I'm glad we have the HTC Evo ready for a backup, but it's not going to replace the full-speed stream any time soon. I love my broadband.

The Art of Being Pragmatic In a World of Fanboys

      
For just about any topic or choice, there comes pressure to take a side, to align yourself with a group who can reinforce that your choice was the right one, and any alternative choice is somehow wrong or inferior. Even when choices, be they politics, sports or technology, are very similar, the differences are magnified, and camps are erected to defend one's position. It plays out every day in my RSS feeds and social streams, as you see a battle between Mac and PC, Facebook and Twitter or Buzz, Android versus iPhone. One's preferences even go so far as to define who you are, and who chooses to follow you, as most people would rather see their own viewpoints reinforced than gain insight into a differentiated position.

As technology improves, I've found the need to become entrenched and ready for Holy War, setting out to convert the unbelievers, is decreasing. For the most part, the leaders in any market are "good enough" for most needs, or the #1 property is clearly the best, and most all people are there. So I have been working to make my choices based on my own experiences, not rhetoric, data over emotion, and have increasingly made it easier to migrate data and profiles should the time come that I needed to switch.

It's enough to make my former would-be tattooed with the Apple logo soul turn over in its grave. Where I once gave Tips on Being an Apple Fanboy, I later spun up Windows 7 and found it to be pretty good, and I even turned my back on iPhone after finding the Android platform was a better fit for me. Just yesterday I sold back my iPhone 3G to Sprint and got a new HTC Hero for my wife so she too can be off the platform, and off AT&T.

I truly believe we are past the time where there must be opposition in all things. It can make for good headlines to pit one side over another, but if you think about it, we have more access to more things than ever before, and competition is making access to these products easier and better from more places. (Louis CK agrees)

I do not care what Web browser you use. I still harbor some disbelief that anybody uses IE, of course, but Firefox, Chrome and Safari are all good options. If you run Mac OS X or Linux or Windows 7, you are making an effort to be cutting edge. If you are rocking a BlackBerry or an Android or the newest model iPhones, you are probably on the right path. So good for you! I may have my personal preferences for "right now", based on my own insight, but the way I use technology is not the same way you do. The fact that I can tease out 10 to 20+ hours of battery life on my HTC EVO, but many notable bloggers can't doesn't make them wrong or mean I am lying. It's just a difference of use, and good tweaking on my part.

I do not care if you prefer Twitter to Facebook or LinkedIn, so long as you are getting what you want out of each service, and that it is serving you well. I may use them less than I use Google Buzz or FriendFeed today, but that doesn't mean I need to constantly play the role of evangelist to push you into agreeing with me. And I really don't care if you like WordPress or Posterous or Tumblr to my Blogger. That's your choice. Good for you.

So yesterday, when I did announce my finally moving off iPhone to Android, I got some response from around the Web saying I made the wrong choice, that I didn't understand how amazingly awesome the iPhone 4 was. Maybe, in a previous year, I would have been among the others saying the same. But now, I've decided I'll try new things and make a decision based on my experience, rather than going ahead in one way just because I always have. When I first tried the demo EVO from Google I/O, I was nervous with it, the same way I was the first time I sat in front of a Windows NT machine, expected to go to work. I didn't know if my experience would suffer, or I would be missing something. But, as you know, I found it to be quite good, and in the Bay Area, the quality of Sprint over AT&T was a major push for us to consider an alternative, after our family has spent hundreds of dollars each month to get less than acceptable service.

You know what my biases and preferences are. I'll talk about them here, and you can see me vote with my own activity. Maybe I'll convince you to like the same things I do. But I am working to shed any drooling fanboy label, and demonstrate an open mind. So do show me what you know that I don't. Introduce me to services and platforms I've never seen. It's a great time to be a tech consumer.

iPhone 4 Is Nice, But It's Not Enough to Slow Android

I am running in danger of sounding as much an Android fanboy as I ever was an iPhone fanboy, so let it be known even if the subject is changed, the internal debate continues to rage, and the enthusiasm to make the right choice, fairly, is still the same. Like most of you, I wondered how Apple and Steve Jobs could wow us with the latest iteration of iPhone, and whether it would be enough to attract those of us considering Android as an alternative - most specifically the new HTC EVO or similar devices - to come back to the Apple fold.

With Jobs' keynote complete, it looks like Apple is making some good moves with high quality imagery, cameras, and smart integrated apps like iMovie and FaceTime, but I didn't see anything that made me feel I have made the wrong choice. I stand by the belief that Android has achieved parity with Apple in many respects, is superior to the platform in a few ways, and has the momentum behind it with an ecosystem set up for continued growth - not held down by the still-stunning ineptitude of a major partner like AT&T.

The iPhone 4 update focused on improved screen quality with more pixels, the long-awaited introduction of multi-tasking, HD video recording at 720 pixels, a fast Apple A4 processor, the introduction of a front camera, and two pieces of software - iMovie for editing of film clips on the iPhone, and FaceTime for video calling, assuming both parties have iPhone 4 models.

The introduction of multi-tasking and a front-facing camera both are catch up features to the latest Android models, including the aforementioned EVO. The iPhone is no doubt thinner than the EVO, and speed and battery life measures are subjective. But Apple's complete silence on wireless hotspotting, tethering, and finding an alternative to the boat anchor of AT&T were a big miss. While the company can trot out market share statistics showing installed market share for iPhone devices ahead of Android, it certainly seems like the onslaught of capable devices running Android are eating into Apple's share - and that's something which fancy iAds aren't going to fix.

If I were an Apple developer today, I would be very happy with the company's revenue sharing policies and attempts to further improve monetization with iAds. I might even take them at face value when Jobs said they were approving the overwhelming majority of applications submitted to the iTunes store. But I would absolutely make sure I was also coding my applications for Android. I believe that if I were starting a business built on mobile applications today, I would start by coding for the Android platform, as there is a greater chance to gain first mover advantage in that marketplace, and to become a revenue leader as the tide rises. Code for Android first, and iPhone/iPad second.

What I was looking for today was not a device that offered feature parity or similarity to what I have now somewhere else - on a platform that isn't limiting me to the manufacturer or to the carrier. I wanted more flexibility and more functionality. An iPhone 4-only parlor trick of video calling much like that on AIM or Skype or Yahoo! Messenger from the last decade isn't what is going to make my phone buying decisions made up, but instead, a promise to create a high quality experience for all aspects of my using the device.

AT&T has failed that litmus test of quality and has done so consistently for years. Today, Apple had the opportunity to look customers in the eye, and either apologize for the poor service we have come to accept from AT&T and Apple, and the missed promises, or better yet, offer an alternative. They didn't. That tells me either they do not fully understand the magnitude of the problem, or they think they can get away with continuing to ignore it.

Apple, I didn't want a thinner iPhone that's slightly faster and better looking. I wanted a promise that the new one would make phone calls, act as a fantastic Web device, and provide 3G access to other devices. Today, you didn't do that, and it's disappointing. A smartphone can't be smart if it's married to a company as dumb as AT&T.

iPhone Armageddon: A Week With Android & EVO

Last Monday, I mentioned that I was starting a self-initated experiment to put my iPhone aside and use the Android-powered HTC EVO, with Sprint voice service, exclusively for at least the full week. Curious if Android and the new handset could live up to the same standards, or better, than those I have come to expect from Cupertino for the better part of two years, what is worth noting is that I haven't gone back to the iPhone out of frustration at any point. I haven't lusted after any specific functionality or felt completely at a loss for specific applications, and most importantly, I know that if the iPhone platform were to magically evaporate from the Earth tomorrow, all would be well, because the iPhone is no longer the only highly qualified smartphone game in town. I expect I will be watching Steve Jobs' WWDC presentations very closely later this month to see what is the story with the next generation iPhone and software, but I would be perfectly happy if I never had to use an iPhone again.

Making a choice of smartphones is not a winner takes all proposition any more, as I mentioned on Saturday, so I am not going to tell you what you should do with your mobile plans. Instead, the goal is to share what I found as differences between the two platforms' combined experiences - from software, hardware and execution.

Voice Quality: No Dropped Calls With Sprint - Ever.

First things first, and this is a big one... I have not dropped a single call or complained about voice quality in any way in my use of the HTC EVO. On the iPhone, whether a call would drop unexpectedly or not was a constant concern. Whether you think fault lies with AT&T or with Apple, the fact that this problem continues to be so widespread, with no end in sight, is a major point in the corner for Android's wide array of carrier options. Once I forwarded my calls from iPhone to the EVO, and connected the EVO to the bluetooth in my car, nobody ever had to know I wasn't using my original phone - except for the fact the calls always went through. The only issue I have ever encountered related to the phone is that Sprint's 30-day trial doesn't include international access, so when I missed a call from Barak Hachamov of My6sense, whose main number hails from Israel, I couldn't call him back.

If Apple goes through another WWDC, and beyond, with AT&T having an exclusive, the platform will have major problems - regardless of Android's perceived quality or app ecosystem. But everything I have heard points to Apple at least partnering up with Verizon as an alternative in the near-term, which will stem the tide of switchers.

   

App Screens on my HTC EVO - Much like the iPhone

Starting With the EVO's Apps, Screens and Widgets

Initial experience with the EVO, and my continued use over the last week plus, has been very easy to grasp, coming from the iPhone platform. While the device is not without its issues, as evidenced by the somewhat arcane error messages I encountered with some frequency, and the not-invincible battery life, I rapidly set up the phone's home screen and subsequent pages with many familiar application icons, just as I did the iPhone. But Android also offers the ability to add Widgets, which are essentially smaller live applications that display content directly, without having to be opened. For example, I added widgets for Twitter and Facebook, letting me thumb through friends' updates directly. I also added widgets for Google Analytics, Google Buzz and Mint.com, giving me stats at a glance.

  

Twitter and Facebook Widgets, Plus All Screens At Once on the EVO

Sliding between phone screens on the EVO is precisely as you would expect, coming from the iPhone, with a few small twists. While the iPhone starts with the home screen fixed to the left and subsequent screens are to the right, the EVO home screen is the center position, atop an arc, with screens both to the left and right of center. And unlike the iPhone, you can tap the home button twice to see all screens, offering quick navigation to one or another.

Also a benefit in the EVO's corner - the option to install applications without taking up valuable screen real estate. In the world of iPhone, every downloaded application gets a spot on one screen or another. On the EVO, removing apps from a screen doesn't delete them, as they are all essentially shortcuts. I could even put multiple instances of an application on one screen or multiple screens if I felt like it.

   

Many Apps and Widgets Are Available on the EVO

Future Features Above the iPhone

Other major benefits to the EVO that the iPhone 3G lacks (note I do not have the 3GS) are much discussed, from multi-tasking to offering a wireless hotspot, tethering, an integrated camcorder, and a front-facing camera. We know the 3GS has the camcorder, and the lack of tethering again falls to AT&T, while multitasking arrives in iPhone OS 4, but the EVO has all these today, not forcing me to wait for the next rev of software or for the carrier to catch up to competition.

The Notifications Box Keeps Me Updated On What's Happening

One of the features I have enjoyed on the EVO is pull-down Notifications tab which, from one place, alerts me to new e-mails from both my .Mac account and GMail, mentions on Twitter, updates on the Marketplace and shows me the current status of any music applications I may be running - including the Android version of Sonos (Androinos), Last.fm, or Sirius XM Radio.


Multi-Tasking Is Great, Except for Multi-Crashing

   

Errors Are Not An Uncommon Sight On the EVO

The ability to multitask on the phone is extremely welcome. It's not uncommon to be running a music service in the background, while browsing another thing on the Web, having e-mail getting checked on multiple accounts, and, possibly, letting the phone's built-in Navigation alert us to the next stop. (So long as I am in the passenger seat, of course) But multitasking is not without its problems. In addition to what some people have said is poor battery life, I was frequently surprised by background apps crashing and needing to be force quit, while I was using another app. The good news was that the foreground app could keep going, but the frequency of crashes - combined with engineering-friendly explanations as to what actually happened, should get a lot of work as the platform (and accompanying devices) increase in sales and get picked up by less geeky customers.

A Maps Crash Interrupted My Baseball Game

Apps and Apps Everywhere - Quality Needs a Boost

Coming from the viewpoint of an iPhone-a-holic, the breadth of offerings on the iTunes App Store set the stage to potentially be disappointed with what I often heard was a non-comparable Android Marketplace. What I did find, however, was that practically every need was met when I searched for it. Almost all the major applications I truly wanted are posted on both platforms, and for those that are still not there (for example, my6sense, CinchCast and Redfin), in most cases, I already know Android versions are in the works. Where the Marketplace did often fall short, however, was the quality of the apps.

   

Redfin and Etrade are Two Notable Holes In the Marketplace

For the most part, it is easy to determine that iPhone and iPad applications are better than those on Android, in appearance, polish and ease of use. Instead of all the major brand names one can see dominating the iTunes store, the Android Marketplace is populated, seemingly, by lesser-known developers, often unaffiliated. That doesn't necessarily spell bad news for the Marketplace. I would chalk that up more to the newness of the platform, and its open source ties, while iTunes is more tied to labels and has had a big headstart. Those of us who tried to buy music off iTunes back in 2003 and 2004 remember fondly how light the options were back then as well - so I wouldn't be surprised if the same kind of migration headed Android's way, and quality improved.

Back in October, I started talking aloud about the opportunity for Google to replace Apple in many of the applications and devices we Mac fans have enjoyed. One of the biggest draws for Apple users is the company's integration of software and hardware. My Apple devices work best with MobileMe and iLife keeping all my digital media in one place, from mail to calendars, music and photos. The iPhone and iPad leverage that marriage. But the Android platform is married to equivalent Google services - meaning to gain the best experience, one should optimize their Google Contacts, GMail, Google Calendar, Google Talk and other apps. Once complete, the Android/Google data concept could be as interwoven as the Apple iPhone experience has been. For me, getting to a happy state meant exporting my Address Book contacts on the Mac and reimporting them to my GMail, which also impacted my Buzz connections, but made the Address Book on my HTC EVO completely up to date. Purchases from the Android Marketplace also tapped my Google Checkout account, associated with my GMail.

Photos and Video

Hard-core gadget geeks who like to dissect every megapixel might want to know how the EVO's camera (and camcorder) stack up against those of the iPhone. First of all, the camera on the EVO is higher resolution. It also automatically focuses on the main subject of the photo, to the best of its ability, and it offers Flash as well. The front-facing camera is also a nice touch, even though it is of lower quality. You can also see a few of the videos we made with the EVO on YouTube. Solid quality equal to that from our Casio handheld - even if not a professional offering.

Where the iPhone wins here is the ease of integration with iPhoto, and multiple issues I had with EVO saying I didn't have file permissions set correctly on my SD card when it came time to actually take pictures or shoot video. If you have ever been somebody who needed to take the picture - right now - it's not exactly the time to try and troubleshoot file permissions, consider unmounting the SD card, or turning the phone off and on, so that was frustrating.

Don't Assume Your Geeky Target is the Only Audience

Also frustrating? The frequent feeling that I was working not with polished software, but with a product still in beta. While Google has no doubt made tremendous strides in their development and release of Android in the last few years, basic elements like taking a screenshot - which on the iPhone is a snap - require too much research, or investigation into third party apps. The error codes also seemed to be better served to the developers making the product and not the end user, who could care less if (process com.google.android.apps.maps) stopped unexpectedly. I also wondered at times where I was downloading software to, in the rare case I did, or why I had reached the number of maximum windows open in my Web browser when, so far as I could tell, only three were.

I did test out the EVO's hotspot capability, thinking the feature would come in handy either for long car trips or outings to the park when one of us would want to bring our 3G-less iPads. Sure enough, it worked. By turning on the EVO's hotspot capability, my daughter could browse YouTube in the back seat on the iPad as we drove from our home to Palo Alto, and while she's only approaching 2 years old, she didn't complain about any stuttering or slowness. That said, trying to type or use the phone when it was in hotspot mode was pure molasses, so if you are running it as a hotspot, make sure that's all you're doing.

Power Up, Captain!

Other reviews of the EVO have slammed the product's battery life. I won't. For me, practically the only major computing device I can trust to not run down quickly is the iPad. I have always left my iPhone powered up overnight and carried my USB cables with me in case I needed a charge. I found the EVO to be similar, and even left it unplugged overnight a few times with no problems, finding it half-way full the next morning. If you use the phone as an alarm clock, as I have been, it's much safer to use the EVO unplugged than it is the iPhone, which might die before asking to wake you up. No doubt the EVO can consume plenty of juice, but that's due to the many things you are able to do at once. If you do think you're sucking down too much power too frequently, it makes sense to get a Task Killer and stop all wayward apps whenever you can. I found myself doing this often - a necessary evil of sorts that one hasn't had to encounter with the one app at a time world of iPhone, but it hasn't been so troublesome as to stop me from recommending the EVO as an option.

Conclusion (For Now)

Going into testing the EVO (And Android in parallel), the goal was to discover if making a switch would eliminate problems or introduce them, while adding features or stopping me from doing things I have always done with the iPhone. What I found overall was that the EVO gives me access to all the core pieces I need in a phone - from high quality phone calls and Bluetooth support, to a solid Web browser and access to bookmarks, contacts, calendars and e-mail. The EVO was built with more hooks to sharing and social sites than the iPhone has been, with much more flexibility in terms of how the device could be configured, with all sorts of static and live wallpapers, or different scenes that come bundled with the phone. Of course, the missing core for EVO is iTunes. The Marketplace is good, but until the Chrome Web Store debuts, there is no equivalent for browsing the PC and finding rich applications, music and media.

Anybody who thinks that Android is miles behind the iPhone in terms of usability and flexibility at this point is wrong. Yes, the Android experience has some rough edges, but they can be smoothed with time. There is no shortage of applications for download - even though some major names haven't yet made the move. Meanwhile, call quality on a respected carrier can make all the difference in the world for the basics of what the phone is supposed to do in the first place. My 30-day trial with Sprint goes through mid-June, after the conclusion of Apple's WWDC, which gives me plenty of time to keep using the EVO and watching what's next with iPhone 4 on iPhone OS 4.0. But I am feeling much more tempted to investigate the process of porting my number to Sprint than I am feeling tempted to go back to the iPhone right now. If I want an iPhone experience, I'll just go pick up my iPad.

Hey iPhone, Forward All My Calls (To Android)

This morning, when I left for work, I also left my iPhone at home. Blasphemy, I know. But in the interest of giving Android a fair shake, which I have never done before, I have told my iPhone to forward all my calls, and intend to use the HTC Evo 4G (powered by Sprint) that I received from Google I/O last week, exclusively, for the entire week. Since gaining the device on Thursday, my iPhone use has already dropped down to a mere minimum, as much for testing as anything else, and I am finding where Android's latest offering matches up, and the cases where Apple clearly still has an edge. While it makes sense to leave anything resembling final decision making until after the conclusion of WWDC next month, I want to end May as an informed citizen who has equally consumed the Kool-Aid from the two warring camps - not as an uninformed bigot who will throw down whenever anyone questions his undying allegiance.

Deciding which direction to go as a consumer, one with significant history on one side (Apple), will depend on a few things:

1. Will making a switch eliminate any problems I have with the current platform?
2. Will making a switch gain me features I am missing on my current platform?
3. Will making a switch introduce new problems?
4. Will making a switch remove my access to things I am used to?

Clearly, new features and removed problems would be fantastic - while dealing with new headaches and lacking functionality would be less than ideal. I expect to find all of the above, and the frequency and severity of 1 through 4 will aid toward my long-term decision.

First things first, going a week on Sprint's network instead of AT&T's, should make it clear how the two differ, after nearly two years of my battling dropped calls and flaky 3G connections.

Secondly, I will need to find out which applications that I use on a daily basis on my iPhone have equivalents on the Android platform, and which do not. For those that do have equivalents, I will need to find if additional costs are needed to make them available.

While all the industry buzz is around Android Froyo (2.2) and the iPhone 4, planned for June debut, or so we think, I am admittedly a little behind already in both cases. The HTC EVO, while much respected on the hardware side, is running Android 2.1, and I am going to have to compare it with my iPhone 3G, at least until version 4 shows up. This means that Apple doesn't get a perfect position from me - as I am not contrasting it with a 3GS, and its camcorder, improved speed, etc., but I'll try to be realistic.

Forgoing a more thorough review, best saved for later, making the transition from iPhone to Android seems pretty simple. I set up my Apple mail account on the phone, as well as GMail. I configured the native Twitter client, as well as Google Buzz. The embedded Web browser is quite good, and streaming my personalized Last.fm radio station hasn't had me missing iTunes. The addition of an 8 megapixel camera and a video camera to the phone are also solid pluses for the EVO. On the flip side, I have managed to crash a number of apps, and their error messages haven't been too user friendly. Meanwhile, it turns out the rather simple act of taking a screenshot on Android is best reserved for someone with a computer science degree, not nearly as simple as on iPhone.

For the most part, I have found the applications I use on the iPhone to be available on the Android Marketplace. I don't have Cinchcast for simplified podcasts, and I couldn't find Redfin for real estate, but with those exceptions, practically everything is there. I have heard people say that some of the applications on the Android platform are not as well done as those for the iPhone, and I understand where they are coming from. There's a mix of Windows/Linux feel to some apps, while iPhone feels more like Apple, but I am trading form for function where it makes sense.

Having a phone that multitasks is a wonderful thing, and I haven't dropped a call yet. But I'll see how I feel about this particular platform by the end of the week. Let me know if you have any particular questions about the hardware or software you want me to test, and I'll do my best to give it a run.

Disclosure: I received the HTC EVO free as part of my attending Google I/O. Similarly, I gained my iPhone 3G from Socialmedian back in 2008. I guess that makes me cheap.

Thoughts On AT&T (What Steve Jobs Should Have Written)

Inspired by: Thoughts on Flash

Apple has a long relationship with AT&T. In fact, we share 1984 as a rebirth of sorts for both companies - us with the introduction of the Macintosh, and them with their government-forced breakup into eight companies, thanks to intervention by the U.S. Department of Justice. By 1986, we saw AT&T rise to the #3 position in computer sales, while we held the #2 spot, behind IBM. In the early 1990s, we asked AT&T to design Hobbit, a high-speed low-power chip for our Newton project. While we later chose ARM for the Newton, we respected AT&T's efforts. I could keep going, but just trust me when I say the two companies have long worked closely together to pioneer the world of telecommunications and computing and there have been many good times. More recently, in 2007, Apple chose Cingular as our exclusive provider of cellular phone service for the iPhone. We chose Cingular because it was the best, and the most popular. After this time, Cingular purchased AT&T Wireless, and became the new AT&T. Our old friend, back again. Today, the two companies - Apple and AT&T - still work together to serve customers cellular phone service and 3G mobile Internet access - but beyond that there are few joint interests.

I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on AT&T's wireless service so that customers and critics may better understand why we should soon be moving away from exclusivity with AT&T on our iPhones and iPads in the United States. AT&T has characterized our relationship as strong, and heavily leans on revenue they have received from Apple iPhone customers to show the company's strength - but in reality, this relationship is falling apart based on technology issues. AT&T claims that they have the strongest 3G wireless offering in the country, and that almost all Americans have access to their network, but in fact the opposite is true. Let me explain.

First, there's "The Best 3G Experience"

AT&T says they have the "best" 3G experience. This is true, assuming you live in one of the few places in the United States that has access to 3G. The reason it is the best? Because they have access to the iPhone and the iPad. It's not the network that makes the 3G experience so good. It's our applications and our hardware. While AT&T says their 3G network is widely available, that does not mean you can get access to it - even in major metropolitan areas, such as San Francisco and New York. By almost any definition, AT&T's "best" is a level of mediocre so horrid we would never allow it to have an Apple brand associated with it.

Apple has many products we also call the "best". Our laptops are the best in the world. Mac OS X is the best operating system in the world. Our digital devices are best in class. They are practically works of art that belong in a museum, and you would leave your significant other to have one. Apple defines what is best because we are the best. We have set the standard in every market.

Second, there's "The Nation's Fastest 3G Network"

AT&T has repeatedly said their network offers the fastest 3G experience - and their commercials highlight benchmarks that show quicker download speeds than Verizon. What they don't say is that this only happens in 3 out of the top 100 metropolitan areas in the country, and when you are actually sitting within 40 feet of an AT&T access point, provided nobody else is using the network at the same time you are. With the iPad and iPhone presenting perhaps the best content discovery and viewing experience ever, you will be frequently challenged to find a place where you can consider AT&T's 3G network "fast".

This is evidenced by the recent news that the 3G experience on our new 3G iPad is crippled, stuck at an embarrassing 64 Kbps when streaming video on AT&T's network. The only way this is the fastest is when it comes to how quickly our customers are giving up trying and hitting stop, only to wait until they don't need to rely on this slow 3G network, and can tap into trusted WiFi. There are more videos, songs and game titles available for iPhone and iPad than for any other platform in the world, but AT&T's "fast" 3G network isn't fast enough.

Third, there's "Talk and Surf at the Same Time"

AT&T recently highlighted the network's ability to talk and surf the Web at the same time on a single device. We know first hand that AT&T can make this claim only because they drop so many calls automatically, customers are still looking up the data on the Web before they realize the conversation has been interrupted. AT&T's fine print shows you can surf the Web and talk at the iPhone at the same time, so long as you are only talking with yourself. We don't want to reduce the reliability and high customer satisfaction of our iPhones and iPads by sticking with AT&T.

In addition, AT&T has promised network upgrades every year that would withstand the high demand from our customers. We have routinely asked AT&T to deliver the ability to tether iPhones to laptops or iPads, or any mobile device, to provide Internet access, for a few years now. We have never seen it. AT&T publicly said that tethering would ship in late 2009, then the first half of 2010, and now they say the second half of 2010. We think it will eventually ship, but we're glad we didn't hold our breath. Who knows what level of mediocrity they would ask us to accept?

Fourth, there's HTC and BlackBerry and Nokia.

To achieve a long partnership when working in mobile, companies need to be working together as one. But despite our exclusive agreement with AT&T for them to be the sole wireless carrier for our devices, they never returned the favor, offering to sell only Apple mobile devices - despite the fact ours are the best. Many of AT&T's alternative partners, including HTC and Nokia, are actually in the middle of deep, intricate lawsuits with us, and we cannot abide with a "partner" who makes deals with these other companies behind our back.

Although AT&T claims to be offering a wide family of devices with a family of mobile operating systems, at Apple, we recognize that it is support of all these other devices which is slowing their network down, and reducing accessibility for the only customers who really matter - Apple customers, who have proven themselves as valuable and more intelligent customers because of their computing device choices.

When carriers open up their networks to competitive products that are infringing on our patents, which we will defend tirelessly, we cannot trust that those clients are not reverse-engineering our hardware and software by intercepting our wireless signals. We cannot risk the security and trust of our customers by spending another day sharing the spectrum with cheap knockoffs such as these.

Fifth, there's Sex.

Apple is sexy. I famously once asked a job applicant at Apple, "Are you a virgin?" Some of these AT&T drones, and their entire business, have absolutely no sex appeal. There is nothing sexy about telephone wires, counting minutes and pixelated video. Apple's revolutionary multi-touch interface and hardware doesn't need to be made impotent by being tied to such a soulless and emotionless corporation who cannot deliver in the boardroom, let alone the bedroom.

Even if AT&T were to redesign their sterile Death Star-like logo to be hot pink and they started every commercial with electronic house music, it would not solve the problem that their access is terrible, their leadership is poor and they are pulling us down like an oil slick takes down a seagull.

Sixth, the most important reason.

Besides the fact that AT&T does not offer fast 3G access practically anywhere in the country, constantly drops standard voice calls in every place in the country, cannot handle our current demand from its elite Apple customer base, and cannot be expected to upgrade their network or deliver basic features, such as MMS or phone tethering, on a schedule that is even close to its competition, and that they lack loyalty and sex appeal, there is a more important reason we do not want to move forward with the AT&T relationship with iPhones and iPads. We have discussed the many downsides of this AT&T contract, and how it has crippled our revolutionary devices, but AT&T wants you as consumers to pay more for the privilege of getting screwed.

We know from painful experience that bad customer service does not always return an inexpensive price. After all, look at Microsoft Office or Adobe Creative Suite for two examples of hugely expensive products that stink. AT&T must have gone to the same school of price gouging and marketing to come up with their strategy to charge Apple customers, because many of you are paying triple digits each month just to get your phone to see two or maybe three bars a few hours every day.

This becomes even worse if AT&T tricks you into purchasing an unlimited data plan for your iPad or your iPhone. You are paying upwards of $30 a month for data alone, only to find you can't download hardly anything over AT&T's network, because you can never get to it. Again, we cannot accept an outcome where our customers are blocked from using our innovative devices because their downstream Web services and applications are inaccessible on the network.

Our motivation is simple - we want to provide the most advanced and innovative platform for our customers, and we want them to pay a fair price for high quality. At Apple, we aren't shy about asking customers to pay the most if they are getting the best, and we will always deliver the best the world has ever seen. We want to continually enhance our offerings so everyone wins. AT&T is standing in our way and yours, and we want to delight you in the way we know we can.

Conclusions.

AT&T was created in the 19th century for a time of operator switch boards and later, rotary phones. Wireless is a successful business for AT&T and we can understand if they don't understand this new world of 3G, high speed data and next generation mobile devices. This new era is all about instant access and real connections - calls that complete, downloads that actually happen, and openness for the best hardware platform in the world - all areas where AT&T falls short.

The avalanche of wireless carriers begging to be associated with Apple's mobile devices demonstrates that AT&T is no longer necessary for Apple's iPad and iPhone to move forward. The millions of phones we have in consumers' pockets around the world show that our ecosystem is thriving, despite having AT&T as a boat anchor in our home country.

New standards for download speeds, connectivity and real-time application response will win on mobile devices like the iPad and iPhone. Perhaps AT&T should focus more on creating access points and any connectivity at all, rather than criticizing Verizon and other mature carriers for delivering good products. Apple is going to leave the past behind. You just wait.

May, 2010

10 Predictions for 2010 In the World of Tech

Following on to predictions for 2009 and for 2008, as well as their results. (2009 | 2008)

Keep in mind I would rather not predict the obvious.

1. Twitter Manages to Complete 2010 With No Major Hacking or Security Incidents

Despite a strong 2009 that saw the microblogging service graduate from the geeks to more mainstream appeal, Twitter remained plagued by a number of uptime issues and some extremely visible hacking and security incidents that led to slowness and downtime. As part of the company's maturation process, Twitter will build the personnel and infrastructure necessary to withstand such future attacks, and 2010 will go major incident free. There may be some slowness, but no outages via the dark corners of the Web.

2. Seeing Android and iPhone, Windows Mobile Will Aim for Parity, and Fail

Microsoft, jealous at all the consumer and media attention around the iPhone, and now Android, will try to remain relevant, launching a new version of Windows Mobile, and hyping its own apps, just like they did when they launched the Palm PC line (later Pocket PC) following the PDA's rise to power. Their approach will not be seen as comparable to Android or iPhone and will not change their market share in a positive way.

3. Apple Will End Exclusivity With AT&T, Adding T-Mobile and Verizon

With AT&T being a massive black eye for Apple's iPhone in the US, the company will finally end exclusivity with the telecommunications carrier, and strike deals with both T-Mobile and Verizon. Consumers will be able to switch carriers and keep their numbers. Unsurprisingly, users may find that those networks aren't perfect either.

4. Facebook Will Announce a Migration Plan for FriendFeed Users

The mystery around Facebook's plan for FriendFeed will become clear in the first half of 2009, as not only does the company improve its network with FriendFeed-like elements, but existing users of FriendFeed will be given guidance on how the two networks can converge, while protecting their existing content and contacts.

5. Google Wave Will Exit 2010 Still In Beta

While Google Wave will continue to improve and may open up to all visitors, without requiring invites, the product will still be seen as experimental, and will not shed its beta tag, keeping it through the end of the year, much like GMail and other products from Mountain View before it.

6. Facebook, Zynga, LinkedIn Will All Go Public

After a dearth of IPO activity in the last two years, 2010 will see a resurgence, especially from Silicon Valley VCs, who are eager to make profits to help assuage the wounds of losses from the last few years. Facebook and LinkedIn will be among the larger IPOs, with Zynga also filing, and other smaller companies following suit.

Twitter may file, but will not be public by the end of 2010.

7. Chrome OS Netbooks Will Be Available from Major Retailers

Google's Chrome OS will reach a maturity level that it will be sold on netbooks alongside more traditional offerings from major retailers including Best Buy.

8. Many Social Media Experts Will Launch Mediocre Agencies

Many of the self-proclaimed social media experts will leave their corporate day jobs and strike it out on their own, looking to convert the world to Twitter and Facebook fan pages. A good number of them will find that the world of business relies a lot more on revenue than it does on retweets and @replies, and may walk away disappointed.

9. Google, Facebook and Apple Will All Make $1B+ Acquisitions

In addition to the new public market activity, acquisitions will again become trendy. Google and Apple will make full use of their growing cash hordes, and will make at least one ten-figure transaction in the year. Facebook, fresh off its cash raised from the IPO, will do the same, largely in stock.

10. The Real-Time Search Market Will Consolidate

One or more of the active dedicated real-time search companies will find differentiation difficult, especially with Google, Bing, Twitter Search and others participating. The trailing market share participant will either merge with an existing site, will close down, or look for a low-budget buyer.

You Would Have to Be Insane to Get a New iPhone Now

By my own conventional standards, this Christmas should have seen the arrival of two new iPhones in the Gray household. My iPhone 3G is somewhat long in the tooth, and has clear cracking in the bottom right corner, where Sarah clunked it on the kitchen tile. My wife's cell phone, inexplicably, is missing, and has been for weeks. While mentally, I'm all set to close out her old account, and sign us both up with new iPhone 3GS units, every single time I start the process, I just start getting ticked off at AT&T, and the more I think about it, the more ridiculous it seems that I would sign on the dotted line to any kind of long-term contract with Apple right now.

The number 3 has been bandied about a lot of late, with Verizon and AT&T having a proverbial pissing match over maps in the last few months. But the number 3 also frames the major sticking points that have stopped me from heading to the mall and forking over a few hundred bucks to get us both on the near cutting edge.

Apple Says I'm THIS CLOSE to Upgrading...
Those three reasons all begin with the letter A:

1) AT&T
2) Android
3) Apple

AT&T

Forget about Verizon's stupid map for a second. The entire battle around 3G is a complete farce if the iPhone can't even maintain consistent call quality or avoid dropping calls, the most basic of requirements. Just today, I have had only two phone calls with my iPhone, and both dropped. The first was with a new client, who I hung up on in the middle of discussing success criteria, and the second was with a PR rep talking about a new announcement set for tomorrow. I joked that the iPhone hung up when it heard the word MySpace, but we both knew AT&T had choked.

The iPhone drops calls whether I have one bar or five bars. And where it should have five bars, I find myself doing a contortionist's dance to edge toward a window or a safe spot in the house where it doesn't sound like static or the person on the other line is underwater. Many other times, I get voicemail notifications when the phone itself never rang. Ridiculous.

So every time I log into the Apple Web site to test buying the iPhone 3GS, I am reminded of a two-year contract with AT&T, for me, and for my wife. Why would I ever agree to be hooked to this ball and chain when there is any chance that Apple could open up to new, better, providers in that time period, especially in the first year?

Android

Android does not have the most applications today. Switching to Android would not magically port over the applications and iTunes I have purchased, making those major roadblocks in switching platforms. But in a year when it seems all that Apple did was speed up the iPhone and add rudimentary video recording, Android went from being a niche player to a real competitor. If Google's pace of innovation continues on the platform, the iPhone's once thought to be insurmountable feature lead could be vastly eroded.


It Wouldn't be THAT Hard to Upgrade
Apple

I saw the iPhone 3GS announcement as a ho-hum improvement. Albeit the third version of the platform, following the initial iPhone and the 3G model I have, the 3GS didn't alter the landscape. That said, it's expected Apple will come out with the next generation iPhone in the middle of 2010, following WWDC. Combined with all the current buzz around the tablet, one wonders what would be missed by buying the 3GS today, if one could instead hold out for generation four.

Walking through the terms and conditions for AT&T just made me a bit sick to my stomach. I recognize that I have a lot invested in the iPhone platform. I've always been a good iPhone fanboy. I know my wife needs a new phone, and it does make some sense that we're both on the same carrier and plan, but I do feel like if I do what my natural tendency is and wander over to the Apple Store with credit card in hand, that I would be a big sucker, chained to AT&T's sub-standard service for another two years. And at the end of those two years, where will Android be? What other carriers will Apple have opened up to?

In the world of gadgetry, two years is an incredible amount of time. Maybe I should just buy these units now and plan on facing a hill of early termination charges later. But that just makes me more of a victim to the entire system. I know I'm considered crazy by some, but to do this, I would have to be certifiably insane.

Companies That Set the Market's Agenda Win

When I was very young, I remember hearing the debate in advertising of whether you should mention your main competition by name, or simply allude to them, such as saying "the leading cola brand", or "the leading paper towel", when comparing your product to theirs. While I've often been told you should never introduce your competition into the conversation when with a potential client, the vagueness of alluding to the competition actually has the reverse effect - getting the viewer or reader to think in their mind of just who that leader is, instead of taking in your message - defeating your sneakiness.

If you are a frequent consumer of news or advertising, you can see who is also being smart in terms of setting the agenda by which other competitors are measured, or putting them on the defensive. As a big Apple fan, it is very easy for me to see when Cupertino is pushing the agenda, and when they are not. When they are not, the situation is always much worse. But for any company, if they can set the agenda, and the stage, forcing competition to play by their rules, they have a significant advantage.

The iPhone Agenda: Thousands and Thousands of Apps

First, take a look at the iPhone's success and message:

The phrase "There's an app for that" and the climbing total number of applications has had Apple in a happy place - blowing past 100,000 individual programs. By setting the focus on how many total applications, the handfuls available for the Palm Pre, and the admittedly rapid growing ten thousand from Android seem relatively small. Apple set the stage in terms of how smartphones were measured, not just in terms of forcing a touchscreen, but also in the yardstick being the application store itself.

So long as Apple keeps the lead in total applications, other companies are going to be in a defensive posture when talking about how many programs they offer, or trying to suggest that most people only need a few, or that they have higher quality. It's not a good message.

Verizon's Agenda: Our 3G Coverage Is Better

But look how Verizon changed the game, and threw AT&T under the bus:

After months and months of hearing "There's an App for That", Verizon got sick of it, and started their "There's a Map for That" campaign, saying that Verizon's 3G service is much more widely available than is AT&T. Even if most pundits say that AT&T's 3G service is faster than that of Verizon, the image that remains with people is one full map for Verizon, and a sparsely dotted one for AT&T. AT&T's response to Verizon has been lackluster, not just because they were thrown together quickly, but because they were fought on Verizon's turf, by their rules.

Apple has even had to jump in to bail out their ball and chain network buddy, by trying to highlight the use of the iPhone for voice and Internet at the same time. But the whole time, we're thinking of those darn maps. Point to Verizon.

I'm a Mac, and You're a PC

Sticking with Apple for a bit, the company's Mac vs. PC commercials, as long in the tooth as they are, have set the agenda for how PC users are perceived and how Mac users are perceived, for better or for worse.

Microsoft tried to fight back, on Apple's turf, with it's "I'm a PC" ad line, but that was largely panned and ineffective, because they were unable to wrest control away from Cupertino's mindset.

It wasn't until Microsoft was able to turn the conversation away from "I'm a PC" and to "Lauren" with her low budget to push a different agenda around price that Apple was caught on the defensive.

Setting the agenda is important for any company to promote their agenda. If you are Google, you might once have said your search index is bigger, due to its billions of indexed pages, and that was why you are better - forcing competition to try and show how large their own index was, and coming up short. If you are Facebook, you will highlight your vast population of users, in the hundreds of millions, making competitors fade in comparison.

Will Android Force a New Agenda?

The battle for an agenda is especially interesting in markets that are unsettled, or at a point of change. In addition to the Verizon vs. AT&T battle mentioned before, we are at a very interesting point in the smartphone battles, with Google pushing Android into the market with Motorola's Droid, HTC's Eris and the rumored Google branded phone (coming soon). Droid has tried to make a mark on Apple by saying it "Does" things that Apple's iPhone cannot, but there hasn't yet been a cohesive approach by all Google-powered handsets to promote whatever their agenda will be. Will it be on openness in software? Will it be on openness in terms of supported voice and data carriers? Will there be a killer app that is on Android and not the iPhone at all? And if you are Microsoft or Symbian, or God forbid, Palm... what do you do? You can't win on total apps or touch, or openness, so do you make a new agenda, or call it quits?

I've seen the agenda game play out at previous jobs, and seen colleagues struggle to try and meet the criteria set by the competition - fighting a never-ending battle of certifications and partnerships or benchmarks. While we (and others) spun in place trying to catch up to others' previous mark, the competition nimbly pushed ahead with the new agenda, and changed the game again. It would make more sense to find out, for each of us, what your benefits are and how you can present the agenda to win.

iPhone Call Recording: It Makes Too Much Sense Not to Do

The introduction of the Voice Memos capability on Apple's iPhone was a nice touch. Now, in theory, if I am out and about and don't want to type in a note, I can speak into the Voice Memo and save a short audio clip. The process is also good for recording short snippets of music, or even the babies babbling, if I want to save it as an MP3 file and send it somewhere. But I've been thinking that Apple could be sitting on a much bigger use for this functionality - doing podcasts and interviews, which would take money out of the pockets of services like WebEx and Skype, and into its partner, AT&T.

Apple's iPhone already features a number of calling options once you are connected - including adding a third line, hitting mute, putting the call on speaker, and putting calls on hold. Given the iPhone's parallel option to record audio, why not add a red "Record" button alongside the conversation?

Before privacy and security advocates call foul, I assume it is very simple to have a mandatory introductory audio phrase, like "this call is being recorded", as well as beeps along the way.


Marrying Voice Memos With Phone Calls Should Be Easy
Today's world of podcasting usually deals with a third party hosting service, like Talkshoe, or gathering all parties on a Skype call, while one person manages the process. I think it would be dramatically easier to use the same way you make any other call, and just have Apple do the work of gathering the call into an MP3 file, and making it available in your iTunes for later listening, so you can upload as you please.

In theory, if Apple could enable this "Record" calls functionality, we would only be a few steps away from what could be seen as a panacea, not just for podcasters, but anybody conducting interviews. It shouldn't be too hard for a phone call to take place and to identify words and phrases by phone number (or the Address Book contact) of the person speaking. At that point, you could run the information against a new application, and have the call automatically transcribed. While this may sound like fantasy, the world we live in isn't that far from delivering excellent speech to text functionality. Pointing that tech at a recorded phone call you make on your iPhone shouldn't be that much more difficult.

Let's just turn on the record button and go.

Locking Customers to Your Product? It’s Probably Not Good Then.

Although the world of business development partnerships can be complex, rife with epic contracts with tie-ins and promises, expirations and penalties for all parties, when relationships are struck that reduce customer choice, it is a telltale sign that the product or service being provided is well below acceptable standards. You see, customers aren’t stupid. They will be your product and company’s loudest advocates, more than willing to spread the word on your behalf, if you have a game-changing offering. But if you have to rely on bundling and exclusive contracts just to rope customers in, you probably don’t have something they want all that much anyway.

The recent flare-up of seething and complaining about the quality of AT&T, and the gnashing of teeth for Apple to shed itself of its telecom overlord partner handcuffs is only the latest example of business development contracts and exclusive rights being offered at the harm of customer choice. And any time you are forced to restrict choice, there’s obviously a reason you would – a very real threat that the alternative, your competition, is good enough to take your business away if it were to be played on an even field.

The dichotomy between how Apple’s products are much sought after and AT&T’s services are much loathed could not be more clear. Although I have yet to find a consistent voice of people who enjoy their long distance provider, AT&T’s failings are well-documented, from its frequent shoddy service, to its bungling of feature rollouts, failure to provision for peak loads, and general malfeasance. Meanwhile, in contrast, Apple’s product introductions may have fans sleeping outside their retail stores for days on end, just to say they did.

There’s a reason it’s called lock-in. Because customers are trapped. And being trapped is never a good thing.

Remember the brouhaha only a decade or so ago about how Microsoft manipulated its monopoly position, forcing OEM partners to carry its Internet Explorer browser as the default, over the largely-deemed superior Netscape Navigator? At a time when very few would have selected IE as the technology leader or feature leader, it became the market leader through brute force, trickery and customer handcuffs.

When businesses have a high-quality product, they don’t fear competition the way the mediocre guys do, but instead, compete on their merits. But when threatened, that’s when you can expect the ridiculous contracts to fly – from automated renewals and multi-year contracts, to early exit penalties. And when exclusivity is not threatened, but is instead encouraged, that is when you see a relaxed approach to improvements, and of course, a scale in prices. It’s the very reason there are anti-trust laws and precedents set to stop monopolies in their tracks.

It is one thing to compete through innovation, and quite another to compete through bundling and exclusivity. And even though Apple largely is seen as the better of the two players here, recent developments in Cupertino have us wondering if they too are becoming protective of their accrued market position. One only has to look so far as their recent quashing of Google Voice, their forcing of Google Latitude to be a broken-down Web application, and rumors are now flying that the Spotify application will also face a steep task to make it onto the iPhone, as it potentially competes against iTunes.

I don’t want to sound like a hippy-dippy free markets advocate. But if customers don’t like your product, the last thing you really want them doing is sticking around and bad-mouthing you to everyone they know. If you want to compete in the market, you should not be afraid to let your products win on their merits, on their price, and on their differentiation. If you have to instead do a backroom deal that makes you the default, and there are no other options, maybe you’ve got a lot more work to do in the R&D space instead of in BD.