Tag Archives: os x

Yahoo Messenger on iPhone

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Old friend Andy Abramson’s post about Yahoo Messenger’s expansion to iPhone and iPod devices contains a nugget:

 ”…with the iPhone I now have Yahoo video to anyone running Windows XP versions or later of Yahoo Messenger (sorry, no Mac version yet) as Yahoo is taking advantage of the phone number…”

The nugget is in the parentheses.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the feature never translates to OS X because Yahoo has never really cared much about feature parity in Messenger on OS X. My guess is that they just view the market as being too small, too much of a subset of user requirements, that it isn’t worth their development dollars.  But the mobile device market–especially iOS–is  a whole different story. Lots more potential customers there.

Microsoft will rely on entrenchment as its primary market motivator

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It’s clear to me now that Microsoft, one of the “great American companies” I often refer to when talking to my kids about things I admire in business, has switched from advancement to entrenchment as its retention strategy for existing customers.  That is, rather than move their platforms forward and pull global businesses along with them, a more defensive strategy is emerging–one where Microsoft tries not to hemorrhage too much business to Google and even Apple by reminding companies how cheap it is NOT to migrate away from the Microsoft eco-system.

A fantastic example of this dynamic came to light today when it was announced that the next version of Microsoft Office for Mac will replace Redmond’s clunky Entourage e-mail app with an actual Mac OS X version of Outlook, the predominant e-mail application used in medium and large enterprises.  My company alone supports somewhere in the neighborhood of twelve-hundred Outlook nodes at about fifteen different firms.  So a Mac version of Outlook, as the t-shirt saying goes, is “kind of a big deal.”

But what’s an even bigger deal is that Outlook once ran natively on the Mac–on Mac OS 9 anyway–and shared a great deal in common with its Windows cousin.  And, suffice it to say, it was a better product than its redheaded stepchild, Entourage.  It makes me wonder why they ever canned Outlook on the Mac to begin with.

Now I’m beginning to understand that Microsoft is on an all-hands mission to get as many enterprises, large and small, as entrenched as possible before Google and other market players really step to the plate with something that competes with Microsoft, and in particular Outlook and Office.  (Anybody who suggests that Google Apps currently beats Microsoft Office is smoking some pretty harsh crack, sorry guys.)

Entrenchment is the key to damage control: keep the customer believing that it will cost them more in dollars and difficulty to move away from Microsoft, no matter how compelling the alternative, and they’ll stick with Microsoft.  This was how they (soundly) destroyed Lotus Notes, and Redmond’s incredible staying power may allow it to stave off Google Apps for quite a few years to come.

EventBox totally rocks

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I saw Luca’s tweet about EventBox, and he’s absolutely right.  This program is super cool.  It’s for managing tweets, rss updates, facebook updates, etc etc all in one place.  So far I’m loving it. Growl notifications for updates, heads-up display.  Really cool.  Grab a copy yourself if you’re running OS X 10.5 and let me know how you like it.

OS X Apps should be on the App Store

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It dawned on me that if a Shareware guy can write a simple space strategy game and hock it for ten bucks a copy on the iPhone (dude probably earned ten grand his first day on the App Store). This game called Galcon is a space strategy game, and it’s been on the iPhone App Store for just a few days. I’m assuming the guys has already paid for his dev cycle 3x or 4x over.

WHY AREN’T OS X APPLICATIONS OFFERED ON THE APP STORE?

Things to ponder….

iPhone: the first truly mainstream handheld entertainment device?

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With Bioware recently stating they’re looking into iPhone development, EA all but confirming so, and a former EA designer big-wig leaving to start an iPhone game startup, one has to wonder: is the iPhone going to accomplish what the PSP, DS, and their predecessors have thusfar failed to accomplish?

That is, to put handheld entertainment in the pockets of adults, not just kids and guys who still live with mom at age 35.

I’d say it’s a reasonable bet, especially if Apple can find a way out of that creepy deal it has with AT&T.  This deal is stifling to the consumer at large, keeping the iPhone out of many needful hands (including my own, and I’m an AT&T customer–contract-free and loving life, baby).

With the PSP having shipped close to 28 million units, it has a big head start on the iPhone, which will only ship 10 million by the end of the year, according to estimates. The DS, meanwhile, has shipped somewhere around 31 million units, easily three times Apple’s take.

Nevertheless, the iPhone has a larger screen and more storage than either device, meaning it’s better for movie-watching, and the Internet surfing experience on the iPhone is priceless. If you’ve ever used the YouTube app on the iPhone, you know what I’m talking about.

Let’s talk games, though. Early attempts at iPhone games were online, web-based tripe. DHTML stuff. Not that compelling.  But more recently, Pangea was able to port some of their flagship 3D game products over to the iPhone–products like Cro-Mag rally, a caveman racing game (think Flintstones meets Mario Kart). Apparently the conversion was done in “a matter of hours” with a “decent framerate”.

So there’s 3D API on the iPhone, the development environment, Xcode, is Cocoa-based, the operating system is OS X, and the availability of cross-platform game frameworks for OS X is excellent.  The drawback, if you consider it one, is that the iPhone doesn’t (and can’t) have a true gamepad-type control system, since it’s a 100% touch-screen device.

But with Apple’s influence and a steadily decreasing price point, the iPhone has a change to be the next big game platform, minus the AT&T stick-to-head contract, of course.