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Handheld and Mobile World

Things Always Change

November 12, 2007 by Ellen

Palmgear v. Pocketgear trafficThings always change. I’m sure it’s true for any tech company, though I think it’s more true for mobile developers than for those who develop desktop apps. I’ve lost count of how many versions of Windows Mobile (formerly Windows CE) and Palm OS we’ve been through, not to mention different screen sizes and shapes, color depths, and even basic interface components like touchscreens and navigation controls. But I think the next few years, with the iPhone and Google announcements, will change the world for mobile software developers even more than any in the past. My guess is that Microsoft and Blackberry will split the business users, while Apple and Google split the consumers, but given that my last 2 predictions (both of which I was fairly confident of) were:

  • Apple will never release or announce an SDK for the iPhone
  • the Broadway stagehands union will never strike

were both wrong, I’m pretty much batting zero for accuracy. (That may qualify me for a paid position at one of the mobile market analysis companies; they’re always wrong too. Maybe I’ll look into that.)

But another big change this week is the announcement that PalmGear is being merged into PocketGear. PalmGear was, if not the first mobile software portal, the first one of any significance. Motricity (formerly Power by Hand) bought them, as well as PocketGear (formerly CEShopper and one other name that I’ve forgotten) and Smartphone.net. For years, PalmGear was their flagship brand, and I’d assumed it still was, but apparently it’s not. Here’s a really interesting graph, courtesy of Alexa:

Palmgear v. Pocketgear traffic

So given that they’re combining the two sites, which makes a lot of sense, I guess they’ve picked the smartest way to do it. But it seems to me like a pretty loud statement of what at least Motricity believes the successful mobile OS’s of the next few years will be.

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Filed Under: Handheld and Mobile World

Palm – Do You Need Your Crystal Ball Back?

September 5, 2007 by Ellen

Our crystal ballYes, we have a crystal ball. It’s blue, about 6″ in diameter, and autographed by Jeff Hawkings. One of our staff won it at a Palm conference several years ago.

When Palm announced the Foleo a few months ago, we thought about offering it back to them – we thought they might need it more than we did – but that seemed egregiously catty. As well as somewhat premature.

But with yesterday’s annoucement that Palm is cancelling the Foleo launch, we’re thinking maybe it’s time to make the offer.

Palm – want it back? Just let us know where to send it.

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Filed Under: Handheld and Mobile World

Happy Birthday Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com!

August 3, 2007 by Julie

happy birthday!We want to wish a very happy third birthday to Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com. Many of you may already be familiar with Clinton’s site, and for those of you who aren’t, you should definitely check it out! It’s full of mobile news and reviews of some of the coolest hardware and software out right now. And today is a good time to visit the site, because Clinton is celebrating with a contest, and you don’t want to miss out!

Congratulations, Clinton, and we wish you many more years of news and reviews to come!

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Filed Under: General, Handheld and Mobile World

Where Are They Now?

August 1, 2007 by Ellen

5thbar.gifI just finished reading (OK, skimming) an interesting book called Founders at Work, interviews with founders of famous technology companies about what happened in their earliest days. It turns out that a few of them were involved with handhelds – PayPal started out as a service by which Palm users could beam each other IOUs (do people even beam using Palms anymore? I haven’t seen anyone do that in years). Another of the founders interviewed was involved with General Magic and the long-forgotten Magic Cap handheld, which we looked at for about 2 minutes in the very early days of Ilium Software.

Another former handheld company founder who’s moved on is my friend Vidal Graupera, founder of Iambic. I first met Vidal many years ago. I don’t remember where, but I very clearly remember our conversation about what a bad idea it is to start company name with an “i“.

Anyway, Vidal has moved on, and has started a site called 5th Bar, full of useful info about, and reviews of, mobile phones and accessories, and cell phone carriers. I find roundups like this very useful – I’ve spent a lot of time lately on the VOIP reviews and roundups (see my previous post for why, and my conclusion). But I’m hoping it pays off in decent service. And I’m definitely bookmarking 5th Bar, because I’m sure that my current mobile phone won’t be my last.

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Filed Under: General, Handheld and Mobile World

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