Blackberry 10 Launch and the Brand Loyalty Bug

Image Source: Blackberry10News

The biggest snag in Blackberry 10 launch is the brand loyalty bug. 

In my conversations with my colleagues and practically everyone I meet, the general consensus is that the Blackberry 10 Devices launching at 10am EST, are definitely not better than the current pieces of glass they clutch. What is also common? They know nothing about the specs of the proposed Blackberry 10 nor how it compares to their current device. This is the brand loyalty bug. This is what keeps big producers like Apple, Samsung, Google ahead of the game. Creating a sense of entitlement in consumers to the brand they happened to chose in the beginning. 

Mobsters of the Tech world!

Come with me down the rabbit hole filled with theories based on analysis of the unspoken, subtle strikes from the Dons of the big four “crime families”. The big four as I refer to them as for the purpose of this post are: Apple, Microsoft, Google and Facebook.

Lets define these families, taking a closer look at how they make their money. Apple, they make money from both hardware and software but the bulk of their money comes from selling hardware at a high premium. Microsoft on the other hand makes their money through software at a premium that's their "bread and butter" though they make hardware products most notably the Xbox, but their software business rules. Google, search and advertising are their main source of revenue. Facebook will be defined later in this post. 

Google in all its mighty ignorance think they can come into the "pc" market using the strategies of the three pillars of the personal computer space to propel Android into the next age of computing. Pillar one, Linux and its idea of open source bringing all the benefits of such. Pillar two, Microsoft's strategy of having OEMs like HTC, Motorola and Samsung do their bidding in the hardware side. Pillar three, Apple's strategy, making hardware and software, "the nexus project". 

Google is winning but for how long is the question I ask myself. Google's declaration, "We are the new Microsoft" must have sent shock waves through the hearts of the Don's at Apple and Microsoft because they are now gearing up for war! 2013 will be the year of split blood the families are at war! Stick with me it gets fun from here. 

Apple takes them to court. Apple launched a massive litigation campaign on all the major OEMs who provide Android phones. HTC has recently settled, while Samsung and Motorola are still stuck in battle with Apple in the courts of law. Microsoft the other hand have gone about this in a different way, a silent killer approach only perfected by an old veteran. Microsoft has successfully made agreements with all the major OEMs to pay them royalties for a software (Android) that Google offers free. Let's take a moment here; Microsoft makes more money from Android than Google does in that regard. What? It gets better, lets go deeper. 

Enter Facebook, Microsoft invested $240 million dollars into Facebook, future strike set. Apple embraces Facebook after many disagreements most notably with their service "ping". Facebook's now tightly integrated into OSX and iOS. Why is Facebook so important too these two companies? 

When you want to take a monster down, you hit them where it hurts. Facebook passed Google on time spent on a website and total views! Facebook now have over 1 billion active users per month! Why is all this important you may ask? January the 15th, yesterday to be exact, Facebook introduced Graph search, a partnership with Microsoft on a new approach to searching for content. Recollect from above where I mentioned Google's dollar comes from search and advertisement. Facebook is now doing search, they are going after Google's bread and butter. Microsoft's funding this war and Apple is facilitating it, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. 

Who will come out on top? I will never take my eyes off Microsoft, a silent killer moving around the industry. Microsoft currently makes money from an OS it has no part of development wise. They are partnering with Facebook to take away Google's main source of income. The main reason why I would never count Microsoft out however is quite simple, Microsoft wasn't first in the PC space Apple was but they came and took it all. Lets see where all of this ends! 2013 is shaping up to be a fun year. 

Maurice John

LIME and our Cloud Computing future!

Opinion

Take a trip with me into the future. Technology works in a cycle. We started out with large computers with minimal processing power to smaller and smaller machines with great processing power, now a smartphone today has more computing power than computers of yesteryear. Processing power has been moving from large machines to small machines but I predict, that the future of processing will return to large machines hidden from the user (Cloud). Nonsense you might say, but lets dive deeper into my thoughts.

Exhibit A: Cloud Gaming

There is a new trend emerging where Cloud is becoming the processing engine for games which are delivered to our various screens. On-live was the first company to venture into this business and most recently as CES 2013 Nvidia announced the Nvidia GRID (read more about this here). What am I trying to say here is simple, your mobile device will not be able to keep getting smaller and increase in power at the rapid pace it is accomplishing today hence, this is where Cloud comes in. Millions of processors crunching away to deliver your game over the connection of the internet. 

Exhibit B: Chrome OS

Chrome OS is what I categorize as a product that has the right idea but the wrong timing. An Operating System that stores everything on the Cloud. Imagine with me a Windows/Mac machine that store everything in the cloud. I say it here now, this is the future. When I get up from my laptop at home and sign in at my friends house that desktop should just transform into my pc. That is the future, where your data moves with you and there is no need for external applications like Dropbox or Skydrive. 

Now where does LIME come into this picture?

I'm a Vincentian, an angry Vincentian studying in Barbados. Let me explain my anger, when I am in Barbados I enjoy 4G (LIME's definition of such) speeds but when I take a 30 minute trip to my lovely St. Vincent, I'm greeted with EDGE. What!? 

Reality Strikes

We in the Caribbean are classified as third world. We have been able to buy our way into the first world because of the breaking down of barriers which existed in times past, the world has become so much smaller. A phone is released in the United States today, and three days later somebody in the Caribbean has it rocking. Now lets think about the future I describe where our devices are mere thin clients with the real power hidden in the cloud and the critical connection between those to entities being the internet. 

Has the the picture become clear? We will be forced back into the dark ages if companies like LIME continue to control our progress keeping their feet firmly planted on the neck of our development. It's a sad reality for a tech junkie like myself but I hope by the time this future becomes a reality something can be done so we aren't left behind again. "Nuff said"

-Maurice John 

Facebook Event January 15th!

Source Engadget 

Facebook has something to share! Stay tuned to Tha Daily Geek for updates on what Facebook will be announcing next week Tuesday, January 15th! Mark your calendars!