Macadamian Blog
The Playbook is being Marketed to Fail
I don't think this iteration of the BlackBerry Playbook will do very well, and I blame RIM's marketing team.
If you're not sure what the Playbook is, let me explain — and thank you for proving my point. The BlackBerry Playbook is a tablet computer released last week by Research In Motion, the company behind BlackBerry phones. It's chief competitor in the tablet space is the iPad, followed by the handful of Android tablets that are currently available.
It's a great device. The hardware is plenty powerful, and the software is certainly good enough for a 1.0 release. It supports native apps written in several languages, and web apps that can take advantage of HTML5 and Adobe Flash.
The Playbook has a lot going for it, but the one thing it's sorely lacking is a marketing strategy. Without this, it will fail.
MIX 2011 - Leaving Las Vegas.
MIX 2011 has drawn to a close, and in about two hours I'll be boarding a plane to come home.
I had a wonderful time. I was able to meet tons of interesting people, and hear about all kinds of interesting projects. The news from the keynotes was great, most of the sessions were interesting and entertaining, and I learned so many new things.
In case you missed any of the insight I tried to share on this blog, here's a recap of the posts I made from the conference:
- Design and Development: Working in Parallel
- Open Source Fest
- Designing for Windows Phone 7
- How to Adopt HTML5, for Industry Professionals
I'm truly grateful for the opportunity to come here and interact with so many of you. To those of you I did manage to talk to, and especially the #canmix crew, I had a blast and I thank you for being a part of it.
See you next time!
MIX 2011 - How to Adopt HTML5, for Industry Professionals
There's been a lot of discussion at MIX about HTML5, and I don't really like what I've been hearing.
Let's be clear about this: I'm not talking about HTML5 itself. I love HTML5. I've been following the spec for years. I'm talking about the way many industry professionals perceive HTML5.
Motorola XOOM First Impressions
I got my hands on a XOOM recently. Before I give you my first impressions, here is a little bit of background. I have an iPad. It has some shortcomings so I'm willing to consider another tablet. I like all mobile platforms more or less and I find they each have their strengths. Android is my work platform. I'm an inbox-zero Gmail dude, so integration of Gmail is a big plus for me, especially priority inbox.
MIX 2011 - Designing for Windows Phone 7
Windows Phone 7 is gaining momentum. After the recent partnership with Nokia, and with the upcoming release of Mango, Microsoft is putting a huge push behind the WP7 platform.
The marketplace for WP7 is really starting to take off, and there are already some very successful and beautifully designed apps. One of those apps is Cocktail Flow, from Distinction Ltd.
I caught up with the company's CTO yesterday, and we talked about the challenges and important considerations when designing specifically for the Windows Phone platform. Here are the key takeaways we covered: