BlackBerry Playing going on the cheap (sort of)

Looks like it’s not just HP that had trouble offloading their tablets (only saved by the $99 fire sale).  Blackberry maker RIM is having the same problem with their tablet as well.  Just two days into the new year, the Blackberry Playbook in the US is now selling for a (relatively) low price of $299US.  All models.  So that means you save from $200 to $400 off the RRP, depending on which model you get.

Not quite the fire sale you are looking for, but it’s cheaper than most of its Android cousins. For now

Android Tablet Price War has begun

If you are in the market for a tablet, and you don’t want to be a sheep (read: get an iPad), then you have many choices - Toshiba AT100, Motorola Xoom, ASUS EEE Transformer, Acer Iconia, and maybe Samsung if / when they win the patent war with Apple.

I still remembered when the first Samsung Galaxy Tab 7″ tablet arrived in Australia, it was retailed for $999.  That’s one dollar change after you hand the sales person ten $100 notes.  TEN, I say!  My first reaction was, “Who the hell is going to buy that?”  And no doubt many others asked the same question.

It was smaller than the iPad, it wasn’t even running an Android that is optimised for the tablet form factor, it was in every way inferior to the iPad, and somehow cost some 40% more than it.  Samsung was insane to release it at that price point.  And I was right.  Price started falling not long after and with new tablets coming to the market with much better specs, the 7″ Tab kind of fizzled and died.  The Dell Streak 5 suffered similar fate.

Looking at the market now, it seems the Android tablet market is having a – to borrow a financial terminology – correction.  When the Xoom was first released, it was over $800, the cheapest I’ve seen now is $634; the Iconia ($549 originally) now $484.  The Transformer was $399US on Amazon, recently selling for as low as $349US ($338AUD).

Meanwhile, Apple is unfazed, still selling the iPad from $554.  And people are buying it.

It’s not too hard to see why there is such a discount war.  With the vanilla Honeycomb installed on the tablets, every Android device looks the same.  I went to a retail store and played with every single Android tablet they have on display, and every single one of them looks the same.  What differentiate the AT100 and the Iconia?  They both have similar specs, so why should I buy a Toshiba over an Acer?  Just because one has USB and the other one doesn’t?

Choices are good, but when there are too many choices, it creates confusion among consumers, and confusions are bad.

With Lenovo and HTC joining into the fray later this year, the Android tablet market is getting more crowded than ever.  Are Android tablets manufacturers shooting themselves in the foot by undercutting each other?  They’re definitely not making a significant dent into Apple’s dominance with the iPad.  So all they are doing is pushing each other out of the market.  HP is a clear example of this (even though the TouchPad doesn’t run Android).

What I learnt from the TouchPad saga

With the future (or lack thereof) of the TouchPad sealed on 18 August, it was clear that there really isn’t room enough in the market for so many tablets.  Apple has taken the biggest chunk of the tablet pie, and Android another biggish chunk (albeit by multiple manufacturers), that leaves everyone else to fight for the remaining small piece of the pie, a very small piece, indeed.

But then on the 19 August, things turned bittersweet for HP.  The TouchPad flew off the shelves faster than they can be found in the store rooms.  That had been the dreams of the HP executives, except they were flying off not at the price point HP wanted.  So what does it say about the tablet market?

No one will buy a tablet if it costs the same as the iPad

To many users, an iPad is just a bigger iPhone, and there are literally millions and millions of iPhone users out there.  They are already familiar with the iOS interface; they are already familiar with the App Store ecosystem; and more importantly, they know how to use it.  And if Jakob Nielsen ever taught me anything, it is that people like familiarity.

For people to change their behaviours and use something else, there needs to be incentive for them to do so.  An alternative tablet that costs just as much as the iPad is not that incentive.

Why should I, an Average Joe, who is so familiar with my iPhone, wants to buy something that I need to learn how to use when, for the same price, I can get something that I already know how to use?

iPad also has one advantage, iPhone apps works on it.  Okay, maybe not ALL iPhone apps work, and maybe they need to be scaled up, but in the majority of cases, people don’t want to pay twice to use a similar app if they already have one available.

So what is the incentive that will make people buy anything other than the iPad?

$99 seems to be the sweet spot

It’s not that consumers don’t embrace other tablets, it’s just that the tablets are marketed at the wrong price.  Just have a look at the fire sale price of the TouchPad.  Even though it is now obsolete, five million people step over each other just trying to find one.

The $99 price is certainly a very attractive price.  Irrespective of whether Android can be ported to the TouchPad, consumers (at least those who commented on forums, or is that fora?) can accept a $99 device that does hardly anything other than surfing the interweb.

There are consumers out there who want a second of third tablet, but $500 a pop is asking too much.  A $99 device is perfect for that.  There is certainly a niche at the bottom of the market for a low cost tablet.  In fact, Chinese manufacturers have been producing them, it’s just that no-one seems to notice.

Instant success is everything

Over at Economic Times, there is an article about how fast IT companies are cutting their losses early.

This has somehow become the norm, and it is scary.  HP never really let the TouchPad grow.  Granted, the hardware / software combination is not the spectacular, but it has its followers.  If Microsoft killed off the Xbox 360 because of poor sales, Kinect would not have existed.  But then again, Xbox 360 didn’t have that many competitions in its field.

It is scary to think that company will cut their losses so early.  I, for one, wouldn’t want to buy a tech that cost hundreds of dollar only to find out that they are discontinued as soon as I take it home.

I can buy a chair that IKEA doesn’t produce anymore, because it’s a chair, it still serves its function long after I die.  But for a piece of tech, whether it’s a phone, a tablet, a laptop or a modem, for better or for worse, it needs constant support like a kid needing constant attention.  I like to buy things that last.  And if I think that whatever I’m buying will become deadweight overnight, I will wait and see.  And if I wait and see, that means the company is not moving units.  Thus, it becomes a vicious cycle.

Words get out fast… very fast

It was only this Monday morning that Harvey Norman announced that there will be a fire sale of the TouchPad at 2 in the afternoon, and boy, did it spread like wildfire or what.  Twitters picked up on the news and all of a sudden, the whole nation is mobilised.

I really wondered how many people who were still at work sneaked out to buy one.  From the look of some photos, they are all office workers.

We are truly living in the Information Age.  News spread faster than you can blink.  I can’t believe I still remember the quickest way to know something is watching the evening news or reading the next day’s newspaper, on paper.

I am getting old.

Who got a HP TouchPad? Please touch your pad.

It’s ironic that when HP released the now defunct TouchPad, hardly anyone noticed it, and even less part with their cash to get one.  Now that HP said they don’t want it anymore, all of a sudden, five million people step over each other just to get one.  Do people really think that $99 is good enough a justification for an oversize internet browser (notwithstanding Android being ported)?

The TouchPad has some mixed reviews in the lead up to the release.  I am in the market for a tablet, and the TouchPad hardly make a bleep on my shortlist.  It has no HDMI, no USB and no expandable memory. But then again, the iPad doesn’t have those features either (and that’s why I’m not really keen on it).  On top of that, WebOS is hardly an ecosystem that gets a huge following.  Meego, Symbian are dying left and right, WebOS is heading for the same graveyard, even if HP does not abandon it.

So what makes people want a dying tablet?  Let’s see who actually bought one.

Who bought one?

The first group are those who actually wanted one and bought it at full price.  These are the people who think neither iOS nor the Android (or other OS) is right for them, and think that the WebOS will do much of what they want.  Now that HP decided not to spend another development dollar on the OS (thought they did say they will support it), these people are holding onto a tablet that basically has no future.  However, this group has the luxury of not having to rush off to the fire sale, which the second group of people didn’t have.

The second group are the fire sale customer, who rushed off to pick up a bargain.  So for $99, what do they get?  Android porting aside, the only thing that they are getting is an oversize internet browser, whatever is pre-installed, plus whatever apps they can savage for the WebOS.  These people know the WebOS is no more, and are getting it because it is cheap.  Admittedly, I agree with them.

The third group is just like the second group, except they bought it with the sole purpose of selling it on eBay to make a quick buck.  They don’t care what the thing is, they just know that there are people out there crazy (or stupid) enough to want to get one at an inflated price.  Just do a quick search on eBay and you’ll notice the many listings of the TouchPad that are sold / selling at more than the fire sale price.  There are just some listings that are blindingly obvious that the seller is out for a quick buck.  And then there are people who would get it.

The fourth group of people, and these are the ones I don’t quite understand, are those who actually bought the TouchPad from the third group of people (i.e. buy the tablet at an inflated price).  Why would you want an outdated tablet?  Yes, I understand that it’s still cheaper than buying a proper Honeycomb tablet, but where is the support?  Where are the new apps?  Are they just fuelling the scaplers out there?

The only explanation I can think of is…

The Android promise

So there is already a community of developers who are planning to put Honeycomb on the TouchPad.  There is even a $1500 bounty  on the first group who can do exactly that.

For the techies, that’s good news, because if and when Honeycomb finally arrives, those who bought one will effectively have the cheapest Honeycomb tablet to-date.  So they are basically gambling on that one day Honeycomb will come.

But then what happens when Ice Cream Sandwich (or Jam Donut or Kimchi Chicken) arrives? How long is it going to take before a port to the TouchPad is available?  Or is the TouchPad so versatile that once Honeycomb is on, it’s just as easy to upgrade as, say, a Motorola Xoom or an Acer Iconia?  That’s a question for the long term future, but for now (or at least the short term future) consumer should be able to enjoy the Honeycomb experience if/when it comes.  And if it doesn’t, well, you’ve got yourself a $99 web browser.

Is $99 really that attractive a price for a tablet?

“Hell yeah” is probably the right answer.  The ZTE v9 (which runs on a now seemingly outdated Android 2.1, or 2.2 if you upgrade it) basically flies out the door (though not as quickly as the TouchPad) when it was discounted to $99.  And it has 3G that the TouchPad doesn’t have.  I went to several retailers, and they all sold out.  The only ones that I can find are for the original $275 price tag, or more recently, $129.  Mind you, if Acer or Motorola or Toshiba or RIM or whoever else decided tomorrow that their tablets will start at $99, I will be one of the thousands to grab one.

So yes, the $99 is probably the most attractive price point for a tablet right now.  But let’s not forget that the millions Apple fanboys bought one for $500+ a pop.  So maybe it is something else…

Maybe our brain is wired to think that an 80% discount is too good to miss.  From the $499 price tag drop all the way to $99 is seen as a super bargain, regardless of what the junk it is selling.  In this economic climate, I’m actually quite surprised that people are willing to fork out $99 for an obsolete tech, but not $30 for a T-shirt.

So I’ve got a plan, just build a tablet that can only access the internet and nothing else, and sell it for $500, then discount it to $50 two days later, and people will still queue up to get one.

The gullible people will think $50 is still good value for an internet ready paperweight, even if the internet is not working.

So let’s recap, in the end, regardless of whether it’s being bought at $99 or $999, an obsolete technology ends up in the hands of people who mostly bet on it being Android Honeycomb compatiable in order for it to be useful.  If Honeycomb is not ported (highly unlikely), or if future Android is not ported (more likely than not), then it will become an oversize web browser / media player / organiser / paperweight.

I feel sorry for those who bought it on eBay already.

When is a solution not a solution?

We received a letter recently from the road authority advising of some road changes in front of our office.  That comes off the back of a colleague who has complained over and over and over again to the road authority on the misuse of road by other road users that results in multiple accidents.  But with the proposed solution, I can only see this colleague is going to complain yet again, this time not about the problem, but the solution.

You probably think that this guy must be the “bitch-about-everything” type of person, but judge it for yourself after you’ve read this post.

The Problem

About a year ago, a bus lane was installed on the main road just outside our office, much like the M4 bus lane.  Because our car park is located at the back of building, we have to go into a side street to access it.  At the T-intersection, there are “Keep Clear” signs drawn on the road so that cars can turn into the street.  In order to turn into this side street, the car will have to cut through 3 lanes of traffic and the bus lane.

Now here is the problem.

The 3 lanes are usually packed in the morning rush hour, and drivers are supposedly not allowed to drive on the bus lane unless they are turning into side streets.  Dickheads ignore what’s legal and drive straight down the bus lane in order to avoid the traffic jam.  They zoom straight down one end of the road to the other end.

Drivers turning into the side street can’t see the car flying past down the bus lane, and so got hit.  I know at least three colleagues whose car was totalled because of idiots.

The Solution

So, after endless complains from a colleague who’s almost threatening to sue if he ever get hit, the road authority finally did something…. stupid.

They are planning to impose a “No turning” sign at the T-intersection, making turning into side street illegal in morning rush hour.  Those who want to turn in will have to perform a U-turn some 200 metres further down the road.

Problem solved, right?

The Problem with the Solution

From an engineering prospective, this solution is perfect.  No cars turning in, no accident!  Great.  But from a social prospective, this is fucking ridiculous.

Basically what the road authority is doing is making something that was legal illegal, makes no attempts at punishing those who were doing the wrong thing in the first place.  In fact, it just encourages those who were doing the wrong thing to continue to do the wrong thing.  It makes no attempt to education the people about the use of bus lanes.

What kind of retarded solution is that?

IE8 is retarded

Microsoft is a fucking stupid piece of shit.  After some N years using IE6, my workplace finally upgrade to IE8 on XP just as IE9 is out (God only knows how long it will be before the company switches to the newer browser, but that’s another story for another time).

Now, IE8 is supposedly better than IE6 in many aspect, one of which is tabbed browsing.  Can’t wait to use it at work, since it will be much easier for me to do my work.  Lo and behold, it doesnot FUCKING work!  Everytime I tried, it came up with the BSOD equivalent.  No, I don’t fucking want to send a report to Microsoft.  Going on the web and on a (link) Micro-fucking-soft website, it suggested to reset everything and see if that helps.

Well, it’s a Microsoft website, right?  So it knows what it’s doing, right? Sure enough, after resetting everything, the tab works.  But what Microsoft failed to tell me is that it resets all the connection settings, including proxies, DNS, etc.  So guess what happened?  I lost the internet!!!!! And it’s a work computer, everything is locked down.  So I had to go through to our tech department, etc., etc. to get it fixed.

Why can’t a big fucking company do something right? Install Firefox and it just works, install Chrome and it just works, install IE and everything falls to shit, and it’s by the same fucking company that write the fucking OS.

No amount of words could convey my hatred towards this company.  I really really really really really really fucking hate Microsoft.  I really really really do.

Looking back at 2010

2010 is about to come to and end.  It has been quite a year.  Still feels like 1st of Jan was just yesterday, yet 12 months went by so quickly.

Jan - Finally moved into the new house with my girlfriend.  Spent at least two months buying furnitures and decorating the house the way we wanted it.   A new bed, new TV, new coffee table, etc.  Luckily it hasn’t turned out to be an IKEA house. But we did buy quite a few thing from there (as young couples would).

March - Visited my girlfriend’s family in March.  Language barrier has prevented me from doing much talking (at least I could get my meaning across), but I could feel their warm welcome and their great hospitality.  The whole family was a joy to be with.  Shopping for an engagement ring with the missus was, well, not much of a surprise.  At least she knew the proposal was coming.  But that will have to wait.

May - Went to a friend’s wedding as a guest, but somehow turned into the third driver, driving some VIP around following the birdal party.  While I don’t really appreciate the way I was asked (a last minute request that put me in a ‘I-can’t-say-no’ situation), it was an experience that would be beneficial to my own wedding planned for next year.  So I’ll forgive them.

June - The missus has been pestering me on when I would propose to her ever since we bought the ring.  If I knew, I probably should have bought it in secret. :p  The proposal wasn’t anything special like going to Paris (too expensive) or putting it in the cake (too lame), though I did hide it somewhere.  The poem I wrote moved her to tears.  So it was nice that it happened at home and not out in public (people might thought that I hit her or something).  We had a nice lunch afterwards, thought.

Couple months flew by with nothing really exciting.  Two friends are engaged.  While one has planned for an early 2011 wedding, the other one wasn’t so sure.  First started out as Jan 2011, then it was 2012, then with three months to go, Jan 2011 is back on again.  Everything was in a rush, invitation cards, dress, reception, cars, flowers, etc, etc.  Will get to see the fruit of rush wedding planning very soon.

Oct – Dec – A colleague had his first baby.  A big boy at that.  Then a close friend had his first baby boy in Nov.  Another colleague had his first baby girl also.  Three first babies in three months.  First time daddies are going to get a earful in the next coming months.  The friend is already sleeping in the lounge.  Wish all daddies good luck.

Sadly, with life, come death.  A friend’s father has passed away, so has my father’s old work colleague.  Then news of cancer spread faster than cancer itself, with at least three people we know contracting the disease.  Some found earlier than others.  Wish them all the best and a quick recovery.

Looking forward to 2011 (unlike my boss, who’s already 2 years ahead when he made the speech at our Christmas function), it’s going to be costly.  My own wedding is going to cost a fortune, despite any cost saving measures that we might consider implementing.  There’s going to be another trip back to my girlfriend’s hometown later in the year.

Despite all the cost, thought, 2011 certainly looks up to be a happy year.  Happiness is not free, but it’s not something money can buy.

Petrov said sorry to Alonso

Dear Mr. Fernando Alonso,

I take that when you drove up alongside my car on the victory lap last night, you were not there to compliment me on a job well done.  In fact, I seem to recall a fist in the air at my general direction.

I am so sorry to have been in front of you for 39 long laps in your fight with the Red Bulls for the WDC in the race.  You were so right.  Newcomers like myself, as Hamilton was back in 2007, should really respect their seniors and yield to their every demand.  Where were my manners?

That said, I would have assumed that your employer were fully aware of Webber’s predicament as his pit stop did not exactly go their way.  I really think you should give them the fist instead.

Your action last night was a bit like a 16 years old trying to get around a 10 years old for a candy bar that was not really yours to take.  Now that the candy bar was taken by someone else, you are blaming the 10 years old who were in your way, instead of your parents who called you back into the house too early.

But if you ever find yourself behind me in the future, please make sure to inform my employer of the situation.  I am quite confident that they will look long and hard into it and might even inform me on which corner to beach my car.  Oh sorry, Mr. Flavio Briatore no longer works here.

Yours Truly,

Vitaly Petrov
9 seasons your junior

Microsoft and Adobe is in secret talks

Looks like MS and Adobe is having some sort of secret chats about how to combat Apple and its dominance in the market.  And since Apple hates Flash, it’s no wonder Adobe has mutual feelings for Apple.  So is MS taking over Adobe? or are they discussing about a ‘partnership’? or whatever the hell it is that MS and Adobe planned.

At the moment, the rumour mill is in full swing that MS might buyout Adobe.  The first thing that came to my mind is the future of Flash.  Flash was initially created by Macromedia, it became pretty much the de facto interactive media on the web.  MS came up with its own – Silverlight.  Thus far, though, I haven’t come across any website (other than MS sites) that uses Silverlight.

If, and that’s a big if, MS does take over Adobe, what are the chances that Flash will be put on the back burner and let it die a slow death?  How many Flash developers will be out of work?

All this because of Apple’s Steve Jobs’ hatred towards Flash.

Source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9190003/Report_Microsoft_Adobe_CEOs_meet_to_discuss_Apple

Recycle Grade Gundam

Only in the mad world of Otaku could you think of doing something like this.  But this 3 metres tall Gundam is made entirely with the spare parts and plastic trees left overs from all the Gundam Model kits.  No sure how anyone could come up with this, but I cannot think of a better way to recycle all those waste other than throwing them in the bin.  That’s what I’ve been doing.  Maybe I should start collecting them now.  Who knows, maybe I can make a Zaku with them.  That’s an art form in and of itself.

Link