In the Hour of Not Quite Rain-iPhone at the Brink

Or maybe you prefer that other Buffalo Springfield song, “Expecting to Fly”….

What certainly will fly — off the shelves — will be a lower-priced iPhone, rumored to be announced next week. What would truly stand the iPhone even more apart from the Palm Pre, Blackberry models, and Google Android smartphones would be video recording and videoconferencing.

As Microsoft grapples with search and Bing, the real battle over the platform that will capture the best developers have to give is between the Apple iPhone and Google Android. While RIM holds a higher share with its Blackberry models, the true momentum of innovation is occurring mostly on these two platforms. Palm has to spring up on its own, without the developer base it had a decade ago. Apple has all the momentum, most of the developers, and an extraordinary base of patented technology, while the rest of the industry is playing catch-up.

See my report, “Expecting to Fly – iPhone before the Start of the Apple WWDC” in my blog, Bove’s Blips.

In Deadwood the Saloonkeepers Keep the Peace…

Apple has been criticized for kicking apps out of the App Store. Critics had pointed to Android as a free system, but just recently, Google also kicked apps out of its store. Expect the new Blackberry App World to be similarly policed. See my take on all this at “App Stores on the New Frontier” (in Bove’s Blips).

Google Chrome to Become Design Standard for Web Sites

Google’s Chrome browser not only has a chance in the mobile market, but it will also significantly influence the future of personal computing by challenging Internet Explorer. Google’s stated purpose is to drive innovation on the Web. Market share can be misleading when thinking about the impact of something that is truly innovative. I think that as the Web serves up more applications, Chrome will most likely become the design standard for mobile browsing and may have a serious enough impact on desktop/laptop browsing to free Web designers from the constraints of designing for Internet Explorer. See my take on Google Chrome: “Google has Mojo in Hand with the Chrome Browser” (on my blog, Bove’s Blips).