There’s plenty of interesting news from Barcelona this morning–not just about cellphones being announced at the Mobile World Conference–but about software and Netbooks.
First, as to the software. Adobe is announcing upcoming support for Flash Lite in smartphones this years, starting with the Palm Pre. So much for the iPhone. I’m not sure what Apple is thinking here.
I see that Adobe and Nokia are joinging to provide a $10M development fund for Flash & Air apps. Another nice incentive. Of course, it’s not just about developing the app that matters to publishers. What’s going to make an even bigger difference is the sales channel. Currently, the iPhone has the best channel and customers with its App Store. However, putting money into development grants is definitely a good idea. It’ll at least give a temporary boost and if all goes well at least one star app will come out of it.
(As an aside, Apple needs to focus less on its differences with Adobe and instead embrace its technology and the company. In fact, a combined Apple-Adobe would be a major move forward for Apple–and Adobe. It’s one of the few mergers I could actually see benefiting both companies. As I’ve blogged in the past, toss in Yahoo to the duo and I think you’d have an entity on par with Microsoft and Google in no time. Now whether the shareholders want something like this, it doesn’t appear, but hey, who wants to make more money anyway? 🙂 )
The other big news is with those little notebooks, currently called Netbooks. ARM is showcasing its new Cortext “Netbook”-class processor. Well, it’s actually their step up from a smartphone processor, but it’s a potential competitor in the under $200 notebook race. Slower, less heat, less power combine to make a better Netbook experience. Now if only a first class OS ran on it. Hmmm. For now we’ll see a myriad of Linux distros tuned for the processor. If one hits the jackpot, we might see a change in the marketplace away from Windows, but I’m not going to hold my breath. I don’t quite understand why the Linux devs are having such troubles here. It takes time I imagine.
Finally, there’s NVIDIA and its low power processor called the Tegra 600. This is a MID-class processor that supposedly will help reach the $99 price tag. Subsidized I wonder? NVIDIA is suggesting we’ll see Tegra based MIDs with Windows CE. Hmm. I’m not so sure. A tuned Linux distribution or maybe Android would seem like a better bet to me. However, that presumes someone will create a standard here. Without that Windows CE may just be the default winner. Hopefully, whoever makes these MIDs will add a great touch experience.
Which brings me to a key point: Microsoft needs to rapidy reconsider its view that touch is a premium experience. It’s not. It’s a baseline. Touch has long been in Pocket PC class devices; there’s nothing new about it. Handwriting recognition has been around for years too. And with these smaller, less expensive hardware solutions, Microsoft needs to join the trend and makes its technology the standard–not just the premium.
Of course, if Microsoft doesn’t do it, it’ll leave room for others to create their empires. After all, Microsoft’s voids in search left room for Google, browser technology for Adobe, and hardware and consumer focus for Apple. Might Microsoft’s lack of a good low-cost OS solution leave room for Linux? Possible. It depends on how good the solution is.