The Smart Phone & Browser Wars: Who will Win Safari, IE, or Android?

The North American International Auto Show & Bill Gates, What do the 2 have in Common?
January 11th, 2011 Blog update

     The North American International Auto Show (http://www.naias.com/) has started in Detroit, Michigan for the media at Cobo Hall (http://www.cobocenter.com) & more auto technology can be seen at the GM Ren Cen a few blocks away (http://www.gmrencen.com/).  Two other future auto shows that I will write about are the Geneva, Switzerland Motor Show in March 2011 http://www.salon-auto.ch/en and the New York Auto Show in May 2011 http://www.autoshowny.com, this show also has an Auto Show App you can download to your iPhone, or iPod Touch from the Apple (http://www.apple.com/) App store. 

In case you want to know what Bill Gates has to do with the NAIAS just ask another Bill, named Ford (http://www.ford.com/) or better yet go to the Microsoft or Ford website and do a search on Sync.  Sync is Microsoft's and Ford's answer to OnStar the telematics leader created by GM that allows users to access services from their car like e-mail; Sync also allows for your smart phone contacts to be Sync(chronized) with your car phone contacts, hence the name.  To develop applications for Sync go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sync/default.  GM will soon allow OnStar to be used on non GM cars and the Sync exclusivity deal for Ford cars will be coming to an end soon, I will report as soon as I find out.   A full blog  report update will be coming soon for the NAIS.



 During the 1980s - 1990s it was Apple vs IBM http://www.ibm.com/, and later vs Microsoft/Intel http://www.microsoft.com/ & http://www.intel.com/  in regards to the PC/Operating System Wars. I recently went to a Apple store at Briarwood Mall near the University of Michigan and the war is on again but this time it is the Smart Phone OS/Browser along with OEMs for Smart Phones that is the battle field with the Smart Phone superceding the PC/laptop. First I will describe the trip to the Apple Store and then go into detail about the The Smart Phone & Browser Wars.   Since the new IT food chain includes the car, do not forget to stop by the North American International Auto show in Detroit, Michigan if you are in town or nearby in Windsor, Ontario Canada; for more details go to  http://www.naias.com/


Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, Graphite, 6" Display with New E Ink Pearl Technology 

The Apple Store Briarwood Mall

When a friend and I went to the Apple Store http://www.apple.com/briarwood in Briarwood Mall
in Ann Arbor, Michigan instead of being attacked by the sales people they let us browse, hold and play with the hardware, and software; including the iPad until we approached them with questions. The reps we met (Mr. Robert Lewis & Mr. Emeka Amene) were excellent, and you can schedule training at the Apple Store (652 Briarwood Circle Suite D127, Ann Arbor, MI 48108 (734) 780-2471 http://www.mapquest.com/) if you want to learn more about products like the iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple Server, or the new Apple TV hardware product.  The store had software, custom made backpacks/laptop carrying cases for college students and business executives.  Also for business executives who want to learn more about integrating iPhones into business enterprise IT systems we met Mr. Matt Tunstall,  who is a Business Specialist for Apple; to contact him via e-mail or phone just e-mail briarwoodbusiness@apple.com or  call
(734) 780-2474.

Hardware Specification & Prices

iPad - $499 16 GB

iPad - $599 32 GB

iPad - $699 64 GB I personally suggest the 64 GB version if you want to run Windows 7 in a dual boot mode or in a separate partion because Windows 7 (http://www.microsoft.com/) is 64 bit. You also want to check your older software and hardware for Apple and Windows becasue for 64 bit the software and hardware must be compatible for the install or you will have problems.

iPhone - $99 3Gs 8 GB go to http://www.att.com/ for iPhone phone contracts
iPhone docking station - $29

Macbook - $1199 2.4 GHz

Macbook - $1499 2.66 GHz for more info go to http://www.apple.com/ and the book The iPhone Pocket Guide available at local book or online at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/.  


There was also something called the Magic Pad http://www.apple.com/ I am still investigating it. The software section of the Apple store was much bigger than the software area I am used to seeing in computer/electronics stores.

Now here is how I see the browser wars.  Right now Apple is positioned to win the battle on the smart phone front (RIM needs to make some hard decisions soon because of Apple & Android), and even challenge Microsoft's once invulnerable position as the dominant office suite on the smart phone desktop but Google is coming on strong with the Android browser, Droid smart phones, and the Android development platform; there is also a big community of Android developers and there are a lot of Android applications (or apps).  This smart phone analysis is for the U.S., Europe is a different ballgame with Nokia http://www.nokia.com/ being a leader there with it's proprietary os for Nokia smart phones (I own a Nokia as well as a Palm Centro & iPod Touch) and the symbian OS as an alternative for other Nokia smart phones.  An excellent article on Android vs. Apple in smart phones is Google's Android vs. Apples iOS in Electronic Design http://www.electronicdesign.com/ in the 11/04/2010 issue. Back to the U.S., the question is will Apple get a little help from Oracle's Larry Ellison now that Oracle http://www.oracle.com/ owns MySQL; the reason I say this is the Apple office suite has lacked a competitive database product to match up with Microsoft Access and with MySQL that problem could be solved.  There would MySQL for the Office Suite for Apple iPhones and the Oracle database for PCs/laptops and servers.  The question is will Oracle co-operate with Apple or will they fall into conflict because by purchasing Sun Microsystems, Oracle has now entered the smart phone market and PC business with Sun's Ultra Sparc hardware. Also Mr. Ellison could pre-load the Sun Staroffice application suite on Sun hardware (also Dell, Rim & Android smartphones) integrating the Oracle database or the MySQL database into the Sun StarOffice application suite to compete with Microsoft Office.  Microsoft finally seems to have a credible smart phone OS with the Windows 7 os for the smart phone and was smart to integrate the Zune music player and X-Box 360 into the Windows 7 smart phone.  Microsoft's ace in the hole may be the new version of Office Communication Server in combination with their Windows 7 smartphone along with Microsoft Exchange Server & Share Point Server 2010.

I will follow up what I think will happen in the smart phone market as well as Oracle's great show in Detroit at the Resaissance Center http://www.gmrencen.com/  recently featuring Oracle hardware and software products; I will also cover the implications of the Oracle lawsuit against Google http://www.google.com/ in my next blog so stay tuned and if you can make it do not forget the North American International Auto Show in Motown (Detroit) at the GM Ren Cen http://www.gmrencen.com/, last year I was able to blog live from the Ford http://www.ford.com/ display that Ford set up from the auto show. As a side note, SAP http://www.sap.com/ has just been handed a court decision where they have pay Oracle over $1 billion dollars for infringing on Oracle's intellectual property.  I will also report on IBM http://www.ibm.com/ and Intel http://www.intel.com/, hardware makers who are quietly making money $$$$... until the next episode....      

Mr. Winston Shines is a consultant for Maximillian Bryan & Marcell Technologies Internationale LLC http://www.mbmtinternationale.com/,  he has been published in Baseline magazine http://www.baselinemag.com/, (to view the article click on http://www.baselinemag.com/c/a/IT-Management/Ensuring-ITs-Survival-301220) has written the copyrighted book Training Today's Youth for Tomorrow's Technology which is on sale at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/ and has been a paid speaker at the Michigan State University School of Education http://www.educ.msu.edu/ annual education technology seminar in East Lansing Michigan.