2009 March » TamsPalm - the Palm OS / web OS Blog

Elevation Partners: Pre will kill iPhone 2G

Mar 072009

A recent BloomBerg.com mash-up of quotes from various industry sources talking about the Pre contained the following gem – it is reposted here without any further comment:

“Think about it — If you bought the first iPhone, you bought it because you wanted the coolest product on the market,” said McNamee, 52. “Your two-year contract has just expired. Look around. Tell me what they’re going to buy.”

P.S. While I am pretty sure that the Pre will be cool, I am worried that many customers won’t move off Apple’s products due to their huge investment in iTunes content (which can not be played back on the Pre)…

On sensible user interface design

UI design No Responses »

Mar 062009

Don’t ask me why a presentation on user interface design made it into the IEEE proceedings schedule of the FH Hagenberg’s NFC Congress. Nevertheless, being the UI fetishist I am, Alice Moroni’s presentation struck my interest. Enjoy:

Alice started out by presenting a few cases of extremely bad design:
0 On sensible user interface design

According to her, catastrophes like the ones above are caused by a wrong approach to design – it does not consider the user:
1 On sensible user interface design

The solution is called user-centric design…which means putting the user at the center of the development process:
2 On sensible user interface design

Understanding users can be difficult – the slide below presents an overview of users needs:
3 On sensible user interface design

Prototypes are very useful when it comes to figuring out how users “tick”:
4 On sensible user interface design

Unfortunately, user tests are not easy. Their experience showed them that users should not be given too many tasks at a time (among other things):
5 On sensible user interface design

Users must be monitored discreetly, as their behavior changes the moment they feel monitored:
6 On sensible user interface design

Point-of-view cameras can be useful:
7 On sensible user interface design

Alternatively, a screencast solution can be used:
8 On sensible user interface design

When it comes to determining the users, a surprising thing pops up: 5 users are usually enough to find 85% of all eekers; whereas 15 are likely to find all of them according to J Nielsen:
9 On sensible user interface design

The next surprise: advanced users loathed their simple application. Some missed core features, while others felt that the program was “too lowly” for their taste:
10 On sensible user interface design

A small list of project management-related terms

Miscellaneous No Responses »

Mar 062009

Walter Maurer from Austria’s Governmental carrier A1 presented the list below as an assignment at the FH Hagenberg’s Mobile Computing course. As he gave permission to post the list (along with my work) here, find it below for your enjoyment/reference:

Business case
Similar to a use case, but broader in scope. Motivation, WHY the product or project is needed.

CAPEX
Short for Capital Expenditure. Money spent for acquiring stuff.

Concept project
Project which is not intended to produce an abstract deliverable (read: no program or product), but rather a concept which can be implemented later.

Deliverable
An artifact which can be delivered.

Implementation project
Project which produces a result (e.g. a handset or device).

Milestone
A milestone is a goal which signalizes the competition of a project stage. A popular example could be the release of the first beta.

OPEX
Short for Operating Expense. Ongoing cost for upkeep.

Project
Non-typical task which is unique (not routine), involves significant resources and is complicated enough to warrant management of its own.

Project close down
The act of completing the project.

Project goals
Conditions which must be met in order to make the product successful.

Project manager
A person who performs project management and is responsible for its outcome.

Project management
The act of ensuring that: 1) a project remains on track; and 2) that the team remains functional.

Project owner
The stakeholder of a project.

Project portfolio
A list of all projects inside a company!

Project proposal
Document starting the project (aka where the stakeholder gives the order to start the project).

Work Breakdown Structure / WBS
A structure showing which work package is assigned to which project member.

Work package
An individual task.

P.S. Slides with more detailed descriptions will be made available shortly!

News from Olympus’s Micro Four Thirds cameras

Miscellaneous No Responses »

Mar 042009

The quote below hits us via CNet News:

Olympus has set a ship date, albeit one with a lot of wiggle room, for its first high-end compact camera using the Micro Four Thirds technology.

The camera maker first showed a nonworking “concept model” of the camera at the Photokina show last September, and the same model is on display here at the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) trade show. Now, though it sports a label, “launching this summer.”

As a reminder: the Micro four Thirds format will allow the creation of ultra-small digital cameras with exchangeable lenses. Panasonic’s Lumix G1 is the first (somewhat disappointing) product based on the standard…

Palm: Preliminary Q3 FY09 results out

Palm News No Responses »

Mar 042009

The folks at Palm’s have just released preliminary results for what they consider the third quarter (which ends in February). The release contains a few interestring tidbits – full text below, emphasis by yours truly:

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Mar 03, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq:PALM) today reported preliminary results for its third quarter of fiscal year 2009, which ended Feb. 27, 2009.

The company announced that it expects to report revenues for the third quarter of fiscal year 2009 in the range of $85 million to $90 million. The revenue declines vs. the company’s second quarter of fiscal year 2009 and third quarter of fiscal year 2008 are the result of reduced demand for Palm’s maturing legacy smartphone products, the challenging economic environment and later-than-expected shipments of the Treo(TM) Pro in the United States. The company expects declining revenues and continued margin pressure from its legacy product lines in the fiscal fourth quarter.

“The much-anticipated launch of the Palm(R) Pre(TM) remains on track for the first half of calendar year 2009, but as expected we’ve got a difficult transition period to work through,” said Palm President and Chief Executive Officer Ed Colligan. “Despite the challenging market environment, the extraordinary response to the Palm Pre and the new Palm webOS(TM) reaffirms our confidence in our long-term prospects and our ability to reestablish Palm as the leading innovator in the growing smartphone market.”

Palm stated that cash used in operations for the quarter is expected to be between $95 million and $100 million. The company’s cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments balance is expected to be between $215 million and $220 million at the end of the third quarter.

Although Palm believes it has sufficient cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments to meet its working capital needs under its current operating plan, the company intends to strengthen its working capital position given the challenging economic environment and the opportunity to drive both the launch of the Palm Pre and future product-development efforts. The company is currently evaluating options in this regard, including the exercise of its right to direct the remarketing of a portion of the common shares underlying the Series C preferred stock and warrant units owned by Elevation Partners. Palm is entitled to retain any net profits realized from such remarketing.

Separately, Palm indicated that since it expects to periodically provide new software features free of charge to customers of its Palm webOS products, including the recently announced Palm Pre, it will recognize the revenues and cost of revenues associated with Palm webOS product sales on a straight-line basis over the product’s estimated economic life of 24 months. The company will be recording deferred revenues and deferred cost of revenues on its balance sheet, and amortizing them into earnings on a straight-line basis over the estimated economic product life of 24 months. The company will continue to expense engineering, sales and marketing costs as they are incurred. This accounting treatment will have no impact on cash flow. A more detailed discussion of this accounting treatment can be found on Palm’s Investor Relations website at http://investor.palm.com.

As of now, no further information is available – stay tuned for further info as we get it!

Krusell talks numbers – February top list released

Palm News No Responses »

Mar 022009

Krusell considers itself the largest manufacturer of protective cases for handheld devices and handsets – their marketing director provides the public with a “best-seller list” every month. As usual, the Tamoggemon Content network republishes it for your enjoyment – the list is below:

1. (1) Samsung SGH-i900/i910 Omnia
2. (2) HTC Touch HD
3. (5) Nokia 6300
4. (3) Nokia E51
5. (4) Blackberry Storm
6. (8) Nokia E71
7. (6) Nokia 3109
8. (-) Nokia 5800
9. (7) Sony Ericsson X1 Xperia
10. (-) Nokia 3120
() = Last month’s position.

Samsung’s flagship Omnia is still number one on Krusell’s Top 10 bestseller list for February. Nokia’s efforts in promoting the new touch screen phone Nokia 5800 has had an impact on the sales in February. Still it is not yet threatening the top segment. Next month when this model has reached more markets, we will probably see a change in the Top 3 positions, says Ulf Sandberg, CEO at Krusell.

Krusell’s cases are sold via various channels (including high-street retailers and other brick-and-mortar shops) all over the world. This means that their data is very useful, albeit with a slant on consumer devices (as these sell more)…

P.S. I think that it will get very interesting after the Pre’s global release…

Palm Pre – handled by Gizmodo

Palm News 2 Responses »

Mar 012009

hero Palm Pre handled by Gizmodo So far, consensus among the blogosphere was that no tech journalist has been allowed to touch a working Pre – however, it looks like all of us have overlooked at least one such incident. According to my apprentice Simon Pfundstein (who is an absolute Pre freak), the lucky folks at Gizmodo’s had the opportunity to spend some quality time with the critter:

The Pre’s Web OS UI and and UX really looks great. After watching (and using) for 20 minutes, It rarely looked (or felt) unresponsive, choppy, or laggy and it’s clear a lot of thought was put into the design, especially with regard to how the phone would be used with fingers, as opposed to a stylus or d-pad

As the folks at Gizmodo’s are known to be unbribeable and generally reliable, it looks like the Pre is readier than some (read: most of us) think it is. This could be a very good sign – now all we need to figure out is why “/me and the rest of the proles” weren’t allowed to touch it at the MWC…