> RIM is entering the tablet market as an underdog and will have to work hard to gain credibility and be viewed as a serious contender. Honeycomb’s incompleteness and Android’s early stumble out of the tablet starting gate have created a window of opportunity for another player to stake a position. I love how quickly the story has changed from “Android will soon overtake Apple in tablets just like it did with phones” to “RIM has a real shot now that Android has stumbled out of the gate”. How long before RIM becomes the stumbler, and the next loser gets lined up as the “true iPad killer?”

The press sure has ditched their favored son Android, haven’t they?

Well, we have HP’s new tablet in June, at the very least. I imagine there will be at least two other big tablets between now and then. And then maybe early next year, right about the time of the iPad 3, we’ll be hearing about Amazon’s iPad killer.

It really is the iPod all over again.

> But that seems unrealistic. I don’t think we can have our cake and eat it too. I don’t think the carriers will work together, and I don’t think we can let 25 different carriers have 25 different spectrums — that’s ultimately bad for business *and* the end user. I know this is a more complicated idea that requires bigger brains than mine to be tackled, but I also know (or at least strongly feel) that it’s something that needs to happen if we’re going to move forward from a technological standpoint. We need something better, something smarter. But is there any way we can remove politics and greed from this debate and actually do what’s best for human beings for once? I don’t see that on the horizon just yet. I couldn’t agree with this article more. The current political climate in the US is going to cripple our ability to move forward technologically. We’re in serious danger of losing our ability to innovate, mostly because of low-level infrastructure that the government isn’t stepping in to build, and companies are unwilling to fund.

A company like Apple can’t continue to make the iPad and iPhone better if our connection to the Internet remains at the same speed and limited to the same places. As I’ve told many friends many times, until I can stream a full HD movie with no stuttering wirelessly while sitting in the middle of a corn field in Iowa, the true promise of the “cloud” won’t happen. Apple can’t fix that. AT&T can’t fix that.

There are simply too many situations where people don’t have access.

Some things are too big for any company to do. The government really does need to step in on the big necessities. And the Internet is surely one of those necessities at this point.

> **Motorola Mobility, which has been Google’s only major licensee fully committed to Android, is now working on a new web-based mobile operating system apparently intended to give it more control over its future, enraging Android advocates anew just weeks after Nokia opted against adopting Google’s mobile OS.** > > Word of Motorola’s new project was [reported](http://www.informationweek.com/news/development/mobility/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229400097) by *Information Week*, which attributed “a source familiar with the matter.” > > While the company issued an email statement insisting that “Motorola Mobility is committed to Android as an operating system,” it did not deny that it was also working on its own competing mobile operating system project. Translation: We don’t like the looks of Android’s future, particularly on tablets.

This is not surprising at all to me. Companies are finally coming around to the idea that trading Microsoft for Google is not a smart long-term strategy. If you want to succeed in the “Post-PC” era, as Apple calls it, you have to make the whole widget. Get the software and the hardware tightly integrated. Can’t do that when you let Google run the software side.

The only question is, when will someone out there succeed with an alternative operating system? I’d love to see Palm’s WebOS succeed, but they still seem to be severely lacking developer interest. I just don’t see any other companies out there with a credible track record in mobile software.

> In other words, Serlet isn’t leaving because because Lion heralds some subsuming of OS X to iOS and the setting of his star at Apple. He’s leaving because he feels it’s time and likely because Lion seems a perfect monument to his legacy at Apple. I’ll miss Serlet, because he was an interesting personality on the Apple team. But I agree, there’s no reason to read too much into this. By all accounts, this retirement is a long time coming, as the keynote appearance of Federighi last year suggests. We might be surprised, but Apple’s executive team has been aware of this for a while.

For guys like Steve Jobs, your career and your life are basically one in the same. The guy will likely never be satisfied that he’s done enough to change the world. But for a lot of others, once you’ve made the dent on the universe, and you’ve made more than enough money to live happily ever after, why not part ways with your job and move on to something less demanding? The man is a brilliant engineer; he probably has some other interests that he’d like to pursue.

He says he’d like to focus more on science and less on products. I take him at his word.

> **Apple’s defense of its “App Store” trademark filing has a new target: a storefront for pornography available on the Google Android platform.** > > The adult service “MiKandi” this month hit with a cease-and-desist letter from Apple over its use of the term “App Store,” [according to](http://www.geekwire.com/2011/adult-app-store-mikandi)*GeekWire*. It’s the second digital download service targeted by Apple in defense of its trademark application this month, the first being the [Amazon Appstore for Android](http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/03/21/apple_sues_amazon_over_use_of_app_store_trademark.html). > > At the time the report was filed, MiKandi’s official website pitched itself as “the world’s first app store for adults.” But the company has since changed all references to “app store” to read “app market” instead. The official “MiKandi App Store” name has also been changed to “MiKandi App Market” on the website. There are several things going on here. First, Apple does have to defend its trademark for “App Store” on all fronts if it hopes to win the case against Amazon. I don’t necessarily agree that “App Store” should be an official trademark, but the trademark was granted, so Apple has to defend it or else lose it.

Second, Apple does want to keep its distance from any site selling pornography. If people start associating “App Store” with “Porn Store” it’s going to be that much harder to get iPads into schools.

Third, it doesn’t hurt for Apple to take a shot at Android, reminding people why it curates its own App Store. “Android has porn stores” is a great selling point when you want to get iPads into schools. And it helps win over some folks who maybe thought the “App Store” dispute with Amazon was a bit harsh, but maybe will see Apple’s side of it in this case.

So this was a rather obvious move from Apple, is all I’m saying.