Posted on June 12, 2013 by William Welbes
It’s Wednesday of WWDC week and the day’s sessions are over. It’s hard to believe that we are already over half way thru the conference. At WWDC, the learning flows like drinking from a firehose. Sessions dealing with the new design and UI changes in iOS 7 seem to be the most popular spots. Lines now feel like a normal part of every activity… waiting for a session to start, waiting for food, waiting to buy something, restrooms, etc. It’s actually a pleasant surprise when you find something that doesn’t have a line. All in all, it’s doable, but the lines do get a bit overwhelming. This year’s conference is attended by over 60% new attendees. There’s certainly some veterans here sporting coats from years past, but it’s clear that there are a lot of new faces. I’m encouraged by the number of young students that are here as well. Only a couple days left. I’m hoping to take in several more session and talk to some engineers in the labs on a few topics. There’s so much on the schedule each day it’s hard to get time to dig into code with the new SDK.
Read MorePosted on June 12, 2013 by William Welbes
Apple today released a video on their YouTube channel called ‘Making a difference. One app at a time.’ It features several apps that are impacting lives around the world. As I’ve been attending sessions at WWDC, I’ve seen an emphasis on accessibility and the capabilities that are built into iOS. The video highlights how apps are being used on these platforms to have a huge impact on the daily lives of so many. It’s encouraging to see developers focused on solving so many different things across the globe.
Read MorePosted on June 11, 2013 by William Welbes
As I use the newly unveiled beta of iOS 7, I can’t help but think that the OS is going to continue to drive more apps to full native development. As with previous releases of iOS, Apple is stretching the software and graphics capabilities in subtle but significant ways to deliver a polished best in class user experience. In order to fully take advantage of the new UI paradigms and capabilities in iOS 7, developers will need to make use of the SDK and powerful tools it provides. HTML5 based app solutions will begin to stand out further from native and not in a good way. Hybrid app solutions will not be able to take advantage of some of the great physics based UI elements that have been added to the iOS SDK. Native app development is how Apple intends developers to write apps for their platform. All of the tools and APIs are written to maximize the capability and productivity of native app developers. It’s not just Apple that has designed their platform this way, but the other major mobile platforms as well. There’s no intention to inject a third party between the developer and the platform. The promises of a shortcut and potential productivity gains just aren’t worth the loss in user experience. Apple has provided some very powerful and easy to use APIs in the new SDK that will enable some very subtle, but pleasing UI interactions that users will come to expect.
Read MorePosted on June 09, 2013 by William Welbes
‘Twas the night before DubDub, when all thru the city,
Read MorePosted on May 17, 2013 by William Welbes
Recently, Asymco released some data and analysis regarding the progression of smart phone market share in the US that sheds some light on how the market has shifted in the last few years. Below is a graph of data from Asymco that shows the breakdown of US Smart Phone platforms over time. It’s interesting to see this duality of iOS and Android that has formed in the past 3 years. It’s also interesting to note that iOS is seeing a steady climb, while Android has actually seen a slight decline in market share. Will there be a third player in this market? Windows Phone and BlackBerry have seen market share erode over the last several months. Developers have become more and more focused on iOS and Android; the largest and most influential share of the market. I’d expect that focus to continue to strengthen.
Read MorePosted on May 15, 2013 by William Welbes
We are all taking part in one of the fastest shifts in personal computing ever seen. In the 1980’s the personal computer was center stage, rolling out to millions of users across the globe. For the fist time in several years, we are seeing a decline in shipments in personal computers while shipments in smart phones have continued to soar and shipments in tablets are beginning to really take off. In 2010, we saw the number of smart phones shipped exceed the number of PCs shipped. Smart phone adoption world wide has continued to grow each quarter and is expected to continue to grow for several years. In 2012, tablet shipment growth has shown a rapid increase worldwide. Tablet shipments have not yet eclipsed PCs, but many analysts expect that 2013 is going to be the year that we see that point reached. Given the rapid growth in tablets in 2012 and the market indicators in early 2013 that we are seeing, it looks like we will see tablet shipments out-pace PC’s this year.
Read MorePosted on June 01, 2012 by William Welbes
If you’re not a tablet owner yet, you’ve no doubt encountered some of the millions of tablets being toted around today. Consumers and businesses alike are buying into tablet computing with a momentum that exceeds most other computing products. The launch of the iPad in March of 2010 created what we know today to be the ‘tablet’ category of devices and setup an entirely new set of paradigms for how users compute on the move. Despite some initial projections from analysts that consumers wouldn’t take the bait, the iPad has gone on to be become a resounding success for Apple. Several other manufacturers have also thrown their tablets into the ring, marking 2011 and 2012 as a pivotal time for tablets. So with all of the choices in the market, how does one go about deciding on a tablet? Let’s a take a look at some of the options available and compare and contrast what each has to offer.
Read MorePosted on October 31, 2011 by William Welbes
Yesterday, I came across a post about the fragmentation of Android’s update history. It seems that over the past two years or so, Android has really gained a lot of traction among a wide range of devices from varying manufacturers. One of the side effects of this fragmentation has been the degrading support for OS updates available on all of these different devices. It will be interesting to see what Google’s approach to this issue will be. They have entered the game as an OS provider, but have allowed the device manufacturers and carriers to control the distribution of their OS. On the flip side, Apple has provided the fully integrated solution for their iOS devices - the hardware, software and all updates. They have continually provided updates to the OS and keep consumers on the latest the day that it releases to the public. They are very much a closed eco system, but in this case, the closed nature has provided them with the ability to get OS updates to their customers.
Read MorePosted on October 03, 2011 by William Welbes
The Wall Street Journal has an article out today that indicates Sprint is essentially betting it’s future on the iPhone. It’s been rumored that Sprint will be picking up the new iPhone to be officially announced on Tuesday, but this article provides a lot more insight into what lengths the carriers are going to get the iPhone on their network. Sprint CEO Dave Hesse indicated that the lack of the iPhone was the number one reason people were choosing to leave Sprint. We’ll see if having the latest iPhone will help keep their current customers and attract millions more. Sprint is betting on their ability to sell 30.5 million iPhones, Apple’s price tag to get in the game, which comes to about $20 billion at current device prices. See the article for some great details on the deal.
Read MorePosted on August 27, 2011 by William Welbes
I’ve ventured down to Chicago for AT&T’s mobile hackathon event today. I’m going to be speaking on iOS and the cloud later this afternoon. We’re meeting at Morningstar in some really nice meeting space - hip, trendy and comfortable. I’m going to be going over the iOS + Cloud options as well as doing a little demo and deeper dive into the SDK that Microsoft has made available for use with Azure. I’ve posted a sample app to github that I’ll be using in the demo. It’s a very simple implementation of the Azure toolkit just to kick the tires and see what it’s capable of.
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