Andy Ihnatko, a technology journalist for the Chicago Sun-Times, and author provides the following four major reasons for switching from the iPhone to the Android:
Better keyboards
Larger screen
Collaboration between apps
Customization
While a larger screen has never been a factor for my planned move to the Nexus 4, I couldn’t agree more with Ihnatko on why a better keyboard, collaboration between apps and customization are so important to a person who really uses a mobile device for more than than just simple phone calls, texting and facebook updates. I have large hands and fingers so the little keyboard on my iPhone is and always has been lacking. Accidentally activating Siri is also one of the most frustrating and all too often repeated annoyances.
The keyboard issues on the iPhone are annoying but the lack of collaboration between apps is unacceptable. I have been an Evernote user ever since it was in beta and I use it more than any other app on my mobile devices and computer so not being able to send content, a link or web page directly to my Evernote todo list is a major productivity drain. Getting information and content from one app to another in IOS is horrible and is reason enough to switch.
When you factor in customization options that Android offers and the fact that for just a little more than $310 CDN I can have an unlocked phone that I can use anywhere on any network the decision to move the Nexus 4 makes sense. I also agree with Ihnatko that this move isn’t for everyone. I still would recommend the iPhone for new users or those folks who don’t really do much more than phone calls, texting and facebook. If you aren’t a poweruser who can really take advantage of all the Android offers I still think that IOS offers the simplest solution that just works.
I am looking forward to reading Ihnatko final post.
Mary Meeker of KPCB who is best known for her Internet Trends Report provided a mid year update to a select group of industry leaders and confirmed that mobile adoption is growing even more rapidly than she or anyone else has predicted. Meeker points to the following increased growth:
… iPad adoption is now ramping up five times faster than iPhone adoption, up from 3X in her May report…Android adoption is increasing six times faster than iPhone adoption, up from 4X.
Perhaps the most significant number and Meeker points to is:
…by the end of Q2 2013, Meeker believes the global smartphone plus tablet install base will surpass the install base of the PC.
In less than 5 years smartphones and tablets have surpassed the installed base of PCs. The notion of accessing the world’s information all the time and from everywhere is no longer a futuristic prediction. We are living this. We have been living this for several years and industries like Education are being disrupted in the same way that music, newspapers and video/dvd distribution have been disrupted.
Is Higher Education doing enough to respond to this disruption? Are faculty and administrator and schools at all levels preparing our students for a world that is changing so rapidly?
It is currently a two horse race between the IOS and Android. Samsung must be mentioned as a major player in this space considering it is the developer of the Galaxy S2, S3 and Google’s own Nexus device not to mention all the other models of smartphones is has offered. Apple and Android own the smartphone and it will be interesting to see how much of an impact Windows 8, Microsoft Surface and the Nokia phones will make on these numbers. There is also the long shot that RIM may revive some interest in its platform in 2013 but most people believe RIM will be a niche play at best.
It is always fascinating to see just how much an impact the smartphone has had in such a short period.
When you combine the smartphone growth With the explosive growth of the iPad, mobile access to the web is now the new norm. Perhaps the most exciting part about this for learners is that access to the world’s information is truly available all the time and from everywhere. Even more exiting is the fact that we has just started to see development in this space. One can only imagine where we will be in the next 3-5 years.
In the December quarter, Apple’s iPhone business generated $24.4 billion of revenue. Microsoft’s whole company, meanwhile, from Windows to Office to servers to XBox, generated $20.9 billion.
And if you are really counting just how far Apple is ahead of Microsoft then you appreciate knowing that:
Apple’s business (in Q4) is more than twice the size of Microsoft’s–$46 billion to $21 billion–and more than twice as profitable: $17 billion to $8 billion.
Perhaps the following clip of Steve Balmer “dissing” the iPhone in 2007 will clearly demonstrate just how wrong Microsoft has been when it comes to the Internet…which is obviously a lot more than just email:
What does Apple excelling and Microsoft have to do with Education? A great deal if you consider why Apple has been so successful. Apple’s success isn’t attributed to a just an efficient user interface it can be attributed to the fact that they understand that people want to be able to access EVERYTHING all the time and from everywhere and the iPhone, and now the iPad allow one to do this. All the world’s information can be accessed from the palm of your hand. Microsoft isn’t the only business to miss this point. Research in Motion (RIM) the makers of the Blackberry also missed this point and back in 2008 they release a direct competitor to the iPhone 3G which was a complete miss because it didn’t even have wifi. Back in 2008 I wrote a blog post which pointed out that RIM assumed that Apple’s success was attributed to the touch interface and not seamless web access so they copied that functionality and offered the Blackberry Storm…which failed horribly. It looks like I was right…RIM’s global market share has dropped from around 87% in 2007 to 14% by the end of 2011.
Since some of the world’s most successful technology companies have missed the power of mobile and ubiquitous access to all things digital, there should be no surprise that Academia for the most part is slow to embrace this opportunity as well. Fortunately, there are some academics who see this exciting opportunity to prepare their students for the future. Bill Rankin the Director of Educational Innovation at Abilene Christian University offers the following line of thinking to encourage us to seize the opportunity that we now have before us.
With ubiquitous access to information the greatest challenge of the digital information age is assessing information. A google search of the term “digital age” yields just over 56 million hits. Looking at the 56 million results spending just 5 seconds on each and reading for 16 hours a day, 365 days a year, it would take a person approximately 76 years to look at each of result. This is an overwhelming amount of information is much than a person would have encountered in an entire career 50 years ago. We also know that much of this information will not even be valid or useful. So to reiterate the challenge we face in the digital information age is accessing information.
Then if we imagine our primary jobs as a professors is to serve information, are we helping solve the current informational problem or make it worse?
And given the vast complexity of the informational network, if we insist on our centrality, does that establish or harm our credibility as professors?
If assessing information – and the wisdom & experience that requires – is the central challenge of the current informational age, are professors more or less necessary?
The direction, guidance and mentoring of a caring professor has never been more important. We live in a world filled with so much information and so much of it comes at us noise. Helping our learners filter out the noise and helping them make meaningful connection that lead to learning and growth has never been more important. It has also never been easier to do this.
