Nokia, the OS company

Nokia bought Trolltech for about $150 million, and there's all sorts of speculation online about what it means. Before I get to that, let me quickly summarize what Trolltech does:

Trolltech is a Norwegian company that makes development tools and Linux software. Its best-known products are Qt (a software layer and development tools for writing applications that run across multiple operating systems, including Windows, Mac, and Linux), Qtopia (a user interface and applications layer for Linux), and Qtopia Phone Edition (a Linux software environment for mobile phones).

In the mobile world, Qtopia Phone Edition has been the company's best-known product, although it hasn't exactly been a commercial success. Motorola uses a version of Qt in its Linux mobile phones, but not all of Qtopia. The Sony Mylo mobile device uses Qtopia, as did the Sharp Zaurus PDAs. But Trolltech had so much trouble getting a mainstream phone licensee for Qtopia that it created its own hardware prototype, the Greenphone. (Out of fairness, I should add that Trolltech has a lot of other tiny licensees you've never heard of; you can see the full list here.)

The obvious assumption would be that Nokia bought Trolltech for its phone technology, but that's not what Nokia says. The company's press release says Trolltech will help advance its "cross-platform software strategy for mobile devices and desktop applications, and...Internet services business. With Trolltech, Nokia and third party developers will be able to develop applications that work in the Internet, across Nokia's device portfolio and on PCs."

All About Symbian reinforced that message, reproducing a slide from the Nokia press briefing that showed Qt layered on top of Nokia Series 40, S60, and a variety of desktop PC operating systems (link). The Guardian quoted a Nokia spokesperson as saying the emphasis of the deal is development tools: "This is about Trolltech's fantastic tools. You can much faster develop programmes which can work on multiple platforms." (link).

Vnunet quoted an analyst saying that Nokia will use Qtopia to help deploy its Ovi Internet services cross-platform (link). I don't really see the Internet connection; Qtopia has not been a contender in the net applications world the way that Flash and Silverlight are. But maybe Nokia wants to build it into a contender.

Other analysts suggested other motivations for the purchase. Some of the commentary on Slashdot suggested that Nokia is investing in Linux to counter Google Android (link). ArsTechnica suggested that Nokia might be planning to replace S60 with Qt (link), while others suggested that Nokia plans to use Linux instead of Symbian. Richard Windsor of Nomura pointed out in an e-mail analysis that the purchase of Qt rips the guts out of Motorola's Linux plans, although he guesses that's more of a happy side effect for Nokia than the primary motivation.

But an unsigned article on ZDNet UK had the most sweeping interpretation, basically saying that this spells certain death for all proprietary operating systems (link):

Nokia's bet is that the sheer size of the Qt 4-based market will be a decisive inducement for everyone else, handset makers, operators, and pure applications players alike, and that the explosion in compatibility will amplify the market for everyone much as happened on the desktop when MS-DOS anointed the PC architecture. But unlike then, Qt 4 will break forever the idea that one part of the market can seal itself off as a profitable mini-universe, an idea as archaic in the 21st century as the feudalism it so closely resembles.

As we say here in California, I want some of what he's been smoking.


What does it really mean?

We're all assuming that Nokia actually has a coherent master plan here. Although $150m is a lot of money to me personally, it's mouse nuts to Nokia. Maybe Nokia bought Trolltech just as an experiment, or to keep it from falling into some other company's hands. The fact that Nokia's going to continue to develop its Maemo version of Linux, which is not based on the Trolltech technology, suggests a certain amount of incoherence.

If you want to be really Machiavellian, you could speculate that this purchase is the Nokia mobile phone organization's answer to Maemo -- "you tablet guys keep your version of Linux, now we have our own."

But let's assume there really is a plan, and it's aimed at competitors. About six months ago, I wrote about Nokia's ambitions to be a computer company (link). Now we see them dealing themselves into the operating system competition as well. No matter what you think Nokia's motives are, the fact is that it's now the owner of a respectable cross-platform software layer that runs on PCs and mobile devices. Nokia is now a software layer company, in very direct competition with other layer companies like Microsoft and Adobe and Sun. The deal also makes Nokia a much more important player in the open source community. And it puts Nokia in more direct opposition to the companies with their own operating systems -- Apple and Google and (once again) Microsoft.

That's a huge potential change. I say "potential" because Nokia has a lot more to do if it really wants to compete. The Trolltech team will need more investment (they have been losing money) and Nokia has a lot of work to do in developer evangelism and support to make the challenge real. But the potential is there.

I think that as the implications of the deal become clear, Nokia may have trouble continuing to partner with some of its new competitors. For example, it has spent a lot of time positioning itself as a partner to Adobe Air, but it's hard to see the evolved Qt as anything other than a competitor. Same thing for Google.

As for how this fits with all of Nokia's other products, I'm having a lot of trouble understanding how Qt will cohabit with S60 and Series 40. What exactly are developers supposed to develop for, and which user interface will the phones feature? If Nokia tries to keep all of them going, its phone software is going to look like a petit four, with layers stacked on layers stacked on layers. That makes for a nice pastry, but in a mobile phone it's a recipe for bad performance and short battery life. It's also a certain way to confuse developers.

So a lot depends on Nokia's next steps. Does Qt replace Series 40 and S60? I don't know which group within Nokia made the Trolltech deal, but I wonder if the biggest competitive battle might end up being the one inside the company, between its competing software standards.

Crustacean - Light up the Night with your presence...

The AN Family celebrated their "...three thousand six hundred and fiftieth night in Beverly Hills.."

The Attire: Old Hollywood Glamour.

The friends and family of the AN's arrived in style. The men were dressed in Tux's and the women were draped in long evening gowns, fabulous jewels and luxurious furs.
When the entertainment started, the two leading characters from the Musical "Miss Saigon" took the stage and performed ' Sun and Moon' and
'This Is the Hour'. We were all sipping Veuve Clicquot Champagne and noshing on delectable hors-d'oeuvres prepared behind the curtain, in the sacred kitchen.
(Mrs. AN and the AN women guard/protect their recipes down to this day.http://www.anfamily.com/)

Siedah Garrett took the stage and performed the song that she co-wrote,
'Man in the Mirror' and with such a moving voice. She totally got everyone actively involved in the message. There was also a vocalist named Sasha that was very engaging.

When Ms. Pattie LaBelle took the stage, looking as lovely as ever, singing like the beautiful woman that she is, the crowd started swaying. Then she invited Philip Bailey, from "Earth,Wind & Fire" to the stage, playing the drums and bringing everyone to their feet. Then he took the tone down a bit and performed 'Reasons'. His vocals are so strong and he was magnificent! Howard Hewett and will.i.am("Black Eyed Peas") joined Philip Bailey, scatting to the beat.
Then in walks Ali-Ollie Woodson, the last original member of
"The Temptations", and everyone started to scream.
Each of the men bowed to Ms. Patti LaBelle on stage. She was standing and rocking to the beat when Ali-Ollie Woodson stepped off of the stage and walked over to Patti LaBelle, and kissed her hand. It was very endearing.
I must say that the atmosphere was lovely.

May The AN Family continue to flourish and reap 1,000 fold.

Thanks Sissy & Jimmy!

There is nothing like stepping on a plane and jaunting off to the East Coast. Being a native California Girl, and simply loving all that this State has to offer, I still appreciate visiting other places. Having said that, I spent my last birthday in Philly and New York with my sister and brother-in-law.

I am so fortunate to have my sister as my friend. Our birthdates are one day apart, and since the day that she was born, I've considered her a gift from God. (I'm the senior sister) Well, since our birthdays are just a day apart, we celebrate each of our birthdays as if we have two days instead of one(meaning, I feel as though I have the 22nd & 23rd of each year as my birthday! YEP!)

Sissy and I spent her day very leisurly. That's what she wanted. I baked her a three layer coconut creamcheese cake(Jimmy requested that I bake the cake and have it ready to cut it promptly at midnight!). Speaking of midnight, our Mother called from CA, and told my Sissy that she was so happy and blessed to have my sister another year. (Growing up, we never celebrated birthdays, due to religious beliefs - but we are now in our 30's and we are making up for lost time - believe me!) Honey came down from MD, and she and Bokari came over and we talked until 2am in the morning! Then later on that morning, I prepaired Sissy her favorite breakfast and we sat down and reflected on the love that we have in our family. Our brother Al (calls her Punky Brooster) called from Berkeley, CA to wish her a Happy Birthday. then we got up and hit The Franklin Mills Mall and shopped at Neimans and Off Saks. We found some fabulous finds - Manolo Blahniks, Taryn Rose shoes galore! These shoes were up to 60 % off. We loved that!
Then Sissy wanted to see something funny. We popped in to the movie theater to see a comedy - "First Sunday", which was so funny! Then we went to dinner - her favorite is Chinese, so we dined at the Chinese Restaurant at Franklin Mills Mall. It was a lovely day.
Day two... We got up, skipped breakfast, quickly primped, and dashed out the door. We took the trian into Penn Station ( which was a short ride away from the suburb that my Sissy and Jimmy live). Oh, I love New York!
We got a chance to see the Musical 'The Color Purple' on Broadway, at the Broadway Theatre, starring BeBe Winans and Chaka Khan, and it was truly an excellent cast/performance given by all. Bebe was my client years ago, back when I represented Spa Nordstrom in the San Francsico Center. I was a Thalasso Therapist in those days, along with running the Spa. That feels like another life time ago... Where was I? Oh, yes, I sent a note back stage, and BeBe got it, and we were told to meet him back stage, and we did. He's such a lovely man. Chaka Khan was really beautiful, kind and very nice. Sissy and I stepped around the corner to the NOVOTEL New York Hotel and grabbed a quick nosh and then we - you guessed it- shopped at Macys! (That was the only store that we were able to get to, due to time constraints) It was so much fun! Thank you Sissy and Jimmy for such a lovely two day birthday on the East Coast!
Until next time....

MacBook Air: Object of lust or awkward compromise?

It's been interesting watching the reactions to Apple's announcements this week. Probably the most predictable was the disappointment many people expressed (link). After the iPhone announcement last year, almost anything was going to be an anticlimax. At this point Steve Jobs is competing with himself at these keynotes. Never mind that he single-handedly got as much attention as the entirety of CES the week before, if this year's keynote is not more Earth-shaking than the one last year it's a letdown.

Live by the spectacle, die by the spectacle.

To me, the two most interesting announcements were the MacBook Air and the new Apple TV and its associated services. Apple TV is strategic and needs a longer blog post than I have time for tonight. But I'd like to make a quick comment on the Air.


The next PowerBook, or the next PowerBook Duo?

I'm trying to reserve judgment on the Air until I can see one in person. On paper, it makes some uncomfortable compromises. No removable battery, no optical drive...it gives me nasty flashbacks of the PowerBook Duo. Like Air, the Duo was very thin and lightweight for its time, and like the Air it compromised on a lot of features. The Duo had a pretty elegant docking station that allowed you to use it as a full computer at your desk, then take the portable part with you when you traveled. I was working at Apple at the time, and I thought the whole concept was pretty clever.

It didn't sell well.

Turned out most people wanted to take the whole computer with them, not just part of the computer. They traded up to a heavier device with full features.

I worry that they might make the same decision about Air.

On the other hand, I just last week I wrote a post lavishly praising the new iPod Nano because its thin, elegant design more than compensates for its somewhat limited feature set. A lot of people criticized the Nano when it was first announced, in part because the photos couldn't do justice to its elegant design. When you saw it in person, it all made sense.

Maybe it will be the same for Air. I want to see and touch one. Maybe the lust factor will overcome the feature shortcomings. Or maybe personal computers are judged differently from music players. We'll find out.

Ain't Misbehavin' - The Fats Waller Musical Show

Today Kathreen and I skedaddled on up to Thousand Oaks, CA, to the Cabrillo Music Theater, and popped in to hear Ms. Carole.W. Nussbaum(President & CEO) do her thing. She oh so eloquently introduced the fabulous cast members of the Musical "Ain't Misbehavin", Directed by Ken Page.
The cast consisted of Melissa Younglblood(Nell) Anthony Manough (Andre) Arthur L. Ross (Ken) Pam Trotter(Armelia) and Natalie Wachen (Charlaine) - whom were all excellent.
The energy was very high and one could feel the connection between characters.
I loved Arthur L. Ross' version of 'Your Feets Too Big'.
Anthony Manough's rendition of The Viper's Drag/"The Reefer Song" was amazing. When Anthony Manough stepped out on stage and said "Good Meow-ning", it caught us all off guard and we all had a hearty laugh! He moon walked and danced like there was no tomorrow - Anthony Manough has some serious skills.
All three ladies were outstanding! While enjoying the musical, I happended to notice couples cuddling and men and women snapping their fingers and simply enjoying the performance, swaying to the rhythms of the cast and the band(the theatre was jammed packed).
Darryl Archibald, Musical Director & Conductor, did a wonderful job. The entire cast kept us in stitches! Hats off to every last cast/crew member.

The play runs through Jan 4 - 13, 2008. Fred Kavali Theatre, Countrywide Performing Arts Center, Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza . (805) 449-ARTS (2787) or http://www.ticketmaster.com/

If you can, please go and see it - you won't be disappointed.

Until next time...

Mobile Device of the Year, 2007

It's very difficult to say what's the best mobile device in a given year, because different people have different needs and desires. The ideal device for me might be repulsive to you, and vice-versa. But most of the computer publications try to make a call anyway. If you read the end-of-year reviews online, you'll probably conclude that the best mobile product of the year was the iPhone. It was cited by the Washington Post, Wired, Business Week, and Tech Republic (which strangely listed it as a business technology product, alongside Salesforce.com and LinkedIn).

Other mobile products getting mentions from major publications included the Nokia n95, iPod Touch, Razr 2, and Blackberry 8800. Amazon's Kindle was the only one that showed up on both best-of and worst-of lists. The best-ofs generally liked the wireless features and screen, while the worst-ofs disliked the closed business model and "eye-poking" industrial design.

I don't agree with any of those choices.

Since people have different needs, I think the best product of the year ought to be the one that best meets needs the needs of a particular group of users. It should be utterly compelling to its own audience. There are several questions to ask:

How efficient is it? Since people use mobile devices on the go, it should do just what the user needs, without any confusion or unneeded features. But there can't be any critical features missing, either.

How well does it trade off size vs. power? Because it's carried on your person, where size and weight are at a premium, it should balance tiny size with reasonable battery life.

How does it look? Because it's effectively a part of your wardrobe, it must look great (or whatever the target customer thinks of as great).

By that standard, I think the best mobile device of 2007 -- in fact, one of the best mobile products of all time -- was the third generation iPod Nano.

Don't get me wrong, iPhone fans. The iPhone is a very interesting and provocative device. There are some beautiful features in the user interface, and I love the turmoil it's causing in the industry. Several years from now we may look back on it and call it the most influential mobile device of its time. But that doesn't mean it's the best product.

To me, the iPhone is more an intriguing statement of direction than a completed product at this point. The lack of 3G is a huge compromise, and Apple obviously didn't think through the third party application thing. If you want a slow mobile browser that also plays music and videos and doubles as a somewhat awkward phone, then the iPhone is great. But for all of the cool highlights in the iPhone, I don't think it's enough to crush the phone industry in its current version. Future versions, maybe. We'll shortlist the iPhone III for product of the year in 2010.

The n95 is also a remarkable product in its own way, and I know it inspires a lot of technolust, especially in Europe. But in my opinion, it's just the latest Swiss Army Knife of the mobile world. Next year there will be another one from Nokia or Samsung or somebody else that has an even higher-resolution camera or maybe an electric toothpick or something, and people will be fawning all over that one. Like a lot of Japanese consumer electronics products, it's not a marvelous product as much as it is a marvelously ingenious bag of features.

By contrast, in third generation Nano is not just the latest model from Apple, it's an elegant culmination of the design work they've been doing for years.

The Nano doesn't look all that great in photographs. It's wider than its predecessor, which produced some criticism when it was announced (Engadget nicknamed it "fatty," which is asinine when you see it in person). In real life, the Nano's shape is compelling. It's much thinner than you'd expect from the pictures -- shockingly thin for something that has a color screen and plays videos. With its heavily rounded corners and brightly colored case, it feels a bit like a high tech chocolate wafer. You're almost tempted to take a bite out of it.





Physically, the Nano is almost all user interface -- the screen and thumbwheel take up the entire front of the device. Until we get flexible screens, the Nano is about as small as you can possibly make a device with its features. This is the endpoint, a form factor that's going to be with us for a while.

The biggest surprise to me about the Nano is the usability of video on it. When it was announced, I thought video was a throwaway feature -- who would ever want to watch video on a screen that small? But the reality is that when you're sitting down, you'll hold a Nano about 18 inches (45 cm) away from your face. At that distance, the screen is about the same apparent size as a 20-inch television (50 cm) at the other side of the living room. It's not like watching a flat panel monster screen, but it's very usable.

I'm not sure yet how much video will be used on the device, or what sorts of video, but that's a general question about mobile video rather than anything specific about the Nano. What I've observed so far is teenage girls using the Nano to watch music videos together, commenting on how cute the drummer is.

And that's just another sign that Apple made a great design for its target audience.

The new Nano doesn't have Bluetooth built into it, or Wi-Fi, or a camera, or a phone, or a hard drive. That probably accounts for why the technophiles online have been so dismissive of it (link). But to me, it's an almost perfect balance of functionality and art. Come back in ten or twenty years and I think you'll find it in design museums, when most of today's mobile devices will be long-forgotten and mildly embarrassing.

What do you think? Do you agree with my choice? If not, what do you think was the best mobile device of 2007?

Shopping on Rodeo Dr.

It is Friday evening, and I just popped into the Chanel Boutique on Rodeo Dr., and it was bustling with clients. The new store looks fabulous and the Staff is oh-so polite! Have you ever noticed that they all wear that sophisticated black? It's no mistake, it's by design. Their wardrobes are carefully selected, and everyone knows that the first thing one notices when being approached by someone in the store, we first give them the "Manhattan twice over" look. You know the look. Start from head to toe, and then once again, head to toe. Now, if the salesperson looks a mess, we simply walk away... But the Chanel Staff- Ooh-la-la, they look Fa-bu-lous!
I mean, they put the umph in triumph!
Back to what I was saying, I stopped in briefly to pick up the latest pair of sunglasses and to see if the Chanel earrings that Santa got me were really the cat's meow ( translation - to keep, or not to keep. That is the question!)
Well, it turns out that quite a few kitty-cats wanted them - so I kept them.
Thank you Santa!

Until next time....

The Great Debater - The movie

I got a chance to see the film 'The Great Debater', Producing/Co-starring Denzel Washington, and it was outstanding. I am asking everyone, young and old, to go see the movie. It is very inspiring.

It's 2008!

Yes, today is the first day of 2008. It seems like time is flitter fluttering by.
My advice? Take a good look at what it is that you want to do and get out there and do it!

All the best to one and all.

Until next time....

C