Eknath Kadam > 2010 > January

Forget about netbooks or your laptops…these are too heavy and cumbersome to use. Forget about smart phones….their screens are just too tiny and they arent powerful enough. iPad is the thing going forward.

I havent used one yet, but I can imagine how intimate this device is going to be. I have started using iPhone for many of the tasks that I would normally do on my Mac. But iPhone’s screen is too small and it isnt powerful enough to do some heavy tasks. Going forward, once iPad comes in my hand, I will be using it for most of the tasks while sitting on my couch. The whole experience is going to be awesome. Sitting on a couch in a relaxed mode and doing some serious works is going to be exciting. I cant wait to see more productivity apps coming to iPad. With such a big screen, many of the desktop class apps will make it to the iPad.

I am sure with the release of iPhone OS 4.0 a iPad will be much more capable than what its today. Multi-tasking is not going to be a big issue provided iPad has 10 hours of battery life. The 4th generation iPhone will also have multi-tasking and a long battery life. I am sure that Apple is going to put their new silicon in 4th generation iPhone.

Netbooks and rest of the tablet market is simply gonna die. With 140K app in the App Store, there is no possibility that the competition would ever be able to catch up.

2009 was the year of new smart phones and thier app stores. As Steve Jobs created new industry everybody was trying to catch up. I was fortunate enough to try most of the new smart phones released this year. iPhone 3GS, Palm Pre, HTC Dream, Motorola Cliq and Droid. One thing is sure, none has yet figured out how to make touch user interface as seamless as Apple does. That said, Android, Palm,RIM will take some more time until they are up to par with iPhone. By that time, Apple would be gone too far ahead with new tablet and a brand new industry that will be built around this tablet. And again, industry will start copying Apple and try to catch up and so on.

For Android is supported by Google and major handset manufacturers, 2010 will be a great year. I have already started seeing that effect for my app downloads in Android Market. Google’s push to sell handsets with new way is a welcome move. America needs that to carry mobile revolution forward. Being an Indian, the carrier lock-in model was quite annoying to me. It has its pros and cons. This model was hurting cell phone manufactures and consumers equally. Cell phone industry is so dynamic that every month we see exciting new devices coming to market and 2 year period was quite too long for consumers to wait to change their handsets.

Google’s AdMob acquisition and Apple’s Quattro Wireless acquisition is clear indicator that mobile is the next big thing in digital revolution. And all major players are damn serious about it. Google selling its own handset is a big thing in my opinion. It will be another big push for innovation. I also like what Palm is doing with WebOS. They stand out distinctively from the copy-cat crowd. Palm Pre will also be the first new smart phone to be available on all 3 major carriers in US. With their new PDK they have also proven that they are serious about gaming on their platform.