“Beware the Ides of March” was a warning of calamitous nature to Ceasar. The foreshadowing was in reference to the 15th of that month. For certain other months, such as Feb, the ‘ides’ is on the 13th. And the portent for the mobility world has likely already taken place as the “Ides of February” now approaches.
Just a little more than two weeks ago, Verizon was still in denial over the iPhone, the Galaxy Tab was the first significant competition to iPad, Android Honeycomb (particularly with Motorola Xoom) was announced with great fanfare, the rumor mill had HP unable to achieve success without dropping WebOS, and Nokia’s “Great White Hope” MeeGo (the joint embed OS venture with Intel) was pulled off the market in anticipation of golden release.
Now we are heading towards mid-Feb and…
- Verizon did indeed get the iPhone and has already sold out on pre-orders.
- While 2010 numbers show that Android has grown 888% to claim the #2 spot in smartphones, the Galaxy Tab may not have been as successful as originally thought. Meanwhile, Honeycomb is still not shipping for tablets and the pundits expect the Xoom to fail because of an $800 price tag.
- HP has committed to multi-platform WebOS and is actively trying to re-engage a development community that had gained a loyal following from the early Palm Pre days.
- Nokia has admitted that they’ve lost their way and have pulled MeeGo for a possibly entirely different reason as they are now announcing a WinPhone7 partnership.
- Big-money but late-to-the-dance Microsoft, which has a “User Experience” hit (though not yet a huge market success) in WinPhone7, will benefit tremendously from the Nokia strategy change.
- Rumors are already swirling over iPad3, and the iPad2 hasn’t even been formally announced.
- Left-for-dead RIM has, by all accounts, a viable product in the PlayBook.
I’ve long maintained that, although I am an iPhone/iPad fan, I am not a “fanboy” that views all others as inferior. I actually relish the diversity and watching the innovations that capitalistic competition have spurred. The “Ides of February” has brought some momentous events for mobility, and the next few months – awaiting the general availability of WebOS, Honeycomb, iPad2, and PlayBook – will be significant.
These are exciting times. A lot has happened in a relatively short span. The only thing that moves faster than “Internet time” would seem to be “mobility time”!
