My relationship with the iPhone is one that is bittersweet. Like an ex-girlfriend that you just can’t forget about, I love my old iPhone, but I’m hating how the new one is so much better. Maybe that doesn’t even make sense, but I hope you get my point: the new iPhone is cheaper, faster and can do more.

The Android is coming at the earliest in September. By then Apple will have had at least 2 months lead in getting its phones out internationally and its app-store churning out third-party applications.

I feel a dark storm for the Android with the iPhone’s 3G and GPS capabilities. In a way, I think that the new iPhone, along with the third-party applications, would offer most of the capabilities that most ordinary users can want. I’ve checked out the 50 applications that Google selected for the Android, but the question remains how much of a niche these applications are.

Nevertheless, I believe that the fight is not yet over. If the Android could perfect the following things, and with the failure of Apple’s at a few other things, the phone market over the next few years could be very healthy and exciting

Here’s what Android has to do:

1. Make software distribution decentralized, but organized so that application distribution can become viral.
2. Improve and encourage consistency of design among Android applications. The 50 applications I have seen so far offer a suite of colors, button sizes, and design subtleties that will have users frustrated.
3. Focus on solutions, not features. I think many people make the mistake of adding features wherever they can, rather than solving the customer’s problems.
4. Encourage better and consistent hardware among phone developers. Good software is good. Good hardware is good. But great software married to great hardware will be the weapon necessary to slain the iPhone.
5. Target third-world countries. Forget developed countries. Think India. Think China. Apple has left China alone at least for now. Who cares for what reasons. The Android should be all over China like white on rice, and like termites on wood.
6. Think system.
7. Think sustainable. I believe people are going to become more and more self conscious about our environmental impact. I think it will be important to address those issues from a phone hardware and software developer’s perspective and create enabling technologies to make that possible.
8. Target trendy people. I think the Android is very geeky. Look at the name. Yes, there’s plenty of buzz now considering that people most tuned in are those with a technology background. But trust me, if I bring this up during a conversation at a party with a hot girl, I’d get a “what?”
9. Think young. As in 13-18 year old teenagers who figures out more uses of the phone than the rest of the population combined.
10. Design the Android (and applications) for the masses. Many people still think that Apple is exclusive. I think the Android can take advantage of that and corner the market outside of that. Imagine the people who says, “I don’t know, the Mac isn’t really for me.” They should be thinking “Yeah, I think the Android has just what I need.” This is a marketing job, and it’s all a matter of perspective.
11. Get carriers as allies. You need hardware and you need distribution. Apple already does the hardware and has great ties for distribution. Android will need as good a plan as well.

Those are at least 10 things that Android application developers should look at and consider over the next few months. But if I had one word of advice, I would say, I hope you’re also developing for the iPhone.

I’ll be in Europe for the next few weeks and will be studying user behaviors on mobile and use cases. If you are interested, be sure to keep in touch or subscribe.

Cheers,

I love playing devil’s advocate, and so this post is necessarily following my praise of the iPhone. This is short and sweet because I believe in the team at Apple will solve much of these during the next release. That’s the expensive price of having what you want I suppose.

1. No background processes.
2. Web browser does not load the page I want to see while I’m doing something else. With the slow EDGE network, it’s painful watching the slow loading process. I hate having to wait for a page to load, but if I do something else, when I come back, I have to reload the page again. No good.
3. I can’t deal with my music like pictures. It’d be great to bypass iTunes on the synchronization so I can put what I want on it using as many computers as I want.
4. The camera has no flash, and is worthless at night.
5. No flash. I’m sure you’ve all heard this. Apple. Steve. Get over it. Work with Adobe. Please!
6. Youtube is too limited. When I search for that Mongolian rock that my friend recommends, it’d be great if I had more options.
7. It doesn’t tell me enough about the incoming and outgoing calls. Incoming and outgoing are listed all in one list, and I have to click on individual ones to see if they were outgoing or incoming.
8. Insufficient warning before the phone dies. If I use the net too much, and I do not keep a watch on my phone, it becomes a worthless piece of metal for the rest of the day.
9. Word spelling suggestions. Sometimes the changes could get really annoying. I typed Ralph Lauren and I get Ralph Laurel. Genius.
10. The direction search could be improved by a lot. Turn by turn, selecting of current location. These are small things that are frustrating when I’m in a hurry.

While there are some opportunities here for third party developers to come out with creative solution, there are significant number of problems that can only be solved by Apple itself. In a way, we have to ask the question, did Apple release its platform to enhance and enrich customer experience, or only as a response to Android? I definitely have an opinion on this, and I at least believe that the Android had something to do with the initial response. However, Jobs is one of those guys who is good enough to recognize something good when he sees it. So let’s see what he does here about some of these problems by the next release.

I got the iPhone about 3 months ago, just a little bit after the announcement of the SDK. Before that, I had a Razr. I hated the Razr, and I love my iPhone. Here are 10 things I love about my iPhone, and why it matters. As someone who thinks about systems, and have a love for product design, I can see the tremendous insights in watching how people interact with their iPhone. If you’re a developer, I hope you are able to see such insights and continue making the iPhone kick ass. If you’re an iPhone user, well, see if you agree with me.

1. Slick. The iPhone looks cool, and that’s what matters. I love carrying it around me. I typically walk around in shorts and t-shirts, so I carry the phone in my hand. And it’s a cool feel to have the phone in my palm.
2. Voicemail. I love how I can listen to any voice mail with such ease. I wondered for years why the cheap phones don’t have this.
3. Google map traffic. Yeah, it’s simple, and it actually is pretty inaccurate, but I like the idea that maybe it could get better. I’m not buying a GPS device, ever, not with my iPhone handy.
4. Stocks. It sucks that stocks are so volatile these days, but one of the first things I check in the morning are the stock prices.
5. Data security. Synchronizes contact, calendar, and bookmarks with the Mac. If my phone crashes, I have my data backed up and it is easily re-reimported.
6. Applications. I look forward to seeing applications that will are cool, and let me interact better with friends. If you’re making one, I’m down for beta testing.
7. Music. Forget about the iPod, I have my iPhone. Sure, it doesn’t store that much, but I like the convenience of just having one device that makes phone calls and let me listen to music. The headphones are great, and the batteries last a decent amount.
8. When you take out the headphone, the music stops. That’s just awesome. It is something so subtle, and I would have never expected someone to think of such a functionality.
9. Hidden features. When you click on in Safari, it goes to the address line. If you turn the simple calculator to the side, it becomes a scientific calculator.
10. It blends. (willitblend.com). Seeing that black dust rising out of the blender somehow just demonstrate the quality that the $$$ pays for.

I have thought and said in the past (and others have said it as well): there are things that you didn’t know you need until you have it. I believe this mentality will apply strongly in the next series of applications, and the successful applications will be the ones that make me think: how did I ever live without this? Is yours one of them?

Mobile is the next big thing, says Google’s Eric Schmidt in 2007. However, just today, myself and a few other mobile developers got together and watched a chilling reminder of the last time mobile was supposed to be big.

Riot-On is a documentary-movie about a Finnish company that set out to conquer the mobile space. The year is 2000, and the company was called Riot-Entertainment. Six founders, 21 million euros, and an astounding bankruptcy that left the company an additional 3 million euros in debt just 666 days later.

In 2000, Finland had the biggest penetration of mobile phones in the world at over 80%. It was just before the bubble bursted. The founders were persuasive, and had amazing CVs, diverse and highly desirable skill sets, and a promise of game-changing mobile applications.

With no product to demo, no infrastructure, and no understanding of technical feasibility, Jan Wellmann, CEO of Riot-E, was not only able to persuade almost 10 investors to put in millions of euros, but he developed exclusive contracts with media companies for Lord of the Rings, X-men and uncountable other large deals for the mobile game space. Their product, however, was ultimately a mobile game that involves rock-paper-scissor. No, seriously, rock-paper-scissor. With X-Men and Lord of the Rings nevertheless.

While the company went bankrupt just two years after its start, it is estimated that the media contracts that these guys came up was worth over $200 million. Where did they fail? How did this all happen? Where was oversight?

The movie did an astounding job of explaining exactly what happened, and the trailer did not do full justice about the whole company. In fact, as the movie ended, I realized that these guys were really on to something, but their time was over. It was too late. They lost the trust of investors, their employees, and have disappointed far too many people. Somewhere in between the falsification of their concepts, the lies, and the contracts, I feel that at least someone in the company knew what he was doing. Granted that the coders had sex orgies in the company’s sauna, and the financial officer was given a free trip to Spain with four hookers so that he would shut up about the budget, nevertheless, the business team was incredible.

They certainly had their joy, their fun and their seasons in the sun, but the hills that they climbed were just seasons out of time. Perhaps they were too early for their time, or perhaps they just had too much %*@$## fun to get anything done.

So now I come back to present day. Is it time again for the rise of the mobile kings? Or is it just another overblown-hype. Sure, the big guys are saying that, yes, now it is the time for mobile to conquer new territories; but many things have been said many time in the past, and people typically forget the predictions that never happened.

… But you know what, I’m optimistic. So optimistic, in fact, that my partners and I gave up other *wonderful* opportunities to work on our mobile application. Do you know what I’m most excited about? The idea that mobile phones could replace the computers in third world countries. India. China. Africa. But I digress, and I’ll talk about that soon enough.

Oh yeah, have a drink when you watch this movie. We had three bottles of wine, and so should you.

The movie is available on Amazon.