A dude making a living writing Android apps — who, by all appearances, is an upstanding guy with actual quality software in the Android Market — is taking Google to task this week for what he calls “unacceptable” treatment. His beef seems to originate from the unexplained pulling of one of his titles — Rapid Download — a fact that he discovered not through any sort of communication from Google, it seems, but by the fact that he noticed was no longer making any coin from it. He goes on to say that he was unable to get anyone in Mountain View to explain the situation until his third attempt, at which point he received some unhelpful “generic information” plus a threat tacked on that if he violated the rules again, he’d have all of his titles pulled. For someone whose Market apps are breadwinners, we can imagine that would be a little scary.
Long story short, this particular developer decided he wasn’t going to take it — not after paying “over $ 14,000 in ‘service fees’” — and started a site to get his story public and enlist fellow devs unhappy with the way Google’s been treating them. Now, we can’t vouch for the accuracy of the guy’s story, but if this movement and ones like it gather enough steam, it puts Google in a precarious position; the Market, after all, is the crown jewel in the company’s strategy of allowing only approved devices to be the most relevant to consumers. Take away the absolute importance of the Market — like, say, Amazon is trying to do — and the power structure starts to shift.
Disgruntled Android developer sounds battle cry, rallies troops, demands Market tweaks from Google originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Mar 2011 09:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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“The first iPhone shipped in 2007, and we still don’t have a product that is close to their experience. Android came on the scene just over 2 years ago, and this week they took our leadership position in smartphone volumes. Unbelievable.” This is just one of many, many pieces of stark knowledge allegedly dropped by recently-appointed Nokia CEO Stephen Elop — formerly of Microsoft — in a roughly 1,300-word memo to the company’s employees that we’ve received today. Though we can’t vouch for the authenticity, it’s notable that the memo contains a portion previously reported by The Register and heard by sources at TechCrunch Europe, so it would seem that we’ve simply received the whole thing. Elop goes on to suggest that his company is “standing on a burning platform” and must “change [its] behavior,” suggesting that the adoption of a non-homegrown platform like Android or Windows Phone 7 is a more realistic possibility than ever before.
Overall, the communique laments Nokia’s lateral movement while Apple and Google have started eating its lunch on the mid- and high end and Shenzhen-based off brands have started to cut into its traditional dominance in emerging markets, leaving Espoo with virtually zero market leadership. It’s a stark revelation that seems befitting of a man brought in from the outside — he’s neither Finnish, nor raised in the Nokia system — and he promises to start revealing the way forward this Friday at the company’s Capital Markets Day event where grandiose plans have been unveiled in the past.
Whether the memo is legitimate or not, the frequency and intensity of big-time rumors floating around Nokia ahead of Capital Markets Day (and MWC next week) have been pretty wild: we’ve heard they’ll be announcing a partnership with Microsoft possibly revolving around Windows Phone 7, that a boatload of executives would be shown the door, and that Elop would start looking to Nokia’s new Silicon Valley campus as its center of gravity, with execs and senior management expected to start spending more time outside Finland.
We’ll know far, far more about what’s going on over in Espoo in the next few days, but in the meantime, here are some choice quotes from the memo:
- “…there is intense heat coming from our competitors, more rapidly than we ever expected. Apple disrupted the market by redefining the smartphone and attracting developers to a closed, but very powerful ecosystem.”
- “They changed the game, and today, Apple owns the high-end range.”
- “Google has become a gravitational force, drawing much of the industry’s innovation to its core.”
- “We have some brilliant sources of innovation inside Nokia, but we are not bringing it to market fast enough. We thought MeeGo would be a platform for winning high-end smartphones. However, at this rate, by the end of 2011, we might have only one MeeGo product in the market.”
- “…Symbian is proving to be an increasingly difficult environment in which to develop to meet the continuously expanding consumer requirements…”
- “Our competitors aren’t taking our market share with devices; they are taking our market share with an entire ecosystem.”
- “We poured gasoline on our own burning platform. I believe we have lacked accountability and leadership to align and direct the company through these disruptive times. We had a series of misses. We haven’t been delivering innovation fast enough. We’re not collaborating internally. Nokia, our platform is burning.”
Read the full memo after the break.
Continue reading Nokia CEO Stephen Elop rallies troops in brutally honest ‘burning platform’ memo?
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop rallies troops in brutally honest ‘burning platform’ memo? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Feb 2011 18:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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While the military is still hashing out plans to outfit soldiers with their own smartphones, gadgets are already a part of daily life of troops in the field. Of course, more technology means more demand for power, and the Army has been evaluating technologies for flexible, lightweight photovoltaic tents and shades. “They are ideal for charging up batteries, making sure your (communications), night vision goggles and computers are powered up. You don’t want a generator on top of a mountain, and you don’t want to have to bring fuel to a generator or haul batteries,” said assistant secretary of the Army Katherine Hammack. Among the various items being tested are the TEMPER Fly, a roughly 16-by-20-foot tent able to generate 800 watts of electricity; QUADrant, a smaller version of the TEMPER Fly that generates roughly 200 watts of power; and Power Shades capable of generating up to 3 kilowatts of exportable electrical power. Sounds like a kick-ass tent for next year’s festival season!
US Army testing solar powered tents for troops, gadget addicted campers originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 19:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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