The reason Apple got so many people excited is that they designed MORE THAN JUST A DEVICE. From end to end, they've created an ecosystem: Phone platform software, easy data management with a built-in store, and most importantly for the latest wave: great developer tools. People who are already OSX developers can dive in and make iPhone apps. And Apple has made their platform platform easy (and pleasing!) for people to pick up and be able to kick out satisfying, pleasing apps in a matter of days. The stuff you get for free (e.g. transition animations) rewards you for the effort you put into building the app. Can't really say that for Android. You couldn't say that about Palm OS back in the day, either. Maybe the story is different today. My eyes and ears are still open. But I don't see anyone showing off their Pre apps yet.
And background processes are a red herring. What compelling functionality does it enable? Location logging? Notifications when I receive an IM? You can achieve these without battery-draining background processing. For Palm to be successful with the Pre device, it needs to blow the doors off of the story OUTSIDE of the device, making the information management and app development goals pleasing, too. No amount of background processing is going to help me as a developer if I find myself frustrated with the learning curve of the new platform. Oh, and it could probably do with a better keyboard ... - Nasir ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
