arvino’s posterous

Dataviz has been the pioneer in making word/excel/powerpoint editing capabilities available on palm-size devices. Ten years ago they did for the first time on PalmOS PDAs. Now they are going to do it again on Palm WebOS devices. Really breathtaking to see it (again) happening!

http://www.dataviz.com/products/documentstogo/webOS/index.html

                 

Click here to download:

Sony_Apple_Palm_3_great_iconic.zip (1077 KB)

Apple and Palm are two great and exciting company that I love. They are groundbreaking, exciting, daring, and always make great things happen. But before the great days of Apple and Palm, actually there is one more company I truly love (in the past) : Sony.

In their own time, these three company impose many similarities to each other: (1) They got a great product, (2) They got a great leader, and (3) They got a great brand. Let's take a look at some example:

• Sony had the super popular Walkman, whose development was excitingly led and promoted by Akio Morita (the Sony charismatic founder), which was sold under the iconic brand Sony; 
  • The product was: Walkman.
  • The great leader was: Akio Morita.
  • The brand was: Sony.
• Years later, Sony did it again with super popular PlayStation.
  • The product was: PlayStation.
  • The great leader was: Ken Kuntaragi.
  • The brand was: Sony.
• Apple had iMac, iPhone, whose development was excitingly led by Steve Jobs (the Apple charismatic founder), which was sold under the iconic brand Apple; 
  • The product was: iMac/iPhone.
  • The great leader was: Steve Jobs.
  • The brand was: Apple.
• Palm -- in the past -- had Palm V, whose development was excitingly led by Jeff Hawkins (the Palm inspiring founder), which was sold under the iconic brand Palm;
  
  • The product was: Palm Pilot, Palm V.
  • The great leader was: Jeff Hawkins.
  • The brand was: Palm.
• Today Palm had Palm Pre, whose development was excitingly led by Jon Rubinstein, which was sold under the iconic brand Palm.
  • The product was: Palm Pre.
  • The great leader was: Jon Rubinstein.
  • The brand was: Palm.

Beside those great product+leader+brand combination similarities, between these 3 great exciting companies, there seems to be an indirect connection where -- across time -- these there companies being 'influenced' each other.

• Story says that when Apple was small, Steve Jobs study the branding and marketing approach that Sony uses -- including the texture, message and material that Sony uses in their packaging and stuff -- then later on adapt and apply it to Apple style.
• Later, Palm -- during the reign of Donna Dubinsky and Jeff Hawkins (and now during the reign of Jon Rubinstein) -- seems to learn so much from Apple innovation, branding, packaging and marketing approach, and then apply it to Palm.

Today Apple and Palm stood up again to lead in the era of innovation of smartphones and 'future computing device', and seem to have great chance of becoming one of the most inspiring companies in innovation, great product invention, as well as in its branding and marketing.

I wish Sony would be able to do it once again too. During the reign of Akio Morita & Masaru Ibuka (the Sony founder), Sony innovation is definitely proven to be excellent. It's very well deserved that Sony  regain back its most respected stature. After all, before the invention of all the 'gadget' and 'portable' device that marks our modern era: Sony was the pioneer, inventor and king of it all!

For such big exciting change that to happen once again at Sony, seems the top leadership at Sony definitely must change.

• With a great leader at the helm of Sony -- someone as great as the iconic Sony founder Akio Morita -- Sony seem to have the chance to become the innovative, exciting and inspiring innovation, brand and marketing leader once more.
• Without a great leader -- the Sony brand and innovation are still there -- but it can not be expressed and channeled in max, to make great things happen.

Across Sony great history, once there was great hope that Ken Kuntaragi -- the 'father' of Sony playstation -- could make the 'Sony comeback' happen. Ken Kuntaragi seem to have all the necessary element to make Sony a young, bright, exciting and inspiring once more. After all, Ken Kuntaragi practically prove himself single handedly make the Sony Playstation the best, most innovative leading device the world have seen. At one time, Ken Kuntaragi's Sony Play Station contribute to more than half of Sony worldwide profit margin!, it exceed any other Sony product worldwide combine in its capability to make Sony great, exciting, iconic and successful.

Yet, Nobuyuki Idei nor Sir Howard Stringer -- the current Sony CEO -- seems not to be the best fit into the equation of how Sony shall fit and change into the future. Perhaps too many considerations in too many aspect of the Sony span of business seems to make Sony step behind -- rather than leap forward into the future.

The return of someone of the instinct and quality of "Akio Morita", or "Ken Kuntaragi" will definitely bring Sony back. This happens before at Apple -- with Steve Jobs at the helm, Apple is great; without him around, Apple is none. This happens before at Palm -- with Jeff Hawkins at the helm, Palm is great; now with Jon Rubinstein at the helm -- seems many things are recovering.

Innovative, iconic company seems to need a great founder or charismatic leader to be at its topmost leadership position. Key decisive innovation decision seem needs to be made there.

When such happen, then seem such companies has the potential to make great things happen. Yet without such, its seems turn to become a huge potential entity that actually could do great things some more -- yet had lost its soul, and never did so!

It's refreshing to see the iconic Apple and Palm back; it surely be truly exciting too to see Sony -- one day -- back once more.

I have a great sincere hope for Ken Kuntaragi -- or someone of his engineering+business instinct and quality -- to be back at the helm of Sony. The 'ousted' of Ken Kuntaragi from Sony -- to me --- seems very similar to a 'historic epic' of Steve Jobs being ousted from Apple in the past.

When Steve Jobs is back at Apple, Apple shines once more. I sincerely hope the return of someone as 'instinctive as Ken Kuntaragi' would bring Sony innovation & business prowness back into its well deserved stature. After all, innovation, great engineering, great leadership and iconic brand was the root of Sony's nature. Akio Morita & Masaru Ibuka make such happen. Someone as great (and as 'instinctive') as the great Sony founder might bring hope that such great recovery could happen at Sony.

After all, before it's Apple, or before it's Palm, it was Sony that was at the top of the great innovation, leadership, branding and marketing leadership stature that the world had come to know.

Sony once had it all. And Sony definitely truly well deserved to have it 'all' once more. A true leadership is the key essence for this to (once again) happen.

We'lll see how the future goes.

What's going on with Palm after the successful launch of their newest Palm Pre? Seems a couple of great exciting things is on the way:

1. Palm Pre soon will be available in the UK through O2. This information has spread across the internet. Although it is not yet being confirmed by Palm nor O2, rumors said that by next week a formal announcement will be made.This means soon the GSM version of the Palm Pre will become available. I predicted once the GSM version spread in UK or Europe,  there would be no reason why this exciting GSM based Palm device would not appear very soon in the Asia market as well! Having such in the Asia market would be truly astounding!!
2. Palm predicted that they would be able to sell 1 million smartphones within this quarter. While this is not yet as astounding as Apple iPhone 3Gs achievement, surely this is an excellent headstart for Palm to be back in the game! Again Blackberry RIM better watch out, unless they quickly able to innovate their BlackberryOS pretty soon, their leading marketshare could start to erode sometime in the not too distant future.
3. Palm EOS (a.k.a Pixie) rumored would be soon be available in November 2009. Many people not sure yet whether the 'future' Pixie would sell exclusively on Sprint, or whether it will be available through other operator. Nevertheless, this would again mean: Blackbery RIM better watch out, unless they quickly innovate their BlackberryOS and their touch-based devices, people might consider the new Palm Pre and/or the new Palm EOS/Pixie as a 'smarter' alternative in smartphone devices.
4. Palm sees the future as really bright, as the smartphone market is growing consistently year to year until the next 3-5 years. As demand for smartphone market continously soar and rapidly growing each year, Palm seem confident that such increasing demand provide enough space for more-than-one smartphone vendor to exist in the smartphone market. This means: we might see Palm step by step successfully make its great comeback in the marketplace. With this, they would have the next change again to invent, create and introduce even greater and even more exciting innovations, invention and design in the smartphone market -- through its amazing WebOS operating system, or WebOS based device. Seeing that happening -- again -- would be truly astounding!

         

Click here to download:

Whats_next_with_Palm.zip (386 KB)

This is what iPhone+AT&T can't do -- Sprint says ... Pretty logical and intriguing advertising. But -- in my personal view -- probably not exactly so smart. 

I wonder why Sprint has to 'attack the Apple market?'. Apple's strong iPhone OS and massive number of beautiful application makes Apple totally difficult object to penetrate nor attack. Beside that: Apple iPhone is definitely the innovation leader -- as strong as Palm WebOS strength today.

On the contrary, the Blackberry market seem relatively more possible to snap. Blackberry's current OS is definitely totally so-so, their Storm proposition and its implementation is relatively still awful (as of today), yet at the sametime the Blackberry market is huge -- hence opening possibility for future avalanche to happen (once the initial seed is successful).

I seriously wonder why Sprint has to attack Apple. In my view, the better, larger, (and perhaps relatively 'easier') target is definitely Blackberry.

We'll see how the future goes. :-)

Michael Jackson passed away on June 25, 2009 at the age of 50. He's a genius, a true talent, and truly one of the greatest performers of our time. His singing, voices, dancing, greatest stage-act and video-act performances are consistently fresh, original, inspiring, inovative, pioneering, groundbreaking and legendary.

Michael Jackson started in the music business at the age of 11 with his brothers as a member of the Jackson 5. In the early 1980s, he defined the art form of music video with such ground-breaking videos as Billie Jean, Beat It and the epic Thriller. Jacksons sound, style and dance moves inspired subsequent generations of pop, soul, R&B and hip-hop artists.

Michael Jackson wonderfully put his marks on the texture and style of world's music, musical act, dance and performance during his time and for many many years to come. For all that, the world love and adore him so much.

This is a rememberance to some of his best moonwalk dances, beautiful singings, pioneering video-clip innovations, Jackson 5 roots, and wonderful black-or-white performances:

     

Click here to download:

Michael_Jackson.zip (248 KB)

Apple iPhone momentum keep rising. In long term it would be interesting to see what happen with Palm Pre also (report says that while Palm Pre's momentum today is of course not yet as huge as Apple iPhone, it keep running and growing steady as well!). Seems again and again the market proves that great innovation really works in a great way!

Would be curious also to see how these two great OS and phones would affect RIM Blackberry's (and WinMobile's) market in the long run!

Compare it to Palm Pre's internal components if you want (http://arvino.posterous.com/how-does-palm-pres-inside-stuff-look-like-0).
It is amazing to see how these small wonders combined together makes one great exciting changes for modern society as a whole!