I’m an Apple Fanboy, for many, many years now. I owned an Apple IIe in 1978 and now, 2010, several Macs and an iPhone.

And I know, when I surf a Flash web site, my Mac’s ventilator often starts to run or my Firefox browser or even Google Chrome crashes because of the heavy load nature of Flash sometimes.

But all these disadvantages are, in my eyes, less important than keeping me my freedom of choice.
And with my Macbook I have this freedom today, the same with my iMac, but with my iPhone and the iPad I’m loosing this freedom of choice.

Somebody else decides, what is good for me and what not.

And I’m happy having kept this freedom by switching from my iPhone to Android, because after some hours with Flash for Android I must admit: It works, yes it does!

It’s not perfect, it brings heavy load to the CPU, the battery and the connection, but it works. If I want to surf a Flash site, I can. I do not have to, and I guess, I will seldomly do, but I can.

Yes, I can – that’s my freedom, my Flash for freedom.

Although there might be – meanwhile – better Android Devices than the Nexus One (e.g. the HTC Incredible or the HTC Evo) the last days have demonstrated why it might be, I believe it is an advantage to own a Nexus phone.

Only one day after the GoogleIO Nexus owners can now update their their phones to the new and really brilliant new version Froyo:

And, I believe also, this is and won’t be an exception in the future:

• Google will be always the first, who has access to a new version and will test very soon all development stages against their own phones
• Google doesn’t have to migrate special customizations  to new version (like e.g. HTC has to with their Sense UI) – this saves, as we have seen in the past, maybe  a lot of time, time to market

In the last weeks I thought I have to switch to a HTC Incredible, but since some days now I guess it’s better to stay with my Nexus – at the moment

Android will succeed, no doubt.

By the end of the year 2012 it will dominate the mobile browsing and the mobile handset market – all over the world, I’m sure.

But as Android is an open operating system there’s no guarantee for success for those companies using Android, and especially no guarantee for a continuos success even if you’ve once lunched a successful Android device.

The best and first example for this new market situation is Motorola. The Android Droid was and is a huge success at Verizon. But now comes the next manufacturer with the next Android mobile to Verizon – HTC with the Droid Incredible.

This new handset might steal the Droid’s current show and might be even more successful than its predecessor.

Both handsets carry even comparable product names, so that the customers shall believe in this ‘Next Generation Android Story’.

So, as an Android manufacturer , there are (at least) five points very important:

1. Refocus on the hardware, built cool handsets with cutting edge technology
2. Hire the best and a lot of Android developers, who know how to customize the Android OS
3. Built your own UI layer
4. Be always the first with the newest Android versions, especially with updates for already sold devices
5. Carry a very good relationship to the carriers

This way is different to the Apple, Nokia and Palm way, but if you focus on these points, you can be as successful, probably even more successful, than others, as the Palm history has taught us…

If you read this rather old blog entry you will soon understand why Google is what Google is today.

This post demonstrates Google totally or at least mainly focuses on technical skills, when they recruit new staff.

Maybe that’s also the reason why Google performs very well concerning their search engine, search algorithms and in finding new technical solutions, but fails in bringing their technical and often brilliant ideas to the people and to the mass market.

Just reflect their latest innovations like Buzz or Wave and you’ll soon understand what I mean.

Or think about Android. A – technically seen – brilliant mobile OS, but Google has forgotten to think beyond this new technology – no Android mobile eco system like Apple has brought to the customer more than one year before Android was launched.
They only had to copy Apple’s successful business model, but they didn’t.

Why? The People at Google have never be trained for these tasks…and to copy .

Then here I have probably something for you:

And comparable to the huge numbers of specialized web communities I believe it also make sense to deploy more and topic driven markets. On the one hand side the standard markets like the Android market will become more and more overcrowded and on the other side people get used to the market eco system and will accept and can handle additional markets on their phones.

And if you’ve followed the last Android news: The US Military is just starting developing its own market infrastructure (via DARPA).

Many people tried in the past to access the Android Market from own web or native clients in order to mash up market information with own content.

This hasn’t been an easy task since now thus there’s no official API for that. Nevertheless some did it either by decompiling the market app, understood and reproduced the market API.

But now there ’somehow’ an open and standard API lib for doing the same.

It’s very easy to use, just try it:

MarketSession session = new MarketSession();
session.login(“”);
AppsRequest appsRequest = AppsRequest.newBuilder()

.setQuery("A")
.setStartIndex(2).setEntriesCount(10)
.setWithExtendedInfo(true)
.build();
MarketSession.Callback callback = new MarketSession.Callback() {
@Override

public void onResult(ResponseContext context, Object response) {
System.out.println(response);
}
};
session.append(appsRequest, callback);
session.flush();

Many people ask me, why I prefer Android over the iPhone although I own, with the iPhone 3GS, one of the best, many people would say The best, smartphones ever.

And to answer this difficult question I’ve to go back a while:

In the last seven years I owned many mobiles – really many. Being responsible for mobile software development I had to test our applications against many platforms. So it happened that I changed my personal phone every two weeks, because we always had the latest and the best ones.

And the most annoying thing switching the phone was to bring the new phone to the status of the old one – meanwhile you can compare the initialization of a smartphone with the installation of a desktop PC.

And then came Android. Before Android I haven’t been a Google mail or calendar user, but with Android I learnt, that I just have to put my new SIM card into the new Android mobile and everything is as it was before: Emails, calendar, contacts etc.

A huge step forward for somebody, who changes his mobiles as often as I do. I know it’s a very special usecase, but one very typical for me.

Meanwhile I can switch from one Android phone to the other in seconds, and I did it already many times: From G1 to the Magic to the Hero to the Tattoo to the Droid and now to the Nexus. And the latest and next Android smartphones are already waiting for me…

So far so good. Concerning applications there’s still space to improve the Android platform. I still have to re-install my applications on every handset again. But one great thing to say: Paid applications don’t need to be bought again. The Android market knows already about your shopped applications and let you install them for free again.

And there’s also an app in the market, that will help you to reconstruct you app system on a new device. It’s called ‘App Referrer‘. This apps scans your current app installation basis and then sends you an email with all market links. Save this email and open this one on your new device. Just click the given links and you can re-install within one easy email.

Just try it. This app is great and it bypasses the weaknesses of the current Android market until they will offer something comparable. Something like an app cloud with your installed apps, that can be re-installed on every new device with one click…

Despite all the entitled discussions around fragmentation the Android platform will, in the end, win (the mass consumer).

And with the mass consumer comes the money, especially when you drive your business like Google does.

Android will attract the mass consumer, because with the Android OS many newcomers and companies in emerging markets have now the chance to produce low end and cheap devices, that are, in most areas, compatible with the high end Android devices.

It’s just the Wintel way of wining the mass market, here you will find the same fragmentation issues today.

The mainstream apps run on every Wintel device, but there are many special apps, that run only on a specific Wintel device (think of games and graphic adapters). But the user doesn’t care, as long as he has his most importants apps and knows, how to run the more sophisticated ones (if he sometimes needs to).

Wintel is cheap, cheaper than anything else (today), as Android will be in the future.

The Apple iPhone is and will probably stay a great phone, but it will never, because of its price structure, extend its market share to the middle and low end of the mass market.

But in the long run Google needs the mass market, as many others do, too, despite Apple .

If would like to test your Android device or compare its performance with other devices, there are some useful apps in the Android market to get hold of:

• Neocore
• Benchmark
• Linpack

And if you want to know, if your Nexus includes a working multitouch functionality, just download this little app.

Point you Android browser to the link above and try to wipe around with two fingers. If the colored cycles will follow your fingers, everything is fine. If not, it isn’t, but don’t be scared too much.

Mine isn’t working either, but when do you really need this?

From time to time I try to influence some decision makers in banks to start with Social Media and to use Twitter. It has been a hard job in the past so far.

But since yesterday it even will be become much harder.

The problem of Social Media and Twitter in special: They are, technically seen, build for the end user and are heavily open either (what I like as private person).

These services don’t provide security mechanism old and traditional business units require, before they will rely on something like Twitter.

For Twitter this could mean (for example):

• Special business accounts, where OAuth, the Twitter API and the public access is deactivated
• Business accounts with a special business API, where only a dedicated client (client certificates) is allowed to connect
• Something like a Twitter workflow, where two or more users in an organization work on the same tweet
• Something like a twitter transaction number, where a tweet will only be posted, if you input the correct number
• And some more…

And even if you build some of these requirements into your own Twitter or Social Media client, these services still remain open and insecure, because the general access stays unchanged.

Yes, I know, all these requirements usually don’t fit to the general idea of Social Media or Web 2.0, but, if we want huge and traditional companies to join the ‘Social Media Club’,  then these services have to adapt conventional security and business pattern.

With just one week to go until MoMo Berlin on March 8th, we’re proud to announce the world premiere of a mobile application/ service made in Berlin on that date: “Friendticker”. Friendticker CEO Florian says that their aim is to give foursquare et al. a run for their money by adding real-life value to a customer’s mobile actions, going way beyond the playful aspects of first generation virtual
check-in apps. So will friendticker be able to start a worldwide stir in the mobile marketplace like foursquare did?

Find out this and more at our next event and register NOW, if you haven’t already done so. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Visit MobileMonday Germany at: http://www.mobile-monday.de

In my eyes problems of the worldwide hype of the open and modern mobile operating system Android are, besides the missing native Android desktop client, the following:

• The agility, the openness and the dynamic of Android produces very fast and often new versions with new and cool functionality. This leads to the fact that just released and basically cool handsets are outdated before they reach the market. Thus manufacturers of these mobiles have difficulties in selling their new products. At the moment everybody wants the Nexus (with 2.1) or at least the Droid (with 2.0.1). The really cool people don’t want to buy an Android  mobile with version 1.5 or 1.6. In countries like Germany (where we don’t have the Nexus yet) this can – maybe – result in a (never ending) wait-and-see attitude of the customer.
• This same agility enforces the handset manufacturers to hire more and more Android specialists to adapt the newest Android versions, especially when they have to migrate proprietary Android extension (e.g. own home screens). This makes Android, although free of charge, maybe more expensive than other operating systems. And the manufacturers can’t use their Android stuff to develop important apps or other services to attract new customers.

The very successful iPhone OS doesn’t have these problems…

Yesterday I’ve used AppAware for the first time, and I was really impressed.
Impressed about the idea behind this service and impressed about the Android technology used for this app.

AppAware, once installed on your Android device, informs your followers (including Twitter if you like to) about your app usage (“what do I install and deinstall?”).
But AppAware also informs me, and even localized, what other users are doing with their apps on their Android mobile.

For this purpose Android provides an API (via the BroadcastReceiver class) to let any application know whats going up on the user’s handset. With this API your/any app can listen to system intents (a kind of messaging on the Android platform) and react.

Something, I guess ,AppAware has used for it’s new and brilliant service.

And think about what else might be possible, when millions of handsets are collecting data about and broadcasting their behaviour to the cloud…

AppAware can be found and downloaded in the Android Market.

…there wouldn’t be the issue with its connectivity.

I’ve tested the Nexus now for 12 hours and I never had a smartphone that was so fast, had such a brilliant display, a perfect usability and such a very flexible and modern operating system.
And I had or have them all: iPhone 3G, Magic, Dream, Droid, some Blackberrys and many Nokias.

But yesterday I also tested the connectivity of the Nexus in two large German cities and compared it to the Motorola Droid .
I drove with my car through the streets both handsets connected with the same provider.

And the result was: The Droid often offered HSDPA or 3G while the Nexus was only connected via 3G or EDGE.

Most of the time the Droid operated on one connectivity level better than the Nexus, and I’ve installed the given 3G Nexus Android patch before.

Due to the fact we are talking about smartphones whose nature is being permanently connected to the internet these results are, in my eyes, very important.

But I don’t believe (as the link above documents as well) this issue is related to Android or Google. It’s a hardware issue and thus a problem of HTC (the reason why the Nexus 2 might become Motorola device, who knows?)

… I guess we would have seen brilliant working, stable, fully integrated and tested clients in every Apple layer.

Google has surprised us with a brilliant idea, but with a bit confusing, instable and heterogeneous clients (especially for the mobile), but Buzz is free for all and available for almost every operation system and mobile.

Google created Android, but in many cases I have the impression Google is still missing the feeling for the mobile business, many things they do in this space (App Store, Nexus, Wave and now Buzz) is, in the beginning, a kind of immature and sluggish business and  technology.

That’s the difference between Apple and Google, I love both companies, and it’s good to see both alive and kicking here on earth. They are so different, but both very successful in how they do things and thus important for our further development.

It’s just that easy:

Read this related blog post and you know what I mean.

One year back we started with the HTC Android G1, and to be honest, it’s a good phone, but not comparable to the iPhone.
Now, 12 months later, have a look at the Top Five Android phones, and if you own the G1, the Apple iPhone, the Motorola Droid and the HTC Google Nexus, as I do, you will follow my thoughts.

And what has happened the same time in the iPhone space, the last 12 months? Almost nothing!

That’s the difference when things are free and lot of creative people can play around with them…

With the first m2d2 MobileMonday Germany has ventured into a new event-format.

As globally renowned thought-leaders of the Mobile Internet development we know this to be the time to address You, the Mobile developer community, with our brand new format, which is aimed to go well beyond our regular meetings.

Celebrating this birthday we are delighted to announce that we will be raffling off 3 brand new Nexus One handsets at the first m2d2. The Nexus One showcases the latest innovations of the Android platform, our m2d2 topic!

The Google Nexus is sold online by Google at www.google.com/phone.

Mashable today reports about a coming Google App Store. Is that the app store, we have waited for so long? The post relates to Google Apps and says nothing about Android or the technology which will be used for deployment and development.

Google needs an app store on the client. Not only because Apple has one like iTunes or because it’s sexy today to have one.

Google needs its app store on the client to round up the Android eco system:
The user needs an adequate opportunity to manage its Android handset on his preferred client – to download (buy) apps, music, videos and to synchronize those artefacts whenever he wants to.

Google needs the app store the establish their e-commerce platform on the user’s client machine.

From my point of view neither Google’s mobile e-commerce nor Android will and can survive without something comparable to iTunes.

Why are they waiting?

A lot of people are criticizing the app store model as a model which reduces the freedom of app development and thus the development and the creativity of the internet and the computer industry in general.

But, although and technical seen, nearly every app store model is the same, they aren’t at all, if we refer to the debate above.

There are two – totally different – approaches to use the/an app store model.

The first one is the ‘Wallet Garden’ – we know this term from the early mobile internet days. The only way of an app to find its way to the client is through the one and only app store on this device.
This is the Dictator App Store, not only the app store is controlled, the complete device is controlled by one party.

The other app store model is the Federated App Store Model. Individually considered this app store is comparable to the Dictator Model, but it differs in the way, that this model allows the co-existence of several app stores on one device from different independent parties and an app to find the way to its client by-passing the app store.

Now it’s up to you, which platform supports which model!