The Google Empire: Android and Youtube

With Android at the top of the smartphone market and Youtube easily atop the video platform market, Google and its acquisitions seem to be in perfect position to remain relevant in the near future of technology.   In 2010, Google’s Android operating system was used in more phones than Apple’s iOS4,  and I think it will continue to be more utilized than the iPhone, due to its flexibility and open development system.  Android has managed to create a very open ended platform, and it has shown so far to be a more popular one than the iPhone.

YouTube really does not have much competition from anyone in its market, including Vimeo.  It has established a chokehold on video hosting on most other websites, and is a household name around the world.  With its branding power, I really don’t see anyone being able to overtake YouTube in the video market.

The winners of the Wikis

The three smartphones in competition (the iPhone, Android and Blackberry) all have their own personal styles and followers in the market, so it’s sometimes difficult to compare.  While it’s clear that the iPhone dominates in the market, I believe that there is room for competition.  The Blackberry’s time came and went with the introduction of the iPhone, but the Blackberry will always have its followers (especially in the business world).  However, I think that the Android operating system could take over the market as the leading smartphone.  It has a similar touch screen interface as the iPhone, but there is much more depth to the operating system (Linux) and lots of room for the phone to constantly grow and evolve because it’s open source which means people anywhere can make apps or improvements for the Android phone.  While I think the Android has a persuasive argument, there is definite substance to the argument on the Blackberry Wiki page.  The recommendations for updating the workability of the Blackberry are very important and could be simple fixes that would perhaps give them another boost in the marketplace.  The Blackberry Torch is comparable to many of the other leading smartphones out there, so it looks like the Blackberry company has been working towards those improvements.

Wiki Project–iPhone

After reading the wiki pages I believe that the iPhone is the strongest contender in the market place.

The iPhone has the advantage of being released by Apple, which is one of the largest technology companies. The first thing that the iPhone has going for it is brand loyalty. The people who buy the apple computers and iPods are more likely to purchase the iPhone.

The biggest issue that I see with the iPhone is that it is presently only able to operate on one network, however, Apple has realized that issue, and will soon be offering the iPhone through Verizon as well. On the wiki they suggested changing the design of the phone. Personally, I believe that the design is something that the iPhone is known for, so if the design could be maintained while still improving reception I believe that would be a good choice for Apple.

The price point for the iPhone may also produce an issue. Not only is it an expensive phone to initially purchase, but the data plans are not as reasonable as other smart phone plans. On the wiki there was mention of a sliding keyboard. I think that it would be a great idea to make a less expensive version of the iPhone with a keyboard for the younger customers buying the phone and plan on their own. Offering more styles of iPhones will also make the product successful if there is more than one model to pick from.

Wiki Pages

While I think each group did a great job on their wiki assignments, I believe that the Android group did the best job at laying out “their” company’s information including its history, the way it operates, its competitors, and future steps. What I liked most about this particular wiki page was the layout. The simplicity of the visual layout made it easy on the eyes, and therefore made me more inclined to go on and read. However, it was a slight pain to have to scroll sideways to read what was written in certain sections. Aside from that, I thought the layout was clean and organized. In addition, one of the strongest points of their argument was that Google owns Android. This connection is important in that Google is a powerhouse in the business world, and people tend to associate reliability with their great success. Another strong point of this wiki page is the inclusion of videos and graphics that explain the way in which the Android system works. Finally, I liked that they included pie charts to illustrate their position in the market place as well as show their competition. As a whole, I thought this group did an exceptional job on explaining the Android system.

Group Wiki Assignment

In this assignment, I feel that the MySpace group did a great job with their presentation and their online layout. The group explained the history of the company as well as who owns it and general website statistics. The group also did something unique, which was by showing the reader how the website and its competitors appeal to different users. The way they explained the way MySpace works with allowing you to be creative and “free” with your page seemed a lot more appealing that Facebook’s traditional page (which is pretty much the same for every user). One thing I liked about the wiki page was that they placed a picture that allowed the reader to compare and contrast the differences in the Facebook and MySpace pages. They also tell the reader how the music community on MySpace is bigger and better than Facebook’s due to MySpace’s creative page layouts. Every time I find about a new artist I almost always go to MySpace to see if they have a page.

These pages usually contain a variety of information that gives the user a brief background on the band and allows for the user to listen to some of the band’s music. I believe that music is extremely important for everyone nowadays, especially now that new music is revealed through online sources. This is one advantage that the wiki presented to me as a reader that showed they had a strong argument, even if they are currently behind in the market against other competitors. Another thing I really liked about the MySpace wiki was their ideas for improvement. One thing I really hate about going onto a website is being spammed with ads, and I feel that MySpace especially has gotten a little better about this, but improvement can be made as the group states. On the technical side of things, I remembered going onto friend’s pages could be a slow process when they had tons of items on their page. By getting rid of this lagging process, the online experience for each individual would be much more enjoyable. Overall, the group did an excellent job presenting their ideas in an organized and detailed manner.

Group Presentations

Out of all the pages I feel that the Nook page had the strongest presentation. Nook to me seems like a product that in the future will continue to grow and become a major product that people want. The new Nook Color I feel makes it a more valuable source and would make it more desirable for a consumer like me who is distracted by the traditional black and white newspaper style. The Nook group presented the information about their products as well as their competitors in a very clear fashion, giving me, a consumer an easy way to compare the products.

          The Nook group also presented some really intriguing ideas for the future of the product. I agree that the textbook market should be explored seeing that the academic world and its students are always looking for ways to advance. The only question I was left with was how this product will not be considered a Laptop of some kind with its future additions such as Internet. Being in competition with something like the Ipad, which is seen by many, as a mini laptop in many ways is the Nook heading for that market and would that beneficial?  Overall I was really impressed by the Nook group’s ideas and I truly saw it as a great product in the marketplace that can be even better.

Wiki Assignment: Wii

In this Wiki assignment, I thought that the Wii group did an exceptional job. First of all they gave a thorough background on the company. But what I believe was really well done was the advantages and features that set the company apart from its competitors. To me, these advantages allow for the Wii to be well above its competition. Everything from the allowance of people of all ages to play – in simple or more complex games for the experienced user – to the compatibility of other systems and games to the reasonable price. One thing that I hear a lot from my friends is the complaint that they cannot play with their old childhood video games anymore because of the always changing systems. Also, the Wii includes so much more than video games now. Users can watch movies, surf the web, get current news and weather, view pictures, and get a decent workout all in one system.

The aspect of this page that I enjoyed the most was the future suggestions. I think that if Wii was to start providing 3D gaming, the company’s revenue would blow the competition out of the water. 3D movies are the “new thing”. People want to be included in what they are watching and this new wave of technology has already changed the movie world. By allowing a person to not only control the game with his or her body but also allowing them to be in the game would be revolutionary.  I also like the idea of advertising live gaming because that seems to be something that is only associated with the Xbox. Even though Xbox is still very popular, with all of the new technology that Wii is coming up with, it seems to be that unless Xbox comes out with something extremely different and new, something never been done before, it will be very hard for them to compete with the Wii.

Blog 5 chris powers

I first just wanna comment on how well I think all of the groups did on this assignment.  All of the pages were very original and I could tell that each group worked hard on making their pages.  With this said, after reviewing all of the posts by each group, I came to like to Nook group the best.  Right when I opened the page there was a nice big picture of the Nook displaying some of it’s capabilities.  As I continued to scroll down, I was very pleased with how well organized the site was.  All of the headings and subtexts are all clearly labeled….making it easier to navigate the page.  In contrast, the Kindle page was poorly organized…with all of the words running together and no clear heading of what was being talked about.  Also, there were very little if any recommendations for the future given by Kindle.  I really enjoy reading the different groups recommendations and I was kind of put off there were so few in the Kindle page.

Before coming to the Nook page, I knew very little if anything at all about the Nook and it’s capabilities.  I think that this group did a great job outlining the key features of the Nook and the different capabilities the machine can perform.  I was very interested to see that since Barnes and Noble came out with the Nook color, sales have been increasing and even surpassing those of Kindle…I really had no idea!  Also, I really really really liked the recommendations and summary given by the Nook group.  I feel advertising the fact that textbooks can be accessed much easier and taken to class on the Nook is a great selling point.  Putting the Nook directly in college bookstores would greatly increase the likelihood of purchase.

Overall I fell that Nook did a great job outlining the strengths of their product and how they intend to move forward in the future.  Their site was well organized and easy to read, which really helped me find the information I needed quick and painlessly.  Although I do not feel Nook can overtake Kindle in the marketplace, I think this group did a great job presenting their product.

 

Blog #5

As I looked through most of the Wiki’s I could tell that most groups put a lot of thought and effort into their Wiki’s. One Group that really stood out to me was the Apple IPhone’s Wiki page.  Most of the Wiki’s had a lot of valuable information but it was scattered throughout their Wiki page. For example, The Wii Wiki which was mine after viewing our Wiki compared to the Apple IPhones we defiantly could of made ours more organized so that it would of looked more professional like the IPhones.  The Apple Phone’s was very organized and made it easy to find all the necessary information we as board members would like to know in order to make a informed decision on whether we would want to invest our money into this product or not.

I also enjoyed how they gave us an index at the top of the page pointing out what questions they were going to answer and in what order, this made it easy to find information that you might be interested in. I thought this was good because you could look at what you wanted to find out about the IPhone and go right to it with how organized their page was. I also enjoyed reading what IPhone should do next in order to have greater successes in the market. I thought of something they could add which is expand to other cell phone carriers such as they did with Verizon. I know there are probably certain legal obligations that Apple  has to abide by so that they can only be with these two carriers but if possible they should expand to other carriers. Also they should lower the prices of the IPhone, having an IPhone I can say that it’s defiantly not worth $400. Just like any other top celling product such as certain clothes, cars, video game consoles, ect were paying more for the name of the product than it’s actually quality which this is just my personal opinion.

 

Blog #5 – iPhone

All of the groups have definitely put in a lot of time and effort into their wikis to point out the leading sources of media and where they stand in the marketplace. One group I thought did an especially good job was the iPhone group, as they gave a good history of the Apple company well before the iPhone was even thought of, and it makes quite a statement to say that they are the largest technology firm in the world today. They talk about all of the unique features that the iPhone has that many other phones today do not, and show how once again Apple is number one in the app store department, with over 50,000 apps compared to Android’s less than 5,000 and Blackberry’s 1,000.

The weaknesses part brought up some great points. Bringing up the issue of dropped calls was a great addition, as I am well too aware of the issue due to my iPhone 4. This is a definite weakness, and the problems with getting service could cause consumers to choose a different phone just by itself. Although the design has not changed too much over time, it is meant to be a simple design, and people usually buy the phone more for its unique purposes than just its design.

It was interesting to see that the iPhone is the second highest selling phone on the market right now, mainly due to the fact that it is available exclusively on AT&T. We’ll see if that fact stays the same once the iPhone is released on Verizon early next month. It mentions its main competitors to be the Google Nexus one, the Samsung Galaxy S, and the HTS Desire, and the Blackberry. I thought that the ideas for the next generation of iPhones were also good additions, as it is true that a way to bring in new customers is always a new overall design. Fixing the dropped call issue is the most important issue of all though, and a sliding keyboard could also be smart since the touch screen can cause mistakes and many people are accustomed to physical keyboards. Extending coverage to other companies would also in the end benefit them greatly.