iPhone growth rate vs. Symbian

Symbian just released their first half and second quarter results for 2008. At first glance, the numbers seems OK. However, TechCrunch posted an interesting article about the sales of iPhone vs. Symbian.

The most glaring element of Symbian’s release was that it only grew 5 percent over the past year. Considering mobile phone sales grew 12 percent in the second quarter, according to Gartner, and considering Apple is selling 800,000 units each week, Symbian may be losing its grip on the market.

Symbian still dominates the OS market but is the product good enough to keep its lead? With the amazing iPhone and the upcoming release of Android phones, we can expect a hit on Symbian’s market share.

Because it’s much easier to develop on iPhone and Android, developers will create greater apps on those platforms and help Apple and the Open Handset Alliance to gain market shares.

La sagesse des foules

La journaliste Marie-Claude Morin nous propose un article très intéressant sur le livre Wisdom of the crowds de James Surowiecki, dans le dernier numéro du journal Les Affaires.

En fait, c’est le regroupement d’un nombre de décisions individuelles, plutôt qu’une prise de décision concertée, qui conduira aux meilleures décisions.

Vous pouvez consulter son article sur le site de Les Affaires.

iPhone doubles Web browser share

According to an article from CNET News, the iPhone browser usage jumped 58% in August, from 0.19% to 0.3% of global market share.

What this means

With the increasing number of iPhone sold and the new Android phones expected to arrive in the next months, a significant increase in mobile web browsing is inevitable. It is becoming mainstream. New business opportunities and usage patterns will emerge from this new trend.

Links

• Article from CNET News
• Metrics from Net Applications

Crowdsourcing: Peugeot Design Contest 2008

Here’s a great example of crowdsourcing. The Peugeot Design Contest 2008 gives designers a chance to create the concept car of their dreams and win 10,000 euros.

No need to hire high profile designers and pay huge salaries. Peugeot uses crowdsourcing to attract great designers and save money.

You can vote for your favorite car and have a chance to win of the 20 Xbox 360. How cool is this? Not only do they use crowdsourcing in designing an awesome car, but also in choosing the winner!

Links

• Crowdsourcing for car design (CNET)
• The 29 finalists (vote for your favorite one!)
• Peugeot Design Contest 2008

Photo by Peugeot/Thierry Dumain

Crowdsourcing

As you already know, our team is working hard to make things happen for our great clients. However, a few of you know about our future products. Our first product will be launched in the next months. I can’t say much for now but you can start by learning about crowdsourcing.

What is crowdsourcing?

Let me introduce you to this relatively new but very important and substantial business term. There are many definitions you can find online but the basic idea behind it is the completion of business related tasks that a company would normally do or outsource to a third party provider by inducing the mass volunteer participation of the “crowd.”

The concept

We can associate crowdsourcing to mass collaboration, consumer generated media, open innovation and collaboration, user generated content, mass customization or simply outsourcing tasks to large crowds. Although the concept was already around long before, today’s technology and the advent of Internet make it possible for larger number of amateurs to do more complex and creative tasks at a lower cost.

Why it works

Crowdsourcing can lead to increased productivity and creativity. It can also minimize labor and research expenses. Customer participation in product research and development process, marketing, branding and other business processes can help reduce costs and lower the risk of failure in placing market demand.

Why you should try crowdsourcing

If you’re a business owner or an entrepreneur, crowdsourcing may help you improve the status of your business. You can tap a wider range of talent outside your business that can help you gain a better perspective of your company’s products or services, thus making you perform better in the marketplace.

More about crowdsourcing

If you want to learn more about crowdsourcing, you can read Jeff Howe’s blog at http://crowdsourcing.typepad.com/. Jeff is a contributing editor at Wired Magazine.

Publishing your blog on the iPhone

Several bloggers contacted us to have their blog optimized on the iPhone.

Here’s a quick tip for those who already have a WordPress blog: you can simply use the iWPhone WordPress Plugin and Theme to reformat your blog’s content for optimized viewing on Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch.

http://iwphone.contentrobot.com/

What is the Android platform?

Some of our friends have asked details about the Android platform. You can find (almost) all answers to your technical and non-technical questions on the Android’s web site: http://code.google.com/android/.

“The Android Platform is a software stack for mobile devices including an operating system, middleware and key applications. Developers can create applications for the platform using the Android SDK. Applications are written using the Java programming language and run on Dalvik, a custom virtual machine designed for embedded use, which runs on top of a Linux kernel.

The cool thing about Android is the ability for developers to replace any application: Android does not differentiate between the phone’s basic and third-party applications — even the dialer or home screen can be replaced.

Features (link)

• Application framework enabling reuse and replacement of components
• Dalvik virtual machine optimized for mobile devices
• Integrated browser based on the open source WebKit engine
• Optimized graphics powered by a custom 2D graphics library; 3D graphics based on the OpenGL ES 1.0 specification (hardware acceleration optional)
• SQLite for structured data storage
• Media support for common audio, video, and still image formats (MPEG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, PNG, GIF)
• GSM Telephony (hardware dependent)
• Bluetooth, EDGE, 3G, and WiFi (hardware dependent)
• Camera, GPS, compass, and accelerometer (hardware dependent)
• Rich development environment including a device emulator, tools for debugging, memory and performance profiling, and a plugin for the Eclipse IDE

Applications

Android will ship with a set of core applications including an email client, SMS program, calendar, maps, browser, contacts, and others. All applications are written using the Java programming language.

More links

• What is android
• Download the SDK
• Roadmap

Google announces Android Market

With this new and exciting announcement by Google, we are happy to announce that we will be offering Android development services in the near future!

In the meantime, you can visit the Android Developers Blog and the post about “Android Market: a user-driven content distribution system“.

Mirego au Triathlon de Centraide

Centraide Québec et Chaudière-Appalaches et le Club de triathlon Rouge et Or de l’Université organisent pour une 5e année consécutive un triathlon à l’intention des entreprises de la région.

Nous avons décidé de créer une équipe afin de participer à cet événement amical et contribuer à soutenir financièrement deux grandes causes. L’événement aura lieu le 5 septembre 2008, sur les berges du Lac-Saint-Joseph à Fossambault-sur-le-Lac.

Merci et bonne chance à notre trio d’amis qui participera à l’activité:

• Martin Bittner, au 750 mètres de natation
• Jean-Sébastien Vachon, au 20 kilomètres de vélo
• Caroline Vouligny, au 5 kilomètres de course

Pour en savoir plus sur l’événement, visitez le site officiel du Triathlon Centraide - Rouge et Or.

Le calendrier des activités du 400e sur votre iPhone

Nous avons conçu une version iPhone du calendrier des activités du 400e anniversaire de la ville de Québec afin que l’information soit plus accessible.

Nous vous invitons à visiter le site à partir de votre iPhone: http://400e.mirego.com/