Now that Microsoft put the kibosh on its Kin “social phone” , might there be enough capacity in Verizon’s (VZ) upcoming fourth generation network to accommodate iPhones? Also in today’s App Industry Roundup, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) completes its acquisition of Palm and Steve Jobs tells iPhone 4 detractors to get a life.
RIP Microsoft Kin, a smartphone without any apps
Leave it to the mobile brain trust in Redmond to debut a state-of-the-art smartphone that doesn’t include any apps. It can’t be a complete surprise then, that the Microsoft (MSFT) Kin – in development for a couple years – already suspended sales two months after its commercial release.
The Kin, which was carried by Verizon and offered custom social networking services targeted to teenagers, may be remembered historically as the last major smartphone to debut without access to a meaningful application marketplace.
Increasingly, smartphones are becoming synonymous with the applications that power them. When you see advertisements for the iPhone 4 of DroidX, it’s not as much about the hardware or even the network that it is the apps that convert the phone into a pocket supercomputer.
In a generational reversal of fortune, Microsoft’s loss may end up being Apple’s gain. Whatever space Verizon was allocating on its precious network to Microsoft can now, presumably, be shifted to the iPhone and its rumored debut on the network in January.
HP officially Palms mobile operating system
Now that HP’s $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm is formally in the books, the company can now focus on incorporating the interesting webOS platform into its upcoming line of slate computers, as well as future smartphones.
Time will tell if this marriage will carve away mobile market share from Apple (AAPL) and Google’s (GOOGLE) Android operating system, which combined virtually own the app space.
More than “just a phone.” Is Steve Jobs off his axis?
Allegedly responding to a concerned customer noting all the deficiencies at play with the iPhone 4 antenna, Jobs, according to the Boy Genius Report blog, emailed the following:
“Retire, relax, enjoy your family. It is just a phone. Not worth it.”
I wonder of Jobs will say the same thing at Apple’s next shareholder meeting.
