Fun Topic: Apple vs. Samsung (Fine Dining vs. Mega Buffet)

*Sorry for the gap in posts. Being in Toronto, Canada we've been through Ice-Storms, Polar Vortex and Power Outages! Hopefully we'll get this back on track again in 2014... thanks for your patience.*

There is no getting around that Samsung and Apple are two very different companies. They are headquartered in two different continents, have two very different corporate histories and basically seem to go about business in polar opposite ways. Apple does everything, including write the OS and design the perfect matching hardware. Samsung uses (non-exclusively) a 3rd party (Google) to write the core OS (Android) and focuses on adding on the basic OS with value-adds aligned with in-house designed hardware. Apple only supports iOS devices, yet Samsung makes more than just Android phones, hedging their bets with Windows Phone, Bada and Tizen phones. Apple is concerned with the end-product, where as Samsung also sells it components to other companies (even at one point to ironically Apple possibly for shortfall of retina displays for new iPad Mini Retina).

However today I want to look at one specific difference in basic philosophies between the companies. In Apple we have a 'brand-name' synonymous with design, and like a fine dinning establishment believe they know what consumers want and have no problems telling customers what that is. It's the "chic" resturant with only one or two daily specials. Where Samsung seems to be the more accommodating endless buffet whose goal is to have something that will please anyone.

If you look here, it lists no less than 23 models of phones that Samsung has released in 2013. For Samsung, it seems they would be embarrassed if you asked for a phone format combination that they didn't already produce. The older Galaxy Y Pro Dous was the smallest display at 2.6" and new Galaxy Mega 6.3 is currently the largest at 6.3" (phone-format device that is not a true phone, but tablet like Tab 7" and 10"), more than DOUBLE the size!

• Samsung Galaxy S5
• Samsung Galaxy Win Pro
• Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2
• Samsung Galaxy Express 2
• Samsung Galaxy Round
• Samsung Galaxy Ace 3
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Active
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom
• Samsung Galaxy Pocket Neo
• Samsung Galaxy Star
• Samsung Galaxy Core
• Samsung Galaxy Y Plus
• Samsung Galaxy Win
• Samsung Galaxy Mega
• Samsung Galaxy Fame
• Samsung Galaxy S4
• Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2
• Samsung Galaxy Young
• Samsung Galaxy Grand
• Samsung Galaxy S II Plus
• Samsung Galaxy Pocket Plus

(From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galax)

(Samsung Galaxy Y Pro Duos - image from here)

(Samsung Galaxy Mega - image from here)

Apple on the other hand released 2x models in 2013, doubling the previous year's models with the 5s and 5c. Besides the *slight* pricing difference and visual colour offering, there really isn't that much difference between the available iPhones. Even Apple's own site points this out. The 5c has older A6 chip which isn't 64-bit, but many users would be hard-pressed to know the difference at this time between 64 vs. 32-bit iPhones (at this time... who knows about it in the near/short-term future... with apps and api in the feature that better take advantage of this... it may be more noticeable). Both phones use lighting connector, 720 video recording, 1080 HD display, 1136-by-640 resolution
and 326 ppi.

• iPhone 5c
• iPhone 5s

(iPhone 5s & iPhone 5c - images from here)

From a developer point of view, I find it hard to manage with the Samsung philosophy. There are so many disparate models with differing physical differences like screen sizes, resolutions, but also software & O/S level difference like Android O/S version and Premium Suite & security enhancement support like KNOX and SAFE. Having an app work perfectly on one Samsung Galaxy device does not ensure portability to another Samsung Galaxy device. Compound that with the issue that many models are region specific, it becomes a nightmare to support all but the most popular permutations.

From a consumer point of view, I find it hard to imagine how Samsung is able to make any "economy of scale" saving with so many different models of products. Shipping 3 or 4 models a year can be daunting for any company, but 23 models?!? For me I already get confused which are "budget" models or "premium" models. "S" and "Note" vs. the cheaper "Y" and "M" devices.

However it's hard to argue with Samsung's relative success. Compared to all other Android device manufacturers, they are the Apple of the Android world. For example, in 2 months, the new Galaxy Note sold 10 million units.

So bottom line? I hope I don't get into trouble for saying this, but it seems like Samsung is taking the safe-bet. It's spreading it's investment and ensuring that no device format is missed and basically offering the proverbial "Chinese Menu". So as a 'developer', I feel like the innovation is going to come from Apple and Samsung will always be playing catch-up. Realistically it seems like there are more Chinese Buffets than Michelin Star Restaurants.

Therefore, it might make sense for companies to develop for the less varied, but more refined iPhone and then attempt to move to support the massive offering from Samsung Galaxy/Android. Do you think Samsung took that into consideration when coming up with their product offering?

Hope that helps...

Wayne Pau

Fun Topic: Cellphone Economics Part 3 (No Free phones...)

Sorry for lull in posting. It's been a busy few weeks...

(iPhone 5C from here)

Well I guess I was wrong about the iPhone 5c. Turns out the "c" didn't stand for cheap. At $450 it isn't really that much cheaper that it would be a zero dollar phone on 2 year a contract. (Update: confirmed. See here that it's $99 phone on 2 year from Verizon) I don't see that many new people who weren't already planning on buying a iPhone to go ahead and buy the iPhone 5c.

(Turns out the out-of-pocket difference is only $100 on 2 year contract between iPhone 5c and 5s. For my $ I would have likely upgraded to 5s.)

• http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/09/09/amazon-no-free-phone/2789091/

No "Free" Amazon Phone.

Also it seems that Amazon rumours of a FREE Android phone have been over exaggerated. From the looks of it, it will be "likely" an "at cost" phone, just the Kindle Fire, if it ever launches. If the Kindle Fire HD is around $215, how much would you pay for an Amazon phone? More or less than the 7" tablet? If you cut costs from smaller display and battery, will that offset the cellular modem costs?

My thoughts were the Kindle sold right against the Kobo and Sony reader. 7" is basically the size of a trade paperback and just smaller than a hardcover. Would you attempt to read a whole novel on your phone?

Part of me thinks that people already read *a lot* of email on your phone. Add on top of that, today on my commute I forgot my book, you *always* have your phone on you. This means your more likely to read more, even if it's in shorter bursts.

As a side note, great article on why the Kindle Paperwhite outsold the Sony Librie:

• http://www.fastcompany.com/1781303/real-secret-kindles-success. 

The other part of me feels that the main motivation of a cell phone is being a phone. If the Amazon phone isn't a better phone (or at least a very very good one), why would you sacrifice that to get books which you can already get via Kindle app? Building a WiFi 'tablet' I think is easier than true telephony features. Most phones today have a lot of software and hardware to make calls sound good.

Watch out for Xiaomi?

Yes, it's *that* company that lured a Google Exec away with a $58 million compensation package.

(New Xiaomi Mi3 from here)

From the reports (Xiaomi does *not* sell here in North America yet so I have never played with one) Xiaom Mi is the new 'king of cheap'. In Asian, this phone outsells the iPhone by a huge margin. I think the market in North America is huge for zero dollar phone on contract and maybe this is it.

You believe it? Here is an article showing just how fast these phones are selling:

• http://allthingsd.com/20131014/xiaomi-sells-100000-smartphones-in-less-than-90-seconds/

From my Asian friends, they said they have heard nothing by positive things about it in the news & social media sits overseas.


Asus (Cheap) phones also coming soon?

With the success of Nexus 7 by ASUS, it seems they are ready to enter the phone market in North America. This is possibly via FonePad. Or maybe a totally new device. So far they have been locked out of the market, but with their engineering skills and co-innovation with Google, I see a very good chance of them being successful. If they can get out a Market-Leading 7" tablet for $250, how hard would it be for them to release a 4-5" good phone for under $300?

The bottom line is that I strongly feel like we need better cheap phones to continue driving cellular data and next wave of apps. The feature or dummy phones available today are getting long in the tooth. While they won't make a killing on margin per device, I see whoever can do this win on total sales and revenue. I think too many people are overdue for an update on a lower cost phone and the window of opportunity for major mobile device penetration in North America is now. (Implying the market for $700 and $800 upgrades of bleeding edge devices is drying up for now.)

Overseas where devices aren't usually subsidized as heavily, only the big spenders it seems can purchase devices outright at the high end of prices. Buying a new iPhone every year can add up quickly. Damage, loss or theft of a expensive new can be painful.

Lastly, not every wants or needs a Porsche. Companies like Hyundai are making a very good living selling reasonably priced cars.

So with that, are you, or someone you know looking for a new phone? Thoughts on what you might get?

Hope that helps...

Wayne Pau

p.s. While the talk now is about BYOD, there are stilll companies that give employees company standard issues phone. While a price difference one time of $50 to $100 might not seem like a lot, what if you multiply that out by 500x or more employees every few years? (FYI - that's $25K or $50K a year. Or $250K to $500K for 5000x person company.) I don't imagine that the more expensive product increases productivity that much (or if any at all).

On a related note, it seems Amazon is positioning Kindle now as a BYOD device. See:

• http://www.zdnet.com/amazons-kindle-fire-hdx-a-potential-byod-keeper-7000021409/
• http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2013/5/28/technology/how-byod-could-fuel-kindles-fire

Fun Topic: What happened to Surface RT? (Is this PlayBook OS all over again?)

$299 Surface Tablet @ Dell

Well if you haven't heard yet, the price of Windows RT tablets are dropping. About a month ago it happened first @ Dell, dropping their XPS 10 to $299. Really they weren't the first, just the most dramatic. 

Ironically, this all reminds of me PlayBook firesale or even the HP TouchPad firesale. When RIM (now Blackberry) did their firesale over a year ago everyone knew it was the end of the line for RIM Tablets. However there were people still clinging to their devices until Blackberry announced finally that BB10 OS would not be coming to Playbook. For this was final nail in the coffin for Playbooks. Blackberry will say it needed to do Playbook to learn to do BB10 properly. Now CEO Thorsten Heins saying that Tablets are dead:

“In five years, I don’t think there’ll be a reason to have a tablet anymore. Maybe a big screen in your workspace, but not a tablet as such.” - Thorsten Heins

(http://www.policymic.com/articles/39021/thorsten-heins-blackberry-ceo-tablets-will-die-in-5-years) 

I'm not entirely sure this isn't at some level sour-grapes as BB clearly failed and has abandoned the Tablet/Phablet market. Even Tim Cook and post Steve Jobs Apple finally gave in and built the iPad Mini. Also don't tell that to Amazon's Kindle department, which sales are on fire (vs. a fire sale).  

I love some of the tongue & cheek articles that joked that Star Trek invented tablets years ago. 4Oh5 clearly shows that even before Picard had on TNG, 2001: Space Odyssey had it too. I wonder if Heins is saying all those sci-fi movies were just plain wrong. Either way, after what Heins said, it's very very unlikely that Blackberry is ever going to make another Tablet anytime soon.

WebOS also went through a file-sale. Originally of Palm origins it was sold to HP. HP built a tablet, the TouchPad using WebOS and eventually had to liquiddate it's stock through a fire sale two years ago that ironically brought down eBay. HP was to offer the WebOS as open-source, but LG seems to have licensed WebOS for TVs, but not phones. 

If you read my post on Tizen, you'll notice that LG is not on the list of vendors, however likely is a company that is paying Microsoft the 'Android' patent. This is the response from CTO Dr. Skott Ahn as why LG didn't just go ahead and put Android in their TVs:

 Asked why it made more sense to invest in webOS than to repurpose Android, Ahn said that LG would use Android "together" with webOS, but that he thinks "webOS is better in some of the user experience, like card UI."

(http://gadgets.ndtv.com/laptops/news/hp-to-offer-webos-as-open-source-software-224848) 

Part of me is wondering if webOS license from HP was cheaper than the Android virtual license to Microsoft.

In the end HP, (unlike Blackberry) is returning back into the Tablet market again, two years after TouchPad fire sale. They are now aiming to sell the Slate, which runs Android even though they own WebOS. Unlike Thorsten, CEO Meg Whitman isn't making any claims that Tablets are passe.

So what's the bottom line? The fire sale could be the end-of-the-line for Surface RT. I'm not entirely sure I would shed a tear. I wasn't very fond of the 'legacy' windows interface that had icons so small I could only use with a touchpad in the keyboard. I thought the UX was a little 'too-flat' and didn't offer users any affordances on which were buttons, etc. I also agreed that there was utter confusion on which apps were running on Surface RT (formerly metro) and which couldn't.

I guess we'll have to wait to see. However I imagine we won't have to wait for long.

Hope that helps...

Wayne Pau.

Pop Question: Do I need a different Phone *and* Tablet app? (Zebras vs. Horses)

I have to say, I get this (and a related) question quite often. It makes a lot of sense from a technical point of view, since 2x different apps means twice as much work, 2x different entries in Google Play Store/Apple iTunes/BB World, etc.

(Pair of Zebras @ Toronto Zoo)

Have you ever asked yourself what differentiates a  Zebra vs. Horse? They are both part of the Family "Equus" and some sources say the name the word "Zebra" comes from Portuguese meaning "Wild Horse" or "Wild Donkey". However, as much as a Zebra looks likes 'White' Horse with 'Black' stripes, turns out they are physiologically quite different. Zebras are said to be very hard to tame, have solid (aka "meaty") tails and ultimately Zebras are only native to Africa continent. For more info see here and here.

So for your apps, you need to take a look at how different it *would* or *could* run on Tablet vs. Phone. Can a single code-base run with enough detection/adaptation code to adjust properly on both formats? Would future enhancements or changes to one platform but not the other cause issues?

For example, look at my friends at NitroDesk, who offer a 'popular' (to the tune of 2 million users) very "security-focused" 3rd-party Email-App Vendor. Their Android offerings have both a Phone (aka "smartphone") and  Tablet (aka "HD") version.

TouchDown email for Android SuperPhones

 The Phone version is mostly optimized to the typical "Portrait" view with ListView control. In contrast the Tablet version is optmized to the typical "Landscape" view with multiple panel approach. It's not *just* the the size of the screen that is optimized, it's the user & interaction.

TouchDown email for Android Tablet

For us @ SAP, for the current mobile app I am working the answer was 'NO'. So the group I am working with has chosen to create separate a Tablet and Phone optimized with different IxD. (Note: The plan is actually for eventually 4x releases, iPad, iPhone, Android Superphone & Android Tablet.) 

Yes you can 'code' some of the logic into the app to auto-detect the screen size, density and layout, but especially for Android with the "Fragmentation" (not to be confused with a code android.app.fragment... I will have a posting on this topic soon...keep an eye out for it...), I don't believe this is going to be always 100% reliable. 

My current advice is to design and offer 2x different apps and guide the end-user to pick the optimal version. Ultimately I'd rather have 2x great apps posted vs. 1x mediocre one. 

Bottom Line: 

A Zebra is in fact not just a White Horse with Black stripes. 

Just like a Tablet is not just a bigger Phone, and therefore we shouldn't treat it as such.

Hope that helps...

Wayne Pau.

p.s. Yes, the opposite is also true. Can you "pigeon hole" users with 2x different apps? With both a Tablet and Phone optimized apps, what about Phablet users? My suggestion is to make Tablet and Phone optimized apps, but not restrict them via the app store (ie. Android Manifest file, etc). This way for users of a device that is a hybrid they can test out *both* apps and find which works best for them.

UX Term of the Day: "Fitt's Law" (aka Fat Fingers...)

Ever have one of those controls on a screen that was Soooooooo small you couldn't tap it twice in a row if your life depended on it? These are the apps that make me pull out my pinky-finger in order to try to tap something... (If I'm totally honest with myself, pretty much every mobile phone soft-keyboard feels like this at times...there just *never* seems to be enough space to fit in all those keys!)

Earlier this year I was helping test an application for BB10 that clearly had some usability struggles. One of the issues that really stuck out was that one UI controls was about 4mm in width. That's actually about 1/2 what size it should have been.

So how big is big and how big is big enough? Turns it's not arbitrary and we have some math & science that basically tells how big something should be. The formula often used is called Fitts' Law:

Fitts' Law Formula

I've *simplified* here, but Difficulty (or technically the ID - Index of Difficulty) is logarithmically proportional to Distance Moved or how far the user has to move (the cursor or their "finger") and the Width of Button or the size of the 'tappable area' of the UI control. 

When we're talking about menu or nav buttons which could be selected from anywhere, really we don't care about distance moved (because it varies a lot), so really usability is somewhat *inversely* proportional to size. Even more so, if size *approaches* zero, the difficulty level becomes infinite! (Starting to remember infinity and limits from first year calc class, right?) 

In plain English, smaller buttons are harder and larger buttons are easier. Obvious right?

*However* the 'amount' that they are easier to use isn't linear, but rather at some point making the button bigger doesn't help *that* much. The converse is also true, at some point a little smaller can make it *really* *really* *really* hard to use.

For the full math and derivation of Fitts' Law, I'd suggestion the following links. (These are mostly best left for "geeky" HCI PhD's...)

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts's_law
• http://www.cs.umd.edu/class/fall2002/cmsc838s/tichi/fitts.html

For the rest of us 'mere mortals', I would use Microsoft's (see below) much more human-understandable guidelines. I especially like MS depiction of various 'sizes' of fingers!

Quote from Microsoft (Win8) Touch Interaction Design Guide:

"People often blame themselves for having "fat fingers." But even baby fingers are wider than most touch targets. The image on the left shows the width of the average adult finger is about 11 millimeters (mm) wide, while a baby's is 8 mm, and some basketball players have fingers wider than 19 mm!"

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh465415.aspx

MS goes on to say if you have a control @ 7mm, your error rate for mis-taps is about 1%. If you can make it at least 9mm, it's 0.5%. Notice how the curve is *almost* logarithmic? (Anything after 10-11mm, the difference is marginal at best. The % of missed taps gets smaller, but never 'actually' becomes zero...)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh465415.aspx

Apple too states that UI controls should be about 44 Pixels, which is about 9mm in real life on iPhones and iPads. Google/Android says 48 DPs, which is about 9mm on Superphones and Tablets, but the guidelines say stay within 7-10mm range if possible. 

(I think this is one of the *only* times I've ever seen all 3x big players agreed on anything!)

So bottom, if you don't want to do the messy math, 8-10mm should be a good threshold. Any smaller and you run a real risk of "mis-taps" from your mobile device (and likely *frustrated*) users.

Hope that helps...

w.

p.s. Still don't believe me? Every platform has a default "calculator" app. Load up the calculator app on your device and measure the physical size of the buttons. Break out the ruler and give it a try yourself!

Every time I've done this, at least one dimension is always at least 8mm long or longer. 

For the record here a quick snapshot of my finger on a ruler. I'd say that's just under 10mm and I assure you I don't have basketball player sized hands!

Pop Question: What's a Phablet? (Is the iPad Mini a Phablet?)

For a while now the 'industry' has been just inventing terminology for devices. The latest one is 'Phablet'.

Phone + Tablet = Phablet

Basically it's a device that is too big to be a phone and too small to be a true tablet. Here is "semi-official" breakdown of devices:

• Phones - 5" or smaller display
• Phablet - >5" and <7" display
• Tablet - 7" or larger display

Phones today range up in size to largest phones like today's HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4 or iPhone 5. On the smaller end they are like the cheaper "free" with contract Android phones or smaller HTC One SV or Samsung SIII (S3) Mini.  They are generally cellular devices, used regularly as phones and kept on the individual at all times.

Tablets today range up in size to 10"-ish devices like Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Google Nexus 10 or iPad 3. On the smaller end they are like Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7"), Kindle Fire or iPad Mini. They are mostly used on WiFi or data-only devices, and often used in landscape (and not portrait) mode.

Phablets are the compromise between the two worlds. While other 5"-ish sized devices existed first, the forerunner for Phablets was the Dell Steak 5 (which died in 2011) which was unique in that it was bigger than a phone, but still could be used as a phone. 

However in my mind, the real 'King' of Phablets now is Samsung Galaxy Note and Note II (2). What makes it unique to me is not so much the size, but the EMR stylus which I mentioned in a previous post here.

Practically what does this mean? I don't really develop directly for Phablets. In reality I treat them as Phones, since the overall dimensions more resemble a Phone. 

For example, Samsung S4, a definitely Phone format is:

• 5" Display
• 16:9 Ratio
• 1080 x 1920 Pixels

For example, Samsung Note II, a Phablet format is:

• 5.5" Display
• 16:9 Ratio
• 720 x 1280 Pixels

Therefore the Note II is basically about 10% larger diagonally and lower number of pixels (but identical to the older SIII, which was 720 x 1280 pixels). The difference is **nominal**. (The Galaxy Tabs have 5:8 ratio which is much more "squat".)

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (left), Galaxy Note II (middle) and Galaxy S4 (right)

Have a look at the low-res snapshot above. Which one do you think the Note II more resembles? Tablet or Phone?

So practically... for me... from a mobile app development point of view, there is still just Phones and Tablets. 


Lastly, is the iPad Mini a Phablet? In my mind "no". It's well in the Tablet 7"+ space (7.9" to be exact) and it keeps the full-sized iPad ratio of 4:3. So for me, Phablets are pratically *only* an Android concept right now. 

For Apple, there are only iPads and iPhones. No iPhablets. Yet. j/k.


Hope that helps...

w.

p.s. For a great list of screen size, density and ratios, this Wikipedia page below is great. I use it all the time and it's fairly up-to-date and has almost all the most common devices:

List of displays by pixel density

The other list I usually use is off Blundell's blog, which is also updated very regularly. 

Blundell Blog - List of Android Devices