For a person who pays attention to the tech field, there are
just so much going on recently that I can’t really help but wanna share my 2
cents of thought about some news items:
Facebook’s
acquisition of Whatsapp – Well US19billion sounds like a huge amount, and
indeed it is, but some news critics are really right that it is a rich tech
company using its high price stock to make this purchase. The actual cash
portion is mere US$3billion. That’s still a lot! I don’t know whether this
purchase justifies the cost, but I think it makes sense as of now. Being an
active FB user myself, I can’t recall if I’ve ever used FB Messenger. Whatsapp
is my message app of choice and I like it very much. I don’t know how FB can
make money from me down the road, but the 450M client base is certainly
attractive. If FB can’t build its own and it can afford it, this purchase makes
sense since it instantly expands its kingdom to become dominant in mobile
communication field. Just coming in today that, Whatsapp will add feature to
allow users to make voice call in next quarter, that would make it in direct
competition with Skype and Viber. Perhaps, next phase will be video call like
Facetime, or group video conference call even. That would be very nice!
Meanwhile, I would imagine FB will imitate what Tencent is doing with WeiSin
down the road, to develop something in mobile commerce. Just stay tune.
Samsung Galaxy S5,
Gear 2, Gear Neo and Gear Fit – Just announcement of these products by
Samsung doesn’t really surprise me much. The biggest selling point of S5 is the
finger print reader integration with Paypal. That would be nice and I think
Apple would do the same in near future. However, the phone itself doesn’t wow
me in its form factor, the flat back with leather feel is nice. But it seems to
me as 50% effort of only working on the back but nothing change on the front
and edge, unless Apple, HTC when they revamp their form factor, they real show
they dare to do it over. The water proof ability for S5 is nice as well, but
the grimmick thing of adding a heart-rate sensor to the phone itself is kinda
weird. I don’t wanna press my phone to my heart all the time, ever! Android 4.4 is a given, no surprise there,
look and feel of the screen has changed a little bit. As I’m not an Android
user, can’t comment on that. The usage of Tizen on smartwatch should get Google
thinking that perhaps S6 or S7 down the road would be using Tizen rather than
Android. It is so obvious that Samsung doesn’t want to be bounded by Google. I
don’t know much about Tizen, but I think it would still need few years (if it
ever can) to catch up Android or iOS, provided that Samsung’s phones will still
being sold really well. I think it is gonna be quite interesting, if Google and
Samsung go for a split, would that benefit Apple?
The release of Gear 2 is normal, given the poor reception of
Gear 1. I still don’t know if it will do much better than Gear 1. Don’t know how
the Gear Neo will be positioned, a strip-down version of Gear 2? Gear Fit with heart-rate
sensor is surely going a head-on with iWatch. I think I would need to know a
bit more before I would think this is gonna be good or not. Certainly, its
integration with Galaxy devices would help and going for the health/fitness sector
as a start is a safe bet. Apple is thinking the same way, but I think Apple
would do a bit more as a late comer. The Gear Fit belt looks a bit cheap to me,
though it is exchangeable, it is plastic anyway! It’s my first impression of
the product. I’m not sure how that horizontal and vertical bouncing view of the
UI works with the pedometer. Would it make users to bend necks to read the screens?
Xiaomi Redmi –
This phone is sold quite well in its existing market, given its price and spec
combination. However, I still don’t see it as the next Samsung or Apple as some
critics might think. Xiaomi’s sale is based on price, it means that it can’t
profit from a higher margin. Indeed, no one does except Apple. Secondly, it
uses Android. I doubt it will have its own ‘Tizen’ anytime soon. So, its neck
is holding by Google. Thirdly, everybody is trying to build its own eco-system.
Microsoft is trying, but it is a distant 3rd. Apple succeeds. Google…well,
after it sold Motorola to Lenovo, it doesn’t look like it wants to emulate
Apple to have an OS-hardware-Services ecosystem. Samsung is trying to build
one, and I doubt Google would let it succeed. So, when it comes to Xiaomi,
though they have a so-called charming CEO, I think it can only go as far as what
PRC government protective strategy would allow it to go. It would well sell tons in China which by no
mean a huge market, but I doubt it will make a significant dent in US/Europe.
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