Over the weekend I got a new phone. And started loading up some new apps. Later that day I saw the following tweet from Robert Cole:

A couple of comments. First I love how I’m perceived as an Apple fanboy. I just happen to think they’re doing a lot of things right — and their revenues, market share and profitability seem to indicate I’m not the only one.

But to be clear, I’ve never owned an iPhone before. Actually I upgraded from a (painfully slow) Palm Pre that had barely any apps available for it.  I do have an iPad though which I bought on the very first day, so maybe I’m a bit of a fan.

But I wouldn’t say I’ve gone over to the dark side. Maybe it’s more akin to Luke fighting himself/Darth Vader on Dagobah during his tutelage under Yoda.

I got my HTC Thunderbolt for two reasons. First and foremost I wanted to experience Android first person and draw my own conclusions of what’s good and bad about it.   It’s very easy to get caught up in “religious debates” and wanted to ensure my objectivity.

More and more we’re working with clients who want to support multiple platforms and not just build an iPhone app, so I kinda had to get more familiar with the environment.   Plus I still have my iPad which allows me to participate in the Apple ecosystem. So I’m covered there too.  Secondly I definitely wanted to move to Verizon for better coverage (although Sprint was pretty good), but really I wanted to experience LTE 4G.   Sprint’s WiMAX service has been pretty good, but the numbers I’ve heard about LTE are pretty great and LTE is being built out in Europe too, so I hope it’s kind of a world phone for me.

But let me take a little aside here before I continue. Robert’s tweet kinda upset me for another reason – a breach of trust by TripIt. I never personally tweeted that I downloaded the TripIt app, nor was I ever prompted to do so. Apparently, TripIt automatically tweets when a user downloads their app. That’s not cool. I share a lot about what I do and what I think, but I do it of my own volition. I don’t appreciate companies making those choices for me without my consent. I do love TripIt, but I hope those guys fix this issue ASAP.

First Impressions

To begin with the performance of the device — both the phone itself and the LTE network is a major step up.  As is access to a large number of apps that I was heretofore jealous of everyone else using. But I’ll just touch on a few specifics:

• The HTC Thunderbolt: the build quality is excellent and while it’s much bigger and heavier than I was used to, I became acclimated pretty quickly. In hindsight, perhaps a 4″ screen is a better choice for comfort and battery life. But if you want an LTE phone, there’s not much choice. The huge screen is beautiful. Though not on par with Apple’s Retina Display, it’s very crisp and bright…until you go outside. For all the complaints that Apple’s iPad gets for not being able to use it in the sun, the Thunderbolt is equally useless in good weather. But while the iPad is primarily used inside, mobile phones are “mobile” and very often used outside.
• User Experience/UI: They say that HTC’’s Sense UI is the best of the Android bunch and I will have to say I like it better than Motorola’s MotoBlur. I was tempted to get the upcoming Sprint Nexus S and experience the unvarnished Android interface, but I’m pretty happy with it. Now in comparing Android to Apple’s iOS interface, I think Apple still wins by a large margin, owing in many respects to the consistency between apps. Even the keyboard can be very different. And you have a mix of apps that take an “Android-y” interface approach and others that mimic the Apple experience. I also prefer the use of the “Tab Bar” in iOS rather than the reliance on the “Menu” button on Android devices. These are difference that I’ll probably get used to over time, but still think the iOS approach is more refined.
  • Status Bar/Notifications: I like how this works but I will say that I feel the WebOS notification approach is much better.
  • Widgets: Some of them are OK, but while this is held out as a superior feature of Android versus Apple, I’m not that excited. The most useful ones are those that let you turn certain battery-eating services on and off.
• App Selection: There are hundreds of thousands of app as opposed to the < 10,000 apps that were available on WebOS, so that’s good. Many of the ones I was hoping to use (Dropbox, Twitter/Tweetdeck, TripIt, Skype) were available, but there were definitely some that were not. So no major issues here.
• Impacts of Android Fragmentation: I have written about the challenges of incrementation of the Android ecosystem before from a developer perspective, but let me make a few small points from a consumer perspective:
  • OS Updates: Boy I wish I had a clue when and if this phone will ever get Gingerbread or Honeycomb updates. With Apple you know that when an update is available for one phone it’s available for all. With Android you kinda have to feel comfortable with the version you have because you never know if another is coming. And that’s too bad.
  • Little Differences Matter: As soon as I got the phone I wanted to figure out how to do different things. One of the simple ones was how to take a screen shot of an app so I can use them in presentations and such. With Apple you just hit the Home Button as you hold down the power button and you’re done.  Lo and behold there is no way to do that natively on the phone without rooting the device or hooking it up to your PC and downloading the SDK. That’s too much effort for such a simple thing.  And none of the paid apps worked on my phone (With so few paid apps in the Android market, this needs to be one of them? Ridiculous.).  Apparently the reason why it’s not so simple is because each OEM’s phones are different so you can’t count on having the same button combinations available to create simple shortcuts. Ugh.

So that’s my initial reactions. Do you have an Android phone or an iPhone? Do you agree with my POV to the Android? Please let me know in the comments below.

Let me start out by saying that it seemed to be a good week for democracy in the Middle East (fingers crossed) and for Cheeseheads.

1. Jason Kincaid provides one of the better reviews of Google’s new Honeycomb Android OS that will be used on the upcoming Motorola Xoom tablet, amongst others.  It definitely looks like a big step forward and a capable competitor to the current iPad. But early reports indicate that the Xoom will retail for about $800, much more than the entry point of the iPad. And that doesn’t even consider what the iPad2 has in store for us. But a major step forward to be sure.
2. Almost as if acting out Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Microsoft (Darth Vader) finds the good inside itself to help Apple (Luke) stop Google (Emperor Palpatine…played by body double Eric Schmidt) from destroying video standards on the web (crush the Rebel Alliance).
3. Wanderfly raises $1M to continue to build out functionality in its social travel recommendation engine.
4. A nice analysis of the impact on flash sales on hotel marketing by Xotels’ Patrick Landman.
5. A post wonders what happens when TMCs become GDSs if the Direct Connect strategy takes hold. I often wondered who will fund the development that must follow at the TMC level. AirPlus International recently published some survey data that seems to drive to a logical conclusion.  I definitely understand the economic case on an airline level, but it’s still unclear to me how it pans out on a system level.
6. Phil Wainwright writes (say that 10 times fast) that Cloud Computing still needs a bill of rights. Spot on.
7. Verizon buys its way into cloud leadership through a $1.4B acquisition of Terremark. Forrester’s James Staten provides the analysis of the deal.
8. Travelport goes a long way to keep Orbitz from coming to an agreement with American Airlines. They are putting their money where their mouth is, but it feels like a desperate move.
9. Aria Systems, a leader in on-demand billing and a key technology for many SaaS companies, raised $20M. This follows on the heels of a very strong fourth quarter where booking tripled year-on-year.  But it was not all good news for Aria, as a key client, NetSuite announced its own billing and subscription product.  But on the whole, a great week for the company.
10. Last but not least, the travel industry’s cutest logo bags a $4.2M round from Expedia alums.

Lot of important stuff last week, but the most awaited announcement…of maybe the past 2 years…leads the list:

1. Many prayers have finally been answered as Verizon announced that the iPhone will be coming to their network in early February. It is anticipated that legions of dissatisfied AT&T customers will switch, but the bigger potential is with the millions of feature phone owners on the network.
2. There’s no way that GDSs can support airlines ancillary services until they do. For all of American’s posturing that GDS (and specifically Travelport) technology isn’t up to the task and the economics of working through intermediaries no longer make sense, Travelport and Air Canada strike a deal.
3. Google, in the spirit of “open”, decides to drop support for H.264 in their Chromium browser in favor of their own WebM CODEC. The move is pretty self serving, a direct competitive move against Apple as they try to hide behind fears of never-yet-levied royalty payments from MPEG LA. All while H.264 makes up two-thirds of video on the web. Yet for all Google’s posturing for “Open” they continue to prop up Flash, a decidedly closed technology.  But not to worry, plug-ins are here to save the day (Really? Plug-ins? In 2011?). WTF. MG Siegler pretty much covers it.
4. After 23 years, Bob Muglia seems to have been forced out of Microsoft. Josh Greenbaum believes that the changing of the guard is very much tied to the changing of Microsoft’s business and move to Azure-based services and the rise of importance of the Dynamics ERP suite to Microsoft.
5. Concur buys TripIt in a deal worth up to $120M.
6. In a somewhat surprising turn of events, the DOJ looks like it’s going to file a challenge to Google’s acquisition of ITA Software. Does that mean the deal won’t go through? Not at all. A similar process was followed with Google’s acquisition of AdMob. But interesting nonetheless.
7. In related news, American has chosen ITA’s Inventory Control solution, which will get folded into the overall Passenger Service System, Jetstream, that HP is building for the airline.  So ITA has one piece of HP’s PSS and HP licensed Pegasus’ RezView system for another. Hmmm. I’m not sayin’, I’m just sayin’.
8. MySpace cuts almost half their jobs and is officially on the block. The only question…who would buy them?
9. Intuit continues its push into mobile payments and focus on small business, offering their GoPayment system for free for a limited time.  The mobile payments space is estimated to exceed $600B in 2014. PayPal is the current leader in the space having processed more than $500M in 2010.
10. Intel and Nvidia finally settle their patent dispute with a cross-licensing agreement that will pay Nvidia $1.5B over the next six years.  That just added the bad news at AMD which culminated in the firing of their CEO.

While there is a lot of travel and technology news to get to, the most important and awful news of the week was the terrible tragedy this weekend in Tuscon as an armed man opened fire at a meeting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, shooting the Congresswoman in the head and killing 6 people including a Federal Judge and a 9-year old girl and wounding many others. My thoughts and prayers are with them.

The business-related story of the week was the escalation of the war between American Airlines and many of its distribution partners (well maybe partners isn’t such a good term right now). While there was a lot of good articles written with different points of view, I will highlight four articles and leave some room for other news of the week.

1. First and foremost, you should read PhoCusWright analyst Douglas Quimby’s post. He covers short and long term implications of the pitched battle and 9 key issues to watch for.
2. Our favorite Professor provides a humorous, but pointed, commentary on a recent Business Travel Coalition press release (in-line with the press release text) on the latest developments.
3. The New York Times’s Travel section covers the topic from a consumer perspective as it’s getting harder to shop for airfare in this environment.
4. Flightcaster’s Evan Konweiser wrote an interesting defense of AA.  There are aspects which ring true, but he also makes a few leaps of logic which don’t fit the facts (e.g. Kodak didn’t decide not to bring a digital camera to market in 1975 only because it was a challenge to its film-processing based business model, but because the technology to deliver image quality that approached kindergarten sketches, let alone traditional film standards was decades away. Nor were there PC’s for consumers to upload them to, sites to share them with friends on or printers to print them on…unless you like the dot-matrix photos that were common at B’nai-Mitzvahs when I was growing up). Ah, the problems of taking an analogy too far. But there are some valid points here.  The airline and travel industry have the most “unique” (yeah, that’s a nice way to say it) sales and distribution processes in the world.

Now what else happened last week?

5. Verizon showed a lot of new devices at CES, the most interesting being the Motorola Xoom tablet prototype running Android Honeycomb. But of course the most anticipated announcement from Verizon is scheduled for Tuesday.
6. More news from CES: Skype acquires Qik for $100M. Good tuck in acquisition from a technology perspective. As Skype CEO Tony Bates said: “…the acquisition of Qik will help to accelerate our leadership in video by adding recording, sharing and storing capabilities to our product portfolio.”
7. Facebook raises $500M at a $50M valuation. Next stop NYSE, circa 2012.
8. Qualcomm buys WiFi silicon maker Atheros for $3.1B. A very strategic buy that enables Qualcomm to achieve its vision of being an end-to-end supplier in a networked world centered on a phone, with the phone able to communicate seamlessly with a multitude of networks, with CDMA, LTE and WiFi all under one roof.
9. Apple launches the Mac App Store. In many ways this is a massive shift in software distribution for Apple and funnily enough gobs more cash in their pocket as a result. But as MG Siegler explains, there are also changes in app design that are a part of some of these new apps.
10. Salesforce acquires DimDim. While many are dismayed at the loss of a free web conferencing service, this does fit nicely into the Chatter platform.

A lot of big news last week from Microsoft, Oracle and IBM agree on the future of Java, the iPad is coming to Verizon and notes from Amadeus Horizons 2010 in San Francisco.

1. Oracle and IBM team up to provide a unified future for Java. Should be good for the developer community for sure. But maybe not so much for Google with respect to the Java patent infringement suit concerning the Android mobile OS. Altimeter Group’s Ray Wang breaks it down.
2. Bing search goes social with Facebook integration.  Microsoft and Facebook announced a new partnership that brings Facebook “Like” and OpenGraph profile search to Bing using “Instant Personalization”.  I expect this will have a big impact for travel, especially for hotel, restaurant and tour/activity search and portends a big challenge for companies like TripAdvisor. And not for nothing, it’s definitely another shot across the bow at Google from both Microsoft and Facebook.
3. Microsoft “Launches” Windows Phone 7…phones to actually follow in a few weeks. While many seem to like the Metro UI, few seem to think it has a chance to succeed. Scoble says all WP7 has going for it is Office integration and that’s not enough. Mary-Jo Foley says Microsoft’s real target for WP7 is feature phone owners. But most feature phones are free or close to it. The initial price with contract for the WP7 devices is $199. This will be a tough road to hoe.
4. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Spirit Airlines’ “edgy” marketing sure gets results.
5. The iPad is coming to Verizon and the iPhone won’t be far behind. Only a few more months and I’m free of my Pre!
6. Amadeus completed its bi-annual Airline IT conference, Horizons 2010. Tnooz’s Dennis Schaal recaps the first day. On the second day the highlight was a terrific talk about the future of technology in travel by Forrester analyst Henry Harteveldt.
7. The worst kept secret is out: Amadeus officially puts Opodo up for sale…er, is “evaluating strategic alternatives” with JP Morgan.
8. A terrific look at the private sale model by Matt Zito.
9. Is there such a thing as too much Cloud Security? Cisco’s Christopher Hoff poses the question.
10. IDC Staranalyst Michael Fauscette keeps the great posts coming. This time he suggests a couple of important fixes to remove barriers to creating a collaborative, social enterprise

Another day, another iPad-versary (hat tip to Harry McCracken).  Today Download Squad reported that an upcoming tablet from Google and Verizon is more than just a rumor…and that it will ship in time for Black Friday and the Christmas shopping season.

The “EvilPad”, as I have termed it, has a unique twist – it’s supposed to feature Google’s much anticipated ChromeOS, rather than Android. It will be interesting to see how well adapted the ChromeOS is to a touch environment as it was originally intended to be a netbook/notebook OS, whereas Android was developed to be the mobile device, touch-oriented OS.

Another challenge for the EvilPad will be the enormous game of catch-up that it has to play in the AppWars against both Apple and Google’s own Android devices.  The forthcoming Chrome App Store (again, borrowing heavily from Apple, this time from iTunes) seems as if it will be leaning heavily on web apps that require constant connectivity to the Internet rather than downloaded apps.  If you have an 3G or higher unlimited data plan, maybe that works, but that seems to be counter to the trend from all wireless providers. Maybe Google and Verizon will be providing EvilPad users access to the Schminternet

And of course, we can’t not report on the specs. As usual for HTC-built, Google-based devices, the hardware looks impressive, but we all know that hardware without excellent software doesn’t mean a heck of a lot.  Download Squad reports:

• NVidia’s Tegra 2 platform
• 1280×720 multitouch display
• Memory: 2GB of RAM, minimum 32GB SSD
• WiFi/Bluetooth/LTE connectivity
• GPS
• Webcam
• Possible expandable storage via a multi-card reader

Sometimes in summer it can be tough to find 10 things, but this week there’s some IPO news,  a flight attendant snaps and Google sells out the web:

1. Skype files for an IPO. I know they’re only trying to raise a $100M, but the financial numbers look bad. Low margins, less than 2% of registered users are paying customers. The plan is still to convert more users from free to pay, but hasn’t that been the plan for years? What’s the definition of insanity?
2. This story takes crazy to new heights. Not sure what’s going on with unruly passengers. Had a similar situation on a recent US Air flight with a COMPLETELY crazy passenger who was dancing, crying, cursing, drinking all through the flight and then tried to get up while the plane was still taxiing. But in this case the flight attendants did nothing, while my wife had to step in as we were traveling with our six-year-old daughter.  Advertising Age talks about the difficulties JetBlue is having dealing with the popularity of the renegade flight attendant in social media.
3. Plenty of people had things to say about the Google-Verizon Net Neutrality proposal, but Wired had the best headline by far.
4. Time Magazine details their Top10 Travel Trends. Not much new here for those of us in the travel industry, or even those who travel a lot, but I always think it’s interesting to see through the prism of what the rest of the people (i.e. actual customers) will believe are the top trends because someone like Time tells them so.
5. Spend Matters’ Jason Busch analyzes the recent deal between Rearden Commerce and Southwest Airlines.  Busch feels “Southwest is clearly making a statement that this chosen partner is fundamentally different than others in the market”, and part of a strategy to increase its business travel revenues.
6. Delta launches “Ticket Window” on Facebook. It seems not to provide any more functionality than the Delta.com site or take advantage of any truly social aspects or Facebook’s OpenGraph. PhoCusWright’s Douglas Quinby was surprised that there was no additional functionality, but as I tweeted back to him, it shows the still fairly large gap between being on social platforms like Facebook and having an actual social strategy that is tightly integrated and aligned with the rest of the corporate strategy. This is still a pretty common position for many brands. So kudos for Delta’s initiative, but there’s still plenty of work to be done…much like with their “revamped” website.
7. Oracle sues Google of patent infringement over the use of Java-related IP in Android. The suit stems from Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems last year and with it Java.  Oracle claims that Android competes with Java as a mobile device OS and so the suit. A ploy to get some cash from Google? If Google does indeed have to pay Oracle for Java – it was only a few years back that Sun got Microsoft to cough up $1.6B – will they be able to continue to give away Android for free? This should be fun to watch.
8. Expedia to power Yahoo! Travel in Europe. Interesting to see the progeny of Microsoft do a deal with Yahoo!
9. Will the most fuel efficient airlines get a boost in sales? Is it a coincidence that the airlines who lead in MPG also have the best reputations for service?
10. In other IPO-related news, Makemytrip.com, India’s largest online travel company, went public with a bang. MMT had the strongest first day gain for a US IPO since 2007, surging almost 90%.  TechCrunch’s Sarah Lacy gives some tips on what other Indian entrepreneurs (inside and outside of travel) should learn from MMT’s success.

Well that was an interesting week: HP’s Hurd and Google’s Wave are out (and IHMO Wave had the more egregious indiscretions), Travelport may finally revive their IPO and a few more things.

1. Is a Travelport IPO in the very near future?
2. LAN Airlines chooses Orbitz over Expedia for dynamic packaging.
3. HP CEO Mark Hurd resigns amidst sexual harassment investigation. The wording of the statement appears as if he admits inappropriate behavior, which if you read it quickly would seem to admit guilt to the charges against him. But it seems as if he’s clear of the sexual misconduct charges, but made several other indiscretions which sealed his fate.
4. Excellent article from GigaOM on the FCC, Net Neutrality and “Reclassification”. Once again it looks like the consumer is screwed by politicians and big business. Interestingly, Google seems to have signed on to the concept of charging premium fees for bandwidth as part of it’s partnership with Verizon.  Pretty surprising move for a company who’s motto is “Don’t be evil”.
5. Google Wave, the hyped piece of software that was going to change the way we collaborate is no more. Remember when you had to beg to get a Wave invite…then found the interface to be confusing and none of your friends or colleagues were on it?  Good times.
6. Apple sacks mobile hardware development head Mark Papermaster, ostensibly as part of the fallout from Antennagate. Now if only his name was Antennamaster things would be very different today
7. Why does the travel industry seem to hate the people at TechCrunch? While many aspects of Michael Arrington’s rant about his recent Delta flight resonated with me, it doesn’t hold a candle to the hilarity of MG Siegler’s “My Bloody Valentine” post about how Expedia screwed up his romantic weekend.
8. The iPhone-to-Verizon rumors are picking up speed again, as it appears Apple has ordered a boatload of CDMA chipsets. But what if this is really for Sprint, rather than Verizon who looks to be getting deeper in bed with Google every day. Sprint only has the HTC EVO and Samsung Galaxy Android phones and has a gaping hole in their lineup where the Palm Pre used to be.
9. OpenTable profits are waaay up. But perhaps more importantly, they’re launching a Groupon-esque service called Spotlight that can provide meals up to half off normal prices. Will other parts of the travel and hospitality industry start adopting this model to drive volume?
10. After four years, Amadeus announces its next generation faring and pricing platform. Tnooz wonders if it’s enough to take on the new breed of fare tool vendors.

I just got the Pre on Sprint and am pretty happy with it. Definitely think the value package ($20/unlimited data + email + text) Sprint put together is better and less expensive than what is available from AT&T or Verizon for the Blackberry (both effectively require $50/month to enable the phones) and after all the griping I hear about coverage, I took the plunge.  On top of that, I think the Pre has some great features, particularly multi-tasking, layered calendars and Palm Synergy which seamlessly consolidates contact information across multiple address books (e.g. Outlook, Gmail and Yahoo).

Much has been written about the sure-to-fail marriage between 2 also rans in Sprint and Palm (see here and here), but I don’t think it has to do with the viability or scale of the companies themselves. The real concern about the success or failure of the Pre in my mind is tied to the number of apps available for the platform. In many ways I think the device itself has advantages over the iPhone, but 250 apps v. 100,000 isn’t much of a competition. If Palm is able to get more apps out quickly, at least to the point that it approaches the 10,000 that’s available for Android, it could actually compete more effectively.

Would you consider the Pre versus the iPhone, Droid or Blackberry?