1. FRAGMENTATION is necessary for healthy competition between players in the market and to create the best mobile platform.

2. Apple’s POSITIONING (device manufacturer) is different from Google’s positioning (Internet player): Apple creates their OS platform to sell their product, Google wants to expand their platform aiming to provide a way to run/operate their services. Therefore it is difficult to compare iPhone with Android.

3. Other DEVICE MANUFACTURERS such as Toshiba and NEC wander how to proceed. They want to win over Apple products; however, creating high performance OS is very costly and time consuming. In that sense, Android is very attractive to be implemented, although they want to avoid being controlled by Google…

So, where Nokia is heading to?

See WSJ article at http://tinyurl.com/38on9va.

Starting today iPad is available for pre-order online in nine countries, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. Apparently both WiFi and 3G iPads will be available from May 28. Apple has announced that iBooks will be for sale in these countries on May 28 as well. Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore will see the higher end iPad available in July. An idea of prices (supported by Orange, O2 and Vodafone in the UK) would be as follows: Wi-Fi only iPad will cost £429 (US$635) for the 16GB version, £499 for the 32GB version, and £599 for the 64GB version. Meanwhile, the 3G-enabled models will cost £529, £599 and £699 (US$1,034) respectively. This is more expensive than in the US (significantly). Just as an example, the 3G-enabled model with 64GB is priced US$829… We’ll have to wait a bit more, or go on the grey markets ‘-)…

“…the Finnish company (Nokia), the world’s biggest mobile phone maker, is already in dispute with Apple over alleged patent infringement in the iPhone. IDC said on Friday that Nokia’s smartphone market share in the first quarter was flat at 39 per cent, while Apple saw its share of the shipments jump to 16 per cent from 11 per cent a year ago, closing in on Canada’s Research in Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry, which occupies second spot. Overall, smartphone sales rose 57 per cent in the quarter.”

I home office when not traveling, so my couch becomes my desk chair. I use a laptop as my primary work device. As to the iPad, I have discovered that it is much more of a personal device than either my laptop or my iPhone. I can choose to do no work on the iPad, but do not have that luxury with the other 2. I can take my iPad on vacation without feeling compelled to “check” on my business, I don’t sit hunched over looking at my laptop screen sitting on my coffee table in front of me. I don’t feel compelled to have my laptop running at all times connected VPN to Apple.

I’m not really a gamer, but do enjoy games like “Words with Friends” and find that I play that almost exclusively on my iPad. I use the Sprint Mifi device and therefore my girlfriend and I can have ubiquitous connectivity. In fact my children recently visited and we were all connected, them on their iPods and us on our iPads.

In essence, the iPad is:
a) much more personal
b) mobile rather than portable
c) easier on my 40+ yr old eyes
d) less of a tool and more of a toy (i hate saying this, but it’s true)
e) tech of choice rather than necessity, but can operate as both should I want.

I can ignore work calls, but my mind can’t, I can choose not to log into VPN, but can’t resist the temptation/urge to do so when on laptop. The iPad is very “freeing”. I CAN do most of the above but do not feel compelled to do so.

Hope this helps…

On the gray market though, it’s already selling… There are some cases on eBay of euro 5,000 a piece…~! which makes me think it will be better to wait.>/p>

Many had imagined that the proxy functionality used by Opera to reduce bandwidth could be a reason to violate iPhone SDK policy for manipulating code away from the device. It was not the opinion of Mr. Jobs. Good job… Jobs?!