Posts by Michael Gartenberg (bio)

Michael Gartenberg | August 15, 2008, 11:23 AM
Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes

As I'm sure you all know, JupiterResearch is now a part of Forrester Research.  It's been a great (if, somewhat bumpy) ride at Jupiter over the years but with this transition, for me this part of the ride ends. After much thought, I have decided not join my colleagues at Forrester and instead will be pursuing other interests.

My last day at Jupiter (er, Forrester) will be today, Friday, August 15^th. I'm going to take a little time off and rest for a bit, but I'll be back soon and tell you all what's next. You can follow my adventures at gartenblog.net, on twitter.com/gartenberg and reach me at gartenberg AT gmail. Or just give me a call at 201.862.0443. Talk to you all soon.

I wish all my colleagues at Jupiter good luck and much success as they become part of the Forrester organization. It has truly been an honor and privilege working with you side by side over the years.

Michael Gartenberg | August 12, 2008, 01:40 PM
Vongo -RIP

With a whimper and not much of a bang, Vongo is closing the doors. The service had some potential at launch way back in Jan of 2006 when along with Windows Media 11, MTV Urge, and the Toshiba Gigabeat (before MSFT caught Zune fever). They are still looking at offering "white label" services but this pretty much closes the door on the service for the most part. RIP

Michael Gartenberg | August 07, 2008, 03:00 PM
Blackberry Bold in the house

Have the new Blackberry Bold in the house. First thoughts? Excellent. Love the fit and finish. New updated UI is wonderful and it's fully loaded with all the features and radios you'd expect in a flagship device. My software build isn't final (should have an updated build shortly) so I won't get into a formal review just yet.

Michael Gartenberg | August 06, 2008, 05:34 PM
Typing one handed is not fun

Typing this with just my right hand. Yesterday my left hand started acting oddly (i am of course a lefty) and with enough pain that I actually called and made an app't with a doctor for today. This morning, my fingers were not working well at all, I did a few meetings this morning in NY and then went to see the doc. After a long wait for an X-Ray and some tests, doc says it doesn't *seem* to be a big issue and is likely related to long sessions with laptops in coach as well lots of mobile device use (he yelled at me when I was twittering waiting for the X-Ray). Looks like I will likely need a cortizone shot and was told to stay off the keyboards for a few days... what this all means is posting and twittering as well as email responses are going to be light. Going to see how well Vista speech recognition really is.

UPDATE - just dropped my coffee cup... hand couldn't hold it. That was not good. Might call doc back tomorrow.

Michael Gartenberg | August 06, 2008, 05:27 PM
Laptop Mag's XP OLPC Experience is Not Mine

Cant' speak to the exclusive nature of Laptop Mag's running an OLPC running XP as I've been running one here for several weeks. I am finding a totally different experience with performance and load times much different  and much better than the Laptops folks are getting. I checked with MSFT and it seems there's came from the OLPC folks directly (mine came from MSFT) and our builds it seems are different. Overall, I think the hardware itself is just lacking (my first unit developed keyboard problems after a few days and needed to be swapped out) and the overall performance is hardly going to meet the needs of the uber user. It is much better than the stock OLPC OS IMHO and I imagine much more useful as well.

I have had a few students use the machine and my next phase of testing will be to give it to an elementary student to use for a bit when school starts. Will keep you posted here.

Michael Gartenberg | August 01, 2008, 08:25 AM
Nokia E 71 - First Look

When I got back from Seattle there were a few surprises waiting for me (I'll have to wait a bit to tell you about some of them) one of the cool ones was Nokia's new E71 Handset. Nokia's E series has been popular in various parts of the world and folks loved the big screen, good keyboard and of course the really big battery which meant talk time and data use were excellent. The E 71 is much smaller and slimmer with a wonderful screen and a great keyboard. It has a nice metal and verysolid feel to it that make it very comfortable to hold and carry. My first concern was battery life. After all, there's no magic in this. Small devices = small batteries which equals less use. So imagine my surprise that Nokia is using the same battery it used in the older and larger E devices. It's so odd opening the phone and seeing how much space is taking by the battery that one has to wonder, where is the phone mechanism? Magic indeed.
Specs are impressive at half VGA with GSM/GPRS/EDGE , 850MHz/1900MHz UMTS/HSDPA support, Wi-Fi 802.11 a,b,g, Bluetooth 2.0, and GPS. Whew. Lots of tech in here. Support POP/IMAP and Exchange Active sync make it easy to use this at work and at home. Speaking of which, there's a super cool feature that lets you set two different profiles, presumably one work and one for home. Theme changes totally to reflect. Would be great to see more choices in the future as to what gets switched with each profile but this is the start of something really cool. A device that finally reflects that people go back and forth between business and personal personas in the course of a day and especially when they're out and about. Web apps perform well but it's still frustrating not be able to cut and paste a URL from the web browser to the podcast application. Media functions for imaging and music are good and on par with other offerings from Nokia. Sadly, the E 71 does not support N-Gage just yet.
Call quality is excellent and with that big 1500mAh battery, it passes my battery of test of getting through a heavy day of talk, email and web with plenty to spare. My biggest issue is lack of app eco system around the E Series. No Tetris that I could find, forget the S60 series version of the Slingbox player etc… I'd love to see Nokia work with developers get some more cool functions on here. For now, it's a great phone and email device and for many users, that will be more than enough. The device also needs a carrier. Right now you can get these unlocked directly from Nokia at their stores in the US but this device really needs a carrier behind it to help Nokia tell the story to the mass market.
Bottom line? Excellent form factor, great battery life and performance for phone, email, and web with some nice secondary media features.

Michael Gartenberg | July 31, 2008, 06:09 PM
The Mojave Experiment - the good and bad

So by now you've heard of the Mojave Experiment from Microsoft. Joe Wilcox, thought it was good at first and then offers a second take. I'm not sure I agree with all of Joe's analysis. This is good news for Microsoft in many ways as it underscores that Vista often suffers from a bum rap in terms of perception. Score one for MSFT. On the other hand, nothing here changes the overall perception and that's what MSFT needs to do. Moreover, the fact that all these folks could see Vista and NOT RECOGNIZE it at this point in the lifecycle tells you something as well at how Microsoft has failed to generate proper mindshare. Finally, some of Vista's issues are based in reality and these are all things Microsoft needs to address and address soon. Well before Windows 7.

Michael Gartenberg | July 25, 2008, 03:17 PM
Off to Seattle

I'm off to Seattle next week. Looking forward to some very fun meetings. Posting will be light but feel free to follow me over at Twitter for updates.

Michael Gartenberg | July 25, 2008, 06:51 AM
Taking a peek at Peek

I had dinner last night with Amol Sarva last night, the CEO of Peek, a mobile startup that's taking an approach in the face of conventional wisdom. While everyone is striving to create the next mobile platform, device vendors are trying to add more functions to their gadgets, Peek is going the opposite way. Less is more. Their hardware is probably best described as the original Blackberry for the 21st century. It does email. That's it! No MP3 players, cameras, games, IMs, social network apps or telephony. None of it. It does email. The result is a device that's uber thin (even thinner than the iPhone) with a color screen and a nice qwerty keyboard. Buy one for $99 at Target, take it outside, enter your email address and password. That's it. Peek supports all the major consumer email services such as AOL, Yahoo, Gmail and of course, POP and IMAP (but if you know what IMAP is, this probably isn't the device for you). Peek's using TMobile's network and there's a monthly fee of about $20 for all the email you can, well, mail.

Can it work? Yep. It sure can. We know consumers will carry up to three devices and also know that not everyone wants a super high end phone. Yes, there's a market for advanced telephony devices as Apple has clearly proved but there's other markets as well. Think of the curve of those who said they didn't need a cellphone a decade ago but know wouldn't leave the home without one. Well those same users are starting to get the idea that mobile email might be as good an idea as mobile voice, especially when it's only $99.

It's nice to see a company take a different approach, Amol told me last night how he's getting some pushback. Where's the web browser? What would it take to add to make it a phone? were some of the questions he's been getting. I think this is a case of less is more and it's nice to see someone making a Blackberry... for the rest of us.

Update - it's $20 a month not $200 :)

Michael Gartenberg | July 24, 2008, 01:11 PM
Blackberry Media Sync - First Take

Blackberry Media Sync is now live and official. For those how aren't familiar, it will let you sync your Blackberry directly with iTunes. Playlists, songs, album art all come over perfectly. I've been using the first version that got pulled a few weeks ago and it works well. Makes it super easy for those folks who use iTunes to get their content over to the device without losing their investment in album art, playlists etc. Of course. DRM content won't work but that's a small issue for most folks.

Sync is important, super important and it's not just calendars, contacts and in-boxes. Both Microsoft and Nokia must create solutions that integrate media sync with iTunes easily, simply and as well done as this. Nice job RIM. Now, where is the Blackberry Bold?

Michael Gartenberg | July 24, 2008, 12:36 PM
Zune Phone? Not Likely

Rumors persist about a Zune phone. I say it's totally unlikely for a pretty simple reason. The business model of Windows Mobile is totally different than Zune.

Zune worked to some extent since the technology Microsoft was licensing wasn't getting them anywhere. As it was, hardware partners were taken aback by Microsoft's actions but were still comfortable licensing. The phone is different. WinMo is a core platform and OS. No one has ever been successful licensing technology platforms to others and then competing with a device of their own. Apple failed (twice), Palm and Nokia all tried it and it just can't be done. Microsoft now has traction with more than 20 million licenses out there and a great stream of partners and new phones for consumer and business use. A Zune phone from MSFT would potentially hurt all that.

Moreover, how would MSFT bring this to market? There's no mass market for unlocked phones in the US (just ask Nokia how hard it is to sell a high end phone with no carrier). MSFT as an MVNO? Not happening. A partnership as Apple did with the iPhone? Well, it could work but boy would that alienate licenses.

There's certainly some likelihood of MSFT exploring a Zune phone but far more likely mobile Zune branded functions just get baked into a future version of Windows Mobile.

Michael Gartenberg | July 24, 2008, 09:55 AM
Chocolate 3 Review

Those crazy kids over at TeenTechBlog review the LG Chocolate 3. It's a good review and I would agree with their analysis. It's a nice music phone with some great features at a good price. What I miss is the ability to access my Rhapsody subscription streamed to my phone. Buying tracks is nice but streaming my account would have made this a killer device.

Michael Gartenberg | July 24, 2008, 08:41 AM
Steve Jobs Health is a Private Matter.

I've been getting a ton of press calls on this and spent some time last night talking about it on CNBC so i'll make a few comments here as well and I never plan to address this issue again.

When it comes to Apple, the smallest, most minute details of the company are subject to the most intense scrutiny, which would almost be funny, if it didn't have an effect on their stock price. The bottom line is that Steve Jobs health is none of anyone's business. If Steve's health were to become something that would prevent him from running Apple as CEO, presumably we would know. Why? Well, it already happened once before a few years ago when Steve became ill. It was disclosed, the leadership team was put in place and Apple ran just fine.

The reality is Apple is much more than Steve, even though we so closely associate him with the firm. Yes, it would appear from a keynote that Steve conceived of, designed and perhaps spends time building iPhones in his garage. The reality is there's more than 20,000 other folks at Apple and while most Apple customers don't know the names of folks like Schiller, Joswiak, Cook or Ives there's an army of folks behind Steve who deliver day after day and year after year. We know they can run Apple well. Why? They've done it before when Steve was ill and took a leave of absence.

Yes, Steve Jobs is a core part of Apple but no doubt, there's a succession plan in place and merely because Apple has not articulated it to the public does not mean it doesn't exist. I imagine at some point in the distant future, there might be an Apple without Steve. I will certainly miss his presence but I'm also confident that Apple can thrive as well. And as you've heard me quote my grandfather in the past.  "the cemeteries are full of people who couldn't be replaced"

Steve is entitled to his privacy. I asked Maria Bartiromo last night if she could think of any other CEO that was put to this level of scrutiny. She said no one, except perhaps Jack Welsch and not to this level. We don't look at Steve Ballmer and ask if he's gained a few pounds or see if Michael Dell has a headache or if Eric Schmidt has the sniffles. Steve Jobs health is no one's business except his. That's my last word on this topic.

Michael Gartenberg | July 24, 2008, 08:23 AM
Shakeup over in the Windows and and Windows Live Teams - First Take

It's no secret that Windows has been fighting a mindshare battle and the reality is, you lose mindshare, you eventually lose marketshare as well. If there are two things Microsoft can not afford to mess up, it's Windows and Office and they've been doing just that. It has felt like the Windows team especially has been a rudderless ship and the good news is Microsoft is shaking things up. There's a big re-org in Windows land. Windows and Windows live now report directly to Steve Ballmer. Kevin Johnson is now  leaving. Microsoft is also reportedly spending close to $300 million dollars on ads that will attempt to dispel some of the perceptions about Vista.  (although MSFT says the ad below is not really part of this new campaign).

Fisrt thought? Should have happened months ago.

It's clear that Vista marketing was ineffective and almost non existent. Worse, competitors played up every single perceived flaw of Vista and exploited it as part of their marketing. It's way past time for Microsoft to start getting the message out. I'm not sure acknowledging that Vista is perceived as flawed is the right approach. Microsoft needs to call out it the power of Vista and showcase key partners delivering differentiated experiences with Vista technology such as HP and Lenovo. The re-org is a good first step and getting Ballmer directly involved will provide needed accountability but there's a lot more here that needs to be done and done well before Q4.

Michael Gartenberg | July 17, 2008, 11:25 AM
3G Phone Battery Life

In addition to the iPhone 3G, I'm spending some quality time with the new HP 910 which is Windows Mobile based. One thing I'm looking at is battery life. I agree with James Kendrick totally. While 3G radios inherently use more power to a greater degree, the added functionality of 3G leads to increases in message models. Let's face it, when you browse the web and it's a good experience, you tend to do it more. Add in things such as streaming audio or video and the driving the screen more and you're going to take a hit on overall battery life over the course of the day. We saw the exact same issues with 2.5 devices when they first rolled out. Eventually battery life will get better as both chipsets and software  improve. I have found no problem getting through a day on the road (which is when I see the highest usage models) with the iPhone, but I do need to re-charge each night.

Michael Gartenberg | July 14, 2008, 11:19 AM
My favorite iPhone Apps... so far

News and Information:

Bloomberg news
eReader
AP Mobile news
Movies
NetNewswire

Media and Social Network:

AOL Radio
Facebook
Last.fm
Pandora
Tuner
Twitteriffic

Games:

Aqua Forest
Bejeweled 2
Columns
Crash Bandicoot
Hold 'Em
Ms. Pacman
Tetris

Note, Super Monkey Ball looks great but plays awfully. Way to hard to control IMHO even though this was a showcase app.

Am I missing anything?

Michael Gartenberg | July 14, 2008, 11:18 AM
Off to CA

I'm off to CA for a few days to attend HP's analyst event in San Jose. Posting will be light until later in the week.

Michael Gartenberg | July 14, 2008, 11:15 AM
1 million served...

Ok, so it seems most folks liked the subsidy model and Apple moved a million new iPhones. Oh, and ten million apps downloaded from the app store.

Impressive numbers considering how long it took to sell the first million iPhones, much less the first million iPods.

Anyone further doubt that Apple is a serious player in mobility?

Michael Gartenberg | July 11, 2008, 07:24 AM
iPhone 3G and 2.0 Upgrade - First Thoughts

On schedule, Apple released the new iPhone 3G today and the new iPhone and iPod Touch 2,0 software update. I've spent some hands on time and here are some quick thoughts. More over the weekend. First, the hardware. The new iPhone 3G hardware is very nice, similar to the original perhaps a tad thicker but overall, has great hand feel. The metal back has been replaced by plastic but feels good and should wear just fine. 3G speeds are nice and impressive and the GPS features work well where I am here in North Jersey. Sound is fantastic and noticeably better than the first generation of devices and in general is among the best sounding phones on the market. It’s too early for me to talk battery life but it looks like it passes my personal battery test, can I make it through a very busy day of phone calls and data access without a recharge. It underscores the problem with phones, as they increase features and those features become usable, we will use them more and that will affect battery life. Earlier advanced phones features were so bad that they didn’t get used much. Start using your phone a lot for 3G access, phone calls and media playing and it’s going to be a challenge to make the battery last as long as you’d like.

The new hardware though is only part of the story and frankly the least interesting part I think. It’s evolutionary and not revolutionary (as it should be) The real magic is in the new software that’s available on the 3G as well as first generation devices (As well as the iPod Touch). That’s because the iPhone is a now a bona fide software platform. I’ve talked in the past how everyone wants to be a platform, because platforms are powerful, they generate revenue. But there's a natural catch-22 to platforms. Developers typically are not interested in developing until there's a solid base (like a million + units) and device companies can't get that base without third party apps. Apple has now broken this logjam, giving a real user base of millions of devices to developers and developers have delivered rather nicely. Here's my take on the new software features.

1. Exchange support – As I've talked about before here Exchange support is super important for Apple. Yes, the iPhone is already a business device (if the CEO has one, it's de-facto a business device) but Exchange support will now make it much easier for Apple to get the iPhone into business users hands. Exchange works exactly as it should and I had no problems syncing my information to the device. For folks dependent on Exchange for their information, the iPhone is now a first class corporate citizen. IT managers can now also remotely configure and control iPhones on their networks, which is super important to those folks. Look for the iPhone to make new inroads into the Enterprise and for the iPhone to act as a Trojan horse for other Apple devices and services. IT departments of the world, you have been warned, beware geeks bearing gifts :).

2. The Applications Store. The iPhone is now a software platform, with thousands of developers and a large VC funding the eco system who delivered more than 500 apps for launch. The key to iPhone was always Apple's ability to bringing the advanced functions to the mass market. The App store now extends to developers the ability to add even more to what the iPhone can do. That's a big win for Apple, developers and iPhone users alike. Initial apps in the store look excellent and I'll be writing more about some of the ones I'm using once I've had a chance to give them a real workout. I can't wait to see what comes next when developers really start learning how to unleash the most from the platform. It will also be interesting to see how corp developers take to the platform for line of business apps.

3. Mobile.Me – It’s almost gotten lost in all the news of the week but it’s an important part of the story. It means that consumers can now simply sync their important information across multiple screens and devices. Add in the ability for things like photo sharing and you’ve got a very nice story about contextual flow. If you’re not an Exchange user, this is a no brainer.

Bottom line? The iPhone 3G more than makes up for my issues with the platform. Yes, it would be nice to see a removable battery but I’ve learned to live with sealed batteries over years of iPod use. Yes, some more BT profiles would be nice, but how many of you use BT audio for anything other than hands-free? (although Acrua now offers BT audio as on their TSX and it’s pretty cool but they also offer USB and iPod integration) And come on, cut and paste? How hard could that be (although it took MSFT three generations to get it into their smartphone version of Windows Mobile).

The reality is Apple is now firmly established as a major player in the mobile space with a powerful combination of platform, services and devices with a solid foundation for future growth and adoption.

Michael Gartenberg | July 08, 2008, 12:13 PM
Defining mobile.me for the "rest of us"

I really like the concept of mobile.me and it's the part of the iPhone launch that's probably getting the least attention, even though it's extremely important. Apple calls mobile.me Exchange for the rest of us. It's good tagline & I get it but i suspect the "rest of us" don't know what Exchange is. One of the challenges Apple will have is to take the time to explain what mobile.me can do for novices and at the same time, clearly differentiate itself from what it does relative to an offering like SugarSync (to me the services are totally complementary to each other and I plan to use both).

The guided tour is a good start, but Apple needs to do more here I think.

Michael Gartenberg | July 08, 2008, 11:26 AM
Confirmed - 3G iPhone launch at Apple stores Fri at 8am

just got confirmation that the 3g iPhone goes on sale at Apple stores on Friday morning at 8am. Are you going to get one on Friday or wait a bit?

Michael Gartenberg | July 07, 2008, 04:34 PM
iPhone week begins...

Unless you've been living in a cave, you know that Apple is set to release the iPhone 3G on Friday along with updates to the iPhone and iPod touch software. Anything iPhone related, no matter the source will make news this week. and it's only Monday folks.

Press and other media types, feel free to give me a call if you'd like to discuss the implications of the new iPhone hardware and software at 201 862 0443.

Michael Gartenberg | July 02, 2008, 03:34 PM
Best wishes to Charlene LI

Best wishes to Charlene Li who is leaving Forrester.

Michael Gartenberg | June 30, 2008, 12:28 AM
Real takes Rhapsody DRM free, launches deal with Verizon - First Take

News from the folks at Real that Rhapsody will be going DRM free, but only for songs purchased. The subscription content will still be protected. Good move for Real but somewhat late. While there's some nice stuff, such as the ability to listen to 25 tracks per month free, lack of DRM will not change the game immediately. Amazon has been there for a while now and hasn't made much of a dent against iTunes. At the end of the day, DRM just doesn't matter that much to most consumers and devices still drive users to the store or service. For the most part, that's going to be iTunes.

Which gets to the more interesting news, the Verizon partnership yielding fruit with a $15 a month service on several Verizon phones. This is where the subscription model can perhaps finally find a mainstream audience. More importantly, it's a differentiated offering that can potentially have some appeal. A lot depends on how much time they take to educate the market. Less thrilling is the $2.00 OTA price for buying a song. (even with a DRM free MP3 copy as well). Most folks will likely just wait until they can get to their PCs to purchase.

Overall, it's nice to see Real get on board and with DRM free content, there's at least a story to tell to iPod customers. It will be important for Real to make sure can get the integration right (as Amazon has done) and work to get the word out. Execution here will have a lot to do with how cool the phones are that support the service and how well VZW and Real do marketing and explaining how subscriptions and music ownership can co exist.