Ray Ozzie is wrong about smartphone apps

November 17, 2009 By Robert Scoble

Microsoft exec Ray Ozzie, at a lunchtime session with bloggers at its PDC conference told the bloggers that apps won’t be a differentiating factor on smart phones.

He is wrong. Totally wrong.

Why is Mike Arrington so passionate about his Droid (we argued about it for 39 minutes on the Gillmor Gang last week and then we went to the beach together on Sunday and argued about it some more in private).

I’ve talked about this before. Most of what we argue about is apps.

Droid is better than iPhone because Droid has Google Voice, Arrington says.

iPhone is better than Droid, I say, because I have Tweetie, which kicks ass over Twidroid and the other Twitter apps.

Facebook is better on the iPhone. Noticeably better. Even Chris Brogan (who also is a Droid proponent) said that on his Twitter account.

Anyway, everything about these phones will be about the apps that run on top. Can you imagine a Microsoft exec arguing that Windows isn’t better because of apps? Give me a break. Ray, sorry, but you are off the rails.

If Ray thinks that the best apps will come to Windows Mobile and that the best developers will spend time developing for that platform well, then, Ray is drinking better Merlot than I am.

I’ve seen how even kids compare their phones on the playground. They compare apps and games. The functionality of the phone doesn’t really matter anymore. It’s what’s built on top that gets the kids excited.

Same in business. Last week a VP at Citrix came up to me showing off his iPhone app (it let him get into a Windows box somewhere else in the world and use Microsoft Office).

Even today at the PDC, what did Vivek Kundra (America’s CTO) show his app off on? Yeah, an iPhone. And this was at Microsoft’s own conference!

Ray, the truth is I was there in 2006 talking with the Windows Mobile team when they told me they were going to only build devices for the enterprise. Back then they thought the growth would come from going after RIM. Even Wired Magazine can now see the fumble the team made. They were wrong and now you are wrong. Apps are what will decide winners in this play. For now that’s Android and iPhone. Big time.

But if I were losing developers the way Microsoft is I’d probably say they don’t matter either. It just shows that Microsoft has no secret strategy up its sleeves and has no way anymore to get developers excited about its mobile platforms. Google is now in the best position and Ray knows it.

UPDATE: several commenters here (see comments on this post) say that Ray’s comments were misunderstood. I’ve talked with Steve Gillmor who recorded this lunch session (he’ll get the video up shortly) and it sounds like his comments might be more nuanced than VentureBeat presented them. Cool, let’s get into the comments.

Filed Under: Web

Wine and Web Party, thanks to Twitter and DeLoach winery

March 23, 2008 By

Twitter is changing our community interactions in ways that we are just starting to realize. At SXSW parties were formed within an hour, simply because Scott Beale or other people Twittered about them.

We’ve seen a marriage proposal in the last week. Earthquakes reported before CNN does (just tonight there was an earthquake in Tokyo that was being discussed on Twitter). A camera guy in the White House press pool talking with us about what’s going on around the world. And much more.

Last night it came together when a bunch of people who are loosely connected planned, and implemented a wine party in less than 30 hours.

It all started on Friday afternoon. I joined a few guys in Santa Rosa for a wine-tasting weekend: Kevin Rose, founder of Digg, Tim Ferriss, author of “The Four Hour Workweek,” which is near the top of the New York Times best-seller list right now, and Gary Vaynerchuk, owner of a wine store in New Jersey (does $50 million a year in sales) and famous wine videoblogger. Twitter addresses: @kevinrose. @timferriss. @scobleizer. @garyvee.

Anyway, the weekend started out at DeLoach Winery in Santa Rosa, but we had no idea what was waiting for us. DeLoach President and owner, Jean Charles Boisset, served us lunch, launched a new wine, and was showing us around their newly-renovated wine house where they were planning to host events. Here’s part I of the tour that we got. Here’s part II of the tour we got. In part III, Jean shows us some new bottles he’s testing, talks about his marketing philosophy (you might be shocked to learn what “OFS”, which is one of his wine’s names, stands for).

At the time we got these tours this party did not exist. That was Friday afternoon at about 4 p.m. After we filmed those videos, Jean handed the keys to Gary and said “I left 24 cases of wine for you to share with your friends.”

Now, what’s your impulse? I looked at Kevin and Gary and we all three knew we were thinking the same thing: Twitter it! So, we asked Jean “are you sure you want us to invite a few hundred people over here?” He said yes. We asked again, and once more just to be sure. He even said he’d like to host future events for the tech industry. I remember thinking to myself that either Jean was incredibly brave, or maybe he was just not aware of what could happen in today’s Twitter world.

Anyway, Gary had originally planned to have a quiet dinner on Saturday night but now those plans were turned upside down. We thought about just inviting our favorite friends. Nah, that wouldn’t be cool. Too exclusive. So, we just Twittered it and invited everyone to come.

It turned out to be a great party. TeelaJBrown even drove from Los Angeles. Scott Beale got some great photos with his new Ricoh digital camera. I shot two videos of the party itself. BusinessWeek’s Sarah Lacy was there with her husband. So was Dave Morin, head of Facebook’s application platform. Oh, and a whole contingent of French Entrepreneurs who’ll be touring companies in SF and Silicon Valley. They LOVED Gary’s show.

Anyway, if you only watch one video from the party, catch this one of a filming of Gary’s show. Keep in mind this is at about midnight after Gary’s been tasting wine and hanging out with people all day long. The guy is just incredible.

Before I go on more about the party, wanted to thank the other wineries we visited, in addition to DeLoach, which is known for its Pinots.

Shane Winery. Video. A small microbrewery. I found this one interesting because of the wine maker’s innovative approach. And I love small things. He only makes a couple hundred cases a year.
Forth Winery. You’d never find this on your own. But what a beautiful setting, and even nicer people who made us one of the best meals I’ve ever had. That’s why I shot a ton of video here. Part I. Part II. Part III. Part IV.
St. Francis. Video. Known for having some of the oldest vines in Sonoma and is famous for its Merlots. Meet the CEO and the winemaker.
Great business discussion between Gary and Kevin Rose, founder of Digg, with Jean of DeLoach.

Anyway, hope to do more of these kinds of events. What was great about this one is that it quickly became an experience, rather than just another boring conference. The real trick is: how do you limit them to about 200 people? That seems to be the perfect size. Bigger than that and they become impersonal affairs. Smaller and they are just dinner parties. I have a feeling that if Gary starts doing events he’ll have thousands of people at them pretty quickly.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who came on such short notice. Thanks again to the DeLoach winery.

Filed Under: Events, patents, wine

CES to be a snore?

January 5, 2007 By

Seagate gets out in front of CES news with announcements that a terabyte hard drive is coming. It’s on top of TechMeme.

If you told me six months ago that Seagate would be on top of TechMeme the last working day before CES I would have said you’re drinking better Merlot than I was. Heheh. But, Seagate is a great company to work with, has a lot of fun making something that most of us don’t really spend too much time thinking about, I greatly appreciate their continued support of the ScobleShow, and their products rock and are getting more and more important especially to those of us who’ve bought new digital SLRs and new HD camcorders.

But, that sort of plays into the next point. Is a hard drive going to be the sexiest thing to come out of this year’s CES? Michael Gartenberg seems to think so (Dave Winer also comments). Now, one thing you gotta know about Michael: he’s already seen most of the cool stuff from both the CES show and the Apple side of the fence. He’s an analyst and, to boot, he’s a gadget freak with relationships inside the big companies that are far better than mine are.

So, I’m reading between the lines a little bit when I read his post, but he’s been pretty consistent on sending these “unspoken signals” through his blog and they’ve been pretty accurate. Remember when I was too excited about what’d come from the Apple World Wide Developer Conference? He sent a signal that I was wrong. He ended up being right and my sources were too exuberant (everything they told me about did end up shipping, but they were off on their timing).

What that all means is that Michael is sending gestures to us that Apple is going to have some significant announcements next week that’ll make the rest of us at CES talk. We’ll see if my reading of his gestures are accurate.

As to Dave Winer: CES is a pain in the behind (I still remember the two-hour taxi line last year at 1 a.m. in the morning when I arrived), but there’s a couple of things that make it interesting. First, it’s the only place where you can see almost all the consumer electronics. If you’re looking for a surround sound system (as I know Dave is) this is the place to do it.

Also, because of the sheer size it draws in tons of interesting people. The most time I spent with Doc Searls, for instance, last year, was at last year’s CES. This year is looking a LOT better than last year’s CES on that front.

We’re very fortune to have more than our fair share who say they’ll be at the BlogHaus (more than 100 bloggers, at last count). Hope to see you there! Regarding the BlogHaus, I’ll be emailing today an update to everyone on my attendee list, but if you miss that, the update is here. Next week my cell phone is 425-205-1921 in case you wanna meet up (my schedule through Tuesday, though, is really packed).

Monday night, at 9 p.m., though, the CEO of Seagate, Bill Watkins, will be in the BlogHaus — hope to see you there. If you want to come to the BlogHaus, you need to get on our list or else you won’t be able to get up to our suite, sorry.

Filed Under: 1

What to do when you’re bored: talk about Google OS!

November 21, 2006 By

The tech blogosphere was getting boring for the past few minutes so Emre Sokullu and Richard MacManus saves us from the hell of boredom by talking about the Google OS.

I think they are both drinking better Merlot than I am. Can you send over a bottle?

Why would Google want the hell of doing an OS? They are having a much better time just selling ads on top. And they will continue to be successful at doing that, no matter what Bill Gates says.

The real Google OS, by the way, is what’s running on their datacenters. They have teams doing nothing but writing drivers for disk drives. Why? To make their server OS work better across thousands of servers.

If Google is going to sell an OS, it’ll be a server OS that’ll be a good hosting container for a ton of Web 2008-style services. Doing an OS for a laptop or a desktop? Please.

Filed Under: 1

Calacanis, losing his juice? Yeah, right

November 21, 2006 By

This is Jason as we haven’t heard him in years.

Am I doing too much Merlot, or is he asking for a job?

I have a sneaking feeling Jason has a lot more up his sleeve than a mere job.

Hey, Jason, if you’re up in Half Moon Bay, I’d love to buy you a Mojito. Our guest room is open for you anytime too.

Filed Under: 1

Ivan stole my brain for his search engine

November 2, 2006 By

Well, not quite my brain. If he had done that he would have found a lot of Merlot-curdled fuzz.

But he did steal my OPML file to make a widget. Go ahead, steal my OPML. Just don’t take Maryam or else I’ll be a lonely loser instead of just a loser. :-)

Filed Under: 1
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