Usage profiles for mobile devices

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 14 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

A few weeks ago, an agency presented some statistics to me about mobile apps.  Unfortunately, although I did ask for permission to use the statistics, I don’t have details of the source but I thought they were interesting to present on this blog, particularly in the light of Forrester CEO George Colony’s keynote comments on the “App Internet” at the Forrester IT Forum last month.

Mobile devices are changing the way we consume and engage digitally:

  • 66% [of mobile device owners] say they can’t live without their phone.
  • 64% [of mobile device owners] say mobiles and the Internet have made our life better.
  • 71% of smartphone owners have downloaded [at least one] app.
  • 28% [of Internet users] connect to the Internet via a mobile [device].
  • 20% of all Christmas online sales in 2010 were via a mobile [device].

What I found particularly interesting were two usage patterns that were presented to me for reading articles on smartphones and on tablets:

iPhone usage spikes

Smartphone users exhibited four spikes at:

  • 6am (early morning/breakfast).
  • 9am (start of work day).
  • 5-6pm (end of work day commute).
  • 8-10pm (couch/prime time, bed time).

Meanwhile, tablet devices are more likely to read at personal prime time – i.e. at the most relaxing time of the day:

iPad usage spikes

I’m not sure that I fit either of these profiles as I tend to use my tablet (my iPad) for my morning/evening commutes, and late at night (in bed) – in between I’m on a laptop, with occasional triaging of email (but not really reading articles) on a smartphone (an iPhone). Nevertheless, it’s interesting to see this marked difference in usage patterns for two classes of mobile device.

First signs of a tablet strategy at Microsoft

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 14 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

I’ve been pretty critical of Microsoft’s tablet strategy. As recently as last October they didn’t appear to have one and Steve Ballmer publicly ridiculed customers using a competitor devices. Whenever I mentioned this, the ‘softies would switch into sales mode and say something like “oh but we’re the software company, we don’t make devices” to which I’d point out that they do have a mobile operating system (Windows Phone 7), and an application store, but that they don’t allow OEMs to use it on a tablet form factor.

But it seems that things are changing in Redmond. Or in Reading at least.

Ballmer got a kicking from the board (deservedly so) for his inability to develop Microsoft’s share of the mobile market and it seems that Redmond is open to ideas from elsewhere in the company to develop a compelling Windows-based tablet offering. A few days ago, I got the chance to sit down with one of the Slate vTeam in the UK subsidiary to discuss Microsoft’s tablet (they prefer “slate”) strategy and it seems that there is some progress being made.

Whilst Windows 8 (or Windows vNext as Microsoft prefer to refer to it) was not up for discussion, Microsoft’s Jamie Burgess was happy to discuss the work that Microsoft is doing around slates that run Windows 7.  Ballmer alluded to work with OEMs in his “big buttons” speech and there are a number of devices hitting the market now which attempt to overcome the limitations of Microsoft’s platform. The biggest limitation is the poor touch interface provided by the operating system itself (with issues that are far more fundamental than just “big buttons”).  There seems little doubt that the next version of Windows will have better slate support but we won’t see that until at least 2012 – and what about the current crop of Windows 7-based devices?

[At this point I need to declare a potential conflict of interest – I work for Fujitsu, although this is my personal blog and nothing written here should be interpreted as representing the views of my employer. For what it’s worth, I have been just as critical of Windows slates when talking to Fujitsu Product Managers but, based on a recent demonstration of a pre-production model, I do actually believe that they have done a good job with the Stylistic Q550, especially when considering the current state of Windows Touch]

Need to do “something”

Microsoft has realised that doing nothing about slates does not win market share – in fact it loses mind share – every iPad sold helps Apple to grow because people start using iTunes, then they buy into other parts of the Apple ecosystem (maybe a Mac), etc.

Noting that every enterprise user is also a consumer, Microsoft believes enterprise slates will sneak back into the home, rather than consumer devices becoming commonplace in the enterprise. That sounds like marketing spin to me, but they do have a point that there is a big difference between a CIO who wants to use his iPad at work and that same CIO saying that he wants 50,000 of those devices deployed across the organisation.

Maybe it was because I was talking to the UK subsidiary, rather than “Corp” but Microsoft actually seems to acknowledge that Apple is currently leading on tablet adoption. Given their current position in the market, Microsoft’s strategy is to leverage its strength from the PC marketplace – the partner ecosystem. Jamie Burgess told me how they are working to bring together Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), System Integrators (SIs) and device manufacturers (OEMs) to create “great applications” running on “great devices” and deployed by “great partners”, comparing this with the relatively low enterprise maturity of Apple and their resellers.

Addressing enterprise readiness

I could write a whole post on the issues that Google has (even if they don’t yet know it) with Android: device proliferation is a wonderful thing, until you have to code for the lowest common denominator (just ask Microsoft, with Windows Mobile – and, to some extent with Windows too!) and Google is now under attack for its lack of openness in an open-source product. But the big issue for the enterprise is security – and I have to agree with Microsoft on this: neither Apple nor Google seem to have got that covered. Here are some examples:

  • Encryption is only as strong as its weakest link – root access to devices (such as jailbroken iPhones) is pretty significant (6 minutes to break into an encrypted device) and Apple has shown time and time again that it is unable to address this, whilst Google sees this level of access to Android devices as part of its success model.
  • And what if I lose my mobile device? USB attached drives provide a great analogy in that encryption (e.g. Microsoft BitLocker) is a great insurance policy – you don’t think you really need it until a device goes missing and you realise that no-one can get into it anyway – then you breathe a big sigh of relief.

After security we need to think about management and support:

  • Android 3 and iOS have limited support for device lock down whilst a Windows device has thousands of group policy settings. Sure, group policy is a nightmare in itself, but it is at least proven in the enterprise.
  • Then there’s remote support – I can take screenshots on my iPad, but I can’t capture video and send it to a support technician to show them an application issue that they are having trouble replicating – Windows 7’s problem steps recorder allows me to do this.
  • There is no support for multiple users, so I can’t lock a device down for end users, but open up access for administrators to support the device – or indeed allow a device to be shared between users in any way that provides accountability.

Windows 7 has its problems too: it’s a general purpose operating system, that’s not designed to run on mobile hardware; it lacks the ability to instantly resume from standby; and touch support (particularly the soft keyboard) is terrible (unless an application is written specifically to use touch) Even so, when you consider its suitability for enterprise use, it’s clear that Windows does have some advantages.

Ironically, Microsoft also cites a lack of file system access as restricting the options for collaboration using an iOS device. Going back to the point about security only being as strong as the weakest link, I’d say that restricting access to the file system is a good thing (if only there weren’t the jailbreak issues at a lower level!). Admittedly, it does present some challenges for users but applications such as Dropbox help me over that as I can store data within the app, such as presentations for offline playback.

The Windows Optimised Desktop

At this point, Jamie came back to the Windows Optimised Desktop message – he sees Windows’ strength as:

“The ability for any user to connect using any endpoint at any time of day to do their day job successfully but be managed, maintained and secured on the back end.”

[Jamie Burgess: Partner Technology Advisor for Optimised Desktop, Microsoft UK]

OK. That’s fine – but that doesn’t mean I need the same operating system and applications on all devices – just access to my data using common formats and appropriate apps. For example, I don’t need Microsoft Office on a device that is primarily used for content consumption – but I do need an app that can access my Microsoft Office data.  Public, private and hybrid clouds should provide the data access – and platform security measures should allow me to protect that data in transit and at rest.  Windows works (sort of) but it’s hardly optimal.

At this point, I return to Windows Touch – even Microsoft acknowledges the fact that the Windows UI does not work with fat fingers (try touching the close button in the top-right corner of the screen) and some device manufacturers have had to offer both stylus and touch input (potentially useful) with their own skin on top of Windows. Microsoft won’t tell me what’s coming on Windows 8 but they do have a Windows Product Scout microsite that’s designed to help people find applications for their PC – including Apps for Slate PCs on the “featured this week” list. That’s a step towards matching apps with devices but it doesn’t answer the enterprise application store question – for that I think we will have to wait for Windows “vNext”. For 2011 at least, the message is that App-V can be used to deploy an application to Windows PCs and slates alike and to update it centrally (which is fine, if I have the necessary licensing arrangements to obtain App-V).

Hidden costs? And are we really in the post-PC era?

Looking at costs, I’ll start with the device and the only Windows slate I’ve heard pricing for is around £700-800. That’s slightly more than a comparable iPad but with also some features that help secure the device for use with enterprise data (fingerprint reader, TPM chip, solid state encrypted disk, etc.).

Whilst there is undoubtedly a question to answer about supporting non-Microsoft devices too, the benefits of using a Windows slate hinge on it being a viable PC replacement.  I’m not sure that really is the case.

I still need to license the same Windows applications (and security software, and management agents) that I use in the rest of the enterprise. I’ll admit that most enterprises already have Active Directory and systems management tools that are geared up to supporting a Windows device but I’m not convinced that the TCO is lower (most of my support calls are related to apps running on Windows or in a browser).

An iPad needs a PC (or a Mac!) to sync with via iTunes and the enterprise deployment is a little, how can I put it? Primitive! (in that there are a number of constraints and hoops to jump through.) A BlackBerry Playbook still needs a BlackBerry handset and I’m sure there are constraints with other platforms too. I really don’t believe that the post PC era is here (yet) – for that we’ll need a little more innovation in the mobile device space. For now, that means that slates present additional cost and I’m far more likely to allow a consumer owned and supported device, for certain scenarios with appropriate risk mitigation, than I am to increase my own “desktop” problem.

In conclusion

I still believe that Windows Phone 7, with the addition of suitable enterprise controls for management and maintenance, would be a better slate solution. It’s interesting that, rather than playing a game of chicken and egg as Apple has with Jailbreakers, Microsoft worked with the guys who unlocked their platform, presumably to close the holes and secure the operating system. Allowing Windows Phone to run on a wider range of devices (based on a consistent platform specification, as the current smartphones are) would not present the issues of form factor that Windows Mobile and Android suffer from (too many variations of hardware capability) – in fact the best apps for iOS present themselves differently according to whether they are running on an iPhone or an iPad.

So, is Microsoft dead in the tablet space? Probably not! Do they have a strategy? Quite possibly – what I’ve seen will help them through the period until Windows “vNext” availability, but as they’re not talking about what that platform will offer, it’s difficult to say whether their current strategy makes sense as anything more than a stopgap (although it is certainly intended as an on ramp for Windows “vNext”). It seems to me that the need to protect Windows market share is, yet again, preventing the company from moving forward at the pace it needs to, but the first step to recovery is recognising that there is a problem – and they do at least seem to have taken that on board.

Why the consumerisation of IT is nothing to do with iPads

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 14 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

Last week, I wrote a post on the Fujitsu UK and Ireland CTO Blog about the need to adapt and evolve, or face extinction (in an IT context).  IT consumerisation was a key theme of that post and, the next evening, at my first London Cloud Camp, I found myself watching Joe Baguley (EMEA CTO at Quest Software) giving a superb 5 minute presentation on “‘How the public cloud is exciting CEOs and scaring CIOs; IT Consumerisation is here to stay'” – and I’ve taken the liberty (actually, I did ask first) of reciting the key points in this post

Joe started out by highlighting that, despite what you might read elsewhere (and I have to admit I’ve concentrated a little to heavily on this) the consumerisation of IT is not about iPads, iPhones or other such devices – it’s a lot bigger than that.

In the “old days” (pre-1995) companies had entities owned called “users” and, from an IT perspective, those users did as they were told to – making use of the hardware and software that the IT department provided. Anything outside this tended to fall foul of the “culture of no” as it was generally either too expensive, or against security.

Today, things have moved along and those same users are now “consumers”. They have stepped outside the organisation and the IT department is a provider of “stuff”, just like Dropbox, GMail, Facebook, Twitter, Betfair and their bank.

Dropbox is a great example – it’s tremendously easy to use to share files with other people, especially when compared with a file server or SharePoint site with their various security restrictions, browser complexities and plugins.

If you’re not convinced about the number of systems we use, think back to the early 1990s, when we each had credentials for just a handful of systems. but now we use password managers to manage our logons (I use LastPass) for systems that may be for work, or not. For many of us, the most useful services that the company provides are email, calendaring, and free printing when we’re in the office!

So, how does a CIO cope with this?  Soon there will be no more corporate LANs and where does that leave the internal IT department? Sure, we can all cite cloud security issues but, as Joe highlighted in his talk, if Dropbox had a security breach it would be all over Twitter in a few minutes and they would be left with a dead business model so actually it’s the external providers that have the most to lose.

CIOs have to compete with external providers. Effectively they have a choice: to embrace cloud applications; or to build their own internal services (with the main advantage being that, when they break, you can get people in room and work to get them fixed).

Ultimately, CIOs just want platforms upon which to build services. And that’s why we need to stop worrying about infrastructure, and work out how we can adopt Platform as a Service (PaaS) models to best suit the needs of our users. Ah yes, users, which brings me back to where I started.

Tablets: How will they impact your enterprise IT?

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 14 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

It seems that last week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) can be summed up with one word:

“Tablet”.

Even though Steve Ballmer, CEO at Microsoft, demonstrated an HP “slate” running Windows in last year’s CES keynote, Apple managed to steal Microsoft’s thunder with the iPad and this year’s show saw just about every PC manufacturer (and Fujitsu is no exception) preparing to launch their own model(s).

Tablet computers aren’t new but Apple’s iPad has revitalised the market – I recently wrote about this when I examined the potential impact on desktop managed service – and one report I read suggested that there were over 80 tablets launched at CES!

For many years, CIOs have been standardising end-user computing environments on Intel x86 hardware and Windows operating systems, with appropriate levels of lockdown and control which makes it all the more interesting to see the variation in hardware, form factor and operating system in these new devices.

Our IT departments will struggle to support this plethora of devices yet IT consumerisation will force us to. But this isn’t a new phenomenon – ten years ago I was working in an organisation which was trying to standardise on Windows CE devices as they provided the best application support platform for the business, whilst the execs were asking for BlackBerrys so they could access e-mail on the move.

Guess what happened? We ended up with both.

And that’s what will happen with next-generation tablets, just as for smartphones. To some extent, it’s true for PCs too – the hardware and the operating system have become commoditised – and our task is to ensure that we can present the right data and the right applications to the right people, at the right time, on the right device.

Which brings back around me to my opening point: tablets featured heavily at CES but tablets are just one part of the IT mix. Will your organisation be supporting their use in the enterprise? And do you see them as serious business devices, or are they really just executive toys?

[This post originally appeared on the Fujitsu UK and Ireland CTO Blog.]

Hardware lineup for 2011

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 14 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

This is a bit of a copycat post really but I saw Mike Taulty and Phil Winstanley‘s hardware lineups and thought it was a good idea. So, here it is, a summary of the technology I use pretty much every day and how I see that changing this year.

Car: Audi A4 Avant 2.0 TDI 170 S-Line

Audi A4 Avant 20 TDI 170 S-LineMy wife and I have been Volkswagen fans for a few years now (we find them to be good, solid, reliable cars that hold their value well) so, a couple of years ago, when I heard that Volkswagen and Audi were being added to our company car scheme, I held back on replacing my previous vehicle in order to take advantage. I did consider getting a Passat but the A4 (although smaller) had a newer generation of engine and lower emissions, so it didn’t actually cost much more in tax/monthly lease costs.

After a year or so, I’m normally bored/infuriated with my company cars but I still really enjoy my A4 – so much so that I will consider purchasing this one at the end of its lease next year. My only reservations are that I would really like something larger, sometimes a little more power would be nice (although this has 170PS, which is pretty good for a 2 litre diesel) and I do sometimes think that the money I contribute to the car might be better spent on reducing the mortgage (I add some of my salary to lease a better car than my grade entitles me to).

Either way, it’s on lease until I hit 3 years or 60,000 miles, so it’s a keeper for 2011.

Verdict 9/10. Hold.

Phone: Apple iPhone 3GS 16GB

Apple iPhone 3GSI actually have two phones (personal and work SIMs) but my personal needs are pretty basic (a feature phone with Bluetooth connectivity for hands free operation in the car) and I recycled my iPhone 3G when I was given a 3GS to use for work.

After having owned iPhones for a few years now (this is my third one), I don’t feel that the platform, which was once revolutionary, has kept pace and it now feels dated. As a result, I’m tempted by an Android or Windows Phone 7 device but neither of these platforms is currently supported for connection my corporate e-mail service.

The main advantages of this device for me are the apps and the Bluetooth connectivity to the car (although I needed to buy a cable for media access). I use Spotify and Runkeeper when I’m running but there are a whole host of apps to help me when I’m out and about with work (National Rail Enquiries, etc.) and, of course, it lets me triage my bulging mailbox and manage my calendar when I’m on the move. Unfortunately, the camera is awful and it’s not much use as a phone either, but it does the job.

I could get an iPhone 4 (or 5 this summer?) but I’d say it’s pretty unlikely, unless something happened to this one and I was forced to replace it.

Verdict 3/10. Not mine to sell!

Tablet: Apple iPad 3G 64GB

Apple iPadAfter several weeks (maybe months) of thinking “do I? don’t I?”, I bought an iPad last year and I use it extensively. Perhaps it’s a bit worrying that I take it to bed with me at night (I often catch up on Twitter before going to sleep, or use it as an e-book reader) but the “instant on” and long battery life make this device stand out from the competition when I’m out and about.

2011 will be an interesting year for tablets – at CES they were all over the place but I’ve been pretty vocal (both on this blog, and on Twitter) about my views on Windows as a tablet operating system and many of the Android devices are lacking something – Android 3 (Gingerbread [correction] Honeycomb) should change that. One possible alternative is Lenovo’s convertible notebook/tablet which runs Windows but features a slide out screen that functions as an Android tablet (very innovative).

I may upgrade to an iPad 2, if I can get a good resale price for my first generation iPad, but even Apple’s puritanical anti-Adobe Flash stand (which means many websites are unavailable to me) is not enough to make me move away from this device in 2011.

Verdict 8/10. Hold.

Everyday PC: Fujitsu Lifebook S7220 (Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 2.2GHz, 4GB RAM, 250GB hard disk)

Fujitsu Lifebook S7220My personal preference for notebook PCs is a ThinkPad – I liked them when they were manufactured by IBM and Lenovo seem to have retained the overall quality associated with the brand – but, given who pays my salary, it’s no surprise that I use a Fujitsu notebook PC. Mine’s a couple of years old now and so it’s branded Fujitsu-Siemens but it’s the same model that was sold under the Fujitsu name outside Europe. It’s a solid, well-built notebook PC and I have enough CPU, memory and disk to run Windows 7 (x64) well.

Unfortunately it’s crippled with some awful full disk encryption software (I won’t name the vendor but I’d rather be using the built-in BitLocker capabilities which I feel are better integrated and less obtrusive) and, even though the chipset supports Intel vPro/AMT (to install the Citrix XenClient hypervisor), the BIOS won’t allow me to activate the VT-d features. As a result, I have to run separate machines for some of my technical testing (I’m doing far less of that at work anyway these days) and to meet my personal (i.e. non-work) computing requirements.

My hope is that we’ll introduce a bring your own computer (BYOC) scheme at work and I can rationalise things but, if not, it’ll be another two years before I can order a replacement and this will soldier on for a while yet.

Verdict 6/10. Holding out for a BYOC scheme at work.

Netbook: Lenovo S10e (Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz, 2GB RAM, 160GB hard disk)

Lenovo IdeaPad S10In its day, my netbook was great. It’s small, light, can be used on the train when the seatback tables are too small for a normal laptop and I used mine extensively for personal computing whilst working away from home. It was a bit slow (on file transfers) but it does the job – and the small keyboard is ideal for my young children (although even they could do with a larger screen resolution).

Nowadays my netbook it sits on the shelf, unloved, replaced by my iPad. It was inexpensive and, ultimately, consumable.

Verdict 2/10. Sell, or more likely use it to geek out and play with Linux.

Digital Camera: Nikon D700

Nikon D700After a series of Minoltas in the 1980s and 1990s, I’ve had Nikon cameras for several years now, having owned an F90x, a D70 and now a D700. I also use my wife’s D40 from time to time and we have a Canon Ixus 70 too (my son has adopted that). With a sizeable investment in Nikon lenses, etc., I can’t see myself changing brands again – although some of my glass could do with an upgrade, and I’d like an external flash unit.

The D700 gives me a lot of flexibility and has a high enough pixel count, with minimal noise and good low-light performance. It’s a professional-grade DSLR and a bit heavy for some people (I like the weight). It’s also too valuable for some trips (which is when I use the D40) but I always miss the flexibility and functionality that the D700 body provides. Maybe sometimes I think some video capabilities would be nice but I won’t be changing it yet.

Verdict 9/10. Hold.

Photography PC: Apple MacBook MB062LL/B (Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 2.2GHz, 4GB RAM, 320GB hard disk)

Apple Macbook White (late 2007)It’s been three years since I bought my MacBook and, much as I’d like one of the current range of MacBook Pros it’ll be a while before I replace it because they are so expensive! In fairness, it’s doing it’s job well – as soon as I bought it I ungraded the hard disk and memory, and whilst the the CPU is nt as fast as a modern Core i5 or i7, it’s not that slow either.

For a machine that was not exactly inexpensive, I’ve been disappointed with the build quality (it’s had two new keyboard top covers and a replacement battery) but Apple’s customer service meant that all were replaced under warranty (I wouldn’t fancy my chances at getting a new battery from many other PC OEMs).

I use this machine exclusively for photography and the Mac OS suits me well for this. It’s not “better” than Windows, just “different” and, whilst some people would consider me to be a Microsoft fanboi and an iHater, the list of kit on this page might say otherwise. I like to consider myself to have objective views that cut through the Redmond or Cupertino rhetoric!

So, back to the Mac – I may dive into Photoshop from time to time but Adobe Lightroom, Flickr Uploadr, VueScan and a few specialist utilities like Sofortbild are my main tools. I need to sweat this asset for a while longer before I can replace it.

Verdict 5/10. Hold.

Media: Apple Mac Mini MA206LL/A (Intel Core Duo 1.66GHz, 2GB RAM, 120GB hard disk)

(+ iPad, iPhone 3GS, various iPods, Altec Lansing iM7 iPod speakers)

Apple Mac MiniMy Mac Mini was the first Intel Mac I bought (I had one of the original iMacs but that’s long gone) and it’s proved to be a great little machine. It was replaced by the MacBook but has variously been used in Windows and Mac OS X forms as a home media PC. These days it’s just used for iTunes and Spotify, but I plan to buy a keyboard to have a play with Garage Band too.

It may not be the most powerful of my PCs, but it’s more than up to this kind of work and it takes up almost no space at all.

Verdict 6/10. Hold.

Gaming: Microsoft Xbox 360 S 250GB with Kinect Sensor

Microsoft Xbox 360sI’m not a gamer – I sold my Playstation a few years ago because the driving games that I enjoyed made me feel ill! Even so, I was blown away by the Xbox with Kinect when I saw it last month. I bought myself a 250GB model and now Kinect Adventures and Kinect Sports have become family favourites (with a bit of Dance Central thrown in!). I can’t see myself getting into first person shooters, but I can see us doing more and more with the Xbox, particularly if I can use the Connect 360 application to hook into my media library. The final piece of the jigsaw would be BBC iPlayer on Xbox – but that looks unlikely to come to fruition.

Verdict 9/10. Hold.

Servers and Storage: Atom-based PC, Dell PowerEdge 840, 2x Netgear ReadyNAS Duo

As my work becomes less technical, I no longer run a full network infrastructure at home (I don’t find myself building quite so many virtual machines either) so I moved the main infrastructure roles (Active Directory, DHCP, DNS, TFTP, etc.) to a low-power server based on an Intel Atom CPU. I still have my PowerEdge 840 for the occasions when I do need to run up a test environment but it’s really just gathering dust. Storage is provided by a couple of Netgear ReadyNAS devices and it’s likely that I’ll upgrade the disks and then move one to a family member’s house, remote syncing to provide an off-site backup solution (instead of a variety of external USB drives).

Verdict 6/10. Hold (perhaps sell the server, but more likely to leave it under the desk…).

How tablets will disrupt desktop managed service delivery

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 14 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

I’ve been watching the tweets from this week’s Gartner Symposium with interest and it looks as though there is a lot of interesting stuff happening out in Cannes this week but I was rather surprised to see this tweet, from Graeme Hackland:

“#gartnersym consensus in the room seems to be that the iPad is either a consumer product or an executive toy. There is a lot of potential!”

I wasn’t sure if Graeme was disagreeing with the rest of the room (after all, he did say that the iPad has potential) or if he was agreeing with the concensus view but, within seconds of retweeting his comment, I had multiple responses to suggest that many will disagree (and not just consumers and executives – my followers consist of a mixture of IT administrators and architects, journalists, analysts and even some business end users.

It made me think of a paper that I’ve been writing and, as it’s not been published yet, I’ll share some of the current draft here…

Over the last few months, there has been a frenzy of interest in small-form-factor “next generation” tablets as Apple first announced and then launched the iPad with other device manufacturers producing competing devices running a plethora of operating systems. So what does this resurgence in tablet computing mean for enterprise IT? Or is it just a consumer-focused irrelevance?

A stagnant market

Tablet PCs are not new – I know of at least one OEM that has been producing tablets in a variety of form factors for almost 20 years and Microsoft has included tablet support in Windows since 2002. Furthermore, they are a niche technology and, although manufacturers cite the form factor as providing the features of a notebook PC with the flexibility of a notepad and pen, the market for such devices have been limited. Whilst a variety of form factors have been available, many devices are convertible notebook/tablet PCs, running Microsoft Windows on standard PC hardware.

Those who see the potential of tablet PCs cite great advantages in their ability to take notes and generally enhance office-based productivity but the reality is that tablet PCs cost more than a standard notebook and that the weight of the device, combined with a lack of “instant on” capability seriously inhibits adoption. In addition, Windows-based tablets make use of a stylus, with multitouch capabilities being a fairly recent development. Converting written input to computer-readable text (e.g. when entering an address into a web browser) has also placed constraints on device usability. In short, the market for tablet PCs has stagnated.

It’s a tablet, not a PC

Despite what the consumer-focused press might lead us to believe, Apple is not a technological innovator – the graphical user interface (GUI), digital music players, smartphones, and tablet computers all existed in some form before Apple brought products to market. But Apple has been exceptionally good at refining and popularising these items – in an extremely convincing manner, largely due to their attention to the design of the device, making them extremely accessible to non-technical users. Microsoft Windows may be the dominant GUI-driven PC operating system but Apple‟s iPod and iPhone dominate in their respective markets – and the iPad may well be their breakthrough tablet device, certainly if early sales figures are to be believed.

Modular desktop modelFor 25 years, we‟ve been using personal computers at work and at play. Over that time we seen many changes to the ways in which we use these devices and it‟s become apparent that the biggest single factor in driving down the cost of ownership is efficient desktop device management. But, rather than being about thin clients, or a virtualised desktop – or indeed about standardising an any single desktop delivery model – the key to desktop device management is the separation of the desktop into component modules that can easily be swapped out: hardware; operating system; core applications; specialist applications; user data. It makes little difference whether the “desktop” runs on a PC, or a phone, or virtualised in the datacentre – as long as users can access their data using the applications that they know and as long as the IT department can manage the device.

Desktop service provision is changing – business end users are asking why they can’t do the same things on their work computers that they do at home: indeed, why do they need separate “home” and “work” PCs? The fusion of personal and professional computing is an entirely separate discussion but many organisations are looking seriously at Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC) schemes, generally with some form of secure corporate desktop (perhaps virtualised) existing alongside consumer-focused IT (personal e-mail, multimedia applications, etc.). And, if all that‟s required is a connection to a remote desktop somewhere on the corporate network, perhaps it’s time to consider whether a PC is the right device.

That‟s where tablets come in. Whether they run iOS, Android, Windows or something else (e.g. WebOS), tablet devices are just end user computing devices – they take care of the hardware and operating system layers of our desktop service model and, as long as appropriate applications can be provided, end users can access their data as they would on a PC. What Apple looks to be doing, just as they did for the smartphone market, is legitimising the market for tablets. They haven‟t invented a new market, but they have focused on making tablet devices attractive to consumers and, by extension, those devices are finding their way into enterprise computing.

What’s interesting about Apple is that, even though they were late to enter the smartphone market, Apple has succeeded in pitching their device as a highly desirable, premium product and they are now looking to do the same with the iPad, drawing on their reputation for quality, desirability and ease of use.

Apple’s iPad is not a smartphone; and nor is it a PC. It has features in common with both of those devices but it’s an entirely new class of device. Too heavy and too large to slip in a pocket, but small enough and light enough, with a long enough battery life to allow mobile computing to take off in a way it has not previously. The iPad, and similar tablets, present a new method of accessing the corporate desktop – one that addresses issues of device ownership, mobility, and the consumerisation of IT.

Comparing Apples with… Android? Windows?

Apple’s iPad may be the tablet that‟s got everyone talking but it’s probably not the one to be watching. Just as Apple has focused on premium devices for personal computing and smartphones, the iPad is a premium tablet and there are many PC manufacturers with tablets (more accurately, slates) in development or coming to market. In addition, Apple‟s decision not to support Adobe Flash has limited the number of websites that the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad can access – and could be one of the reasons that Apple is losing ground to competitors in the smartphone market. For some, Google’s Android smartphone operating system is an attractive proposition on a tablet – Android has seen massive growth over the last year – but Microsoft is sticking to its view that Windows is the operating system and that slates are just a new form factor. Whilst Windows 7 includes touch capabilities, Microsoft’s view is clearly focused on the enterprise market – their new Windows Phone operating system has an innovative new user interface that could be perfect for tablets, but lacks the application support that Microsoft is hoping will allow them to remain dominant in personal computing. For the time being at least, after cancelling a dual-screen tablet codenamed Courier, Microsoft is pinning its hopes on tablets running Windows – but they need to convince their partners, and customers (enterprise and consumer) that they need Microsoft too as the traditional Windows on Intel PC marketplace fragments.

Why are tablets suddenly so interesting?

Aside from a general trend towards the consumerisation of enterprise IT, next generation tablets such as the iPad present new computing opportunities that do not work with traditional PCs – and whilst Gartner is still predicting growth in the PC segment, they expect mobile PCs to account for nearly 70% of PC shipments by 2012:

“Apple’s iPad is just one of many new devices coming to market that will change the entire PC ecosystem and overlap it with the mobile phone industry. This will create significantly more opportunities for PC vendors as well as significantly more threats”

For a while, netbooks looked as though they may be successful, with their low cost making them attractive as second PCs for mobile use. That phenomenon was short-lived though and, with Gartner‟s prediction that up to 40% of PCs will be replaced by hosted virtual desktops by 2013, tablets suddenly seem attractive as highly portable, low-cost, general purpose computing devices. Gartner are not alone in this view either – Forrester is estimating that tablets will account for 20% of PC sales by 2015 and IDC is expecting Apple to sell 48 million iPads by 2014 whilst fuelling a broader market for next generation tablets. In part, the success of smartphones such as the Apple iPhone and the plethora of Android-based handsets have blazed a trail that simplifies the adoption process for next generation tablets within the enterprise.

How does this affect desktop managed services?

Traditional PCs are not going away any time soon – for most enterprises there will be a mix of devices according to the computing needs of the end users. What will change (and is changing already) is the type of device that is used to access the desktop. Rather than taking a notebook PC from place to place in the device-centric manner that we do today, enterprises will adapt to human-centric computing models, with end users increasingly accessing their desktop from a variety of devices – perhaps starting out with a smartphone on the way to work; switching to a hosted virtual desktop in the office; using a tablet during meetings; and perhaps using the family PC to finish up some work at home in the evening, with local desktop virtualisation opening up new options for secure computing away from the corporate network. That‟s just one scenario though: with an increasing variety of tablets entering the marketplace and BYOC models becoming commonplace, the tablet could be an end user device that’s used to stay in touch whilst mobile, docked with a full-size keyboard (maybe a screen too) in the office for access to a corporate desktop, and which also provides access to the personal media (music, video, photographs, e-books), social networking and casual gaming that is increasingly part of our digital lifestyles?

If Gartner’s predictions come true and 40% of PCs are replaced with hosted virtual desktops, “thin client” applications like Citrix Receiver can be used to access a full Windows desktop from a tablet (it’s also possible to do this with a simple remote desktop application using the RDP or VNC protocols – although probably not desirable in an enterprise context). There is no mouse (something that Windows and Linux desktops are designed to make use of), but touch support is present, and it‟s also possible to use an external keyboard or stylus if necessary. Tablets won’t work for everyone, but they may provide the perfect balance between usability and portability for many users, with capabilities including instant startup and avoiding the physical barrier that notebook PCs present in meeting room scenarios.

Another advantage of tablet operating systems such as Apple iOS or Google Android is the “curated computing” approach. Forrester defines curated computing as “a mode of computing where choice is constrained to deliver less complex, more relevant experiences”.

In effect, the end user’s ability to access the device is constrained (they can install applications and adapt preferences, but can’t generally make low-level operating system tweaks) allowing greater levels of control to be achieved by content publishers who select content and functionality that is appropriate to the form factor. In contrast, running Windows on a tablet allows the end user to run commands, connect easily to peripheral devices, save files locally – and, crucially in Microsoft’s view, provides access to the same applications that are used elsewhere in the enterprise.

For businesses that adapt the Windows approach, the concept of enterprise application stores (e.g Citrix Dazzle), combined with application virtualisation, is attractive as this approach provides a degree of end-user self-service – improving responsiveness and potentially reducing costs. Meanwhile, those who adopt a curated computing approach still have options for installing applications without going via public application stores (e.g. Apple’s iPhone Developer Enterprise Programme, or Google Android’s ability to allow applications from an unknown source).

There are those who have concerns about security (e.g. device encryption, multiple user profiles, etc.) but Forrester believe that Apple’s devices now give enterprises “enough security options to […] say ‘yes’ rather than ‘no'”, noting that “some require higher levels of authentication assurance, resistance to attack, manageability, and logging than the [platform] can provide”. Similarly, other platforms (e.g. Android, Windows, WebOS, etc.) require assessment based on regulatory profiles and risk exposure.

Enterprise readiness is another concern. Quoting a Burton Group analyst:

“[a next generation tablet] does provide a ‘fundamentally transformative computing experience’ and it ‘will meet the needs of many business users’, but is it an enterprise computing platform?”

The real point here is not about whether tablets can be managed in an enterprise as a traditional desktop would, but that they are gateway devices to the corporate desktop, enabling BYOC models to be adopted. Using a tablet, end users can be provided with access to enterprise applications in a desktop-as-a-service model (e.g. as a hosted shared desktop, or as a virtual desktop), whilst the Internet, corporate e-mail, etc. are accessible in the same manner as for a mobile device today.

Wrapping up

Next generation tablets – not just the Apple iPad, but tablets running a variety of operating systems – will fundamentally impact the way in which desktop managed services are delivered, opening new opportunities for BYOC schemes and providing flexibility in end-user access to corporate applications and data. Questions over security and enterprise readiness will continue to be asked; however I strongly beleive that tablets are part of an overall mix of end user computing devices within a broader desktop access strategy.

Whilst I was writing this post, Graeme challenged me to name five things beyond email and web browsing that make the iPad a business tool. I hope I’ve done more than that: it’s not about individual features but about the way in which next generation tablets (such as the iPad) will (are?) disrupting desktop services provision.

After 3 months with my iPad, was it still a good purchase?

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 14 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

After several weeks of procrastination, I recently bought myself an iPad. After my initial scepticism, seeing others (like Jon Honeyball) using theirs convinced me that it would a good purchase, and I soon found out that I wasn’t alone in the world of Microsoft-focused iPad users – Mary Jo Foley bought one around the same time, as did ex-Microsoftie Sharon Richardson and I know at least one person at Microsoft who has joined the fold. As my third monthly bill for mobile broadband access is due soon, it’s prompted me to finish writing this post about my experiences as an iPad user…

So, after a few months’ use, how has it been? What have I found? Where does it excel? And what are the iPad’s failings? Most importantly, was this a worthwhile purchase, or just another gadget to add to the pile of redundant technology in a few months’ time?

Form factor

One of my original thoughts was that I’d find it the iPad too large to carry around. As it happens, that hasn’t been an issue – I’ve been an iPhone user for some time and had started to find the screen size a real limitation but, the iPad is just large enough to be useful but still small enough to be portable. Indeed, the rumoured 7″ iPad (and competing devices like the Samsung Galaxy Tab) may be too small for people with fat fingers like mine, whilst I can type pretty well on the on-screen keyboard for the 10″ iPad (although I do also have an Apple Bluetooth keyboard to use if I prefer). As for portability, I’m always conscious that the iPad is an attractive item for a would-be thief, consequently I find myself using a “man bag” more than I used to… but I no longer need to carry a netbook, or a second laptop, for personal use when I’m at work.

Content creation

The next surprise was how I use the iPad – Jason Hiner thinks that the iPad is only good for reading/viewing and multitouch integration – I disagree!

Whilst I can Jason’s point, it’s actually turned out to be a far more useful device than that. Whereas my netbook was very much a content consumption device, I can create content on the iPad – it’s not suitable for everything but the nature of iOS applications means that there are scenarios when content creation is perfectly possible – indeed, I’m typing this post inside the WordPress app (and iA Writer is a perfect example of an app that’s designed to simplify writing on an iPad). Perhaps the biggest drawback when creating new content is the lack of multitasking, but more on that later…

Family friendly

Let’s face it, I’m a geek who loves his gadgets, but I seriously hadn’t expected the iPad to be such a hit with the family. My two young sons love the touchscreen (which seems to be a very natural experience for them, compared with a mouse) and casual gaming on the iPad is something we all enjoy (whether it’s Flight Control, Harbor Master, or an iPhone version of Battleships). Then, there’s the built-in Photos app which, even though it’s a bit limited (it would be nice if I could at least rate my images), has proven itself as a great tool for sharing pictures with friends and family after a day out – somehow, passing a tablet around and swiping back/forth seems very simple and surprisingly non-geek. Indeed, for my 5 year-old son, who’s just developing an interest in photography, being able to see what his pictures and videos look like on the screen has been a huge source of delight.

Ready for work?

I recently wrote a paper for Fujitsu on the impact of tablet computing on desktop managed service.  I’d love to link to it here but, for the time being at least, its an internal document; however I really do think that the iPad has potential as a business device.  There may be issues to overcome around security, but as enterprises look to deliver business IT services to a multitude of devices (possibly even consumer-owned devices) the iPad is a real contender.  For example, I can connect to a VDI or a hosted virtual server environment using one of a number of solutions (for example, Citrix Receiver, or even a simple RDP or SSH client) but the limiting factor is not the iPad, but the target Windows system’s unsuitability for touch (I’m writing another post on that subject but, trust me, even with Windows 7’s touch capabilities, the user interface elements are too small for use without a stylus – as Mark Sumimoto explains, the issue is Windows recording of touch as a single point, rather than a circular area).

What’s hot?

Here’s what I love about my iPad:

  • I turn it on, and I don’t have to wait for it to start up.
  • It runs iPhone applications as well as iPad ones (the best apps adjust to suit the device).
  • It can read the raw images that my camera produces.
  • Even though it lacks a file manager, applications like Dropbox can be used to fill the gap
  • It’s great for watching video (e.g. as a TV catchup device) although the lack of Flash support can be a hinderance and I’m still waiting for the BBC to launch an iPlayer app…
  • Battery life is excellent.  I recently sat through 8 hours of Microsoft presentations, whilst taking notes and tweeting (Wi-Fi, not 3G) and, at the end of the day, the iPad indicated it still had 55% battery left (I had the brightness turned down).
  • It’s a great eBook reader.  Sure, there are probably studies that show reading on an electronic display is not as good as eInk devices (like the Kindle) but, whether I use Apple iBooks or the Amazon Kindle app for iPad, the iPad is a great eBook reader and, when reading in bed, disturbs sleeping partners far less than a reading light.
  • It’s silent too.
  • It’s grabbed people’s imagination for what can be done with a tablet/slate PC, with many new ideas that would not be practical on a smartphone, or on an “ordinary” PC – digital magazines are just one example, whether it’s the model taken by Conde Nast/Wired, or Flipboard, or even BBC News.

What’s not?

My number one gripe is the lack of support for Adobe Flash (and, to a lesser degree, Microsoft Silverlight). I know Flash is a nuisance, and I would love to see a web of standards-compliant sites using HTML5 to deliver dynamic content, but I also live in the real world, and when sites like the BBC’s weather page don’t work properly on the iPad, it’s a bloody nuisance – and Apple’s puritanical stand against Adobe is not helping consumers.

Gripe number 2 is the lack of a USB port and/or an SD card slot. I bought Apple’s Camera Connection Kit for iPad but it seems a little strange for such a beautifully designed device to rely on what is essentially a dongle in order to connect to a camera or to flash media. With no power available from the iPad’s dock-USB connector, few (if any) peripherals can be used with the iPad – even if there was software available to exploit them. For example, there are times when it would be good to hook up a webcam, and my main camera uses CF cards so, without a working card reader, there is no choice but to (slowly) download images from the camera over a USB cable, draining the camera’s batteries in the process.

Multitasking is another missing feature – at a recent event I was trying to take notes at the same time as tweeting live updates and restarting each app every time I switched was more than a little tiresome. Printing is another missing feature – whether its a photo, or some details on a web page. Thankfully, both of these issues are expected to be resolved in the upcoming iOS 4.2 release, expected next month.

Something that a new operating system release can’t fix is application availability. Sure, the iPad can run iPhone apps, even scaled up to use the whole of the device’s screen, but, as I mentioned earlier, the best application experience comes from those apps that have been written to exploit the iPad or, even better, as iPad and iPhone apps that adjust their display according to the device (and its orientation). Whilst there are some excellent examples of iPad applications (for example, the WordPress app, or Twitter’s own iPad client), the simple fact is that there are not as many iPad apps available as there should be – developers are yet to get on board and, when they do, the prices are normally a little higher than for iPhone apps (probably more realistic, but the bar has already been set).

Finally, like many Apple products, it is beautiful to look at, but easily damaged; which means that my iPad spends its life wrapped in a case.  I have Apple’s case because, unlike many third party products that leave corners, etc. exposed, it seems to do a pretty good job at protecting the device; however, even that has some issues when I have to use the camera connection kit dongles on the dock connector.  The iPad is not an inexpensive device – it’s a shame that it’s so easily damaged.  Still, at least I can’t fit it in my pocket to get scratched by keys and coins like a phone!

In summary

Apple’s iPad has some compromises but it also has many benefits and I’ve yet to see any credible competition from another manufacturer. I’m sure we’ll see a new model next year and it will be interesting to see what Apple does with the next iPad (high resolution display? Front facing camera? SD/USB slots?) but, in the meantime, I’m getting plenty out of this first generation device. Apple may not have invented tablet PCs but they sure have found a way to make them popular.

Was it a good purchase? Certainly. As Mary Jo Foley wrote in a recent post about Microsoft’s potential answer(s) to the iPad:

“Would I still shell out for a Winpad? If it allowed me to seamlessly connect […] and had true instant on/off and 10-hour battery life my answer would be yes. But I’m sure glad I didn’t wait a year or three just to get the true portability that I’ve wanted and needed for the past couple of years.”

I’d add another caveat to that – a Windows competitor to the iPad would also need a new interface (or a new operating system – like Windows Phone 7?). As for Android… well, let’s see, but that market is fragmenting quickly and whilst there may be some good ones too, there are some truly awful Android tablets out there.  One thing’s for sure though: for all its failings, iPad’s biggest competitor could well be the next iPad.

How Steve Ballmer told me what to do with my iPad!

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 14 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to see Steve Ballmer speak to two audiences, first at Microsoft’s Partner Briefing on transitioning to the cloud (#pbbcloud) and then at the UK TechDays Special Event on the future of cloud development (#uktechdays).

I’m sorry I didn’t catch the name of the guy who asked Mr Ballmer a question about Windows tablets in the TechDays question and answer session, but I was certainly very interested to hear the Microsoft CEO’s reaction:

Question: “We haven’t had a Windows tablet come out yet […] we do see the prototypes coming out all the time but I do remember you saying that it’s going to run full Windows 7. […] are we going to have like a tablet version of Windows Phone 7 or a tablet of Windows Embedded 7 coming out? […] To me, although [Windows 7] is touch enabled, I don’t think it’s great for a small 7″, 9″ device.”

Mr Ballmer’s response: “Yeah, what you’ll see over the course of the next year is us doing more and more work with our hardware partners creating hardware-software optimisations with Windows 7 and with Windows 7 Media Center […] Media Center is big and, when people say ‘hey, we could optimise more for clients’ I think what they generally mean is ‘Big Buttons’.  Big Buttons that’s, I think, a codeword for Big Buttons and Media Center is Big Buttons not Little Buttons. I’m not trying to trivialise that – it’s a real issue.

We’re not going to do a revamp of Windows 7 over the course of the next year for that purpose.  Whether we should, or we shouldn’t, we’ve put all our energy around doing a great job on that and other issues in the next version of Windows so we will do optimisations to have devices that look really good, that run Windows, that are very good for touch applications which we will encourage people to write. We will do things that improve – it turns out that if we just optimise settings and the configuration of Windows it can be a lot more usable through touch, even on today’s systems – we’re doing that work with the OEMs. We’re doing work with the OEMs to make sure that they treat ink also as a first class citizen.  None of our competitors products actually do a very good [job]. I saw a poor guy in a speech I did out down the hall, he had one of our competitors’ devices and he was sitting there crouched over with this thing on his knees, bent and there’s no keyboard – and he was in torture using that poor non-Windows slate device [audience laughs].

And for some of you, [you] do the same but I think we can make life a little simpler for people, if we do the right job.  Can we do better by optimising – yep – guy’s got one at the back – you can bend over too, I’ll tell ya!  [audience laughs]

The truth of the matter is the laptop weighs less – you can set it on your lap, it doesn’t weigh anything at that point and then you can type.  I’m not trying to say there’s not a place for touch-optimised slate-based devices, obviously we have shown enthusiasm about that before but you’ll see some optimisations coming in the course of the next year and some of the devices that convert, that have a keyboard, that flip around – I think some of those will be also pretty useful for people in the course of the next year.”

[I’ve tried to get the text word-perfect here but I was at the back of the room and the audio recording was not fantastic… this is certainly what it sounds like to me].

The thing is, I was that “non-Windows slate device” user down the hall (and I was the guy at the back of the room when he said this) and the only reason I was in “torture” (which, of course, was a slight overdramatisation for comedy effect) was that I was squashed into a row of seats between two other guys and I was bending forward so that we weren’t sitting there with shoulders pressed together like sardines in a tin can.  I was also juggling a camera (on my Nokia phone), a voice recorder (on my iPhone) and taking notes/tweeting on the iPad whilst listening to Mr Ballmer.  Ironically, the reason I took my iPad to the event was that my Windows devices are so bad for portability (to be honest, so is my MacBook – this is not about Windows but about the device form factor).  My netbook has to be coaxed through the day with Wi-Fi switched off in order to get more than a few hours out of the battery; my 15″ laptop only goes 2-3 hours between charges (newer models may be better, but I can’t change laptops at the drop of a hat); meanwhile, I find the iPad easy enough to type on in landscape mode, it turns on/off instantly and, after 8 hours taking notes and tweeting yesterday, it still had an indicated battery charge of 55%.  If Microsoft produced a slate that did that, I would have been using it but they don’t and, based on what Ballmer had to say yesterday, it may be some time before they finally “get it” (I wrote last month about what I think Microsoft needs to do to keep Windows relevant in the mobile computing space).

As Mary Jo Foley wrote yesterday, this year’s Windows 7 slates won’t be under my Christmas tree.

Jailbreaking does not equal piracy

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 15 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

A couple of night ago, Mrs. W was watching Channel 4 News as they ran a lengthy package on “how iPhone jailbreaking is fuelling app piracy“.  The trouble is that Channel 4’s Benjamin Cohen seems to have confused jailbreaking (the process of allowing non-authorised applications to be installed, rather than using Apple’s walled garden approach) with piracy (copying, distributing and installing applications against the wishes of the software creator).

I have a jailbroken iPhone – and it’s not so that I can pirate apps.  Frankly, if you’re a teenager who’s made a hundred grand in your bedroom from writing iPhone games, well done and good luck to you.  But don’t complain when there are 20% more people running your software than paid for it – you should have thought more how you were going to control the use of your app.

The reason my phone is jailbroken is simple – I want to use an alternative music player (Spotify) whilst I’m tracking my exercise progress (with Runkeeper).  That requires multi-tasking and Apple doesn’t allow multitasking on my iPhone 3G.  In a sense that’s OK – the IOS4 operating system that allows multitasking seems to need more powerful hardware (so why it’s available for the 3G is anyone’s guess) but I can make it work using a simple jailbreak and an application called Backgrounder.

Basically, Apple charged me a lot of money for a desirable piece of computing hardware and is their business model relies on increasing obsolescence so that I buy a new device.  If I have the technical ability to make that hardware do more for me and avoid buying a new phone, then why shouldn’t I?  I haven’t installed any unlicensed software, I’m not putting additional load on my mobile provider’s network, and the hardware is out of warranty already.  You could even argue that, by not buying a new iPhone, I’m making better use of my legacy computing device and doing my bit to save the planet!

It’s kind of analogous to the guys who “mod” their cars to move away from the manufacturer’s specifications.  Sure, they won’t get warranty support, but if they get a few more horsepower or whatever it is they are looking for out of their vehicle, that’s up to them.

So, back to the point – whilst it may be possible to use jailbroken phones for piracy, jailbreaking does not equal piracy.  If I was so inclined, I could run unlicensed copies of Windows on my PC, or install an unlicensed copy of Adobe Photoshop on my Mac, but I don’t hear national broadcasters suggesting that all Windows or Mac users are software pirates.

Playing with video on the iPad

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 15 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

One of the great uses for the iPad is watching video.  Seriously, it’s a reasonably large display, held close to the user and, whilst it may not replace the big flat screen in the living room for family viewing, it’s more than good enough for catching up on the normal stuff.

Whilst I’m waiting for the BBC to release an iPlayer app for the iPad (iPlayer support is currently limited to streaming content), I have some video content that I’d like to catch up on whilst disconnected from the ‘net.  Unfortunately, my iPad didn’t want to play it… until I converted the video to a suitable format.

My first task was to use GSpot (on a Windows machine) to have a look at what codecs the file used.  It turned out to be an XviD video/MP3 audio file at 30fps in a .AVI container.

According to Apple’s technical specifications, the iPad can cope with:

Audio playback

  • Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
  • Audio formats supported: HE-AAC (V1), AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3 and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF and WAV
  • User-configurable maximum volume limit

TV and video

  • Support for 1024 by 768 pixels with Dock Connector to VGA Adapter; 576p and 480p with Apple Component AV Cable; 576i and 480i with Apple Composite AV Cable
  • H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats; Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format

Unfortunately, it’s not possible to install additional codecs on the iPad (at least not on a non-jailbroken one), so the video needed to be converted to something that the iPad could handle.  To do this, I installed the DivX and XviD codecs on my Mac (although I should have just used Perian), and used Apple QuickTime Pro to export the video as an MP4… except it took ages and converted it to 4:3 ratio at a lower resolution and higher frame rate – not really the result I was after…

Then I remembered Handbrake.  Handbrake doesn’t have any iPad presets yet but Carson McDonald has created some and they worked brilliantly to create a suitable H.264/MP4 file (there’s also a thread on iPad encoding in the Handbrake Forums).

When it cames to getting the video onto the iPad, I had two options: drag the the video to iTunes and sync (it then appears in the iPad’s built in Videos app); or upload the file to Dropbox and access it that way (by marking the file as a favourite, Dropbox will cache it for offline access). Now I can catch up on my TV viewing whilst I’m disconnected.

I’m still waiting for BBC, Channel 4, et al to step up the mark with their apps though!