So in the past few weeks we've seen the game changing once again. Firstly I'll pay my respects. Despite personal opinions about Steve Jobs it's hard to argue with the huge impact he had on the mobile phone industry and the home computing industry. He might have wanted things done his way and only his way but lets be honest it's his way that changed things, it's his way that paved the way for everyone else and whether you are Richard Stallman, Bill Gates or just the everyman on the street you'll have your views on Steve Jobs. The guy was a visionary and has forced the world into change in the last 20 years. So with that said RIP Steve Jobs.
Now we'll look at one of his many babies, the iPhone, or rather the iPhone 4S the device that was meant to make Google's "Android" system (and phones running Android) really need to step up. Instead of really changing the face of the phone industry once again it seems Apple have stalled somewhat, the device seems to be one that rather than reinvents the market again is merely limping to catch up with the top Android phones. The camera was one of the few noticeable upgrades going to a 8MP camera, the same as many of the Androids (and actually only as good as some of the older Sony Ericsson's) and with Siri aside (if it's as good as advertised) it's not really an upgrade that will have Samsung, HTC, Sony or Google worried in the slightest.
Of course Apple are also bringing "iMessage" to the table a clear "copy" of BlackBerry Messenger (funny how Apple want innovation when it suits them then copying when that suits them). It's with BlackBerry Messenger that we end this blog. BBM was seen as a quick reliable way to send messages for free. Rather than using up text messages (does anyone even have a limit on texts now a days?) people would just send BBM messages, and as we all know now the BBM system has been down around large parts of the world for much of the past few days. We've seen people like Alan Sugar tweeting about the issues that have plagued BBM over the past few days, though it's odd how foolish some folk are in thinking BBM was the only way of doing things. Whatever happened to the good old calls? Texts? And even the popular BBM alternatives such as Ebuddy XMS and Whatsapp?
Sadly Blackberry are a company on their last legs, it really won't be long until they do a HP and drop out of the market. RIM (the parent company of Blackberry) have seen their shares dropping through out the year and if this continues through next year the company may well need to completely change it's game plan. The past few days have shown that the company has problems and if these problems continue we can only guess how long they have left.
Whilst all this is going on we still have some major days in the phone world to come before the end of this year. Firstly the iPhone 4S is released TOMORROW! The Nexus Prime (and Ice Cream Sandwich) are also expected in the next few weeks and Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) is expected to to make Microsoft a bigger name on the scene. Although the Samsung Omnia W has been out for a little while it's been over shadowed by the other news, the next batch of phones running Mango will be out soon and could easily make a mark.
What a time to be involved in this brilliant industry!
