iPhone vs. Android: Will Apple-Microsoft history repeat itself?

Consider the following:

1) iPhone OS is only available on Apple devices, which currently means 2 iPhones ( 3G and 3GS), and 3 iPod Touchs. Basically 2 devices, but total 5 models.

• Android is currently available on just T-Mobile G1, but T-Mobile G2 (HTC Magic), Samsung I7500, HTC Hero, and HTC Dream will available soon. In addition several other manufacturers have announced Android phones. According to Google about 18 new phones are expected this year.

2) iPhone was hugely disrupted when announced but others are slowly beginning to catch up.

• Though not considered an 'iPhone killer', most reviews of Android are extremely favorable.

3) Apple is the ruthless gatekeeper of all apps that can/cannot be sold via it's app store. A lot of developers are unhappy over this situation. The only way to get around this is to jailbreak your iPhone, not really a good option.

• Android marketplace seems a lot more open.

4) iPhone OS is Apple's proprietary and unlikely to be available on non-Apple hardware.

• Android is free and open source, so if something is missing today it sure will be added soon. Also, since it's free, manufacturers have a huge incentive to use it over creating something on their own.

5) iPhone SDK requires developers to learn Objective-C, a new language for most folks and you need a Mac.

• Android SDK on the other hand uses Java, a language with a huge existing developer base, and moreover the SDK is available for most major platforms including Win, Mac and Linux. Recently announced Android NDK lets you create apps in C/C++.

6) Computer manufacturers like HP, Acer and others are experimenting with putting Android on Netbooks.

• This means that if you create an application for Android, not only would it target Android phones but a whole bunch of Netbook computers. A huge reason for any new developer to target Android as the application development platform over iPhone, or at least make sure they port to both.

Note: I'm not comparing the two on a feature basis, since both win some and lose some.

9) Adode recently demoed Flash on HTC Hero.

• This will allow all those Flash game developers to also target phone without requiring to learn new skills.

Given the above, are we going to see a repeat of Microsoft - Apple situation with Apple ultimately losing it's current lead in the mobile space and settling around 10-20% of market share, with Android becoming the dominant mobile/handheld/netbook OS?

Major movie studios launch Epix and EpixHD - a combo TV channel and HD streaming service

Several news sites are reporting the private beta launch of a new HD TV Channel called Epix with an accompanying streaming service at EpixHD.com.

This is a joint venture from Viacom, Paramount, MGM and Lionsgate.

On the surface it doesn't look like a big deal, but if you scratch the surface it's actually quite innovative and has potential. Consider this:

• It's launched by 3 major movie studios which gives it huge legitimacy. Consider Hulu which was launched by NBC, Fox etc. and see where it's now.
  
• It will show movies before they are out on the DVD, when they go on Pay-per-view.
• It will be a TV Network as well as online streaming, via Adobe Flash which for ~99% people means no additional software to download.
  
• The Epix TV channel would be bundled into cable package and not available for separate subscription.
  
• EpixHD would be free and advertising-free for subscribers of Epix TV (i.e. is included in their cable package) if the subscriber also have internet service from the same TV service provider [remember this, we'll come back to it later].
• Streaming will be upto HD, i.e. 720p (not 1080p unfortunately), if your bandwidth can support it, else the quality would be automatically reduced
  

Overall it seems great but there are a few issues that I can see:

• Since they're not currently planning on letting users subscribe directly to the EpixHD.com, I believe they are leaving money on the table and also are at the mercy of cable providers. They should open it up to everyone.
• Since Epix TV will eat into the Pay-per-view revenue stream, it's not clear how many cable providers will be interested. It seems Comcast is already having second thoughts, most likely due to this very reason.
• Also it's not clear what happens to DirecTV and Dish Network customers since they don't provide internet service.

Still kudos to them for thinking out of the box, it gives me hope that the big media companies are finally beginning to treat internet as a friend rather a foe.