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refactor: simplify captions (#192)
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* refactor: pull all image captions to the image #191

* refactor: add styles to support image captions. Closes #191
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ajfisher committed Feb 19, 2024
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Expand Up @@ -9,24 +9,65 @@ tags: android, Apple, google, internet, iphone, mobile, predictions
listimage: ../../img/posts/cagefight.jpg
---

The pre- match slanging is pretty much over and the location of the fight has been chosen. 2010 is going to be the year Apple and Google finally stop dancing around and actually get in the ring. Unlike a nice clean refereed boxing match (Apple V Microsoft) this is going to be a dirty underground cage fight complete with barbed-wire wrapped gloves - expect to see a lot of blood on the floor - and fanbois rucking in the concourses.
The pre-match slanging is pretty much over and the location of the fight has
been chosen. 2010 is going to be the year Apple and Google finally stop dancing
around and actually get in the ring. Unlike a nice clean refereed boxing match
(Apple V Microsoft) this is going to be a dirty underground cage fight complete
with barbed-wire wrapped gloves - expect to see a lot of blood on the floor -
and fanbois rucking in the concourses.

![Boxer laying on the canvas after fight](../../img/posts/cagefight.jpg)
*[Onslaught unleashed, image (cc) Chris](http://www.flickr.com/photos/icantcu/3447153416)*

<p class="caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/icantcu/3447153416">Onslaught unleashed, image (cc) Chris</a></p>
The ground is, of course, Mobile and the massive dominance both organisations
have taken in this space over the last 12 months. Mobile is still a fast
growing area of communications but smartphones is where it's at. There's no
question Apple ignited the world's imagination of what is possible in the
mobile space and capitalising on the fact that the fashionability of a phone
is important in a way that RIM and Microsoft just didn't get.

The ground is, of course, Mobile and the massive dominance both organisations have taken in this space over the last 12 months. Mobile is still a fast growing area of communications but smartphones is where it's at. There's no question Apple ignited the world's imagination of what is possible in the mobile space and capitalising on the fact that the fashionability of a phone is important in a way that RIM and Microsoft just didn't get.
Google have taken that to a whole different level with Android which just
"gets" what it is to be a data capable and Internet connected phone. Couple
this with some fashionability and the stage is set for an almighty fight.

Google have taken that to a whole different level with Android which just "gets" what it is to be a data capable and Internet connected phone. Couple this with some fashionability and the stage is set for an almighty fight.
Looking through the [AdMob](http://www.admob.com/) report for November, it's
astonishing to see how fast Android has grown in the last 2 months (doubled on
traffic requests through their network) but more importantly was the launch of
the Motorola Droid and the whole [Droid Does](http://droiddoes.com/)
campaign. <b>The Droid is one of the fastest selling phones of all time</b> almost
hitting iPhone 3Gs sales levels (which was working from an installed base
upgraded) and is now accounting for about a quarter of Android device share -
only behind the G1 which has been out for 18 months - expect to see that change
over December.

Looking through the [AdMob](http://www.admob.com/) report for November, it's astonishing to see how fast Android has grown in the last 2 months (doubled on traffic requests through their network) but more importantly was the launch of the Motorola Droid and the whole [Droid Does](http://droiddoes.com/) campaign. <b>The Droid is one of the fastest selling phones of all time</b> almost hitting iPhone 3Gs sales levels (which was working from an installed base upgraded) and is now accounting for about a quarter of Android device share - only behind the G1 which has been out for 18 months - expect to see that change over December.
Now Motorola have entered the fray and with Samsung and Sony Ericsson both
scheduling major launches into Q1 2010 the mobile landscape is going to get
increasingly messy as the iPhone isn't the only great phone out there. Indeed I
think Sony is going to do a Motorola with
the [Xperia X10](http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/products/mobilephones/overview/xperiax10) as
it is simply stunning and is a big name in the mobile space - especially in Europe.
HTC have had a great lead but 2010 will see Motorola and Sony return to some
dominance here - and they can fight Apple in the Fashionability stakes.

Now Motorola have entered the fray and with Samsung and Sony Ericsson both scheduling major launches into Q1 2010 the mobile landscape is going to get increasingly messy as the iPhone isn't the only great phone out there. Indeed I think Sony is going to do a Motorola with the [Xperia X10](http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/products/mobilephones/overview/xperiax10) as it is simply stunning and is a big name in the mobile space - especially in Europe. HTC have had a great lead but 2010 will see Motorola and Sony return to some dominance here - and they can fight Apple in the Fashionability stakes.
The biggest challenge for Apple is how to combat Google on the phone
itself. <b>Outside of iTunes, Apple has little in the way of first party apps</b> for
the iPhone and whilst it has a huge developer network it is definitely alienating
them through it's App Store management nightmares. Many developers are developing
for both iPhone and Android devices - especially those using Web technologies
for building and apps like [Phone Gap](http://www.phonegap.com/) to cross-package.

The biggest challenge for Apple is how to combat Google on the phone itself. <b>Outside of iTunes, Apple has little in the way of first party apps</b> for the iPhone and whilst it has a huge developer network it is definitely alienating them through it's App Store management nightmares. Many developers are developing for both iPhone and Android devices - especially those using Web technologies for building and apps like [Phone Gap](http://www.phonegap.com/) to cross-package.
A lot of what makes the iPhone really useful are Google applications (native
Gmail, Maps and most importantly Search!) - Apple has no way to combat this. Are
they going to deny Gmail or Search like they did with Google Voice?

A lot of what makes the iPhone really useful are Google applications (native Gmail, Maps and most importantly Search!) - Apple has no way to combat this. Are they going to deny Gmail or Search like they did with Google Voice?
Apps that are available on both platforms and services that are available "in
the cloud" (eg Maps, Comparison Shopping etc) dilute Apple's position as it's
only point of differentiation becomes fashionability - and both Sony Ericsson
and Motorola have competed for over a decade against Nokia by building highly
fashionable phones.

Apps that are available on both platforms and services that are available "in the cloud" (eg Maps, Comparison Shopping etc) dilute Apple's position as it's only point of differentiation becomes fashionability - and both Sony Ericsson and Motorola have competed for over a decade against Nokia by building highly fashionable phones.

I'm not sure this fight will be a death match but all the signs are there for a battle of epic proportions. Both are likely to be extremely battered by the time they come out the other side and would be wise to hold a little bit in reserve in case Nokia's Maemo platform takes off the way they are expecting it to - at that point things could get really messy.
I'm not sure this fight will be a death match but all the signs are there for a
battle of epic proportions. Both are likely to be extremely battered by the
time they come out the other side and would be wise to hold a little bit in
reserve in case Nokia's Maemo platform takes off the way they are expecting it
to - at that point things could get really messy.
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Expand Up @@ -20,9 +20,8 @@ I've made this point before but the power of the Netbook is in the Network - not
Having said all of this the Netbook category has gone ballistic - having doubled from 16 to 33 Million units sold in 2009 - sales are worth about $USD11Bn globally ([Display Search research for 2009](http://www.displaysearch.com/cps/rde/xchg/displaysearch/hs.xsl/071309_mini_note_netbook_shipments_to_double_y_y_to_more_than_30m_units_in_2009.asp))

![Prototype web book - from litle](../../img/posts/webbook.jpg)

<p class="caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/litl/4077444353/">litl
web book prototype design (image (c) litl)</a></p>
*[litl
web book prototype design (image (c) litl)](http://www.flickr.com/photos/litl/4077444353/)*

My money is on the next generation - so called Web Books, Slates or Tablets. These devices are being actively invested in by a number of investors and represent a merging of several types of computing behaviour.

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Expand Up @@ -52,9 +52,8 @@ I want everyone who works at an ISP, a major content provider, or is a techie to
On a day in April we choose to voluntarily censor the Australian Internet.

![Dark haired man with mouth taped shut](../../img/posts/taped_shut.png)
*[It's better this way (image (cc) Kevin)](http://www.flickr.com/photos/vtotter/3426290124/)*

<p class="caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/vtotter/3426290124/">It's
better this way (image (cc) Kevin)</a></p>

Let me say that again: We CHOOSE to censor our Internet within our borders.

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Expand Up @@ -17,9 +17,7 @@ Flash, unfortunately, has gone from being a tool that enhances the web to one wh
There was a time when Flash was just a tool for creating some interesting animations - then Macromedia made it a bit more programmer oriented, then a lot more programmer oriented but what Adobe didn't have the guts to do when they bought Macromedia was rip out all the designer oriented components and make it programmer focussed (that honour was left to the Open Source Flash Development team, with whom the last vestiges of Flash credibility now reside).

![A fortune cookie with the fortune 'meh'](../../img/posts/fortune_cookie.jpg)

<p class="caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rickharris/430890004">meh
(image (cc) Rick Harris)</a></p>
*[meh(image (cc) Rick Harris)](http://www.flickr.com/photos/rickharris/430890004)*

Adobe's lack of vision was the equivalent of a parent thinking it is okay to let toddlers play with machine guns - today's average designer is not capable of building anything non-trivial in flash that will not degrade or crash a browser.

Expand All @@ -42,8 +40,7 @@ My opinion is the acquisition of Macromedia went harder than anyone realised and
Adobe's current rate of innovation is laughable and they continue to support and invest in products they should have killed off 5+ years ago. Both revenue and profit have taken a dive with profit almost falling off a cliff since 2007.

![Graph of Adobe's historical profit per year](../../img/posts/shares_adobe.png)

<p class="caption">Historical gross profit of Adobe corporation - Wolfram|Alpha</p>
*Historical gross profit of Adobe corporation - Wolfram|Alpha*

While I'm here it's worth pointing out that that profit is equal to about $45K per employee (compared to $70K per employee at Oracle or nearly $250K per employee at Google!)

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Expand Up @@ -17,14 +17,12 @@ Most people looking at the mobile and smart phone sector focus on unit sales as
Well, Android has been enjoying exponential growth in the number of apps in the market over the last two years since it launched. This is not uncommon for a new platform and iPhone OS did exactly the same thing when it launched.

![A graph of android market apps](../../img/posts/android-appstats.png)

<p class="caption">Number of apps in Android market - from androlib.com<p>
*Number of apps in Android market - from androlib.com*

Why this is an important quarter for android however is that the number of apps currently available for Android was the inflection point at which Apple's iPhone app growth stated to slow. As can be seen in the chart below iPhone apps have continued to grow but the pace has eased off. This is a sign that the developer community is saturating and is maturing.

![A graph of iTunes market apps](../../img/posts/iphone-stats-smaller.png)

<p class="caption">Number of iPhone apps in iTunes - from Wikipedia</p>
*Number of iPhone apps in iTunes - from Wikipedia*

I would suggest this also indicates that developers are becoming more considered about the types of apps they are building rather than doing quick, iterative development to just "try things out". Certain niches are now evident in the iPhone ecosystem that revolve around the capabilities of the device and the ways people use them. The overall quality of apps are increasing too (anecdotally and as should be expected as a platform matures).

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Expand Up @@ -17,9 +17,7 @@ All software that has a market will inevitably and inexorably find itself in a r
To clarify, if you haven't heard this expression before - all commodities drop in price over time (as rarity disappears) to eventually hit a bottom price per unit. As the skills to write code are now very common and there is effectively no price per unit for production or distribution, the natural floor for any piece of software is basically nothing. Nothing other than time and inclination anyway.

![Picture of warehouse roofs that look like a downward line chart](../../img/posts/line_chart.jpg)

<p class="caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/96dpi/4032198061">Line
chart (image (cc) Andreas Levers)</a></p>
*[Linechart (image (cc) Andreas Levers)](http://www.flickr.com/photos/96dpi/4032198061)*

Don't believe me? Think *your* bit of software is the exception? Let's look at some big names quickly:

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3 changes: 1 addition & 2 deletions site/src/content/posts/2011-08-08-the-web-of-intent.md
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Expand Up @@ -21,8 +21,7 @@ What makes web intents different than a protocol link is that they are fundament
Instead; in the tabbed browser world, I simply have tabs up one end of my browser window that are permanently there. I also have a couple of extensions that operate at a meta-level on the whole page I'm viewing - notably bit.ly, evernote and chrome2phone.

![Chalkboard with the phrase 'will you (blank) me?'](../../img/posts/will_you.jpg)

<p class="caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinkpoppyimages/">image (cc) Poppy Thomas-Hill</a></p>
*[image (cc) Poppy Thomas-Hill](http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinkpoppyimages/)*

But all of this is back to front - and this is the beauty of the web intent - I want to bring my existing services to the attention of the page so it can interact with what I'm looking at right now without that web page needing to know anything specific about the Intent directly (eg what protocol or services it also has available).

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Expand Up @@ -17,9 +17,7 @@ excerpt: >
I've always loved the fact that in every smartphone there are a range of sensors attached to it. At the moment this is limited to GPS (position on the earth), orientation (how the device is tilting) and direction (how is it moving / accelerating) but we'll get others such as temperature, light etc at some point too. While we've had access to these for some time at the native app level, exposing access to these sensors has been slow to filter through to the web browser. We've had GPS for a while using the GeoLocation API which is great but it's a little too macro for playing with.

![A large gyroscope photographed while spinning](../../img/posts/gyro.jpg)

<p class="caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/slasher-fun/3039970101/">Gyroscope
et rotations - image (cc) by Mathieu Marquer</a></p>
*[Gyroscope et rotations - image (cc) by Mathieu Marquer](http://www.flickr.com/photos/slasher-fun/3039970101/)*

With the iPhone 4 and Gingerbread Android devices we're starting to see this data become available. Mobile Chrome is lagging but Mobile Safari, Firefox for Android and Opera Mobile in developer mode are all providing access to the gyroscope and accelerometer data even though [the spec is still in draft mode](http://dev.w3.org/geo/api/spec-source-orientation.html). (Note: Having just got a Honeycomb tablet today, it appears mobile chrome for Android now supports these features so we should see it available in handsets from Ice Cream Sandwich)

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Expand Up @@ -31,8 +31,6 @@ On the surface this may not look like a huge revenue opportunity however I would
These acquisitions are a great thing for Adobe. The purchases of Macromedia and Ominture have gone less well than anticipated as behomouth pieces of software were digested by the business. These smaller, more nimble, web oriented businesses will inject some creativity back into Adobe and hopefully some of their culture will rub off on the software giant.

![Adobe logo on the floor](../../img/posts/adobe.jpg)

<p class="caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwichary/2198354027/">Image,
cc Marcin Wichary</a></p>
*[Image: (cc) Marcin Wichary](http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwichary/2198354027/)*

A lot of people will lament the swallowing up of two extremely savvy web organisations that have shaped a big chunk of the digital landscape over the last 2 years. Maybe, but I'm quite excited by the potential this brings. With Adobe's resources focussed in these areas, there's a lot more to come from both Nitobi and Typekit and that will only bring benefits to the web - like flash did over a decade ago to bring interaction to the web but whose time is now past.

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