BlackBerry in Top 5 of Worldwide Mobile Phone Bestsellers

As per wired.com, RIM has replaced Motorola in the top five mobile phone companies worldwide based on Q1 2010 sales, and it's tied with Sony Ericsson for the number 4 spot:

This is not unexpected since when it comes to enterprise and messaging, there is nothing like the BlackBerry. On a side note, Motorola has actually had profit for the first quarter of 2010, earning $69 millions. Go Moto!

Ten Best Chapters of Software Development Books

I have file on my laptop that contains a huge list of books (mostly software related) that I just don't have the time to read completely, or to read at all (but I do have time to write this blog :)). Beside the list of books, the file has links to other lists of books of the type "every programmer should read", "must read", you got the idea. Dustin Marx came up with his own list, but what is different is that it gives you a list of best chapters of software development books, chapters that he "found to be most influential or most impressive" in his career as a software developer. If you're just like me, you will appreciate the list.

The Marshmallow Challenge

Tom Wujec conducted a team building experiment called the marshmallow challenge with people ranging from kindergartners to CEOs, with results that were surprising. His presentation is below:

Perfect Mobile Platform

What would make up the perfect mobile platform? What characteristics should it posses? Here are some of them, in no specific order:

• User Interface/Experience - a rich user interface that provides a great user experience. When using the phone, everything should come naturally, with ease, and should have the WOW factor that makes you never want to leave the phone out of your hands. Doing common tasks should not take more than a few clicks. 
• Application Ecosystem - Having many applications to chose from is not as important as having quality applications, those that satisfy a particular need, like finding a place to eat, checking your email, or playing Doom. Integrating location, social networking, and sensors is a must.
• Internet Browsing - surf the Web from anywhere, on the go. A mobile browser should be able to render pages properly and fast, navigation should be done with ease, data should be compressed as to save bandwidth, and use the latest web technologies (HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, etc).
• Battery Life - it better not leave me hanging after a full day of use, or in the middle of a call, or while searching for a place to eat using the GPS. 
• Development Ecosystem - provide a rich set of APIs that can access all the features of the phone, and can provide the best user experience. Provide tools that can be used to make it easier to write apps. Publishing an application should not involve much hassle. 
• Openness - here I refer to not only an open and free platform, but to a platform that allows any mobile technology to work on it.
• Enterprise - features such as security, integration with email/calendar/notes/contacts servers, messaging, to name just a few. 

There is no one platform that satisfies all these needs better than any other platform. What is needed is a platform that has the user experience of iPhone and Android, the application ecosystem of iPhone (and Android very soon), the internet browsing of iPhone and Android (mostly any WebKit-based browsers), the battery life of the Blackberry, the development ecosystem of Android and iPhone, the openness of Android, and the enterprise characteristics of Blackberry. 

Will we ever have such a platform? I really doubt it. 

Smartphone Application Downloads Forecast

ABI Research has recently published a forecast for smartphone application downloads world wide for 2009 - 2015, and which can bee seen in the chart below:

While iPhone apps are still going to be the leading source of downloads, for the year of 2010, Android is expected to have over 800 millions application downloaded, a major increase compared to 2009. Beside iPhone and Android, Blackberry and Symbian are also catching up on sales. What all this means, at least for me, is that it is a great time to be a mobile developer :)

We will live in a game

"We will live in a game!" This is what you will take away after watching Jesse Schell's presentation at DICE 2010 summit. He envisions a day that has normal activities, like brushing your teeth, eating cereals, watch TV, etc, but which will let you win points and benefits when attending to those activities.

Great fun to watch the presentation, very intriguing and eye opening at the same time. Read about it via IEEE Spectrum.