The Twelve Review

Posted on March 1, 2013 by switch11

A Review for ‘The Passage’ from 2011.

First, the bottom line:

  1. The Passage – A Book you really must read. One of the best post-apocalyptic novels (perhaps not Top 5 but definitely Top 25).
  2. World War Z – A good, fun book. Read it before watching the movie (July 2013) or after. It’s one of the most readable Post Apocalyptic Novels.
  3. The Twelve – A Book you must read if you’ve read The Passage and one which you shouldn’t read unless you’ve read The Passage.

This will review ’The Twelve’. I will add a review for World War Z later and perhaps even one for ‘I Am Legend’. Though they could have just renamed it ‘I Am Good but Way Overrated’.

Just a Note: I wasn’t going to publish this. But I’m hoping someone can get it to Justin Cronin and he can read it as brutal but honest feedback. I love The Passage and now the last book in the trilogy is the only hope to make the trilogy a modern classic.

The Twelve Review – Justin Cronin’s Masterpiece continues

This is how I felt about ‘The Passage’ -

If the remaining two books of the trilogy can keep the good parts of the first, and perhaps get rid of a few of the flaws, this trilogy has a chance at becoming a classic. The best vampire story since Dracula. It really does have that much potential – the story really is that good.

That feeling still stands.

However, the third book will now have to do a LOT of the heavy lifting. Because The Twelve fails to meet the very high bar set by The Passage. To be quite honest, if you were to remove ‘The Passage’ from the equation, then The Twelve is just a very good and slightly disjointed book – not even approaching greatness. Whereas, The Passage was just bursting with amazingness.

Good things about The Twelve -

  1. You get to meet some amazing characters from The Passage again. There are some very satisfying details filled in.
  2. There are some very, very well-written parts. The Twelve is worth reading for the language alone.
  3. There are some storylines that are really, really good.
  4. Some of the characters are fascinating. While a few are too flat, the details that emerge about Amy, Alicia, Lila, etc. are really, really good and very well constructed.
  5. The religious references and the beginning section are very well worked.
  6. The Field section (almost a short story in itself) is superbly done.
  7. It progresses the story. It also sets up the third book in the trilogy, The City of Mirrors, very very well.

You might wonder how a book that has great writing, some very good storylines, some great characters, and which does a good job of bridging the gap from the first book in the series to the concluding book of the Trilogy can mess up.

Well, it can. It does. Spectacularly.

Not so Good Things about The Twelve -

  1. The ‘Journey’ aspect is missing. If you look at The Passage, or any other book with a really good journey (LOTR for example), you become a part of it. You take the journey with the protagonists. In ‘The Twelve’ Justin Cronin makes it a bit too much about some of the destinations (if that makes any sense).
  2. Too Convenient of an Ending. You’ll understand once you’ve read the book. It’s just too convenient. Someone at Good Reads wrote that the coming together of the various storylines in The Passage was genius and that wasn’t the case in The Twelve. It’s very true. It was all too convenient and contrived.
  3. Some of the characters are just weak – Peter Jaxon comes across as really bland, Director Guilder is also boring. As opposed to The Passage where 80% of the characters were fascinating, in The Twelve only 50% of the characters are interesting and relatable.
  4. There’s way too much of an attempt to humanize the Virals (The Vampires). Also, there’s way too much of dream-trance stuff. There are entire chapters that seem like they were written in an Opium Den in Hong Kong.
  5. The way some threads are brought together in the last 3rd of the novel is sad. There’s no other word for it. It turns from Walking Dead written in beautiful words (and with multiple elaborate storylines, no less) to ‘Happily Ever After’ YA type stuff. Justin Cronin doesn’t even kill enough people at the end. How disappointing – it starts off like Apocalypse Now and kills off the most relatable characters helter-skelter. Then it turns into some sort of PG-13 rated movie where the only person who dies is some innocent bystander.

Basically, two things stood out for me -

The way The Passage was written it needed another 3 to 5 books to finish things properly. The Twelve attempts to do the job that 3 books were needed for. The net result is that in places the story jumps ahead at a painfully unfulfilling rate. We have storylines coming together so fast it becomes contrived. There’s way too much serendipity.

The Twelve attempts to progress too many storylines, without one being the main story arc. In ‘The Passage’ we had, quite literally, the passage to safety. A journey by a group of survivors. The Journey was the focus and all the storylines could be tied together to it. In ‘The Twelve’ it seems everyone is lost – either because Justin Cronin couldn’t figure out how to make one journey the main theme, or because he decided to sacrifice The Twelve to set up ‘The City of Mirrors’ spectacularly.

My guess would be that either someone new and very inexperienced did the editing for The Twelve, or the editor was the same but was now afraid to point out that the latter part of the book kinda sucks.

So you can review it two ways:

  1. The Twelve as the bridging book between The Passage and The City of Mirrors. It’s a 4.25 to 4.5 stars book there.
  2. The Twelve as a book in itself, on its own virtues. It’s just 3.5 stars there.

I’d be a lot less disappointed if The Passage hadn’t been so amazingly good. If the second half of The Twelve was as brutal as the first half. If the characters weren’t so lovey-dovey and washed up in trances and love of all sorts. Everyone loves everyone so much in the second half of the book you might get diabetes from all the sweetness. Daddy. Mummy. My Love. My Wife. My Husband. My Son. My Daughter. My Comrade in Arms. It just goes on and on. The second half is pretty much a Romance Novel with some vampires thrown in. I was half expecting the Brady Bunch to show up and cook everyone dinner in the middle of the most amazingly serendipitous post-apocalyptic novel ever.

That’s the downside of writing something as amazing as The Passage. You’re probably not going to be able to match it. But it sure could have been a better attempt than The Twelve.

Mr. Cronin – Please read The Passage. That’s the bar. It’s a trilogy. You have one shot to cement this as a Trilogy that stands the test of time. The story is more important than the message you’d like to send through the book. The story deserves utter loyalty. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t write an amazingly good book with a true powerful story, while also injecting some way–too-sweet message of love and hope into the story so blatantly. The story has to do it, not you. The story is enough.

Please Note: I still LOVE The Passage and hope City of Mirrors will be as good or better. I waited 2 weeks hoping I’d be less bitter about all the ‘Let’s make it a lovey dovey super contrived YA novel’ aspects of the second half of The Twelve. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a disappointing book compared to The Passage. Please Mr. Cronin, we’re all addicted to the level of story-telling and writing skill you displayed in The Passage. Please don’t let us down.

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Devices & People & Feelings

Posted on December 31, 2012 by switch11

Zynga is closing down some of its games today. One of the games is Petville – where you have virtual pets you take care of and buy things for. The comments from people whose ‘virtual’ pets are being killed off are a reminder that people and people’s feelings are far more important than software and hardware.

Technology only holds value/meaning if it creates an impact in people’s lives. If it makes people FEEL things.

We tend to forget that devices and technology are meaningless in themselves. It is how devices affect people and the feelings they create that give them meaning.

Would a tree falling in the forest make a sound if there was no one to hear it?

It (the notion that devices in themselves are nothing) might sound like heresy to people working in technology who think the software they make, the devices they manufacture, the cars they build, and the planes they construct are masterpieces. That it doesn’t matter how they impact people or their lives or their feelings. Just the existence of the technology is beautiful in itself.

Actually, it’s not (except to the creators). The existence of technology means nothing until it reaches people.

A hammer by itself is powerless. A hammer used to build a house that people will live in and cherish is something beautiful.

Twin Traps of Technology Fetishism and Fashion Obsession

We’ve fallen into two very interesting traps -

  1. The first trap is that technical specifications of devices have meaning. That having a quad core processor is somehow twice as good as having a two core processor – even if there is no difference in the end user experience.
  2. The second trap is that the device and its beauty is the center of the universe. That it’s not the person who gives the device meaning, but the opposite.

They are both traps. The first gleefully endorsed by the technologically savvy and the second spread by the aesthetically adept (or obsessed or addicted).

A device that has impressive specifications but doesn’t create some great value for the device owner is just a technology fetish. A device that looks beautiful but doesn’t provide great value is just a fashion accessory.

Devices are defined by how People use them

A device gains relevance when people start using it and it starts impacting their lives. When people feel something about it.

There are different things different companies go after -

  1. One device manufacturer says – Let’s put in 57 different shiny new technologies. The user will be so happy to have access to these new technologies that it doesn’t matter what using the device is actually like.
  2. A second device manufacturer says – Let’s polish and pretty up the device so that it sparkles. The user will be so busy showing off that she won’t care if some things don’t feel right.
  3. Somewhere, hidden away in the Arctic perhaps, is a device manufacturer who thinks only in terms of the core. Not the extrinsics like fashion or technology fetishism or price or addictions. Just the core – What does the device do? How does it make the user feel? How can we perfect that?

Subjugating a device’s core purpose to extrinsic things – closed ecosystems, fashion and trends, technology, business priorities. That’s just a corruption of the core ideal. All of it just gets in the way of the device doing justice to its core functionality.

People want to feel good about their devices

Yes, this is in both extrinisc and intrinsic ways. Extrinsically,

  1. People want devices that make them feel they got good value for money OR that they got the chance to show they have disposable income OR that they are most certainly not willing to waste money on expensive things.
  2. People want devices that are pretty and make them look cool and sophisticated.
  3. Some people prefer devices that make them look smart and knowledgable.
  4. Often people want devices that convey a philosophy or an idea.
  5. People want devices that have extrinisic qualities with in turn help people get extrinisic things (coolness, popularity, confidence, contentment, congruence with an idea they hold dear).

Intrinsically, however, is where it gets really interesting. People, sooner or later, run into the core uses of a device i.e.

  1. People end up using the device for what it’s meant for.
  2. This either works great and people feel satisfied and great about themselves and in control.
  3. Or it doesn’t work and people feel stupid and that they don’t control things and realize that the device made them feel bad.

This intrinsic part, in my opinion, is ten times more important than anything extrinsic.

The device must do its core function so well, and with such ease of use, that users LOVE it and Feel good about it, and about themselves. Regardless of the extrinsics.

Devices & People & Feelings

A great many people who make devices and technologies suffer from one of two fatal flaws (sometimes both) -

  1. They don’t realize (or perhaps don’t give importance to) the fact that a device or technology they are making has the power to make people feel things. That their creations can make a person’s day (and life) better or worse. Not just at the ‘getting things done’ level, but also at the ‘how I feel’ level.
  2. They can’t, or don’t want to, step into the common users’ shoes and view the device as the common user will see it. The common user will see the device as ‘providing something’. Not as a combination of a four core processor and a NFC chip and a Wireless card. For the user, the device is a living, breathing thing that the user interacts with and which affects the user’s life and emotions and ability to get things done.

So we end up with devices built for robots and non-thinking non-feeling automatons when we need devices built for human beings.

The average user is wary of technology. Simply because she has been trained that interacting with technology is usually painful and frustrating. Simply because she feels good before dealing with technology but bad afterwards.

It’s time for device makers to change that. So that people look forward to using new technologies.

Device makers think of making devices as fitting a brick into a wall. It is actually more like counting stars. It’s not about the dimensions and the fit and the numbers – it’s about the experience and the joy.

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Magic Indie Author Book Cover Making Guide for Kindle and Kindle Fire (NOT)

Posted on December 30, 2012 by switch11

Ladies and Gentleman, may we present the first edition of our

Magic Indie Author Book Cover Making Guide for Kindle and Kindle Fire

These steps guarantee that you shall sell more copies than Dean Koontz and win more awards than all those fancy pants authors who write about 1,000 years of solitude and other ‘look – there it flies over my head’ things.

Follow these 10 Steps and your success is guaranteed. If not, your money back (What … you didn’t pay any money … all this piracy on the Internet is terrible … keep your book away from it).

Step 1: Don’t spend any money and not more than a few hours of time

This is absolutely critical – the foundation for the Photoshop Greatness we are about to unleash on the world.

People should be buying your book for the words in it. For the story. Not for the pretty cover. Weed out the 99% of people who judge a book by its cover and/or want a beautiful looking cover shown on their shelf (virtual or physical).

Step 2: Disregard the ‘Book Cover Design Expert’

Does that designer think you should not have your name in Comic Sans with blood splattered on it. Who does he think he is? Michelangelo? Use your poetic license and disregard his advice. If he’s standing in front of you smack him hard enough for his green beret to fall onto his Starbucks cappuccino.

Step 3: Find a Copy of Photoshop Online – Real Artists Pirate Photoshop!

With Book Covers, as with Facebook Profile Photos, Photoshop is your best friend. Actually, your best friends with Facebook Profile Photos are Angles. That, however, is a story for another day.

It’s easy to find a copy online. Sometimes you even get helpful bonus software along with your Photoshop download which will track all your bank passwords – just in case you ever feel you have more money than you know what to do with (like that time in fourth grade right before your brother/sister/friendly neighborhood bully helped solve that problem).

Step 4: Find Models for the Cover and take Photos

Not Recommended: Contacting someone like Elite Models or a Romance Novel Cover Hero Agency.

We want gritty realism.

Is your significant other or some member of your family good-looking and blessed with perfect cheekbones?

Well, that rules them out.

Find some average looking man or woman who people can relate to. Find some really bad lighting angle. Then take out your iPhone or Android Phone.

Make sure you take half a dozen shots. You might take a very good one by mistake and we wouldn’t want that, would we.

Step 5: Think deep and long about the Design of the Cover

How will everything fit together as a cohesive whole?

Relax. This is a trick question. We don’t want everything to fit together. We want to shock the user into rapt attention.

Is that really an iguana coming out of the woman’s mouth? Does he have a Top Hat on?

The best thing you can do to ensure an amazing cover is to NOT think about it until you have Photoshop fired up. Let The Gods of Photoshop strike you with divine inspiration.

Step 6: Find a Font

It might not seem important but font choice is very important. With the right font you can make your name glitter like twittering vampires at twilight.

If you search well you can find a font that people can’t even see clearly, let alone read.

Open up Word. Look at the drop down list of Font Choices. Close your eyes. Pick one.

What? It’s not Comic Sans. Don’t worry. There are other extremely beautiful and misunderstood fonts we can use. Just keep trying until you find one that speaks to your inner artist.

Brownie Points: If you manage to use completely different fonts for the title, the subtitle, and the author name. Three Separate Fonts on One Book Cover = Three Times the Creative Impact!

Step 7: Fire Up Photoshop and load everything in

Once you start Photoshop the first thing you want to do is find the right colors and backgrounds. Your ‘perfectly average looking person in an amazingly awkward pose’ photo goes best with a very particular type of background.

Rule 1: The Background should not blend in with the photo, the title, or your name. If everything goes well together, how will anything stand out?

Rule 2: The colors you choose should be in violent opposition with the photo and each other. Make sure you don’t do something logical like choose a gold font against a forest background. You don’t want people thinking the book was written by someone who specializes in anything other than words.

Rule 3: Look at a typical best seller cover. Notice how everything is laid out logically. How boring. We want to show we are a rebel spirit – Go Wild!

Rule 4: Does your 6-year-old niece want to help? Yes please. It’ll be so good for her – a true learning experience. It’s not as if you spent 1.5 years writing this novel.

Step 7b: Save the Photo in the Wrong Size and preferably in Low Quality

This might be hard to believe – However, even after applying so much of your creative ability and individuality, you still run the risk of ending up with a cohesive book cover. One that makes the reader think – It’s so pretty and well laid out. This author must not be exciting and artistic and deep.

Let’s remove any chance whatsoever of people mistaking you for anything other than a writer with a beautiful spirit – one whose book covers shine and sparkle with literary genius run amok. One who has The Gods of Photoshop smiling down upon him in pastel colors.

So, careful now, we don’t want to get it right – Save in a size that is either the wrong dimensions or too small. Don’t choose High Quality – where is the mystery and beauty in that. If your cover is clear and bright and easy to see, then how will your readers recognize that the very depths of your soul have been poured into this book?

Step 8: Step 8? There is no Step Eight – Just Submit It!

Isn’t that great. No Step Eight. Don’t delay. Don’t hesitate.

We’re ready! Don’t think twice (not even once if possible). Get it out to the world!

What’s that you say – You should think of a better title?

Why? Take whatever you have and add in the genre and perhaps even the series name. If that’s not long enough, add in ‘A Novel’.

It’s time to Submit – Press the Button!

The key is to get your book and your shiny new Mary Shelley style Book Cover submitted before a disaster.

Like you realizing the cover doesn’t have enough blood to make it painfully obvious it’s a Murder Mystery (No, having ‘A Murder Mystery’ in the title and a clip art magnifying glass on the cover isn’t enough).

But we’re off on the wrong tangent. The time has come!

You’re Ready! Now Go Forth and Submit!

Coming Soon – How to write a Book Title longer than the Book Itself! And Still Leave the Reader Confused!

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Kindle format ebooks are a big lock-in factor for Amazon

Posted on December 8, 2012 by switch11

Had the chance to discuss the launch of the Nook HD and HD+ with someone in the UK. Got the following very interesting insight (courtesy Alex) -

Most readers aren’t willing to buy Nook HD+ because all their books are in Kindle format.

There’s something very interesting here.

Amazon’s Approach to eBook Formats and Lock-In

Amazon is saying -

  1. Get our device and you can read our format and nothing else.
  2. Get another device and if we can we’ll get you a reading app.

Any reader that starts with Kindle format books is basically locked in and has only two options -

  1. Getting a Kindle or Kindle Fire.
  2. Getting a device with a Kindle Reading App.

Any device manufacturer has two options -

  1. Support a Kindle Reading App and have people with Kindle format ebooks consider you.
  2. Don’t support a Kindle Reading App and lose any users with Kindle format ebooks.

As opposed to all other eReader companies that support ePub and each other and allow users to flit around like butterflies, Amazon keeps a lock-in. You have to stay in the Kindle ecosystem of Kindles and Kindle Reading Apps.

It’s like a Viral Strategy

Amazon says – no other company can infect our devices with their virus. We will infect as many devices as we can.

People who enter our ecosystem are locked-in and can only survive on devices infected with our virus.

If you think of it as a virus that is spreading slowly while not letting anyone infect its ‘super host bodies/head quarters’ the beauty of the strategy becomes evident. Sooner or later either we’ll have -

  1. Kindle format supported on all devices and Kindles supporting only Kindle format. Thus a complete penetration of the virus.
  2. Devices that don’t support Kindle format but they are completely surrounded by infected devices and ecosystems and start withering away.

At that point every road leads to Rome.

You will gravitate more and more towards Kindle Tablets and Kindle Phones because the virus is strongest in them. Special Features. Special Prices. Special Offers. Amazon will tilt things slowly until the virus in the various ecosystems starts pushing you towards the Super Host Bodies (the virus headquarters).

In Summary – Openness and ePub might be overrated

Companies that embraced openness and ePub had no lock-in. A Kobo owner can jump to Nook. A Nook owner can jump to Sony. It’s the United Nations of zero lock-in and lost profits.

The Kindle, on the other hand, has created tremendous lock-in. To the point that readers who own Kindle ebooks are limited to Kindles and devices that support Kindle Reading Apps.

In cases like UK where Kindle got an early lead, it’ll be almost impossible for other companies to break-in. B&N has said it’s going to expand to 10 international markets by end 2013. Well, it better hurry up or it will keep hearing the same refrain – But all our ebooks are in Kindle format.

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Apple gets an A, Amazon gets an F when it comes to App Intelligence

Posted on December 8, 2012 by switch11

Apple’s approach to App Support on its devices is drastically different from the approach that Amazon takes. We’re going to consider the three main elements of an ecosystem - Platform (Apple, Amazon, etc.), Users, Developers.

Apple exhibits a very high degree of intelligence about these three elements. Amazon – not even sure Amazon thinks about this stuff.

iPad Mini = iPad 2 Screen Resolution

Apple announced iPad Mini. It sacrificed Retina Display to keep the screen resolution such that it matched the iPad 2 exactly.

Result: All 270,000 Apps that work on iPad 2 work on iPad Mini.

This is very, very intelligent. It shows that Apple understands the value of a strong app ecosystem. It perhaps also reflects Apple’s experiences where it saw Microsoft beat it by having a richer desktop application ecosystem. This time around it wants to make sure it has the richer and higher quality ecosystem.

Why is this great for Developers?

They have to do nothing and just get more customers. I can’t even explain how beautiful this is. It’s like someone saying – Good Morning! Your Customer Base and Earnings just went up 10% and you have to do nothing. And it’ll keep going up.

Why is this great for Users?

Users who buy the iPad Mini get each and every app that was built for the iPad 2. Apps right from the start. No having to wait for Netflix to optimize or New York Times to sell or Twitter to tweet-twaddle-tattle.

Existing iPad owners that add an iPad Mini or upgrade to one – their apps all work.

It’s not a random occurrence

Apple made it a point to allow iPhone apps to work to an extent on iPad 1. That did help both users and developers. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked.

Kindle Fire to Kindle Fire HD = Apps don’t always work

Amazon, when it built the Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD 8.9″, made it such that some/quite a few apps that worked on Kindle Fire just won’t work on HD and HD 8.9″ OR they will work badly.

Why is this terrible for Developers?

Forget getting customers for zero effort – with Amazon you have to make extra effort just to keep current customers. Developers have to accommodate three different screen resolutions and test on three different devices. If they don’t, then they are in trouble.

Why is this not ideal for Users?

The Apps they bought – some of them just don’t work on Kindle Fire HD and HD 8.9″. The range of Apps is less. Less developers will make apps because the effort to reward ratio is lower.

There also has to be a human factor. If you’re an app developer and it seems to you that the company went out of its way to make your life harder – Well, obviously your motivation will be less.

This Insane Approach to Apps isn’t a Unique Occurrence – Amazon is an expert at it

Kindle Fire with its three different devices and three different screen resolutions seems a joy when you contrast it with eInk Kindle App development -

  1. Kindle 2 with keyboard with number keys.
  2. Kindle 3 with keyboard with no number keys.
  3. Kindle Touch.
  4. Kindle WiFi with no keyboard and no touch.
  5. Kindle Paperwhite.
  6. Kindle DX.
  7. Kindle DX 2.

It’s like an exercise in how to make it difficult for people to make apps for your devices. Pretty sure it’s very difficult for magazine and newspaper publishers and authors and book publishers too.

Just consider the beauty of this – There are 4 Kindles that differ primarily in touch, keyboard, keyboard with no number keys, no touch and no keyboard. You would be hard-pressed to come up with a more efficient way of motivating developers to stop making software for your platform.

Also, please keep in mind that Amazon is asking for this at the same time as Apple is bending over backwards to ensure that ALL iPad 2 Apps just work on iPad Mini and that iPhone Apps keep working as iPhone updates.

It’s a drastically different approach. Amazon seems to think of App Developers as Onion vendors. Just use a different size box – now you need to have 1 kg and 2 kg and 5 kg onion boxes. Sorry, the 2.5 kg boxes won’t work.

By one measure Amazon has really improved

The glass half-full approach would be -

  1. Kindle eInk Apps have 6-7 different devices to support for a relatively small market.
  2. Kindle Fire Apps have 3 devices to support for a somewhat larger market.

At this rate, Kindle Phone Apps will get something that will make developers feel that Amazon actually put thought into how apps would fit into the overall ecosystem.

Are Apps just a tickbox on Amazon’s List?

It’s hard not to get the feeling that Amazon thinks of Apps as ‘something they should have available to get people to buy Kindles, so they can later buy other things’. As opposed to ‘Apps are a core part of the Kindle Value Proposition’.

Who knows. Perhaps Apps aren’t a core part of the Kindle proposition.

Whatever it is, it would be really, really nice if Amazon stole a page from Apple’s approach to Apps. When the next generation of Kindle Fire devices comes out, Amazon has two options -

  1. Add 2-3 new screen resolutions and turn Amazon Kindle App Development into a true nightmare.
  2. Put some thought into it so that life is easier for users and developers.

Making apps for different screens and different devices is not as simple as packing onions into different size containers. It’s tougher. Not to offend onion packing artists (are you crying because of what I said or is it the onions?) but it’s probably a lot, lot tougher.

This is an Android Device maker disease

It’s almost as if Android Device makers WANT to not have a good app store. They all make different types of devices with different screens and different resolutions. Consider this -

Between Kindle Fire HD, Nook HD, Kindle Fire HD 8.9″, Nexus 7, Nexus 10, Nook HD+ - There is only one MATCH when it comes to device screen size and resolution.

All the other combinations – they all have different screen resolutions and different screen densities.

Even in the one case where two devices have the same screen resolution and screen size (Kindle Fire HD and Nexus 7) they have other differences. That means apps still need to be modified and retested.

Not only do Android vendors go to lengths to make their devices different from each other physically, they sprinkle on software differences and eccentricities liberally and thus make porting over apps rather difficult.

I’m not familiar with Galaxy Tabs and Note 10.1 etc. However, I’d be willing to bet that Samsung is afflicted with the same disease.

Android Device Makers should stop copying the design and UI and start copying the App Strategy

Users probably do not care very much for ‘lists that bounce back up’ and ‘animated page turns’.

They do, however, care a lot for having a good solid range of apps of high quality. That’s only going to be possible when the various Android Tablets stop trying to kill developers and users with small meaningless little differences.

It’s much, much easier to make apps for one market of 100 million devices.

Than to make apps for 7 different markets where each market is just 1 million to 5 million devices. It’s literally 10 to 15 times the work for a market that is 1/3rd the size.

Why change screen sizes from 8.9″ to 9″ to 9.1″. Does it really make that much of a difference? Make them the same and you’ll probably get economies of scale and get cheaper screens. There’s really little need to pick 1920 by 1280 screen resolution when someone else has picked 1920 by 1200. What is that 80 pixels going to get you (apart from fragmentation)?

If you’re starting off with a smaller App Store (Amazon, for example) then it makes ZERO sense to make it even smaller for your brand new Kindle Fire HD and HD 8.9″. However, that’s exactly what Amazon is doing. Unless Amazon changes its app strategy it’s just going to keep increasing Apple’s lead in Apps and Apple’s appeal to both users and developers. Same applies for all the other Android Tablet Makers – stop shooting yourself in the foot. Your only chance is if you make an app store that you can all share and devices that can use the same apps without ‘special taxes’ for each device.

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