Dell Netbook Rumor Prompts Questions About Android

Reports that Dell might use Google’s Android OS in a netbook raises questions about what the device might look like and whether Android is ready for use beyond smartphones.

Software vendor Bsquare appeared to have leaked the news Wednesday that Dell is developing an Android-based netbook. In a press release, Bsquare said it was porting Adobe’s Flash Lite technology to “Dell netbooks running Google’s Android platform.” The release has since been pulled from Bsquare’s Web site and Dell has refused to comment on what it called “speculation.” But most observers think there is probably no smoke without fire.

Android is a Linux-based OS developed by Google for use in mobile devices, primarily smartphones. It includes an OS, middleware and some basic applications, and has a toolkit that developers can use to build other programs on top. Hewlett-Packard has confirmed it is testing Android as an option for netbooks, and some enthusiasts have already loaded the OS on the devices.

It’s easy to see why computer makers might be interested. Android is free to use, which means they don’t have to pay a license fee for Microsoft’s Windows OS, and it is open source, so they can customize it to build the types of products they think customers want.

Since it’s designed by Google, the OS naturally is friendly to Web-based applications. Google offers software libraries that make it easy to provide quick access to online services and data. The Google Maps library, for example, allows developers to add mapping capabilities to Android applications.

PC makers could design netbooks with distinctive user interfaces that provide one-click access to online services such as Google Docs and Google Maps. Android can also provide information about the location of a device, so netbooks could include applications that let users see the locations of their friends, for example.

Industry analyst Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates, said Android’s Web-centric design could lend itself well to buying new software on the Web, in a similar model to Apple’s App Store.

But he wondered whether Android is ready for use in netbooks. Moving an OS for mobile phones to netbooks is an ambitious plan and will present some challenges, he said. Acer echoed the same sentiment when the company’s president and CEO, Gianfranco Lanci, said last week, “It’s too early to say if we’re going to see Android on a netbook in the near future.”

Avi Greengart, research director for consumer devices at Current Analysis, put it more bluntly: “If an Android netbook were launched today, it would be a nonstarter,” he said.

The idea of an Android-based notebook makes sense, but the OS has to show that it can be successful in smartphones before it moves to another device, he said.

The OS and even typical netbook hardware designs may need to be revamped for Android to work, said Ronnie Schwartz, cofounder and chief technology officer of mobile software development firm IntuApps.

Applications developed using Android are streamlined for mobile phones with smaller touch screens, and few netbooks today have touch screens, he said.

Those are the problems companies like Dell and HP may be trying to solve, Kay said. Android is still evolving for smartphones, and it will go through the same process for netbooks.

“That story is yet to be written,” Kay said.

More Palm Pre launch rumors

Ugh. Another day, another Palm Pre rumor.

The latest one comes from the Boy Genius Report and adds more fuel to the fire that the Pre will launch on or around June 7. An “anonymous tipster” sent BGR an internal Palm memo that outlines a schedule of events around the Pre for employees starting on June 3 and ending with a “LAUNCH LUNCH!” on June 5 at noon.

As Engadget Mobile points out, there could be several scenarios to come out of this: 1) It could all be prep for a June 7 release, which would keep with Sprint’s habit of launching new products on Sundays; 2) Sprint could break its own tradition and release it on Friday, June 5 (better for weekend sales, right?); or 3) It’s all a bunch of crock. As Engadget Mobile astutely points out, the “Employee Benfits” typo is a bit of a red flag.

Frankly, I don’t know what to believe anymore. There’s some sound evidence that June 7 could be the day, though I think it’s an incredibly bad idea for Sprint and Palm to launch the smartphone one day before the start of WWDC 2009. You’d think they’d want more of a head start. More than anything, I’m sick of the unknown. Trying to plan coverage for a product that might come out anytime between now and June 30 is giving me anxiety. As CNET reader Lupe Cope cleverly put it, once this is all over and done, I’m going to have to check myself into “Prehab.”

Microsoft decides it needs a BigPark

Microsoft said on Thursday it intends to acquire BigPark, a Vancouver, B.C.-based game studio.

BigPark, which is made up of former Electronic Arts Canada and Distinctive Software executives, has been working on an Xbox-exclusive game over the past year.

“We believe BigPark has tremendous potential to create new properties and innovative gaming experiences for our platforms, one of which we’re looking forward to showcasing at the E3 Expo in June,” Microsoft game studios boss Phil Spencer said in a statement. The company did not disclose financial terms in its press release announcing the deal.

Among BigPark’s founders is Don Mattrick, who joined Microsoft in July 2007 as senior VP of its interactive entertainment business, while continuing to serve as BigPark’s chairman. Microsoft noted that Mattrick’s investment and role at BigPark was known to the company when it hired him.

However, neither Mattrick’s Microsoft biography nor the press releaseannouncing his hiring mention BigPark.

Update: I asked Microsoft for more clarification on Mattrick’s role in the deal.

“Don was not a participant in the negotiations with BigPark either in his capacity as SVP of (Microsoft’s game business) or Chairman of BigPark,” a Microsoft representative said in a statement. Microsoft added that Mattrick’s ongoing role as chairman of BigPark was approved by the company, pursuant to its code of business conduct. “As Chairman, Don was not involved in the day to day management of the BigPark business,” Microsoft said.

Microsoft maintains that it did not note Mattrick’s role at BigPark when when he was hired at Microsoft because, “BigPark had not publicly launched as an organization.” Mattrick is noted (though not his Microsoft affiliation) on BigPark’s Web site. As for why his role at BigPark is not part of his Microsoft biography, Microsoft said “As Chairman, Don was not involved in the day to day management of the BigPark business, nor was he an employee of the company; Therefore, mention of Don’s limited involvement in BigPark was not significant enough to be included in his biography.”

As for its decision not to disclose the purchase price, Microsoft said: “BigPark is a small company and the acquisition is not material from a financial reporting perspective to Microsoft.”

Microsoft said the company has 50 employees.

What was that old saying? Disclosure is the better part of valor. Something like that anyway.

Among the other topics Microsoft isn’t discussing: just what that game is that BigPark is working on for the Xbox. A representative declined to discuss the genre or nature of the Xbox game under development, saying only that it would be revealed at E3.

It’s 3.0 Or Die For New iPhone Apps

Apple has just sent out an email alert to iPhone developers that any new app submitted to the App Store will have to be ready for the iPhone 3.0 software, which is due shortly (probably around Apple’s WWDC event in June). Beginning today, any app submitted that isn’t 3.0 compatible will be rejected.

Amazon’s Kindle DX Poses Profitability Challenge To Publishers

The biggest challenge for textbook publishers joining several universities in testing the usefulness of Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN).com’s new Kindle DX will be in finding a way to make money on the large-screen electronic book reader.Introduced on Wednesday, the bigger, and more expensive, version of Amazon’s Kindle 2 e-reader has a lot of the technology publishers need. The device is thin and light, it shows crisper graphics and text without the eyestrain and glare associated with the backlight used in laptops, and it’s big enough to display electronic versions of textbooks. (On Tuesday, Amazon received its first Kindle design patent.)

No Clear Path To Profitability 
But what it doesn’t have is a clear path to profitability. And without that, textbook publishers likely will move slowly toward the digital world, delaying potential benefits for college students and school districts. Those benefits would include lower-priced electronic versions of books and the convenience of having textbooks in a single, lightweight device.

Nevertheless, the Kindle DX is forcing textbook publishers to deal head-on with the growing demand for electronic content, something they’ve been able to avoid until now. “They’re in a better position than some other publishers, but they’re not immune from the digital revolution,” Forrester Research analyst Sara Rotman Epps toldInformationWeek. “It’s only a matter of time before schools demand this type of content. Publishers hold the cards for now, but they know the game is changing.”

A sign that the change is here is in Amazon’s ability to line up five universities to test the Kindle DX on students and faculties starting in the fall semester. The cost of the pilot programs has been kept low, and participants will get a Kindle DX at no charge.

At Princeton University, the High Meadows Foundation, which supports projects that could lead to more environmentally friendly practices, is paying the $30,000 for the Kindle DX test. Amazon, meanwhile, is expected to contribute some of the funding for pilot programs at Arizona State University and the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

For the schools, the attraction is the potential benefit to the students, the reduction of manufacturing and transport costs, and a softer environmental impact.

“Our interest in the pilot is to provide Amazon and other vendors with information on what our students and faculty need in such devices to make them successful,” said Serge Goldstein, associate CIO and director of academic services at Princeton. “The ability to deliver textbooks in a format that doesn’t require paper is probably inevitable.”

With schools onboard, publishers Cengage Learning, Pearson, and Wiley, which represent about 60% of the U.S. higher-education textbook market, have agreed to offer some of their products for the tests. However, it’s not clear how far the publishers would be willing to go in offering electronic versions of textbooks, if the test proved successful. 

It’s also not clear how far schools would be willing to push publishers toward offering e-books as an alternative to traditional books. Princeton believes the market will force any needed changes. “If the tests work, you’ll see a lot of students buying Kindle-like devices,” Goldstein said. “This market will stand on its own. It won’t need Princeton arm-twisting.”Rik Kranenburg, president of McGraw-Hill’s Higher Education group, acknowledged that e-book readers could prove disruptive for the industry, which is still trying to understand how to use the technology and make money. “We’re trying to figure out what works,” Kranenburg toldUSA Today.

Impact On Publishers Will Be Serious 
One fact that’s sure to keep shareholders up at night is the drop in the value of content once it becomes digital, sometimes as much as 50%, analysts have said. Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN), for example, sells electronic versions of books for about $10, considerably less than hardcover books or paperbacks.

Once the trend toward e-textbooks begins, the impact on publishers will be serious. “Their businesses are going to get smaller,” Epps said. “They will see a decrease in revenue in their core products, and that’s going to be painful.”

Whether it’s as painful as the free fall in CD sales experienced by the music industry remains to be seen. Record companies have been hit hard by an increasing number of people buying their tunes over the Web in digital format.

Textbook publishers are likely to have more time to adjust. “It’s still a relatively slow-moving train,” Andrew Frank, analyst for Gartner, said of the shift to e-books. “The Kindle DX has a ways to go before it’s a ubiquitous replacement for printed books. It’s not an imminent threat.”

Meanwhile, newspapers face a different challenge. A major concern they have with the Kindle DX is that if it becomes too popular, then Amazon would gain too much control over the distribution of the electronic versions of newspapers. Such a scenario would be similar to Apple’s rise as the largest music seller in the United States with the popularity of the iPod and its iTunes music store. Apple’s success has caused considerable tension between the company and record companies over pricing of music.

“They don’t want to hand over too much revenue to Amazon or any other e-book reader maker,” Frank said of newspapers.

As a result, newspapers are taking a cautious approach to the Kindle DX. The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post will offer the $489 Kindle DX at a reduced price to subscribers, but only to those in areas where home delivery isn’t available. The amount of the subsidy hasn’t been disclosed, but customers will have to agree to a long-term subscription to get the device.