Herein you’ll find articles on a very wide variety of topics about technology in the consumer space (mostly) and items of personal interest to me. I have also participated in and created several podcasts most notably Pragmatic and Causality and all of my podcasts can be found at The Engineered Network.
Ad-Supported Kindle Doesn't Cut Cost Enough
Amazon had a great idea in the Kindle. I’ve played with one briefly and apart from the annoying white-black-white flicker when you change the page, the weight, the convenience and the battery life makes it the best eReader available as far as I’m concerned. It has been finely tuned to specifically be the best eReader out there and it wins.
Amazon announced today that their Kindle will now come as a Kindle With Special Offers which is $25 USD cheaper than the standard price of $139 USD non-Ad version. The problem is simple: someone who wants to buy a kindle will buy one for under $199 and Amazon broke that price barrier a while back. The next price point is $99 and unless Amazon can drop it below that magic number, I don’t see the price cut moving too many more Kindles.
The AppleTV is a great example of this. The original Apple TV didn’t sell too well, but when they redesigned it and cut it to the bone then priced it at $99 it sold like hot cakes.
It’s a step in the right direction but the step wasn’t big enough.
PLC Programming Software: The Pathetic Cash Grab
One of the big parts of the automation industry that has always annoyed me is the seemingly pathetic cash grab for end-user and integrators money for PLC Programming software. Before we dive into that, a quick re-run of how the PC industry works.
The end-user/developer can buy a Mac or a PC for software development but if they want to develop for the Windows platform they also need to buy the Windows operating system (OSX comes with the Mac and is not licenced with keys etc like Windows but then, it only works on a Mac). That said, most PCs from major manufacturers (DELL, HP etc) come with Windows pre-installed and it’s part of the price of the PC hardware (effectively what Apple does). The hardware (the PC hardware itself) is useless without an operating system to tell it what to do. Hence both of these approaches makes sense: what’s the point of buying hardware that is useless without then buying additional software? If they tried it in the general consumer space the backlash would be immense. To the enthusiast though, building their own PC from parts and running Windows, the OS is an expense they understand they need to pay for separately. It also gives the enthusiast a choice - they could buy a version of Windows OS that would happily make any PC they assembled work just fine - the hardware wouldn’t matter.
In the PLC industry it’s more the equivalent of the PC hardware enthusiast market where PLCs don’t come in a made to order configuration but in pieces that must be put together: CPU, Power Supply, Digital I/O and Analogue I/O and Communications cards on rack(s). They also follow the Microsoft model selling the software needed to make it work separately (programming software in this case).
The issue I have is this: PLC Hardware is proprietary such that the programming software used to program the PLCs is unique to that PLC (much the same way that OSX is locked to Apple hardware). In the case of OSX, this is fine since there is no additional licence for OSX. Yet for PLC programming software there is always an additional cost. In some cases upwards of $5,000 USD without which the PLC Hardware is useless.
The only reason that PLC hardware vendors get away with it is because the market is completely closed - they design and manufacture the PLC hardware, firmware and programming software. There is no open standard that allows one PLC Programming package to program them all. This lack of standardisation is fostering a lack of competition and a lack of innovation that has seen the PC industry take off into the distance while PLC/SCADA Automation technology is decades behind.
If the IEEE introduces a common PLC Programming interface standard (they’ve already been pushing open programming languages which is a good start) then some innovation might finally happen in this space. Until that time, prepared to be ripped off.
A Real Oscilloscope on an iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone
I did a double take when I first read about this device two days ago. A little known company Oscium has released an attachment that works with all current iOS devices: iPad (2), iPod Touch and iPhone; that turns them into a multichannel oscilloscope.
As an Electrical Engineer who’s been bent over the screen of many a ‘scope over the years I’m giddy with excitement over a product like this. The asking price of just under $300 USD seems reasonable enough given that most DSOs (or a decent ScopeMeter) these days will set you back much more. Then again, once you factor in the price of an iPad (for example) and this magic box it’s not really a good comparison.
In any case it reminds me of a kit that Dick Smith Electronics made many years ago that I built (and blew up and then failed to fix - still - I think it’s in the shed somewhere) that ran DOS/Windows software and plugged into the parallel port. It’s a great idea for those who can’t justify a stand-alone bit of kit as a ‘scope and already have a PC for other things. The same arguement applies here.
It’s pretty amazing how far Apples iOS has come as a platform in such a short period of time. The DSO kit used interfaces that had been around for nearly 12 years (hardware) and 6 years (software) when it was released (some PCs/motherboards still have parallel ports even today) but after barely 2 years since iOS 3 was released with support for third-party hardware/software interfaces via the Dock Connector it’s amazing to see some of the tech being produced.
Market Share != Profit. Profit = High Margins = User Experience First
During the 90’s Microsoft successfully pushed their Windows operating system preinstalled on almost all PCs by the major PC manufacturers with only a handful of exceptions. Apple was in chaos and didn’t put up a fight at the time. Apple however are making a comeback with OSX and their range of Macbook, Macbook Airs, Macbook Pros, iMacs and Power Macs.
Apple passed Microsoft in May last year and went on in September to become the second largest company in the world by market value. Whilst Apple still trails Microsoft in terms of revenue the gap is closing very quickly. Microsofts Windows is steadily losing market share to Apple’s OSX but is still way, way in front by a massive margin. Whilst it’s a simplification to focus on total product revenue based on operating system it’s still interesting that Apple seems to be making a fair bit of money and investing it better than Microsoft. For such a small market share, Apple is doing really well.
Microsoft poured a lot of money into Windows Vista and Windows 7 and it shows (Windows 7 is a great OS) but all the while Apple has been making many many more incremental updates to its OS, switching to Intel CPUs in their Macs and gradually building market share. They kept their higher margins on their hardware and put user experience first and that strategy is beginning to pay off.
The interesting part is looking at the new frontier - Apples iOS and Googles Android - built as low power mobile operating systems. It’s interesting again that despite Android having a bigger market share, most developers report making much more money from iOS with only a handful of exceptions. Apple is helped out by linking into iTunes - a payment ecosystem that is well established and trusted meaning a higher percentage of apps on iOS are paid for vs Android. Google is making money off Android (from ad revenue) it’s true, however nowhere near as much as Apple is making off iOS devices.
Once again though it seems Market Share does not equal Profit.