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Here a clip of the pertinent portion of AT&T’s CTIA keynote which teased with the 1M iPhone inquiries stat:

What do you think? Is Dvorak right? Or did Engadget call it?

John C. Dvorak disagrees with me on the potential of iPhone.

Dvorak makes a good point about the pace of innovation in the mobile industry which Apple would be very wise to note:

These phones go in an out of style so fast that unless Apple has half a dozen variants in the pipeline, its phone, even if immediately successful, will be passé within 3 months.

Surely someone in Cupertino must be saying “iWhat? Doesn’t he think we thought of that?”. At least, I hope they are.

Dvorak continues:

What Apple risks here is its reputation as a hot company that can do no wrong.

That is exactly right. iPhone is a big bet. But that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a bad bet.

Risk and opportunity, two sides of the same coin. If Apple’s right, the world is at their doorstep. If not, NOK may be looking better in a few months…

MarketWatch ran a story out of AT&T’s CTIA keynote yesterday on the wireless industry seeing opportunity in ‘three screens’.

Of course this three screens idea is nothing new. The importance of TV and mobile phone screens joining into the computer screen fun is something that’s been anticipated, discussed, and written about in mobile circles for years. What is interesting to me is that, perhaps for the first time, there is a company in place that has a reasonable chance to simultaneously capitalize on all three screens: Apple.

Mac sales are doing well. Apple TV has launched. And iPhone has already generated more than 1 million customer inquiries to AT&T three months before it even launches.

If done right, the elegant and simple Apple way, these products taken together represent a tremendous “three screens” opportunity. With iTunes as the digital hub, content can be consumed on any of a consumer’s three screens, when and how they want, at work, at home, and on the move.

One could argue that Microsoft has a similar chance with Windows, XBox 360, and Windows Mobile. The interoperability between the three, however, is not as streamlined and therefore not as consumer friendly as the Apple solutions, which are cleanly tied together through iTunes. And according to news reports, Xbox Live has something like 6 million users versus more than 100 million iTunes users, giving Apple a very significant advantage in the number of eyeballs potentially leveragable across all three screens.

The opportunity is tremendous. Heck, even the Chairman of the FCC seems to get it. I sure hope Apple fully realizes it by providing developers with the access they need to all three screens.

Rafe Blandford has posted Carnival of the Mobilists 66 on All About Symbian. This week’s Carnival includes my “Moto woes” post along with eighteen others.

Motorola’s first quarter earnings aren’t looking good, and the market’s rewarding MOT with a big fat drop (stock closed down 6.62% for the day, at a new 52-week low).

What happened? In a word, Razr. In a few words: Too much Razr, too little else.

SeekingAlpha also notes:

Zander said that the second quarter would also be “difficult.” The company cited several issues in its mobile device business, including too few 3G phones in Europe; aggressive pricing in emerging markets by rivals; and an unwillingness to match some price cuts in those markets, resulting in the loss of share.

Meanwhile, Nokia and Apple have been trading up of late. The three month comparison is not favorable for Motorola.

June should be very interesting.

Reader comments to Tim O’Reilly’s recent “History, Digitized and Abridged” Radar post are spot-on in noting that digitizing old books, films, and related content are illustrating just how much media was previously dying a slow death out of mind of most people.

Take, for example, my alma mater’s wonderful History of Science Collection. It contains amazing tomes dating back to the 15th century. Its copies of rare works of Copernicus and Galileo are particularly impressive. An autographed copy of Galileo’s “Sidereus nuncius“, the first scientific treatise based on observations made through a telescope, for example. Who knew a collection of world class scientific manuscripts such as this existed in Norman, Oklahoma?

The answer until recently: Not many people. Even most OU students weren’t aware of it when I was there as an undergraduate in the 90s. Thankfully I accidentally bumped into its existence and was able to visit, but for all those that haven’t heard of it, digitization project may prove just the ticket to raise it to their attention.

OU is now digitizing images from rare and historically important materials and posting the images online for free. Click here to browse through previously posted imagery.

Not find images of something you’re looking for? You can ask to have them scanned in here. (Of course you have to know what you’re asking for, and thankfully they’ve provided instructions for searching the catalog of available materials, though if you’re not affiliated with the university you may need to contact someone for assistance.) One can even subscribe to a RSS feed to receive updates when new images of particular value or broad interest are posted. Click here to grab the RSS feed.

While this particular image scanning effort is not the same as a word-for-word transcription into text and therefore doesn’t offer all the searchability and indexing that one might like, it’s a start. A baby step, but a baby step in the right direction, and a great way to share the wealth of humanity’s book-based knowledge. I hope to see OU go much farther and scan entire books, even better if they’re scanned as images and their contents captured into searchable, linkable text, too.

BTW, if you’re ever in the central Oklahoma area, you should really try to visit the Collection. For me, an engineer and history buff, it was an amazing experience.

Another week, another excellent Carnival of the Mobilists. Thanks Rudy for pulling together a great round-up!

And I’m not just saying that because my Multi-touch possibilities post made it into Carnival 64, as there’s always great commentary and deep thinking to be had in each week’s Carnival.

Recommended. Not just this week, but every week. Why not add it to your feeds?

We have reached overwhelming global consensus that human induced climate change is a clear and present danger. As former US Vice President Al Gore recently noted:

There is no longer a debate about the fact that global warming is real. We’re causing it. The consequences are serious, and could be headed towards catastrophe if we don’t fix it. And it’s not too late.

Many new initiatives have started to help people make a lasting change in their personal and professional lives. TED blog recently discussed the launch of Save Our Selves (SOS) and its “Live Earth” worldwide concerts planned for July 7th, 2007 (7/7/07). SOS-Live Earth organizers note that:

SOS is designed to trigger a global movement to combat our climate crisis. It will reach people in every corner of the planet through television, film, radio, the Internet and Live Earth, a 24-hour concert on 7/7/07 across all 7 continents that will bring together more than 100 of the world’s top musical acts.

Whereas Al Gore’s presentations have reached thousands in person, and the movie of his climate talk has been seen by millions, the organizers hope that:

Live Earth alone will engage an audience of more than 2 billion people through concert attendance and broadcasts

Learn more about climate change, SOS, and Live Earth via LiveEarth.org. You can also read the announcement or watch the SOS-Live Earth launch by clicking here.

In addition to doing your part to reduce carbon emissions, if you’re a US voter you should also consider sending a message to Congress that it’s time to take on the climate crisis now. One way to do that is by signing up to have Al Gore personally take a printed copy of your concerns to your representatives. Sign up here.

Please take action.

Sure Apple is planning some interesting things with multi-touch for iPhone, but just how far could the technology be taken?

Check out this demonstration from NYU spin-off Perceptive Pixel for a glimpse of the possibilities:

and here’s a video of Perceptive Pixel founder Jeff Han premiering his multi-touch tech at TED in February 2006:

I wonder if Apple’s patent team licensed any of Perceptive Pixel’s work? It appears that Apple has talked with Mr. Han, but I’m not sure if anything other than words has changed hands(?). Anyone with the inside skinny, please speak up.

I’m also wondering how many points-of-contact (POCs) iPhone will be able to register simultaneously. Steve Jobs showed two POCs during his keynote as he pinched and stretched things, but I don’t recall seeing three or more at once. Jeff Han meanwhile illustrated using several fingers from both hands during his TED talk, admittedly on a much larger touchscreen than the iPhone’s. I could see more than two POCs getting really tricky on the limited real estate of a mobile phone screen.

[Thanks to m-trends.org for bringing the Perceptive Pixel videos to my attention]

Two more Joost invitations are up for grabs.

This time we’re taking it up a notch: The first two people to post their first name, last name, email address, and a description of the kinds of things they’d like to see more of in my blog will get an invitation. Keep the suggestions pertinent, please.