Facebook and MySpace
Research by danah boyd touched on how many teens viewed Facebook and MySpace. To put it simply, many of those involved in the study viewed MySpace as “the hood” or the ghetto while seeing Facebook as “cleaner.” With Facebook now more than 500 million strong and MySpace struggling to stay relevant, the whole “white flight” thing seems irrelevant.
These students have a variety of reasons for preferring one network over another. boyd writes, “Catalina, a white 15-year-old from Austin, told me that Facebook is better because ‘Facebook just seems more clean to me.’ What Catalina sees as cleanliness, Indian 17-year-old Anindita from Los Angeles, labels simplcity; she recognizes the value of simplicity, but she prefers the ‘bling’ of MySpace because it allows her to express herself.”
While these girls don’t mention race, others did, directly and indirectly. Another student outside Boston said, “The people who use MySpace–again, not in a racist way–but are usually more like ghetto and hip hop rap group lovers group.”
Now, MySpace has begun to focus on Gen Y and is doing everything they can to differentiate from Facebook. Their latest updates go much deeper than a visual redesign, changing the focus from a simple social network to a content discovery engine. They have even partnered with Facebook to make it easier to login, signup, and integrate your existing Facebook social activity.
Facebook has continued to diversify in the social space. They’ve made changes to your profiles to put the focus on you and your story. They’ve enhanced Groups, to make it easier to segment your activity without tedious list-building. Facebook has also branched out into location services with Facebook Places and Deals. Even after being portrayed in a negative light by The Social Network, a movie loosely based on Zuckerberg and Facebook, Time Magazine felt so strongly about Facebook’s influence that they made Mark Zuckerberg their Person of the Year. Zuckerberg also donated $100 Million to Newark schools on the same day as the movie launched.
Apple iOS, iPad, iPhone, and iPod
The iPhone and iPod saw major updates this year. The iPhone 4 brought a new design and more advanced operating system. iPhone OS became iOS, a mobile operating now featured on iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. Even with AT&T completely screwing up the iPhone 4 launch, Antenna design choices causing signal problems, and rumors that Apple had prior knowledge of the design flaws, the iPhone 4 was still wildly successful. Jobs handed out a few free cases and all was well.
Apple launched the iPad this year and, just like the iPhone, it changed how we see computers and mobile devices. Consumers snatched up 3 million iPads off the rip. Apple soon updated the iOS software to add features like multitasking and wireless printing, features which are also present in their latest iPod and iPhone models. Just about every publisher worth their salt has iOS applications for the iPad and it’s smaller brethren, including Ebony Magazine, The Root, and Black Enterprise. As many are still wrapping their heads around what you actually do with it, one guy used his to get Barrack Obama’s signature. Oprah also gave away an Apple iPad to each member of her O Magazine staff.
The most interesting twist on the story of iOS is how it has influenced the latest crop of Apple computers. Apple took everything they learned about interface and hardware design while creating the iPhone, iPad, and tiny iPods and applied it to their desktops and laptops. Mac OS X Lion borrows many interface elements and ideas from iOS and even has it’s own app store.
Android
In January of this year, Google finally launched the Nexus One. This would be the flagship mobile device for their new Android operating system. Many thought the Nexus One would be a major competitor for the iPhone, but it didn’t really turn out that way. The Nexus One served as the blueprint for Android devices, which exploded across most major mobile carriers. With their open approach and flexibility in what carriers and manufacturers can do with the OS, Android’s numbers grew. Android began to surpass the iPhone. After blatantly denying their would ever be a Nexus Two, Google eventually partnered with Samsung to launch the Nexus S (yes, it’s basically the Nexus Two), which features the latest Android OS (Gingerbread). The Nexus S serves the same purpose as the Nexus One, to show carriers, developers, and manufacturers what they can do with it.
Even as Android became more popular, there was talk of fragmentation of the apps ecosystem and the operating system itself. With frequent updates from Google, but carriers dragging their feet on sending updates to their customers, the problem seemed serious for developers and Android fans. Fragmentation may soon become less of an issue as more handsets are updated to the latest Android OS, but it remains to be seen what will become of the Android apps market. Tweetdeck’s founder defended Android against comments made about fragmentation by Steve Jobs.
Now, the race is on between iOS and Android as Google’s mobile OS begins to show up on about a million (ok, that could be an exaggeration) mobile phones and a plethora of tablets. While Steve Jobs continues to rule his domain with an iron fist, giving Apple fans consistent quality hardware, Android fills in all other areas. If you need a phone or a tablet with an advanced OS but are turned off by Apple’s “closed” nature of premium pricing, Android has a device for you.
Location, Location, Location
Most people still don’t understand this whole location thing, but the picture is becoming clearer. Foursquare is the most well-known location-based service out there and, through hard work and strategic partnerships, they’ve been very successful. The day after Facebook launched their own location feature with Places, Foursquare had the best sign-up day ever. Foursquare is the golden child of location, but that doesn’t mean there is no room for others. Foursquare recently added photos and comments, features Gowalla has had from jump. Gowalla continues to add new features and, most recently, made it so that you can check-in on their competitor’s networks from the Gowalla app. SCVNGR has partnered with Google to expand their location database and enhance their scavenger hunt service. The Nexus S Android phone from Samsung includes a feature that lets you check-in by simply tapping your phone on a surface. This can also be used for making secure mobile payments.