In today's age of instant Internet access, it's getting increasingly hard to differentiate between good PR and good products. Case in point: Skyfire.
Now, I know you've never heard of Skyfire but most people hadn't either until it's lit up every Windows Mobile tech site with the announcement that the private beta is up and running with promises of a public beta and then a real product one day soon. How soon? Well, that's why I'm writing this post.
What's got the Windows Mobile community all excited is the promise of what Skyfire is supposed to do: the "real" web on a Windows Mobile phone.
The Skyfire website looks really snazzy, any site that uses my Motorola Q9h to hype it's product can't be all bad. It starts off with the web on a PC then transitions to the same thing on a Windows Mobile device. Nice.
Clicking on the link to sign up for the free beta asks that you surrender your name, e-mail and wireless phone number. At that point, they will let you know when the private beta will start, followed by the public beta, followed by the actual product.
Currently, the whole beta process is only open to Windows Mobile Standard devices (i.e. smartphones) with the promise of a Windows Mobile Professional version coming soon (despite the pictures used on the site).
I don't mean to be a wet blanket, but there have been other products that made a tremendous splash lately only to be complete under performers (yes, I'm talking to you Zumobi) of the final product not living up to the initial hype.
Some folks have seen a private demonstration via Skype that they are saying will live up to the hype but for the rest of us mere mortals (and Doubting Thomas'), we'll have to wait to see.
Could Skyfire be the world's greatest browser to hit Windows Mobile ever in the history of mobile web browsers? Sure it could, but wasn't that supposed to have been Opera Mini? We now have a new player on the block who's promising the stars.
I may be alone in this (certainly not the first time) but I feel we are all going to be inundated with these type of announcements with increasing regularity. It will soon be hard to separate the hype from the facts.
Could the folks behind Skyfire kept it under wraps until it was ready for prime time? Yes. Would they still have the "iPhone killer" for web browsing on Windows Mobile (arguably it's Achilles heel)? Yes. Is it "sexy" anymore to come from nowhere to trump the competition? No. Not in this age of hype and F.U.D. (fear, uncertainty, doubt) though why you would want to do that against Apple at this point is a little irrational to me.
No one is NOT going to get an iPhone because of the promise of Skyfire. No one is NOT going to get a Windows Mobile device because of the promise of Skyfire.
I've signed up for the private beta and will let you know if and when this goes live and what I find. I'm all for hoping Skyfire is all the Monday morning buzz is making it out to be. But increasingly, a part of me really wishes people would let their product do the talking and leave the PR and spin (along with their egos) checked at the door.
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