Today is Facebook Day, the day when the most-successful-social-network-so-far opened up to public investment and outshone all other American IPOs up to this point.

With shares initially priced at $38, Facebook (FB) opened at $42.99 on the Nasdaq at 11:30am EST on Friday. After a brief delay in trading on Friday, a reported 82 million shares (of 421.2 million) were traded in the first 30 seconds of availability, totaling $116 billion.

This surge and retreat in price is thought to have been the result of a communication lag for traders an anonymous Wall Street source told Business Insider on Friday.

But the high initial valuation, reportedly buoyed by 33 different investment banks underwriting the IPO does nothing to quash doubts about the long-term value of the popular social network in the face of shifting user behaviors.

Facebook, as we learned in the company's IPO amendment last week, has not proven its value in the mobile world at all.

"We do not currently directly generate any meaningful revenue from the use of Facebook mobile products, and our ability to do so successfully is unproven. We believe this increased usage of Facebook on mobile devices has contributed to the recent trend of our daily active users (DAUs) increasing more rapidly than the increase in the number of ads delivered. If users increasingly access Facebook mobile products as a substitute for access through personal computers, and if we are unable to successfully implement monetization strategies for our mobile users, or if we incur excessive expenses in this effort, our financial performance and ability to grow revenue would be negatively affected."

With today's Facebook IPO, the recent valuation of Pinterest at $1.5 billion, and the misfire of a Groupon IPO, skeptical onlookers are crying "bubble!" while a handful of small groups and individuals rake in the millions, and in some cases, billions.

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Sometimes, BetaNews readers really amaze me. Three days ago I posted "The measure of Windows Phone failure is..." based on comScore US smartphone OS market share data. To me, it was a trivial story, because I was days late writing about the numbers and posted it more as filler, being short writers (because of holidays and emergencies). More than 220 comments later, Windows Phone is hot-topic of debate among you.

Yesterday, Gartner released first-quarter global phone sales data that puts to end any real debate about Windows Phone's present: Combined smartphone OS share with Windows Mobile was 1.9 percent, down from 2.6 a year earlier but flat sequentially. The quarter-on-quarter data suggests, in context of Nokia Lumia launches, that Microsoft's mobile operating systems have finally hit bottom -- that perhaps the things won't get much worse and could finally improve.

Glimmer of Hope

Day after I posted the, ah, "failure" story, Kantar Worldpanel ComTech released data downright hopeful for Windows Phone. During the first three months of the year, market share rose to between 3 percent and 4 percent in Britain, France, Italy and the United States and to 6 percent in Germany. That's up from about 2 percent in nine countries, sequentially. Problem: Kantar Wordpanel doesn't exactly measure sales, but uses consistent panels of users to calculate market share. The approach is still much more accurate than shipments, which is the measure most analyst firms use.

Today, I asked Gartner for clarification on Microsoft share: Is it Windows Phone only or combined with Windows Mobile? "Windows Phone makes up around 85 percent of the overall Microsoft numbers you see", Carolina Milanesi, research vice president, says. She adds: "With Nokia accounting for around 60 percent".

What about Windows Phone's future? She wouldn't be specific, but says: "We will see a lift from Nokia, coming from the products being available in China from April and then later in the year with the new version of the OS and new products at different price points".

America and China

China is linchpin, because of the market's size, smartphone sales delayed from Chinese New Year and Nokia's already large presence in the country. All work to Windows Phone's benefit. But the second reason is unexpected opportunity. Sales for all manufacturers fell year over year and sequentially, and China is one reason.

"Global sales of mobile devices declined more than expected due to a slowdown in demand from the Asia/Pacific region", Anshul Gupta, Gartner principal research analyst, says. "The first quarter, traditionally the strongest quarter for Asia, which is driven by Chinese New Year, saw a lack of new product launches from leading manufacturers, and users delayed upgrades in the hope of better smartphone deals arriving later in the year".

Those delays could be good for Windows Phone, as Nokia ships Lumias in volume to China and a well-regarded brand seeks revival. Meanwhile, Lumia 900 is now available in the United States, backed by big marketing campaigns.

Gartner's sales data won't reflect the smartphone in the United States, since AT&T didn't start selling Lumia 900 until April. However, shipments should show up in first quarter data from other analyst firms -- reflecting stock shipped for store shelves. Side note: Numerous commenters faulted my referring to Lumia March sales in an earlier post; that was deliberate since reported data was for shipments (and preorders started in first quarter). However, I should have made that point clearer, which is reason for clarifying now. For Windows Phone's future, second quarter will reveal more, particularly in the countries where, according to Kantar Worldpanel, share rose in Q1.

Is There Room for Three?

The larger question about Windows Phone: Can it be No. 3? Analyst Mike Feibus thinks so, writing for BetaNews: "Windows Phone will gain serious market share this year". He believes that Verizon supporting Windows Phone will hugely impact sales. I'm skeptical.

Gartner's phone sales data suggests otherwise. Apple and Samsung accounted for 49.3 percent of smartphone sales during Q1, sign that the market is consolidating around them. While Samsung sells home-grown Bada and Windows Phone devices the majority are Android. In fact, Samsung accounts for 40 percent of all Android sales. Conceptually, that should allow room for a third major operating system, but the market is heading elsewhere, as more Asian manufacturers adopt Android. More likely scenario at this juncture: Samsung accounting for most Android sales and the rest splitting among smaller manufacturers, particularly from Asia, leading to fragmentation for most of the remaining market not consumed by Apple and Samsung.

Nokia still stands in the way of that scenario, and much depends on its continued smartphone and Windows Phone transition. However, Nokia market share slumped from 25.1 percent year over year to 19.8 percent in the broader handset market, or a 22.7 percent decline. Meanwhile, smartphones languish.

"Smartphone sales are becoming of paramount importance at a worldwide level", Gupta says "Smartphone volumes contributed to approximately 43.9 percent of overall sales for Samsung as opposed to 16 percent for Nokia".

Remember, Nokia accounted 60 percent of Windows Phone sales during first quarter.

It's hard to imagine that Windows Phone can go anywhere but up. How far is the question.

If your trigger finger starts itching for a new FPS frag fest while you're out-and-about and away from your PC, Steam now offers the gaming equivalent of calamine lotion: remote game management. Yup, Valve's made it possible to install new games on your PC while you're "busy" at work. Yay instant gratification!

The feature's been in beta testing for a couple of weeks, but Valve made it official and pushed the function out to all Steam users yesterday. It's super simple: just log in to your account using Steam's website or its mobile apps and start managing your game library, including installations. If Steam detects that you're buying a game from a remote location, it'll even ask you if you want to install the game on you home PC immediately. Of course, the Steam client will have to be running on your home PC in order for all that magic to happen.

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Today, Gartner put to end weeks of cellular handset debate. Apple apologists disputed Samsung's smartphone success over iPhone -- the presumption that the South Korean electronics giant benefits from greater shipments vs actual sales. Make no mistake: Samsung is the global leader overall and in the smartphone category, based on actual sales. Apologist arguments be damned.

That said, Apple's position is solid. Together, Apple and Samsung combined smartphone sales market share approaches 50 percent. Contrary to speculation that Windows Phone might appear as a third dominant mobile OS, the market is set to largely split between two vendors. As I explained three weeks ago in post, "Google has lost control of Android", Sasmung's rise isn't necessarily good for the broader ecosystem.

Sales vs Shipments

During first quarter, Samsung sold 38 million smartphones, compared to 33.1 million iPhones, decisively snatching back the top spot, according to Gartner. Meanwhile Samsung represented more than 40 percent of all Android smartphone sales, with no competitor topping 10 percent. Meanwhile, Samsung stole Nokia's crown, by becoming overall global handset sales leader.

Gartner's data is the most revealing, because it represents sales to end users rather than shipments into the channel. Since Samsung first boasted about 3 million Galaxy S II sales during the first 55 days, Apple apologists have disputed the figure, and others that followed. Gartner leaves little room for error. Apple claimed 35.1 million sold, but that's really shipped, given Gartner put actual sales 2 million units lower. Samsung no longer discloses sales data, but IDC reports 42.2 million smartphone shipments during Q1. Assuming Gartner and IDC numbers reconcile, that's 4.2 million more Samsung smartphone shipped into the channel than sold, which is a reasonable number for keeping store shelves stocked.

"Shipments are not sales, and therefore they present only a partial account of the success or failure of a product or an item", Stephen Baker, NPD's vice president of industry analysis, says. He makes the distinction regarding Kindle Fire, which unit shipments plunged from 4.7 million to 700,000 between fourth and first quarters, according to IDC.

Baker observes that Amazon filled the retail channel during Kindle Fire's launch quarter. Actual sales: 3.8 million then and 1.8 million during Q1. "If you add up those two sales figures you get a number almost exactly the same as IDC’s shipment number", Baker observes. "Looking at the numbers from that actual sales perspective the concept that Kindle Fire sales collapsed in Q1 becomes absurd". The point: Only actual sales figures are truly reliable.

Market Turbulence

Sales show Samsung rising above all other Android handset manufacturers as well as iPhone. All this before the hotly anticipated Galaxy S III ships in 13 days internationally. Strangely, in Apple, Samsung has a benefactor. US Customs has stopped importation of HTC One X and EVO 4G LTE -- two fearsome Androids -- clearing away two of the S3's biggest competitors available on these shores. Officials halted HTC shipments as they evaluate whether the handsets violate Apple patents.

Samsung's rise to dominance comes during an uncertain period for smartphones, which stands to solidify its position against Android rivals and even iPhone. Overall handset sales declined 2 percent year over year to 419.1 million units -- that's down sequentially from 476.5 million handsets.

"The lower results in the first quarter of 2012 have led us to be cautious about sales for the remainder of the year", Annette Zimmermann, Gartner principal research analyst, says. "As we are starting to update our market forecast we feel a downward adjustment to our 2012 figures, in the range of 20 million units, is unavoidable".

However, smartphone sales continued their strong upward trajectory, rising 44.7 percent year over year to 144.4 million. Though, sales fell from 149 million units sequentially.

The China Syndrome

"Global sales of mobile devices declined more than expected due to a slowdown in demand from the Asia/Pacific region", Anshul Gupta, Gartner principal research analyst, says. "The first quarter, traditionally the strongest quarter for Asia, which is driven by Chinese New Year, saw a lack of new product launches from leading manufacturers, and users delayed upgrades in the hope of better smartphone deals arriving later in the year".

To its credit, Apple capitalized on the Chinese New Year. iPhone 4S went on sale in China 10 days before the January 23rd holiday, leading to a sales surge in the region.

"It was an incredible quarter in China", Apple CEO Tim Cook said during calendar first quarter earnings conference call last month. "Part of this was the pent-up demand for iPhone 4S".

He emphasized: "Revenue was a record, at $7.9 billion in greater China, which is up over three times year over year and brings the first half revenue for greater China to $12.4 billion. That compares to a full year of last year of $13.3 billion". Stated differently, China accounted for 78 percent of Asia-Pacific region revenues during the quarter.

Samsung also makes huge inroads to China, but didn't have something spanking new to sell for the new year celebration. That will come with Galaxy S III, which is expected to reach the Mainland long before Apple ships iPhone 5 (or whatever it's named).

But Apple and Samsung aren't alone. "The continued roll-out of third generation 3G-based smartphones by local and regional manufacturers such as Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, Yulong and TCL Communication should help spur demand in China", Zimmermann says.

Two Market Leaders

Looking ahead, Samsung and Apple look to sop up Nokia's remains -- and for Android to solidify an already strong position over every rival mobile operating system, including Apple's. Nokia market share slumped from 25.1 percent year over year to 19.8 percent in the broader handset market, or a 22.7 percent decline. Nokia is caught between a rock and a hard place -- declining feature phone sales and Windows Phone transition -- that puts it in worse position: The Apple and Samsung trash compactor.

"Smartphone sales are becoming of paramount importance at a worldwide level", Gupta says. "For example, smartphone volumes contributed to approximately 43.9 percent of overall sales for Samsung as opposed to 16 percent for Nokia". They're 100 percent for Apple.

Samsung global handset market share rose to 20.7 percent from 16.1 percent a year earlier, or 25.9 percent increase. However, Apple sales rose considerably more, up 96.2 percent, bringing market share to 7.9 percent from 3.9 percent a year earlier. While Samsung and Apple rank first and second, respectively, in smartphones, iPhone's maker moved into third place for all handsets. Should Nokia's decline continue, while Apple rises, something quite dramatic could occur within the year: Apple and Sumsung dividing up not just smartphone sales but the entire global handset market.

Samsung's rise pulls Android along. The operating system had 56.1 percent smartphone sales share during Q1 -- that's up from 36.4 percent a year earlier. As aforementioned, Samsung accounts for 40 percent of all Android sales. By comparison, iOS share rose to 22.9 percent from 16.9 percent. However, iOS lost share sequentially -- on overall market shipments, which accentuates the decline more than it appears. iOS share fell nearly 1 point, while Android gained more than 5 points.

However, Android share gains deceive, as commoditization increases. "Most players are finding it hard to break the mould", Gupta says. "At the high end, hardware features coupled with applications and services are helping differentiation, but this is restricted to major players with intellectual property assets".

The point is crucial as patent lawsuits, the most prominent lead by Apple, stifle innovation. Here on BetaNews, I've called Apple a patent bully and troll, accused it of litigating rather than innovating and called the lawsuits hypocritical.

As patent-warfare stifles innovation and Android licensees struggle to stand apart from one another, "price is increasingly becoming the sole differentiator", Gupta says. "This will only worsen with the entry of new players and the dominance of Chinese manufacturers, leading to increased competition, low profitability and scattered market share". That's good for Apple margins and market consolidation around the two leaders.

Texas-based software company HCSS, which makes solutions for the construction industry, today announced a new suite of mobile applications for iOS and Android that connect construction field personnel with their home base job management and accounting systems.

With the new applications, simply called "HCSS Field Apps," employee and equipment hours can be tracked, production quantities can be managed, truck fleets can be tracked in real time, employee certifications and licenses can be handled, job site diaries and photos can be filed, and costs can be managed on a more granular and fluid level.

HCSS designed these to be standalone applications rather than web-based portals like many enterprise resource planning (ERP) offerings because the target user is going to be in areas where there might not be any data infrastructure. As such, these do not require a constant connection to be usable.

This type of mobile ERP software is not uncommon, with companies like Penta Technologies offering field management and communications software for rugged workplace devices, but HCSS is riding the wave of consumer hardware being used in the workplace, and offering software on the most popular mobile platforms gives the company an advantage in that its software can be installed on a wider variety of hardware.

As the United States approaches its quadrennial general elections, the talk of election tech and voter security is beginning to rise once again. In 2008, during the last general elections, we saw portable, touchscreen voting machines, e-voting security issues, and mandatory paper trails.

Today, election security company Scytl announced it had successfully implemented its voting encryption technology on mobile platforms Android and iOS which could allow people to securely vote on their smartphones and tablets. It looks like this year "m-voting" is going to be a topic of discussion on top of the usual topic of "e-voting."

Scytl's solution encrypts the ballot locally on the voter’s device -be it a PC, smartphone or tablet- before the vote is submitted. The company says it differs from its competitors because they encrypt the ballots after they are received on the digital ballot box server. This technique of submission puts the documents at risk of man-in-the-middle interceptions, and even for system administrators to compromise the security of the ballots.

These types of solutions are important for expatriate voters and soldiers stationed overseas in this year's general election. In 2010, the President signed into law the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act, which requires states "establish procedures for transmitting by mail and electronically blank absentee ballots to absent uniformed services voters and overseas voters with respect to general, special, primary, and runoff elections for Federal office," 45 days before the election. Some U.S. States have received funds to broaden their e-voting capabilities.

California, Florida, and Virginia's 2012 Presidental Primaries received some press in December for using LiveBallot from Democracy Live to collect expatriate votes.

Of course, this is still just the "e-voting" category, and remote mobile device-based voting hasn't quite figured into the equation yet. Mobile devices have found their way into polling places, but voting hasn't made it out onto mobile networks, and IT infrastructure company VeriSign predicted in 2009 that widespread use of the mobile channel as one of several unique voting methods wouldn't really take root until 2016.

Images (composited): Jakelv7500 and Laura Gangi Pond/Shutterstock

There are many measures, but one piqued my attention last week. According to Nielsen, Windows Mobile US smartphone market share, based on install base not unit shipments, is considerably higher than its successor -- 4.1 percent versus 1.7 percent for newer Windows Phone. Interpret however you like: Windows Mobile is so good, many Americans stick with it; Windows Phone isn't doing well after two version releases and 18 months of sales.

Nielsen's numbers are for first quarter, when Android share reached 48.5 percent, effectively from zero three years ago (the OS debuted on one smartphone from one carrier in Q4 2008). The next two places go to iOS and BlacBerry, with 32 percent and 16 percent share, respectively. In second quarter 2011: Android, 39 percent; iOS, 28 percent; BlackBerry, 20 percent; Windows Mobile/Phone, 9 percent. So Microsoft's overall share measured by both operating systems is down by one-third in just three quarters.

Twelve days ago I asked: "Is there hope for Windows Phone?" based on modestly encouraging data from comScore that showed a brief arrest in declining market share. The analyst firm puts Microsoft's smartphone share at 3.9 percent, based on subscribers, which is flat quarter on quarter. That's actually an improvement.

BetaNews reader Christopher Micallef is puzzled by the negative reporting about Windows Phone: "Why do people always assume that falling sales with Windows Mobile means that Windows Phone is failing? Of course they are going to have falling sales, they cancelled a whole platform".

Analyst Mike Feibus opined for BetaNews last month: "Windows Phone will gain serious market share this year". He believes that Verizon supporting Windows Phone will hugely impact sales. I'm skeptical.

BetaNews reader Brandon Mills follows Feibus' reasoning:

To me, the real story is that the decision of who is going to be the third power in the cellphone wars seems to have been made by the carriers -- it's Windows Phone. Blackberry is pretty much up a creek without a paddle at the moment. They don't have a giant OS monopoly to push their platform forward with...

The writing is on the wall. RIM is gone. With less doubt about who the third power is going to be, along with leveraging Windows 8 itself and taking advantage over Android fragmentation frustration, I think Windows Phone is positioned to at least gain a moderate share in the next two years. I don't think it's going to knock Android or iOS out, but I think it'll gain enough share that it will become the established third power.

Commenter aretzios blames Windows Phone for Microsoft's misfortunes: "Microsoft signed its death warrant in the mobile space since the day it decided to abandon WinMo 6.5 to move to a totally incompatible system...From 25 percent of the market, Microsoft's share declined to 1.5 percent as WinMo users moved en mass to Android. Sometimes, when one breaks backward compatibility, there are consequences".

During the Bill Gates era, and even during Steve Ballmer's early tenure as CEO, Microsoft made backward compatibility a top-design priority. But the company started backing away from that tenet with Office 2007. Where there are dramatic UI changes, like Windows Phone, Windows 8 and Windows RT, backward compatibility isn't assured at all.

Reader Dan Goldberg is a Windows Phone fan: "I have used iPhones, Androids and now Windows Phones. I gotta say my windows phone rocks! It is quick (without having a hundred cores), better battery life, and more stable. Facebook and Twitter is integrated into the phone and is very fast to read and post messages. Don't forget my screen is much larger (4.7 inches ) and easier to read vs the iPhone".

But aretzios disagrees:

There is no or little hope for WinPhone 7/7.5/8. The reason is simple. Humdrum specs, humdrum hardware going against amazing devices such as the HTC One X/S and the Samsung Galaxy SII/SIII. Those who think that WP Phone is better than Android 4 are simply kidding themselves. Android 4 is extremely good and can provide anything that WP7.5 does and much more on top of that. In addition, most of the devices out there offer much more than any Windows Phone. And just wait, the iPhone 5 is not even out!!

Commenter keymaker remains optimistic about Windows Phone: "I think it's too early but one thing is for sure though, almost all customers reviews are all positive and these things being dirt cheap also helps a lot".

Photo Credit: Microsoft

This week some intrepid iOS developers have discovered a new portal coming your way soon: Apple’s iCloud beta, complete with code references to the new iOS 6 mobile operating system. This climpse has not yet shown just one whole heck of a lot of information about what we’re in for in the future for Apple’s mobile devices, but we can see that we’re in for some more cloud integration of services soon. Included in this beta portal are references and images of both Apple’s Notes and Reminders, both of them set for iOS on the iPhone, for example, coming to the iCloud soon we must expect.

As Apple extends their services in so many more ways than one, the cloud grows and the iCloud services that come along with it do as well. What’s also being shown in the code for the beta version of iCloud’s web browser portal are the words “To use beta.icloud.com, first sign in to iCloud with the iOS 6 Beta.” This basically points toward WWDC as it comes up next month, a fabulous place for Apple to bring on such functionality before it lands on the next iPhone (and subsequent iPad, of course.)

This site shows off just the elements you see above, but will likely also be integrating the new version of maps for iOS 6 and the iPhone 5 as tipped earlier today and and shown in a very pre-Apple video by the company that will likely be developing this next-generation software as well. Have a peek at the timeline below to see where this maps business is going and how it all ties into iCloud and iOS 6 as well. We’ll be seeing final versions of this beta business soon, very soon!

[via 9to5mac]

This week some intrepid iOS developers have discovered a new portal coming your way soon: Apple’s iCloud beta, complete with code references to the new iOS 6 mobile operating system. This climpse has not yet shown just one whole heck of a lot of information about what we’re in for in the future for Apple’s mobile devices, but we can see that we’re in for some more cloud integration of services soon. Included in this beta portal are references and images of both Apple’s Notes and Reminders, both of them set for iOS on the iPhone, for example, coming to the iCloud soon we must expect.

As Apple extends their services in so many more ways than one, the cloud grows and the iCloud services that come along with it do as well. What’s also being shown in the code for the beta version of iCloud’s web browser portal are the words “To use beta.icloud.com, first sign in to iCloud with the iOS 6 Beta.” This basically points toward WWDC as it comes up next month, a fabulous place for Apple to bring on such functionality before it lands on the next iPhone (and subsequent iPad, of course.)

This site shows off just the elements you see above, but will likely also be integrating the new version of maps for iOS 6 and the iPhone 5 as tipped earlier today and and shown in a very pre-Apple video by the company that will likely be developing this next-generation software as well. Have a peek at the timeline below to see where this maps business is going and how it all ties into iCloud and iOS 6 as well. We’ll be seeing final versions of this beta business soon, very soon!

[via 9to5mac]

The issue with the soon-to-come generation of Windows mobile computers (tablets) of performance versus productivity, when it comes to software development, looms on all of us programmers who desire to write software for Windows 8. As a longtime Windows API programmer I appear to be in the minority, but I just can't help but ask the question: "Do programmers just not get it?"

I have watched the video of a talk by Microsoft's Herb Sutter entitled "Why C++?" more than once and even though I don't use C++, I just can't help but appreciate his points about the importance of performance, especially when it comes to the next generation of mobile devices.

He discusses the importance of performance from tablet computers to large datacenters. He uses terms like performance per watt , performance per dollar and performance per cycle (how much work can you get from the hardware). He even comments about how in a datacenter, the performance of software can have an effect on up to 80 percent of the total cost to run the datacenter (better software uses less power and requires less hardware).

OK, folks, this guy is an expert in the industry, so don't listen to me. He definitely is on to something here, and I am not convinced that most programmers grasp it fully yet.

The Problem Is Not the Hardware, But the Software

Manufacturers of computer hardware for years have frantically tried to keep pace, pushing each new generation further and further. I can remember developing software for computers, with a 20MB (not a typo) hard drive or just floppy drives and no hard drive at all. Memory counted in kilobytes. A fast CPU ran at 25 MHz.

Let's be honest here. When it comes to computers we have come a long way. Today, CPUs are in the gigahertz range, and they have an onboard cache with more memory than the entire computer had back in those days. Hard drives are now come with terabytes of space. RAM memory is in the gigabytes. So hardware manufacturers, give yourself a pat on the back, because you have done an amazing job of pushing the maximum. It is time programmers stop picking on companies like Intel with their Atom CPU.

The so called "Moore's Law", at some point will reach an end most likely. Even Herb Sutter admits this. At some point performance of software will be what really matters. Programmers just don't seem to get this though. I don't understand it personally. Let me give you an example of how programmers may not fully appreciate how performance is really achieved.

Asynchronous

Read the comments to some of my other articles and more than once you will see someone post how the latest managed (.NET) programming languages solve the problem with slow software, by providing the asynchronous calls to object methods (subroutines or functions). The idea is that because Windows is a multitasking operating system and most CPUs today are multicore, that if some part of the software is too slow or takes too long to run, a programmer can just pass this code on to a separate thread (running asynchronously or at the same time) , which is then simply passed on to another core of the CPU and everything is solved. Now you have "fast and fluid" software.

The truth is that such programming techniques simply pass the buck back to the hardware, expecting it to solve the programmers' problems. The technique of using threads is nothing new. Multi-threading has been in Windows for many, many years and experienced programmers knew how and when to tap into multithreading.

Multithreading does not speed up software. It simply forces a computer to do two tasks at one time, simply by switching between them so fast you don't notice the switch. But no matter how you word it, the computer is trying to do two tasks, rather than just one, which means more work, not less and the switching process has overhead, which means even more work.

To illustrate. Consider someone who is a juggler. It is not easy to juggle two balls. But as the juggler starts adding more balls, things start getting harder and harder. Each new ball added significantly increases the complexity of the task. You see a juggler only has two hands and each hand can only handle one ball at a time. The same holds true with computers. No matter how many cores a CPU has, at some point you are handling more tasks than the number of CPU cores you have. Each core can only handle one task at a time. Now a CPU may be optimized to do some things in parallel within itself, but even there it has limits. The point is that just like the juggler, a computer can do only so much work.

Sutter in his talk tries to tell us that performance still matters and will matter even more in the future. Why? Mobile computers, because of their small form factor, have less power and resources, so they have to be used carefully. Computers where form factor is not an issue, like data centers, do more work today, not less, so hardware is being pushed to the limit.

But look how far computer hardware has come in just a few decades. The problem is not with computer hardware failing to keeping pace, but it is with how we design software and our lack of appreciation for using limited resources effectively. Programmers just don't get it. We can't keep blaming the hardware or just keep passing the buck to the hardware. Performance is our problem to solve, but sadly it is a low priority for many.

A Lesson From Old Timers

Programmers who date back to the days of DOS or earlier are often looked upon as relics in this modern age. Some of them still use command line compilers, rather than the latest studio development environment. Whether businesses or the enterprise realize it or not, there is a great asset there that could and should be tapped into. Such programmers likely know what it means to get every last bit of power out of a computer. They know what it means to work with limited memory. They know what it means to count CPU cycles. They may still use a stop watch to time how long some code takes to run.

Such talent is rare today, in my opinion. Programmers, no matter what development language they use, who know how to write software with performance in mind, are valuable to the industry. When I wrote my article about sending programmers to Walmart to buy their computers, few who commented could appreciate the purpose behind it. They just don't get the point. Some of what I was saying was in jest. I don't expect programmers to use low-power computers. The mindset matters -- that performance is important. Whatever it takes, even making a programmer use a less-powerful computer, to help him or her see the importance of performance can be beneficial.

Get Back to the Basics

The programming world may be just so wrapped up in the latest technologies, the latest frameworks, the latest development studios thinking it all makes us more productive, while forgetting what a computer really is and how it really works. Just mention the word "assembler" or "machine language" and some programmers may just shudder! They may think such terms belong in the Dark Ages. Well, guess what? That is how a computer actually works under the hood. Everything we develop using high-level tools eventually will be executed on a computer at the lowest level, which is machine language. What we design using any high-level tool or language, must some how become machine language.

This is why old timers moved away from interpreted languages in favor of compilers. While a scripting language can be useful in some contexts, remember it takes longer for scripting to run than pure machine language. While I don't expect us all to go back to assembler, nor do I feel that scripting languages have no value, it is still important to remember to always count the cost of how we develop software. Productivity is important too, but not at the cost of all performance. Actually productivity tools designed with performance in mind can be very powerful. Even scripting languages can be optimized for speed and performance.

But programmers have to always keep performance in mind.  Just because computers appear to have extra power (or resources) to spare, does not mean that programmers should not care about developing fast software that uses minimal resources. Maybe we just need to get back to the basics. Performance matters.

Photo Credit: Jose Gil/Shutterstock

Chris Boss is an advanced Windows API programmer and developer of 10 year-old EZGUI, which is now version 5. He owns The Computer Workshop, which opened for businesses in the late 1980s. He originally developed custom software for local businesses. Now he develops programming tools for use with the PowerBasic compiler.