Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wfryer/4538063192/

So, I guess before I go into the main topic, I’ll start off by saying I was wrong about the iPad. Well, not wrong in the technical sense. The build issues Adam Frucci raised are still significant enough to dissuade me from purchasing it, at least for now, but 2 million sales in just 2 months is quite an accomplishment. So yeah, I’ll eat my words. The iPad is a success. If anything, I probably underestimated the power of the app store. The best days are probably ahead of the iPad, what with the expected video camera breathing new life into new applications.

But I’m not writing just to praise the iPad, but to riff about the app store. The walled garden ghetto du jour.

To me the app store harkens back to the AOL days, when people were new to the Internet trolled around the different “channels” and assumed the Internet started and ended there. In retrospect, it sounds silly right? LOL. AOL. But at the time it served a good purpose. For one, rudimentary browsers and Internet standards meant web sites generally couldn’t or didn’t deliver the same content in as an interesting or creative way as AOL was able to. Additionally, curating content by channels helped people to navigate content; especially during an age where Internet search was ineffective or useless.

Of course, we know how this story ends. Browser and web coding technology evolved. Search evolved. And suddenly everything you found within the AOL walled garden could now be found on the Internet, except now it was even better and there was that much more to see. Why let AOL control the experience?

Fast forward, oh 15 years or so. And we see a similar environment with mobile. WEP sites provide the bare necessities for the majority that don’t own smartphones. And for those with smartphones, viewing a page designed for a desktop still doesn’t feel all that great when you’re constantly pinching in and out on a 3.5” screen. Now, iPhone optimized websites are actually pretty cool… but the iPhone population is still a distinct minority. And iPhone optimized sites feel distinctly templated (which is neither good nor bad).

So in comes the app store. It allows you to find cool things more easily, and the apps themselves deliver a better user experience. But the catalog of apps largely consists of stuff that you’d typically use the Internet for if you were on a desktop. A weather app? Check. The latest news? Check. Stock quotes? Check. Plants vs. Zombies? Check.

Unfortunately, the mobile Internet isn’t able to deliver the same type of experience. Yet. Eventually it will, and the importance of app stores will fade. HTML5 and mobile browser innovation should take us a long way there. Flash and similar tech, I think will have a role as well. Maybe moreso than we think. Flash is still too resource heavy* to be truly effective for mobile, but with the mobile processor arms race underway, the hardware should eventually catch up. (*Sidebar: Actually, “Flash is still too sucky” on mobile would be the more accurate phrasing. While I think Apple’s being selfishly dogmatic by not supporting Flash on the iPhone, or especially the iPad, I will admit every version of mobile Flash that I’ve used or seen has sucked.)

The app store will always have some purpose, the same way the cloud isn’t going to replace all your desktop programs anytime soon; games and specialty apps that require access to specific hardware, require a unique interface or persistent connection, or are just too heavy to run through browsers. Some paid apps will also probably stay in app store form, depending on how easy mobile payments turn out to be. But eventually we’ll get to a point where developers won’t have to worry about when porting their app onto various platforms and users won’t have to worry about when a much anticipated iPhone app will port over to Android, and vice versa. Just build it once for the web and BOOM. Finit.

We’ll get there.

If I haven’t already talked to you about it, my trip was excellent. A few things came to mind that I wanted to jot down. So if you’ve never been to Japan, or Korea, and wondered what’s cool, what’s not, read on. This is all obviously just based on my completely subjective anecdotal observations.

The food

Japan: Honestly, I couldn’t get really into Japanese food. Admittedly, I’m not a seafood fan which does reduce the eating opportunities, but Japanese food just tasted a little bland to me. My favorite place I found was a curry shop off the Komagone stop in Tokyo that had curry spiciness in 10 different levels. But you could only try level 6 and above if you successfully ate the level 5 spiciness curry. I went for the level 4 curry. It was indeed pretty darn spicy. I might’ve struggled with level 5. I’m really curious about the level 10 spiciness. I did appreciate the food in the convenience stores though. It’s nothing great, but it tastes better and is probably healthier than the hot dogs and stuff you find in the convenience stores here (although there doesn’t seem to be any live food preparation like at a Wawa).

Korea: There’s plenty of Korean food I don’t eat… like any sort of shellfish, or the staple kimchi, but I’m a much bigger fan of Korean food in general. Just seems tastier, and has an appropriate amount of spiciness. I also think there’s a little more variety with Korean food compared to Japanese food. Additionally, eateries are all over the place in Korea and generally really cheap. I’d say you could eat in Korea, on average, for half the cost compared to Japan. On the down side, I was sad to see that the pojangmachas have pretty much become extinct. Apparently there’s been some new regulations against scattering out on the sidewalks. This is probably a good thing for public order. But a sad day for culture and general drunkenness.

The scenery

Really, there’s no contest here. IMO, there’s almost nothing to see in Korea. I’ve spent a couple months there in the past and been to a good number of the major tourist areas: the various spots in Seoul, Gyeongju, Jeju Island, Nami Island, and none of them compare to the stuff you can see in Japan. Japan obviously has Kyoto, which is the most beautiful city I’ve seen and a place you can probably get lost in for a month, but even in concrete jungles like Tokyo, there’s spots you can get away and experience a totally different vibe. Not to mention all little farm towns, and smaller cities in between. There’s something to see just about everywhere. Korea also falls victim to the widespread infection of the ugliest apartment towers I’ve ever seen. Purely functional, no aesthetic. Sort of like the people pods in the Matrix.

After seeing Japan, I’ve become convinced that prominent space for public parks (and not golf courses) are necessary to be a truly healthy, cosmopolitan city. And they need to be centrally located. Think like Rittenhouse Square, but about 20 times bigger. I know we have Fairmount Park, but it is too damn far out of the way.

The fashion

Japanese fashion looks a lot more interesting and has more unique niches compared to Korean fashion. Korean fashion is fairly similar to US fashion, maybe a little more unisex style with the guys fashion, and all that exists in Japan too, but they have many more extreme fashion niches (think Harajuku) that you’d be hard pressed to find in Korea. Also, everything in Japan is super cute, so girls’ fashion is more eye appealing better. And unlike the boring, conservative, business casual skirts that are so popular in the US, there’s no skirt too short, fluffy or frilly for the Japanese (skirts should taper out not in!). Some women do wear pants and jeans, but I’d put the pants vs. skirt split at 50/50 in Japan, whereas it’s like 85/15 in Korea and 90/10 in the US. This is a war that can be won.

On the plus side for both Japan and Korea, I wear a medium there vs. a small or X-small in the US. So I can wear whatever I find vs. here where I end up buying everything online. Man, I should’ve bought more clothes while I was out there. Pricewise, it’s probably equivalent to what’s in Philly. Although blazers can be found much cheaper. I’m looking forward to the event that I can wear the white blazer I bought.

English

You may be surprised to learn that the Japanese are terrible at English. I’m not just talking about pronunciation, but they just flat out don’t understand (or at least claim to). I know they study English in school up through high school, but apparently no one’s paying attention. I’d say on average 8 of the 10 people I met spoke no English. The other two might have spoken it, but at a very basic level. On a whole, I can count on one hand the number of people I encountered who spoke “good” English. On the other hand, people in Korea are generally surprisingly good at English (especially the younger people). This is because not only do they study English in school, but many of them also receive private English tutoring. Yeah, that’s one of the benefits of being the Israel of Asia.

On the flip side, the romanization of the Japanese language is consistent and is pretty close to the native pronunciation. But the romanization of Korean doesn’t make sense to me a lot of times. I think that at least 30% of the time, the romanization sounds significantly different from the actual Korean pronunciation. To the point where if someone read the English to me, and I read the actual Korean, I’d think they were talking about completely different things.

Subways

Subways in Japan and Korea are so much better than anything I’ve rode in the states (especially SEPTA). The disparity is depressing. The Japanese and Korean subways are super clean, fast and punctual. They’re relatively cheap, and the fare system is easy to understand. The trains themselves are modern, clean and useful. You hear the original language then the English translation. There’s also LCD screens showing you where you are, what the next stops are, and how long it takes to get there. Japan gets the nod, because all of its subway stations, even the little crappy ones, have coin lockers for usage. They’re a little harder to find in the Korean subways.

On the downside, I thought crowded SEPTA buses were crowded, but then I got caught in a Japanese human tidal wave one morning, where literally everyone files in to the train and it becomes one massive gelatinous mosh pit. No one holds on to anything (because they can’t), and everyone just sways in unison. Then when the train stops, everyone pushes their way out. I ended up crowd surfing out at one stop against my will and having to scramble back into the train. But I only noticed this during rush hour though, so it’s avoidable.

The Japanese have the art of looking busy in a train down to a T. Cell phones, Nintendo DS, PSPs, iPods, sleeping. You won’t see one person not doing one of those things. In fact, after 7pm, about 50% of the people on the train will probably be nodding off.

Presentation

The Japanese attention to detail in the way they present things is unparalleled. From the way food is arranged on a plate (they can make hamburgers look like king’s feasts), to the fine stitching and patterns on a gothic lolita dress, to the way the trees, bridges and waterways are laid out in a garden, everything looks remarkable.

The girls

Well…I think the Japanese look pretty similar to the Koreans and vice versa (although the Koreans will vehemently tell you otherwise, and maybe the Japanese will too)… Korean girls I think have slightly rounder faces. Japanese girls, I swear had slightly higher pitched, cuter voices. They are also a little shorter and skinnier than Korean girls (who are on the low end of the BMI scale themselves). Actually, Koreans in general (guys included) seem to be bigger than the Japanese. Most of the Japanese people were built like me. But in Korea, the people are a little bit taller, and a little bit thicker. But anyway, back to what I was talking about. +1 to the Japanese, because cute skirts > any type of clothing with pant legs. +1 to the Koreans, because I can understand what they say (illiteracy is not sexy). +1 to the Japanese, because 90% of them were shorter than me. +1 to the Koreans, because the cutest girl I met was Korean. So… what was I talking about again? Oh yeah, I know what’s up. I’m going to take the diplomatic route and say something generic like, “everyone’s a winner.” Uh huh.

Pedestrians, Bikers and Cars

Korea: Lots of pedestrians, lots of cars, few bikers

Japan: Lots of pedestrians, fewer cars, lots of bikers

In Japan, everyone obeys traffic lights. In Kyoto, I noticed crowds of people waiting for the green walking man symbol on streets that were literally 5 feet wide. I could’ve jumped across the street. But yet they waited until that light turned green. Also, this is remarkable, but the bikers, who are actually all over the place (and include grandmas, people in business suits, and just about anyone from any demographic), actually will stop and yield for pedestrians (they also obey the traffic signals). A society where biker doesn’t equate to dumb asshole. I never thought I would seen the day. But it was awesome. Also of note: 99% of the bikes in Japan look like they came right out of the 60′s. I don’t know if that’s the style. They all look like the old Schwinn bikes. And they’re all made by companies I had no clue made bikes: Hummer? Bridgestone? I had no clue.

Traffic in Korea sucks. I’m sure traffic in Japan can suck too, but traffic in Korea is perpetually bad. The problem is, you can get around in Japan easily without a car. But it’s a lot harder in Korea (in terms of getting from city to city). And in Korea, in addition to backups on major roads, every side street is a two way road, with parking on both sides… except the streets are only about 15 feet wide. So 9 times out of 10, you’ll be driving down the road and someone will pull in ahead of you, driving the opposite way, and one of you will have to either pull off to the side or get in reverse, so the other can get by first. This has been the case since forever. They really need to regulate this better.

Chubbiness in Korea is on the rise

In both Japan and Korea, I can count the number of obese people I saw on one hand (or maybe two). But I was a little disappointed at how many chubby younger people I saw in Korea compared to when I was there last (2002). Obesity doesn’t seem to be a problem, but chubbiness seems to be on the rise. I didn’t notice this as much in Japan, which is remarkable because 1 out of every 3 stores there is a bakery, ice cream store, or cafe.

Shopping

Japan has a million stores, but only 5 different kinds: the major, international department store, the bakery/ice cream store/cafe, the cultural tchotchke shop, the convenience store, the restaurant. And I’m pretty sure all the culture tchotchke shops engage in price fixing, because they all sell the same stuff at the same exact prices. Somewhere out there there’s a yakuza boss running the tchotchke racket.

Korea has less international department stores (although more Korean-centric department stores), less bakery/ice cream store/cafes, very few cultural tchotchke shops, and fewer convenience stores, but about 20x the number of restaurants. It’s always been this way. Like I mentioned, good food is plentiful and cheap. Outside of the restaurants, shopping can be a little intimidating in Korea, because you can haggle just about everywhere. If you pay the price on the tag, you’ve probably paid too much.

Cleanliness

It amazes me that Japan is as clean as it is, because it can be a challenge to even find a trash can. The only surefire places you’ll find one are outside convenience stores and on subway platforms. Otherwise… get used to carrying around your trash. Meanwhile, the other day I saw someone on Broad Street throw a banana peel on the ground when he walked right by a trash can. I considered pushing him in front of oncoming traffic for a second.

Korea is also pretty clean, most definitely cleaner than Philly or New York, but not quite as clean as Japan. The massive amounts of smog from the car traffic really hurts. On the plus side, it’s a little easier to find trash cans in Korea.

So in terms of cleanliness rankings it goes like this:

• Kyoto
• Any Japanese city not named Tokyo
• A Japanese farmhouse
• Tokyo
• Any Korean city not named Seoul
• Any Japanese public restroom not in Tokyo
• Seoul
• My house
• Rittenhouse Square
• Any Korean public restroom
• Any Tokyo public restroom
• Times Square
• The rest of Philadelphia
• Mr. Hanky
• Any SEPTA station

Bathrooms

Well, the public bathrooms in Japan are clean like I mentioned, but one thing I hated was that paper towel dispensers or air dryers were about as rare as trash cans. It was really annoying. And surprisingly unhygenic for a society where 15% of the people walk around with masks on their faces. But on the bright side, public restrooms were very plentiful, which meant I got to traverse subways that didn’t smell like piss. Meanwhile, in Korea, dryers and paper towels were plentiful, although public restrooms themselves are slightly less prevalent.

On the other hand, “Japanese” or “Korean” style toilets gross me out (you’ll see distinctions between “American” style toilets and “Japanese” style toilets). They’re basically flushable holes in the ground. I suppose they might be more sanitary since your butt wouldn’t touch anything, but I tried to not even look at them.

Showers

In Japan and Korea, the bathroom itself is a shower. There might be a tub, and there might be a shower curtain separating the toilet from the shower, but you’d consider it to be one unified item.

I used to be bothered by this, but now I think that it’s not a bad idea. Especially because there’s a drain for the shower, but there’s also a drain on the floor of the bathroom. What’s the big deal about that? Well, after having to clean my bathroom for the past several years, I think it’d be much easier (and more effective) if I didn’t have to bother wiping anything and rather just hose everything down and just let all the water drain out. I’ll have to keep this in mind for the future.

Pigeons

In case you were wondering (and why wouldn’t you), the pigeons in Japan and Korea look just like the pigeons in the US. If anything, they use their wings a little more, but they’re still the same lazy birds.

Final verdict

Both places are cool places to visit. But if you had to pick one to visit, you should visit Japan, just because there’s so much more to see (I probably saw only 1/2 of what I wanted, and didn’t even venture down to the southern or northern areas).

Just logged into facebook and had all my “interests” turned into pages. On those pages? A message:

“A collection of shared knowledge” hmm, that sounds familiar. Of course, facebook also scrapes all the wikipedia content and includes it on the page and even on an independent tab of its own, so maybe not. But then again…

Flash vs. HTML5 for web apps

for a large number of web productivity apps, the HTML5 approach will become the preferred model…There are also a class of Web Productivity Apps where Flash is the preferred runtime, especially those that involve working with and manipulating media such as images, audio and video.

Flash vs. HTML5 on handhelds

Three runtime platforms will gain adoption and often even inter-mingle — HTML5 content and apps, Native Apps (that may contain Flash and HTML content), and HTML5 apps that contain and leverage Flash Player.

Flash vs. HTML5 for Video

First, right now, there is a lack of common approach among browser makers on what format to use for the HTML video object…All of this is a long way of saying that there is still significant format tension and that it will take a long time for it to be resolved in next-gen browsers.

Online video publishers will only adopt standards that have extremely broad adoption. Until penetration rates consistently reach 80%, it will be hard for publishers to switch and adopt a single, new solution. It is more likely that HTML5 Video adoption will reach that critical mass on hand-held devices before it does on the PC/Web.

It’s hard for tech geeks, business wonks and ridiculous company fanboys to accept that there may be no clear winners. That X won’t KILL Y immediately (look at how popular IE6 still is even after 5+ years of heavy disdain and criticism), but Jeremy Allaire’s article was the measured type of response I expected to hear after Steve Jobs Flash/HTML5 fanfare and didn’t get. Flash is currently 3x+ more prevalent than HTML5 capable browsers (discounting IE and accounting for FF and webkit browsers, even though both of them still have poor standard support). What rational person could possibly expect niche browsers to drive the mainstream adoption of a new technology standard? Sure, it could happen in 5+ years, but does Steve Jobs expect his customers to look at vague cubes during that time?

However, I do believe there is an opportunity to develop new technologies on mobile that can enable rich interactions that I’m not sure HTML5 or Flash is best suited for. Flash is ideal for bringing the desktop experience to mobile, which is fine for now, but clearly a shoehorning of technology into a less-than-ideal form factor.

Maybe the iPad will be a success yet. I’ve been wrong on these things before, I’ll be wrong again. But I’m more inclined to think that the iPad will be more Apple TV than the iPhone. Adam Frucci has a very good post on the 8 things that suck about the iPod that covers all the major issues I have with the iPad (and then some), but here’s my additions/suggestions.

1. The Big, Ugly Bezel. I understand that the idea is to prevent accidental input when you’re holding the iPad, but that bezel is digital frame-esque large. It’s comically large. I know Apple likes the clean lines, but they would’ve been better off cutting the bezel width in half, and perhaps going with a raised and grooved edge. No, it’s not as sleek and cool, but it’s a lot more functional, and it allows you to show more screen real estate. Besides, it’s not like this thing was pocket-sized form fitting anyway. Apple would’ve been better off going without the sleekness. Bumps and lumps help keep you from accidentally dropping things.
2. No Multitasking. Frucci said it was a backbreaker. I have to agree completely. Apple would’ve been better off going with adapting a version of OS X. I know everyone loves this newfangled app store doohicky, but there used to be this thing called the Internets where you could download all sorts of free and paid apps. How big is that app store? Who knows, because it’s not a controlled environment.
3. No cameras. It’s quite perplexing that so many comments think that “camera” refers to the camera phone/iPhone type of camera. Is it the writers fault for not being more clear? Or is it the readers fault for being so stupid? Basically, camera means webcam. There’s no need for an outer facing camera like the iPhone. You’re not going to hold a 10 inch tablet like an asshole to take pictures of things. There absolutely should’ve been an inner facing webcam. A netbook replacement where you can’t video chat? That is not a netbook replacement. That is useless.
4. No HDMI out. This is one of those “are you geek enough” requirements. Sure it’d be nice to have, but do regular people care? Doubtful. I can pass on this.
5. The name iPad. Butt of many jokes. Honestly, this was laziness on Apple’s part. They got too conventional. There’s no need to stick to I-something naming convention. Otherwise the the Macbook isn’t called the iBook. The Air isn’t called the iBook Air. And Apple TV isn’t called iTV. Whoever made that decision dropped the ball.
6. No Flash. Like Frucci mentions, a marginally acceptable experience on the iPhone, an egregious miss for the iPad. Basically, if it’s as big as a laptop, it should perform like one. And all the apologists who look to HTML5 to displace Flash… how long do you plan on waiting for every Internet site to adopt a new standard while you’re putzing around on a piece of hardware that can’t make any good with sites like ESPN, CNN and Hulu? The idea that the iPad doesn’t need Flash, because HTML 5 is going to take over the world is perhaps the stupidest claim of all. Seriously. It’s Darwin-awards-esque stupid. Yeah, that might happen in 5 years, but in the meanwhile, I hope you enjoy your large $500+ brick of a machine.
7. Adapters. Eh, not great. I don’t know if this is a killer for the regular user. But it certainly hurts the convenience and portability argument.
8. It’s not widescreen. It’s not a killer for regular users as far as I’m concerned, but it sure doesn’t make the device feel like the wave of the future. To be honest, I get offended when I see shows in 4:3 these days.

Others:

1. Doesn’t support T-Mobile 3G. I don’t think anyone cares about T-Mobile. I’m more offended that AT&T thinks that a 250MB plan for $15 is a viable plan. Either offer that $30 unlimited option or don’t offer anything at all. The idea that 250MB is sufficient for anything at whatever price is ridiculous. Although I suppose it’s perfect if you wanted the iPad to download a half an episode of LOST each month.
2. A Closed App Ecosystem. Sort of goes back to my thought above that they would’ve been better off going with a version of OS X for this.
3. Form factor (this one’s mine). I expected more from Apple. Multitouch becomes much more difficult when you have to pinch larger chunks of screen real estate. And it becomes that much more difficult if you’re holding up the iPad with one hand and gesturing with the other.

Apple messed up by going cheap. You know what should be $500? The Macbook. Because it’s a commodity. A good tablet computer? It has the potential to change the way people interact with computers. So the iPad was the one product Apple would’ve been better off by charging a premium price for to offer more. Wow people with features, disappoint them with price. Rather than than try to wow them with price (and the price is really not that wow-worthy once you start considering the larger memory and 3G versions), and disappoint them with features. A truly groundbreaking product at $1500 would’ve been much preferred versus the iPod XXL at $849

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The claims that banks need to offer huge bonuses to retain their top “talent” is a  rather specious assertion. But I’ll disregard the fact that this “talent” precipitated one of the largest financial crises in US history. Realistically, where could this “talent” migrate to? A smaller hedge fund? Another bank? Alternatively, what other opportunities outside of finance do these “talents” really have? They’re not going to leave Wall Street to enter med schools and law schools. They are not going to become top flight scientists. They could pursue entrepreneurship but the payoff there is as capricious as playing the lottery. And working within any other industry could possibly be more personally fulfilling, but isn’t likely to be as enticing financially. Realistically, they have little other choices to turn to but the same circle jerk that they’re mired in now. Whether they’re getting 6 figure bonuses, or none at all.

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This makes a whole lot more sense to me than a google netbook does. Tablets are an untapped market, and a spot where the limitations of the Google OS seem less likely to be noticed.

A netbook with Google Chrome OS is only interesting if:

1. It’s around the OLPC XO price level
2. It’s challenging the Amazon Kindle’s 2 week battery life

Otherwise, getting a new laptop specificallyy for an OS that does nothing unique (and its appeal has to go beyond its 7 second boot time) is not an appealing proposition.

Your laptop. Just your laptop. Maybe. Just maybe. Unless Apple is going the Sony route in their marketing:

Which I don’t think they’re stupid enough to consider. The idea that the Apple tablet might replace your Kindle or iPod as Dan Ackerman suggests in this CNN article is rather preposterous. A 10-12 inch tablet is still a chunky piece of equipment no matter how light or sleek it might be.

It could be an effective large scale media player for when you’re on a train or a plane, but the possible usage scenarios beyond that seem limited. Touch typing on a large format tablet isn’t likely to be fast enough for hardcore productivity-focused laptop users. However, for someone who isn’t a hardcore laptop user like myself, it could be a good alternative.

The Kindle will run for 2 weeks after the tablet runs out of batteries – plus, if you’re reading for an extended period of time, Kindle’s e-ink puts less strain on the eyes than an LCD screen.

It’s not going to fit in your pocket, so it won’t replace your iPod during your jog or morning commute.

I’m sure it could replace your portable-DVD player (does anyone even use those?) even though I highly doubt the tablet will have an optical drive.

So what could it challenge? It could challenge netbooks. But that will depend on the price. An average netbook costs $300-400, where will the tablet end up? I’d guess that above $500 takes you out of many netbook buyers’ consideration set – even accounting for the Apple cool tax.

It could challenge the PSP or DS, but that will depend on the OS it uses, and again its price point. Assuming it comes in at around $600-800 though, I have trouble believing it’ll be a serious challenge for the $130 DS and the $170-250 PSP. Although its presence could suppress pricing for future Nintendo, MSFT and Sony entries.

Or maybe it’ll carve out a new niche in an underserved market that people are just not thinking of right now.

It’s amusing, because it ignores the fact that had GM et al. not put all their eggs in the SUV/truck basket, they probably would’ve gone under a decade ago.

From a WSJ article:

Detroit remains saddled with a cost structure that prevents making profits on any vehicles besides gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs.

The problem isn’t that Detroit put their eggs in the SUV basket. From a short-term perspective, what with their crippling cost structure, it was actually probably the most prudent thing to do. The problem is that:

1. They put all their eggs in the SUV basket, costing them the ability to adapt quickly to rising gas prices and a faltering economy (lower sales)
2. They failed to address the problem with their cost structure until it was too late to do so (rising costs)

Hybrids may or may not be the wave of the future, but if you look out on the roads, they’re not exactly taking the world by storm. And the Prius didn’t stop Toyota from having its worst year in nearly 60 years. Putting taxes on SUVs or requiring automakers to focus specific resources on building eco-friendly cars as part of bailout packages isn’t going to do much for US automakers’ future success. It just means they’ll probably be caught flat-footed again, when the US public decides that they want the next non-hybrid monstrosity.