Everybody’s been attacking Google’s Gmail recently. Here’s what the attacks are all about and why they’re (almost) all unjustified.

BlackBerry is a great company with great products and great ideas. But BlackBerry is failing hard. And the reason is that BlackBerry’s model is obsolete.

Don’t look now, but it’s 2013. If your handset isn’t running iOS or Android, you will not succeed in the consumer smartphone market.

And succeeding is exactly what isn’t happening at BlackBerry. The company recently announced a quarterly loss of about $1 billion. They announced that 40% of BlackBerry employees will be laid off. They’ve put the company up for sale. They’re selling their jet.

It’s over, basically. But it doesn’t have to be.

What BlackBerry really needs is to become an Android-handset maker.

You can talk speeds and feeds, specs and features, build quality, materials and engineering all you want. The Moto X is far more “human” than any other phone.

It feels like a friend and an ally, a sentient being that’s loyal and thoughtful. And these endearing qualities can actually trigger emotional attachment to the Moto X. Here’s why. 

Microsoft has a weird business model, and a fragile one.

Their model is: Get people to need Microsoft software, then sell that software at high prices.

Contrast this with Apple’s model, which is: Get people want your consumer electronics so bad they’ll pay a lot for it, then sell the hardware, software, services and content at high prices.

And finally, Google’s model: Get people use the Internet more by making it awesome and free, and make money when people use the Internet.

All three companies make operating systems for phones, tablets and desktop computers.

But which models will succeed in the future and which will fail?

I think it’s clear that Google’s model is most likely to succeed and Microsoft’s most likely to fail. And Apple will do just fine.

Here’s what’s happening.

Between now and Christmas, we’re going to see a flood of new smartwatches hitting the market, and I have the feeling that Google’s rumored smartwatch will be one of them.

Google is working on a smartwatch. But what kind of watch?

In the wake of revelations that Google bought WiMM Labs, it’s looking like Google’s smartwatch may be more than just a watch. Much more.