Cisco too in the Tablet market!

Cisco is allset to launch its Tablet - "Cius". Amazon's Kindle, Apple's I-Pad, HP is also getting into this segment. It was a wonderful experience using the i-pad. But honestly, I wonder if there is a good enough market for these Tablet devices. Laptops are becoming thinner and sleeker and Smartphones are getting bigger screens. So what's the need for a Tablet( Ofcourse these carry a huge "show-off" value)?

BWA 40k Crore

Hon Finance Minsiter must be the happiest man of earth. Another 40K Crore. So in all over 100 K crore! Not a bad deal at all!

I wonder how many of these ompanies will survive over the next few years.

80K crore in all!!!

19th May 2010 will be a historic day! The Goverment has earned 67,000 Crore from 3G Auction! BWA expected to get gross about Rs 12,000 crore!

How on earth will the Telcos manage thier Balance sheet and maintain profitability over the next many years? The Top5 will have to dole out Billions of Dollars.With the huge increase in Smartphone usage, it is likely that the Telecos may scrape through. We will have consolidation starting very soon

Undoubtedly what caught everybody's attention was efficient and transparent multi-phase bidding process. Certainly helped in avoiding cartelisation.

Lava, Micromax, Videocon....

The Tier-2/3 Phone market was active for over two years but was limited to your friendly neighbourhood Mobile phone stores. There is a sudden spurt of jazzy advertisements, endorsements from popular cricketers.

It is fair to assume that these new players will atleast create a small dent on the low and Mid segment Phone sales from Tier-1 companies!

Tier 2/3 phones are far better than the imitation( Look-alike)phones from China! May be these players are coming into spotlight as the government blocked IMEI from the chinese imitation phones

INQ looks promising. They seem to have completely soaked into Social networking which undoubtedly is the hot area now.

Killer Apps - What Killer Apps?

Is there something called Killer Apps? Maybe yes, but a quick look at the applications in the Mobile/Internet world, it is quite intriguing to note that successful Apps directly relate to some of the basic desires of man-kind. Example -
Basic Oral/ written communcation( Phones, e-mail/ Messaging)
Searching ( What better word than Google)
purchasing/Shopping ( All the on-line stores)
Playing Games ( All the Gaming Apps).
and ofcourse Gossiping ( FaceBook etc)

Essentially users are willing learn technology that can help them carry out basic tasks efficiently!

So what is the next Killer App?

Have you been "DoCoMo"ed

One of the local News paper carried an intersting Editorial on a new term - "DoCoMoed". Basically means one has been cheated/mis-guided.
Hmmm.. Still Tata has been successful in DoCoMoing many customers to emerge with highest subscriber addition over the past few months! I guess everything is fair:)

Freedom of Choice

My article on the impact of MNP in the Indian scenario has appeared in Deccan Herald - Business and Economy section.- 1-Feb-2010

MNP is a step towards pushing the service providers to improve their quality of service and fostering competitiveness. This could serve as a catalyst to spur further growth in the mobile industry. Subscribers are sure to benefit from the introduction of MNP and importantly it positively affects subscribers’ psychology with the option to switch “anytime”.


Click on the image to read the article as printed OR follow the link Freedom of Choice

Mobile Number portability

At the outlest let me wish you and your family a very happy prosperous and peaceful 2010!

Mobile NUmber portability ( MNP) which was supposed to be available from today( in Metros) appears to have been delayed as the Dipping fee (Amout to be paid by Operators to the MN provider) is not decided - Rather this is the official reason. TRAI expects 10% of the post paid customers to "switch" operators. It looks like a very aggresive target.
On the other hand we can expect Operators to try and woo customers based on longevity (something like Loyalty points!). Obviously Operators definetly cannot afford to lose Post paid subscibers!!

Apple will be No 2 in Smartphone sales shortly

Apple which started with just about 5% Market share towards end of 2007, has grabbed over 17% of the market share in Q3 2009.

Nokia's share is rapidly sliding from higher than 60% to around 40% last quarter.
RIM is sandwiched between Nokia and Apple for many quarters now and will be pushed to No 3 slot within the next 6 months ( if not earlier!)

Penetration of Smartphone in India will take some time. Today it is SMART PHONE FOR SMART PEOPLE.... :)

Will Rural India benefit from the Mobile Boom

My article on Mobile Applications for rural India appeared under Economy and Business, Deccan Herald : 26th Oct 2009

Rural India has played an important role in India’s overall economic growth. In fact, rural India accounts for 70% of India’s population, 56% of income, 64% of expenditure and 33% of savings, as per ICRIER (Indian Council of Research on International Economic Relations) Jan 2009 report. Mobile communication, by bridging the digital divide has revolutionized the social and economic life across the rural and semi-urban areas and Mobile phones represent the world's largest distribution platform. “The mobile phone market is especially important for developing countries, where it is growing most rapidly and where it is seen as a "leapfrogging" tool” states a 2009 World Bank report on Information and communication......


Click on the image to read the article as printed OR follow the the link Rural India can Immensely benefit from teh Mobile Boom

Per-second billing

Who would have imagined that Per Second billing (PSB) introduced by DoCoMo ( with all the catchy advertisments!)would be a trigger for the Telecom Stocks to tumble!

TRAI which initially said that the PSB is mandatory , now has done a u-turn confirming that it is just an option!

For all the Post paid subscribers ( which should be about 10% of the overall MObile Market. Yes! India has around 90% Pre-paid connections!!!), per-second billing may not make too much of a difference

TRAI will come-up with a consultation paper over the next 45 days and needs to be seen what exactly does the TRAI reccommend

Should there be changes to Landline billing as well?

The M in Learning

The mobile phone can enable learning in a developing country such as India where its usage is growing by leaps and bounds.. This is article that I co-authored with Dr Sridhar. This article appeared in the Hindu Business Line (5th October 2009).

Click on the image to read the article as printed OR follow the the link The M in Learning