Mobile Fanboy! Good or bad?

David Bisset said it: “Fanboys out in force today.”

It’s interesting, whenever I write about mobile, no matter what side of the fence I come down on, people try to use “fanboy” as a pejorative.

It always makes me question whether I’m doing my best to serve my audience.

Here’s my thinking.

First, people who claim to not be fans can be written off completely as non-participants. It’s like going to a Giants vs. Dodgers game and finding someone who says “I don’t care who wins.” People like that bug me. Why are you even at the ballpark then?

In this case, why are you commenting on Louis Gray’s blog? (The first comment was from someone like this “I try to not be someone who roots for either one.”) Bah humbug.

Even Louis’ headline “the iPhone Fanboys can’t handle the truth on Android” makes this go down further. Unlike Louis, who has totally bought into the Google ecosystem, I can be seen carrying both devices. Of course, Louis’ fanboyisms gets him invited into Google events and even gets him free gear from Google. Translation: more free gear than I get. (Louis got a Google CR-48 laptop that I didn’t get)

I’m certain Louis is right. But I’ve learned with Louis to have a certain skepticism of what he’s telling me. After all, he’s the guy who got me to invest so much in FriendFeed. Yeah, now I have a friend with Facebook’s CTO (Facebook bought FriendFeed and then promptly took all the engineers off of that and put them on other projects), but it also got me kept off of Twitter’s suggested user list. There are consequences to your fanboyisms.

Me? The only consequences to me personally will be my $300 investment in apps. I already have a Verizon account I’m paying for and already have an Android device I pay for. Along with the iPhone and iPad I paid for and continue to pay for.

I’ve spent thousands of hours on my various mobile devices. So excuse me if I’m a bit passionate about where I see things going. I’ve also interviewed hundreds of mobile developers to understand where they are going and what bets they are making or even which are their favorites. Including Starbucks CIO (iOS), Sephora’s mobile developer (iOS) OpenTable’s mobile guy (iOS), eBay’s mobile guy (iOS), FoodSpotting’s founder (iOS) and on and on and on.

Is that fanboyism or journalism? Louis seems to say it’s all about being a fanboy and tries to justify his own singular choices. That’s cool. When the water on that side of the pool gets warmer I’ll swim on over.

For now, though, I’m sticking with the developers. The coolest apps are — overwhelmingly — on iOS today (and in my experience, when the same app is on both platforms the iPhone version is usually better designed and crashes less). Not many people argued with that. Not even the Google fanboys.

By the way, gotta correct Louis Gray on something. He says: “Android led the way in true multitasking on the phone, offers a superior GPS experience with top-notch places and maps, and is years ahead of Apple on voice search, it seems.”

OK, the old “my platform has more features than yours does.”

If features mattered Apple wouldn’t exist. After all, Nokia had better screens, better cameras, and better battery life long before the iPhone came along.

Heck, imagine for one moment that I had marched into Steve Ballmer’s office and said “Steve, our tablet PC sucks, we need to get rid of the camera, get rid of multitasking, get rid of printing, get rid of all those extra buttons on the front except for one, get rid of the ability to run Microsoft Office, oh, and make sure all those .NET apps don’t run either. Only then should we ship it.” Well, I would have gotten thrown out of his door so fast I wouldn’t have been able to say goodbye to his assistant. Google fans consistently don’t understand that fact.

But, look at my iPad. I used it all the way from SFO to CDG (Paris) and listened to music the ENTIRE time. It only used 9% of my battery life. Why? BECAUSE it didn’t have multitasking (actually, not quite true, it has some multitasking features now).

Funny enough, when Louis and I had dinner last week he showed me a way to kill tasks that were running in the background. I tried the same trick on my Nexus S and it didn’t work. Damn consistency let’s just ship! Grrr. Funny that every Android user has a Task Killer that they loaded as one of their apps. Try explaining THAT to a normal user “oh, you gotta kill tasks otherwise your phone sometimes won’t run right.”

Grrr. Yeah, I’m a fanboy.

But, these problems are gradually going away. It was far worse a year ago. Today at least the Nexus S is fast, has decent battery life, and feels well designed, if not a bit plasticky (if I didn’t have an iPhone I wouldn’t have noticed that, since most other phones are going that route to keep down costs).

Louis also writes “The truth is that Android can go feature by feature against iPhone now.”

Really? We compared panoramic photo apps. His sucked compared to the one from Occipital. His photos sucked too, and so did the display of same, when put side-by-side at dinner. I guess he forgot that. Not to mention that there’s nothing like the magical Word Lens app. Not to mention all the iPad apps that are out there like Flipboard, Aweditorium, NPR’s app, etc etc etc.

Oh, and GPS? That’s laughable. The GPS isn’t nearly as accurate in most Android devices as in the iPhone. Compare the two phones when checking in on Foursquare.

Louis, regarding voice navigation, just open the Google app on iPhone and you can do the same thing, plus, look at Voice DJ which is more accurate than anything on Google’s system (the developer of that told me he’ll bring it to Android next year too). Not to mention Siri, which I’m sure we’ll hear more about next year (Apple didn’t buy it for $200+ million to let it die).

Anyway, Louis ends with “But don’t get blinded by the Apple fans trying to define Android as a cheaper, inferior solution. It’s not.”

Really? Give me a break. I’ll go step-by-step how the ecosystem on Google is behind Apple today. Again, if you want. But I’m tired and my kids need some love.

Keep in mind, those are the words of a fanboy. Not that there’s anything wrong with that!

The facts in the mirror might be different than they appear on your favorite tech blog, though.

The truth is probably inbetween the fanboy positions. But that’s why I think Fanboys are good, just like Dodgers fans are good for the game of baseball, even though they are on the wrong side of the force.

If I’m serving my audience well, no one will be able to say “he didn’t do his homework.” That’s what I aim for, but some fanboy attitude is definitely good for the industry. Why? We’re spending our entire waking lives carrying these damn things around and betting our careers on the outcome. If you bet against Microsoft in the 1990s you know how bad that decision is.

View the original article here

The company behind mobile features in Mashable’s apps (amongst thousands of others)

How does Mashable, or Tapulous, or other companies add notifications into their mobile apps? How do they add in-app purchases? They hire Urban Airship!

Here CEO Scott Kveton talks to me about what he’s seeing happen in the mobile world and how mobile app developers are increasing engagement and monetization.

View the original article here

Skyfire Launches First Mobile Browser for the Social Networking Generation - San Francisco Chronicle (press release)

November 25th, 2010 | Social Networking

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With this­ new vers­ion of­ the popular Android application, the com­­pany­ us­hers­ in an entirely­ new way­ to ex­perience the m­­ob­ile Internet, g­eared to the needs­ of­ the s­ocial networking­ g­eneration. S­ky­f­ire b­ring­s­ the true power of­ F­aceb­ook to y­our Android device with eas­y­ s­tream­­ing­ of­ videos­ s­hared f­rom­­ f­riends­, q­uick news­ f­eed acces­s­, an eas­y­ way­ to s­ee the m­­os­t popular ‘liked’ articles­ on any­ s­ite, and m­­ore. With a s­ing­le click, us­ers­ can q­uickly­ check their F­aceb­ook Pag­e, “Like” or s­hare any­ Internet content, s­ee the m­­os­t “liked” content on any­ s­ite recom­­m­­ended b­y­ their f­riends­ (or the g­eneral F­aceb­ook com­­m­­unity­), and s­eam­­les­s­ly­ view videos­ and other F­aceb­ook links­ pos­ted b­y­ f­riends­. The app was­ nam­­ed the #2 App of­ All-Tim­­e f­or Android b­y­ TechCrunch, and was­ the top pick in a PC World S­eptem­­b­er 2010 com­­paris­on of­ all Android b­rows­ers­. c­lic­k­ h­er­e to­ r­ead­ mo­r­e

[Tags]th­e, o­­f­, and, to­­, o­­n, f­aceb­o­­o­­k, so­­cial netwo­­rking[/Tags]

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Windows Phone 7 growing 12 times faster than Windows Mobile did

November 26 2010 by admin in News |

The latest Distimo report is out, focusing on what’s moving and shaking in the various mobile marketplaces present on today’s smartphones. This month’s instalment gives us an insight into Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 7 Marketplace, a mobile operating system that launched just over a month ago.

In the lead-up to the release of Windows Phone 7, Microsoft spent a lot of time and money trying to attract developers to its new platform and for the most part it looks to have paid off. In just over a month, the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace has grown to double the size of the Windows Marketplace for Mobile in just one month, the latter has been open for just over a year. As of November 22, there were 2,674 applications available for Windows Phone 7 smartphones whereas its older counterpart has only amassed 1,350 applications to date.

Distimo has found that Windows Phone 7 users are significantly more into gaming than Windows Mobile users and that the price of applications on the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace have stayed in line with pricing on other mobile application stores, not surprising considering many developers are now producing the same apps and games across all of the popular mobile operating systems.

It was found that 57% of the 100 most popular applications are priced below $2, with other stores between 51% and 67%, except for Windows Marketplace for Mobile where only 37% are priced lower than $2.

Windows Mobile 6.x applications are the most expensive of all apps on smartphone platforms, costing $6.27 but Microsoft’s newest OS is the cheapest of all stores with an average price of $1.95.

As Windows Phone 7 handset sales continue to grow, it will be interesting to see how the marketplace evolves as the platform tries to differentiate itself from other, more popular, operating systems. Microsoft markets its devices telling consumers that its handsets allow users to see information at-a-glance and return back to normal life, so we could see a new shift in how application developers are looking to display their apps on the platform.

You can download the full Distimo report here.

View the original article here

Coca Cola vending machines to support mobile payments

November 26 2010 by admin in News |

Soft drink behemoth Coca Cola is working with european payments specialist PingPing to incorporate NFC (Near Field Communication) into its vending machines, incorporating it into machines in Belgium and Luxembourg before the end of 2010.

NFC is a short-range wireless technology that allows the exchange of data between devices. By outfitting its vending machines with the technology, Coca Cola will enable consumers to simply hold their NFC tag (currently a sticker on a mobile phone) in front of the the reader on the vending machine to make payment for their beverage.

As Mobile Entertainment notes, the functionality could soon be built into the SIM card of a handset.

Coca Cola’s announcement comes shortly after US mobile operators announced they would be combining to offer a wireless payment system for their customers. NFC is gradually starting to be adopted as the next generation in mobile payments, coming away from internet based transactions and ushering in a new contactless way to purchase.

As Stijn Vander Plaetse, VP Innovation at Belgian operator Belgacom notes:

“After the success of contactless payment in the mobility field, this partnership with the major player in the beverage sector again demonstrates the soundness of our innovative strategy which aims to transform the mobile phone into an electronic wallet.

“We are convinced that PingPing can offer a simple, efficient solution for small, daily purchases.”

View the original article here

Test run: Techcrunch guest post: Do you +really+ use all those mobile apps?

Yesterday on the Gillmor Gang, Michael Arrington renewed his request to me to do a guest column for Techcrunch. I have resisted that urge for a while. Why? Well, my blog hasn’t been getting enough of my time lately and doing something for some other media outlet would require me to stretch myself even thinner (IE, it’d mean even fewer posts here). Anyway, thought I’d try this here and see what your reaction would be. Should I do it? If I did, this is the post I’d write today:

When I tell people I have 359 apps on my iPhone, they almost always answer back with the same question: “do you really use those apps everyday?”

That’s the wrong question.

Why? Because some apps, like iHandy Level (helps me level picture frames and other things) or my Flashlight app (helps me find my key in the dark when my wife turns off the light by accident) or my heartrate monitor (I use it to help calm down when an entrepreneur chooses the wrong philosophical path) are explictly not designed to be used everyday. There are a ton of heart-rate monitors for iPhones, for instance.

Getting asked that does cause me to think deeply about where we are in mobile and where we’re going.

I’ve asked a half-dozen audiences, some early adopter heavy, some not, how many have used more than 100 apps on their mobile phones? The highest answer I got was about 4% of the audience. Since there are 300,000 apps available on iPhones I find that fact to be interesting. It means that we have a lot of human behavior to change.

Why is 100 apps an important mark? Because going over that bar forced me to change my behavior. First of all, I needed to put apps into folders. If you don’t use groups your iPhone or iPad can’t even display all 359 apps I have.

The second change that it forced is that I no longer can remember every app I have on my phone. It’s sort of like a new kind of Dunbar number. Here, let me write a new behavior law: you will not be able to remember all of your apps if you have more than 100-200 on your phone. Some people might reach that new limit at 30. Others, who have better memories, might be able to remember 200, but I haven’t found anyone yet who can remember every app over that.

So, I’ve switched to searching for apps. Need Instagram? I swipe to the left, to get to Apple’s search screen. Then I start typing “I..N..S..T” by the time I get to the fifth character, or usually sooner, the app comes up and I can click on it and use it.

Yes, I do that even for apps I use multiple times a day, like Instagram. Why? Because it’s faster to use search than to try to remember which group I put it in.

So, I search for apps by name and what they do. Typing “L..E..V..E..L” brings up the level app. And so on, and so forth.

Some problems with this approach.

1. Search on the iPhone sucks because it mixes in contacts with apps. Makes it a little hard to find things. I have 8,000 contacts, though, so my experience is different than most normal users.
2. Lots of apps don’t include in the name what it does. Foursquare, for instance, lets you check in at various places. Or, it’s a location-based service. But try searching for “check in” or “location” and you’ll never find Foursquare. I’ve found lots of apps have been named in such a way that you’ll never find them if you search for what they do. “Find new iPhone apps” won’t pull up “Chomp,” for instance. So, that still requires you to remember the names of the apps, which most people can’t do over 100 apps. Real problem here.
3. If you don’t use folders you’ll never be able to add more than a couple of hundred apps (my iPad can’t display all the apps I’ve installed, for instance). Want to see my home screen? I’ve included it on this post. The problem with folders is Apple limits you to 12 apps in each, which is totally ridiculous. So now I have “location-based apps one” and “location-based apps two” etc. Also, if you get enough folders you’ll forget where you put things into. There’s definitely a limit.

So, there’s a real barrier to using a ton of apps.

Back to the question: do you really use all those mobile apps? Quick answer: no. But I use most of them enough to keep them on my phone. Certainly I use enough of them to demonstrate to you why apps are becoming hugely important to your next purchase decision (phones that don’t have many apps shouldn’t get supported by you because most of the functionality of phones now exists in the apps, not in the device itself).

Here’s why it’s still the wrong question to ask. Remember when everyone used to ask Microsoft why they couldn’t cut down the feature set of Microsoft Office to get it to run faster and take less space on disk (those questions don’t matter today, because our computers have gotten faster and our hard drives have gotten so much bigger that MS Office doesn’t even look that big anymore, but back in the 1990s this was a very common question)?

Well, the answer was that each feature in Excel, for instance, was used by 100,000 people. So, no one was able to cut features and say “that 100,000 people don’t matter.”

I have one app, for instance, Epocrates, that I have never used (and hope never to really need). But a Stanford Surgeon explained to me how it totally changed his life (and the lives of his patients). I keep that app on my phone so I can show it to doctors I meet. It’s a magical app that has transformed health care around the globe.

Another app I rarely use is Star Walk. With this you aim your phone or iPad up at the sky and it shows you what stars, planets, and other things are in the patch of sky you’re looking at. When I was in Jackson Hole my friends literally gasped when they saw how cool this app was (we could actually see the sky there).

A lot of apps I have on my phone are for various food-related things. Yeah, I love Foodspotting. You can see the awesome meals I’ve eaten in this app and I’m adding more every week. But I have a range of other apps, as well. Yelp, Urbanspoon, In-N-Out, Fiddme, Starbucks, and Zagat help me find restaurants and coffee shops. OpenTable helps me make reservations (although I use that one less because Yelp and Zagat have integrated its API into their apps). But I have a ton of other apps around food and meals. SocialGrapes and Wine Ratings helps me share which wine I am drinking, and find new ones from friends there. Omaha Steaks helps me order steaks for special at-home meals. KitchenHelper, Jamie Oliver’s 20 Min Meals, Betty Crocker’s Cookbook, Epicurious, KitchenHelper, AllRecipes, helps me make meals by showing me recipes and helping me learn to cook at home.

Expensify helps me do my expense reports.

Zillow helps me see what homes around me are worth.

Google Voice helps me see who has called me and get back to them, even if I don’t have my phone (I left my phone at home by accident this week and I borrowed a computer from someone to get into my account and see who has called me).

When I travel I use a range of apps, from Kayak, TripAdvisor, Expedia, etc to find airline tickets (although I’ve started to switch over to Hipmunk for that), rental cars, places to stay, etc. TripIt stays on as I travel because it tracks my flights and other info, and tells me how to direct cabs there. Speaking of cabs, in San Francisco I love using “Uber” because it will get me a ride, even if I’m on a street that doesn’t see many cabs. One of the funny apps I keep on my iPhone just for emergencies is “SitOrSquat.” Helps you find restrooms. I also have added the Find iPhone app, just in case someone takes my iPhone. I can use any computer to find out where it is and hopefully reclaim it. My boss had his iPhone stolen this week and he didn’t have that capability. $600 gone.

When I want to listen to something, there are a range of apps, including NPR’s news and NPR’s music apps, SoundHound, Last.fm, to Sonos and Boxee’ controller apps (I just got a Boxee box, so am using that more lately).

When I’m driving around I use Trapster, to see where the police are hanging out, Waze, to see more details about traffic conditions (often has more details than other maps, especially in non-US countries like Spain and Israel). Glympse, so I can show the folks I’m meeting with where I am, so they know where to expect me. AroundMe to find gas stations and other stores I need.

When shooting photos or videos I find a I use a variety of tools, from my favorite sharer, Instagram, to AutoStitch (makes great panoramic photos) to iMovie, for editing my videos, to Justin.tv or Ustream (viewer app, broadcasting app) for live streaming, to PhotoCard, for making postcards out of my photos (will be very useful for holiday cards this week) to Hipstamatic, for adding effects to my photos, amongst others.

I could keep going, but you get the idea. Note that I haven’t even talked about social networking apps like Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn (all three are used a lot every day) or news apps (I have a metric ton of those, from CNN to Skygrid to Flipboard on my iPad, etc). There’s a lot of apps out there, I’ve only seen a very small percentage (I rarely play games, for instance, so only have a few on my phone). The same is true of anyone you meet. Most have only a handful of apps and don’t even know what they are missing or what their new whizbang phone can do.

I find that sad, so I use Chomp to rate and review apps, you can see my account here. Actually, a better place to see all the apps I have loaded is Appsfire. My Appsfire list is here. Funny enough, that’s my least used app in the past month because I’ve been trying to just use my apps and let all of you catch up. But I’ll put more effort into that now.

Anyway, should I write guest posts like this one for Techcrunch? Why? Why not?

UPDATE: One good example of an app that’s invaluable, but that I don’t use very often, is the Rackspace Cloud iPhone app. That lets me spin up, and manage, new servers for web hosting and other purposes. I keep it mostly to demo to developers what they can do with their iPhones.

View the original article here

Retina Display Mobile Phone Iphone 4GS

Retina Display Mobile Phone Iphone 4GS

Retina Display Mobile Phone Iphone 4GS

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Retina Display Mobile Phone Iphone 4GS

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Retina Display Mobile Phone Iphone 4GS

By: Hope

About the Author

Jobs claims the iPhone 4gs’s display winds up looking like a high quality printed book (albeit that emits light!) rather than a blocky pixellated grid.

(ArticlesBase SC #3260948)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ – Retina Display Mobile Phone Iphone 4GS

The iPhone 4gs will also sport what Jobs described as a “retina display” with four times the pixel density of a typical LCD display at a whopping 326 pixels per inch—by far denser than anything else in the consumer electronics market. The result is a 3.5-inch display with a native resolution of 960 by 640 pixels that is actually a higher resolution than the typical human eye is capable of perceiving, when held at a distance of just 10 to 12 inches. Jobs claims the Iphone 4GS ‘s display winds up looking like a high quality printed book (albeit that emits light!) rather than a blocky pixellated grid. The iPhone OS automatically handles rendering text and controls at the higher resolution for the iPhone 4gs, so developers don’t need to do anything to update their applications to look good on the new display…but, of course, if developers want to add higher-resolution graphics to their apps, they will look stunning on the iPhone 4gs. The screen While we couldn’t get it past the connect to iTunes screen for the reasons listed earlier, the USB cable on that screen was so high quality that it was impossible to discern individual pixels. We can’t tell you the exact resolution of this next-generation iPhone, but it’s much higher than the current 3GS Iphone . The operating system According to the person who found it, this iPhone was running iPhone OS 4.0 before the iPhone 4.0 announcement. The person was able to play with it and see the iPhone 4.0 features. Then, Apple remotely killed the phone before we got access to it. We were unable to restore because each firmware is device specific—3GS firmware only loads on 3GS devices—and the there are no firmwares available for this unreleased phone. Which is another clue to its authenticity. Among new features in iOS 4 will be an option to use Microsoft’s Bing as a default search engine; Google will still be the iPhone’s default search, but Yahoo and Bing-powered searches will be available as options. Note that Bing will be taking over the back end for Yahoo’s search services later this year. Users will be able to switch to the rear-mounted 5 megapixel camera on the iphone 4G to let callers see what they’re seeing, or stick with the front-facing camera for face-to-face chat. Jobs says Apple plans to work with mobile operators to make FaceTime available over 3G data services. Apple says it plans to ship millions of FaceTime-capable devices this year—and if current iPhone sales are any indicator, they’re right—so iPhone 4 users will have plenty of people to talk to. (How far off is an app called FaceTime Roulette?) Apple says the technology behind FaceTime will be come an industry standard, and will be supported by other devices and services. Joanne-myreplicaphone Article from: www.myreplicaphone.com

Retrieved from “http://www.articlesbase.com/fashion-articles/retina-display-mobile-phone-iphone-4gs-3260948.html”

(ArticlesBase SC #3260948)

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About the Author:

Jobs claims the iPhone 4gs’s display winds up looking like a high quality printed book (albeit that emits light!) rather than a blocky pixellated grid.

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Mobile Number Portability Delayed – Yes Again! – to 25th November

Honestly, this is a headline that a lot of us are getting quite sick of. But it has happened again. Just a few days back, we were given hope that Mobile Number Portability will be available to subscribers in Haryana from November 1st. At least we can take solace in the fact that the DoT has announced a new deadline, can’t we! November 25th is now the proposed date for MNP to be available in Haryana.

According to the DoT, Operator’s networks have been tested and are ready for the roll out of the service. Applications for the same will be accepted from November 25th and the Government is likely to run ads in the first week of November. In fact, HT reported late last night that on Aug 12th, MoS for Communications and Information Technology, Sachin Pilot had informed the Rajya Sabha that all networks, except MTNL, had been upgraded technically.

In order to apply for this. A subscriber will have to send an SMS from their number to 1900. The existing service provider will then provide them with a unique porting code. With this code, the subscriber will apply to the new service provider and be able to switch operators without losing his/her number. According to the Deccan Chronicle the subscriber will have to bear a fee of no more than Rs.19 for the entire process.

Earlier the deadline had shifted from December, 2009 to March, 2010. Followed by revisions which set new deadlines of June 30th and October 31st. None of which were obviously met. With A.Raja announcing last week that November 1st would see the first implementation in the state of Haryana, there was a widespread belief that the wait had finally ended. Despite the fact that there seemed to be no clear cut plan in place for the rollout. This delay just reminds us that we’re running around in ‘circles’ and even the year end Pan-India Implementation may just a pipe dream.

I guess Rajiv’s monicker ‘Mobile Number Postponability’ rings true! Will it finally surface on November 25th? I won’t be holding my breath!..And neither should you.

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3G And WiFi Can Work Together To Ease Mobile Network Congestion

The abstract idea seems pretty simple. Whenever possible try to offload traffic to any available WiFi network. Easier said than done of course. And if there is no available WiFi – Wiffler uses what the researches have dubbed as “prediction based offloading” which determines when it is likely to be within range from a WiFi hotspot. If this period is less than an acceptable maximum delay period it waits, otherwise it uses the available 3G network. Not all data applications can appreciate this behaviour though – VoIP applications certainly cannot be used in this manner. But something like a mailbox sync wouldn’t really suffer with a small delay.  According to Mahajan, they were able offload data within a delay period of 1 minute.

This concept is further extended to ensure that when both are available simultaneously Wiffler divides the data between the 2 networks. It could result in substantial cost savings for the customer and network decongestion for a carrier. However, I wonder how thrilled they would be given that customer saving translates into less earnings!

For the purpose of the study, they used only Free Public WiFi networks – it remains to be seen how the concept would hold up when it encounters commercially charged and encrypted WiFi’s. Honestly, I hope it doesn’t rely on the Wifi networks being open because in the face of the Firesheep incident people should, and those in the know certainly would, think twice about using unsecured wireless networks. But if they are lucky, and the FCC is able to make good on their “WiFi on Steroids” promise it could certainly revolutionize data consumption on-the-go!

The great thing from our point of view is that even though we are yet to go anywhere near facing the problem of 3G network congestion – a possible solution is already in the works!

Let us know what you think.

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Related PostsIndian Search Results Indicate Wireless Internet Breakthrough Soon – Report2 Billion – Number Of Users Using The Internet By End Of 2010Curb On Bulk SMS, National Broadband Plan, MNP Coming Soon – TRAIBharti Airtel Ties-Up With ip.access For Picocells – Readying For MNP?BCG Reports 237 Million Internet Users In India By 2015 – Possible?

Categories: International, Mobile, News, Technology
Tags: 3G, Arun Venkataramani, Aruna Balasubramanian, Augmenting Mobile 3G Using WiFi, data usage, fcc, india, Network Congestion, prediction based offloading, Ratul Mahajan, researchers, traffic, White spectrum, Wiffler, wifi, wifi hotspot, Wifi on Steroids

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Mobile Advertising On A High

Statistics show that the search queries on Google have increased 500% from 2008 to 2010. This translates to companies becoming very serious about mobile advertising, which is way past its ‘experimental phase’. Unprecedented success in Apple iAds has prompted rivals to pull up their socks and foray into mobile advertising. Google’s acquisition in 2009, AdMob, is turning to be a key factor in Google’s mobile revenue and is touted to bring in about $1 Billion for the company by the end of this year.

Large investments in the mobile advertising industry can be expected in the next 12 to 18 months, as brands and companies have come to realize the importance of this new medium. These investments will prove to be the impetus needed for this industry to flourish. Big players will continue to focus on new and innovative vistas and integrating the same in their business models.

As far as recent moves in this field, RIM has introduced a new advertising service for its own Blackberry phones. RIM is trying to move out of its stereotypical corporate look and appeal the tech savvy youth. For developers, this is just another platform for them to choose. Google also recently launched interactive video ads via AdMob. Developers can have interactive ads in built into their apps.

Apart from app developers, this industry has given birth to small companies that act as a bridge between the developers and big companies. These intermediary services make it easier for app developers to increase their footfall. It is also expected that companies like Google and Apple will make it easier for developers to come out with new apps and the payment attached.

Now, if you were a developer, which platform would you choose? The attractive options are Apple and Google Android. In terms of sheer numbers, apps on the iOS platform outnumber the ones on Android. But Android being open source and slowly but steadily increasing its presence in the global market, it won’t be long before the Android overtakes the iOS. As far as monetizing apps, being a developer for RIM at the moment could also be fruitful as they would be launching new initiatives to attract app developers. But in the long run, creating apps for Android would be the safe bet.

With the astronomical prices that telecom operators paid for 3G in India, they could count on advertisers to help them make money. There is no denying the fact that the ‘e’ age has given way to the ‘m’ age. The boom is just at the nascent stage. What do you think?

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Categories: International, Mobile, Reports
Tags: 3G, admob, Advertising, Android, app developers, apple, blackberry, Features, google, iAds, informa, internet, iphone, Mobile, mobile app, mobile vs internet, report, research, revenue, RIM

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Another earnings call Android rant – this time in favor of Google’s mobile OS

November 12 2010 by admin in News |

In an earnings call, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang apparently pulled an anti-Steve-Jobs-Android-rant, gushing his praise for Google’s Andy Rubin and his team, and saying that Android is “a little bit behind” iOS and the iPad, and that the next version of Android and future tablets will be “completely fabulous”.

NVIDIA of course builds smartphone and tablet chips, so the more smartphones and tablets out there for it to supply, the better, and right now, both of those explosions could certainly come from Android-based devices. Here’s the entire – um, talk – that Huang gave, according to ZDNet:

We’re going to start building into our phone and tablet design wins. And although they’re a little bit behind, the work that Google and Andy Rubin’s team is doing at Google is just really amazing. I mean, this is clearly a world-class engineering team. And they’re building a magical product. So I’m looking forward to the next generation of Android phones and tablets that are coming out. And I think it’s going to really, really surprise people and delight consumers everywhere. And so although it’s a little bit behind, I think it’s going to be completely fabulous. Now it’s going to take something absolutely great to compete against the iPad and the iPhone, as we all know. Because both of those devices are quite amazing devices. And so it’s going to take something that is truly remarkable to compete against it. And I think Andy and his team, and all of our engineers here working with them, and all of our partners around the world working on it, are going to absolutely deliver. And so that’s the second thing.

So yeah, “magical”, “fabulous”, “amazing” and “delight” – no lack of hyperbole there. Of course, the first major Android tablet – the Samsung Galaxy Tab – is hitting shelves and reviews now, so how well it does this holiday season will be interesting to watch, especially compared to the iPad. That said, a “little behind” would seemingly be a bit of stretch, considering how much the iPad has dominated this year.

View the original article here

Pan-India Mobile Number Portability by year end?

Some analysts believe that MNP will hurt India’s large telecom operators more than the smaller ones and newcomers. It could potentially spark off another tariff war which will be disastrous for the health of these companies. Given such a scenario, Network, Value added services, and customer- service will become the key differentiators. Although good from the customers point of view, it would mean some serious transformation for the Telecom operator. This might be one of the reasons for the so called unpreparedness of our Mobile operators.

Unpreparedness and MNP have now become synonymous of each other thanks to the long history of delays associated with it. And it seems that we have not learnt from our mistakes. Without a definite time period of completion it is highly possible that we will continue playing in the circle.What do you think?If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS Feed OR Email Alerts!

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Categories: Mobile, News
Tags: a raja, BSNL, Department of Telecommunications, dot, Features, Haryana, mnp, mobile number portability, tariff war, telecom operators

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Reliance Announces Pan-India SMS based Mobile Conferencing

Our Mobile Conferencing service is a cost-effective, efficient and convenient solution that enhances productivity of small, medium enterprise customers. Introducing the service now on SMS

Reliance Announces Pan-India SMS based Mobile Conferencing

Our Mobile Conferencing service is a cost-effective, efficient and convenient solution that enhances productivity of small, medium enterprise customers. Introducing the service now on SMS

3G And WiFi Can Work Together To Ease Mobile Network Congestion

At a time when we are still waiting with baited breath for large scale 3G services in India, there are markets around the world where the 3G networks are under more stress than they can handle. In fact a Cisco Report this year stated that the average smartphone user generates 10 times as much traffic as a feature phone user. No surprise then that networks in countries like the United States are crumbling under the excessive traffic. At this opportune time 3 Indian Researchers - Ratul Mahajan and teammates Aruna Balasubramanian and Arun Venkataramani are trying to prove that 3G and WiFi connections on a device need not be Mutually Exclusive. The project is called Wiffler.

Should their research ever translate into a commercial product/service it could go a long way in helping the average consumer use data services at affordable costs. Their research is summed up in a paper titled – Augmenting Mobile 3G Using WiFi - a good read if the topic interests you. The basic premise is that a moving vehicle in an urban area will experience intermittent WiFi connectivity. Thus, ideally a user should be able to offload some traffic onto WiFi networks whenever they are available.

As the first part of their research they set out to do a joint survey of areas of simultaneous WiFi and 3G connectivity. They found that 3G was available 87% of the time as compared to WiFi’s 11%. Moreover, in areas of simultaneous connectivity WiFi had higher loss rates. The first part of the study was conducted in a student town called Amherst in Massachusetts. And then extended to Seattle and San Francisco. According to the researchers, they were surprised to receive similar results across 3 cities with vastly differing network usage characteristics.

The abstract idea seems pretty simple. Whenever possible try to offload traffic to any available WiFi network. Easier said than done of course. And if there is no available WiFi – Wiffler uses what the researches have dubbed as “prediction based offloading” which determines when it is likely to be within range from a WiFi hotspot. If this period is less than an acceptable maximum delay period it waits, otherwise it uses the available 3G network. Not all data applications can appreciate this behaviour though – VoIP applications certainly cannot be used in this manner. But something like a mailbox sync wouldn’t really suffer with a small delay.  According to Mahajan, they were able offload data within a delay period of 1 minute.

This concept is further extended to ensure that when both are available simultaneously Wiffler divides the data between the 2 networks. It could result in substantial cost savings for the customer and network decongestion for a carrier. However, I wonder how thrilled they would be given that customer saving translates into less earnings!

For the purpose of the study, they used only Free Public WiFi networks – it remains to be seen how the concept would hold up when it encounters commercially charged and encrypted WiFi’s. Honestly, I hope it doesn’t rely on the Wifi networks being open because in the face of the Firesheep incident people should, and those in the know certainly would, think twice about using unsecured wireless networks. But if they are lucky, and the FCC is able to make good on their “WiFi on Steroids” promise it could certainly revolutionize data consumption on-the-go!

The great thing from our point of view is that even though we are yet to go anywhere near facing the problem of 3G network congestion – a possible solution is already in the works!

Let us know what you think.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS Feed OR Email Alerts!

Categories: International, Mobile, News, Technology
Tags: 3G, Arun Venkataramani, Aruna Balasubramanian, Augmenting Mobile 3G Using WiFi, data usage, fcc, india, Network Congestion, prediction based offloading, Ratul Mahajan, researchers, traffic, White spectrum, Wiffler, wifi, wifi hotspot, Wifi on Steroids

Mobile Advertising On A High

The opinion that mobile advertising would be bigger than internet advertising had a few doubters, but day by day the number of converts is on the rise. A recent research by Informa Telecoms & Media has left few qualms in the minds of doubters by finding that the mobile ad revenue would reach $3.5 Billion worldwide this year.

On a still brighter side, the research predicts that Apple and Google, the pillars of mobile advertising, will give in their best to ensure that the total mobile revenue, including in-app advertisements, undergoes a whopping eightfold increase to $24 Billion by 2015.

Statistics show that the search queries on Google have increased 500% from 2008 to 2010. This translates to companies becoming very serious about mobile advertising, which is way past its ‘experimental phase’. Unprecedented success in Apple iAds has prompted rivals to pull up their socks and foray into mobile advertising. Google’s acquisition in 2009, AdMob, is turning to be a key factor in Google’s mobile revenue and is touted to bring in about $1 Billion for the company by the end of this year.

Large investments in the mobile advertising industry can be expected in the next 12 to 18 months, as brands and companies have come to realize the importance of this new medium. These investments will prove to be the impetus needed for this industry to flourish. Big players will continue to focus on new and innovative vistas and integrating the same in their business models.

As far as recent moves in this field, RIM has introduced a new advertising service for its own Blackberry phones. RIM is trying to move out of its stereotypical corporate look and appeal the tech savvy youth. For developers, this is just another platform for them to choose. Google also recently launched interactive video ads via AdMob. Developers can have interactive ads in built into their apps.

Apart from app developers, this industry has given birth to small companies that act as a bridge between the developers and big companies. These intermediary services make it easier for app developers to increase their footfall. It is also expected that companies like Google and Apple will make it easier for developers to come out with new apps and the payment attached.

Now, if you were a developer, which platform would you choose? The attractive options are Apple and Google Android. In terms of sheer numbers, apps on the iOS platform outnumber the ones on Android. But Android being open source and slowly but steadily increasing its presence in the global market, it won’t be long before the Android overtakes the iOS. As far as monetizing apps, being a developer for RIM at the moment could also be fruitful as they would be launching new initiatives to attract app developers. But in the long run, creating apps for Android would be the safe bet.

With the astronomical prices that telecom operators paid for 3G in India, they could count on advertisers to help them make money. There is no denying the fact that the ‘e’ age has given way to the ‘m’ age. The boom is just at the nascent stage. What do you think?

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS Feed OR Email Alerts!

Categories: International, Mobile, Reports
Tags: 3G, admob, Advertising, Android, app developers, apple, blackberry, Features, google, iAds, informa, internet, iphone, Mobile, mobile app, mobile vs internet, report, research, revenue, RIM

iDuple – Indian Company announces Mobile Cloud Computing Device

On paper, the idea seems pretty interesting even though the finer details are not available at this time. The device has the form factor of a tablet and boasts of a 5 second boot time. There is no software, other than the browser. No hard disk either. All processing and storage will be done on powerful servers and rendered on the device. It is expected to have WiFi and 3G variants.

Users will be offered upto 50GB of storage on the cloud, I’m guessing premium services for additional storage will be a source of revenue as well. Obviously, with a large volumes of data on the cloud, security becomes an issue. The company has assured prospective users on its blog that privacy of data will be taken care of. It goes on to say that it will also offer private cloud services for businesses. They will also have the option of connecting to multiple webtops and even configure the device to work with their own cloud platforms.

The demo of these Webtops can be found at their homepage. I played around with it for a while. It had a very Windows-esque feel to it Start Menu et al, aside from the iOS like multiple home screen feature. There were a couple of useful applications on it as well. Since it was a demo, the amount I could tinker with them was limited.

A lot of specifics about the device such as price, size etc have not mentioned at this stage.

‘It all started as a dream, inspired by the desire to touch human lives. A dream motivated by the promise of an affordable technology, perfected by dozens of discussions and debates with friends and industry veterans and evolved over tens of thousands of man-hours of design and engineering.’ This is how they begin their post announcing the device. Let’s hope this dream translates into a reality.

Once that happens, competing or even carving a niche for themselves in the crowded tablet space with several industry bigwigs will be a different ball game altogether.

Reality of Vapourware? Let us know what you think.

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Categories: News, Startups, Technology
Tags: Browser, Cloud Computing Device, Cloud OS, Features, iDuple, security, Webtops

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Pan-India Mobile Number Portability by year end?

It seems that Mobile number Portability (MNP) has become a part of the Great Indian Tamasha and the latest news from the block is a fitting example of it. In an event organized by BSNL, the telecom minister Mr. A Raja has said that MNP would be launched in a phased manner, beginning November 2010. Haryana has the honor of the being the “chosen-one” for the first implementation. The first phase of implementation will cover 11 circles and is expected to be completed by Dec 20,2010.

Department of Telecommunications (DOT)  has not released any roadmap suggesting the manner in which this phased rollout will take place. But there are indications which suggest that small states with comparatively small mobile subscriber base may get the initial preference. Some telecom companies will certainly hope so, as it would mean less churning of subscribers.

This raises a very important question: How long will it be before other states that have substantial subscriber base get the implementation? The phased roll out of MNP was always on the cards, given the complexity of the process involved. But a definite time period within which the entire process is expected to be completed is still missing. Or are we seeking too much of professionalism from the DOT?

Some analysts believe that MNP will hurt India’s large telecom operators more than the smaller ones and newcomers. It could potentially spark off another tariff war which will be disastrous for the health of these companies. Given such a scenario, Network, Value added services, and customer- service will become the key differentiators. Although good from the customers point of view, it would mean some serious transformation for the Telecom operator. This might be one of the reasons for the so called unpreparedness of our Mobile operators.

Unpreparedness and MNP have now become synonymous of each other thanks to the long history of delays associated with it. And it seems that we have not learnt from our mistakes. Without a definite time period of completion it is highly possible that we will continue playing in the circle.What do you think?

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS Feed OR Email Alerts!

Categories: Mobile, News
Tags: a raja, BSNL, Department of Telecommunications, dot, Features, Haryana, mnp, mobile number portability, tariff war, telecom operators

RockeTalk beats Facebook, Twitter and Orkut on Mobile Phones

Mobile Analytics company Informate has released a report on Indian mobile usage and Mobile social networking. What they found, may come as a surprise to many. I may have killed the suspense with the title of this post. Nevertheless, the numbers are interesting.

Using data over a period of six months, the study finds that RockeTalk is the most used mobile social networking application. Orkut comes in at a respectable second. Followed by Qeep, Facebook and Twitter. Airtel reported recently that almost 80% of data usage happens in non metros. If this pattern of usage is similar on other networks, the findings are not too surprising given that the popularity of Facebook and Twitter is mainly restricted to Metros as of now. But yes, It certainly did surprise me!

That the application is designed specifically for mobile usage perhaps explains its popularity. With over 350 million page views per month, 3.2 million Indian users and over 100,000 communities the network draws its main traction from smaller cities and towns across the country.

Another interesting angle this story brings up is that Orkut, though fading, is very much alive and kicking in India. It is probably going to take Facebook a lot more time to completely marginalize Orkut as it has done in other countries. Which is probably why it is resorting to things like this. And of course there’s the fact that data used in studies is always a bit dated and a few months is a long time in the viral and very fickle world of social networking. I would be more interested in seeing the long term trend over the next 6-8 months.

If this news has aroused your curiosity about RockeTalk, you can find out how to try the application here.

Will RockeTalk maintain its lead, or is it just a matter of time before it becomes an also-ran in this mobile social networking race? Let us know what you think.

network. There are more than hundred thousand communities on RockeTalk in India alone.350 million page views permonth. The company has also registered a remarkable count of 3.2 million Indian users to itsnetwork. There are more than hundred thousand communities on RockeTalk in India alone.

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Rediff Takes Another Mobile Step – Launches Rediffmail NG – Mobile Email

Rediff has taken this a step further now by launching a paid mobile email application called Rediffmail NG. Rediffmail NG claims to work across almost all mobile phone platforms including Symbian, Java, and Android, as well as on almost all mobile phones in the market including all entry level phones which cost as little as Rs 1,500. Rediffmail NG also offers phone to PC synchronization.

Speaking about the new product launch Mr.Ajit Balakrishnan said “Our approach in this product design has been inspired by the Tata Nano , which has made it possible for millions of people to aspire to own a car,”.

How to get Rediffmail NG on your mobile?

You need to have a rediffmail id and log on to your account and click on the mobile or sms tab for purchasing Rediffmail NG. Yes its a paid application which costs 50 rupees a month and currently Rediff  offers Free GPRS for Airtel and MTNL Delhi users. The other option is to download the app via sms by sending the word ‘mail’ to 57333 whereby users will be guided to the enrollment page or connected to a local Rediff representative.

Tier 2 Capture via Mobile Phones?

Rediff.com has bet its money on the fact that Tier 2 cities and below in India will have its major interaction with the web via mobile. This is its way of penetrating early into this market as they are still users of rediffmail online. The only issue I see is the charge of 50 rupees a month. This is a big challenge as email since its growth with hotmail has always been a free service. It would surely reduce adoption at the very outset. Maybe a year later it will be interesting to see how this new product fares for rediff. My take is slow growth.

Note: Rediff had earlier in 2008 also announced Mobile rediff that enabled mail then as well. Not sure if the same has been phased out now or still exists for users.

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Categories: Mobile, News, Web
Tags: email news, Features, mobile rediff.com, paid email, push mail, rediff mobile, rediffmail mobile, rediffmail ng

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