The Geek Afterglow

The curious success of Samsung Galaxy Note

2012-02-20T23:00:00.001-08:00

"It's a bird...it's a plane...it's SUPERMAN!".

I've not seen a phone generate as much controversy and heated debate as the Samsung Galaxy Note. Is it a large phone? Is it a small tablet? Is it a useless product? Is it a great product concept? Can you really use a phone with a 5.3 inch screen?

Samsung shipped 1 million Galaxy Notes in just 2 months in 2011. This was before the US product launch, and the world's largest smartphone market will definitely add on to the sales figures . It's early days to predict success, but one can certainly say that the novel phone-tablet has not been a flop. In press, it gets written about constantly. And I have met several extremely happy users, who simply love the phone. At stores like Croma, I have always seen people checking it out, or asking for it. All these seem positive indicators.

And it's important to note that some people simply love the product and others can't stand it. Going by the marketing textbook, we are taught that any strong product will create a strong and distinct target audience, and by default, exclude some portion of customers. I see that happening with the Galaxy Note.

I was seriously considering a Galaxy Note. Seriously, there is a lot to love about this phone and it's not just hardware specs that only excite techies - there is stuff that makes a huge impact in the way you use the device. Like the powerful 1.4 GHz dual core processor which makes the phone super fast. The gorgeous 5.3 inch HD Super Amoled Display, the S-Pen which allows you to write notes or sketch.

There is really only one strike against the device - the low battery life. The screen size is not a negative in my book - it can be a turn-on or a put off for you, depending on your requirements.

Why do I think the Galaxy Note has worked with consumers?

Firstly, Samsung has gotten the price value equation right. At Rs.32,000 (approx.) in India, it is priced only slightly higher than the Samsung Galaxy S2, and it combines a high-spec tablet and a high-spec smartphone. People who have not yet bought a tablet will save at least Rs.30,000 by buying this device. The large screen makes it a fantastic ebook reader and browsing device - which is the basic functionality of a tablet. I think it's a truly different concept, in a world where too many smartphones look like carbon copies of each other.

Secondly, I think large-sized gadgets have a huge appeal for men. It's not just that they like carrying around a chunky, big, sexy device. With my small hands I still find typing on a small touchscreen keypad to be a pain. With bigger sized hands, guys will find it much easier to type on the large virtual keypad offered by the Note. Equally, I must note that most women (including myself) are put off by the huge size. Unlike men, we will not have a pocketability issue - women carry phones in their (ever-present) bag and not in their pockets - but it just feels too big and heavy. We may not all love the 'girly' phones put out by cellphone manufacturers, but I think women prefer lighter and smaller devices for sure.

Thirdly, and most importantly, the screen size is a boon for anyone who wants to give their eyes a bit of a break. We spend an ever increasing proportion of our time staring at our too-small, often too-dim cellphone screens. With texting and browsing on phones on the rise, this proportion of time will only keep increasing. A large and bright display will make this easier on our eyes, and may especially be a boon for people who use spectacles!

So in a nutshell, I think Samsung has an interesting product, and there is definitely a bunch of people out there who will be interested in it. With the Note due for an ICS 4.0 Android update, it's a compelling product. I think everyone interested in buying a smartphone or tablet should take a look at it. It may not be the device for you, but it's a device that's very hard to ignore!

Part 4 : Selecting your first Custom ROM

2012-02-14T02:00:00.000-08:00

This is part 4 of a series of posts on rooting and ROM-ing on my new Galaxy Nexus. This guide will be useful for other newbies like me who are trying ROMs for the first time.

1. Don't ask 'which is the best ROM?'

You will not get an answer to this question in forums and rightly so. Instead, you will be directed to read up and choose. Developers put a lot of effort and time into creating ROMs and giving them freely to the community. So it's unfair to compare or rate them, though you can always ask people to share their experience.

If you read extensively on the XDA Developers Forum's it is easy to figure out popular ROMs. Look for indicators like number of replies, response time of the developer and number of updates. An active thread is a lead indicator of a popular ROM and this is a good place to start.

As a Galaxy Nexus user, I am excited by the wide range (at least a dozen) ROMs available for my device. I intend to try each and every one of them over time and grow my own knowledge and experience in the process! For me ROMs are a perfect metaphor for Google's dessert themed Android OS - they are sweet, available in many flavors and you can gorge as much as you want!

2. Understand the approach of the developer.

Every developer introduces their ROM with a detailed note on features, sometimes including screenshots to give you a feel. And each developer/team also has a unique approach/ philosophy which reflects in the ROMs they create. Some ROMs are heavy on customisation and theming and can give your phone and user interface a completely different look and feel. Some focus on being light, simple and fast. See if the approach appeals to you, and choose a ROM accordingly.

3. Download a stable/ milestone version rather than a nightly build

This depends on your comfort level, but as a newbie, I started with trying stable (though older) versions of ROMs. These are bug-free and there are known fixes for problems which have been documented. Once I am more comfortable, I will move to downloading experimental builds

4. Judge a ROM by qualitative rather than quantitative factors alone and take your time

I try to not get caught up in stats like battery life, benchmark tests of speed etc. To be frank, I don't understand them totally. I rather focus on my experience - do I like the look and feel? To what extent can I customise it? Does it feel fast and fluid? Does my phone last longer through the day? Does everything work the same or differently? For me, this is the enjoyment factor of a new ROM and I don't want to spoil it by anxiety about battery life or performance. So far, I have tried 3 ROMs and kept one for a week, so that I get a complete feel of how it works. And before this, I used the stock ICS which comes with the phone for an entire week too, so that I understood the difference with custom ROMs. I like to spend enough time with each ROM to do it justice. The only time I removed a ROM in a day, was when it had a bug which drained my battery. I will re-load it as soon as it is fixed!

5. Try a kernel after trying a ROM for sometime

I have not yet downloaded a kernel for any of the ROMs I am trying. Because a kernel will add a new dimension of experience and I first want to get a hang of each ROM and understand how it works. Then, I will understand better the difference and improvement which comes from adding a kernel. Also I am reading up a lot more about kernels - the ultimate goal as an amateur is to learn as much as I can about hacks and mods. And learning is half the fun for me!

And this goes without saying - backup everything with ROM Managers backup function and Titanium Backup before you flash a new ROM. It's a matter of ten minutes to restore your old settings if you decide to discard the new ROM.

Part 3 : Flashing a Custom ROM on the Galaxy Nexus

2012-02-13T12:33:00.000-08:00

This is Part 3 of a series of posts on how to flash a Custom ROM on the Galaxy Nexus. Part 1 dealt with rooting the phone and Part 2 dealt with preparing to load a Custom ROM. I think Part 2 and 3 would be applicable for most Android devices, but since I don't have experience with them, I would say that this guide works for the Galaxy Nexus.

Start the process by making sure your phone is adequately charged.

1) Load the Custom ROM on your phone
This was where Part 2 left off. I am assuming that you have downloaded two zip files - a ROM and a Gapps file as mentioned by the developer and then checked the MD5 sums (refer to the previous post). Connect your phone to your PC and transfer the two zip files from your PC to the internal SD Card of the Nexus. To access them easily, do not put them into a folder. Leave them in the root so you can find them easily. And make sure they are not unzipped.

2) Disconnect the phone from the PC

3) Fire up ROM Manager and select Boot into Recovery from the menu

4) Follow the instructions of the developer
They usually go like this
Make a nandroid backup (I am assuming you have already done this if you read my previous post. Also, you should have downloaded Titanium Backup and backed up your apps)
Select Factory Reset/ Wipe Data
Select Wipe Cache Partition
Select file from SD Card - here you can access and select the ZIP files you have loaded. First flash the ROM and then the Gapps file.
Reboot

4) Your ROM will load. The first time you flash a ROM, it will take a long time to load, so don't panic!

You will see the language selection screen, select the language of your choice

You will be prompted to set up wi-fi, do this if you wish.

When the ROM starts, Google will prompt you to sign in. Do this. It will also ask you if it should restore your backups. Make sure you do not check this option.

Now you will see a blank home screen minus your apps. Do not panic!

Through the menu button, access the app drawer and see whether Titanium Backup has been installed. If not, go to the Android market and download 1) Titanium Backup Free 2) Titanium Backup Pro (if you have purchased a license key). You must download both separately, in this order.

Now fire up the app and go to the backup/ restore menu and select the 'batch'option

Scroll down to see the backup options. What I usually do is restore all apps with data first. Then I selectively go to system apps and restore data like call logs, SMS etc. I do not restore apps+system data because it can cause a crash if the ROM is incompatible with earlier system data. If you restore any system data, Titanium Backup will ask you to reboot your phone - do this to avoid problems.

If you have purchased Titanium Pro, it will process the batch command in one shot. If you have the free version, you have to approve and install each app individually.

After you have performed these steps, you will see all your apps back in the app drawer. You probably still need to populate your home screen with apps if the launcher has changed.

Now you can explore the features of your new ROM, and enjoy it! Remember to make another Nandroid backup if you like the ROM and plan to keep it. If you don't want to keep the ROM, or encounter bugs, make a Titanium Backup again. Then open ROM Manager and boot into recovery, and restore your earlier ROM through the 'restore' option. A saved ROM will automatically reload your home screen and apps, as they were earlier. You can restore any missing stuff through Titanium Backup.

If you like the ROM and plan to keep it, remember to make a donation to the developer through the forum where you downloaded the ROM. And do thank the team for the hard work they put in!

Part 2 : Preparing to load Custom ROMs

2012-02-13T12:06:00.000-08:00

In my earlier post, I covered what to do in order to root my Galaxy Nexus. In this post, I want to discuss how you prepare to load and try a Custom ROM. This information was acquired from reading the Android Developments forums for Galaxy Nexus. This is a guide for newbies who are loading their first Custom ROM.

1. Download Titanium Backup

This is an indispensable app if you plan to try custom ROMs. It backs up all your apps and data on the internal SD Card of your Nexus and restores them later. When you load a custom ROM, it's a clean install - none of your apps, call logs or SMS get loaded. You can download your apps from the Android Marketplace again, but Titanium Backup restores them at a click and saves you a lot of trouble and time. I recommend the Pro version because it restores everything in just one click (as a batch operation) whereas with the free version, you have to approve each app re-install manually. To buy the PRO version (which is a licence key and costs Rs. 280), you need to first download the free app, and then buy the license as an in-app purchase. Do it right away, it's worth it!

2. Do a Titanium Backup
This involves several steps when you first set up backups. Fire up the app and go to the backup/restore screen.

Then select the batch command from the bottom of the screen :

You should see the following options:

You should select 'backup all user apps + system data" and then run the command. Now, your apps and data are all backed up and you are ready for the next step.

(Note : all these features are available in the free version of Titanium Backup)

3. Do a Nandroid backup

For this you need to have ROM Manager from the Android Market. Fire up the program and select reboot into recovery.

Your phone will enter recovery mode and you can use the volume buttons to navigate and power button to select. You need to navigate to 'backup and restore' and create a backup. Now, restart your phone and go to ROM Manager and select the option "Manage and restore Backups". Find your latest backup and rename it so that you remember which one it is. I use a combo of date, ICS version and ROM to name each one and I also add a tag like 'latest' to help me remember which was my last backup.

With all this in place, you are ready to download your first custom ROM

4. Downloading a custom ROM.

ROMs usually consist of two files - one with the ROM itself and one GAPPS file (with Google Apps). I prefer to download the ROMs to my PC and then transfer them to my phone - so that I retain a backup of the files. Always check that you are downloading the correct version of the ROM for your device (GSM or CDMA - the wrong ROM can cause your phone to crash)

A dev will provide an MD5 Checksum for any downloads. This is used to verify the integrity of the download. You can use any free program to do this - I downloaded the MD5 checker 2.31 from Softpedia. Simply paste the MD5 code into the checkbox and then attach the file. If it flashes green, you're good to go!

Now you can transfer the ROM files to your mobile phone. The next post will be about how to flash a ROM .

Part 1 : How I rooted and unlocked my Galaxy Nexus

2012-02-13T10:17:00.000-08:00

I acquired my Galaxy Nexus last week. After a week spent browsing the Galaxy Nexus forums on the XDA Developers site, I realised that I had found a purpose and meaning for buying this expensive phone - loading custom ROMs. And I also understood that the gateway to this heaven was through unlocking and rooting my device. I have managed to do that successfully, and since then, my enjoyment of my phone has reached a whole new level. I intend to post about the new ROMs that I try out in the next few months. But I will start out with rooting because this is the key to unlocking the magic world of ROMs. You can find this information in the forums of XDA, RootWiki and several other sites. I'm putting it down here, because I am a newbie and I want to share the steps that I took! I have a Galaxy Nexus (GSM) phone which is not locked to a carrier, so the steps I am posting are only relevant to this device.

1. Reading and understanding about rooting
This was the first thing I did. I spent two whole nights browsing the Galaxy Nexus forums on XDA developers and other sites to understand what happens when I root my device.

First of all, I understood that rooting means that you get complete control over your phone, similar to 'Admin' rights on a Win PC. The real benefit of rooting, is that it's very hard to brick your device because you can always revert to a backup and restore your phone to an earlier state.

2. Finding a simple method

I decided to use WugFresh's toolkit which I found on the XDA forums. This PC based program talked me through all the steps of rooting my Nexus. I mean literally talked at each stage and told me each thing I had to do. It was a fantastically painless process. All the information and video tutorials can be found on the thread that I linked. I only want to add one thing - rooting for the first time can be very scary because you have no idea what is happening! The only thing to do is to read everything and follow every instruction completely. That's all I did.

Rooting was actually a two stage process. The first stage was 'unlocking' the device. The second step was rooting. At the time of rooting,two programs got loaded on my phone - one was Super User which acts as a command interface between you and your rooted phone. And the second was Clockwork Mod, which is the backup interface for the phone.

I really faced only one problem while rooting. The first time the phone entered what I call DOS mode (no touch access), I panicked. No DOS experience here since WordPerfect days! I figured out that I need to use volume keys to scroll and power key to select.

3. After root
After rooting, I lost all apps and contacts (although I could recover it from Google). I personally think it's best to do this soon after you buy your phone so that you have not loaded too much on it!

The first program I downloaded after rooting was ROM Manager and I flashed CWM Recovery as instructed in the rooting guide.

I also installed ES File Explorer (a free download) to browse files on my phone.

And that's how my rooting experience was!

What Android manufacturers can learn from Apple to build strong branding

2012-02-03T22:19:00.000-08:00

Just today, I read Philip Elmer DeWitt's post on Fortune Tech on Apple's awesome performance in 2011; with just 8.7% market share, the company pulled in 75% of the cellphone industry's profit. Yes, that is the entire cellphone industry, not just smartphones. The post goes on to point out that only 5 out of 8 top cellphone manufacturers are profitable, which does not paint a very bright future for Android or WindowsPhone powered devices.

Last year, I had blogged about the very different business models adopted by Google (Android) and Apple which have resulted in very different growth paths in the mobile industry.

Apple delivers a single, high cost, high quality mobile device every year (iPad and iPhone) and controls all aspects of the user experience, profiting on each front - hardware, software and app purchases. Apple owns the user, and this means more rigidity, controls and restrictions, but also results in a simple and intuitive interface, which works consistently and reliably each time. With just one device, Apple has a streamlined and effective innovation program. And the sheer scale of production enables them to keep costs down to the minimum, while maximising profit. It should be noted that Apple Stores (despite being full service stores) earn huge profits per square foot, even in expensive retail locations. Apple has clearly benefited hugely from focusing on the user and the user experience. Even a 3 year old iPhone 3GS is not yet completely obsolete -it can run iOS 5 - and today, at Rs.19,000, it commands the same price as the latest mid-range Android handsets!

The story of Android has been one of breathtakingly fast growth and scale. When this blog started in 2010, Android handsets numbered just 24 million - last year, they reached one billion activations. Market share crossed 50% of the smartphone market. And Android is a free and open source OS - the manufacturers do not even have a large innovation cost. So why is it not profitable?

Samsung sold 97 million smartphones in 2011 against Apple's 93 million. Apple has 3 smartphones in the market. Samsung offers Android and WP, but given Windows' miniscule market share, we can assume that most smartphones sold ran Android. How many Android models does Samsung have? Can you distinguish each of them clearly from each other? I tried to keep tabs of the Galaxy range in this post, but its a hopeless task. I am ready to bet that someone who wants to buy an Android phone and looks at the Galaxy range, will be completely confused. There are too many models, and the differences between them are too obscure. Just when you understand it, a whole slew of new phones comes out and then you have to understand it all over again.

I understand that it is an attempt to cater to every market segment, but at some point, it becomes counter-productive, and a drain on innovation resource. Remember that Android has to be tweaked for every display unit, every processor, and literally every component. And every time Google issues an Android update, everything has to be tweaked and tested again. Isn't this a huge innovation burden on companies manufacturing Android smartphones? And it's innovation that consumers cannot see the benefit of because it is only confusing them further. It seems like innovation for innovations' sake.

If I were an Android manufacturer today, here's what I would do
1. Reduce the number of handsets drastically. Focus on developing one or at most, two handsets in each segment - low cost, mid price and top end. Put all my efforts into creating the very best value offering in each segment. Create the very best phone that I can.
2. Educate customers about my range and clearly tell them the benefits of each smartphone. So that people buy an Android phone because they understand how it benefits them. Not just because it fits in their budget, or a salesman tells them so. Nokia is doing a good job of this with the Lumia. The demos I have seen in the Nokia showroom and in Croma, focus on the real benefits like Nokia Drive and baked-in MS Office access. I have yet to see any Android phone pitched on benefits, it's just about hardware and price.
3. Make phone software easily upgradeable, OTA. Stock Android is a fabulous example of how to make phones easy to upgrade - the user has to do nothing but push a button. And put a time frame to make sure that manufacturer upgrades closely follow Google's upgrades. This is actually a real brand differentiator. Especially if you go one step further and guarantee to support software upgrades for the next 2 years. This would be possible to do only if you were not pre-occupied with pushing out 100 new phones next year. The hardware on many modern phones is good enough to run upgrades at least for the next two years.
4. Reduce hardware upgrades to a reasonable timeframe. Too much of hardware upgrading is creating rapid obsolosence in the mobile phone space. As customers, it makes us think that all cell phone manufacturers want, is for us to buy more cellphones, faster. And this is counter productive if you are building a brand. I would pay a premium, with better grace, for a phone, if I knew that it will not be rendered obsolete by a hardware upgrade in 6 months time. This would also improve the brand value.

I believe that these principles will create stronger Android brands in the market place. They will make the manufacture of Android phones more profitable and also build back to keeping Android sustainable in the long term. Achieving huge scale in a short time span is great, but it has come at a cost of clarity and coherence in the brand portfolio of most manufacturers. Android still remains an attractive base on which to build an enduring cell phone brand.

Has e-commerce come of age in India?

2012-01-29T15:07:00.000-08:00

All reports indicate that ecommerce is booming in India. With a growth rate of 40% per annum the industry is currently valued at Rs.50,000 Crore, of which 80% comes from travel-related purchases (online ticketing and booking of rail/air tickets) and 20% comes from retail e-commerce (purchase of products). Research also reveals that 40% of ecommerce activity comes from small towns (Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities). Further, venture capitalists like Tiger Global and Accel Partners have pumped in more than $300 billion into the sector, heavily backing companies like FlipKart, Indiaplaza and Myntra.

And the ecommerce industry is predicted to grow to Rs.400,000 Crore by 2025, with retailing projected to have 50% share of the total.

I have seen changes in my own online shopping behaviour in the last two years.One of the biggest ones is that I do not hesitate to buy high ticket items online - mobile phones, laptops, expensive speakers. Another change is that I often end up buying from foreign sites, in dollars - the range includes content subscriptions through apps, software, ebooks and even gadgets. And I am not counting the numerous apps that I have purchased through the Apple Store, or the dozens of monthly bills that get processed directly through my bank account or credit card,

Clearly, my trust in e-tailers has increased. I trust the security of online transactions and the reliability of online sellers. Even more importantly, I have purchased most products, including the most expensive ones, without ever seeing or testing them out in real life. In fact, I would not have been able to, because many of these products like the Kindle, my Audioengine speakers and my Dell Vostro V131 laptop were simply not available in any brick and mortar store in India. I have learnt to use customer reviews and forums to get comfortable with products, and it is working very well for me. Ten years ago, I worked on a research project to study the (then miniscule) audience of e-shoppers in India, and I encountered barriers like "how can you buy something without seeing it?" "What if they cheat me? How will I get my money back?". Our very innate cultural need to touch, see and smell what we buy and make sure we are not cheated, seems to be finally dissolving, and this is a welcome change.

Finally, online buying has brought me a lot of value. I buy online under two conditions - either I get cheaper stuff (upto 30% cheaper than brick and mortar stores in some cases) and secondly, I get stuff that is otherwise simply not available in India. And when I buy through sites like Flipkart or Ebay, I get the option to avail EMI schemes on my credit card, which makes it easier to decide on high value purchases.

I imagine that the same factors are driving the growth of ecommerce in small towns, fuelled by the steady growth of internet penetration which has finally crossed 100 million in 2011. The internet bypasses many limitations of brick and mortar retail, allowing you to order the most expensive international brands and get them delivered anywhere from Bhatinda to Madurai, and that too at a discount! With many sites offering Cash on Delivery, payment by DD etc, you do not even need to own a credit card to order online.

The growth of ecommerce has been promising, but lots more effort is needed for the sector to reach the ambitious figure of Rs.400,000 Crore.

Firstly, we need to see more action in the mobile space by ecommerce companies. By 2020, mobile internet access is projected to reach 600 million, completely overhauling the stagnating broadband access. Companies need to start initiatives to encourage shopping through mobile phones and I do not mean only apps. I am talking about payment gateways, mcommerce and even devices set-up for purchase like the Nook and the Kindle Fire. We have already seen the launch of many cheap. sub Rs.15,000 tablets in India like the Akaash and Reliance 3G Tab, and any of them could be set up to provide exclusive access, to say Indiaplaza or Flipkart products. Sell them discounted, and it could be a huge trigger.

Secondly, we have to see more flexible online payment mechanisms. Credit cards are under-penetrated in India, and while penetration may grow, e-banking is likely to grow faster. I would like to see growth of methods to securely transfer money to a seller including e-drafts, bank transfers etc. Of course, all of these need to be accompanied by a foolproof buyer protection mechanism. It would be good if banks can step in to create a system, like Ebay's paisa pay, which protects buyers from fraud.

Thirdly, we need vernacular language versions of ecommerce sites (Off topic, but vernacular content lags behind big time in India), so that people can transact in the language they are most comfortable with.

And finally, we need to see more initiatives to encourage women to shop online. Worldwide, including in India, women form the bulk of shoppers in brick and mortar stores. In India, internet access by women continues to lag behind men. Educating and encouraging the housewife to switch to ecommerce could lead to an explosion of online categories like perfumes, clothes, household groceries and provisions, and even toys.

Sources:
Forbes India
Deccan Herald
SiliconIndia

SOPA - Why India (and everyone using the Net) should protest

2012-01-18T04:48:00.000-08:00

At the time of writing this post, Wikipedia, Reddit and hundreds of other sites are in blackout, as a protest against SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act). Meanwhile, many industry experts, bloggers and journalists have reported in depth on the draconian law, currently before US Congress, which may well be re-titled "Stop the Free Internet". To understand why the international web community is up in arms against the law, it's worthwhile to read some of the well-written articles about it:

Why SOPA is dangerous by Chris Heald at Mashable
What is SOPA and how does it work? by Nilay Patel at The Verge
SOPA page at Wikipedia which is available through the blackout period

Why should this US law have relevance for India, or for that matter anyone in any country other than the US?

The web unites us, more than we ever realise. It connects people together, as strongly, and perhaps more strongly than national boundaries ever will. Whether you are a Youtube user uploading a video to the tune of a song from your favorite US artist, or on Facebook, sharing articles with friends, or a member of a vibrant online community like Reddit. In your own life, you will realise many instances of how the web has expanded your world view, your friendships, or your readership, through the discovery of users, readers and like minded people across the globe.

What binds us equally though, is the hidden architecture of the internet and the way it works. Servers which host content across the world, payment gateways, domain registrars, companies which are headquartered literally anywhere. As users, perhaps we do not realise the invisible all-pervasiveness of the web, which is its real power - companies and entities across the world make the Web work smoothly for you. And the beauty of this, is that you do not need to know or care about this.

SOPA threatens to challenge this. SOPA, in the name of preventing theft of US property, proposes to throttle everyone's freedom of expression. Did it matter to you that PayPal, Google, VISA, Facebook, GoDaddy, Microsoft or anyone else was based in the US? It never mattered to me, except that I admired the US as a vibrant cradle of innovation. If SOPA goes through, it will begin to matter, because it will give the government a free hand to crack down on those companies for violation of copyright/ IP by users and they will be forced to crack down on you and me. The bill includes provisions such as blocking search results, taking down domains, shutting payment gateways and Ad Sense. This does not just mean shutting off access to a US audience - it means shutting you off the Net, period.

And obviously, this law does not originate from a concern or interest for the citizens of the US. Laws made for the common good are enlightened and carry a resonance and respect for the freedom and rights of people everywhere around the world - for free speech, security, financial well being etc. Take a look at the list of official supporters of the Bill : it is dominated by movie studio associations, publishers, record labels and government departments. Judging by the reactions of people in the US, this is not a bill that they want passed. This is pressure from traditional media who feel their business is under threat from a vast anonymous entity called the World Wide Web.

Will killing the internet really solve copyright issues? Can you really control the actions of the 2 billion plus (and growing) base of internet users? Really?

Finally, passing of this law is going to set precedents. And in India, we do not want precedents of this nature. All of us have been reading about the Governments pressure to get Google and Facebook to practice self censorship and self screening for political/ defamatory content. If SOPA was to pass, perhaps we would take it as a precedent to pass laws that police content and take down websites too? And this would not even be about copyright issues, but freedom of speech.

Till now, I have never used this blog to make political statements. I write about tech and I would like it to stay that way. But I feel I owe this post to the internet and the internet community. For everything it has done for me, for all I have learnt, all I have written and all I have shared. You and I belong to the great worldwide democracy of the internet. And the net deserves each of us, even with a small forum of listeners, to raise our voices and defend it. I would urge everyone in India who loves and uses the Net to read up on SOPA, discuss it, spread awareness and speak up against it. You will, and can, make a difference.

Buying a future proof Android smartphone

2012-01-18T03:04:00.000-08:00

This is a continuation of my previous blog post on buying a future proof smartphone. In this post, I want to address the issue of buying a future proof Android phone (quite a challenge, that!)

If you are looking for an Android phone, chances are that you would have heard of Android 4.0 (ICS), the latest and greatest version of Android. Currently, the official ICS update is available only on Samsung's Galaxy Nexus (yet to be launched in India) and the earlier Nexus S (now discontinued). Of course, several unofficial custom ICS 4.0 ROMS are already available for certain devices, but many people might not want to experiment with these, and would prefer to wait for official updates from manufacturers.

I believe that it's important for everyone buying an Android phone in 2012 to ensure that they get ICS 4.0 as their operating system.

For one, it's a unifying update from Google - henceforth all Android tablets and top smartphones will run on one operating system, while budget phones will continue to run Gingerbread. And Google is committed to ensuring that in the future, updates are issued across devices and manufacturers within a reasonable time frame. Therefore, getting onto ICS gives you a better chance to stay updated in the future.

And secondly, ICS is a fantastic operating system, praised by those who try it as fast, fluid and feature-packed.

To get a complete feel of ICS, I recommend reading Eldar Murtazin's exhaustive review (in two parts) on the Mobile Review website.

So how can you purchase a future proof Android handset?

1. Buy a phone which will get upgraded to ICS

It's not enough for Google to push out a new OS, the manufacturers need to implement it on their handsets, integrating it to work with the software that they have installed (TouchWiz, Sense etc.) Do note that no manufacturer has guaranteed an ICS upgrade by a specific date. And going by past track record, the lag between Google's release and release of the OS by a manufacturer has been anything from 6 months to 1 year. Hopefully, this year it will improve!

Samsung has promised upgrades to ICS for the Galaxy S2 (Rs.30,000), Galaxy Note (Rs.34,000) and Galaxy R (Rs.22,000) in Q1 2012. Basically, if you own any Samsung mobile other than those listed here, you are out of luck for an ICS upgrade. The Nexus S received an ICS upgrade directly from Google, but it is discontinued.

HTC will issue ICS updates for HTC Sensation (Rs. 30,000), Sensation XE and XL (Rs. 32,000 approx.), HTC Rezound and HTC Vivid. (source : PC World ). Everything else is out in the cold.

Sony will issue updates for its Xperia Range (2011 only). As per the company blog, the the high-end Xperia arc S (Rs.28,000), the Xperia Ray (Rs. 19,000) and the Neo V (Rs.18,000) will get upgrades by Q1 2012. While earlier models like Xperia Arc, Xperia Neo, Xperia Mini/Mini Pro and Walkman Live will receive this upgrade only after April 2012 but hopefully before end of the year. In fact, Sony has a far better upgrade road map than Samsung or HTC, which spans more devices, at different price points. Purely from this point of view, buying a Sony Android device might make sense.

If you have not considered an LG handset before,here is an incentive to do so. LG has promised ICS on the Optimus 2X (Rs.20,000), Optimus 3D (Rs.30,000) and Optimus Black (Rs.19,000), via the company's Facebook page. No timeframe though.

2. Buy a phone running ICS out of the box

This is actually the most headache free solution for an end user. Upgrading the operating system can be at best a slow and tiresome process - at worst, something can go wrong. But at least in India, we have a wait on our hands before we get a phone running ICS. The Galaxy Nexus is due end January 2012 (price not yet known, but likely to be on par with the iPhone 4S). Of course, you can buy it on ebay for Rs.40,000 :)

Huawei has promised three phones with ICS - The Huawei Honor, Ascend P1 and P1S. The Honor is of particular interest as Huawei has claimed that it will launch in India in February with ICS on board. Huawei is an upcoming brand and is likely to price even high-end devices more competitively than HTC or Samsung.

HTC also has three phones with ICS scheduled for a Q1 2012 launch - HTC Ville, Edge and Elite.

(update : GSMArena just released a list of SE Android devices planned for 2012. Looks like all of them will run ICS. That's another good reason to take a look at Sony if you're buying an Android phone)

3. Load a custom ROM

ICS Custom ROMs are available already for several phones including older ones. Here is a good list which gets updated regularly : Droidangels blogspot. Developers work constantly on bug fixes and updates, so as time goes by, these ROMs will all get more stable and widely adopted.

When I was editing this post, I realised that everything is pointing to one inevitable conclusion - you want ICS, you got to wait! Seems that things have not changed since last year, when I was giving the same advice about Android. Had this post been about Android tablets, I would have had better news. Most of the biggies - ASUS Transformer/ Prime, Motorola Xoom, Galaxy Tab - are already getting, or will be getting their ICS updates soon.

Buying a future proof smartphone

2012-01-16T23:03:00.000-08:00

Every time the 'latest' phone comes out, I feel tempted to buy it, but I have developed a strategy that protects my pocket. I just wait for a few months. Grit teeth and wait. Sure enough, the next greatest phone appears on the horizon, is announced, or already launched. Waiting without jumping for the latest phone has saved me thousands of rupees, and something more important - it has saved me angst. I have a different type of angst - for example, now my dilemma is to choose between a Samsung Galaxy S2 and the Galaxy Nexus - but this is better than being stuck with an S2 and wondering if I should have waited for the Nexus.

How do you make sure that your expensive piece of kit stays relevant, at least for the 11.5 months that an average smartphone user keeps a phone before replacing it?

1. Software upgrades are the key to having an updated phone

It's the software, more than hardware alone, which controls the 'up-to-date-ness' of a phone.

Nowadays, all the major operating systems (Android, Apple, Microsoft) offer upgrades on a regular basis. All Apple and MS phones will receive updates promptly. Only Android phones will face a lag in getting updates as the manufacturer has 'skinned' these phones with their own operating system.

As a first step, if you want a hassle-free upgrade each time, perhaps its simpler to just buy a Windows Phone or an iPhone. Both are guaranteed to be future proof at least for a year if not more. In fact, the iPhone 3Gs has received an update to the latest iOS 5, making it still relevant even 3 years after launch. With Android, unless you put up Rs.30K + for the Galaxy Nexus, the bets are off. Of course, you could load a custom ROM, and with that we go to the next point.

2. Buy an Android phone and load a custom ROM

Android being a (largely) Open Source software, developers have the chance to develop Custom ROMs, which are their own flavors of Android. Custom ROMs can be modified to extract the most from the hardware - improve the battery life, improve the speed of the phone, set different themes etc. They also allow you to access and load 'unofficial' apps which do not appear in the Android Marketplace. And most importantly, custom ROMs allow you to gain access to newer versions of Android that might have never ever gotten an official release on your phone. For example, Samsung Galaxy S is officially not going to get Android 4 (ICS). However, at the XDA-developers forum, onecosmic and some other guys have released an ICS 4.0 Custom ROM for the Galaxy S. Obviously, it's like a breath of life for the phone, plus these guys with 2 year old phones get to thumb their noses at those of us who are still waiting for ICS!

If you buy a phone with the view to load a custom ROM, it's worthwhile to first check if there is one! For example, the Galaxy S has ROMs but Galaxy S i9003 (the S-LCD version of the Galaxy S) does not. The LCD version of Galaxy S has a different chipset, display and battery and requires a different ROM, which has not yet been developed. Similarly the recently released Galaxy R does not have a ROM. If you do buy these phones you need to take a chance and wait for devs to start work on them. The lists are constantly updated but some good source links to check are -

Cyanogen Mod - list of supported devices
AOSP (Android Open Source Project)
MIUI

New Year's resolution - take care of your gadgets in 2012

2012-01-01T22:43:00.000-08:00

Our life expectancy from gadgets (and the timespan in which we get bored and want to replace them) is shortening rapidly. Earlier, I had blogged about how the lifespan of my first two mobile phones was 7 years. Nowadays, I get bored with them in less than a year, and I don't have to feel guilty about it - research shows that the average smartphone user replaces his handset after approximately 11 months.

However, even if we replace our toys sooner, we can still take care of them better. In fact, extra care is indicated because they are more expensive AND more fragile than ever before. Touchscreens, even those protected with Gorilla Glass, are not likely to survive falls. Both battery longevity and life are under threat from increasingly powerful processors in tablets, mobile phones and laptops. The displays and the fancy surfaces of gadgets are increasingly susceptible to smudges, scratches and scuffs.

Whether you plan to sell or exchange your old gadgets or simply pass them on to other family members, it's nice to keep them in mint condition, so that the next user is happier to get them! So let's see some simple tips to ensure that you do this -

1. Give your gadgets a rest!

I credit this idea to David Carnoy's post on CNet. When he took his iPhone to the Apple Genius Bar complaining of poor battery life, the Apple Genius gave him a simple and ingenious solution - turn off your phone at night, at least once a week. According to him, all gadgets get 'stressed' when they are continuously powered up, even if they are idle.

Whether or not this improves battery life, it seems like good common sense advice to me. Every now and then, let your gadgets get a good night's sleep. This applies especially for your mobile phone, your router and your laptop, if you prefer to hibernate it rather than shut it down.

2. Get screen protection first!

The most vulnerable part of your device (especially a touchscreen device) is the screen. Not only is it likely to crack if you drop the device, it is also a magnet for fingerprints, smudges and oily marks. As soon as you buy a device, buy the touchscreen protector - a thin protective plastic film that covers it. This is the first line of defence for your screen. Touchscreen protectors for mobile phones are available in most stores, in a range from Rs.200-400. And ask the shop to install it for you, to make sure it is done perfectly, and without ugly air bubbles. They will usually oblige, even in the Apple Store.

3. Get a slip cover for your iPad or laptop

There are a host of fancy accessories like the Smart Cover for the iPad and lots of laptop bags. But in a country like India, which is hugely dust-prone, a protective cover is a must. A slip cover or sleeve which completely encases the device, is a cost-effective solution with dual use - it protects the device in transit and if you leave it on at home, it also prevents dust from accumulating on it. At least in Mumbai, where pollution and dust levels are high, I can see how much dust accumulates on my keyboard and screen, everyday.

Slip covers start at Rs.600 for the iPad and for a 13 inch laptop. You can pick them up at Heera Panna, or at a good luggage store like Sayonara on Linking Road, Bandra (W).

If you are disinclined to spend this money, you can employ the time-tested solution used by my grandmother and most Indian housewives - cover your gadgets with a small cloth when not in use. :)

But don't underestimate the additional layer of protection that a slip cover will provide in transit. My friend dropped her well-padded Samsonite rucksack in a rickshaw and found that the fall had chipped off the edge of her Inspiron laptop. An extra protective padding could have prevented it.

4. Charge wisely

There are so many conflicting reports on how to extend battery life through proper charging, and battery life is such a subjective parameter, that it's hard to give advice. But here are some basics that should work for everyone -

Never leave a device to charge overnight, you will tend to overcharge, and this reduces battery life.
As a general rule, to the extent possible, keep the charging threshold between 30% and 90%. This means, charge the device when the battery is around 30% and stop charging when it is around 90%.
Never, ever leave a device or charger plugged in permanently or for a long time. It will destroy the battery.

5. A wet tissue, everyday

Wipe your devices every morning with a slightly damp tissue to remove dust and dirt. Of course, it is safe to do this when they are powered off. It will not take you more than 2 minutes and you really do not need a more expensive cleaning solution. This will prevent dust from settling into open sockets and between the keys.

6. Dedicate a pocket for your phone

While I favor slip covers for tablets and laptops, I don't find them a practical solution for phones. For one thing, you will need to pull out your phone all the time to check messages or answer calls, so it can be inconvenient. Also, in my own experience, if you try to take a phone out from a slip cover in a hurry, say when you are walking, you may accidentally drop the phone. I recommend a separate dedicated and accessible pocket - in your trousers, handbag, or rucksack, as the case may be. A dedicated pocket is necessary because hard or heavy objects like keys or loose change can scratch your phone's display.

I wish you and your gadgets, a high performing and trouble free 2012!

Troubleshooting wi-fi connectivity with Intel Centrino Wireless N-1030

2011-12-30T21:56:00.000-08:00

There is a problem which has cropped up recently on my Dell Vostro 131. It refuses to connect to my Linksys WAG54G2 router, and when it does, the connection breaks almost immediately. I established that it could not be a router issue (I sit and work on the sofa next to the damned router) and besides, other devices including my iPad and my old Dell XPS laptop are connecting perfectly well. So I figured that it's a problem with the network adaptor/ drivers.

Here is a summary of the steps that I took to address the problem. They seem to have worked, but I will be calling Dell customer support if the problem persists. Do note that I use Windows 7, and the screenshots I have posted may not be applicable for XP/Vista machines.

Intel acknowledges that there is a problem with several products - see the list in the article for details. The feature called 'Power Saving Polling' which is intended to save battery life but can cause problems if the router or access point cannot implement it correctly.

Intel and other support forums for Dell and MS offer three simple workarounds for the adapter issue;
1. Go to the start menu and type 'device manager'. You will see this screen:

2. Right click on the network adapter (Intel Centrino N-1300 in my case) and select 'properties' from the menu

3. The Intel Centrino N-1300 Wireless Properties Box will open. Select the Advanced tab ; the first option you will see is 802.11n mode - check 'disable' in options.

4. Next go to the Power Management tab and uncheck the box which says "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power and click 'OK'.

These steps will disable PSP, but you need to take one more step to correct the issue-
1) Go to Control Panel/ Hardware and sound/Power Options. Choose your current power plan and click on 'Change plan settings'

2) Click on 'Change advanced plan settings'

3) The power options box will open, under that select 'Wireless adaptor settings/ power saving mode. From the drop down menu, enable the option 'maximum power' for both 'battery' and 'plugged in'.

I would say that this has fixed 80% of my problems. I still experience a problem re-establishing the wi-fi connection when the laptop goes into sleep mode. Microsoft help forums suggest another fix, which is editing the registry. I wanted to avoid doing this but maybe I will try it now.

Disable the DHCP Broadcast Flag in Windows 7

The Handy Guide to the Samsung Galaxy Range

2011-12-29T10:30:00.000-08:00

There's one word to describe the Samsung Galaxy smartphone range - confusing . Well, Nokia did much worse with the endless alphanumeric combos like C2-03 and X2-01 and I spent half a day figuring out what they all stood for when I composed my handy guide to Nokia phones earlier this year. Samsung has not made it too easy either. The company tags "Galaxy" to every Android phone/tablet it makes and "Wave" to every bada phone and after that, price is really the only cue to figure out what's at the top of the heap and what's at the bottom.

So here's the low down on the Galaxy range. Earlier this year, Samsung introduced a naming convention to define the Galaxy Range (thanks, Mobile Gazette for the lowdown!) which is as follows;

S = Super Smart (Top End phones)
R = Refined (High End Devices)
W = Wonder (Upper Mid Range Phones)
M = Magical (Mid Range Phones)
Y = Young (Entry Level Smartphones)

In addition, a 'Pro' handset will feature a QWERTY keyboard and 'Plus' signifies an upgraded version.

The nomenclature of course, means nothing much till we dive into the features and see what Samsung offers in each of its self-defined categories.

1. The S Series (Galaxy S I9000, Nexus S, Galaxy S LCD, Galaxy S II, Galaxy S Plus I9001)

The Galaxy Note and the new Galaxy Nexus are standalone and do not form part of the S Series. However, the other phones here are almost all best sellers for Samsung. Typically, these are in the Rs.20,000-30,000 range unless you are lucky to find an older model going cheap. All these phones run at least a 1 GHz processor, have a 3.5 inch plus capacitive touchscreen and run Android Gingerbread. Some have Samsung's SAMOLED screen.

The Galaxy S2 is of course the flagship and current bestseller in this range, and should receive the update to the newest Android 4.0 ICS early next year. It is currently priced at. Rs.30,000 on Flipkart.

The best selling Galaxy S I9000 has been replaced with the newest addition in the S Series - the Galaxy S Plus priced at Rs. 23,000. It offers a 4 inch AMOLED screen and 1.4 GHz single Core CPU and it runs Android Gingerbread. The CPU has been upgraded from the old 1 GHz processor in the Galaxy S and it runs Android Gingerbread out of the box.

If you want good specs on a budget, there is still some stock of Samsung Galaxy S I9003 with 4.0 inch LCD screen, which is way cheaper than a SAMOLED and priced at just Rs.18500 on Flipkart. The other specs include 1 GHz Hummingbird processor and 512 MB RAM. But do note that it only runs the older Android 2.2 FroYo and Samsung has just announced that it will not receive the upgrade to ICS (Android 4.).

The Nexus S (now discontinued) has a 4.0 inch SAMOLED touchscreen, but otherwise shares the same internals as the Galaxy S series. It runs stock Android and has already received an update to ICS.

2. The R series (Galaxy R I9103)

I could not really get a clue how the R series ("refined phones") would be different from S series phones and the Galaxy R I9103 really does not help to solve this puzzle. It features a dual core 1 GHz processor (that's the same power as an iPad 2) and a whopping 1 GB of RAM which should please gamers. However, the 4 inch screen is S-LCD and not AMOLED. It runs Android Gingerbread and sells for a tempting Rs.21,000 on Flipkart. This is an attractive handset if you consider that it's a bit wasteful to spend Rs.30,000 on a phone.

3. The Y series (Galaxy Y S5360)

Targeted by Samsung at young users (who are also on a budget), the Y series Galaxy phones run Android Gingerbread and have a processor speed of 800 MHz. They also have 3 inch TFT screens and 2 MP cameras - a big step down from the Galaxy S phones, but this also keeps the price point at Rs.7500.

Currently the range offers 2 options - the Galaxy Y and the Y Color Plus which offers 4 additional changeable back panels for a moderate price premium.

4. The Galaxy Pro B7510

Pro devices from Samsung feature a QWERTY keyboard. The Galaxy Pro B7510 has a slightly small (2.8 inch) TFT touchscreen in addition to a QWERTY keyboard and packs an 800 MHz processor. It runs Android FroYo and is priced at approximately Rs. 10,000.

5. The Galaxy Ace S5830

While it does not fall into Samsung's classification system, this mid-priced (Rs.14,000) phone has been justifiably popular. It packs an 800 MHz processor, and the Adreno 200 GPU for handling graphics gives it a little performance bump compared to Samsung's budget offerings. The 3.5 inch TFT screen offers decent real estate for browsing. It runs Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)

6. Entry level phones - Galaxy Fit S5670 and Galaxy Pop S5570

These phones may have gotten a bit outdated with the launch of the Y series, as they run on the older Android FroYo and it's unlikely that Samsung will upgrade them. They have slower 600 MHz processors and 3 inch touchscreens. They are also in the same price range as the Galaxy Y S5360 - in fact at Rs.9000 and Rs.8000 respectively on Flipkart, they are more expensive. It seems unlikely that anyone would pick one of these over the Galaxy Y and I expect that once the stock is over, they will be withdrawn from the market.

Doing this post definitely helped me to clarify my own confusions about Samsung's range and I hope it helps you too!

Review of Dell Vostro V131

2011-12-15T23:19:00.000-08:00

I don't usually do reviews - there are so many sites who do a fantastic job (and more importantly, do it at the time of launch - whereas, I am usually a late adopter). But the Dell Vostro V131 is likely to interest a lot of people like me who are buying on a budget so I thought I would do a quick recap after two weeks of using it. This does not purport to be an exhaustive review - I'll give you some links to reviews that helped me to make up my mind at the end of this post. It is rather a recap of the good and bad points.

I bought this laptop for work use (I am self employed). I was looking for a light, 13 inch laptop with good service support at a price point under Rs.60,000. No graphics card. Good keyboard. The choice narrowed down to the Dell Vostro V131 and the Sony Vaio S series which features some models under Rs.60,000. I also considered the Dell XPS 14, but did not see an additional value for paying Rs.65,000 other than the good looks. As an aside, the XPS range has really gone downhill. At the time when I bought an XPS 1330 nearly four years ago, nothing could match the XPS range. Now, everything seems to have overtaken it in specs, but not in price!

I bought the Vostro V131 primarily because of the attractive price (Rs.48,000 including 3 year extended warranty for parts and next day business service). And also because the service support for Vostro is best in class.

My machine comes with an Intel Core i5-2430M processor (2.4 GHz), 4 GB of RAM and a 500GB 7200 RPM Drive from Western Digital.

Firstly, let's see the good points;

1) The battery life is awesome

I get an average of 8 hours a day working non-stop, with wi-fi on. It is fully worth the ugly little 'battery bump' that Dell created on the laptop. It's good for almost an entire working day without power.

2) It has a decent keyboard

Frankly, I am not a fan of the chiclet-type keyboard which first showed up on Macs and is now being copied on all laptops. I liked the old 'floating island' keyboard on my Dell XPS 1330, because it had more depth and tactile response. But, I guess I am getting used to the keyboard. Keyboard is THE most important thing for me on a business laptop - I need to be able to type fast and smoothly and so far, no complaints about this keyboard. Just as well, because it would have been a deal breaker otherwise.

3) The build quality is reasonably good

I mention this because many of the reviews point out that the build quality is poor and flimsy compared to more expensive machines like the Dell XPS 14 or the Dell Latitude. I appreciate great design and a strong build, but there is nothing much wrong with this. My Dell XPS 1330 had a good build but shoddy finishing around the (then) ultra-thin LED screen and after three years of use, it looked pretty scuffed up. The V131, ironically, seems better finished overall, and less likely to show wear and tear with its matte and scratch proof surfaces. Maybe it won't survive a fall, but I am thankfully not in the habit of dropping laptops. Cellphones yes, but laptops no. Having said that, I have invested in a good laptop bag and a slipcover for transport.

4) It runs cool
My comparison point is the Dell XPS 1330, which would expel hot air in a steady stream all the time. The Vostro 131 is thankfully cooler. I have not felt the need to purchase a cooling pad for this one.

Now, for the flip side

1) Terrible, terrible screen

After keyboard, screen is the next big deal breaker for me. I need to say this upfront - the screen sucks big time. It's not so noticeable when working on a powerpoint, but it is really bad when I watch video. Maybe, if I had seen the display before purchase, I would have been put off. I can live with it now, but let's just say that it's going to drive me towards wearing reading glasses prematurely.

2) Dell Bloatware is a nuisance

The Vostro V131 comes with pre-installed Dell Bloatware including Dell DataSafe online backup and a Dell Support center which is pretty redundant, given that Windows 7 can take care of itself, thank you very much. Disabling the automatic back up and updating options requires you to dig into the settings.

I would still recommend this to anyone whose primary use is business - which is what the laptop is designed for anyway. The poor quality screen rules it out for movie watching or gaming. Otherwise, it's a fantastic package, at a starting price of only Rs.42,000 for a Core i3 processor. You will not find an ultraportable at a comparable price point in India. The battery life and keyboard make it great for daily business use.

For me, the average life of a laptop is 3 years. At that point, whether it's working or not, I upgrade because hardware and software have moved way ahead and a laptop is a basic business investment for me. Also, let me confess that I get bored and I need a change. So it does not make sense for me to spend big bucks on a laptop. I look for a reliable and trouble-free three year performance and that's it. And I feel very sure that the Vostro V131 will be working just fine for the next three years.

Here are links to the reviews that helped me to make up my mind-

The AnandTech review
The LaptopMag Review
The CNet Review

Will Windows Phone be the third wheel in the mobile party?

2011-12-15T22:26:00.000-08:00

It's been a year of massive upheavals in the volatile mobile phone market. First of all, smartphones now constitute 30% of mobile shipments worldwide. Secondly, according to Gartner, in Q3 2011, Android gained more than 50% market share globally, doubling its market share over 2010. And Samsung overtook Nokia to become the world's largest cell phone manufacturer. The casualties were RIM and Nokia - Symbian lost nearly half its market share while RIM plummeted below 10% in the US market. Nokia continued to maintain some momentum thanks to a slew of low end devices aimed at the emerging markets, but RIM did not have the same fortune.

Now in a scenario where Apple's iOS and Google's Android OS rule the market, is there room for a third player? And who is it likely to be?

The logical answer is of course Microsoft with its WP OS. Microsoft has so far not made a dent in the mobile market - it is stagnating at less than 2% market share even after the launch of the new operating system. Even the old Windows Mobile OS has a better share, with nearly 8% of the market, thought it's expected to dip rapidly.

But it's still too early to write off the still-nascent WP platform. The operating system has been praised in the tech press for its polished UI and its potential integration with Microsoft Enterprise, Office, Web and Cloud products. And with Skype in its arsenal, and a growing base of apps and developers, Microsoft can offer an attractive proposition to both business and individual users - a secure, well built operating system optimised to run well on handsets at different price points.

Till now, the growth of WP OS has been hampered by the less than enthusiastic response of hardware partners like HTC and Samsung, who have released very few handsets compared to the steady stream of Android handsets from both companies. Of course, Microsoft is also to blame for this, as the company has imposed severe restrictions and controls on the hardware from the start. It's not an ideal position to control specs when you have no real control over what manufacturers do! But Microsoft would seem to have overcome that hurdle through the partnership with Nokia. Now that Nokia has thrown in their fortunes entirely with WP OS, Microsoft has a powerful ally in their battle to build a strong market. And while Nokia may have failed to create a viable smartphone operating system, they sure know how to build good phones!

Gartner seems to have a positive outlook for the alliance, predicting that Microsoft will gain upto 11% market share in 2012 and 19% by 2015, pushing it to third position behind Android and iOS in the smartphone market.

The low hanging fruit for Microsoft is really the enterprise/business segment - which is rapidly being vacated by RIM, creating a gap that MS is uniquely able to fulfill. Android and iOS smartphones are increasingly being used for business, but they do not command the equity that Microsoft has already built in this segment. If Microsoft is able to convince businesses on the aspect of security, and ability to integrate smartphones with enterprise needs and applications, then they might have a winner on their hands. Of course, they did not have great success with Windows Mobile, but WP is a new proposition altogether.

I for one, am looking forward to the launch of Nokia's new WP handsets. I do feel that we need a viable third alternative and frankly, no one else seems to be offering one right now!

The best 3G data plan in Mumbai

2011-12-14T22:28:00.000-08:00

If you use 3G a lot, on your smartphone or tablet, you would also have figured that 3G data plans are prohibitively expensive and restricted in many ways. For example, there are almost no unlimited plans, you pay extra for roaming on other networks and 3G coverage is patchy.

MTNL Mumbai has some extremely attractive unlimited 3G packs. The pick of the bunch is the 3G 4500 plan which gives you unlimited data for 6 months at just Rs.4500. Pair this with the seamless 3G roaming on BSNL networks at no extra charge and you have the best plan for Mumbaikars as of now. This plan is available for both prepaid and postpaid MTNL users and can now be purchased online.

Do bear in mind that MTNL Mumbai does not offer MicroSims for iPad so you will have to purchase and cut the SIM yourself to use with an iPad. That's easy to do, and TechRadar has an excellent guide which I followed to create my own MicroSim.

Here are the MTNL 3G settings for iPad in Mumbai.

How to increase partition size of C (System) Drive in Win 7

2011-12-14T22:05:00.000-08:00

I am back to blogging after a long gap!

This post is based on my practical experience (Read : struggle) with partitions in my new Windows 7 PC. Windows 7 provides a disk management tool which makes it very easy to create new partitions. You simply go to Control Panel/ System and Security/ Create and Format HD Partitions and you get a window which lets you easily and intuitively create partitions.

So creating partitions is easy. The problem starts when you later decide that you want to increase the partition size of C Drive. There is an option called Extend Volume but it shows up greyed out and it cannot be used. So you are stuck with lots of extra free space elsewhere and you can't use it on C Drive. What do you do?

At this stage, you need to get a third party software to help you. I used EaseUS Partition Manager which is a great freeware tool. Ten minutes and one boot up and my C drive volume got extended.

Here are the steps:

1) Backup your data!

2) Download the partition manager and fire it up.

To extend the C Drive, you first need to make free space available next to it. So click on the drive with extra space (in my case D Drive) and select the option to resize/ move partition. You should get this window:

Use the slider to select the amount of space that you want to free up for your C Drive and click on OK, then Apply. You should be able to see the free space available next to C Drive.

3) Next, select the C Drive and the option to merge partitions. You should see this window;

Tick the boxes next to C Drive and the contiguous space that you want to merge. Click OK and then click Apply

4) The software will ask you to reboot your machine. Merging of the two drives happens during the reboot.

When your machine starts up again, your C Drive volume will be extended.

MTNL broadband plans are more expensive, less attractive

2011-09-23T04:14:00.000-07:00

I have been a huge fan of MTNL Broadband on this blog. Out of all the internet service providers I have used, they have proved to be the most reliable and most reasonably priced till date and the customer service experience has not been bad either. Of course with the shrinking base of landline customers, it also stands to reason that they are able to service them better.

But the latest TriBand plans from MTNL Mumbai have been a huge disappointment. They favour low-bandwidth unlimited usage and are seem to be priced higher to discourage high-bandwidth, heavy data users. High bandwidth is a misnomer - 2 Mbps is not considered high speed in most developed countries and 256 kbps is not even broadband anyway. With most households now connecting multiple devices wirelessly to the internet (laptops, smartphones, even tablets), speeds below 512 kbps are not going to cut it anymore.

With multiple device access, and heavier web pages, the data download has also increased and I have experienced this myself. Downloading apps on the iPad, downloading mail on 3 separate devices, watching more videos has doubled my usage. I used to barely get to 3 GB download per month last year, and this month, I have crossed 7GB.

But MTNL has been extremely stingy with its 2 Mbps plans, offering a measly 2.5 GB for Rs. 598. As speed increases, so do downloads, and they just don't seem to get this! The rates for high speed broadband are comparable to the unreasonably high 3G rates.

After sifting through all the plans, I have been forced to settle for the Combo 1249, a plan which gives me 75 free calls that I do not want, but at least gives me a 20GB monthly download limit. Hopefully I should be able to keep within that. I was eyeing Combo 1749 (4 Mbps, 50 GB monthly download) but I don't feel rich enough yet. Maybe next year.

You can view MTNL Mumbai tariffs here.

Incidentally, MTNL Delhi has much better broadband plans. Take a look. The Trib 850 plan offers 4 mbps speeds and 10 GB of monthly download for just Rs. 850 per month, or Rs. 8500 if you pay it annually. For once, I wish I lived in Delhi! And I am not even comparing BSNL here, because it would just get too depressing. BSNL not only offers lower rates, but also higher speeds.

Property Tax for Mumbaikars simplified - pay online

2011-09-23T03:34:00.000-07:00

Since last year, my housing society discontinued the practice of paying property tax on behalf of the residents and now hands our individual property tax bills to us to take care of. I have been once to the local Municipal Office, and while it's not as bad an experience as I thought it would be, it does take up half the day till I reach, park the car, stand in a queue and get the job done.

Thanks to my dad, I discovered the online property tax payment facility offered by the BMC. You can find it here.

To enter the site, you just need to enter the SAC number (usually an alphanumeric code) printed on your property tax bill.

The payment gateway accepts payment through credit card or netbanking from a whole list of nationalised banks, but not from too many private ones. However, you can use the ItzCash or BillDesk facilities to pay through any credit card or netbanking account. A small service fee is levied per transaction, but in these days, with the petrol prices what they are, you would spend as much just getting to your nearest ward office. Not to mention, the working hours that you would end up spending there.

I have used this facility to make my last two payments and both have gone through smoothly, with printable e-receipts that I can download and save. Be aware that the payment gateway is moody and acts up sometimes, but works in the end.

If your property tax is overdue, a penalty may be chargeable and you will not be allowed to make the payment online. Then, you have no choice but to visit the local office.

It's a fantastic convenience to be able to avoid visiting a government office and it's a pity that more people do not avail of it. DNA reported in April that only 1% of property tax bills in Mumbai are paid through the BMC website. Of course, discomfort of most people with online payment is cited as the reason for this, but equally I think people are unaware that this option is given by the BMC. The site shifted to a new URL sometime ago and I had to spend half hour digging through the BMC website to find the new link. I could not find it by googling and that's the reason for this post - to save someone else's time!

Will Daily Deals do well in India?

2011-09-06T20:30:00.000-07:00

Ben Parr's post on Mashable sums up the rather bleak international scenario for daily deals sites - things are not looking good. Groupon, which created the online coupons category, is struggling to make profits despite large revenues. Facebook has withdrawn its Facebook Deals product after a short experimental stint and Yelp is scaling down its deals offerings, with an intent to exit the category. It appears that the industry is headed for a shakedown and only a few players are going to survive.

Meanwhile, the sector has just begun to explode in India. At least 30 different players, some large, some small, have sprung up. The market leader is the homegrown Snapdeal, which recently raised 40 Million USD in funding. Times Group, EBay India, Rediff and Groupon (via a buy out of SoSaasta.com) have also entered the fray. Makes you wonder whether the bubble will burst in India soon, as it already has abroad

But at least for now, the going is good. Data shows that 4.6 million users accessed coupon sites in July 2011. The graph below reproduces the traffic for the top deal sites (Source : online marketing trends )

And Snapdeal's success in the market has been inspiring. The company's operations now extend to 50 cities and cover partnerships with over 10,000 brands and 50,000 retailers. The registered user base has crossed 4 million with an average of 1.5 million new users signing up every month. Mobile has proved to be a valuable vehicle leveraged successfully by Snapdeal to offer deals on the go, through SMS.

Snapdeal's CEO, Kunal Bahl has an interesting take on his business. "In India, group buying is an pure offline marketing business with a website." He goes on to explain the psyche of the Indian merchant, who will never make a deal on the phone but needs to see and shake the hand of the person they are doing the deal with, necessitating the company to invest in a strong sales team to build deep relationships with retailers.

Indian consumers are also a pampered lot. We are used to being wooed with ultra-high levels of service and irresistible discounts. We expect as a matter of routine, free door delivery, free 24X7 access to telephonic customer support and even lifetime warranties. This is beneficial for consumers, but it does increase the pressures, and squeeze the profit margins for e-tailers in the Indian market. And it implies that only really good deals, on really good brands will work. We are a little too smart to fall for patent anti-baldness oils, magical multipurpose Ayurvedic tonics and ab flatteners.

So, will daily deals sites be able to sustain the momentum in the long term? The answer lies in innovation and creativity in offering deals that differentiate from the rest of the pack in an overcrowded market. Here perhaps Groupon has an idea that will work. The company has experimentally rolled out Groupon Now, time and location based deals delivered through a phone app on Android or Apple handsets.

Mobile based deals are definitely the way to go in India given the large user base and the ability to pinpoint location. Also while Facebook Deals may have tanked, social networks remain a good bet for offering group deals. We do tend to shop and buy in groups and rely on our social networks as influencers for a purchase. Finally, understanding and building a user profile for deals will make a big difference. For example, if you know that I work in Mumbai in an office in Nariman Point, and you make it a point to offer me deals on restaurants, takeaways and pubs in that area on weekdays, at lunch hours, I would be more likely to avail them. If I purchase air tickets to Chennai, and you send me Chennai based offers on the day that I flew there, I would pass the lead to local friends, even if I could not go myself. Given the low usage of mobile internet and GPS in this country, most of this would need to work on text messaging, but I am sure it can be worked out.

The concept of daily deals is interesting, and works to the consumer benefit. I do hope that the various companies in this business manage to turn it into a vibrant and strong industry.

Sources : Techcrunch, Mashable, BusinessInsider, Online Marketing Trends

Low cost tablets hit the Indian market, will they succeed?

2011-09-06T09:30:00.000-07:00

According to this report published on trak.in, India saw fairly healthy tablet sales in 2010-11. A total of 85,000 tablets were sold from November 2010 to March 2011, with Samsung's Galaxy Tab taking a lion's share of 85%. Apple's iPad 1 was launched in India in April 2010, but managed only 5.9% market share in the same period. The same article mentions that tablet sales in India are projected as 250,00 units for the current financial year. That's a drop in the ocean compared to the approximately 40 million iPads that Apple will be shipping globally in 2011.

All major tablets launched internationally including the iPad 2, the Motorola Xoom, Acer Iconia and the Galaxy Tab 750 are now available in India While these premium offerings are hovering at or above the Rs.30,000 mark, there are also some low cost options.

Reliance has launched a 3G tablet and the specs are decent for the asking price of Rs.12,999. You get a 7 inch capacative TFT/LCD screen, 800 MHz processor, Android Gingerbread and 3G/Wi-fi connectivity. It supports voice calling although video calling is not possible due to absence of a front camera. Reliance is bundling the offering with special data plans

Bharti Beetel has followed suit and launched the Beetel Magiq tablet. This tablet breaks the 10,000 price barrier at Rs. 9999 and offers a 1 GHz processor, 7 inch LCD screen and front facing camera for video calls. It runs on the older FroYo Android platform. While you can get an Airtel plan for the tablet, it can also be used with any other telecom provider.

For those curious about the OlivePad launched last year, it's still available on the Olive site. Unfortunately, the specs stay the same - 600 MHz processor, 512 MB RAM, FroYo but the price is down to Rs.15,990 (direct from Olive Telecom)

Since last year, I have been predicting that tablets will sell bigger numbers in the price sensitive Indian market when they drop below the Rs.15,00 mark. Now it seems to be happening, but the question is, will this alone be enough to trigger a tablet boom in India?

India is operating a little differently from the international market, and even from other large Asian markets like China, where mobile devices are concerned. India has a huge mobile user base (800 million and growing), which is second only to China. However, India has low usage of both broadband and mobile internet compared to China. Infrastructure is a problem - broadband coverage remains low, 3G rollout is still patchy, and data tariffs remain high although State telcos BSNL and MTNL offer attractive packages. Hardware is another problem - PC and smartphone penetration remains low. But a real and serious problem has been the lack of access to vernacular language content, another crucial area where India is lacking compared to China, Japan, Korea etc.

It is now pretty well accepted that mobile internet accessed through handheld devices will trigger the internet revolution in India, as it has done in China. But what content will the masses access on their mobile devices?

The question is of particular relevance to tablets, which are today primarily devices for content consumption. I don't know if one needs to buy a tablet just to check mails, social networking sites and do sporadic browsing or gaming - the same activities can be performed even on a dumb phone today. More than even phones, tablets need a content ecosystem to justify their existence and this has been one of the big reasons that Apple has had such great success with the iPad, and the Android marketplace is scrambling to catch up.

So, in short, it's not enough for the telcos to launch low cost tablets - someone needs to provide relevant local content (streaming video, movies, TV channels, live cricket, music channels, internet FM radio etc.). Apps are not content, they are merely enablers and gateways to content.

When this is done I can see a great future for low cost tablets in this country. They could become mobile TV units, dispensing live cricket scores to the city commuter, blockbuster movies to the Bollywood-crazy fans, the latest instalment of a popular TV soap to the housewife on a long-distance train. In a country where audio-visual medium is way more popular than the written word, this is the way to go.

Clearly, this calls for a partnership of telcos, hardware manufacturers and content houses to develop the tablet market. And this is bandwith-hungry content, which will need to be subsidised - bundled offers or subscription based services would make this content affordable to the masses. It would be a challenge to work around the deficiencies in mobile broadband infrastructure - I see a role for cloud-based content which can download directly to your device.

Maybe it's an idea for the future, but it's also an idea whose time has come. I predict that whoever moves first to crack the content question, will rule the market!

Could we have an India-specific mobile platform?

2011-09-05T09:56:00.000-07:00

Chinese search giant Baidu recently announced the launch of an Android-based mobile platform called Yi, which means 'easy' in English. Currently, the platform comprises a set of tools available to developers to create mobile apps for Baidu products and services. But there seem to be strong indications that Baidu is taking steps towards developing an operating system with a user interface, which will eventually find its way onto phones. Chinese e-commerce portal Alibaba has already launched its own Linux-based Aliyun OS.

With 200 million registered users, Baidu is one of the largest sites in the world - to be precise, the sixth largest. And as China's Google, with 80% market share, it certainly has enough user base to develop its own mobile operating system.

Update : Dell has just confirmed that it will partner with Baidu to produce tablets and handsets.

There's more. Now the South Korean government has plans to join hands with local companies like Samsung and LG to develop an open source mobile operating system that will rival Google and Apple. Apparently, the acquisition of Motorola Mobility by Google and its emergence as a potential competitor in the hardware space has made the prospect of an alternate platform to Android, more attractive to Samsung.

These two pieces of news signal a potentially new trend in mobile OS development. Asian countries are the fastest growing mobile markets in the world, and the majority of users would not have comfort with English as a language. There is a huge opportunity to tailor an operating system, and user interface to the needs of the local population, especially if the operating system can link to local language content, as Baidu will be doing.

In India, one can add to this the challenge of adapting an operating system to lower income groups, and users with lower levels of literacy, who rely primarily on icon/ visual based navigation.

Idea for an Indian entrepreneur -

1) Get venture capital to develop a basic operating system for the masses. Vernacular language and visual based. It's not that difficult or costly. Baidu is creating a 'fork' of Android - using the open source and free code to build its own operating system, stripped of Google's apps, marketplace etc. In short, completely independent of Google.

2) Tie it closely up with local language content providers (including vernacular news channels, internet radio stations, Bollywood studios and TV production houses)

3) Sell it to local handset manufacturers - Micromax, Wyncomm etc. Given the interest of companies like Samsung and LG in the Indian market, maybe even they would go with it.

4) Figure out a viable business model (no, I am not going to do that in a blog post!) Possibly though, it could be advertising funded. The HLLs of the world can afford to buy expensive TV advertising, but a lot of companies that target small town and rural India cannot compete with them on ad budgets. They would gladly buy cheaper ad space on mobiles, especially as mobiles can reach media-dark consumers in India.

Horace Dideu notes that mobile platforms have proliferated in the last 2 years - currently the count stands at 15. We should see many more coming as smartphone penetration climbs upwards.

Strategy to gain market share with low cost tablets

2011-08-30T13:53:00.000-07:00

After deciding to end support for the webOS software, HP dropped the price of its TouchPad tablet to $99 for the 16GB version and $149 for 32GB and within a short span of time, the existing stock was sold out. Now, the company plans to manufacture at least one more limited run of tablets to meet the overwhelming demand. When it was priced competitively to the iPad there were no takers, but at the new price, people are apparently prepared to invest, even without the promise of a future ecosystem. Efforts are on to release an Android port for the TouchPad, which would link it to the Android marketplace, and that would make the TouchPad an attractive buy. But the story of the TouchPad makes an interesting case study about how to fuel mass adoption for a new alternative platform. Discount the hardware, create a large user base in a short time span, and then automatically the developer community will step in to build applications. It's a viable market strategy for a company with long term ambitions and deep pockets. Sadly, HP has not chosen this route.

Now Amazon seems prepared to walk this path too, with plans to launch two Android tablets by Q4 2011. Analysts at Forrester Research have predicted that Amazon could sell as many as 3 to 5 million tablets if they are prepared to sell the hardware at a much cheaper price than Apple, even if they lose money in the short term. In any case, the device will be a platform to integrate Amazon's services like Kindle Books, Cloud Drive and the App store, which the company will make money from. And they will be cashing in on the Android boom while upgrading the Kindle ebook reader, which was becoming obsolete as tablets move to touch based technology. Amazon has already promised that their tablets will be 'hundreds of dollars cheaper' than the iPad.

So far, Android market expansion has been driven by hardware manufacturers like Samsung, who have no incentive to discount that hardware. In the tablet space, this has prevented them from making much inroad against Apple. Let's put it bluntly, when Apple and Android tablets are priced equivalently, people incline towards Apple because of its head start in apps, and the useability, refinement and stability of the interface.

The story has been different with Android phones, where budget offerings from HTC, Samsung and others have expanded the Android user base. People are keen to invest in budget offerings to sample Android, get access to the marketplace, and do the same things that people do on high end smartphones. In fact the success and growing market share of the Android platform has been based on rapid adoption across price points. Surely the same paradigm can apply to the tablet segment also.

Do note that this argument only holds when the basic hardware and operating system is sound, and when the future holds some promise of an app ecosystem and/or cross platform migration. It's early days yet to say whether TouchPads will end up becoming obsolete, or whether Amazon will enjoy the same success with their new tablets as they did with the Kindle. But if I were Google, fresh from buying out Motorola, I would take a good look at the potential of low cost tablets as a means to end Apple's dominance.

Source : Ars Technica

BlackBerry's 2011 line up

2011-08-29T02:00:00.000-07:00

BlackBerry is currently in the thick of a huge launch and re-vamp of its product line - a measure that the company must be banking on to stem the eroding mind share and market share in the smartphone segment. India is a important market for BlackBerry, and one where the company has lost less momentum compared to the US, so we can surely expect the latest releases to land early on our shores.

First of all, the new BB range debuts with BB 7 OS, the newest RIM mobile software. Preliminary reviews suggest that it represents in terms of user experience modest upgrade over OS 6, though not changing the way the operating system looks and behaves - that's probably a good thing. But BB 7 still lags behind iOS and Android in two critical areas - the browsing experience and the app ecosystem. This should not be of concern to loyal BlackBerry users, who will be welcomed to a new OS that runs way faster (especially on the top-end Bold), offers NFC, HD Video recording, better graphics support and more.

What should concern the BB User is that OS 7 cannot be upgraded on older devices. Which means that the Torch and the Bold 9780 will now be obsolete. Do keep in mind that OS 7 is also a temporary fix and RIM proposes to shift to the all-new QNX OS next year. Effectively, that would probably make this year's crop of BlackBerry's obsolete? The first QNX handset, the BlackBerry Colt, is expected to debut in Q1 2012. Do note that QNX phones will likely feature a software update that supports Android apps. So you would be able to overcome the limitations of BB App World by gaining access to the better-equipped world of Android apps.

1) BlackBerry Curve : 9350 (CDMA) and 9360/9370 (GSM)

(Image Source : BGR )

The refreshed entry-level Curve range will be launched globally over September-October. The Curve 9350, 9360 and 9370 feature the brand new BlackBerry OS 7, 5 Mega Pixel Camera, slim design and support for NFC and GPS.

It will be unusual to see phones of this calibre without the mandatory touch screen that now comes on even sub Rs.5000 handsets, but that is RIM's differentiator and fans of RIM's QWERTY keyboard will have no problems.

No word yet on pricing, but I would expect BlackBerry to price it on par with the current Curve line-up.

2) BlackBerry Bold 9900 (GSM) and 9930 (CDMA)

(image source : Techradar )

It has drawn attention as the 'best BlackBerry ever', replacing the flagship Torch at the top of RIM's smartphone Pyramid. RIM has updated the phone with a 1.2 GHz processor, 2.8 inch hi-resolution capacative touchscreen, HD video camera - all packed into a svelte, exceptionally good looking body measuring 10 mm in thickness. In reviews, BlackBerry geeks have praised the physical keyboard as the best yet on any BB device and that's saying a lot, given that BB has always featured the best keyboards.

Again, we have yet to get a pricing for India, but looking at pricing of 250 USD plus on US networks, I would imagine that Indian pricing would at least touch the Rs.30,000 mark. That's what most Indian tech sites also seem to be suggesting.

3) BlackBerry Torch 2 9810 (GSM)

(Image Source : Techradar )
Physically, the Torch retains the looks of its predecessor with a sliding QWERTY + touchscreen, but processor speed has been ramped up to 1.2 GHz, 768 MB RAM, and it has been equipped with a higher-resolution display - the 3.2 inch screen gets an upgrade from HVGA to VGA.

While it is faster and smoother in operation than its predecessor thanks to the upgraded OS and hardware, it does not represent a major refresh on its predecessor. It also yields place to the Bold 9900 as the RIM flagship.

Letsbuy is currently listing the Torch 9810 at Rs. 30,000 (approximately) The original Torch (9800) is already being heavily discounted, deservedly so, since it cannot be upgraded to OS7.

4) Blackberry Torch 9850 (CDMA) and 9860 (GSM)

(Image Source : the BlackBerry Website )

The all new touch-only version of the Torch evokes memories of the ill-fated BB Storm but thankfully, things are much improved. The yet-to-be released phones feature a 3.7 inch (BlackBerry's largest) WVGA screen and other features including HD Video recording, digital compass etc.

Let's wait for the pricing which should be in the range of Rs. 28-30,000.

Sources : BGR, the official BlackBerry Blog

The handy must-read guide to buying a Nokia phone (Symbian only)

2011-08-26T22:43:00.000-07:00

Nokia has been off my radar for sometime now, but they have gotten my attention again with a slew of launches. While most of us are pre-occupied with the world of Android and iOS, the Finnish phone maker has quietly been adding budget handsets and mid-range smartphones to their vast range, offering great functionality and solid build quality as always. The dropped prices make the purchases a little sweeter.

So I spent some time poking around Nokia's new launches and here's the deal - the current Nokia range is bafflingly complex to figure out. Full of nomenclature like C5-03, X1-01 and stuff like that - you get the idea. There is a mix of touchscreen, 'touch and type' and QWERTY/physical keyboard across price points. So this is an attempt to present my own categorisation, based on my understanding of the prices and features on offer. It would be handy to read this if you are considering buying a Nokia phone right now.

This post will only deal with Symbian phones, which still constitute the bulk of Nokia's range.

Here's an overall perspective:

1) Symbian

Different handsets run different versions of Symbian, Nokia's ubiquitous operating system. The lowest models in the range (100 and 101) run the basic S30. Some of the budget phones run S40, while most run S60. The latest top-end phones from Nokia run the highest version, Symbian 3, which debuted on the Nokia N8.

What is the difference for you? Lower versions of Symbian (S30, S40 and S60) will offer less advanced features than Symbian 3, which tries to match Android and iOS. However, S60/S40 will be adequate for standard push mail, Facebook and internet usage. Both S60/S40 and Symbian 3 have an app ecosystem too.

With S30 phones, you get the older and more basic versions of Symbian which power basic call and messaging features.

Nokia has made Symbian 3 a fully upgradeable OS, like Android and iOS. In fact the company has already started rolling out the first update for S^3, called Symbian Anna. A subsequent update called Symbian Belle, should be deployed by Q4 2011.

Nokia's CEO has announced that the company will support the Symbian platform till 2016. So it's really quite safe to buy a Symbian phone given the short lifespan of mobiles today.

2) Phone Series

Nokia follows an alphabetic nomenclature, with 4 series - C, E, X, and N. Within each series, there are model numbers from 1 to 9 eg. C2, C3, C5. The numbers signify both functionality and price, with 1 being the lowest, and 9 being the highest.

Broadly the alphabets define the functionality of the Series. E series consists of phones for enterprise/ business and they typically tend to have QWERTY pads though some may also offer touch functionality.

N series refers to top of the line flagship Nokia phones with mobile computing and advanced multimedia capability. But there is a bit of a confusion - the older Nokia 900 and the yet to be launched Nokia N9 both feature the MeeGo platform and not Symbian 3. Since Nokia is discontinuing MeeGo, later N series releases will all feature Symbian 3.

The C Series is widely viewed as one of the most solid line-ups of Nokia handsets, encompassing budget to mid-range offerings. The C Series emphasises easy communication options through push mail and enterprise mail connectivity. It mostly runs S60, but C6-01 and C7 both run Symbian 3 and are currently receiving the upgrade to Symbian Anna.

The X Series features phones optimised for download and playback of music, and takes off on the earlier Xpress Music series. X series spans the gamut of budget, features and iterations of Symbian, from S40 at the lower end to Symbian Anna on the X7. It also includes handsets with only physical keyboard, with 'touch and type' screen and pure touch.

Here is another spin - a purely numeric series has also been launched. At the bottom end, it consists of the recently announced budget handsets - 100 and 101 running S30. It includes the Nokia 500, the first S^3 phone to feature a 1 GHz processor. Also count in the recently announced Nokia 600, 700 and 701 which will run Symbian Belle. Go figure.

Now let's move on to my classification of the entire range. I have provided a recommendation in each section

1) Bargain Basement (X1-01, X2-01, C2-00, C2-02, C2-03, C2-06) : Rs. 1500 - Rs.5,500

Targetted at the low income consumer in developing markets and aiming to compete with white box and local manufacturers, these are spartan phones with basic call and messaging, sans 3G connectivity. You can identify them by the number 1 or 2 appended to the series (eg. X1-01).

Recommendation : The C2 series stands out in this category, offering a decent browsing experience and a new version of Nokia maps. With C2-03 and C2-06, you will also get Nokia's unique touch and type interface. Nokia C3 has the distinction of being the first QWERTY phone running S40 and also features wi-fi support.

2) Dual SIM (Nokia 100, 101, X1-01, X2-01 C1-00, C2-00, C2-03) : Under Rs.5000

This is actually a sub category of bargain basement phones, but warrants its own section, because Nokia has finally jumped into the dual SIM game. The recently announced Nokia 100 and 101 will possibly be sub Rs.1000 phones. Currently the X1-01 is the entry level phone in this category.

Recommendation : The S40 based C2 series (C2-00 and C2-03), feature dual standby (two active lines) and an easy swap feature that lets users change SIM cards without rebooting the handset. The handset remembers the settings for upto 5 SIM cards.

(The Nokia C2-03. Image Source : GSMArena )

3) Touch and type phones (C2-03, C2-06, C3-01, X3-02) : Rs.4500-7000

Touch and type is Nokia's novel addition to budget phones, offering a resistive touchscreen paired with a numeric (not QWERTY) keypad.

Recommendation : The X3-02 is currently Nokia's touch and type flagship. It's slim, well designed, good looking and the resistive touchscreen still offers a decent experience, while the numeric kepypad is large and easy to type on. It's also 3G enabled and has GPS.It also offers USB On the Go support, meaning you can connect it directly to a flash drive using the data cable.

(The Nokia X3-02. Image Source : GSMArena )

4) Budget range (C5-03, C6-01, C7, Nokia 500, 600) : Rs.9,000-15,000

Nokia offers an attractive budget range with a mix of QWERTY and resistive touchscreen phones that suit a range of needs. If you are not hooked onto Android, these are the best handsets you could pick up on a modest budget. For me, the key selling point of these phones is that since they run the mobile-optimised Symbian software, even with lower hardware specs, they are fast and they have a great battery life.

Recommendations : The C5-03 is a bargain under Rs.10,000. It comes with a touchscreen, and the fastest processor for an S60 device (600 MHz) which makes it very zippy.

(The Nokia C5-03. Image souce : GSMArena )

Increase your budget by a couple of thousand rupees and you will get the newest Nokia 500, which would be my top pick for the feature set on offer at the price. You get a capacitive touchscreen, a 1 gig processor (the first on a Nokia phone) and it runs Symbian 3.

(The Nokia 500. Image source : GSMArena )

5) Mid Range (Nokia C7, E6, 700, 701) : Rs.15,000 - 20,000?

The Nokia 700 and 701 phones are just announced so I do not have price information, but the feature sets suggest that they may be upwards of Rs.15k. If they cost less than that, great!

I want to point out that there is a gap in the Android segment for phones priced in this range (15-20k). I usually buy in this price range and I assume that some of you might want to as well, so these phones seem decent options.

The display gets a bump to nHD AMOLED which is Nokia's top display, and the phones will be launched with Symbian Belle on board. There is also a 1 gig processor.

The Nokia 701 is touted to have the brightest smartphone screen till date, using LCD with Clear Black Technology. Obviously, it will feature a fast processor and bigger RAM for faster speeds.

The E6, clearly a successor of the E72, is a great QWERTY business phone for the price tag it carries, running Symbian Anna and combining a capacitive touchscreen with a QWERTY keypad.

Recommendation : While you could wait for the 700 or 701 to be launched, the C7 (Rs.16,000 approx.) is a phone which stands out as a more affordable version of the flagship N8, minus the phenomenal camera. It has a 3.2 inch screen, a 680 MHz processor and 256 MB of RAM and with the latest Symbian Anna update, it is also equipped with NFC (Near Field Communication)

(The Nokia C7. Image Source : GSMArena )

6) Flagship phones (X7, N8, E7) : Rs. 20,000 plus

These phones have superlative design and build quality and match up to many features of Android, but they equally compete head-on with some of the best-selling and most-desired Android handsets from Samsung and HTC. If you want to operate in this budget and are a Nokia fan (I am), I would suggest you wait for Nokia's Windows Phone range to start rolling out.

Sources : GSMArena, The Nokia Blog

The real future of tablets

2011-08-25T22:22:00.001-07:00

As far back as 2001, Bill Gates predicted that tablets would become the most popular form of PC sold in America. It's not yet happening, but the tablet segment is poised to grow rapidly - research firm In-Sat estimates that 250 million tablets will ship in 2017, with the number reaching 100 million by end 2012. It's perhaps a little ironic that the pace of growth is driven by not by Microsoft but by arch rival Apple.

Today, it seems like everyone has a theory about the future of tablets. And these predictions have value as a measure of the decisions that companies will take, which will ultimately shape the future of the market. In that sense, the tech sector is similar to the fashion industry. It decides what will will be the 'next big thing' and we as consumers just follow it. Today we have a choice between Android and Apple, but that's just a fallout of the industry leaders' decision that mobile phones would become mini-computers and browsing devices rather than plain calling and texting devices.

Most recently, JT Wang, Chairman of Acer has suggested that tablet fever is a fad which is on the decline and people are already shifting their interest back to notebooks. Intel concurs in this theory, supporting the concept of an Ultrabook (a super thin high performance notebook with a solid state drive, but priced like a notebook) and predicts that Ultrabooks will constitute 40% of PC sales by end 2012. The first ultrabooks will ship by end 2011.

On the other hand, Microsoft has repeatedly insisted that tablets are the future of PCs, keeping in line with Bill Gates' stand in the past. In other words, tablets will run Windows 8 (a PC OS) rather than Windows Phone and essentially do the same things that a PC does, with the new touchscreen based form factor. So tablets will replace our PCs?

Let's hear Steve Jobs' theory - after all, he is the modern-day architect of the tablet revolution. Steve believes that tablets will usher in the post PC era and the PC form factor will rapidly get outdated. He also admits to the limitations of tablets today as content creation devices but believes that these will sort themselves out in a matter of time. So it appears that Apple and Microsoft are on the same page - tablets are the future. There is however a major difference in the way the two companies are viewing the future of tablets.

Steve Jobs thinks that they are 'Post PC devices'. This is reflected in the tablet experience from Apple which is significantly different from the PC experience. We are being shifted to a new paradigm, which transcends issues such as hardware specs, use of touchscreen input etc. These are enablers of the experience, but do not define it. And with the release of OS X Lion, and maybe even earlier, Apple has been re-working the PC experience to be more tablet like than ever before. For instance the usage of apps as a gateway to the Net. Hypothetically, in the future one can see productivity software running as an app on the cloud - on your tablet and on your PC.

Microsoft's approach has a subtle difference. If the tablet will replace the PC, running a desktop OS rather than a mobile OS, then it must take on the mantle of what the PC does. So Microsoft's approach will probably consist of engineering the tablet to deliver an experience that's as close to the PC as possible. Maybe you will dock your tablet into a productivity centre consisting of a printer, keyboard, external hard drive. Maybe a Kinect-like technology will replace the use of a mouse with hand movement.

What will be the role of Android tablets in this party? There is no single spokesperson on what Android tablets will due in the future. Google's stake should be clear, if one looks at what they did with Android as a mobile phone OS - Google wants to be the platform of choice on the maximum number of devices, to retain their monopoly as a search, ads and apps company. To this end, Ice Cream Sandwich aims to be a unified OS working on all Android devices, very much as iOS works across Apple's mobile devices. As for the hardware manufacturers of Android, their scramble to gain market share will do for tablets what they did for mobiles - democratisation of the market. I believe that the thrust of Android manufacturers will be to introduce affordably priced tablets with great specs (hardware based innovation) to deliver iPad alternatives. Of course, the flexibility and freedom that the Android platform offers will be an added incentive to buy into these devices. But the real potential of Android tablets will be unleashed when the operating system is exploited to transcend the boundaries of just content consumption or creation. For instance, an Android tablet could sit in my car, controlling the music, air-conditioning, navigation etc. and it could be used to remotely control my security system at home when I am travelling. The open code of Android can be adapted to huge uses that the closed Microsoft and Apple systems may not allow.

What's your take on the future of tablets?

The mobile landscape is changing rapidly, but not through innovation

2011-08-25T11:36:00.000-07:00

The last month and especially the last week, have been eventful for the world of mobile devices. The hot topic today is Steve Job's resignation as CEO of Apple, but several other top business stories have been foreshadowing the shape of things to come.

The big shocker was HPs decision to move out from its Web OS (tablets and smartphones) business - just 16 short months after purchasing Palm and just a few months after launching the HP Touch Pad, Veer and Pre 2 smartphones. WebOS received a lot of positive feedback from the tech community - a rare occurrence in a world ruled and defined by iOS and Android. But sales did not inspire confidence : until HP discounted the TouchPad to prices starting at $99 two days later. HP did not wait or persevere but inexplicably decided to give up. And what's more, the company has also announced that it will move out of the personal PC business. Horace Dideu beautifully analyses the demise of HP in this post on Asymco.

Then there was the announcement that Google would buy Motorola's mobility division for $12.5 billion. Motorola's 17,000 strong patent portfolio was clearly a big motivator for Google's biggest acquisition yet, but the purchase also raises questions about whether Google would gain unfair competitive advantage over other Android handset manufacturers after staying neutral all these years.

And the tech publications are regularly reporting on the woes of RIM, once the smartphone leader, now a struggling contender increasingly losing its glamor to high end Android and Apple products. It has been regularly rumored that competitors like Microsoft were planning to buy RIM, while shareholders and the press have been critical of top management at the company and their ineffective response to competitive pressure. Even if RIM does not decide to sell out, their announcement that the next generation of QNX BlackBerry phones would support Android apps, speaks volumes about their outlook.

Nokia's marriage to Microsoft earlier this year and the jettisoning of the MeeGo and Symbian platforms has drawn lots of coverage (mostly critical) in the tech press.

Put together, all these pieces of news point to an obvious but important conclusion - not only is the mobile landscape changing, it is changing at a pace that is frighteningly fast. And it is not innovation that is setting the pace - it is corporate decisions to ditch products and software that were created over years, with huge R &D investments. Consolidation, acquisition, mergers are the order of the day, as companies play safe, put revenue and bottomline first.The pace of failure of long standing innovations is faster than ever before, and I wonder if companies are also giving up faster than they used to.

Web OS was unveiled by Palm in 2009, before the company was acquired by HP. It took just a few months after launch of the first Web OS products in 2011 for HP to decide to jettison the entire project.

For Nokia, one could argue that innovation had become an overkill over the years, with a bloated budget that ate into bottomlines. Horace Dideu points out that Nokia spent 10.2% of its budget on R&D in 2010, while Apple spent just 2.2%. Bloomberg reported that Nokia's R&D budget was $4 billion in 2010, higher than Samsung, Motorola or RIM. Small wonder that Eelop lost little time in transitioning to Microsoft's Windows Phone platform that would cut down on associated development costs and improve profitability. It is a different matter that the move gave short shrift to Symbian and the work-in-progress MeeGo platform.

Being in the phone business for years, both Motorola and RIM also hold considerable R&D expertise (as well as hard patents) which they have invested heavily in over the years. While Motorola has sold out, RIM does not seem to be leveraging its next gen QNX platform or its BB OS effectively.

In short, many promising mobile platforms, developed by former industry leaders, have gotten killed off in the last few months, or are in their death throes. Maybe they were guilty of spending too much time and money, not taking enough risk, not having enough of vision, offering too little, too late. But the disturbing fact remains that in a still nascent and rapidly growing smartphone market, there remain almost no alternatives to Android, iOS and Microsoft. And failure is making news more consistently than innovation.

It is still possible that an entirely new entrant may come in out of the wild, but this will obviously take more time. It would have been easier for alternative platforms to evolve on the basis of what already existed, than for someone to create something out of scratch.

It's not that I don't welcome change, or believe that its necessary for the old to shift to make way for the new. But such rapid change comes at a cost. I don't see any of the smaller players being willing to invest in R&D for a new platform when there is so much possibility that it could become a costly mistake.

And we as customers will be the ultimate ones to suffer from a lack of competitive stimulus in the market. Does the mobile phone OS market have to go the way of the PC market (only 3 major alternatives between Windows, OS X and Linux?) Not necessarily. There is a much bigger audience base for mobiles which could easily accommodate more platforms.

With the uncertainty over Apple's future after Steve Job's resignation, the mess of lawsuits that Android handsets are attracting and Microsoft's glacially slow pace of movement, we desperately need a fresh injection of vision, passion and excitement in mobile innovation. I just wonder who wants to, or will, provide it!

Budget Android Phones in 2011 : part 2

2011-08-25T07:50:00.000-07:00

As the buzz about Android grows bigger, more and more people are keen to sample it. The good news is that Android handsets are getting cheaper and more accessible thanks to initiatives by HTC and Samsung. And there's more good news - you are getting more bang for your buck with the latest flavor of OS available on at least a few phones.

There are some disclaimers for budget Android phones. Today top-end smartphones today are becoming like powerful mini-computers with dual core (and soon, Quad Core) processors, huge RAM and large displays. You can think of budget smartphones as being like netbooks in comparison. They will be underpowered, the interface will be slow and gaming may be a less enjoyable experience. The display will not be the best. To the best of my knowledge, these phones will also not play Flash video due to lower processor speed and performance. You could get a workaround for YouTube videos, but you might have to forego other sites with flash content.

If you are prepared for this, then there are lots of decent budget options in the market.

I am featuring phones priced between Rs.10,000 and Rs. 15,000 here. I already did a round up of some sub Rs.10,000 handsets. Of course, there are many more now. But in that price range, you would get more mileage from some of Nokia's excellent feature phones or even the BlackBerry Curve sans 3G.

1. Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini (Gingerbread)

Sony's new sweet little Android package offers the best spec set that you can get in the budget range, at a modest tag of only Rs.13,000 on FlipKart. It features a 1 gig processor, 512 MB RAM and an LED capacitive touchscreen - solid smartphone specs. The only catch here is the 3 inch screen. If you love the small, compact dimensions of the phone, you will embrace the screen. But in an era when the screen size is normally 4 inches or more, you may struggle with this, especially with the keyboard. I don't think it might be a problem if you have small hands (Women, take note - and the Xperia Mini is very much a feminine phone in its styling and aesthetic)

This is the only phone which stands out among the budget set, because of its features. But as I mentioned, the small screen can be a deal maker or breaker. Check it out and try to type some SMS on it.

(The Sony Xperia X10 mini : Image from GSMArena )

2.. Samsung Galaxy Ace (Android FroYo)

(Image from Techradar )

Samsung has released a confusing array of phones under the Galaxy branding, (they have recently made a complicated attempt to rationalise it) but the one which stands out by far among their budget offerings is the Galaxy Ace. At Rs. 13,900 on Flipkart, it's a good entry level Android handset. As an added bonus, reviewers have noted a passing resemblance to the iPhone 4 in appearance (I'm not sure how long Samsung may continue to create such resemblances though, given the bitter lawsuit with Apple).

The Galaxy Ace has a 3.5 inch capacative touchscreen, a 5MP camera with flash and expandable memory. The processor is only 800 MHz and can get slow and choppy and the display is only low-res TFT, but what more can you expect at this price? I would rate it a little better than the Widfire S featured below as it at least runs a faster processor.

The Galaxy Ace officially runs FroYo but Samsung selectively rolled a Gingerbread update for it last month. No news yet when it will reach India, but you can update it unofficially through Android forums.

3. HTC Wildfire S (Android Gingerbread)

( Image from TechRadar )

The successor to the wildly popular HTC Wildfire, it runs Gingerbread out of the box and features a better display and 5MP camera with flash. The 600 MHz processor is slower than Samsung and the 3.2 inch screen is smaller, but the popular feature-rich HTC Sense UI compensates for this. There is no front facing camera, so no video calls are possible.

The Wildfire S retails for Rs.13,399 on Flipkart.

4. HTC Salsa (Android Gingerbread)

You pay a little more than the Wildfire S (approximately Rs.14,500 on Flipkart) but you get much more. Notably an 800 MHz processor which improves the browsing experience hugely over the previous two phones, tight Facebook integration and a large 1520 mph battery which gives it a solid battery life. Like its sibling HTC ChaCha, it also features a dedicated Facebook key for social networking buffs.

I would pay the difference and buy this over the Samsung Galaxy Ace.

5. HTC ChaCha (Android Gingerbread)

(Image from Techradar )

This is a phone for a different demographic, the rapidly receding QWERTY keyboard using population (Blackberry users?). Tech Radar puts it nicely in their review - 'body of a BlackBerry, mind of an Android."

For me QWERTY Android phones are a contradiction in terms - Android, like iOS, is designed as a touch interface and over time, touch keyboards have improved vastly. I started out as a hardcore fan of a physical QWERTY but over time, I have settled in with a touch-based input.

This is a cute looking phone with a funny 'bump' or curvature in its shape, which may or may not appeal to you aesthetically.

The ChaCha provides a great QWERTY keyboard, but seriously under-delivers on the screen - it's just 2.6 inches and compromises not only the browsing experience but even the app experience and the default home screen. Like the Salsa, it features a dedicated Facebook key. It has the same processor as the Salsa, but a smaller battery. However, owing to the smaller screen size, the ChaCha also optimises its battery life to last longer without a charge.

The ChaCha is currently retailing at Rs. 14,499 on Flipkart.

threebudget ultraportable notebooks - finally

2011-08-24T11:03:00.000-07:00

(This post has been edited to include a new ultraportable entrant, the Dell Inspiron 13z)

Sometime ago, I was struggling to find a decent ultraportable at a reasonable budget, and now it seems that there are three available in the market. The heartening news is that they carry the latest specs, and have been launched pretty much in line with international launch dates. Maybe Sony and Dell will inspire Asus and Toshiba to follow suit and launch their top of the line ultraportables in India too!

1. Dell V131 (13.3 inch)

The Dell V131 is a successor to the one year old V130, a slick ultraportable which suffered from poor battery life, underpowered ULV processor and finally a non-replaceable battery which drove the last nail into its coffin as far as I was concerned.

This time round, Dell has refreshed the V131 with a large 6 cell removeable battery promising upto 9 hours of battery life, and given options of a second generation (Sandy Bridge) Intel Core i3 or Core i5 processor. Overall, it has good reviews for battery life, keyboard and touchpad. But it does poorly in graphics performance and has a subpar screen resolution which puts it at a disadvantage compared to the Sony Vaio S series. Also the extra large battery protrudes to create a bump at the base of the laptop which you may find unappealing from an aesthetic point of view.

The Dell Vostro V131 is part of Dell's Vostro range and can only be ordered directly from Dell or an authorised Dell reseller. According to Indian sites, prices start from Rs.30,000 onwards, but I doubt if an ultraportable, even from Dell, would be so cheap. I would peg this at Rs.40,000 plus. I have placed a query with Dell and I will update this post with the exact price when I hear from them.

2) Sony Vaio S Series

Announced in May 2011, the Vaio S Series is a praiseworthy attempt from Sony to offer high end performance at an affordable price in an ultraportable form factor. At approximately 1.7 kg, the Vaio S series will pack in a second generation i3 or i5 processor and trumps Dell V131 by offering an optical drive, dedicated graphics card and superior display.

There are a number of models listed under the Vaio S Range on the Sony India website. The entry level offers 3 models under Rs.60,000 - 2 of these have Core i5 processors.

3. Dell Inspiron 13z

I have edited this post to include the newly launched Inspiron 13z, an exciting product as it is the lowest price (yet well spec-ed) portable in India till date (under Rs.40,000). Weighing approximately 1.76 Kg, the Inspiron offers 2 or 4 GB of RAM, a second generation Core i3 processor, 320 GB Hard Drive and a 13.3 inch screen. No customisation is possible. Apparently this model has been launched for Asian markets only.

At that price, it should certainly pick up volumes. However, I would like to take a look at the keyboard, the build quality and the trackpad. I have found the Inspiron range to under-deliver on these aspects in the past compared to the great quality of the Vostro or XPS range.

I like the Vostro range a lot for its reliability and level of customer support which is ideally suited for a home office/ small business user. And I don't have very pleasant memories of Sony laptops based on the performance of two units in my last workplace. In one, we had to replace the keyboard and in the other, the battery and optical drive were dead within a year. Of course, it does not mean I will not check out the new Sony laptop!

And apart from these two candidates, I am also interested in the future 'ultrabook' announced by Intel at this year's Computex. Coming as a response to the tech pundit's predictions that we are in a Post PC tablet era, Intel has trademarked the name ultrabook to describe an ultraportable SSD based notebook, similar to the new MacBook Air range which has replaced the traditional MacBook lineup this year. And now AnandTech reports that Intel has also put its money where its mouth is by creating a $300 million fund for innovation in hardware, software and design of the ultrabook. According to AnandTech, Asus will be launching the first series of ultrabooks as early as September this year.

As my current laptop (XPS M1330) has turned 3 this year, I am definitely in the market for a replacement. Until these laptops showed up, nothing I saw in my budget was exciting me. Now it looks like I have some viable options to explore. I will post back on my impressions after buying one!

Are BlackBerry and Nokia truly dead?

2011-08-01T12:09:00.000-07:00

The writing on the wall keeps getting bigger. Till last year, the doom and gloom predictions for Nokia and RIM were restricted to the tech publications. For Nokia, it all started after the launch of Nokia N8 featuring Nokia's upgraded Symbian 3 experience, which was touted as a response to iOS and Android. And for RIM, the launch of BB OS 6.0 on the Torch heralded the beginning of the end. The hardware of both devices was excellent - critics found the operating system and user interface to fall behind iOS and Android.

And now, what was restricted to critic's remarks has spilled over into consumer sentiment in a big way. For the fist time, iPhone sales (at 20 million) have overtaken Nokia's smartphone sales in Q2 2011. Yes, the iPhone outsold Nokia's entire smartphone range in this period. This is not such surprising news considering that Nokia has been scaling down their smartphone portfolio and has had few major smartphone launches after the N8. But it's still a sobering reflection of how much Nokia has fallen behind in the smartphone race, in two short years. Apple and Samsung have displaced Nokia to the position of third largest smartphone maker.

RIM is not in a much better position. In the US market, the company has faced an eroding market share. Separate studies by Nielsen and ComScore show that BlackBerry is down to fourth position among handsets and third position as an operating system.

On the flip side, both RIM and Nokia enjoy good success rates in the developing markets. RIM has recently reported adding a million subscribers in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) in just 3 weeks. And the company still attracts new users, especially budget conscious students, thanks to its BBM service.

Nokia still has a strong share of the feature phone market and commands a strong share in countries like India.

But this may not be enough. This post by Horace Dideu at Asymco indicates that the low-end non-smartphone market is not growing at a strong pace. Further more, it is under pressure from the so-called 'White Box' manufacturers like ZTE and Huawei. And very little innovation is taking place in this sector. It cannot be a sustainable basis for Nokia's future. Enter the tie-up with Microsoft to vie for a position in the smartphone segment. Notwithstanding all the criticism of Nokia's moves, I honestly do not think they had any other choice available to revive their fortunes.

The reason for the fall in Nokia and RIMs fortunes can be summed up very simply. Mobile phones are moving away from voice/ text devices to mobile computing devices. It is not a co-incidence that that both iOS and Android are from companies that understand the computing/ browsing space and transferred their expertise from the PC domain to mobiles. RIM and Nokia have traditionally been phone companies who extended the capability of phones through innovation. When Apple launched the iPhone, they envisioned transferring the capabilities of a PC to a phone, using apps as the gateway. And Google has been working at re-creating the web browsing experience on mobiles, using apps and widgets. Both companies approached the task from the other end, compared to the phone manufacturing giants, and created disruptive innovation in the phone market.

So is the writing on the wall for RIM and Nokia?

I would say that Nokia's tie up with Microsoft is a good bet for the long term. The problem is due to the fact that the announcement to exclusively make Windows Phones was premature and has been largely misinterpreted. Nokia has promised to support Symbian till 2016, but people are acting like it's already dead! And till date, not a single Nokia phone running Microsoft OS has been released in the market. This explains the short term losses.

The research firm IDC has predicted that by 2016, Microsoft's Windows Phone will have 20% market share. While this will be way behind Android's 40%, it will catapult Microsoft to the position of the world's second largest smartphone OS. If the partnership with Nokia endures till then, they will reap the benefit along with Microsoft. But they may not return to their original position of dominance.

Source : CNet

For RIM, the picture is not so rosy right now. The problem is that unlike Nokia which has at least taken a stand, RIM has not indicated where they will go in the future. QNX or OS8? Will they redesign their handsets? Will they provide a better touchscreen experience? Will they keep up with the blistering pace of innovation set by Android or will they create a consistent user experience that at matches up to iOS? Can they create a better flagship than the Torch? Questions abound and the company is yet to answer them. Meanwhile to the corporate/ enterprise audience that makes up the bulk of RIMs user base, the iPhone and the iPad is looking like an increasingly attractive option.

So would I advise people to not buy a Nokia or a BlackBerry? Frankly, a large number of people don't want to buy a top end smartphone at obscene prices. A large number of people are comfortable with a certain user interface and don't want to shift. And most people are still comfortable with using their phones for push email, messaging and some Facebooking and mobile uploads. Both Nokia and RIM offer this adequately, do it well, and the lowered price of handsets from both companies make them an attractive budget option. The much reviled N8 was still a fantastically built phone with a superb camera and at its revised price of Rs.22,000, it's a decent buy. So I would say if you want a budget phone, a BB or Nokia is still a good option. But it's also an ominous sign that non-geeky people are also dipping a toe in the Android world with its budget offerings from HTC and Samsung. There is a buzz about Android that attracts people to it, and increasingly when people ask for reccos on phones, I hear a chorus "Don't buy a BlackBerry or a Nokia, they're dead." Both RIM and Nokia urgently need to do something to create a positive aura. And it's not easy right now to see what that could be.

Sources : TNW, Business Insider, BGR, New BlackBerry Phones, CNet

Android tablet or iPad or wait some more?

2011-07-19T03:05:00.000-07:00

The buzz is all around the iPad 2 (for once, mercifully launched by Apple in India in a timely fashion) and now, around the upcoming iPad 3, which is rumored to have a high resolution display, akin to the Retina Display on the iPhone 4. Time after time, reviewers have compared upcoming Android tablets to the iPad and concluded that the iPad is ahead of its rivals in useability, GUI and of course, the sheer number of apps available for the tablet (100,000 and counting). So, do you close your eyes and buy the iPad, or do you look at the very attractive Android alternatives that are coming into the market? Or do you wait?

If you don't really have a need for a second handheld device in addition to your mobile phone, it might be a good idea to wait. For the iPad 3, or for subsequent upgrade of Android from Honeycomb to Ice Cream Sandwich. Or you might figure that a high end smartphone can serve your needs much better. A phone can still offer all the functionality of a tablet and then some more, and in a compact, always-on form factor. A tablet is still only an add-on to that.

I bought the iPad 2 because my Samsung Wave could not keep up with my browsing needs. I looked at a netbook first, but the category has been pretty much stagnating for some time.

If you are keen to get a tablet, be prepared that it is still primarily a content consumption device. Great for browsing, movies, music, even as a part time ebook reader. Easy to power up and start using anywhere, anytime. Nowhere near a PC substitute. And if you plan to do a lot of typing, keep in mind that you might want to invest in a bluetooth keyboard. Those are expensive (Rs. 3500 plus) so factor it into the cost.

The iPad 2 is currently available in India at a price range of approximately Rs.30,00 to Rs.40,000 for the wi-fi only model and Rs.37,000-48,000 for the 3G+wi-fi model, depending on the storage capacity. Until recently, iPad 1 was still available at a reduced price range starting from Rs.25,000, but I was told that this is only till stock lasts. In any case, when you are spending so much money, I would not recommend the iPad 1 in a category where specs are growing leaps and bounds. And the iPad 3 is due before the end of the year. So if it's an iPad you're eyeing, wait. It's a content consumption device, so it is worth waiting for a better screen. And it will most probably be at the same price as the iPad 2.

From my own experience of the iPad, I would say buy it if;
1) You don't like to mess with your devices and just want a simple, no-fuss, consistent and reliable user interface and experience.
2) You are mainly looking at browsing, reading, social networking, email and any other form of content consumption
3) You are excited by the prospect of using multiple apps. Especially for a gaming experience, the iPad is unparalleled. I have played Angry Birds on an iPhone, an Android phone and in my web browser, but the iPad just takes it to another level. It's a fantastic casual gaming device and the selection of free and paid games is amazing.

Now let's look at Android tablets. The pick of the market currently is the Acer Iconia A500 (Approximately Rs. 26,000 for 16 GB and Rs.31,000 for 32 GB - prices from Ebay India). Both models are wi-fi only.

(Image from CNet)

And the other option is the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. It was expected to launch in India in June according to
pluggdIn, but does not seem to have hit the market yet. Expected pricing for the 10.1 inch version is Rs.35,000 and above (16GB/32GB/64 GB) and all models are 3G+Wi-Fi enabled.

Both tablets have good reviews and similar hardware specs and their downsides trade-off against each other. The Acer Iconia A500 is heavier than the Tab but it has great inbuilt speakers. Also it has great connectivity - a USB host drive, Micro SD Card slot, mini HDMI out - and therefore allows added functionality to view content. It is also very competitively priced against the iPad. The Samsung Galaxy Tab has a good display and the distinction of being thinner and lighter than even the iPad 2. In terms of hardware, both have pretty similar specs. Unless you need the 3G connectivity, the Iconia seems to have an edge between the two.

Now, irrespective of which Android tablet you are considering, the hardware is not the limiting factor. In fact, hardware specs are ahead of the iPad 2 on paper. It is the limitations of Honeycomb as a tablet operating system that makes reviewers time and again rate the iPad as superior to any Android offering. These limitations will obviously be overcome in subsequent updates from Google. But meanwhile, I believe that you should buy an Android tablet if;

1) You are ready to be adventurous. If the occassional bug or crash does not unnerve or irritate you. If you are ready to root your device. In fact, rooting is what I would recommend for an Android tablet today. It adds flexibility to the usage which offsets the limitations of Honeycomb. And rooting a tablet is (at least for me) a relatively peaceful proposition compared to rooting your phone. I would be nervous of bricking my phone, but a tablet is a toy and its meant to be played with. Rooting will uncover the full potential of the hardware which the current OS is not yet tapping into. I do not recommend jailbreaking iOS devices as it takes away the selling point - the user experience. But with Android devices, rooting enhances the functionality and flexibility of use. My friend Sanjay who is a real techie unlike me, has reported positive results from rooting both the Iconia and his Dell Streak.

2) If your usage is more oriented towards consumption of media (movies, YouTube etc.) rather than other content. Full HD out to your TV is a cool proposition! Being able to browse Flash content without disruptions is another strike for Honeycomb.

3)If your usage behaviour is more oriented to browsing and less app centric. Do not look to Honeycomb yet for apps - tablet optimised apps in the Android market place are still few in number. And while all Android apps will run on Honeycomb tablets, they may not run optimally. This PC World article explains the app problem in depth.

I guess this analysis answers why the iPad continues to be the top selling tablet. Most users (and in this case, I count myself) use them as passive devices and are not really prepared to experiment. But for the select and adventurous few who are ready to experiment in order to harness bleeding-edge hardware, Android tablets maybe the answer.

Going post paid is easy, going pre-paid is hard!

2011-07-18T10:15:00.000-07:00

I converted my MTNL pre-paid Triband connection to a postpaid one last week. I had observed some time ago that going pre-paid pays, but MTNL has made it rather difficult for me. They have discontinued the online re-charge facility for Triband, forcing me to visit the nearest MTNL office to get a re-charge voucher/ scratch card. Since I prefer to manage all my utilities online, I took the decision to switch to a post-paid connection. The procedure was extremely smooth. I visited the MTNL office, submitted an application and next day, I got a call to confirm that it had been done. Of course, I lost the remaining value in my pre-paid account, but I did not have to go through any down time. MTNL does not permit post-paid Triband users to switch to pre-paid and I was informed that only recently, they have created the ability to convert pre-paid to post-paid. In fact, mine was the first case.

Once more, I am impressed with MTNL's speed and efficiency and the high quality of customer service. Of course, with the shrinking number of landlines, the state owned telco has had to pull up its socks.

It obviously makes sense for companies to encourage users to switch to post-paid connections as it increases their ARPU (average revenue per user). However, while on the topic, I want to mention that when I converted my Reliance Net Connect account from post to pre-paid, I faced a lot of difficulty. I had to visit the Reliance office three times - to collect a form, submit the form with ID proofs and then to pay a pending bill for 5 days (the 5 days that the company took to convert the connection were charged to me as pro-rata monthly rental. Smacks of unfair practice to me, as I believe that my post-paid meter should stop running from the day I submit my application). Further, I was called by customer service, not to solve my problems but to convince me to continue my post-paid connection.

I have heard from some other people about how difficult it is to convert a post-paid to a pre-paid connection. And MTNL is certainly lowering their service standards for pre-paid, forcing me to make a shift. Maybe it is time that TRAI looks into this aspect and regulates telcos.

Is the Web dying?

2011-07-18T09:22:00.000-07:00

Recently, George Colony, CEO of Forrester Research, predicted the future of what he calls the "App Internet" in this blog post. To quote he says "In this model, powerful local devices (PCs, smartphones, tablets) run applications that simultaneously and seamlessly take advantage of resources in the Web/Cloud. If you want to see this model in action, check out iPhone and Android applications." He goes on to declare, somewhat controversially that the "The Web, as the dominant software architecture of the Internet, is dead". Colony also casts a doubt over the future of the cloud internet, while declaring that Microsoft's device-centric software approach is already dead.

There are figures that back up Colony's prediction. This report by Nielsen indicates that in the US, iPhone users have downloaded an average of 48 apps, while Android users have downloaded an average of 35. Also users on both platforms report using apps multiple times in a day. Given that these are the dominant smartphone platforms, it is a no-brainer that the majority of smartphone users are already on the "App Internet". Steve Jobs is betting on the App internet, noting that iPhone consumers are spending all their time on apps today, rather than on search. The worldwide smartphone application market is touted to reach 15 Billion dollars in 2013.

While today the term Apps is synonymous with Apple's App Store and the Android marketplace, it is easy to forget that there was life before the iPhone! Nokia's Symbian platform was the market leader through the first half of 2010, and a wide variety of third party apps developed for the platform (Snaptu, anyone?) supported both the smartphones and the feature phones that ran Symbian. Both Palm and Microsoft also offered apps. But it was Apple who best leveraged the potential of apps to maximise the usage potential of a smartphone. Apple recently announced the latest app store statistics and the they are impressive. 425,000 Apps till date, 15 billion downloads across 200 million consumers of iOS devices. Android Marketplace is rapidly closing the gap, with over 200,000 apps and growing.

In the simplest sense, an app is just a piece of software designed to run a certain program on your phone. In some cases, the program is already downloaded onto your mobile device (games, productivity) and in some cases, the app accesses the internet to fetch or refresh content (news, a website etc.) In the latter case, apps become your gateway to access the web - rather than open the browser, you would directly go through the app. It's easy to see why we prefer the app route - typing is something we try to minimise on a handheld device, and the app ensures that content is rendered smoothly in a viewer-friendly format.

Coming back to Colony's point, is the app the future of the internet? Here are some of my thoughts;

1) Can apps keep up with our browsing behaviour?
Apps work very well for a certain type of browsing behaviour called mission specific or task oriented browsing. As the name implies, this suggests that on our mobile devices, we tend to look directly for what we want (news, stock update, cricket match score etc.) rather than spend time browsing. In this scenario, apps are the answer, as the user is focussed on saving time, and this is exactly what an app does. It guarantees a consistent and reliable output for a specific task you wish to perform.

But I do not believe that all browsing will become mission specific. A lot of browsing will remain exploratory as we increasingly use handhelds to substitute, rather than supplement our PCs. As I write this blog post, I have 7 tabs open on Google Chrome to point to links, and I am simultaneously Googling information and checking my facebook and twitter accounts. The browser allows me unparalleled flexibility and width of access which I cannot imagine substituting with an app. Apps require a linear/ vertical usage - by definition, an app has to perform a focused function and my brain does not work that way all the time. Even multi-tasking with several apps running cannot really re-create the experience of lateral browsing. Sure, mobile devices today have inherent hardware and software limitations that prevent them from behaving like my PC. But the barriers are melting away fast as processor speeds have already approached netbooks and RAM has surpassed them! And with a tablet form factor coming in, I believe that operating systems will also accommodate better browsing.

So, rather than more or better apps alone, I would look for better and more powerful browsing experience on a mobile device.

2) The price of usage
Apps have created an ecosystem of third party developers who write for one, or multiple platforms. It is obvious that you expect and deserve to earn money for writing apps! However, monetising apps continues to remain a struggle, and as a user, I see why. I am used to paying for a handset and yes, even an operating system and basic software, but I am not used to paying for specific tasks that I want to do. For instance, let's take an expense tracker app. It's cool to have, but rather than pay extra for it, I would use the Excel spreadsheet on my PC I have already paid for. I want to note that this does not hold true for content like music, movies etc. which I would have to pay for either ways. But if it comes to paying for replicating a function that I can already do on my PC, either free, or with a paid software, I would not purchase a standalone app for a mobile device. The web model operates here and companies like Google have a thrust towards providing a lot of stuff free on a web-based structure. If I can open a website for free, would I need to pay for an app to do that? Maybe, maybe not. This 2010 survey by Pew Internet seems to support my theory.

In a nutshell - for apps to thrive, there has to be a thriving ecosystem to earn money from them. If paid apps don't take off, the industry will have to explore how apps can be monetised. And till this happens, the app ecosystem could well develop into a bubble that bursts. Or it would remain stunted, with a variety of free (but maybe not so necessary) apps and a few money spinners. Apps need to take off beyond gaming, for the app internet to become a reality. Or maybe a Snaptu type approach (bundled apps) would work.

3) The winner decides
There are a number of stakeholders in the mobile and handheld industry. Different operating systems, handset manufacturers, operators, developers. As with all cutting edge technology, the industry will decide where to take consumers. And each player (at least today) seems to have different stakes as to where they want to take consumers.

Apple has the biggest stake in the app internet, and very little in the Web, or the Cloud. This is not only because the app-store based model is profitable for them. It is because the app based model streamlines the user experience which is paramount for Apple.

For Google, the web and the cloud are the foundation of their business model. Apps are a means to this end, therefore my bet is that Google will ensure that all three are furthered. Google defines themselves as a search, ads and apps company and the definition implies that they have a stake in your browsing, as much as in the app space.

Microsoft is making a transition from boxed software to the cloud. While the company is trailing in the mobile stakes, they have a reputation of coming up from behind to reclaim market dominance.

Apple is currently the world's most profitable technology company, Google's Android is the largest smartphone platform and leading analysts predict that the Microsoft-Nokia combine could garner upto 20% of mobile operating system share by 2015.

Colony's prediction of an app driven internet comes as a timely reminder to corporates to move beyond a web based model. But I am not sure that the App Internet is the only future. Going ahead, the app, the cloud and the web will all play a role and it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Sources : Forrester Research, Nielsen, Softpedia

Apple iOS vs. Android : the feature vs. user experience paradigm

2011-07-17T14:12:00.000-07:00

Last month, Apple slashed the price of the iPhone 3GS in India to an affordable Rs.19,990. This was a logical move by Apple, given that the iPhone 4 has just been launched here. The iPhone 3GS is now a two year old handset and its specs have long since been outdated. Yet I was surprised to see how much interest the news generated among some of my younger friends, who thought it was a solid bargain. For them, it was not about owning the latest phone with the best specs; it was about getting onto the iOS platform. It was about accessing the world's largest app marketplace. And above all, it was an opportunity to realise their dream of owning an iPhone at last, at an affordable price.

Obsolescence is here to stay. Intel created it in the world of PCs and now Android OS and handsets (especially from HTC and Samsung) have created it in the smartphone category. It's not a new thing, but what's new is that the cycle of obsolescence is shorter than ever before. It takes only a few months for hardware to get upgraded and Android is in perpetual beta. Unless you own a Nexus, you are dependant on the handset manufacturer to roll out an update - few people are intrepid enough to root their handsets and load custom ROMs. In effect, if you own the world's greatest smartphone, it's a tenuous title. You may be lucky to retain it for 3 months and then something better will come up.

But the Apple ecosystem exists in a little time warp. Yes, there are updates and upgrades, but they come at reasonable intervals. Older iterations and handsets are supported by Apple. If you have an iPhone 3GS, you are still way better off than someone running Android 1.6. The user experience on an iPhone remains a smooth and consistent one, even as features, processor speeds and hardware improve. That's why my friends can still see a value in a two year old handset with a tired spec sheet.

Android manufacturers have created this new paradigm of constant upgradation as a counter to Apple's paradigm of consistent user experience. Both are valid paradigms and both have a market. Android has leveraged it better because of a choice of handsets and price points. Today the iPhone 4 cost approximately Rs.34,000. For a slightly lesser price you can get the super-powered Samsung Galaxy S2 or the HTC Sensation. Both trump the iPhone 4 on specs. Both carry the aura and buzz of being the best smartphones on the planet. And for a substantially lesser price, you can get Android handsets that match the iPhone head-on in specs. But then people who buy the iPhone 4 are not buying specs, they are buying the iOS experience. You will pay for what you value.

And it's not as if Android does not offer a great user experience. It does, and with Google's cloud venture taking off and Google Plus coming up, the user experience is only going to get better, with a tighter integration of personal data, and a strong native social interface built into the operating system. But it's very telling to me that when we talk Android handsets, we compare hardware specs. And when we compare iPhone with Android handsets, we compare user experience. This goes to prove my point that both operate with different paradigms.

And both paradigms require different conditions to exist and flourish. For Android handset manufacturers, constantly raising the bar on hardware is a must. This creates excitement, the image of a market leader and of course, generates sales. Remember the buzz around Samsung Galaxy S, only last year, and around Nexus S, only six months ago? First it was a 1 gig processor, now it's a dual core. First it was an AMOLED screen, then a Super AMOLED, now SAMOLED Plus. Hardware is what drives the excitement around the Android platform and sustains its market leadership status. It's easy to manufacture and upgrade hardware specs, so cycle times are shorter. And as newer hardware is introduced, it devalues the older hardware, so you can have products at multiple price points. It's a pricing structure that consumers can easily comprehend - you pay the most for the fastest, biggest processor, best screen etc. and less for lower specs. And in this paradigm, the Android OS simply rides on the better hardware which makes the user experience smoother, faster, better. Manufacturers do not rely on sales of Android apps for their own sustenance (though they may be earning money on app sales). Independent of the Android marketplace, the hardware itself facilitates so much - whether its an 8 megapixel camera, or HD video or super-fast browsing. You could enjoy the sheer plethora of features without needing to spend money on apps. This again probably explains why the developers in Android marketplace face a much bigger fight to be profitable.

With Apple, the focus is on building an interface that meshes tightly with the App Store - Apple makes a one time profit from sale of hardware but sustained profit through the lifetime of the handset comes from your purchase of content and apps from them. Therefore, the emphasis is on creating a smooth and reliable user experience which is enhanced through apps and services. In this paradigm, hardware ceases to be the central focus - indeed, post launch, Apple does not emphasise on it at all - though they emphasise on design. As long as your phone runs smooth and fast and does not crash, why would you look at the specs?

Also in this paradigm, to maximise your experience of any iOS device you would need to eventually purchase apps, content and services. If you use an iPad or iPhone you would know what I mean. There's no free lunch on an iOS device, though there are tantalising snacks to whet your appetite. The paradigm created by Apple has proved vastly profitable - you pay a premium for the handset and then you pay to use it!

Each paradigm has its advantages and disadvantages for us as consumers. With Android phones, the constant flux can lead to confusion, and in my case, decision paralysis! An overload of constantly changing specs can make it hard to take a call. And you have to be prepared for everything to change, tomorrow. For some, that's exciting - for others its a cause of irritation, or even an entry barrier. And yes, there is huge freedom to customise, root, do exactly what you please. What's freedom for me, may be anarchy for someone else!

And with Apple iOS, there is the fabulous user experience - at a price. The decisions as to how you will browse, what will work and not work, have already been taken for you (Flash video? Easy transfer of files?). Speaking from a two month experience with my iPad, I would like to draw an analogy. It's like being in a luxurious, five star hotel room. Beautiful furniture, great food. You want something extra? It will be added to your bill. Sorry, the windows are hermetically sealed and you can't open them, but isn't there a fabulous view? You see the guy lurking below in the street? He's a jailbreaker. Talk to him and he will throw up a stone and crack the window. But we are not responsible for what happens if you let in the atmosphere :)

Which paradigm do you belong to? Or do you feel comfortable with both? I don't mind living in Apple's gilded cage for brief periods. In fact, I was so happy that initially I forgot about my laptop. But now I am re-discovering the freedom and flexibility that it offers, with relish. I think I like both - I like the freedom to mess around and then I like to spend some time in my five star room. And that's an honest answer!

The cloud is here, and it's real

2011-07-16T02:50:00.000-07:00

For years, we have heard the term 'cloud computing'. While it tends to be described by the tech world in very complex jargon, it's really a pretty simple concept.

In today's scenario most of your stuff - like the operating system, productivity software that you use, and your personal files like movies, music etc is stored in your hard drive, external drive, or on other storage media like pen drives, discs etc.

Chances are you are already using some cloud based services. Email services like Gmail, video or photo sharing services like Picassa and YouTube, filesharing services like Dropbox and blogging platforms like Blogger, and of course, Google Docs, store your stuff on remote servers, so you and your friends can access them from anywhere, on any device. Most of the apps that we run on smartphones also access and run data off the cloud.

But when we talk about the cloud today, the term has expanded in its scope and vision. The Office software that you use would run off a server on the Net, your entire music, movie and picture libraries would reside on a server. It's like a hard drive, but it's all in a virtual space, sitting on a server. You would probably pay a small sum for this service, but you would enjoy the great convenience of being able to access stuff anywhere. You would not need to physically sync, transfer or dump files from one device to another.

The growing base of mobile devices has made the cloud a reality. Gartner has predicted that 387 million PCs will ship in 2011, but they also claim that 468 million smartphones will be sold in the same period. On top of that, many more tablets will also ship in 2011.

Smartphones and tablets lack the huge storage space, and the processing power that we have on our PCs. You would not be able to load and run an Office Suite on your phone, and you certainly would not be able to store all your music, movies and files. But you would be able to use Google Apps or Google Docs, off pretty much any mobile device, and this is what makes the cloud compelling.

So if you are interested in starting to use cloud services, you have a lot of choices coming up in the near future

1) Cloud services for music storage and streaming
iTunes and Amazon are both retailers of music and the first cloud services they have offered are a facility to store your music on their secure servers and stream it onto any device. Amazon launched Cloud Drive and Cloud Player in March, and followed up with separate apps for iOS and Android platforms. Apple's iCloud, will be part of the upcoming iOS 5 update due in September. Apple has also promised that with iOS 5, you will be able to sync and update your iOS devices wirelessly to iTunes. Both Amazon and Apple's iCloud will operate as 'freemium' services with a base 5 GB of free storage - in addition, you will get free storage for music purchased from their own stores. And you can buy more storage incrementally, according to your needs.

Google Music works on the same premise, allowing users to upload their music to a Google server and then stream it onto an Android phone, or through the web.

2) Productivity software and office suites
Google Docs has been a successful effort in this direction, and now Microsoft has bit the bullet. A couple of weeks ago, Microsoft launched Office 365, an upgrade on their existing cloud bundle. Targeted at enterprise and small business, the package includes Web Apps which are the web counterparts of Excel, PowerPoint etc.

Of course, cloud services have raised many questions, notably around the security of data. With music storage on the cloud, record labels have demanded licensing fees from Apple and Amazon. And in a country like India, till we see wider deployment of 3G or at least better availability of Wi-fi networks, cloud services will take off slowly. But they are here to stay, and I am sure we will be using them more and more in the days to come

If you buy an Android phone, Microsoft earns money

2011-07-07T03:03:00.000-07:00

It is said that as consumers, we vote with our wallets, but in the emerging mobile phone economy, it appears that your vote can benefit the rival candidate too. If you have been following the patent wars among mobile phone manufacturers, you will begin to see the patent (sic) absurdity of the situation. Microsoft already has a patent licensing deal with HTC that earns them $5 for every Android phone sold by the Taiwanese manufacturer. Now the latest buzz is that MS is planning to extract a $15 licensing fee per handset from Samsung. The company has also been on a spree of signing licensing agreements with smaller manufacturers such as Wistron, Velocity Micro and Itronix.

For Microsoft, there is big money to be made from these transactions. According to the latest Comscore figures, 1 in 3 Americans now owns a smartphone and Android with 38.1% market share, is the dominant operating system. Globally too, the picture is rosy for Android, with research firm Gartner predicting that Android will dominate the global smartphone market with 50% share by 2012. This article in Businessweek predicts that Microsoft could stand to make as much as 1 billion dollars just by collecting royalties from the 36-odd Android licensees who make upto 310 Android devices. Barnes and Noble (Nook) and Motorola are holding out against forking out money to Microsoft, but given the precedent, it appears that some settlement will be reached with them also.

And of course, Microsoft has their own mobile OS, WP7, which currently has a negligible market share. But analysts at companies like Gartner and IDC are predicting that on the back of the tie-up with Nokia, Microsoft could secure as much as 20% of the global smartphone market by 2015. Looks like they have their strategy sown up at both ends. If the competitor gains, they gain. If their own operating system takes off, they gain even more.

Ironically, Google, which developed Android, does not make any money off the operating system directly - the platform is open source. They make money however, from advertising on the platform, and in the future, through closely integrating their cloud services with it. Also note that Google is not obliged to pay Microsoft any money, as Android is not a direct source of profit for them. Probably that was a smart pre-emptive strategy by Google?

In another ironic twist, last month Apple and Nokia settled an ongoing patent litigation, with Apple agreeing to pay an undisclosed lumpsum, and royalties to the Finnish company, as part of a licensing agreement. So effectively, Nokia will make money for every Apple phone which is sold.

It's easy to become righteously indignant at Microsoft, or any other company for making money off their rival's success. But the issue is not a simple one to judge. Bear in mind that all the companies paying royalty to Microsoft are large, reputed and in some case, multinational giants. Most importantly, all of them are profitable, and they have quietly and pragmatically settled the licensing cases rather than choosing the costly litigation route. There is business in the market and money to be made, today, and why not just settle and get on with it, instead of taking a righteous position?

What is more disturbing is the trend of companies whose core business is acquiring patents on technologies which they have not developed themselves (known as patent trolling) and then using this patent portfolio to arm-twist companies into making financial settlements. Neither Microsoft nor Nokia can really be called patent trolls - both companies have invested over the years in building products and software based on patents which they either hold themselves, or acquired. By virtue of long existence in the market, they have built up large patent portfolios and to my mind, they are justified in recovering their investment through licensing agreements. It may not be a great thing for the company image, and it may not be the most admirable way to make money, but they are within the law. If we don't like what's happening, we should change the patent laws.

What disturbed me more was the recent auction of nearly 6000 patents by bankrupt Canadian company Nortel. The patents were acquired by a consortium of tech companies including Apple, Microsoft, RIM and Sony Ericsson in a $4.5 billion deal - Google was left out. (Incidentally, you should read the hilarious story of how Google's bids for the patent portfolio comprised strange figures like pi and Brun's constant. I love their sense of humor!) Nortel's patent portfolio could well be used by Google's competitor's to check their growth - had Google succeeded in acquiring the patents, it might have given some protection to Android from further litigation. This large scale purchasing of patents may be an attempt by these companies to protect themselves, or it may be an attempt to check competition. Either way, it signifies that a large portion of resources are being devoted to aspects other than the core business - R&D, innovation, retailing and marketing of world-class devices and services. It would be a pity if the pure excitement and joy that comes from innovation in a dynamic market got hijacked by an all-enveloping patent war.

If you look at it from the perspective of Apple, RIM, Nokia and Microsoft, you might take a different stance. The HTCs and Samsung's of the world are essentially device manufacturers, riding to fame and fortune on operating systems developed by other companies. Their innovation is curtailed to the hardware - and in some cases, the hardware itself is dangerously imitative of others (Apple is suing Samsung for copying its hardware designs in the popular Galaxy series). Whereas the companies which develop both hardware and software, or only software, invest much more to develop proprietary and license-free technologies. When companies like HTC and Samsung make big money, maybe exploiting and riding on some of these technologies, it is only natural that they should be expected to pay some money for it.

Ultimately, as consumers, any additional costs incurred on royalties, licenses and patents will be passed on to us. Maybe it's time that we consider re-looking the rules of patenting, after understanding how innovation really works in today's times.

Text based interactive games in an age of extreme graphics

2011-06-14T21:27:00.000-07:00

In the 1980s, when I started using a computer, I had to program my own games in BASIC on my SHARP MZ PC (featured in this post). Dad had brought three fat Japanese gaming manuals from a trip to the country. Since the manuals were in Japanese, I could not read the descriptions of each game. I would have to look at the name and any accompanying visuals and decide which ones I wanted to program. Entering the code for games took up half of my summer holidays - and checking and correcting code took up the other half. When you enter hundreds of lines of code, there is ample scope for error. Even back then, it never struck me that I hardly got time to play the games that I had so painstakingly entered. I was triumphant if they just played correctly!

Most of the games that I played were arcade games. But there was one, which was my special favorite, took the longest to enter and enthralled me like no other game. It was a text based game called Bannockburn Castle. In terse 1 line sentences of text on my green monochrome monitor, the computer would inform me 'monster is attacking, do you 1) fight 2) run away 3) use magic?"

Or it would paint a graphic, if brief picture of my surroundings and help me to visualise it "you are standing outside a dense forest. Sounds are coming from the trees. To the right is an old castle. There appears to be someone coming towards you."

In this age of high resolution graphics, this may seem boring, but it worked for me back then. Maybe because it was an age when I was reading more, and watching less of visuals, and my imagination could actually paint the picture of the game in my mind.

And there was a kick in finding that the computer could actually understand and reply to me. I would type 'enter forest' or 'get key' or in frustration 'give clue' and I would get a couple of lines back. This was my first encounter with Artificial Intelligence, however rudimentary - a recognition that the computer, however imperfectly, could speak my language.

So I was delighted when I discovered and downloaded Frotz on my iPad. Frotz is an app that lets you play interactive fiction games. The games run on a virtual machine called Z Machine, created by Infocom, the company which pioneered and developed interactive gaming. And you don't need an iPad to play - in fact, because of the amount of typing involved, I would actually prefer to play on a laptop or PC, or of course, with a bluetooth keyboard connected.

I have been enjoying the interactive games like Zork, Curses and All Roads, on Frotz, but it's clearly an acquired taste. If you like zooming objects, loud noises and generally enjoy action, this may bore you. But if you love reading, want to play at a leisurely pace and don't mind stopping to think, this may be your cup of tea. It's a joy to play well written detective or horror fiction on Frotz. The goose bumps rise and a sense of being helpless and really trapped in the game, rises rapidly.

Not to say that interactive games do not have their limitations. Commands remain rudimentary and it's awfully easy to get 'stuck' and not knowing how to get out of a situation. For instance, I am trapped in a dungeon with my hands tied, the key to the door is at my feet but I can't use it till my hands are freed, and I do not know what to use to free my hands! Being in a decision limbo is the biggest frustration in interactive gaming. You could just lose patience and quit the game. There are no instructions on how to come out of limbo, you have to figure it out yourself, through repeated play. This can be frustrating, but it's also an art to learn how to talk to the computer!

I would love to see a revival of interest in interactive gaming. Maybe it needs to be fuelled with more titles, a more communicative (sic) computer and even a bit of a graphical or illustrated background. As an aide to imagination, not a substitute for it. I can also see interactive gaming as a great educational tool for kids, with the right titles.

Can I get back my library memberships, this time on my iPad?

2011-06-14T04:35:00.000-07:00

I have been a fan of libraries all my life. Growing up, it was Easwari Library in Chennai, where I first got introduced to Enid Blyton, Agatha Christie, Alistair MacLean, Dorothy Sayers and a bunch of other authors. When I was in college in Pune, I was very proud of my British Council student membership. I found the best books of literary criticism, great magazines, and best of all, beautifully bound hardbacks for sale at cut-price rates.

When I went to work in Bengaluru, a colleague introduced me to Eloor Library. I credit Eloor with introducing me to a wealth of non-fiction writers such as Fritjof Capra and Douglas Hofstadter.

Then I came to Mumbai, and it was goodbye libraries, forever more. I did not have time, I did not have patience, I was glued to a computer screen and frankly, I ran out of excuses to avoid commuting to the British Council Library in Nariman Point. I don't know exactly why no flourishing libraries have come up in the city - maybe the retail economics does not permit, maybe we are too time-starved to read. In any case, for many years, my library has been my own bookshelf.

And this long burst of nostalgia was triggered when I read on TUAW that the British Council has created a 19th Century Historical Collection app for the iPad. To quote from the BCL Site;

"The app takes advantage of the form and function of iPad, bringing a renewed sense of wonder to the discovery and enjoyment of antiquarian and historical books.

Currently the app features over a thousand 19th Century books, but it will provide access to more than 60,000 titles by later this summer when details on pricing for the service will be announced. The 60,000 books, which are all in the public domain, are part of the British Library’s 19th Century Historical Collection and span numerous languages and subject areas including titles such as "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley and "The Adventures of Oliver Twist" [with plates] by Charles Dickens."
Here are some screenshots from the app:

Later, the app will also be coming to Android and Kindle Reader.

And it would be fabulous if the libraries came online through iBooks, Kindle or any other platform and made their collections available to people across mobile devices. This is more than wishful thinking, I believe that it will be necessary to do this for libraries (and our reading habit) to thrive instead of just surviving. I spend more time reading online than I do with a real book. I am not a great purchaser of books. I am a speed reader, and since childhood, my mom figured that it made sense to let me borrow and read loads of books than to buy a few which I would finish in a matter of hours.

In short, I am an ideal candidate for a library. And I am sure that there are many others like me, who would love to access libraries rather than buy and keep books. If Easwari or Eloor would digitise their connection (maybe using a proprietary protected format to prevent piracy), I would sign up for sure. Maybe I could borrow the book for 7 days for the same sum I pay to borrow the physical book and then it vanishes off my device! There are some wrinkles and legalities to be ironed out but I think in the long run, such a venture would benefit device manufacturers, libraries and publishers.

I could be commuting on a traffic clogged Mumbai road while browsing the Eloor bookshelves. And then I could hop across to Easwari and see if they have what I want....it's a tempting scenario and I hope it comes true!

Android phones rule, for a little longer!

2011-06-12T07:56:00.000-07:00

With Apple not committing to a release date for iPhone 5, the spotlight shifts back to the slew of Android launches with cutting edge hardware. Among the manufacturers of Android phones, HTC and Samsung in particular have always raised the bar on hardware specs, keeping geeks' salivating and interested in the platform. Let's be frank - the hardware has often compensated for the buggy OS, or even for the sheer frustration of waiting for updates.

But now, more than ever, seems a good time to spring for an Android handset. The platform is stabilised and Google has begun to work on measures that reduce fragmentation, including regularising of updates across manufacturers, and checks within the Android market place to ensure compatibility of apps with your phone.

Here are some of the hottest handsets that I have had an eye on:

1. The Samsung Galaxy S2
The S2 is a successor to the popular Samsung Galaxy S, whose sales crossed 10 million units this year. While this may pale in comparison to the 100 million units of iPhones' sold, in the fragmented Android market, Samsung has certainly struck gold with the Galaxy S. The S2 continues with the Galaxy pedigree - it packs a super fast dual core processor, has a vibrant Super AMOLED Plus screen, and as a bonus, it is super thin despite its 4 inch plus size.

It's available now on Flipkart or on letsbuy for just Rs.30,990 which I think is pretty reasonable for a phone of this calibre. Both sites are offering a package of free accessories, but letsbuy's deal is a little sweeter, with screen protector, case and HDTV adaptor all thrown in.

(Image from Techradar)

2. The HTC Sensation
The HTC is pretty neck on neck with Samsung in specs. While HTC's Adreno 200 GPU is faster and more advanced especially for gaming, Samsung has gone for a Cortex A9 processor which is blazingly fast.

TechRadar has bravely done a head-on comparison of both phones. As there is little to choose in terms of hardware, it boils down to personal preference. HTC has better build quality and the superb intuitive Sense interface. The Galaxy S2 has a way better screen especially for outdoor viewing, larger inbuilt memory, a bigger battery and longer battery life and as per Tech Radar tests, it has superior call quality. Finally, Samsung has an unlocked bootloader, facilitating you to root your device and load custom ROMs. HTC has also promised to unlock bootloaders (Sony has already started doing this) so it may not remain a competitive advantage for Samsung for very long!

It's too close to call between both the phones, and the best way to decide would be to try both

From practical experience, I would tilt towards the phone with better battery life, simply because it matters in daily life. As an aside, it's becoming almost impossible to find spare charging points at any busy airport these days, and I hate having a stress that my battery is going to drain off any minute.

HTC Sensation is listed on letsbuy for Rs.30,499. No freebies with this one.

(Image from TechRadar)

3. And the runners-up got cheaper...

If you do not want to invest at the top of the ladder for a phone, then it's worthwhile to look at the cheaper Android phones which were last year (or last month's) flagship models. They do not have dual core GPUs, but they are plenty fast enough for most daily tasks you would want from a phone.

The Samsung Galaxy S is available for Rs.22900 on FlipKart with Super AMOLED screen and for Rs.19,999 with a regular LCD Screen. While the Samsung Nexus S is also just Rs. 19,999. If you want a slightly obsolescence proof phone, the Nexus is a safe bet as it will load the later iterations of Android without being dependant on the manufacturer rolling out updates.

And if you are an HTC fan, the Desire HD is hovering around the Rs.25,000 mark and the Incredible S at Rs.26,000.

Tablets, smartphones and everything else - how many devices do you need?

2011-05-31T07:03:00.000-07:00

Today, a friend told me that he is considering whether to buy an iPhone or an iPad. Of course, the short answer would have been 'get both' but that's just not a practical answer for most of us. I believe that every device - dumbphone, smartphone, ebook reader, tablet, netbook, laptop, desktop - has a precise application. As manufacturers flood the market with more and more types of devices and form factors, it becomes important to know what your applications and usage will be and then you can make an exact choice. Otherwise, we run the real risk of throwing a lot of money down the drain buying expensive devices that don't really do what we want them to do.

Today smartphones are like the proverbial Swiss knife, doing a bit of everything on the go - gaming, browsing, productivity, music, photography, movies etc. Yes, phones are a portable solution, but there will always be a better solution. For instance, an enthusiastic photographer will never substitute his standalone camera for a phone camera. Yes, it can be a handy alternative at an office party, but when he goes to shoot 'real' pictures, he will want his stand-alone camera.

I spoke to someone who was very unhappy after buying an iPad. He wanted a device that would help him to make presentations on the go and be light to use and carry. He soon found that while it was easy to create basic presentation decks on the iPad, he could not edit objects with the same precision and ease that he did on his MacBook. His expectations did not match the set of applications that tablets are really good at, and therefore he felt he had wasted his money.

Historically, convergence has not worked and it is certainly not in manufacturers' interest to make it work. Standalone devices, even at budget price, always have better specs for specialised applications - especially gaming, photography, music.

What combination of devices you own, and how many you own, is a matter of your need and choice. However, here is my checklist on which device is best suited for which applications;

1) Smartphones
If you will mostly use email, text and chat, then a BlackBerry and BBM is what you need. Given the current uncertainty about RIM's future, a Curve at under Rs.15,000 would be a safe bet.

If you want a Swiss knife - to browse the net, game, download apps, take photos etc. but have a budget, go for an Android phone. It is a fantastic smartphone platform that offers something for every pocket.

When you spend over Rs.25,000 for a phone, then I believe that it should constitute a major chunk of your online browsing, or it should offer an additional functionality like a good camera or MP4 player. Apart from the iPhone 4, the Android ecosystem offers some great choices like Galaxy S II, HTC Desire HD, Dell Streak etc. Hardware freaks (I am one of them) will always be fascinated by the specs on Android phones, which tend to be ahead of the curve, like the new superfast processor in the Samsung Galaxy S2.

2) Tablet
At the current stage of evolution, a tablet is useful for browsing, light gaming and some basic typing (mails, short documents). They are not yet engineered to be great productivity devices. Tablets are simply perfect for consuming content in unconventional positions - lying down, curled up on the sofa, on the floor. But this is a convenience that you are paying a premium for and if you have a budget, you can easily substitute a tablet with a netbook, or a regular laptop.

If you intend to buy a 3G enabled tablet, then you should seriously consider what you intend to do on your phone. Maybe you could re-focus on the phone as a messaging device and go for one with big keys, or a great QWERTY keyboard like BlackBerry or Nokia. At most, you would need only push mail on your phone!

If you still intend to get an expensive smartphone, save yourself some money and get a wi-fi only tablet.

3) ebook reader
Like tablets, ebook readers have a fantastic form factor that allows you to read in pretty much any posture. If you have a tablet and you are a light reader, you would not want an ebook reader. But if reading is going to be your main application, I would recommend that you get a Kindle. E-ink is just so much easier on the eyes. And the future of ebook readers very clearly includes improved touch screen functionality and maybe even color+E-ink combo screens, which will make them more tablet-like in nature

4) Netbook
While the analysts threaten that this category will become obsolete with the advent of tablets, the price factor (Rs.15-18,000 as opposed to Rs.30,000+ for tablets) makes netbooks hard to ignore if you are on a budget. It appears that Intel will re-invent the tired-out Atom range of processors, and some other manufacturers may put ARM processors into netbooks and this could breathe a new life into the category. For me the parallel for netbooks is touchscreen phones with QWERTY keyboards. The touch+QWERTY smartphones satisfy a niche audience and netbooks can do that too. My friend who was dissatisfied with the iPad for editing presentations would have found a MacBook Air to be a much better tool. The Air could well be the future of netbooks - touting cool and fast solid state drives, ultra thin and light and with reasonably powerful processors. Now if we could get this in the same price range as tablets, netbooks would become a great alternative.

Looking at the functionality of each device, I would say that most of us need just a smartphone and some of us may need a smartphone and one extra device. But gadget freaks are not driven by pure need, otherwise most gadgets would never get sold at all!

Activating MTNL Trump on iPad

2011-05-25T03:29:00.000-07:00

It took me nearly 2 days and a few hiccups, but I have just successfully activated my pre-paid MTNL Trump connection on my iPad 2.

After comparing the 3G plans available in Mumbai across operators, I thought initially that I would take Airtel. I changed my mind for 2 reasons. Firstly, Airtel is only offering postpaid plans with the iPad. I have 3 net connections already and adding one more postpaid connection to the mix would spike my monthly bills very sharply. Secondly, I would get fantastic connectivity while roaming on the BSNL network, including smaller towns and sections which Airtel is yet to cover. MTNL also offers good pre-paid rates;

I have taken a SIM with lifetime validity and I needed to do a one-time recharge + activation which I did with a Rs.91 coupon. I then loaded the SIM with a Rs.100 data coupon.

Since it is not a Micro SIM, I first had to cut the SIM Card to size. I used the excellent How-to guide on the techradar site to do this. Once the card is trimmed it cannot be used in a regular phone, so I did all my recharging before I performed the surgery.

Then I ran into my first glitch. The 3G settings were automatically recognised by my phone, but needed to be manually entered in the iPad. I got the settings from Trump customer service. I want to mention that it was easy and fast to reach customer service from a landline phone and I did not have to navigate numerous tortuous menu options that are designed to prevent you from talking to a human being! My good opinion of MTNL has been re-inforced.

Here are screen shots of the 3G settings for the iPad

1) Go to Settings/ cellular data/ APN settings

2) Enter the following information under APN settings

APN : gprsppsmum

username : mtnl

password : mtnl123

Switch off and restart the iPad. Your 3G connection should be up and running.

Over the next week, I will check the speeds in different parts of the city and post some speedtest results. But right now, I am going to take a well deserved break!

2 weeks with an iPad :)

2011-05-23T21:33:00.000-07:00

So, it's been two weeks since I got my iPad and I am still very enamoured with my new toy. Despite it's 10 hour battery life, I have to charge it every night because its on, through the working day. Either I am playing games or browsing, or downloading, or just fiddling with it.

I have observed that the tablet has completely substituted my notebook for pure browsing behaviour. For example, I have imported my RSS subscriptions onto an iPad based feed reader and so I read all my tech news on it every morning. I still prefer my phone to check e-mail, Facebook and Twitter handily but I definitely use the tablet more to update my status or share links. While I am more likely to read from the tablet, I still prefer the Kindle for reading e-books, as I just find the E-ink easier on the eye for prolonged reading.

And for composing this blog post, I am back onto my notebook. I have still not got around to enjoying typing on any touch screen device. I have been considering attaching an external wireless keyboard as an accessory, but I don't think I will. As of now, it is designed primarily as a consumption device and I don't think accessories can change it 360 degrees to a productivity device.

What has changed hugely, is that I have completely stopped browsing the Net on my phone. I might still do that in an emergency but the experience is just so much better on a 10 inch screen. I am cutting down my Reliance Net Connect and cellphone 3g plans and putting the saved money into a bigger data plan for the iPad.

And today, I dug out this blog post by Peter Bregnan. He talks about returning his iPad after he realised that the device was making him compellingly consume more content, at times when he would normally be idle. He notes

"Being bored is a precious thing, a state of mind we should pursue. Once boredom sets in, our minds begin to wander, looking for something exciting, something interesting to land on. And that's where creativity arises.

My best ideas come to me when I am unproductive. When I am running but not listening to my iPod. When I am sitting, doing nothing, waiting for someone. When I am lying in bed as my mind wanders before falling to sleep. These "wasted" moments, moments not filled with anything in particular, are vital."

I completely understand where he is coming from, and agree that the tablet is an addictive form factor. Perhaps more so than even the cell phone. I am not returning my iPad (I am supposed to pass it on to my mom when I am fed up, she has already booked it!) But I will treat his words as a caution. Idleness is certainly precious in an age of constant connectivity.

Juice Geek

2011-05-16T10:54:00.000-07:00

I mostly write about mobile tech and sometimes about audio tech, but I love kitchen gadgets too. I raved about some seriously cool espresso machines sometime ago. And this post is about my new favorite kitchen gadget - the Philips Juicer HR 1858/90. This machine is a serious juice monster with a 650W motor, a giant sized mouth that takes whole fruit (or at least fruit halves) and juices up anything you throw at it including carrots and beetroot, in a few seconds flat. Strongly recommended if you are a juice geek and especially if you love vegetable juice.

I have wanted to buy this juicer for sometime, but hesitated because of the steep asking price in India (Rs.6500 at Croma). Last month, I was inspired to pick it up, as the summer heat became relentless, and my desire for a daily dose of juice increased. This is off topic, but it is nearly impossible to get a vegetable juice on Mumbai streets, while it's fairly easy to get one in certain localities of Delhi. And they are yummy vegetable juices with beetroot, carrot, mint, ginger etc. that really taste good, especially in the heat furnace that Delhi becomes in summer!

Back to the topic. I did a comparison with other juicers available at Croma, but frankly, this one is head and shoulders over the rest. The only one that merits comparison is Croma's own juicer which is a copy cat design, not of this juicer, but an earlier model, the Philips HR 1861. Croma's juicer has a stainless steel body, a 700W motor and a slightly larger mouth, but costs Rs.2500 less than Philips. It's a much better bargain for the same features. I bought the HR 1858, frankly, out of nostalgia, because I think Philips' makes great products (except in sound/ music) and I love the design, finish and quality of the stuff they make. In this case, I loved the quality of the filter mesh/ blades which is the heart of the device. It simply looked better quality than those in the other juicers I looked at.

The factors that make this juicer worth it for me are
1) Big mouth : this makes a big difference as you can literally toss in the fruit or veg. without cutting it too fine. I drop in whole tomatoes by the dozen, small beetroots and whole carrots, watermelon slices etc. and it takes them all in.
2) High centrifugal force : The motor rating of 650W in itself does not make sense - it is the high motor speed that makes the juicer desirable. This juicer operates on centrifugal action where the sheer speed of spinning causes the pulp to be thrown in one direction, while juice oozes through the filter in the other direction. It is this speed and effective centrifugal force, that gives me juice within seconds, and squeezes more out of the pulp. Just operating the juicer is a kick!
3) Easy to clean : all the part detach easily and clean well, and this is a make or break quality of a juicer. If it's a pain to clean, you simply will avoid using it. Ask me, I have enough gadgets sitting on my kitchen shelf for years.

I enjoy using this juicer regularly, but I must warn you, it will not work for pulps/ milkshakes (your blender will handle those) and it will not work for oranges either, unless you are prepared to peel them. If you prefer orange juice to any other, you can save Rs.5000 and buy yourself a regular citrus juice extractor.

Incidentally, from a health angle, the juicer gives two outputs - the juice itself, and the pulp, which is a fantastic base for soup stocks or even cutlets. If you want, you can also make it into face packs!

3G Data plans for Apple iPad in Mumbai

2011-05-15T11:08:00.000-07:00

While it's fun to use my iPad at home, I look forward to being able to take it out with me on outstation trips and even to work, on days when I do not need to work on a presentation. For that, I need to enable the 3G connection and I have been checking out data plans that work for me. Not too many choices but I have to make do with what is there.

There are four telecom operators offering 3G in Mumbai - Vodafone, Airtel, Reliance and MTNL. None of them have dedicated iPad plans yet. Pity we do not have BSNL in Mumbai. They really have some good offers (the plans below are taken from their site)

Prepaid Plan :

Particulars	Unlimited Monthly Plan	Limited Monthly Plan	Daily Plan
MRP of Recharge Vouchers(RCV) in Rs.^	999	599	99
Free Data Usage	Unlimited	6 GB	Unlimited
Validity	30 Days	30 Days	1 Day
Data Usage Charges Beyond Free Usage	NA	1p/10Kb	NA

Starter Pack in Rs.100^. Free usage with activation 1GB/month for six months.

^MRP is inclusive of Service Tax @10.30%.

Postpaid Plan :

Particulars	Unlimited Monthly Plan
Activation Charges in Rs. *	100
FMC in Rs. *	999
Free Data Usage	Unlimited
Validity	30 Days

The iPad takes a MicroSim, not a regular SIM, and currently, only Airtel and Vodafone are offering this.

My observation is that the Airtel plans are better for you if you are going to be a light user of 3G and mostly connect in wi-fi environments. Airtel offers light-use plans in increments of Rs.100, starting at Rs.100 for 100 MB and going up to Rs.450 for 600 MB. The plan charges are the same for pre-paid vs. post-paid but the MicroSim is offered only for post-paid plans. As I do not plan to watch videos or do heavy downloads on 3G, I am starting with the Rs. 200 plan which offers me 250 MB. I am also likely to cut down the 3G plan on my cellphone to 100 MB/Rs.100. I doubt if I will use it for anything more than mail, if I have the iPad with me.

Vodafone tariffs are similar to Airtel - they do not have a Rs.200 equivalent to the plan I am taking on Airtel. There is a Rs.375 (500 MB) plan which is quite a decent one.

MTNL as always, has very good tariffs, but I wish they would also launch a MicroSim. You could cut the SIM to size yourself, but not everyone wants to do that.

And I am already experiencing life getting more expensive in an always connected world. I pay for 4 net connections now - on my phone, iPad, a Reliance Net connect and then of course, MTNL at home. I have to remember to distribute my browsing across all the four connections so that I use up my volume quotas on each.

Which mobile platform will dominate in 2011?

2011-05-10T23:01:00.000-07:00

The reports on the growth of Android, growth of Apple and general decline of everything else have been pouring in. I've said before in this blog, it takes a brave soul to predict the future of technology, because the opposite of what you say (or something you never even thought of) is always likely to happen.

So here are some of the more interesting facts and figures that are floating around now

1) Android the Giant

Google revealed with justifiable pride at I/O 2011, that Android has reached its 100 millionth activation since launch and further than 400,000 Android devices are activated every day. If that's not enough, analysts are predicting that the Android App store will overtake the Apple store by August 2011, with an estimated 425,000 apps. Currently the Android marketplace has around 200,000 apps. Pretty impressive when you consider that it all started less than 3 years ago.

2) Apple the silent growth engine

Apple holds 5% share of the global cellphone market (yes, that's all phones not just smartphones) according to Q1 2011 market share figures released by IDC. And at this level, it seems other than Apple, all other manufacturers including Nokia and Samsung, have actually lost share. In addition to holding a significant share in the mobile phone and smartphone segments, Apple is also dominating the tablet segment with 80% plus share.

Add to this the fact that BrandZ has just ranked Apple as the world's most valuable brand, valued at $153 billion and the future of the company in the mobile space looks very promising.

3) Microsoft the dark horse

To add to all the hype, an analyst from Pyramid Research claims that Microsoft's WP7 will overtake Android in market share by 2013. The prediction is based on the powerful Nokia-Microsoft tie-up which will drive down handset costs across global markets and facilitate adoption, presumably also from Nokia's large existing customer base. It seems a plausible argument

4) Blackberry, the weakening force

Wall Street Journal has reported weakening investor confidence in RIM in the US, with newer launches like the Torch and PlayBook getting only a tepid public response, while the new slew of launches for 2011 will just bring the company on par with other smartphones and mobile platforms.

As per the latest ComScore figures for the year ending Dec. 2010, RIM has lost its lead in the smartphone market to Android, and has Apple nipping at its heels. RIM holds just 27% of US market share, with a rapidly growing Android poised at 34%.

To add to RIMs woes, rumors have been circulating of a buy-out by Microsoft.

As for Apple, I think they will continue to hold value leadership (financial value and brand equity) in an increasingly price competitive and fragmented mobile phone market. While European and US markets are showing more of a trend of upgrading from dumbphones to smartphones, the bulk of growth in cellphones will continue to come from markets like India, where the iPhones's price premium will deter many customers.

Where RIM is concerned, I think they might continue to stem the tide somewhat in the Asian markets, where the brand still enjoys a lot of equity and loyalty with customers. It has been interesting for me in to see two trends with RIM in India - the price point of the Curve has dropped below the psychological Rs. 10,000 barrier - and the latest BB ads are targeting college youth basis a slew of features notably the BBM service. There will definitely be interest in lower priced offerings from this premium brand.

As of now, I don't see any huge threat to Android from WP7. I mean, they have to launch some phones before that happens. But I fully agree that if MS and Nokia find a formula and price point that clicks, they could rapidly add numbers and most of those would come at the expense of Android handsets.

Sources
Engadget
BGR
GSMArena
Fortune Tech
Wired

lemons I have bought

2011-05-09T20:54:00.000-07:00

Let me confess, that I have bought my share of lemons down the years. Stuff that simply was not worth the price I paid and gave me more grief than joy. I guess every geek would have a lemon list, just as much as every chef has a list of culinary experiments that inexplicably went wrong. Here's my list of lemons:

1) Logitech Kinetik Backpack

I fell hard for it when I saw it reviewed on the Net. Put down Rs. 5000 at a time when it was rare to pay so much for a mere rucksack. But I soon realised that it had a basic design flaw - the tough plastic shell picked up scratches too easily. It stands as one of the most expensive lemons I ever bought! You can read the entire story here.

2) Koss Earplugs

I bought them on impulse when I needed a back up pair. Truth to tell, they turned out to be the most awful sounding earphones I have ever had. I disembowelled them to use the silicon pads in my other IEMs and then quietly disposed of them. I confess I am an escapist and I do not like to see my mistakes glaring at me all the time.

3) 2 Belkin routers

I made the mistake twice in two years, of buying a Belkin router. The first one did not work with my Tata Indicom connection and the second one is currently not working with MTNL. Or maybe the lemon here is me, and I am unable to configure routers! Certainly there is something lemon-like about buying two routers which do not work. I should have done this post before making any fresh purchases, because I think I conveniently forgot about my previous experience.

4) Cellphone mistakes

When I look at the list of cellphones I have owned down the years, I own up that half of them have been lemons. Well, mostly the later ones I bought. And I am ready to acknowledge that rather than buying cheap and buying often, I should buy into more expensive ones that last longer.

5) Lenovo Y Series laptops

Thankfully this was an externally funded lemon, though it was selected by me. The Lenovo laptops were selected by me and a colleague, when I was on my last job. It turned out that this particular series have something seriously wrong with the keyboard. It would never type what I intended it to. Both me and my colleague had the same issue with it, and we were hugely frustrated. However, there was a happy ending as I found the misery unbearable and quickly purchased my own laptop, the XPS M1330. And I bought it just before Dell pulled the model off the market. So the Lenovo laptop proved to be a blessing in disguise.

I am glad I wrote out my lemon list. If as Oscar Wilde says "experience is the name men give to their mistakes", then my mistakes have taught me quite a bit. Infallibility would have made me very egoistic and insufferable. Whereas my failures, backtracks, and mistakes have kept me goofy, a little sheepish, ready to laugh at myself, and most importantly, ready to learn a lot. I'm happy that I still pick lemons now and then!

Picking up my iPad 2 tomorrow

2011-05-08T10:43:00.000-07:00

I pre-booked my Apple iPad 2 at Croma last week and I will be picking it up tomorrow as fresh stock came in over the weekend. It has been refreshing to see Apple launch a new product in India on schedule and not after 1 year as their norm has been in the past.

Got a black 32 GB 3G-enabled model. I plan to use this as a netbook substitute and carry it with me when I travel out of station, which I do quite often. I do not plan to do my office work on it though. 3G seemed a logical choice as I do not see any extensive Wi Max coverage in India right now. I still need to select an operator and I will be figuring that out in the weeks ahead.

Oh, and in case you are curious, this is my first Apple product ever. I sprang for it after demo-ing the new iPad and finding it really fast thanks to the dual core processor. Also, I frankly don't see Android tablets catching up with the iPad for another 1-2 years, in terms of the range and variety of apps available. In the meantime, I want to enjoy the tablet experience. Apple has also sweetened the deal for me by not pricing the product too steeply in India.

I am looking forward to playing with it, and of course, I will be blogging about it in the weeks to come!

First Anniversary post - e-Publishing for aspiring writers

2011-05-08T10:22:00.000-07:00

First off, it's good to be back to writing posts. Year-end project work has kept me away from blogging, and sadly, also from following up regularly on tech news. I have missed both, and intend to get back to regular posting from this month onwards.

I started this blog in March last year. It seems a great time to say a big 'thank you' to all of you who regularly visit. Thanks for the encouragement, for commenting and for giving your time to read what I write; it has kept me going strong.

Like many bloggers, I am an aspiring writer, who found a voice through the internet. If you were to ask me why I write, I would tell you that it is hugely rewarding. I read and research a lot for each post, and in the process my own knowledge has increased. In real life, I hold a demanding and very enjoyable job that has nothing to do with technology. Blogging is my way of self-enrichment, of growth beyond my profession, and maybe towards a different future!

That's enough about myself - this was supposed to be a post about e-publishing.

Long ago, I came across this site called everyone who's anyone. Gerard Jones had a book called Ginny Good, and in an attempt to get it published, he contacted every literary agency and publication house that he could hunt down. Now anyone who has even tried to publish (I have) knows how hard it is to get a foot-in-door with any of these places. Gerard retaliated to the rejection (or in some cases plain silence) by publishing a comprehensive list of every literary agency and publisher.He tried to include as much details as possible including name of contact people, email IDs. If this were not enough, he also put up every rejection letter he received. Needless to say, many of his targets protested against this breach of privacy, but he persisted. I remember how much this site made me laugh when I first visited it, but I also felt that this was the power of the internet.

Nowadays however, we do not have to depend on the publishing houses or the agents, for our moment of fame. Nor does your work have to be a huge tome. Depending on what and how much you write, there are dozens of options for you to publish your work, and get a fair shot at making money for it. Here are just a few that I am aware of.

1) Blogging

Sometime ago, NY Times published this article about Heather Armstrong, dubbing her as the "Queen of Mommy bloggers." Heather, who blogs about her own life and family at her own website Dooce, gets an average of 100,000 visitors per day and makes an estimated $30,000-50,000 per month in advertising revenue. Over and above this, she has also bagged a book contract.

Interior decor blogger Holly Becker is another example of a successful blogger who has not only gone on to publish her own book, but also to train, advise and inspire other bloggers through Blogging your Way, an online workshop for aspiring bloggers.

For me blogging is a safe sandbox kind of space to experiment with writing, find a style that works for you, discover what readers like and at the same time, get an audience that gives you constant feedback and encouragement. There seems to be enough evidence that if you persist, have a clear idea and write well, you will get some form of reward.

2) Self publishing through Amazon

The world of e-books has removed two of the huge obstacles to traditional publishing. Firstly, publishing houses/ agents as gatekeepers are no longer the arbiters of what will sell or not. Secondly, the cost of distribution and marketing no longer exists. All it takes, is to upload your work to a publishing site and collect a percentage of royalty on sales as and when they happen.

Amazon offers two options for e-publishing on its Kindle. One is KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). An author can publish a book in the Kindle store at any price between above 99 cents, and keep 30-70% of sales value as royalty. Amazon is basically giving a retail shelf to aspiring writers and keeping a profit margin.

The KDP system has created several best selling authors, the most notable one being 26 year old Amanda Hocking, a young indie writer who makes millions of dollars through her sales on Kindle devices, without a conventional publishing contract. She sells around 100,000 e-books every month. And she started earlier as a blogger, not as an established writer, so the digital platform has directly aided her success. The Business Insider points out an interesting fact; out of the top 25 selling e-authors on Kindle, only 6 were affiliated to a publishing house earlier.

In case you do not have a full length book, but just a short story, a well written article, or anything else, Amazon still has something for you. You can opt to publish shorter format Kindle Singles, which are typically 5000-30,000 words in length. The definition of what could constitute a Single is pretty fluid. It's a new kind of content. John Gruber notes in his blog, Daring Fireball, "each Kindle Single is intended to allow a single killer idea - well researched, well argued and well illustrated - to be expressed at its natural length."

And Wired Magazine extols the fact that Amazon will revive long form journalism, with article lengths that lie in the no-man's land between a short article and a short book.

As Charlie Sorrel observes in the article "In the past, there was no way to easily sell work of this length. Magazine’s just aren’t big enough, and book-buyers want to get their money’s worth in terms of page-count. Electronic publishing has no such limits. Indeed, the format seems perfect for tablets and cellphones."

Kindle singles will sell in a price range of 99 cents to $4.99 cents, which is a similar range to many e-books, But there may well be a target audience for well researched shorts.

It's good to know that writing and reading are alive and well in the digital era. And it's good to know that it has only become easier to publish, access and connect with people through the written word.

3G in Mumbai - high prices sour the deal

2011-03-09T09:19:00.000-08:00

Airtel finally rolled out their 3G services in Mumbai yesterday and a friend reported getting Vodafone 3G on his cell too. For most of us here, it has been a long and frustrating wait - BSNL users have been enjoying the facility across the country for the last 2-3 months. I think we have been almost the large major city to get 3G. Of course, Reliance and MTNL have both offered it here for some time.

I have spent today comparing the tariffs of all major operators, and I am frankly a little disappointed. I did not expect unlimited plans given the amount of licence fees that operators have paid for the spectrum. But I did expect better rates than what are on offer today.

There is a fair degree of parity in the pricing and plans offered by the operators in Mumbai so I am making some broad observations across the board. I do not have data for Vodafone as they are yet to put up the Mumbai tariffs on their website

1) Dearth of attractive prepaid packs

In an earlier post this month, I had mentioned that long duration (6 month/annual) prepaid plans provide a lot of economy in use, and allow you to plan and fine-tune your usage. Well, all the operators have prepaid 3G packs but they are both low volume and low validity (1 day to 30 days). And therefore they are not really economical - the best rate you will get is around Re 1 per MB. MTNL offers slightly better rates, but still with low validity/low volume. Clearly the packs are being offered only as samplers to give people a taste of 3G rather than as a serious long term subscription option. Hopefully, this will change down the line.

2) Higher data usage is not discounted for postpaid users

Usually, if you are a heavy data user/subscribed to a high volume plan, additional data that you consume will be at a slightly lower rate. Have a look at the MTNL Triband Tariffs. For example, if I am on the MTNL plan Trib-49, I pay Rs. 49 and get 200 MB free per month - I have to pay for additional data usage at the rate of Re.1 per MB. But if I am on a high volume plan DSL-1199 where I get 7GB free data, I pay only 40 paise per MB for additional data usage. No such concession is made for 3G postpaid users. The overage charges are standard irrespective of usage. They vary across networks - for Reliance, the best rate is Rs. 10 per MB and for Airtel it is Rs. 7.5 per MB. What this also means, shockingly, is that post-paid users will be penalised steeply for any additional data consumption. MTNL does best on this front, offering a flat rate of 1p/10KB or Re.1 per MB for additional data consumption.

3) No distinction between tethering and non-tethering

It may be early days to think of this, but I notice that the plans offered by operators make no distinction between tethered use (as a modem to your PC) and untethered use (only on your phone or mobile device). Typically, I would expect the rate to be lower if you only plan to use 3G on your phone.

Also we have not yet seen attractive data plans for smartphones like iPhone and Blackberry or for tablets.

4) Fine print on roaming charges?

MTNL has clearly stated that rates are standard across own and roaming networks. Airtel on the other hand, says in the terms and conditions that roaming is possible only on the Airtel network and even then 'Free data usage available in 3G data pack not applicable while roaming. Browsing charges of 30p/20KB will apply." That means that on roaming you would pay upto Rs. 15 per MB.

5) Plans are not download friendly
When you see the tariffs and data volume caps, you realise that the 3G plans are simply not designed for people to freely download music, apps or videos on their phones. Of course, you could argue that a 3G connection is a secondary connection and there are reasonably priced broadband plans for heavy downloading. But smartphone platforms today encourage us to download apps - the experience cannot be delivered without apps. Data rates are currently so prohibitive, that you would have to think before downloading.

My wishlist for 3G would be;
a) Decent prepaid packs of 20-30 GB with at least 6 month validity, with a pricing of Rs.100-150 per GB
b) Give the option of free/unlimited GPRS connectivity to all 3G post-paid customers, once their allotted volume of 3G download expires. Currently Airtel offers this but only on one Flexi-Shield plan. I would like to see this as a default across all the plans.
c) Operators should have tie-ups for all circles where they do not have the 3G licence to give seamless connectivity at the same rate. I thought that was the point of making us wait for so long - to get those tie ups in place!
d) The current representation of data (Paise per KB) is extremely confusing to the customer, and there is no standardisation at all. Reliance says 2p/1 KB, Airtel says 15p/20KB etc. It's a headache for me as a consumer to compare them. I think TRAI should mandate that all operators display a standard rate per MB. That would make life easy for all of us.
e) Subscription products : The Indian telecom market continues to be closely controlled by the operator. I believe that operators can choose to offer us certain 3G services at subsidised rates through the walled garden/ VAS platform - streaming video, live TV etc. I think that such services should be made available on a subscription basis so that I can sample the best of 3G without paying a bomb as data charge. Cricket on mobile would be such a hit!

I hope at least some of these get implemented in the days to come.

I will be out for the next 4 days without access to mail, so I apologise in advance for not responding to your comments. Will be back with more posts next week!

What to do if your MTNL connection slows down

2011-03-09T01:21:00.000-08:00

It's just over a year since I have taken a broadband connection with MTNL Mumbai and apart from the initial delay in installation, I am an extremely happy customer. Over the last 5 years, I have sampled several service providers across home and workplace - Tikona, Tata Indicom Broadband, Reliance Broadband, Airtel etc.

One of the first posts I made in this blog was about email as the best way to get customer complaints addressed compared to helpline. This holds especially true of MTNL also.

Recently my MTNL connection became painfully slow. I was getting a downstream rate of only 300 kbps as against 'upto 2 mbps' which was promised for my prepaid plan. Now this is what is put up on the MTNL site about speed that they offer;

"Extract of TRAI notification dated 6.10.2006 for QOS of Broadband Services - "keeping the reasonable loading level in intra-network links upto ISP Node, the benchmark has been prescribed that service providers shall ensure the speed of Broadband connection is greater than 80% of the subscribed speed".

I sent across a mail to MTNL citing the problem and received an acknowledgement that they would follow up. I also dropped into my local exchange to chat up and understand the reason for the problem. By luck, I found a very friendly officer who explained to me that speed is controlled (for Mumbai) from Prabhadevi exchange. The local exchange comes into the picture only if the line is unstable.

However, he made a call himeslf to follow up on my complaint and asked me to check my speeds again in 2-3 hours time. I switched off my router and did the speedtest. As you can see, the speeds are back :) and it just took a few hours for them to fix it.

So if you have a genuine (Non-torrent related :) speed problem, I can tell you from my experience that MTNL does address it promptly. I have not had a speed issue with any of the private providers but each had a different problem (with Tata Indicom it was frequent downtime. With Reliance and Tikona it was billing. Airtel is very good but they do not have a broadband footprint where I live. Besides, MTNL prepaid rates give me one of the economical net connections around. I don't see myself switching to anyone else in the near future!

Will India benefit from reduced iPad 1 prices?

2011-03-06T19:45:00.000-08:00

Leading tech publications have reported that Apple is offering a partial refund of $100 to all people who purchased an iPad in the last 15 days leading up to the launch of iPad 2. (ie. after Feb 16th). Following suit, AT&T has also reduced the price of the older generation iPad by $100.

I wonder if this has any implication for India, where the older generation iPad was launched last month, in a price range of Rs.30,000-Rs.35,000. Assuming that Apple would want to clear its inventory, I hope that they offer the lowered prices here also. A Rs.5000 or more discount would make the latest toy a hugely attractive purchase. Every time I visit an Apple store, or a Croma, I see some besotted teenager playing on the iPad until dragged away reluctantly by their parents. I am sure that a lower price would go a long way to make parents re-consider buying one for their offspring (In India, we claim that kids influence tech purchases hugely, but I suspect that sometimes we just make them an excuse to acquire gadget that we ourselves secretly fancy. And kids are smart enough to be well aware of this.)

As I have mentioned in the past, I believe that the tablet market will explode in India when the pricing approaches netbook levels (Rs.15-20,000) as in any case tablets will replace netbooks in the long run. Apple being Apple, can of course command a premium. But I would love to see a lower priced iPad. It might make me also re-consider and buy one!

Mobile advertising in India and the growth of Android

2011-03-06T17:13:00.000-08:00

Last month Fortune reported Piper Jaffray's estimation that Android could generate $1 billion in advertising for Google. To quote the analyst, Gene Munster, "We believe Google's ARPU on Android was $5.90 in 2010. We believe Google's average revenue per search user was $18.85 in 2010 and average revenue per user for Google's advertising businesses in total was $25.77 in 2010."

While this puts Google's ARPU (average revenue per user) from mobiles significantly below PCs, Munster notes that the revenue per user for mobiles will soon go up to $10, and with increased app downloads from Android marketplace, in-app advertising will also add significantly to revenue. This is Google's business model and the very reason for existence of Android as an open source OS that does not directly benefit Google.

Out of all the mobile OS platforms today, Android is poised for rapid growth owing to the huge manufacturer base and the inherent flexibility it offers to be deployed across a range of handsets. Today a Rs.6000 Micromax Andro and a Rs.35000 Dell Streak can both sport Android. This is the greatest strength of the platform and will be the key to its future success in India. Unless Android is available on truly budget handsets, its potential will remain stunted.

In case you are curious, the mobile advertising market in India is still very small - it is just Rs.100 crores (Rs.1 billion) according to this article on Rediff Business. Contrast this with the mainstream advertising which stood at nearly Rs.30,000 crore (USD 6.7 billion) in the period from June 2009-June 2010.

But mobile advertising is pegged to grow at 50-60% per annum. In a recent report, mobile media company BuzzCity rated India as the top mobile ad market in its network in Q42010, serving 4 million ad banners to Indian audiences in this period.

At 700 million + mobile subscribers, and growing, the captive audience base is huge. With 3G promising to bring in rich media and streaming content to our handsets, mobiles can actually compete with televisions as the first screen (arguably, many of us spend more time with our mobiles than watching TV). In fact, it has been proven that the advent of 3G has increased mobile ad spend across markets.

The only strike against mobile advertising is that we are worn out with all the telemarketing, unsolicited SMS etc. on our mobiles, most of which have continued even after the implementation of the DND (Do Not Disturb) registry. But on the other hand, if mobile advertising can subsidise paid apps and high quality content on the mobile, as long as it remains unobtrusive, I don't think anyone would be complaining. And I am sure that many advertisers would be keen to explore options given the steep mainstream media advertising rates.

If I were Google I would be quite excited with the prospects for mobile advertising in India. Maybe the company should take a cue from a certain prominent Southern politician who gives away free TV sets to his constituents (who will surely tune in to his family-run, vastly popular vernacular TV channel). He gets good karma and he gets eyeballs. Google, you wanna start giving away free Android handsets? You never know what could happen next...

Going prepaid pays

2011-03-06T08:41:00.000-08:00

Every time I have taken a broadband connection, I have opted to go prepaid - first with Tata Indicom Broadband, then with MTNL, and most recently, with Reliance Net Connect. I would classify myself as a heavy user of the net, still I have found that the prepaid broadband plans of all these telcos have provided me with adequate bytes, and at a much lower price than a postpaid plan.

Just one disclaimer - heavy user, is not the same as heavy downloader :). I need the full bandwith of 2 mbps but I do not need unlimited GB for music/ movie downloads. In this context, prepaid plans work just fine.

Here are my examples of prepaid vs. post paid usage

1) MTNL
I paid MTNL approximately Rs. 6000 per annum for 25 GB of data last year and the prepaid connection ran out exactly 10 days before the recharge was due. At Rs.500 per month, what I paid was equivalent to a basic broadband plan. Some months, I am continuously travelling, and I did not need to pay for *non-used* bandwith or rental in these months. Some months, my usage is extra heavy and I do not have to worry about that. As a bonus, for an entire year, I do not have to worry about paying bills on time. I have checked my usage online and figured that I use an average of 2-3 GB a month. Needless to say, I have renewed the plan this year too.

2) Reliance Net Connect Plus
This is a company that is determined to extract a minimum ARPU #poundofflesh# from every user. I started out with a 10GB monthly data plan but soon figured that it was too steep for me at Rs.1200 per month. My usage of NetConnect is very light - one of the reasons for this is the extremely slow speeds, which are woefully short of 3.1 mbps promised.

I had two options at basic price - 512MB at Rs.499 per month or pre-paid Rs.3000 for 18 GB. Obviously the latter is a more attractive one, despite the added effort of converting it to a pre-paid connection.

3) Tata Indicom Broadband
I had a time-based high-speed plan which I have now discontinued. This plan made a lot of sense when I was still salaried. I got unlimited net access in office, so I only needed a few hours of access at nights or over weekends. This plan worked out to approximately Rs.5000 for 720 hours and it also lasted a year. If I renewed it on time, I could carry over unused hours.

My observation from all my examples is that prepaid plans with a higher validity (especially the 1 year plans) are extremely useful as they offer the economy of prepaid, combined with the convenience of not needing a sudden recharge. Also what you pay, is what you get - without the service tax and other hidden charges that mount up on monthly bills.

I have saved at least Rs.6000-7000 per year on each broadband connection by opting for prepaid, rather than postpaid and that is not a small amount.

As a next step, I am contemplating whether to switch to a prepaid mobile connection, but I have been hesitating to do this. Mainly because I use the phone so much, especially while roaming and I do not want to end up always having to do last minute online recharges. The highest value recharge voucher that Airtel offers is Rs.3000 and my monthly bill averages Rs.1500, going upto Rs.2000 when I am on roaming. Still after my analysis, I have come to the conclusion that prepaid options are always money saving and worth checking out!

Will 2011 be the year of mobile computing in India?

2011-03-06T06:26:00.000-08:00

Two interesting pieces of news inspired this post.

Engadget reported IDC figures citing that in Q42010, smartphone shipments overtook PC shipments for the first time. Globally, approximately 100 million smartphones shipped in Q4 2010, as against 92 million PCs.

Secondly, Gizmodo pointed out that the 5 global best selling handsets in Q4 were all smartphones. (The Apple iPhone 4 tops the list, which also includes the iPhone 3GS and the Motorola Droid).

Analysts at Gartner and other companies have been predicting that the future of computing lies in handhelds like smartphones and tablets, rather than laptops or desktop PCs. In fact, Gartner has recently lowered their PC sales forecast for 2011 and 2012 based on the consumer enthusiasm for tablets and smartphones. To quote George Shiffler, Research Director at Gartner, "..We now believe that consumers are not only likely to forgo additional mobile PC buys but are also likely to extend the lifetimes of the mobile PCs they retain as they adopt media tablets and other mobile PC alternatives as their primary mobile device". Basically, this does not mean that people have no further use for their PCs - it means that they will delay replacement purchases of PCs and instead invest in mobile handheld devices through which they will increasingly spend more time accessing the internet.

This infographic posted on Engadget (source : RBC Capital Markets) gives a different picture of the situation, showing that in a world with 5 billion mobile phones and more than 1 billion PCs, the smartphone and tablet numbers are still a drop in the ocean. Definitely this perspective makes more sense for India, which is not yet a 'mature' market for either PCs or smartphones.

What is the future forecast for India in terms of mobile computing? Some figures at Trak.in reveal that the notebook market in India is growing steadily while the desktop market has plateaued.

The graph below shows laptop/netbook sales have tripled over the last 4 years, touching 2.5 million units in 2010.

Notebook+netbook sales in India. Source : Trak.in

In contrast, the desktop sales have remained more or less stagnant at 5 million units.

Desktop sales in India : source Trak.in

So what would be the future trends for handhelds vs. PCs in India?

This study conducted by Intel-IMRB and published on Watblog) suggests that urban penetration of PCs is only 28 million.Rural penetration is likely to be much less.Therefore it seems logical that the number will increase, especially as laptop prices drop. Gartner reported that in Q4 2010, the Indian PC market grew at 16%, which is more than the global growth rate.

However, it is piquant to note that teledensity of mobile phones is 65% plus (700 million plus users) and and every month, we add more mobile users than the entire PC market! Therefore it seems more likely that the mobile phone (as opposed to the smartphone) will become the device of choice for internet access. Nowadays, even entry level handsets made by companies like Micromax or Karbonn, come equipped with browsers and GPRS/ 3G capabilities.

It should be noted that smartphones are growing in India. IDC India reports that 6 million smartphones were sold in 2010. This may be a drop in the ocean compared to the overall subscriber base, but still consider that more smartphones were sold last year than desktops! However, it is possible that smartphones may not grow at the dramatic pace that they have, say in the US. Operators in the US subsidise smartphones aggressively to tempt consumers, because they stand to benefit from the increased data usage on these devices.

In India, where phones are sold unlocked, the price gap between dumbphones and smartphones continues to be huge, though brands like Micromax and Huawei have started to bridge it. But the presence of the world's leading smartphone brands continues to be miniscule; of the top 5 global handsets that I mentioned last year, 4 are not even launched yet in India!

So handhelds will power the internet revolution in India, but it will be sometime before smartphones and tablets become the next big thing. And Android should grow, but perhaps not the massive 615% growth we saw globally in 2010. India is still very much the market of Nokia, to an extent Samsung, and of course the cheap local brands. Let's see how that picture changes over the next few years!

Anonymous and the modern day spy fiction :)

2011-02-28T05:42:00.000-08:00

I have been too busy to post for the last few days, but luckily not too busy to read. For all fans of Ian Fleming and Len Deighton, I recommend reading the HBGary-Anonymous saga which Ars Technica has been covering over the past few weeks. Anonymous is the hacktivist collective which recently espoused the cause of Wikileaks by taking down the sites like PayPal and Visa when they shut off services to the site.

Now the spotlight is back on Anonymous thanks to their spat with a US based security agency called HBGary. The story unfolds like a modern day spy novel. HBGary apparently produces malware, rootkits, viruses, socially engineered profiles - but is on the side of the angels, since this is done in the interest of counter-cyber terrorism. Or is it? The lines seem to blur as you read more about their activities. Anyway, to cut a long story short, their CEO, Aaron Barr, tried to track down the Anonymous ringleaders and claimed to have gotten some of their identities.

Retribution was swift and ruthless, as Anonymous captured HBGary's mail server, shut down their website and published their emails. The emails of the company revealed that they were engaged in several dubious proposals including one to Amex to target WikiLeaks. Of course, there is no evidence that anyone has actually done anything shady yet, but what is proposed is shady enough. Needless to say, potential clients and business associates dropped HBGary like a hot potato.

You can read the entire saga on Ars. Many thanks to the site, and to Nate Andersen, Peter Bright and the folks at Ars for putting together these absorbing features. Inspires me to get back to novel writing. Maybe I was waiting to write a 22nd century tech-hack-spy fic!

How one man tracked down Anonymous
Nate Andersen writes about how Aaron Barr set out to expose Anonymous

Aaron Barr meets Anonymous face to face
Chat transcripts show the virtual 'clash' between the CEO of HBGary and the Anon folks in a chatroom

The Plan to attack Wikileaks
Aaron Barr's social media skills revealed - the guy could 'scrape' facebook profiles to put together a complete picture of any potential target. Reading this was when my lines between good and evil blurred. :) As it does when you read spy fiction!

The Inside Story of the HBGary Hack

For the technically minded, Peter Bright puts together a detailed description of how Anonymous systematically went about avenging itself on Aaron Barr and HBGary

Of course, there are a few more but these are my favorite links. Hope you enjoy these stories as much as I do. Personally, the whole expose made me think a lot about how vulnerable we have made ourselves because of the Internet. Our new precious possessions are not just the ones lying at home. It is our gmail accounts, facebook profiles and the tonnes of personal data, photographs and opinions that we spew out in huge quantities over the years. Cheerfully, not aware that some patient person somewhere can put everything together. Without knowing us, without meeting us, this person can put together our likes, dislikes, family profile, know what irritates us, know what medical problems we have, what's our kids' names....the list is endless. And use all of this against us, to control our online presence, to leak our confidential information - which can be much more traumatic than someone breaking into your house and committing a petty crime. Someone shadowy who controls you online, is way scarier than a thief who wants to make some money. What do you think?

A ready reckoner - do you need a tablet? Or a netbook?

2011-02-14T01:07:00.000-08:00

With the explosion of smartphones, tablets and laptops, I've been wondering what I really need (Note : need is different from want, and operates in a world constrained by budget and common sense. It's unexciting but it does save money and frustration)

You NEED a tablet if
You travel/commute a lot and use the Net when you do
You are considering it as a netbook substitute
Your usage is more oriented towards browsing and less towards data input (you surf the net or check your mails, more than you type or do work). If you watch more movies/ videos, a tablet has a better screen than a netbook and will give you more viewing pleasure
You are prepared to spend on an additional 3G connection (in India, we cannot rely yet on the WiMax network and 3G connectivity rollout is likely to be faster. So it makes more sense to buy a 3G enabled tablet even if it's costlier)

You NEED a netbook if
You travel/commute a lot and use the Net when you do
Your usage comprises mainly browsing and also some data input. The physical keyboard definitely makes a difference if you type a lot
You are cost conscious about data. There is enough evidence that 3G/WCDMA connectivity through dongle will be cheaper than 3G on phone/ tethered device.
You already do most of your browsing on a premium smartphone and you are just looking for a bigger screen and keyboard for doing your mail/ attachments/ browsing.
You think it's a shame to cough up big bucks on a tablet when a netbook does the same function at half the price. Netbook prices have crashed in the recent months, starting as low as Rs.15,000. Apart from the Olive Pad, tablets are priced in the Rs.30,000 range.

Android will grow in India in 2011

2011-02-13T22:14:00.000-08:00

This Sunday, I was at Croma in Phoenix Mills, Mumbai, and I was observing shopper behaviour at the mobile phone counters. Just 3 months ago, the buzz was all around the Blackberry Torch, then the Nokia N8 and of course, the iPhone. This month, for the first time, it was impossible to get near any of the Android phones - HTC Desire especially generated huge interest. The Nokia and even the Blackberry counters had a deserted look in contrast.

With HTC finally launching a full and almost up-to-date range of models, Samsung introducing many-priced flavors of the Galaxy series, and Micromax and Ideos bringing in some very respectable budget models, Android is finally revealing its full potential in India.

IDC India projects that approximately 155 million handsets were sold in India in 2010, of which a modest 6 million were smartphones. But smartphone market share is growing at a whopping rate (over 200% Year on Year growth in 2010). With smartphone prices falling and more models becoming available in the market, we can certainly expect the smartphone segment to grow in 2011.

In the new scenario, Android is also doing well in India, though not as well as it has done globally. According to IDC, 9.6% of smartphones shipped in Q3 2010 carried Android OS. Also, in 2010, the number of Android vendors in India has grown from 1 in 2009 to 7, and 19 models are available now. Again, this should act as a spur for growth.

Of course, the growth of Android (and indeed, any smartphone OS) will be closely linked to increased penetration of 2G/GPRS and deployment of 3G. In an interesting trend, a lot of the newer telecom operators like Videocon and Uninor have been launching attractively priced 'unlimited' GPRS packs, no doubt with a view to attract youth. Free surfing is packaged for sites like Facebook and Orkut, or for a fixed number of days, and is targeted at the prepaid users who form a huge chunk of the Indian market.

As Indians get a taste of data on their mobiles, they will definitely want more of it, and will upgrade to smartphones that offer a better surfing experience. Will the likes of Micromax and Ideos be able to hold these consumers or will they upgrade to better handsets from Samsung, LG etc?

I also wonder where Nokia will stand in this equation, now that they have tied up with Microsoft and committed to WP7. Windows Mobile has had limited deployment till now and more with the corporate/ enterprise sector. It would be interesting to see how the future of Nokia plays out in India, now that the focus and thrust of growth will be smartphones!

Source : IDC

Will Nokia do Android? WP 7? Rise like a phoenix from ashes?

2011-02-09T10:17:00.000-08:00

The big news buzz now is around a leaked internal memo sent out by Nokia CEO Stephen Elop to all employees. Engadget has published the memo, in which Elop has acknowledged the failure of his own company to act, and warned that they are standing on a 'burning platform';

"The first iPhone shipped in 2007, and we still don't have a product that is close to their experience. Android came on the scene just over 2 years ago, and this week they took our leadership position in smartphone volumes. Unbelievable."

Any Nokia watcher, or Nokia loyalist would agree.Unbelievable. Especially here in India, where we hold Nokia close to our hearts. All of us who started using phones in the 90s have probably owned or used a Nokia phone at some point (if not through the years). I don't think any of us would dispute their huge expertise. It shows in every best selling model they have created through the years - 5190, 3310, 6600 and more recently, the e-series phones.

This expertise may have come at a price though - according to this blog post on Asymco, Nokia spent 9.3 billion dollars (13.4% of sales revenue) on R&D in 2010, almost 3 times what is spent by peers in the industry. Of course, this is across hardware and software platforms like MeeGo, Symbian, and so on. What pinches is the failure to stave off competition despite a headstart and these huge investments.

Anyway, Elop's wake up call is a welcome one and of course, the speculation raised by the memo is, what is the next action planned by Nokia to fight its way back to supremacy? Elop promises that a new strategy will be announced on Feb 11th and that it will be a huge effort to transform the company.

Clearly, the focus will shift from devices to the platform and the apps, as Elop points out;
"Our competitors aren't taking our market share with devices; they are taking our market share with an entire ecosystem. This means we're going to have to decide how we either build, catalyse or join an ecosystem."

So the choices are - Android, Windows Phone 7, Symbian, MeeGo...or something new? Each platform choice carries potential pluses and minuses for Nokia.

I think it is a tough strategic decision - but here are some of my thoughts. (Like everyone else, I am not willing to wait quietly till Feb 11th to hear what the company has to say)

1) Will Nokia abandon Symbian?
Joining an existing ecosystem eg. Android vs. building your own is a very big decision. Apple, with its focus on vertical integration, owns the consumer from handset to OS to app marketplace. Nokia has had a similar business model in the past. This model is hugely profitable to the company and ensures control over every aspect of the user experience.

Having nurtured Symbian through the years, Nokia does have an ecosystem in place, which has been outpaced by the market. It's one thing to urge Nokia to jump onto the Android or Microsoft bandwagon for now, but it is not an easy decision to abandon what you have built up. And equally, it is easy to say that Symbian can be developed into something awesome but time is of essence and I don't think there is a lot of it left.

One possible solution, is for Symbian OS to drive the budget handsets. If there is any gap in the smartphone market today, it is at the bottom of the market. The cheaper Android handsets, with their weak processors are somewhat half heartedly addressing the budget segment. Symbian with its superb optimisation to mobile hardware combined with Nokia's expertise in building low cost devices, can easily capture this 'smart feature phone' market. This was what Samsung was aspiring to do with bada, but it does not seem likely to happen. At the end of the day, operating system is only a platform to access the net and if it offers a good user experience, there is still room for Symbian to flourish.

2) What will Nokia do with MeeGo?
There are enough indications that mobile devices will be the future of internet access. For example, in India, there are barely 100 million broadband connections, but nearly 700 million mobile users, many of whom will taste the internet first on their cellphones. Nokia has already partnered with Intel to develop MeeGo, a Linux-based open source OS that is potentially a huge rival to Android. It has been a frustration that Nokia has barely released any devices based on this OS and has not even seemed interested in marketing them. Yet at this stage, it might be easier to abandon MeeGo than Symbian. In which case, the company can probably look to Android or WP7 to revive its flagging fortunes in the smartphone segment. Increasingly, the industry buzz is that the tie-up will be with Microsoft, rather than Android.

3) The future of non-touchscreen devices
By default we are being pushed into a touchscreen era in mobile devices but I am not sure that everyone wants to join this party. I know a lot of people (and not necessarily budget phone users) who prefer a physical keypad, a QWERTY keyboard, and even some who are averse to touchscreen. This maybe a niche segment, but it will have takers. I just realised that there are NO non touchscreen high end smartphones - and display adds significantly to the device cost. There is another little pocket here that stretches across budget and smartphones, and is worth looking at.

I have said my little piece, and I will be waiting keenly to hear what Nokia does next.

Budget Android Phones in India - 2011

2011-02-07T06:23:00.000-08:00

Android ended 2010 as the largest operating system in the world. While it was hard to find the top-selling Android phones in India last year, this is not the case any more. HTC, Motorola, Samsung and even Sony, have launched a wide portfolio of Android handsets in India.

In this post, I am going to deal with budget Android phones. As per my definition, a smartphone which costs less than Rs. 15,000 is a budget phone. The high end or premium phones mostly cost Rs. 25,000 - 35,000. In fact, Rs. 35,000 seems to be the ceiling for a smartphone today.

A smartphone operating system is best showcased on top end hardware. Keeping this in mind, there are some conscious trade-offs that you make when you buy a budget Android phone.

Slower processor speeds (average is 600 MHz) are on offer at this price and make the phone interface feel a bit sluggish. It can also limit the apps and games that can be used on the device. Also, it seems that at this speed Adobe Flash 10.1 will not work, so flash videos are disabled on most budget handsets including the Andro and the LG Optimus One. For many people, Flash is the big reason to buy Android, so it's a bit of a pinch to be without it.
Smaller screen/ display makes browsing and even typing in landscape mode difficult. On an average, screen size is 2.8 inches and that is pretty small!
A resistive rather than capacative touch screen which can make the entire experience of navigation less than enjoyable.
Smaller battery which may lead to less battery life.
In the past, budget handsets would be loaded with old and obsolete versions of Android. Thankfully, that trend is changing now.

If you are willing to live with some of these limitations, then it is possible to enjoy a smartphone experience even if your budget is less than Rs. 10,000. Also some of these phones offer you a treat that is only available on the android flagship nexus phones - they carry an unskinned/ stock OS and you can directly install Google's updates without waiting for your handset manufacturer to modify and release an update.

1. Micromax Andro

Image Source : FoneArena

At Rs.7000 or less, Micromax Andro, positioned as your 'first Android phone' makes immense sense in a world where top end brands like HTC Desire and Samsung Galaxy are priced at Rs. 25,000 and above. I can see the Andro being a huge hit with the young crowd. It has a respectable (at the price) 600 Mhz processor, good battery life, it's 3G enabled and it runs Android 2.1 (Eclair) which may not be the latest-latest but it's fine. It will still give you all the flexibility of an Android phone to download games and apps, sync your gmail, install widgets on your homescreen etc. With all this, you should be aware of the one big trade off you will make. The touchscreen is resistive which will make it appear less responsive and sluggish especially if you are already familiar with capacitive/ multi-touch screen. So if you want the 'apple like' smoothness of touch interface, this handset will not give you that. Also it's a 2.8 inch screen. That's a small piece of real estate and won't let you enjoy browsing to the max.

You can read the review by Gaurav Shukla at AndroidOS.in

2. Huawei Ideos

Image Source : CNet

You probably know Huawei as the company that made your Reliance NetConnect modem, rather than a cellphone manufacturer. The Ideos has met with a lot of positive feedback and attention in the international market. For one thing, it is Google branded and Huawei claims they worked closely with google to develop it. It has 3G, and it also runs the unskinned Android 2.2 (FroYo) OS - so you can upgrade it whenever you want. Unlike the Andro, it has a capacative display, which makes the touch interface much smoother and faster, though screen size is still limited at 2.8 inches. However, it is bogged down by a slow processor (528 mhz)
The Ideos sells at Rs. 8500 in India. And I would feel that the capacitive touchscreen alone, makes it a more worthwhile buy than the Andro, unlesss you are on a terrifically tight budget.

Review of the Ideos on Pocket Lint

3. Dell XCD28

Image Source : Dell India

At Rs. 8000, this phone faces some stiff competition from the two listed above. It has the same 2.8 inch screen, but a resistive display and runs Android 2.1 It has a 600 Mhz processor like the Andro, but a smaller battery (and low battery life). Incidentally, the buzz is that this phone and its bigger more expensive sibling the XCD35, are basically re-branded ZTE handsets. I think the Andro and Ideos are better bang for your buck.

4. LG Optimus One/ P500

Image Source : TechRadar

This is a blockbuster phone - over 1 million handsets sold globally already. It crosses the Rs. 10,00 barrier and takes you to Rs. 13000. This is also a Google branded handset like the Ideos, with Android 2.2 (FroYo). For the higher price, you get a (much needed) 3.2 inch capacative LCD touch screen with very good resolution. And a large capacity 1500 MaH battery with a good life - this is a rarity on the higher end power sucking Android handsets and it's a definite advantage in favor of this phone.

On the flip side, LG has skinned the operating system so you may not be able to update FroYo. That may not be such a big deal. And you still cannot play Flash videos on this device.

Here are links to comprehensive reviews of the handset by Techtree India and GSMArena

5. HTC Wildfire

Available at Rs. 13,500 on FlipKart, for me it's a close run thing between the LG Optimus One and the Wildfire. HTC introduced this phone to replace the older HTC Tattoo which had a resistive touchscreen. The Wildfire has a 528 MHz processor, a 3.2 inch capacitive touchscreen and a few bonuses over the other budget handsets. It has a 5 MP camera instead of the standard 3.2 MP that comes fitted on phones in this class. It also has 384 MB RAM instead of the standard 256 MB on other budget phones - this is a valuable addition to speed. However, balance this against the fact that you are stuck with Android 2.1 on this device till HTC sees fit to upgrade it in India. Other countries have just started to get the update through their operator and it's a 9 month old handset.

So what is the verdict? If I were looking at a budget phone, I would probably pick either the Ideos or the Optimus One. Battery life, larger display and capacitive touchscreen are the key deliverables that I would look for in a budget, because in the long run, they make the usage experience better. The later the version of Android, the better - I think chances are very low that you would go through the nuisance value to upgrade it. Unfortunately, it seems that you cannot get a faster processor in this budget range - that is something that I would have paid more for.

I must confess that my dream budget Android phone is my Samsung Wave stripped of bada and rooted with Android Gingerbread. Guilty of pointless fantasising. It won't happen for sure. But I sure wish it would....

Dell launches Venue and Venue Pro phones in India

2011-02-04T08:47:00.000-08:00

The Dell Blog has announced the launch of the Venue and Venue Pro phones in India on Feb 3rd. According to the blog, both phones will be showcased at the Bangalore Fashion Week in Swapnil Shinde's fashion show on Sat. 5th February.

International reviews so far have praised both phones for their superlative build quality and finish. Both phones share some hardware specs : a 1 GHz QualComm Snapdragon processor, 4.1 inch AMOLED capacative touchscreen protected with Corning's Gorilla Glass for additional strength. However, Venue runs Android and Venue Pro (touchscreen + QWERTY) is Dell's first smartphone runnning the Windows Phone 7 OS. Also the Venue has a 8MP camera while the Venue Pro has only a 5MP camera.

Formerly codenamed Thunder, the Venue, runs Android 2.2 (FroYo) and will be priced at Rs. 29,990.

Formerly codenamed Lightning, the Dell Venue Pro has been reviewed as the best among the bunch of handsets running Windows Phone 7. It packs an appropriately high price tag of Rs.34,990.

Dell India lists the Venue as 'coming soon' and the Venue Pro as already available with Dell mobile resellers.

Interesting mobile stats for 2010

2011-02-04T04:49:00.000-08:00

1.It was estimated that the number of cellphone users worldwide crossed 5 billion in 2010.

2. Approximately 300 million smartphones shipped in 2010 (and 101 million shipped in Q42010 alone). The smartphone segment has a YoY (year on year) growth of almost 80%. and represents approximately 20% of total mobile phone sales.

3. Google's Android ended 2010 as the largest operating system in the world. In Q1 2010, Android held just 9.6% market share; by Q4 2010, it had 33%. With 600% YoY growth, Android is growing faster than the smartphone segment itself, indicating that it is actually driving the adoption of smartphones.

4. Apple is placed 5th overall in terms of global market share among cellphone makers. Apple has just 4% of global market share, but makes more than 50% of the cellphone industry's profit. In December 2010, Apple overtook Nokia in revenue share.

Sources
Canalys
Asymco

Bada apps - what are you using?

2011-02-03T22:50:00.000-08:00

If you read my blog regularly, you will know that I own a Samsung Wave and like other bada users, I have been waiting to see how the bada app store shapes up. 2011 will be a critical year for the future of bada. Some people still do not consider it as a true smartphone platform, but a hybrid 'smart feature phone' OS that could potentially compete with older versions of Symbian like S60. Samsung's own vision for bada suggests that it is meant to make dumbphones smarter!

Since the past few months, Samsung is offering paid apps which I feel is a bit premature. I am not even sure if I will settle into this OS in the long term and I am still sampling what the store has to offer. I get the feeling that the ratio of paid apps in the Samsung store is very high. As with all app stores across platforms, the big problem is that you cannot try before buying and have no way of knowing if the experience will be good or not.

Since October, when I bought my handset, I have downloaded nearly 30 apps and widgets. I regularly use maybe 10 of these, while the rest are, well, around. Here's a list of the stuff that I have found useful;

1) SNS Widget
It's a very basic point, but widgets are the first thing you want on your phone because they function as shortcuts. You can go directly from your desktop/ screen to the place you want to go. The SNS widget linking to the default mobile FB/ Twitter sites is the most used widget on my phone. Samsung also offers a widget with live feeds, but I don't use it because it kills the battery life.

On the subject of widgets, I really like those which load as small icons as they enable me to keep more stuff on a single home screen. This is a shot of my current home screen. You can see how packed it is, and that is how I like it to be.

2) Date calculator
This useful app lets me enter two dates and then tells me the number of days between them. Handy all the time for planning work deadlines and travel.

3) Quick Mirror App
Women would love this one, and for all I know maybe men too! Quick Mirror uses the front facing VGA camera of the phone to create a 'mirror' that lets you check your face discreetly, any time.

4) AP Mobile widget
The simple reason for using it is that I get a few live news feeds on my desktop and the experience is quite addictive. Android users may be used to this all the time, but it's pretty sensational to experience this on a feature phone! I normally do not use AP and I am not as interested in general news as I am in tech news. It's a case of an app actually changing my behaviour (or the mere presence of an app, getting me to do something that I normally do not)

5) XE.com widget
I use this currency site all the time for my dollar-to-rupee conversions, and it's handy to use it like a calculator from my phone while I am working on my machine.

6) Weather Bug for bada app
I'm usually interested in the weather even though I travel a lot. But winter has been crazy in India this year. Mumbai has been cold in the evening, hot in the daytime, Delhi has been freezing, even Chennai has been pleasant! I got this app to check weather in different cities before travelling and make sure I carried enough warm stuff (or not) depending on the conditions.Its another case of an app altering my behaviour!

And finally, here are my show-off apps. Confession - I use these only to showcase my Wave's abilities to other people!

7) Asphalt 5 : T
This pre-loaded game came with my Samsung Wave and I give it to people to play. They are pretty impressed to get an 'iPhone type effect'!

8) Broken Screen :
Ask me as an adult, and I would say that this app is for teenagers. It runs in the background and plays a trick - when you touch the screen, it 'cracks' with a loud breaking sound. Dramatic way to fool around with people. I am a certified adult most of the time, but I find myself using this a lot with other (certifiably adult) friends to have a laugh together. It's a fun, innocent, foolish thing and we need some stuff like that in our lives.

9) Piano
I use this just to show off the beautiful screen. Period. It's only half a piano but who cares? The time still passes :)

Nostalgia trip - all the cellphones I have ever owned :)

2011-01-30T21:48:00.000-08:00

It's January 2011 and approximately a decade since I bought my first mobile phone. Looking back, it's amazing to see how much technology has changed in these 10 years!

This is a companion post to the piece I wrote about portable music devices that I have owned through the years. I have a lot of fun making these nostalgic, trip-into-the-past kind of posts and I hope you enjoy them too!

Cellphones were around in 1998, when I just started working. I remember doing a market research project for BPL Mobile which was then India's leading cellphone company. The outgoing call rates were then Rs. 16 to Rs. 25 per minute, depending on which plan you were signed up for. Incoming call rates were Rs.8 to Rs.12 per minute. Needless to say, only businessmen/doctors/ lawyers etc. who really needed connectivity, would buy cellphones and of course, so did the ultra-rich status-seeking types. Handset costs were also high - initially Motorola and Ericsson handsets were available at prices starting from Rs. 10000.

1. My first cellphone - Nokia 5190 (2000-2003)

I think I bought my first cellphone in 2000. It was a Nokia 5100 (5190 in USA) for which I paid the princely sum of Rs. 5000 and I was very kicked with it. Incidentally, my first operator was Orange and I paid Rs. 6 per incoming call and Rs. 2 for outgoing calls.

Nokia started making the 5x series in 1998 and discontinued it in 2001.

Image courtesy Wikipedia

My first handset weighed a ton (180 gms, to be precise) and when I lovingly encased it in a clear plastic cover, it looked like a TV remote. It had no features other than a calculator and alarm clock. But I remember that I first started playing Snake on this phone and it was an addictive experience :) Like all Nokia phones through history, it had an awesome battery life. And yeah, the legends are true - no matter how many times you dropped it, it would not break. You can check out the detailed specs on CNet

In 2003, I passed this phone to my mom and she kept it for another 4 years.

2. My second, sleek cellphone - Nokia 3310 (2003-2007)

I bought this phone in 2003 and I kept it till 2007, when I gave it away to my mom, who reluctantly upgraded it 2 years later. So the life of my first two cellphones was 7 years plus. Today, I'm not sure if I even want to keep a cellphone for more than 2 years. Life changes....

(image from Wikipedia)

Compared to the earlier phone, this one weighed a modest 133 gms only. I remember being excited to buy it because it was so small and light, and I could even hang it around my neck when I was out for fieldwork! Talk about tying a millstone around your own neck :). I cannot remember the price, but I think it was still around Rs.5000.

Anyway, the other superior features of this phone included a monochrome graphic display on the screen, screen saver and welcome message on start up. And it would also have a silent/ vibrate mode. Needless to say, I was very kicked with all these small things. Here are the full specs from GSM Arena.

3. Sony Ericsson k5110i (2007-2008)

My first departure from Nokia land yielded mixed results. I certainly got a sleeker, more feature-loaded handest than I would have gotten from Nokia at that price range. And when I saw the SE User Interface, which was vibrant and youthful, I realised how much Nokia UIs were lagging behind. Actually, I think the writing was on the wall for Nokia way back then. Although their lower end handsets were selling on brand name, young people had tonnes of more vibrant choices from Motorola and SE in the same price range. Today, Micromax etc. perform the same role. And it was exactly this factor that tempted me away from Nokia, though I love Nokia phones!

Anyway back to the phone. I had posted this review of it on mouthshut around 6 months after buying it. I was not very happy, but I was by then ready to upgrade my phone within a year without regrets. However, it was the first, in fact the only phone I have ever owned that I had to take to a repair centre. And I am afraid that I have not bought a SE phone after that.

4. Nokia 3110c (2008-2009)

This has to be the most nondescript handset I have ever owned because I cannot remember anything about it. Except that I became very bored and changed it within a year. Nothing was wrong with it, it just bored me. I can't be bothered to even search for a picture for this one!

If I remember, the only reason I bought it was because it was under Rs.5000 and it was a Nokia. I was running away from my trouble-ridden SE handset, back towards reliability.

5. Nokia E63 (2009-2010)

When I bought this, I was eyeing a BlackBerry, but I was put off by the high price premium and the fixed data plans offered with it. I saw the superb reviews of this handset and it became my next choice.

This has to be my favorite out of all the handsets I have owned. It represented many firsts for me. First time I spent more than Rs.10,000 on a cellphone. First QWERTY phone - and Nokia makes a fab QWERTY keyboard. First phone with push mail. I had been eyeing this for some time, but I did not buy it until the prices became reasonable. I eventually bought it at Rs10,500 (exchange price). Anyway, this handset made me fall in love with Nokia all over again. Much love. It was a sturdy beast with a fabulous battery life. I gave it away to my Dad who is happily flaunting it on BSNLs 3G network. It pinches that we do not have 3G yet in Mumbai.

Incidentally, this two year old phone is still available at Rs.8500 and I think it's a great buy, better than many later handsets that Nokia has launched. It's a solid budget QWERTY. Specs from GSM Arena.

If I loved it so much, why did I give it away within a year? Too many new things beckoned - better hardware, new user interface, devices with more internet-friendly operating system. The world of apps and widgets.

6. Samsung Wave (2010-current)

(image from GSM Arena)

I had my eye on Samsung Wave from when it was announced. At my budget, I could have bought an Android with mid-level hardware or the Wave with top-end hardware and the dubious bada OS.I guess my choice taught me something about myself - given a choice between hardware and software, I went for the hardware.

You can read about why I bought the Wave. I am still happy with my phone, but now I realise that I miss two things - QWERTY and a larger screen. Looks like the next phone needs to have both!

After writing this piece, I realised a few things about my cellphone purchase behaviour
1) I have always had a budget threshold, linked to how much value I attach to a cellphone in my life. Initially I would not pay more than Rs.5000, then it was Rs.10,000 and now it is Rs.20,000. It was email and internet access that pushed my budget up, as well as acknowledgement of the increase in processing power and hardware specs.
2) I have less value for durability over time. The most expensive phones I bought, were the ones I discarded (or plan to discard) soonest. This is linked to my needs and demands from cellphones increasing, as well as the flux in the category
3) I always buy below the curve, and wait for the price of best selling models to drop before I get them.
4) I have behaved very much like an average cellphone user, hanging onto a dumbphone for a long time, then upgrading to a better feature phone, then a business phone and then a sorta smart phone. Where are my geek creds here?! :)
4) Out of my ten years of cellphone usage, I have been loyal to Nokia for 9 years! I have never had a bad experience with them till date. Yet, unless they get onto Android, I don't think I will buy another Nokia phone, and I feel bad about that. Operating system+brand will drive my next purchase and brand alone is not enough to take a decision.