Tag Archives: Computing

Chrome Notebooks: Any business model for developing nations?

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Google Chrome OS Concept

A lot has been made up for Google Chrome OS and it’s notebook. It transpires that Samsung and Acer would manufacture laptops for chrome OS.

Is cloud computing inherently better than the “offline model” we have come to rely on? If the recent Amazon outage is any indication, I would prefer not to stick with it. In the same vein, I prefer my data to stay with me.

However, there is a huge business opportunity lurking behind such an initiative. Manufacturers in India (for netbooks/laptops/tablets) are dependent on Microsoft for a tapered down version of it’s utterly useless operating system. They could have easily sponsored a home grown “Indian initiative” for Linux and installed it on a bare bones hardware with Wifi and 3G connectivity. I reckon that using ARM processors, a basic display unit with a keyboard would suffice the price limit of around $200-250. It can be done.

One doesn’t need dual cores to run the fancy software; in any case, I hardly use the computing power at my disposal. But there was no choice in the market. Antix (a derivative of SimplyMepis) or even Arch Linux are good enough alternatives (not to forget Fluxbox and XFCE or E17) as the alternative desktop platforms to power the applications.

The telecom companies could have easily subsidized the model, charging it in their monthly bills. A win win situation. An operating system free of any hassles and companies get to spread the hardware with bundled data plans. I had earlier explored the same option but I guess the fancy CEO’s (who are glorified assholes anyway), are not interested in the blurb.

So you’d find the Vodafone Zoozoo enticing people to try out 3G in a market where computing is still a luxury and smartphones market sorely limited.

Thats stupidity compounded by assholism (of the extreme); because crores are being spent on advertising to milk the few customers who venture to buy out the expensive data plans.

Blah blah blah.

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Bridging the digital divide in India: Inexpensive access devices?

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Official Ubuntu circle with wordmark. Replace ...

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I must admit that I haven’t focussed on writing about the access devices; they are a natural corollary to any broadband access initiative. Let’s face it. A mobile screen is useless (most of the times) because a cramped interface cannot replicate the full blown access device.

It’s heartening to note that a cheap access device has been “manufactured”; it runs Ubuntu. However, as noted by many others, a different distro would have sufficed (top of the mind recall is Antix or Arch Linux). Yet, with modest specifications, as below, it’s really worth it.

 

A cheap monitor and a keyboard is available off the shelf in most of the places. The final cost may not be much, even for a developing country like India.

This may be way better than having a dummy terminal and distributed computing through Broadband.

Interestingly, Apple is rumored to shift it’s line to ARM processors.

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Mobile based location services

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Foursquare (social networking)

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I haven’t used Foursquare or Gowalla ever (but installing the app from Android Market right now). It would not be possible to do a comparison of these apps straight away but there are many people who have done it earlier.

The interesting aspect is that it relies on “crowd sourcing” turning up the recommendations as the user base grows. An important part of it is growing database of how social search has evolved since it is no longer dependent on what is being written about something. Instead it relies on how we interact with others in real time, build on the data, release the API‘s and bam… you have something better than the incumbent.

The impact may not be apparent immediately but I am surprised myself as to why I didn’t cover this issue earlier. Still, I am keeping my eyes peeled for the same and checking out Foursquare. Maybe, I’d look at Gowalla later but there are more people on Foursquare though. Gowalla sounds very odd (in my opinion).

Although I still feel that there is a huge scope for something similar in India (even as a value added service) but there is no clone either. Crap.

 

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