Broadband Blog » handsets

Updates after a long hiatus

Administrator — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 14:26:22 +0000

It’s been a long time but I had been extremely tied up with the academic commitments. I promise to return to full time blogging once I am free from them.

Over the past few months, I have become cautious about the privacy on the net. One of the first moves was to switch over the name to Administrator. I had already moved away from Google; but more importantly, the last vestige was Google Reader; this too was given the boot in favor of Newsblur an independent developer based in New York and an excellent news reader.

Apart from this, I strongly recommend Ghostery and Noscript add-ons for your Firefox.

I have been following the 2G and the 3G scam but unfortunately, due to political compulsions, nothing has come out of the Supreme Court order. The key players are all out of jail. So all that drama that ensued was all for the show. Apart from this, there is no concrete action on ground regarding anything new in the pipeline, barring the 4G that is in the air. Airtel is rumored to launch it soon in key areas and beyond the wireline, Airtel is hoping that it would be a key determinant for it’s bottom line. Of course, the restrictions for “limited broadband” remain on course. You are unlikely to see “all-you-can-eat broadband” anytime now.

Interestingly, there is a trend of co-branded handsets for bundled offers for data. It’s not a sign of matured markets but rather a sense of desperation on part of the telecom companies to be able to sell anything. I don’t have any clue about the development of mobile apps but with overt reliance on Android to drive Google’s penetration in the heartland, mobile phones are slowly becoming ubiquitous. Well, there are more mobile phones than the toilets in this country!

Lets wait and watch for 4G. Lets see how it works out. I’d be back soon.

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State of Mobile Web: Some numbers.

Administrator — Wed, 25 May 2011 03:59:46 +0000

Opera Mini‘s reports on the state of mobile web are likely to be a true reflection of the mobile access and hence a surrogate marker of what’s popular at the given point in time. I am reproducing the snapshot of the Internet traffic here:

http://imgur.com/PZwCF

If you look carefully, bulk of the developing and the underdeveloped countries utilize the mobile web to access social networking sites. US (and some other developed economies) are lower down the scale.

Interestingly, the data transferred per user is a pathetic 7 MB (averaged over the month perhaps?) which means that operators are still being generous with their limits. However, this is a crude approximation. For once, we have a clear proof that mobile internet is definitely a part of their value added services kitty but is NOT the revenue driver for them. They are offering it because there is no alternative.

This also explains their aggressive stance to get the 3G spectrum; primarily to add more voice customers than to offer data services.

If you look at the snapshot of the popular phones, Nokia is still leading the pack but majority of them are NOT smartphones. These java based handsets are pathetic in terms of functionality and at best useful for “checking the status updates” on Facebook.

A surprise entry is that of “Micromax” handset; they have capitalized on aggressive marketing and low price entry point.

Unfortunately, this does not portend good for the broadband initiatives. A cursory glance at the top sites (Google leads the pack) is only indicative. Google has benefited from being the default search engine on the browser and hence the port of call for any search. I barely use my handset for GPRS (or EDGE) for web surfing because smartphones (and their form factor) is basically useless to transact anything useful. For me, the only reason to invest is for email.

Nevertheless, this report can again be questioned in terms of “growth of users”. It is not clear about how the methodology has been arrived at and what has constituted the “growth in real terms”. However, one thing is clear. Most of the web sites focused on Indian content don’t have mobile strategies to counter the growth in the user base. Pathetic.

Indeed, with majority of the young adults unable to read/write or even engage in meaningful conversations on Indian polity, this “dumbification” was expected.

Facebook, although shows some presence (in terms of mobile access), mobile broadband is still “not hot” in US of A. There could be myriad factors but then Opera’s state of web access is best a “snapshot” of the handsets and it’s deal with the OEM‘s to bundle the product.

New mobile Web Google Maps highlights sorry state of native iOS app (arstechnica.com)
Small world on small screens (opera.com)
Google Maps For Mobile Updates With More Features (techie-buzz.com)
Half of India uses Internet only through Mobile [Infographic] (trak.in)
Mobile Web Content in East Africa [Report] (whiteafrican.com)
Mobile Web in India grows 308% – Micromax one of the most popular mobiles to access Internet (trak.in)
Opera to supply its mobile browser solution to Spreadtrum (opera.com)
Book Review: Professional Mobile Web Development (books.slashdot.org)
Web App Masters: Native or Web-Based Mobile Apps? (lukew.com)
Maxis customers to surf the Internet up to six times faster with the Maxis-Opera Mini browser (opera.com)
Opera Mini now sports Indian content by default! (trak.in)
More Features in Google Maps for Mobile Browsers (mt-soft.com.ar)
Google revamps Google Maps browser edition for iOS and Android (mobile-ent.biz)
Saatchi mobile marketer: Mobile web is better value than apps (briefingmedia.wordpress.com)
State of the Mobile Web (francescofederico.net)
Why I’m Not Excited About Mobile Applications (samirbalwani.com)
58% Of Mobile Web Users Get Their Content Fix Through Browsers: Jumptap (techcrunch.com)
Mobiltel joins the Opera Mini adventure (opera.com)

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Mobile Content: Where the f*** it is?

Administrator — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 03:10:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

I have explored various other aspects of mobile internet in recent times. It would not be worthwhile to cry myself hoarse about the pathetic mobile access in India (which I have done repeatedly) but lets take a look at how the platforms are evolving based on the Mobile version of “broadband”.

Unfortunately, this write up draws inspiration from the western markets because the traditional mobile industry in India has not matured beyond the typical value added services of ring tones. I find it really hard to swallow if someone points me towards the mobile “games”. Yes, there are enough idiots to crow about the viability of mobile games as a money spinner but we could safely ignore them.Including the myriad “research firms” that pay money to get “quoted” in mainstream Indian press and financial dailies.However, it could be different if we have something like “Indian version” of Angry Birds. (Disclosure: I have that on my Android handset and ABSOLUTELY love it. With their shift towards in-game payment options), they would be justifying the huge surge of interest from venture capitalists.

This brings Indian media into picture. Over the past few weeks, I have been interacting with some people regarding “upgradation” of their web sites. They are badly coded examples of the worst case scenario of “Indian outsourcing”. I have tried, in recent times, to make a shift towards Drupal and understand that it is a sum of all aspects that needs to work in different browsers with cross platform compatibility. Unfortunately, they don’t realize the importance of having a proper mobile access stripped of advertisements.

Hence, a “mature” access device is unlikely to make a dent in India. The success of iPad hinges more from how Jobs has been able to “distort the reality” with his marketing gimmicks and how the whole ecosystem has been designed to keep the customers locked in. However, given the form factor, Jobs has been able to hit the sweet spot; a readable touch screen with mobile access.

There are people who swear by Flipboard but I haven’t really found a good RSS reader with capability of semantic linkages. Zeta has been launched recently with a lot of promise and cluster fuck advertising but since I don’t have an iPad, it is unlikely I would do any kind of a comparison between Zeta and Flipboard. I am stuck to Google Reader because thats unfortunately, the only in-browser app that works (others are plain useless with perhaps a bit of exception to RSS Owl or Blog Bridge).

Murdoch had launched “The Daily” with a lot of hype; but a few weeks later, there are people leaving him away in droves.There has been a lot of explaining behind this because arguably the fundamental reasoning behind iPad apps is flawed. For those who are watching the media space (and betting on Indian version of tablets) are going to be highly disappointed but well, they are unlikely to invest in resources which cannot be monetised (given the huge levels of piracy and nearly absent mechanisms of micropayments in this technology backwaters of the world).

So this effectively boils down to lack of developer interest in creating applications (hey what would you get with a huge army of morons and script kiddies who can’t even code a single line of software), lack of venture capital and inability to sustain a start up. (I strongly suggest that you read Shyam’s write up on the same issue). To quote selectively:

The main problem is that the Indian market for digital goods and services is tiny. In a non-existent market, neither product finesse nor pricing can make much of a difference. There is barely enough size in the digital domain to sustain large profitable companies.

Ironically, mobile companies are the only ones to push for content. However, therein comes the “platform interest”. Would you invest money in something that works across all handsets with rival operators? Or would you invest in something that would be locked up for your own network alone? Either way, the thorny issue does not yield any straight answers.

Hence, I find the obessession with pumping up digital content a tad boring. Not because I don’t want to consume but the options are sorely limited. Eve for 3G access, companies forbid “tethering” (not that no one cares a rats ass fuck about it) but they expect the 3g phones to have gigantic screens that would solve the issue. This would also explain that one reason why the prices are so high. Apart from the sunk costs, most of the operators are well aware that Internet access on mobiles would broadly mirror the broadband access on land lines i.e. a huge mass of zombified idiots would access only Yahoo or Facebook. It cannot be wished away because they would only cater to the mass of idiots without bothering about the “outliers” like us because there is no “real space” created.

No one wants to spend money to “change the habits” for content access. They would rather fill up the channels (and “news”) with “Bollywood flotsam” and fake celebrities prancing around either naked or raved out with hollow sockets floating around in public perception. (Okay well, I am biased since I find most of them really retarded).

Apple iPad 2 official release date in India may be announced in a couple of weeks (thenextweb.com)
iPad May Be Magical. Apps Aren’t. Here’s Why. (gigaom.com)
Zite – the best thing since Flipboard (paulacbrannan.wordpress.com)
Doodle Jump Hits 10M Downloads; Promises iPad Version, Toys & More (mashable.com)
SXSW 2011: Novelty of iPad news apps fades fast among digital delegates (guardian.co.uk)
Duran Duran team up with Flipboard for ‘digital concert programme’ (mobile-ent.biz)
Marketing to Women: Flipboard v. Pulse News Readers (jamiedunham.wordpress.com)
Doodle Jump scores 10 million mobile downloads for two brothers (venturebeat.com)
Why Android Tablets Are No Threat To Apple This Year — Our Q&A With Flipboard CEO Mike McCue (AAPL) (businessinsider.com)
“Zite Personalized Magazine App for iPad” and related posts (ditii.com)
Flipboard for iPad gets updated with Instagram and social search (mobile-ent.biz)
Flipboard gains Instagram support, social search, and gets much faster (downloadsquad.switched.com)
Flipboard Upgrade Boosts Speed, Integrates Social Search and Instagram (fastcompany.com)
Mobile Gaming + E-commerce = a Win for Brands (adage.com)
Could the iPad 2 replace traditional video game consoles? (tuaw.com)
“Angry Birds Developer Suggests Console Games are Dying” and related posts (technobuffalo.com)
Angry Birds Maker Predicts the Death of Console Gaming (nytimes.com)
Angry Birds maker predicts the death of console gaming (venturebeat.com)
EA Mobile teams with GetGlue for mobile game check-ins (mobile-ent.biz)
Angry Birds boss believes console gaming is “dying” (Angry Birds HD) (gamesradar.com)
Australian Government Wants To Classify Mobile Games (macstories.net)
Who’s Playing Mobile Games? (ghdialogue.posterous.com)
Angry Birds Exec: R.I.P. Console Gaming (pcworld.com)
One in Three Mobile Phone Owners Is a Regular Mobile Gamer [STUDY] (mashable.com)
Morbid Attractions (skulladay.blogspot.com)
India userbase: Internet 100m, Mobile internet 40m (mahesh.com)
Morbid Philosophy (alpup.blogspot.com)
In Underground Jail, Symbols of Gadhafi Brutality (newser.com)

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MetroPCS Interested In Lightsquared LTE Network – Assuming The Network Actually Gets Built

Administrator — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 15:45:49 +0000

The Lightsquared hybrid satellite/LTE network being built by Nokia and Harbinger Capital Partners could shake up the competitive landscape by offering new players wholesale access to an entirely new LTE network. However, the project is facing several obstacles including funding and interference concerns with GPS. The company just cleared several hurdles by getting the FCC to ease a few constrictive spectrum conditions, and by launching a satellite to be used to fill in rural coverage. Lightsquared says they’ve signed at least two carrier deals already, with other talks ongoing.

One of those interested carriers is MetroPCS, whose discount almost-LTE service could certainly use the added help. MetroPCS says they’re absolutely interested, assuming the LTE network ever actually gets built. Assuming Lightsquared gets funding, builds the network, survives a likely political and PR assault by AT&T and Verizon and navigates GPS interference concerns, MetroPCS would still have to deal with a few more technical hurdles, including handset compatibility:

“If they can get funding and if they can get the network built, it’s a wonderful option for us,” said MetroPCS CFO Braxton Carter, speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom conference. There are a number of stumbling blocks to an LTE agreement between MetroPCS and LightSquared, however–mainly, handsets that would work across both operators’ LTE networks would have to support their separate, relatively obscure spectrum bands.

There’s still a significant amount of doubt in the industry about whether Lightsquared, the joint effort of a cash-strapped also ran satellite outfit and a former junk bond salesman, ever actually gets built.
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Nokia Mobile: Selling it’s soul to Microsoft

Administrator — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 13:18:45 +0000

One of the breaking news of the day is that Nokia has opted for Windows 7 platform; I usually don’t comment on these “platform changes” but Nokia is dying a slow death.

I had earlier written about owning a Nokia E63:

I own a Nokia E63 but that’s about it. It’s the “low end” of the smart phone because the screen sucks. Ovi store sucks. There are no apps to speak of. It has a weird “signed” and “unsigned” policy which doesn’t allow me to load in any kind of an application I need. Yet, the Wifi is a great addition even though it has a restricted range. My mail is configured; is a boon when I am not around my laptop. In general, it works the work but then there is nothing that I exude my enthusiasm about owning this

This has been prompted by is steady decline in the US market where it has been drubbed nicely.

So what does it do next?

It shifts to Windows 7.

Inquirer has hit the nail on the head.

Elop tried to answer the question the world had, why the hell not Android, and his answer was lacking. He explained that he had spoken to Google about Android but it was rejected as Elop felt that Nokia could not differentiate itself among the Android handsets.

Trust me. If Nokia had shifted to Android, I would have shifted to it immediately solely because of the quality of the hardware.

But then Windows has been screwed royally in the back by Linux.

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Opera: State of mobile web

Administrator — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 08:58:42 +0000

I am not here to be a party pooper but if you look at the profile of the countries where broadband is a laggard, it speaks for itself. It only reflects a huge pent up demand for a “regular internet” than a crippled version of the mobile internet.

The beauty of Opera is that it’s available for a huge range of handsets; including java based crapware that is lowly bottom of the end stuff. Agreed that most people cannot afford a smartphone (it’s an overkill), still it reflects the pattern of usage.

This is bound to create a lot of interest for advertising which surprisingly Opera has been able to keep it as a free platform. Although I have tried the beta version of their mobile browser on Android, there is nothing to write home about; I invariably fall back on the Mini version. In case I have to tether my useless Docomo GPRS to my laptop, I use an emulator which makes checking email and going through some mobile optimized web site easily.

This also means that the desktop version is going to lag in “love”; something that Opera employees deny strongly. As a company, it has one of the worst outreach towards it’s customers; try getting the contact details of the key people. They seem to have “hired” forum trolls because any word of criticism is hushed up immediately or the forum thread locked up. Their extensions are bare bones (unlike the Chromium API which is fairly stable) and does not allow interaction with the key features of the browser.

This isn’t technical debate about how the browser wars play out in the real web but in my opinion, Chromium (on Linux) is perceptibly fast. Although Firefox Beta has seen a wonderful improvement over it’s previous versions but it’s useless implementation of extensions means that a bare bones browser is as good as useless.

Ironically, this post on Opera is made using Chromium; I use Feedly (intermittently for RSS Feeds), Google Reader with a focussed tab and souped up with wonderful extensions to make my life easier when going through over 500 articles per day. I have (yes, wonderful) Thunderbird for IMAP Access; although a bit of pain to focus on one window to another but Opera has screwed (and fucked) up it’s Mail implementation.

Hope that opera now implements it’s Fastmail acquisition properly. If I can read the tea leaves properly, Opera would want to leverage itself as a “leading brand for mobile applications/other than desktop” category. Primarily reason is that internet access is now moving away (slowly and steadily) from the desktop/laptop combination. With huge profit base in the mobile applications, I see that there is no reason to innovate on the Linux/BSD/alternative platforms over a period of time.

That’s where Chromium is slowly becoming the centre stage; with a slow but steady shift to cloud computing as a platform. Mobile access is one part of the key in this game.

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Opera Mini: Growth in India

Administrator — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 04:49:38 +0000

I rarely cover the mobile Internet on this blog. Part of the reason is my antipathy towards a highly inefficient medium of communication that has been sold as “standard”. As well as persistent ad spends to try and increase usage. The real shit is in Broadband folks and we don’t see any action on that front.

Nokia India is seeing a decreasing market share because it is staffed up by inefficient morons who have no clue where the technology trends are heading for. Even on their “low end 3G handsets”, I don’t see mention of Opera Mini, a Java based browser, but their inane persistence towards technological harakiri. Hence the rise of alternative technological platforms to access mobile internet.

Even in the huge market, the per capita consumption is barely 7MB per month which may be true (reflects my own usage on Docomo that I have). The idea behind having Mini installed is that it efficiently compresses the page before it is rendered on your handset. Nokia has not been able to get ANY traction in this market and Opera is seeing millions of page views per month through it’s data centre.

This of course worries me as a Desktop user. Even though it grows in popularity in mobile space and earns revenue from Google for it’s searches, it does not seem to have a spill over in the desktop segment.

Although they have done everything to open up the extensions framework but it seems that it is bound to be doomed the way Opera Unite/ Opera Widgets were. There is no palpable excitement in the blogosphere about this.

Apart from this, IMHO, mobile internet has a huge potential to grow in terms of “apps”. These little widgets are a rage and out of all the mobile operators only Aircel seems to be doing something right. At least they have created a framework for the same to spur on internet usage. To be honest, I haven’t seen their application in real time but their advertisements are a pointer towards the same. Yet, if they were REALLY smart, they would open up their application framework

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2010 round up.

Administrator — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 07:12:30 +0000

This perhaps generates more cynicism than anything else. Over the past few months, I have become increasingly bitter with the telecom landscape in India. We have “expounded myths” about “millions” materializing from thin air to headlines dominated by three major trends

1) Smart phones and Android taking center stage with Nokia dying a slow death.

2) 2G spectrum scam

3) 3G mess.

There are tonnes of web sites scattered all around to tell you about Android’s home coming. I am not getting in the debate about what is good or bad but Apple (across the lines) remains aspirational because of it’s perceived value.

2G Spectrum scam has also been mentioned extensively with the political fall out affecting Congress and it’s cohorts; again the debate has been frittered away to be of any consequence.

3G Mess is bad. Really bad. Partly because it has been sold on lines of “only Internet access” you’d ever need. As mentioned in these columns (and comments) that none of the devices support advertised speeds of 21Mbps; more so, in absence of clear definition of what 3G speeds are, you would not really see much traction there. The operators have dreamt of fat profits accruing from the sales and perhaps are marketing different plans for mobile handsets and wireless modems. Docomo even explicitly prohibits “tethering” mobiles to laptops citing it as “violation of terms of use”; as it they can “prove it court of law”. Assholes.

4G is on the horizon and as such the media reports were peppered with what technology to choose. There are of course competing issues; I am not qualified enough to explain the merits/demerits of each.

Another highlight of this year was the final recognition of menace of telemarketing calls and sms (with sms rates being usurious and companies raking in huge profits from what is essentially free for them). I have written about it earlier but there are others in space who have written about it more extensively (Rajesh Jain on Telemarketing and SMS Spam[1,2,3,4,5])

Mobile Number Portability (MNP) would be a big issue in 2011. Although it has been launched in Haryana, there are not enough media reports about the impact of MNP on the same. Is it surprising? With telecom companies leading in advertisement spends, they hold enough leverage to influence reporting the issue. Hence I would remain blocked out on the same unless it becomes a major issue. However, they don’t give a shit to the users because there is no REAL choice between the service providers. Most of the new operators have yet not launched their operations (and hence got notices for the same) so it is difficult to comment on the same. I foresee a lot of activity in next year in terms of new players and mobile number portability to affect them. Yet, with the rise of cheap “chinese manufactured- Indian branded” hardware with dual and three SIM card slots, issues like MNP don’t hold much promise. Hence this too would remain a lot of hot air with some speculation towards “power to consumer”.

I have written extensively to TRAI, Department of Telecom and various stake holders in media about why need broadband and what is basic policy flaw in the system. This has also been a subject of my RTI applications being filed with them. At risk of sounding repetitive, we all need a proper system for growth of the nation and that is a foregone conclusion. However, the system is designed not to provide but to deprive the users from opportunities. If public good were at the heart of policy makers (and politicians), we would not have been a kangaroo republic (mistaken for a democracy).

I fail to understand the stupidity of media houses not to push for all inclusive growth in Broadband; since their own very future depends on it. I have briefly toyed with the idea of setting up a NGO; there is no scarcity of ideas that need to be implemented. What is lacking in this space is will to implement those ideas. The whole scenario is lumbering around like a giant iceberg. Yet as monotony in this space grows, Internet access is fuelled by explosive growth in social networking to Facebook’s data servers. Here in lies the rub. Media in India is even lacking in this space and focusing instead to try out experiments in their own walled microdomains expecting the advertisers to come on in hordes and expecting to rake in millions of dollars from advertising click throughs.

However, this dream lies shattered with corpses of media houses dotting the landscape instead. Content is supreme and while we retain the numero uno position for generating mountains of crap in terms of bollywood export, this has not found a “release” except from traditional channels of multiplexes and to some extent, DTH. Instead, we don’t have a Hulu or Netflix like player capitalizing on this aspect of delivery. 3g cannot do it. 4g cannot do it. Wifi perhaps. Broadband on wirelines- definitely.

This blog has also seen some write ups on the need to tone up internet exchanges, need for TRAI to jig up it’s broadband policy and a call for Public Internet cafes. Interestingly, we also saw NDTV’s programme on broadband which we linked on to and perhaps the first in a long long time coming in from mainstream media. TRAI did talk about “fair usage policy” although in context of telecom tariffs. Another highlight was my post on online education and something on cloud computing in respone to Chrome OS.

This, by and large, what I had written with some guest posts. I have already filed in RTI application with BSNL as listed and I am awaiting their response. My only aim to get to root on pricing on Broadband, the mess and perhaps get a better deal on it in the long run. The first step is perhaps to re-define broadband from it’s present definition. I am also planning to involve TRAI in this loop along with perhaps Department of Telecom and see how they differ. Although TRAI is the regulator, the real power lies with DoT. Yet, it is a blame game that they are likely to play. DoT would say that TRAI has to come up with regulations first. TRAI would say that DoT is the real boss and they have to come up with a “circular”. No one wants to work and consumer gets the fuck of his life.

I have seen the Indians from close quarters. They would suffer all the insults with great temerity and humbleness. Perhaps it is the servile attitude that is ingrained in their psyche. Neither we are going to see a good amount of activism to make the public institutions deliver nor are the companies going to make any efforts to tone up their services. It costs real money to keep up with after sales service which actually eats up the profits and hence customer service is perhaps the last of ideas on their minds.

This post by itself is a huge huge post in a long long time! Maybe perhaps, I have written about trends subconsciously which I feel would impact the telecom landscape in some way or the other. The market is not geared towards course correction but is littered with asymmetric information to disadvantage of consumers. Sadly proactive approaches, either at regulator level or mass media or even at consumer level is sorely lacking.

The new year is not going to change this scenario in any manner whatsoever.

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Cloud computing: Relevant?

Administrator — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 06:57:15 +0000

A couple of days back I had written about cloud computing; whether or not it is relevant to Indian scenario given the state of the broadband networks and how they function. 4G is not yet launched and we still have to see it’s widespread deployment.

It can also be argued that Cloud computing offers a “cheaper alternative” for net access. For all the noise behind Chrome OS, it remains a re-worked implementation of Linux under the core with fancy “apps” and the browser as central to the computing experience.

To be honest, I hardly use my laptop for anything else. My computing time is solely meant for web access and once Google Voice/Skype have sense enough to implement the technology across the browsers, the other mode of “desktop applications” would become redundant.

It can also be argued about Google OS to be a cheap and effective way to roll out the product or say something like Airtel coming up with a fancy idea of having Airtel-Google branded laptops or netbooks being given “free” with contracts. However, for all this optimistic line of thought, I feel that the market is still not ripe to jump the gun.

Lets see what does Eric Schmidt has to say about it:

With Chrome OS, we have in development a viable third choice in desktop operating systems. Before there was no cloud computing alternative—now we have a product which is fast, robust and scalable enough to support powerful platforms. It’s something computer scientists have been dreaming about for a very, very long time. The kind of magic that we could imagine 20 years ago, but couldn’t make real because we lacked the technology. As developers start playing with our beta Cr-48 Chrome OS computer, they’ll see that while it’s still early days it works unbelievably well. You can build everything that you used to mix and match with client software—taking full advantage of the capacity of the web.

Ignore the brave words.

There is a competing product from Google: Android. It can again be effectively argued that they are separate and none can be adapted for other usage. I digress.

Android, despite ruling the roost on the mobile handsets, needs a lot more polish and push from Google to make it auto upgradeable. I own one from Samsung and hate the loaded crapware. I’d have to flash the ROM and install something else but that’s left from some other day.

Yet in this saga, can Google ever hope to monetise it’s offering? I can assume that after the Chrome OS reaches a critical mass (if and ever), it would be flooded with advertisements. Owning a laptop with loaded Chrome OS is the perfect platform for targetting those niggly ads that guarantee you a better erection in bed. In any case, the volumes are going to come only from the enterprise and that is not going to change in a hurry.

Brave words indeed but here’s a sampling of the common sense that has prevailed in the dark corners of cyberspace:

And any reasonably competent IT executive can plainly see that Google, for all of their algorithmic might, isn’t known for product longevity.

Sure, their core web products have been around for a while and aren’t going anywhere. But they launch a lot more products every year that we quickly forget about, and many of the unsuccessful products are quietly discontinued a few months or years later.

Google’s just not in the business of providing long-term support for an unsuccessful product line. It’s part of what allows them to keep releasing new things all the time while geeks declare Microsoft a boring old dinosaur. But IT departments need their platform vendors to behave much more like Microsoft.

Sad but true.

Hence, in this scenario, I don’t foresee a bright future but it seems to be another flash in the pan from the mavericks. It’s hard to say how this shapes up, how they advertise or strike deals with the manufacturers or how they wish to tone up their advertising platform.

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Blackberry India:Finally “bending down”

Administrator — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 14:07:39 +0000

This sums it all Thats what you get to operate in India and how they have come from their “strong stance” They have now agreed to allow access to to their Blackberry servers.

“They have in principle agreed to provide us recorded data from their servers,” it quoted an interior ministry official as saying.Now they have assured us that they will discuss the issue first among themselves and find a way to meet our demands. Later, they would be providing live access to BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Server),”

I apologize for this rather crude portrayal but this best sums up what Blackberry’s “executives” were crowing about earlier. I have covered this issue extensively earlier here and here.

Update: This has been reported on Fast Company too.

I quote a section of it verbatim:

There is no doubt that RIM will get stick for this decision–after all, being seen to be cavalier with one’s customer data is just not cricket. However, they are in an inenviable situation. India is an important market for RIM, which is on course for sales of around 600,000 units by the end of 2010–that’s 5% of the country’s smartphone market.

This is the reason why Blackberry is “bending down”. I don’t remain a fan of their handsets because I find them useless in terms of customization or use. In any case, for the technically oriented, I prefer to use IMAP_IDLE protocol which shifts the mail almost instantaneously to my synced devices. Which also means that the main reason for having a Blackberry vanishes because it was their “mail offering” which made all the difference. With the servers now “live” and push email being replaced by the “protocol”, I find no reason why should anyone pay a premium for that product.

This also explains the slew of advertisements all across the television for their product.

Update 2: RIM denies any involvement with the Indian Government. This is because it would otherwise hurt their share market in other parts of the world. Not knowing fully well that they allow full access to middle east countries where they were rapped on their knuckles and their testicles held till they turned blue.

That’s what is called as “foot in the mouth”!

Here’s what they have to crow about: (emphasis mine)

RIM has once again found it necessary to address certain media reports in India containing inaccurate and misleading statements and information based on unsubstantiated claims from unnamed sources….Our customers can be reassured that the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution continues to be the gold standard for security-conscious organizations in India and worldwide. All our discussions with the Government of India have been and continue to be productive and fully consistent with the four core principles we follow in addressing lawful access matters around the world. Any suggestion to the contrary is false

This is classic corporate gibberish. Which in effect should be interpreted as:

The Indian Government screwed our happiness and threatened us with a ban. Keeping in mind your sensibilities and our pathetic market share, we were afraid that this would affect our future sales and possibly carefully crafted brand image. When we were summoned to the offices, we were shitting in our pants and pissing all over while the Indians screwed us from behind and twisted our little puny testicles. We agreed immediately to all of their demands including complete access to our servers, offices, files, records and gave each one of them our crappy product for “testing purposes”. Because we need to lick the Indian’s asses since they feed our kids (and mistresses) therefore we have allowed full access to your corporate emails and communication including details of YOUR mistresses

Apologies but it drives me mad…

Blackberry India should be the front line nominee for this year’s ASSHOLE OF THE YEAR AWARD

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RIM Blackberry: Much ado about nothing

Administrator — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 05:44:43 +0000

Blackberry has been under fire literally. Admittedly it has been popular because of it’s push email facility but atrocious overpriced crap dipshit handsets which don’t justify for it’s price.

It was bound to rake up news. Government of India has woken up from it’s slumber and demanded the encryption keys to it’s servers because it is feared that it might be used for “anti-national activities”. There were columns written (no doubt in pay roll of these companies) that this amount to violation of freedom of speech!

My stand on the issue is very clear. Privacy does not exist. If you really wish to stay “private”, better stay off the “grid”; i.e. Cellular networks. No one wants to know a hermit nor is anyone interested. But the moment you are connected, your ass is for everyone to see (or those who pay to see).

At the same time, electronic surveillance is the most important component of intelligence gathering. If some one is fucking concerned on line, it’s better to use an encrypted VPN or use anonymous routers.

I don’t find the same concern (or rather the same assholes waxing and waning on newspaper columns) when your own number is leaked out to hordes of motherf*****s to send you unsolicited calls and messages. Why doesn’t that get tons of news coverage? Why is bloody TRAI unable to force it’s own fucking regulations for God’s sake? Why is the Intelligence Agency targeted alone for what appears to be a genuine work?

It is so damned easy to set up a monitoring station to snoop on the calls. It is being done routinely. IB, RAW and host of other intelligence agencies do it all the time. This was part of the cover story on one of the English weeklies, so it is public knowledge. Yet whatever, actionable information is acquired, it is needed that preventive measures are instituted in the first case.

It is not surprising that RIM has set up a brave face. It has given up the control to the Government agencies wherever it has been asked to. Fact of the matter is that even in US under Patriot Act, agencies get unprecedented powers to snoop on the individuals. Which is more important? The security of state or claimed privacy?

Even as I type this out, there are thousands of cookies infested on my system to track my online behaviour. If you are using a crappy Explorer to view this site, God bless the fucking you. It is a gateway to let the trojans and viruses to hit your box and God alone can’t save you. Where is your Goddamned privacy there sonny boy? (Excellent series although contrived, by WSJ).

Hence it is important to keep it in perspective that RIM is a multinational and they ought to comply with the directives issued by Ministry of Home Affairs rather than fund countless assholes to bleat for it or sing it’s sorry tune.

Sorry RIM. Your Blackberry sucks to the core and I find your product to be a horrible contraption of a smart phone that you care to advertise for spending good money on a useless idea. It would be worthwhile to spend it on R&D, come up with a compelling alternative.

The other issue at take was the Blackberry Messenger which allows communication in real time which again is over an encrypted channel. This I feel, again has serious repercussions for National Security.

A lot has been written already about it and this post is a counterpoint to everything. You can access it here, here, here and here.

It was a sustained campaign by middle east nations that BBC had reported extensively. Some of the links are old (about two weeks) but I really wanted to see how a company like RIM wilted like a pack of pussies after brave talk when they realized that their profitable business would shrink massively.

At first, came the threats (1, 2, 3, 4) which was followed by a “happy reconciliation (1, 2, 3 and 4). A similar story is unveiling in India and you can expect Blackberry to wilt under pressure.

Anything goes!!

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3G versus 4G: What is good enough?

Administrator — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 03:06:56 +0000

The debate can never be settled partly because of the huge advertising spins on the dip shit wireless access. I have never been a fan of the same but instead always advocate landline based broadband access and free public Wifi. The municipal areas can be taken up for the task but sadly there has been no movement on to make the public carrier a.k.a BSNL responsible for such a thing. There is NO thought on this either!

The big question mark then boils down to the fact that competing technologies are making a beeline for the customer space. Nokia has upped the stake and launched a slew of handsets which are “3G” compatible. The networks are seeing huge amounts of raw investments in the space. Yet, in the previous write up, I had clearly mentioned that India represents a missed opportunity to shift to 4G instead of the present 3G investments. What the hell is the difference between 3G and 4G?

Here is an idiots guide to 3G versus 4G difference. It all boils down to download speeds. Although, in fair judgment, the download speeds are going to be marginally better than the existing experience on the handsets. We have seen multitude of ringtones and crap shit like that making a neat little profit from all that. Yet, the fad is bound to wear off. Sooner than later. Data can NEVER be the differentiator here because there is NO ecosystem for the same.

It only boils down to “operational efficiency” for the voice traffic.

No amount of crap dip shit research can explain the projected telecom users. Neither the best estimates. Nor the tax collections or the opaque methodology to count the number of customers. It is only a grab of the public resources by private players. Most of the private payers would exit out of the current game, leaving the field wide open for the bigger international players in the market. That would ultimately decide the price for the spectrum running into billions of dollars. That is the reason why Raja conceded to the big national players because the lobbying happens in their backyard. Any new International player has to kiss their ass to get a “toehold” here in Indian market that is supposed to be “exciting”. Fact is that no one fucking cares because we are way behind as laggards in either 2.5G or 3G or 4G (or even any of the new avatars) designed for future use.

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3G Mess: New engine of growth?

Administrator — Sun, 30 May 2010 13:41:19 +0000

There is no authoritative verdict on Indian Telecom scene. In the absence of any concrete statistics, it becomes difficult to pin down the exact number of subscribers, the actual growth of the telecom sector and value added services.

TRAI releases it’s numbers from the industry proclamations; it has not thought to independently audit the claims. Neither does the Department of Telecom (or may be that I am unaware of any such publication in the mainstream media). I have criticized 3G on many occasions and I see no merit in sinking in huge amount of funds on a technology which would get outdated in rapidly evolving 4G standards. All the more, India missed a golden opportunity to set up it’s own standards for mobile telephony thus forcing the mobile operators to set up an ecosystem of not only the entire gamut of the telecom equipment but handsets also. It would have spurred on demand for quality and generated much better employment prospects than importing the crap dip shit that we are forced to put up with now.

No handset comes closer in terms of oomph and style; something of the likes of an Apple iPhone with it’s iTunes store. While it is profitable, something similar is next to impossible to find here in India- the market of apps is right there but there is no serviceable product.

Nokia has failed terribly; I am definitely impressed by the new layout of it’s Ovi Store but trying to find an app that works across all platforms is like looking for a needle in a haystack. To worsen the matters, the price quoted is in Euros. If any asshole from Nokia India is reading this, please understand that its not possible to pay in Euros here because THAT is NOT the national currency. Besides that, none of the applications are a must have. No wonder, the Finns are getting clobbered left right and centre; the market share has definitely slid down to 60% as per the estimates.

This brings me to the final question. If we dont really have apps or the snazzy and the jazzy handsets, what are we really fighting for? Why should 3G should really be auctioned?

If Internet connectivity is the SOLE criterion, then public Wifi’s should be set up. The Wifis should be free for access upto a certain speed limit; beyond that a price mechanism be set up for higher access speeds. Or broadband initiative be accelerated with the huge amount of Universal Service Obligation Fund (last heard it had swelled up to 18,000 crores). But well, since the lobby market exists in a big way, we can only hope.

For a better round up of the telecom scenario, please read an insightful write up on Knowledge@Wharton write up.

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Nokia: Dying a slow death

Administrator — Mon, 03 May 2010 10:12:27 +0000

It dominates the low end market. It dominates the developing countries. It’s made efforts to work towards opening up Symbian. It’s making forays in Linux and assorted phones. Yet, the largest phone maker in the world is still not able to make a serious dent in the smart phone category.

Opinion is like an asshole. Everyone has got one. In same vein, your choice of a mobile phone may be distilled by either looks or form factor or even aesthetics. You may choose practicality or some chutzpah to flaunt your handset.

What Apple did everything right, Nokia screwed it up big time. I am impressed by Apple’s hardware; yes at some point of time, I have written extensively about it too. Yet, I believe that the “promise of future” has somehow not materialized. You can side with Apple and say that everything about it “rocks”; but on the other hand, it’s wayward policy of introducing the bottom of pyramid handsets and “improving” it all the way up with new releases doesn’t cut ice with me. Apple has sold it’s hardware in the same manner in order to keep itself relevant.

Nokia, surprisingly, despite it’s huge portfolio of products has not been able to get that ‘killer phone’. For example, Apple releases only one or maybe two versions of it’s popular product. It does not try to address EVERY segment of the market. It knows it can command a premium. It has a brilliant marketing strategist behind it. It manages to stay in news even when there is NO imminent product launch. Everything about it is hotly anticipated so much so that there are legions of website devoted to “rumors”. And it has zealous fanboys dotting all around the net and mainstream publications which keeps the chattering classes busy to have this “must have” product.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, one could argue that you don’t want a walled garden approach to apps. You pay for the product and the ecosystem should come “free” for you. In effect, the software ought to be “free”. No company has the right to “lock you” down with absurd patents or “standards”.

Nokia has been bereft of this. I own a Nokia E63 but that’s about it. It’s the “low end” of the smart phone because the screen sucks. Ovi store sucks. There are no apps to speak of. It has a weird “signed” and “unsigned” policy which doesn’t allow me to load in any kind of an application I need. Yet, the Wifi is a great addition even though it has a restricted range. My mail is configured; is a boon when I am not around my laptop. In general, it works the work but then there is nothing that I exude my enthusiasm about owning this.

Ultimately, there are no easy answers to this. I feel that it would definitely take a worthwhile investment and understanding of marketing dynamics to get Nokia to sell or crack the smart phone market. I am fussy about Open Source and Linux in particular. I feel that Windows mobile is outdated junk. Web Os or Android is something that I never tried but needs a lot of spunk to give it some credibility. Nokia’s Maemo platform has to become “cheaper” because those assholes are trying to milk it for all that is worth it.

I am linking to Rashmi Bansal (author of two books now!) who writes about owning Nokia AND an Apple Phone. The difference is obvious. From a woman’s perspective, she chooses an iPhone.

Truth be told. Even I need an iPhone!

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Going ga ga over Wifi

Administrator — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 04:16:47 +0000

This happens to be my personal opinion; surfing the internet from the comfort of my warm quilt with my laptop in this is freezing cold minus the hassles of being tied down because of the wires. Wifi has made the life very easy; although I had a bitch of a time to make it work on Ubuntu. It isn’t turned on by default; I had to download and install windrivers (unfortunately since Lenovo doesnt come out with stuff that works outside the box). Nevertheless, it was worth it all the trouble.

I am still searching for a capable smart phone in order to ease up my twisted life a bit. Having a Wifi enabled handset would logically be an extension of my desktop. Literally. I have managed to make my bluetooth work on Ubuntu and sync my Nokia to it. I have a back up; if I have a Wifi enabled handset it would allow me to catch up on the VoIP market as well.

Annoyances remain. The current crop of the VoIP players donot allow any degree of interconnectivity. All of them have “secretive protocols”; no one sticks to open and secure standards. It would be great to call a Skype customer from a Gizmo enabled set and thus bringing about true interoperability. I dont see this happening anytime soon; for the time being I’d have to rant about it. It is the similar case with the chat clients; although Pidgin has made things easier to connect to different chat protocols and all the while I can connect to them all! I needed something similar for VoIP; i guess when there is enough demand, someone would find a way to this messy problem as well.

Nevertheless, I was thrilled to know that Wifi enabled handsets can work with those carriers who can offer UMA for phone calling over WiFi networks. It’s a technology that allows you to make voice calls over WiFi and switch fairly seamlessly between GSM and WiFi calls. No need for a separate VoIP account and application on the phone (i.e.: Skype).UMA works only with GSM and it’s technically not VoIP as are SIP services. UMA provides a pipeline or tunnel for pure GSM to travel through via IP.

This means that an end to end connected network like Airtel could easily offer something like this. All it needs to do is to cut deals with smartphones manufacturer; most likely it’s going to be some Chinese crap. Sell it aggressively with it’s broadband connections. It’s a win win deal ; at end of the day everyone likes to yap for free in this country. Routing the calls through Wifi is cheap; very cheap. I am not sure whether there are any security implications or not. Unless there isn’t, it would take real guts and grunge marketing efforts on Airtel’s behalf to make this happen.

They would have a real deal on that count.

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Telecom trends of 2009

Administrator — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 04:48:01 +0000

This is not the year end prediction but sadly all the action is taking place in the mobile arena. We are not going to see anything major happening in wireline business because it’s not “cool”.

First, the contentious number portability system is going to be launched initially in the four metros. I can bet that this would come into play only after Reliance launches it’s GSM service. For very obvious reasons because it would be betting big on the churn specially from the lower end of the market. It has already placed orders for “millions of handsets” and is looking forward to flood Indian market with “choice”. Expect some rude shocks for the incumbents.

The exact mechanism isn’t clear but there is going to be a big mess initially. I am sure that the operators would want to put across punitive “termination charges”, get host of clearances etc etc before you can heave a sigh of relief from it’s evil clutches. Yet, there is no differentiator between the Shylocks and the Satans in the market because at end of the day, they are all part of the same shit hole. Expect some high voltage drama here.

Second, the 3G licenses would be issued. There is no final word as to how this is going to be achieved; we are waiting for the Minister to feed fat on more money. By the way, Pioneer has a damning expose on their wrong doings over the past one year. (Link Source) Unless,Mr Minister is fed fat in his Swiss Bank account (Indian banking system sucks) we are not going to see anything move in this direction.

Mobile value added services is not going to add anything extra unless operators offer free porn. Imagine, free streaming porn without any restriction and daily MMS scandals! Since, Indians are loath to accept anything that comes out in the open, they could start streaming this for select few, obviously for a higher remuneration. I wonder why no one has thought about it. Callback ringtones are a passe’. So, not much of an action there too.

Mobile Virtual Network Operators would perhaps be legalised under immense pressure from the business house of Tatas. They are very keen to expand their “brand”; I have not seen any major advertising campaign from Virgin Mobile in recent times. They are spiked and spooked and relegated to some corner uncared for. How would that really matter? Does having more operators actually make sense? I believe that one size fits all strategy is not feasible. There are scores of people who would be happy to make unlimited outgoing calls for a fixed sum. Some people like to call telemarketing companies for pranks. Some people like to call fixed “hotline numbers” which offer “anonymity” without realising that the calls are routed within India alone. Some people like SMS alone. I feel that there would be companies to cater to such sections of deviants alone unless someone wants to prove me wrong.

So basically, we are left with no real action. 3G and number portability would be launched when Reliance announces it’s intention to start it’s GSM services. 3G licenses would be auctioned when Mantri ji has a green signal from his swiss banker. MVNO is an old tune from equally old flute; after virgin’s debacle no one wants to burn their backsides.

Where does the landline fit it? What of the frigging e governance issues? What of the “e learning”? Sheesh. Such lofty ideals would be done to waste? Who has the time to bother about such issues?

Although, I do see some reduction in the price when the price of international bandwidth crashes; the demand from the cyber coolies reduces as a result of economic downturn and telecom operators would be forced to deploy their “excessive bandwidth” for residential purposes. We might see the death of dial up; unless BSNL wants to keep it on a life support system. Since, they are only ones on the national scene offering it for free! Morons.

Happy 2009!

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MTNL 3G: “Jadoo”

Administrator — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 12:54:29 +0000

Jadoo means magic in Hindi. For all practical purposes, MTNL has pulled out the proverbial rabbit out of the hat when they launched these services recently.

The “pundits” claim that this would give MTNL a first mover advantage over the existing players. 3G auctions have been in a mess; with regulations changed over at whims and fancies of the chosen few. TRAI doesnt have any locus standi over the existing state of affairs which makes for a very disappointing scenario. Nevertheless, the age of the “fast mobile speeds” are in the offing and full fledged services would roll out from next year onwards.

If the MTNL would have applied their minds to this golden goose, they could have easily sold branded 3G handsets. They are expecting a certain percentage of people to upgrade their existing connections or use their handsets as modems to connect to the laptops. A USB dongle is expected to cost around 3.5K with no word yet on the quantum of the downloads allowed. If the boffins are going to restrict the limits to say 500 MB or 1 GB or something like that, it makes no sense and it is a self defeatist service.

I do expect a significant percentage of people to shift to the mobile Internet; partly because of the high cost of access on landline and partly because most of them do not like to stay stuck on one place for net access. The cost of the handsets is falling over; Nokia and their ilk are falling all over the place to bring better technology in your hands. This would be a big differentiator for MTNL to shore up their revenues via value added services since ring tones and call back services have been done to death. The mobile operators have to think beyond their standard fare to increase their share; improve billing and introduce mechanisms for quicker complaint resolution.

Rajesh Jain has interesting take on the “red and blue” mobile market in context to 3G services and the VAS.

I am watching MTNL’s roll out with interest. For all practical purposes, 3G remains the ONLY high point in 2008 in which otherwise has been a flat and dull year for broadband penetration.

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Virgin Mobile India: Something “different”?

Administrator — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 14:23:19 +0000

Virgin Mobile is going full throttle with it’s advertising blitz; I remember, there was some issue with it’s licence because it was a virtual network operator. Tata claims that it isn’t. The truth, as to who fathered it, is not known to anyone.

The “bastard” of this company is trying to grab attention like an unwanted company. It makes tall claims about it’s “superior network coverage” and it’s “young outlook”. Pooh. Who the f*** cares about it anyway? On what basis has it made these claims? It’s hard to discount it, nevertheless, we could take it with a pinch of salt anyway.

Their website is an overdose of flashturbation. Its a bad idea to attract the dudes who have no decent access to broadband. In anycase, it chokes on my crappy bandwidth of BSNL at home.

I have no clue about the new “execs” at the helm of the affairs but if their CEO is a rich bored millionaire who has nothing else to do excpet launching himself in hot air balloons or dance with skimpy chicks, it speaks a lot about the professional attitude of a company. It doesnt promote the seriousness with which it needs to be taken; instead I have a creepy feeling that they are just fly by night operators.

The idiots need to realise it that a strong message doesnt go by having whacky advertisements. Drop down the prices, subisdise the cost of the handsets and bleed the new players by being able to offer services based on quality. I still have to come across a subscriber of this company who has said anything positive about there efforts. I wouldnt be surprised if they give in free mobiles with a rider of a locked in period. Unless they have enough balls to do it.

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Some late night thoughts

Administrator — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 06:35:06 +0000

I have been travelling over the weekend back to my native place which was untouched by the glitz and glamour of the metros. This Diwali seems to be muted; partially because of the economic recession and partly because of the widespread inflation.

I still cannot understand the “mobile story” and “fastest growth” crap. More and more people are migrating towards parallel connections instead of the trickle down effect as expected. Agreed that “lifetime incoming offers” have appealed to the segment of population who keep their mobiles only for incoming calls, the precentage is far and few inbetween. We have no break up of the demographic profile and if the trends are to be seen, much of the money and the effort is being poured in the metros where there is more of a spending power as compared to other cities.

I have three telephone connections; one for regular use, the other a landline for broadband access and the thrid for calling up other Reliance numbers. Overall, I fail to understand as to how they would account for the “churn” or the “fastest growing segment” because I have never been enamoured of using the VAS. The operators know that there bread and butter segment is the voice calls and I am sure that they would implement the VoIP solutions to cut down on their costs. Everything else is flotsam and media generated hype.

In the same vein, most of the other handset manufacturers are clearly not making any efforts to address the cost of the handsets. Barring the advertising costs, if they implement open source solutions for the newer PDA’s, it can reduce the cost of the handsets to a large extent. Google’s Android would effect this to a large extent; though, I would reserve my comments on it till the time I actually get to use it. It’s still in the nascent stage; I am sure it would mature with the next release as they learn from their mistakes.

Vodafone has not addressed the GPRS connection charges; I still have to come across a reliable operator who can ensure a seamless connectivity across the major highways. I would want to access the Internet on a long boring journey; it remains a pathetic experience to even open up the mailbox. I don’t favor the mobile net on the move partly because of my bais for broadband and partly because it’s assinine to peer in the small screen. Unless of course, one has an iPhone and Safari which makes it a pleasure to surf on the small screen. Brilliant conceptual implementation.

The elections are nearing and I am keeping my fingers crossed for some semblance of the maturity on the following government to provide a clear direction to the broadband access and policy. We can do a lot more once we have a reliable connectivity. We dont need fancy laptops for kids in rural India to demonstrate the “modern with rural” mating. Its assinine to pour in money for something which just remains a showcase and earns you f***ing brownie points for “corporate social responsibility”.

This is just a loose string of thoughts as I was travelling back down. Although, it is a fascinating experience to see the rural landscape change. We realise that there is a lot of untapped potential and there is a chance to “change”.

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BIG Tv

Administrator — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 12:27:45 +0000

They made a huge splash over their advertisement.

It is lame. Truly. I did come across their blog where they have attempted to “reach out their customers”. At best, it only shows snippets of their website and their product.

Here is the guy who made this commercial. And here is the making of the commercial:

Why this interest in DTH? I have joined as a Reliance customer because I needed their unlimited calling facility. So far, selling their multimedia enabled handsets would allow them to leverage their cross media holdings to reach out to a ready pool of customers. Mercifully, I have been included in their DND list or I would have been spammed about Anil Ambani’s latest venture. I was surprised to see Reliance Web world selling and renting out movies too; in addition to their “broadband”.

DTH remains another of their pipe dreams; it would be interesting to watch them battle it out for the customer’s wallets.

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