Tag Archives: smartphones

State of Mobile Web: Some numbers.

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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.

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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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RIM Blackberry: Slipping fortunes

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Image representing Research In Motion as depic...

Image via CrunchBase

As per the blurb on Forbes,RIM Looks To Revive Smartphone Push With BlackBerry 7 – Great Speculations – Buys, holds, and hopes,

…..the introduction of the latest version of its smartphone operating system BlackBerry 7, and unveiled two new BlackBerry Bold smartphones based on this OS.  The new OS has a few improvements over preceding versions like faster performance for touch-screen navigation, web browsing, video and gaming and support for Near Field Communication technology.

The problem with Blackberry is that for a long time, it has been a “de-facto standard” for the enterprises. Over a period of time, it was forced to look at the growing market share of the other companies; most notably Apple. Of course, I was smitten by it, at some point in time, but after my Android experience, I doubt whether it is really required. Of course, it comes with it’s warts and all, but indeed, it was for the first time that I actually owned a touch phone that worked.

Hence, it is not surprising that with about an average hardware component, Blackberry should flounder. Reports of it’s “imminent demise” are probably over-rated by it’s detractors but it still capable of fighting in with the punch. This is not an endorsement (like what a twerps do on their twitter accounts); however, the major sore issue (with ANY smart phone company) is the lack of a decent after sales service.

Of course, RIM India was under a lot of cloud in recent times (it’s still not clear whether it has been sorted out or not), still is a matter of concern. Hence, even though Blackberry Messenger is a great option (surpassed by an interesting “WhatsApp” on Android), it makes reaching out to your contacts a breeze (in these so called flotsam called as “Social”).

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