Biggies having a Bad time

First of all a big HI to everyone. Due to obvious reasons (work stress) I haven't been able to blog much this year. Anyways as we celebrate my blog’s 3rd anniversary (Y!), I thought there can never be a better time to restart it. For more personal scoop , keep watching my personal blog [many good stuff in store ;) ]

So if you are a new visitor, you might ask Y Denovos?  Because Denovos brings a new perspective, adds a new dimension, a different view point to the issues you might already know.Alrighty then, lets get down to business.

Yes its true,2010 is even more troublesome than last year. We have been witnessing a lot of new products, developments,releases which also brings in a lot of controversies, complaints , gossips,  etc

A for Apple :

A for Apple  was slightly shaken to A for Antennagate. Seconds later Steve Jobs launched iPhone 4 ,  iPhone 3GS looked like a expensive piece of plastic. Steel frame, Hard glass build, slimmer, Retina Display, 2 cameras, Facetime, it had everything required to do things, other phones can’t even think of .

But the problem was, iPhone 4 couldn’t do what most phones can do – seamless reception of network signals. When users covered the iPhone 4 with their palms (which is a common practice of holding a phone) there was zero signal reception. The new design of the iphone 4 was blamed for this.

Finally Jobs had to have a another press conference to blame the media for “unnecessary hype” , complained al smartphones have the same problem (which was nothing but a twisted truth) and announced they would be giving free cases for iphone 4 users, which solved the issue. Now there are rumors that iPhone 5 will be coming very soon (Q4 – 2011 ) so that  Attenagate is closed and A is again for Awesome Apple.

Nokia says DtS @ CES 2010

Successful organizations are often seen as mere  Money Making Entities and are often criticized for not doing the “right things” ,without taking it to account their ability to do things right.

The general public often fail to see or rather acknowledge that Corporations are the movers of this world ,moving us to expand ,grow, develop and Progress.

There are around 40+ companies who manufacture mobile phones.Nokia stands as the leader with 52.21% market share (dec 2009) followed by Sony Ericsson @ 15,64%.Rest of the companies have market share of single digit or less than that.

Now what made Nokia to garner this market share??

Social Media in your Hands

“Facebook zooms up mobile sales”

Don’t Believe Me?

Take a look at the ads of the all  the recent mobile ads. You will notice social media integration  especially Facebook ,(Twitter next) being highlighted as a prime feature.

Its true that consumers are particular whether their new mobiles have seamless social media integration. Gone are the days only Iphone used to have such things ,  even a budget phone costing around Rs.5ooo comes with Opera Mini browser and Java support and provision for Facebook application.

With better phones & faster GPRS, also  with 3G coming up, there will be a significant increase in Mobile browsing especially in terms of social networking.

  I think a lot of WEB oriented applications will have a critical role to play , than the megapixels & memory cards in the upcoming models.

I Phone Pre Phone U Phone??

It was mobile mania all again this week.Palm Pre hit the stores and made a record breaking sales (rumored to be more than 50,000 units in just 2 days!!).

Apple’s WWDC devoid of Steve Jobs still had something solid to show Iphone 3GS.  (faster better iphone ..but not very exciting as the previous ones).

Meanwhile Dhiru and Tiger took their blogging to a professional level after attending the Nokia N97 launch in India.

While Dhiru stands up for Apple 3GS (btw he is apple biased :p ) when compared to N97, I put my bet on the new Palm Pre which is considered as the first true iphone killer.It has a QWERTY keyboard which is one of things Iphone will love to have.The Web OS is the real deal which beats the iphone OS .The ability to run many applications at once,touch accuracy,mail,IM  notifications  while running any app,etc make it far superior even than the upcoming iphone 3.o. 

Still iPhone’s large application base,build quality,iPod scores over the Pre.But I think a large chunk of business  users may shift to Pre ,considering the cost advantage(refer pic),and business features like  MS exchange and Office.

As far i can see,the $99 iphone 3G will give the Pre a stiff competition than the iphone 3GS.

While the N97 with a price tag of $699,can kiss US markets goodbye..Asian markets is not much promising either.And with HTC planning to launch Android phones in India,they better plan something better.

Meanwhile I am trying to lose my Sony Ericsson “accidentally” and get  a Nokia  ..waiting for Nokia 2730-budget phone with 3G

Call Rates R.I.P-UPDATE

I had explained in January that why “there will be no more Mobile operators but only Internet service providers” and why  there will be no mobiles but only  MIDs.

Well….looks like  the change has begun…

ConsumerReports.org reports that “AT&T will begin selling  netbooks with integrated wireless Internet cards, selling them for as low as $50 — with a data plan contract, of course. The rollout will begin in Atlanta and Philadelphia.” read more >>

Looks like AT&T  has realized the change…and it wont be much time before this change becomes global..

Read my previous posts about this :-

• Bye Bye Cellphones... Hello MID 
•  Call Rates R.I.P

Bye Bye Cellphones... Hello MID

Technology is moving at a greater speed than we think,atleast it is faster than I thought.

Earlier I had  pointed out the narrowing difference (Toshiba Ikiller) between mobile phones & computing devices  and the possible strategic inflection point (Call rates RIP) the telecom industry might come across.

So what? take a look at the news from CNET.com

Intel announced here Monday at the GSMA Mobile World Congress that LG Electronics will use its latest generation technology to build a new class of device called mobile Internet devices, or MIDs.Now the companies are working on a new class of product that are mini-computers that can also be used to make phone calls using a wireless Internet connection. Intel sees the category of product as something that is somewhere between a smartphone, like the Apple iPhone, and a Netbook, a scaled-down version of a notebook computer.

IF you see the image below you will get the idea of that "something somewhere" product Intel is talking about. ARM is one of the early firms to have a vision about MID's or Mobile Internet Devices

The article further states the implication of MID's in the telecom industry which will eventually make Call rates R.I.P

I thought it will take another decade for this to happen, but looks like  we will bid farewell to cellphones & embrace MIDs,very soon.

Ikiller from Toshiba

When rumours about Dell's Smartphone were spreading,Toshiba a significant player in laptop category has launched a smartphone err..pocket PC..Iphone killer..(the differences are narrowing)

When Sony entered the mobile market ,mobile was seen as extension in consumer electronics.Soon LG & Samsung followed suit.

Then came Apple with its Iphone and changed the rules of the game.Since the difference between smartphones & ultra compact PC's is getting smaller day by day,many laptop firms are entering mobile space. Its not more like a product category extension but more like product line extension.Now this phenomenon has seriously affected core mobile manufactures like Nokia , Motorola etc.

Btw TGO1 is the first mobile to run on Qualcomm Snapdragon platform using a Windows Mobile 6.1 OS.It has a 1ghz mobile CPU with a 3d UI.Looks pretty impressive.See demo below...

Lets see whether it kills competition or killed by competition....

Call Rates R.I.P.

As Rakesh wanted to buy a new mobile of the smartphone breed ,Dhiru and I were discussing about different mobiles and the new age mobile applications with him.Just then occurred to me that in the near future there will be no more call rates as such.

Let me explain .Almost every smartphone is equipped with 3g, Wi-Fi & other such wireless connectivity solutions. Wi Max and 3g networks have already been launched in some areas of India.Suppose I have a Smartphone ,so does my friend and we both have a WiMax connection, then I don't have to call or text through the GSM or CDMA connection but I will be using the Gtalk to IM or Skype to call.I will be charged for the data usage only which will be much lesser than call rates.

That means with Internet access everywhere, mobile users can stay connected through the internet itself and not necessarily through traditional networks like GSM .So there will be no more Mobile operators but only Internet service providers.

Yes it will be long time for the entire change but it will surely disrupt the telecom business model and entirely change the rules of the industry.This type of scenario is referred as a strategic inflection point,only the companies which will accept this and adapt future technologies will sustain in the future.

With telecom operators rolling out more networks and smartphones becoming more cheaper, its just a matter of time and it will happen...eventually .

IPHONE @ RS 1000 /day

Dhiru ,one of the mobile fanatics in my class,changed his cell phone again.As a new year change he shifted from HTC models to the still hot Iphone..so what's the big deal??

The Iphone was 7 days old and so he got it for Rs7000 less. So why did the user sell this in the first place?? He was not finding the touch interface simple and it was too complicated for him to perform basic tasks like making calls, sms, etc. So he decided to sell and every day the phone stays in his hand reduced the selling price as the original price may come down at any time. Just imagine,that guy has spent like Rs1000/day for using the Iphone.

So was it a impulse purchase ? I guess so.I think that guy was clueless about Apple & Iphone.He just bought it to show off.But then he could not use it for even normal usage so he had to sell it. And so Dhiru got a good deal.But even Dhiru will sell it probably in a couple of months [he gets bored soon I guess :)..],when some other "not so smart "guy struggling with his new smartphone offers a good deal or if HTC G1 comes to India.

I am just wondering what will be the price of a Iphone one year from one....any guesses???

MOBILE MANIA 2009

Coming soon to a store near you

NOKIA -N97,E63,Slide,5130,5300

HTC - G1,S740,HD

MOTO-E66,Aura,VM35

Samsung-pixon,i7110

LG-Renoir,Prada

Blackberry-Curve,Storm

SONY-G705 &W705

For more details here