Hello !
I have eclectic interests spanning the mobile, internet and venturing domains and with altruistic intentions the attempt here is to air views on key global trends in these segments!
Views expressed here are purely PERSONAL and not necessarily of my employer = I haven't engaged a lawyer !
Comments, feedback and criticism are always welcome !
Cheers
In another twist to India's 3G plotline, the government plans to proceed with the 3G spectrum auction in January but delay making the spectrum available to the winning bidders until August 2010, according to local reports.
The January date was set in late October, but that timeline seemed out of reach only weeks ago.
Now, though, the Economic Times reports that the January target is still in the Indian government's sights. The paper quotes India's telecom minister, Mr A Raja, as saying the winning bidders would be able to delay the majority of their license payments until the spectrum is made available.
So now, it seems, India's competitive 3G players are set to be indentified in January, but not be able to compete with state-owned carriers Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) until well into the second half of 2010, further extending the advantage those two operators have enjoyed since being handed their 3G spectrum in late 2008.
It should be noted, though, that none of India's operators would be able to fire up a 3G service within a few months of auction success, so the additional delay shouldn't be too excessive.
Meanwhile, competition in the 2G mobile services market has intensified further in recent days with the launch of services from new entrant S Tel Pvt. Ltd. , which is backed by Bahrain Telecommunications Co. (Batelco) , and an expansion into an additional "circle" by Uninor, which is backed by Telenor ASA
Uninor launched its first services at the beginning of December.
Have you ever been lost? Perhaps you missed a turn because a street sign was poorly labeled, hard to see in the dark, or just not where it should have been? These are problems we've all faced, but they're especially complicated in India, where street names are not commonly known and the typical wayfinding strategy is to ask someone on the street. Without road names, it's difficult to produce a set of directions that makes sense. Just take a look at this screenshot of Google Maps directions in India in 2008 and you'll get the picture:
To solve this problem, this week we launched an improvement to Google Maps India that describes routes in terms of easy-to-follow landmarks and businesses that are visible along the way. We gathered feedback from users around the world to spark this improvement to our technology, and we thought we'd give you a glimpse at our thinking behind this launch.
We knew from previous studies in several countries that most people rely on landmarks — visual cues along the way — for successful navigation. But we needed to understand how people use those visual cues, and what makes a good landmark, in order to make our instructions more human and improve route descriptions. To get answers to these questions, we ran a user research study that focused specifically on how people give and get directions. We called businesses and asked how to get to their store; we recruited people to keep track of directions they gave or received and later interviewed them about their experiences; we asked people to draw us diagrams of routes to places unfamiliar to us; we even followed people around as they tried to find their way.
We found that using landmarks in directions helps for two simple reasons: they are easier to see than street signs and they are easier to remember than street names. Spotting a pink building on a corner or remembering to turn after a gas station is much easier than trying to recall an unfamiliar street name. Sometimes there are simply too many signs to look at, and the street sign drowns in the visual noise. A good landmark always stands out.
We also discovered that there are three situations in which people resort to landmarks.
The first is when people need to orient themselves — for instance, they just exited a subway station and are not sure which way to go. Google Maps would say: "Head southeast for 0.2 miles." A person would say: "Start walking away from the McDonald's."
The second situation is when people use a landmark to describe a turn: "Turn right after the Starbucks."
The third use, however, is the most interesting. We discovered that often people simply want to confirm that they are still on the right track and haven't missed their turn.
Giving people this sense of confidence while they explore an unfamiliar territory became one of the goals of our redesign. Over the course of several months, the team brainstormed various ways of presenting the information contained in Google Maps in a way that would be useful for people. We then settled on a design that added some landmarks to describe the turns and confirm the route.
The next step was to put this design to a test with drivers in Bangalore, India. The results were eye-opening. While we were on the right track with introducing landmarks, we still relied on street names too heavily. Drivers wanted more confirmation. They wanted to compare what they saw on Google Maps with what they saw from the driver's seat, every step of the way.
We added more landmarks along routes and reduced the visual prominence of street names, and the result was our final design:
Now Google Maps India gives you directions like a local would. Happy wayfinding!
Posted by Olga Khroustaleva, User Experience Researcher, Google Maps
Given the traction Android has been picking up recently, Google's decision to experiment with its own hardware is definitely surprising - Is it doing this to showcase Android and helps consumers and partners appreciate Android devices, is it doing this to avoid the fragmentation of Android or is this a safety net given Samsung Bada and some of the positive reviews for the latest churn outs from the WinMEstable or is Google getting into service provisioning ?
Yet here's where Google getting in on the act could become a problem. If Google keeps the best new Android apps and features for its own phone, that would likely upset many of the 47 hardware, software, and chip partners that are part of the Open Handset Alliance, which backs Android.
Marketing its own mobile phone might turn Google into a rival to many companies it now counts as allies in building the Android operating system
Partnering with Google has been mostly good for Frank Meehan. He's CEO of INQ Mobile, a U.K.-based cell-phone maker that next year plans to release a handset that runs Android, the operating system built from the ground up by a consortium of companies led by Google.
Google is lending considerable engineering talent, brand cachet, and marketing muscle to the project. Phones powered by Android are becoming best sellers for hardware makers including Motorola and such carriers as Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA, the U.S. mobile-phone arm of Deutsche Telekom. Meantime, developers are hard at work not only refining Android but also building thousands of games, tools, and other applications for Android devices.
Now, Google is weighing a move that might turn it into a competitor to many of those partners. In a Dec. 12 blog post, the search giant said it's given employees "a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities." The device boasts a touchscreen that lets users search the Web by voice, and Google is in talks to sell the phone through T-Mobile USA.
By itself, the prospect of Google marketing its own phone isn't causing Meehan much consternation. Indeed, a Google phone would raise Android's profile all the more, benefiting Google's partners. "I can understand Google wanting to showcase Android to the world," Meehan says. "If this helps consumers appreciate Android devices, then it's a good thing for us when we launch later."
Open Threat
Yet here's where Google getting in on the act could become a problem. If Google keeps the best new Android apps and features for its own phone, that would likely upset many of the 47 hardware, software, and chip partners that are part of the Open Handset Alliance, which backs Android. "If you lose an edge [to Google], it does impact you," Meehan says. IDC analyst Will Stofega is more blunt. "This could destroy the Open Handset Alliance," he says.
Google declined to comment for this story, as did T-Mobile USA and HTC, which according to reports is the device manufacturer working on the Google phone.
For now, many Google partners including INQ hope the move will strengthen Android. Even though Android has gained much traction this year, Google's Android head Andy Rubin told Bloomberg BusinessWeek on Nov. 2 that "there are still a lot of areas where we could do a lot better." With only 3.5% of the global market for smartphones, Android phones have yet to capture the popular imagination the way the iPhone has. Some Android phones run older versions of the software and don't offer the latest features. Others offer less processing power than the iPhone and run apps slower. "This might be Google's way of getting Motorola and others to ramp up their product road maps for Android phones," says Kevin Burden, an analyst at consultant ABI Research.
Preeminent Android Device
Google may simply want to create an Android device that runs circles around the iPhone in performance and spurs other manufacturers to introduce better gear as well. The Snapdragon chip from Qualcomm that the new device reportedly contains offers more processing power than the chip running the iPhone 3GS. "This is Google's opportunity to say, 'This is what our vision was all about,' " Meehan says. "My gut feeling is they are using it as a showcase. Hopefully, it just drives the uptake of Android." Chipmaker Nvidia says it's standing by Android. "We are a believer in Android, we'll continue to invest in it," says Mike Rayfield, a general manager at Nvidia.
Still, Google may have to tread carefully to ensure its phone doesn't erode sales of partners' Android devices. Some consumers may hold off buying a phone until the debut of the Google device. Some partners may even switch allegiance to one of Android's rivals, such as Microsoft's Windows Mobile or today's No. 1 smartphone operating system, Symbian. "If you want to bring Microsoft [which has been losing share] back into the game, I can't think of a better way," says Jack Gold, principal at J. Gold Associates. Says Burden of ABI, "This is kind of playing with fire." The question is whether it's the kind that burns partners or kindles their competitive urge.
The Android Market, Google's application store for its mobile OS, has passed the 20,000 app mark.
Given Android has only been on the market for just over a year, adding 20,000 new bits o' software in that time frame is a pretty good stat.
Admittedly, the App Store from rivals Apple has over 100,000 applications on its books, and had 50,000 in its first year alone.
But it shows that Google is quickly asserting itself as the second biggest application store in the mobile arena.
Different - or better?
And what differentiates the Android community from its iPhone counterpart is that while the Apple offering contains nearly 70 per cent paid-for apps, the Android version has only 37.8 per cent.
What that means - well, we're no statisticians, but we'd imagine that developers, given a freer rein in terms of acceptance to the Market, are happy to create apps for fun and throw them out to the wider community.
Of course, some will argue that other operating systems have a wider catalogue thanks to legacy apps (Symbian and Windows Mobile come to mind) but they're not in a nice, easy to get to central portal - and that's what the normal mobile user is looking for when adding to their shiny new phone gadget.
Whats also interesting is the fact that Apple beat Google to the acquisition of Lala just a few weeks after Google had beaten Apple in the acquisition of AdMob. The Lala acquisition definitely expedites Apple's cloud plans and its strategy to foray into streaming music
Apple's purchase of music streaming service Lala signals a fundamental change in the way that the company will present iTunes content on the web.
Apple is poised to totally change its iTunes business model with a increased focus on Internet-based content, reports the Wall Street Journal in an article appearing in Thursday's edition. Using newly acquired La La Media Inc. as a springboard, Apple is considering to adopt a usage model that would allow consumers to access and manage their iTunes purchases directly through the Internet without downloading the content in question or the iTunes software.
In its current form, iTunes requires users to download and manage their iTunes purchases on a per-computer basis. With a new focus on Internet-based management, an iTunes user could log into their account and access and stream all their music from any computer with an Internet connection. This technology could also allow Apple to sell music on other websites or even in web-based search results.
Apple has already made some small strides into web-based iTunes functionality with the release of iTunes Preview in November. With iTunes Preview, users can share music links via iTunes without the need to launch Apple's media suite. Previously, users without iTunes were prompted to install the software in order to view content.
The Wall Street Journal's figure of $85 million for Lala's purchase price is in the same ballpark of what Peter Kafka at AllThingsDigitalreported Monday. The report also confirms what Maynard Um predicted about Apple's reasons for aquiring Lala earlier this week.
Lala execs have already assumed important roles in shaping Apple's iTunes strategy going forward. "It's our understanding that the Lala guys are going to be in very significant roles," someone familiar with Apple's plans reportedly said.
Apple's $1 billion server farm project planned for North Carolina may actually be tied to this web-based strategy, and could provide the backbone for a web-based iTunes.
According to the Journal, Apple could begin to make these changes as early as next year.
Should Motorola not be written off just yet. I guess whats important is what they will follow this up with soas it to prove its not a one off fluke like the Razr !
Time magazine has named the Motorola Droid the No. 1 gadget of 2009, besting the iPhone 3GS and calling the handset the first to truly challenge Apple's groundbreaking smartphone.
Time said that the Droid is the best hardware companion to Google's Android mobile operating system yet, earning the phone its top honors for 2009.
"The Droid is a hefty beast, a metal behemoth without the gloss and finish of the iPhone, but you don't miss it," the magazine said. "The Droid's touchscreen is phenomenally sharp and vivid, it has an actual physical (not great, but good enough) keyboard, and best of all, the Droid is on Verizon's best-of-breed 3G network. It's Android's first credible challenge to the iPhone."
Apple's iPhone still made the list, and earned praise. But the device came in fourth, behind the Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader, and the Dyson Air Multiplier.
"Take the iPhone. Make it faster. There, you're done," the story said. "Yes, the 3GS has a better camera — with video. And it has a compass and voice control. Those are all improvements over the original. But the main point of, and the best thing about, the new iPhone is speed. It has more of it. Period."
Hype surrounding the Droid continues to linger more than a month after the device first debuted. This despite the fact that the handset managed to sell 100,000 units in its first weekend, compared with over a million units of the iPhone 3GS sold in its first three days at retail.
While comparisons between the Droid and iPhone are inevitable regardless, Motorola has encouraged them with a series of advertisements geared towards men. One recent ad suggested the iPhone is feminine, comparing it to a "tiara-wearing digitally clueless beauty pageant queen." Motorola then portrays its Droid as a fast, efficient device that isn't worried about looks.
One recent study found that buzz surrounding the Droid had helped to propel the brand perception of Motorola beyond that of Apple for men ages 18 and up.
The rest of Time's top 10 gadgets list for 2009, following the iPhone 3GS, in order, is: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV, Dell Adamo XPS, FinePix Real 3D W1, Casio G-Shock GW7900B-1, Beats Solo by Dr. Dre, and Panasonic G10 Series Plasma HDTVs.
The long rumoured Google phone seems to be coming to reality. Choice of only making it available via online sales channels is also interesting as is the voice to text feature
Employees of Google were allegedly given brand new, HTC-made "Google Phones" this week: an unlocked, GSM-based handset sporting an OLED screen and running a new version of the Android mobile operating system.
Bolstering evidence of the rumored January 2010 launch, the phone is said to be capable of running on both T-Mobile and AT&T networks in the U.S. According to TechCrunch, the phone sports an internal Snapdragon chip and a high-resolution OLED screen inside a form factor thinner than an iPhone.
The phones were reportedly distributed to Google employees this week, and various workers began posting to Twitter about the hardware. One person who claimed to see the hardware firsthand described the Google Phone as "an iPhone on beautifying steroids."
The touchscreen device has no physical keyboard (only virtual), but offers a voice-to-text feature that allows users to dictate e-mails and notes aloud. The handset runs the unreleased Android 2.1 and features two microphones -- a second one on the back helps eliminate background noise. The report also said the hardware has a "weirdly" large camera.
Android 2.1 has new home screen visual enhancements that are said to add new features like animated desktop wallpaper. The hardware also includes a trackball for added control. It is said to be a tweaked version of the HTC Passion, pictured here:
Google also indirectly confirmed the distribution of the hardware on its official mobile blog, noting that the company was "dogfooding" a new product by testing it with its employees. No specific details on the hardware were officially provided from Google.
"We recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities, and we shared this device with Google employees across the globe," Mario Queiroz, vice president of Product Management at Google said on the blog. "This means they get to test out a new technology and help improve it."
Previous reports had said Google worked closely with HTC to design all aspects of the hardware on the Google Phone. With numerous reports of a January 2010 launch, it's likely something could be made official by the CES conference, which begins Jan. 7.
Eric Migicovsky had his a-ha moment while biking along the canals of the Netherlands. The Canadian engineering student kept missing calls on the BlackBerry tucked into his pockets. So as soon as he got home, the then-22-year-old entrepreneur began work on an accessory that would help him know when he was getting a call.
His brainchild, the inPulse Smartwatch, relays text messages and caller information from the BlackBerry onto its owner's wrist, reducing the chances of missing an important call. Migicovsky says advance orders for the $149 device are twice what he expected and that he's already devising a similar gadget for smartphones that run Google's Android software. "No one is building intelligent accessories" for smartphones, Migicovsky says.
At least they weren't. Until recently, there wasn't much variety in accessories for smartphones. Users could choose from the basics: charger, headset, carrying case. And even those didn't vary much from the accessories that could be used for plain old cell phones. Yet lately, as smartphones have become more commonplace—these advanced handsets will account for 43% of all mobile devices sold in 2013, according to consultant Gartner - related accessories are taking a big leap forward.
New Capabilities
A new generation of accessories is emerging that promises not only to keep a phone charged up and protected from scratches but also to extend its capabilities in a big way. Gaming accessories for the Apple iPhone are expected to make their debut in 2010. A dock released by Motorola in November turns the Droid into an alarm clock and digital picture frame. Due in December, a new projector will let LG's eXpo phone project video and photos onto walls and other surfaces. A slew of smart cases due to be introduced at the January Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas will turn phones into remote controls for operating home electronics, such as TVs and stereos.
ISkin, which has long made colorful cases for Apple and Research In Motion smartphones, in January plans to release a case with built-in communications capabilities. The case will tap into the iPhone's internal software and let users more easily control other devices. "We got the idea of a smart case three years ago, but there was no way to bridge with the phone," says Andrew Ackloo, CEO of iSkin. Then, Apple made available more of the phone's software to developers, and "it opened up a whole new world for accessories manufacturers," he says. "Now, the accessory is going to integrate with the phone, not just be on it."
The new devices may help bring the accessories market out of its recent slump. Worldwide revenue from cell-phone accessories is expected to slip 4%, to $54.9 billion, amid gloomy handset sales and tighter consumer spending, according to consultant ABI Research. But sales of accessories are expected to rebound next year, ABI says. "Smartphone customers tend to be more affluent, and are more likely to spend on accessories," says Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis at consultant NPD Group.
Vital Revenue Stream
Buyers of the T-Mobile myTouch 3G buy twice as many accessories as the average cell-phone owner, says Andrew Sherrard, a vice-president at T-Mobile USA. To take advantage of the opportunity, T-Mobile co-designed with its suppliers some 40 accessories for the smartphone's August launch; until then, T-Mobile had typically launched smartphones with no more than a dozen accessories apiece. "We are getting more deeply involved in creation and design," Sherrard says. Accessories can carry margins of 30% to 90%, says Michael Morgan, an analyst at ABI Research.
For carriers and handset makers, accessories increasingly represent an important revenue stream: As competition intensifies, prices for wireless plans and smartphones are declining. Accessories "help differentiate the product and make up more revenue," Rubin says.
Some companies are looking to accessories to bolster sales of their other products, such as smartphone applications. In October, TomTom announced its car kit for the iPhone, which affixes to the windshield or dashboard, making it easier for iPhone owners to operate TomTom's iPhone navigation application, released months earlier. The kit sells for $120, and the app for $100. TomTom is about to release a version of the dock for the iPod Touch, and it's working on versions for other smartphones as well. "We are seeing quite a bit of demand," says Tom Mirray, vice-president for market development at TomTom.
It is not actually a brand new operating system. Rather it is based on the existing Samsung proprietary OS and features an access layer on top that allows the vendor to open it up to a developer community. I guess Samsung wants to keep its options open and not be tied in only to Micorsoft or Google given their increasing mobility focus
Telecoms.com editorial team
December 8, 2009
Korean handset vendor Samsung planted a proprietary flag in the OS wars on Tuesday as it took the wraps off its Bada platform (first announced a month previously) at a glitzy event on London’s South Bank.
While much was made of Bada’s status as a “new mobile platform for smartphones,” - to quote Samsung Electronics’ European president S.H. Shin - it is not actually a brand new operating system. Rather it is based on the existing Samsung proprietary OS and features an access layer on top that allows the vendor to open it up to a developer community that it is in the throes of building.
Samsung is careful to involve itself in a variety of top-tier smartphone OS community projects but the firm clearly believes that collaboration will not bring the smartphones to the mass market with sufficient alacrity, or at a cost point that will allow them to be bought by a wide audience. Bada, then, will “extend the smartphone experience to average users on mainstream devices,” said Thomas Richter, director of portfolio management, Samsung Telecommunications Europe.
That experience will be touchscreen based, Richter said, describing the touch interface as “the main focus of our mobile strategy”. He said that Samsung will have sold more than 40 million touch screen devices by the end of 2009, and predicted that the first Bada device will be available in the first half of 2010, when Samsung will be concentrating on “high performance and massive volumes” for its new device range.
Samsung said that, essentially, there is nothing new in the Bada proposition. An existing operating system, UI technology and industrial design expertise are the three prongs of the Bada trident - but they will not be effective without a thriving community of capable developers. The firm said that it will drive developer interest through cash prizes as well as events held in Seoul, London and San Francisco but whether or not this will be enough remains to be seen.
Samsung had some content partners on hand to weigh in with a few scripted plaudits, and these included Twitter, EA Mobile, Capcon, Gameloft and, oddly, onetime video rental market leader Blockbuster.
Apple this week revealed the most critically acclaimed and best selling content of the year in the iTunes Store, the world's most popular online music seller and mobile application destination.
iTunes Rewind 2009 is a feature on the iTunes Store that gives a glimpse into trends for the duration of the year. Content is presented as an editorially chosen "Best of 2009," along with a list of the year's "Top Sellers."
But while Apple numbered individual songs in terms of sales rank for the year, App Store software for the iPhone and iPod touch is not as clearly defined.
Instead, the "Top Sellers" for 2009 in the App Store are divided into two sections: Games and Apps. Featured games among the top sellers are The Sims 3, The Oregon Trail, Madden NFL 10 and Flight Control. Among the top selling apps are MLB.com at Bat, Textfree Unlimited, ColorSplash and The Moron Test. None of the software listed are free downloads.
Most "Best of 2009" apps have earned at least four stars for their customer reviews. They include ReelDirector, I Am T-Pain, SketchBook Mobile and Jamie Oliver's 20 Minute Meals.
For music, the top selling single of 2009 was "Boom Boom Pow" by the Black Eyed Peas. The iTunes editorial staff chose Michael Jackson as Artist of the Year, and the album "Only by the Night" by Kings of Leon earned Album of the Year.
Some of the year's top-selling movies were "Twilight," "Quantum of Solace," "Star Trek," and "Up." Critically acclaimed were "Drag Me to Hell," "Anvil:! The Story of Anvil" and "Sunshine Cleaning."
Also highlighted in iTunes Rewind 2009 are TV shows, podcasts and audiobooks.
In August, Apple's iTunes was found to be a quarter of all music sales in the U.S. That makes iTunes by far the largest music retailer, ahead of second-place Walmart with 14 percent. In all, digital downloads make up 35 percent of music sales, and iTunes accounts for 69 percent of online sales. But despite iTunes' popularity, CDs still remain the top-selling format, with 65 percent of overall sales.
But as the best of 2009 list implies, iTunes has become about much more than the music, particularly since the iPhone App Store opened in 2008. In November, Apple revealed that more than 100,000 applications are available for download on the App Store, a milestone reached less than a year and a half after the store's debut. And in September, the total number of downloads from the App Store topped 2 billion.
The future of iTunes could be changing even further. After Apple's purchase of music streaming service Lala last week, it has been speculated that iTunes could shift towards the browser with a cloud-based service that could let users access the content they own from anywhere, on any device.
With Christmas looming, the post-holiday spike of app sales is just weeks away. As new iPhone owners find their way into the App Store for the first time, they’ll be looking for the best of the best to throw their money at – and Apple’s ready to cash in.
Earlier today Apple released “iTunes Rewind 2009″, a list of the top selling and most loved applications of the year.
They’ve broken things down in four ways: Best of Games, Best of Apps, Top Selling Games, and Top Selling Apps. The “Best of” categories appear to be staff picks, rather than a list of the apps with the best user ratings – which, considering that the ratings system is endlessly being gamed, is probably a good thing.
Here’s how it all worked out:
Best Selling Games of 2009:
The Sims, EA
The Oregon Trail, Gameloft
Need For Speed, EA
Madden NFL 10, EA
Tiger Woods PGA Tour, EA
Assassins Creed, Gameloft
Flight Control, Firemint
Cooking Mama, Taito
Civilization Revolution, 2k Games
Wheel Of Fortune, Sony
Peggle, Popcap
Sonic The Hedgehog, Sega
Let’s Golf, Gameloft
2XL Supercross, 2XL Games
Real Racing, Firemint
Sally’s Spa, Games Cafe
Stick Wars, John E. Hartzog
Ragdoll Blaster, Backflip Studios
Deer Hunter 3d, Glu
Fast & Furious, I-Play
Metal Gear Solid, Konami
F.A.S.T, SGN
Zenonia, Gaemvil
3d Brick Breaker, Digital Chocolate
Bookworm, Popcap
Modern Combat: Sandstorm, Gameloft
Doom Resurrection, id
As you can tell by looking at the top of the list, EA and Gameloft absolutely dominated the App Store this year. Few other developers have more than one item in the top sellers; EA and Gameloft both have 4. Best Selling Apps of 2009:
MobileNavigator North America, Navigon
MBL.com at Bat, MLB
Textfree, Pinger
TomTom US & Canada, TomTom
Golfshot, Shotzoom
Slingplayer Mobile
ColorSplash, Pocket Pixels
PocketGod, Bolt Creative
Quickoffice Mobile Office Suite, Quickoffice
The Moron Test, DistinctDev
I Am T-Pain, Smule
Red Laser, Occipital
Camera Zoom 2, Kenditech
AppBox Pro, ALLABOUTAPPS
iBird Explorer, Mitch Waite
Documents To Go, DataViz
ViewTi Golf, ViewTi
Emoji Icons, SpiceLoop
AIM, AOL
Weather Channel Max, Weather Channel Interactive
Wolfenstein 3d, ID
PicFree, Pinger
Proloquo 2 Go, AssistiveWare
CNN Mobile, CNN
Camera Genius, CodeGoo
MotionX GPS Drive, MotionX
FlightTrack Pro, Ben Kazez
Family Guy, Fox Mobile
iSoda, Hottrix
ESPN Radio, ESPN
Unlike the Top Games list, there aren’t any repeat winners here. It appears that we’re looking at the top grossing apps, not necessarily the apps that sold the most units. Note the appearance of Proloquo2Go, a $190 text-to-speech system for people who have difficulty speaking. Best Games of 2009:
Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, Tiger Style
Real Racing, Firemint
ZENONIA, Gamevil
Ravensword: The Fallen King, Chillingo
Earth Vs. Moon, Low Five Games
Sally’s Spa, Games Cafe
Ragdoll Blaster, Backflip Studios
Canabalt, Semi Secret
Blades of Fury, Gameloft
Doom Classic, iD
Sway, Illusion Labs
geoDefense, Critical Thought
Flight Control, Firemint
Alive 4-ever, meridian
Fantastic Contraption, inXile
Samurai: Way of the Warrior, Mad Finger Games
Backbreaker Football, NaturalMotion
Meteor Blitz, Alley Labs
Rolando 2, ngmoco
Star Hogs, IUGO
Paper Toss, Backflip
Boost 3d, Jonathan Lanis
Doodle Jump, Lima Sky
Zen Bound, Chillingo
Stick Wars, John E. Hartzog
Eliminate Pro, ngmoco
Tap Tap Revenge, Tapulous
Call Of Duty: World At War: Zombies, Activision
iBomber, Cobra Mobile
Jet Car Stunts, True Axis
The contrast in Apple’s favorites vs. the top sellers is interesting. Where as Gameloft and EA dominate the top sales lists, only Gameloft even shows up here, with Blades Of Fury. It seems like Apple made it a point to highlight the smaller dev teams as much as possible. Best Apps Of 2009:
ReelDirector, Nexvio
Magellan Roadmate 2010 North America, Magellan
Jamie Oliver’s 20 minute meals, Zolmo
I Am T-Pain, Smule
CBS Sports: Live College Games, CBS
Sketchbook Mobile, Autodesk
Star Walk, Vito Technology
Convertbot, Tapbots
Leaf Trombone: World Stage, Smule
Pano, Debacle Software
Color Splash, Pocket Pixels
(SHAZAM)Red, Shazam Entertainment
SmackTalk!, Marcus Satellite
Awesome Note, BRID
Mathemagics – Mental Math Tricks, Blue Lightning Labs
India's bruising battle gets bloodier with the entry of Telenor and with first moves in the sms and data segments
Uninor (Telenor outfit in India with India's real estate czar Unitech as its partner) launched early Dec with two disruptive plans
Talklonger @ INR 0.29 (US$ 0.006)/min
Call set-up charge : INR 0.39 (US$0.008)/min
Local call charge : INR 0.29 (US$0.006)/min
National Long Distance : INR 0.49 (US$0.01)/min
SMS : Local @ INR 0.1 (US$ 0.002)/sms ; National @ INR 1.5 (US$0.03)/sms
Callmore @ INR 0.29 (US$ 0.006)/min
Daily Rental : INR 2 (US$0.04)/min
All other charges (call and sms) as above
Tariff wars starts to extend to SMS and Data
SMS rates down to INR 0.25/sms (local) & INR 0.5/sms (national) by MTNL and Reliance respectively against the industry avg., prior to this cut, of INR 1 for local & INR 1.5 for national SMS
Data tariff down to INR 0.01/10 KB (MTNL & Reliance) against the industry avg., prior to this cut, of INR 0.1/10 KB
Broadening the modus of search (voice + online + sight (point & find akin)) and addressing a broader set of search needs (finding/getting to a location/PoI, knowing about a location/PoI you are at)- Taking search to the next level. In my view absolutely the right direction to scale and broadbase adoption via the mobile phone !
The voice search is particularly interesting and scalable from an emerging market (like India) perspective, given the lack of data penetration (PC or mobile), multiplicity of languages and usage/socio habits related to seach. Whats critical is locally relevant and updated data including UGC/crowd sourced data to go 'hyper' local.
Google Mobile Blog, December 7, 2009
A New Era of Computing
Mobile devices straddle the intersection of three significant industry trends: computing (or Moore's Law), connectivity, and the cloud. Simply put:
Phones get more powerful and less expensive all the time
They're connected to the Internet more often, from more places; and
They tap into computational power that's available in datacenters around the world
These "Cs" aren't new: we've discussed them in isolation for over 40 years. But today's smartphones -- for the first time -- combine all three into a personal, handheld experience. We've only begun to appreciate the impact of these converged devices, but we're pretty sure about one thing: we've moved past the PC-only era, into a world where search is forever changed.
Just think: with a sensor-rich phone that's connected to the cloud, users can now search by voice (using the microphone), by location (using GPS and the compass), and by sight (using the camera). And we're excited to share Google's early contributions to this new era of computing.
Search by Voice
We first launched search by voice about a year ago, enabling millions of users to speak to Google. And we're constantly reminded that the combination of a powerful device, an Internet connection, and datacenters in the cloud is what makes it work. After all:
We first stream sound files to Google's datacenters in real-time
We then convert utterances into phonemes, into words, into phrases; and
We then compare phrases against Google's billions of daily queries to assign probability scores to all possible transcriptions; and
We do all of this in the time it takes to speak a few words
Over the past 12 months we've introduced the product on manymoredevices, in more languages, with vastly improved accuracy rates. And today we're announcing that search by voice understands Japanese, joining English and Mandarin.
Looking ahead, we dream of combining voice recognition with our language translation infrastructure to provide in-conversation translation - a UN interpreter for everyone! And we're just getting started.
Search by Location
Your phone's location is usually your location: it's in your pocket, in your purse, or on your nightstand, and as a result it's more personal than any PC before it. This intimacy is what makes location-based services possible, and for its part, Google continues to invest in things like My Location, real-time traffic, and turn-by-turn navigation. Today we're tackling a question that's simple to ask, but surprisingly difficult to answer: "What's around here, anyway?"
Suppose you're early to pickup your child from school, or your drive to dinner was quicker than expected, or you've just checked into a new hotel. Chances are you've got time to kill, but you don't want to spend it entering addresses, sifting through POI categories, or even typing a search. Instead you just want stuff nearby, whatever that might be. Your location is your query, and we hear you loud and clear.
Today we're announcing "What's Nearby" for Google Maps on Android 1.6+ devices, available as an update from Android Market. To use the feature just long press anywhere on the map, and we'll return a list of the 10 closest places, including restaurants, shops and other points of interest. It's a simple answer to a simple question, finally. (And if you visit google.com from your iPhone or Android device in a few weeks, clicking "Near me now" will deliver the same experience)
Of course our future plans include more than just nearby places. In the new year we'll begin showing local product inventory in search results; and Google Suggest will even include location-specific search terms. All thanks to powerful, Internet-enabled mobile devices.
Search by Sight
When you connect your phone's camera to datacenters in the cloud, it becomes an eye to see and search with. It sees the world like you do, but it simultaneously taps the world's info in ways that you can't. And this makes it a perfect answering machine for your visual questions.
Perhaps you're vacationing in a foreign country, and you want to learn more about the monument in your field of view. Maybe you're visiting a modern art museum, and you want to know who painted the work in front of you. Or maybe you want wine tasting notes for the Cabernet sitting on the dinner table. In every example, the query you care about isn't a text string, or a location -- it's whatever you're looking at. And today we're announcing a Labs product for Android 1.6+ devices that lets users search by sight: Google Goggles.
In a nutshell, Goggles lets users search for objects using images rather than words. Simply take a picture with your phone's camera, and if we recognize the item, Goggles returns relevant search results. Right now Goggles identifies landmarks, works of art, and products (among other things), and in all cases its ability to "see further" is rooted in powerful computing, pervasive connectivity, and the cloud:
We first send the user's image to Google's datacenters
We then create signatures of objects in the image using computer vision algorithms
We then compare signatures against all other known items in our image recognition databases; and
We then figure out how many matches exist; and
We then return one or more search results, based on available meta data and ranking signals; and
We do all of this in just a few seconds
Now, with all this talk of algorithms, image corpora and meta data, you may be wondering, "Why is Goggles in Labs?" The answer -- as you might guess -- lies in both the nascence of the technology, and the scope of our ambitions.
Computer vision, like all of Google's extra-sensory efforts, is still in its infancy. Today Goggles recognizes certain images in certain categories, but our goal is to return high quality results for any image. Today you frame and snap a photo to get results, but one day visual search will be as natural as pointing a finger -- like a mouse for the real world. Either way we've got plenty of work to do, so please download Goggles from Android Market and help us get started.
The Beginning of the Beginning
All of today's mobile announcements -- from Japanese Voice Search to a new version of Maps to Google Goggles -- are just early examples of what's possible when you pair sensor-rich devices with resources in the cloud. After all: we've only recently entered this new era, and we'll have more questions than answers for the foreseeable future. But something has changed. Computing has changed. And the possibilities inspire us.
Finally Google lets you sync between your mobile and online mapsand retain your data (geo tags). I hope they let you share the same seamlessly with your latitude friends
Google Mobile Blog, December 2, 2009
Google Maps for mobile has long allowed you to add stars on a map to mark your favorite places. You may have noticed a few months ago that Google Maps for desktop browsers introduced the ability to star places as well. Unfortunately, there was no way to keep these starred places in sync with Google Maps on your phone. With today's release of Google Maps for mobile 3.3 on Windows Mobile and Symbian phones, you'll now be able to keep the starred places on your phone and on your computer completely synchronized. It's like magic, but magic that you can use. Let me show you how:
My colleague Andy is at his desk right now, and he wants to check out some comedy in London tonight. Google Maps lists the 4th result as Upstairs at the Ritzy -- it sounds like a great spot: cheap, fun and comfortable. With one click, Andy stars the item and he's done. When he walks out of the office and turns on Google Maps on his Nokia phone, Upstairs at the Ritzy will be the top place in his list of Starred Items, and it will show up as a star on his map. From there he can call the theater, get walking directions, or even SMS the address to a friend.
Starring on Google Maps for desktop computers and Google Maps for mobile
For users upgrading from an older version of Google Maps for mobile, you'll be asked, when you log in, whether you'd like to synchronize your existing starred items with your Google Account. This means you can preserve all the work you've put into customizing your map on your mobile, and have it show up, conveniently, in Google Maps in your desktop browser.
To enjoy the benefits of all this mobile synchronization goodness, download Google Maps for mobile for your Symbian or Windows Mobile phone by visiting m.google.com/maps in your mobile browser. And don't worry, we're busy building this same functionality into our other mobile versions of Google Maps -- so sit tight.
This acquisition would allow Apple to integrate full-song streaming into iTunes and opens up possibilities for streaming radio on anything that can run iTunes, including the iPhone, iPod Touch, and Mac systems
By Brian Garner
December 4, 2009
Sources inside Apple have confirmed that Apple has agreed to buy Lala, an online music streaming service based in Palo Alto, California.
Confirming earlier reports, sources inside Apple have confirmed that it has indeed acquired music streaming service Lala. The specific terms of the deal have not been released as of Friday evening.
According to reports by the New York Times, Lala had actively sought out Apple after Lala executives concluded that prospects for turning a profit in the short term were slim.
Lala allows its users to stream any song in its 8 million strong song library once, with the option for unlimited streaming at 10 cents per track and 79 cents for permanent MP3 download.
This acquisition would allow Apple to integrate full-song streaming into iTunes and opens up possibilities for Pandora-like streaming radio on anything that can run iTunes, including the iPhone, iPod Touch, and Mac systems.
In October, Lala, along with iLike, entered a partnership with Google to allow users to quickly discover song previews, artist info, pictures, video and more. Currently, Google searches for artists or songs can return a full, streaming, embedded song at the top of results, courtesy of Lala.
A Hindi slang word, jugaad (pronounced "joo-gaardh") translates to an improvisational style of innovation that's driven by scarce resources and attention to a customer's immediate needs, not their lifestyle wants.
Called jugaad, India's improvisational style of invention focuses on being fast and cheap—attributes just right for these times
Sandeep Vij employs jugaad on behalf of Cisco Systems in Bangalore Namas Bhojani
On a November afternoon, a dozen executives from companies including investment banks Rothschild and Goldman Sachs and tech research firm Gartner ringed a conference table in a brownstone on New York's Upper East Side. They were there to learn how U.S. businesses could develop products more cheaply and quickly by borrowing strategies from India. Speaker Navi Radjou, who heads the recently formed Centre for India & Global Business at England's Cambridge University, summed up his advice in one word: jugaad.
A Hindi slang word, jugaad (pronounced "joo-gaardh") translates to an improvisational style of innovation that's driven by scarce resources and attention to a customer's immediate needs, not their lifestyle wants. It captures how Tata Group, Infosys Technologies, and other Indian corporations have gained international stature. The term seems likely to enter the lexicon of management consultants, mingling with Six Sigma, total quality, lean, and kaizen, the Japanese term for continuous improvement.
Like previous management concepts, Indian-style innovation could be a fad. Moreover, because jugaad essentially means inexpensive invention on the fly, it can imply cutting corners, disregarding safety, or providing shoddy service. "Jugaad means 'Somehow, get it done,' even if it involves corruption," cautions M.S. Krishnan, a Ross business school professor. "Companies have to be careful. They have to pursue jugaad with regulations and ethics in mind."
More than a Fad?
The rise of jugaad raises another question: Do companies really need to pay someone to tell them something that's as elementary as keep it simple? "Having a consulting industry built around jugaad is almost anathema to the word itself," says Robert C. Wolcott, executive director of Northwestern University's Kellogg Innovation Network. "I'm not sure how this is different from old-fashioned Yankee ingenuity."
Nonetheless, jugaad seems aligned with the times. Recession-slammed corporations no longer have money to burn on research and development. Likewise, U.S. consumers are trading down to good-enough products and services. Meantime, the Indian economy continues to plow ahead despite the global recession—it grew at a 7.9% clip in the third quarter—suggesting its executives have a winning strategy.
Already, companies as varied as Best Buy, Cisco Systems, and Oracle are employing jugaad as they create products and services that are more economical both for supplier and consumer. "In today's challenging times, American companies are forced to learn to operate with Plan Bs," notes Radjou. "But Indian engineers have long known how to invent with a whole alphabet soup of options that work, are cheap, and can be rolled out instantly. That is jugaad."
Spreading the Word
At the same time, a cottage industry has popped up to offer jugaad instruction. Prasad Kaipa, a former manager at Apple's in-house training university, uses jugaad in the courses he's teaching at Hyderabad's Indian School of Business. The University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, where high-profile Indian-born professor C.K. Prahalad teaches, has opened a research office near Infosys' headquarters in India so faculty members can observe how Indian software companies come up with ideas. McKinsey consultants have begun talking up jugaad principles with clients, too.
Jugaad has been a colloquialism for decades throughout India. Sandeep Vij, vice-president and general manager of Cisco Systems in Bangalore who heads a new unit that makes energy-monitoring systems, says a good example is an Indian villager who constructs a vehicle to transport goats and cattle by turning an irrigation hand pump into a makeshift diesel engine for a wooden cart.
Its application also can be seen in Tata Motors' much-hyped Nano, a bare-bones subcompact car that the Indian company sells for the equivalent of $2,500 to so-called bottom-of-the-pyramid consumers who had been priced out of the auto market. "At Tata Group, we're used to thinking like this," says Ananth Krishnan, chief technology officer of Tata Consultancy Services. "The jugaad mindset is crucial. It's not just jargon."
Putting Jugaad into Practice
U.S. companies are starting to put jugaad into practice. At Best Buy's headquarters, in Richfield, Minn., Kalendu Patel, the retailer's executive vice-president for emerging business, is holding jugaad workshops to help store personnel and managers come up with new products or services that could be added easily and inexpensively to generate more sales per store. Among the ideas: home health-care equipment.
Top executives at Cisco, which opened what the San Jose (Calif.) company calls a second global headquarters in Bangalore in 2007, are importing the Indian mindset as they meld teams of U.S. engineers with Indian supervisors. "The innovation agenda in India is affordability and scale," says Wim Elfrink, Cisco's chief globalization officer, who moved from San Jose to Bangalore in 2007. "People are masters of managing costs down, but not creativity. If Indian engineers find out an executive has an MBA, they will say, 'Unlearn, and observe.' "
The effort is beginning to show up in the marketplace. Last January, Cisco acquired Richards-Zeta Building Intelligence, a 21-year-old company whose software measures a building's energy usage through wall sensors and displays it via the Web. Although Richards-Zeta still is headquartered in Goleta, Calif., it has been managed from Bangalore, where Cisco's emerging technologies group researches real estate and energy-related software.
The Bangalore staff approaches its work with a different set of assumptions than Americans typically do: that power supplies are unreliable and that demand is surging as urban populations expand. Sensing a broader market for the Richards-Zeta technology, the Indian-led teams have, in just a few months, come up with products such as software that allows companies to monitor energy consumption across all buildings on a campus or even internationally. Clients include Google, which is using the program at its Mountain View (Calif.) headquarters, and data-storage company NetApp, which uses it at all its properties, from Sunnyvale, Calif., to Amsterdam.
Other jugaad proponents such as Kaipa of the Indian School of Business say companies are adopting India-style innovation without even knowing it. The ex-Apple researcher points out that the iPhone maker is a champ at repurposing existing ideas and technologies in simple ways which enables it to reduce R&D outlays and produce high-margin products. "Jugaad is an Indian philosophy, but it's not unique to India," Kaipa says. "Companies in all parts of the world can learn from it and make it work for them, too."
Another foray into the hyper competitive smartphone space and it seems there is a rush by the IT players to do so - Dell, Acer, Asus, etc.
GSMA, November 30, 2009
Chinese computer manufacturer Lenovo is ramping up its mobile strategy in a big way by buying back a mobile phone business that it sold last year whilst reportedly partnering on a device with the country’s largest online retailer, Taobao. The world’s fourth-largest PC maker has agreed to pay US$200 million in cash and shares to buy Lenovo Mobile Communication Technology from investors including a unit of Hony Capital, the private-equity company controlled by the PC maker’s parent, Legend Holdings. That compares with the US$100 million Lenovo Group agreed to sell the mobile phone company for in January 2008. “The directors now consider that it is appropriate to move aggressively to capture the opportunity in the mobile Internet business,” the company said in a statement. Lenovo joins other PC-makers including Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Taiwan’s Acer and Asustek that have launched handsets in their efforts to diversify their product offering and offer devices that generate higher margins. Lenovo has said it expects operating margins for its mobile Internet devices to be higher than 10 percent. Lenovo Mobile claims to rank third in China’s mobile handset market by shipments.
Meanwhile, Reuters reports that Lenovo Mobile has struck a partnership with China’s largest online retailer to tap into rising demand for mobile shopping. The phone, which will be preloaded with Taobao applications, will reportedly enable users to shop wirelessly and will be launched within a month. Taobao is owned by Alibaba Group, which is 40 percent owned by US search giant Yahoo. Alibaba Group is also parent of China’s largest e-commerce website Alibaba.com.
Various past initiatives in India have proven that for local search its essential to have a hybrid delivery platform - voice (IVR or agent based or a hybrid) apart from online and SMS to widen and deepen reach, largely given the low internet penetration and multiplicity of languages.
The challenge with the hybrid approach is the ability to scale given the infrastructure and manpower requirements to support agent based voice delivery
Analysts say factors such as India’s low Internet penetration, cultural differences and the access that’s provided through knowing the local language, makes such firms to offer an off-line option
K. Raghu, Mint, November 22, 2009
Bangalore: Four Interactive Pvt. Ltd, which runs online local search portal Asklaila.com, now has an offline extension—agents assisting callers who seek information on restaurants, shopping malls and the like.
The phone-assisted service began a pilot programme on Thursday in Bangalore, where the local search firm is based, that will eventually expand to the 13 cities it covers now.
Three-year-old Four Interactive is not the only one attempting the so-called click and mortar model, a term for an online venture extending into the physical domain. Delhi-based Infocom Network Ltd, which has run online portal Tradeindia.com since 1996, connecting business users with suppliers of goods such as tyres and washing machines, set up a 15-member call centre to answer customer queries earlier this month.
“People in large corporations are comfortable looking online (for information), but our enquiries on the phone were from small and medium enterprises,” said Bikky Khosla, chief executive of Infocom Network. “By going through the phone, we also are trying to reach a bigger audience.”
In December, Internet firm Yahoo Inc., bought a 30% stake, for an undisclosed sum, in Chennai’s Info Network Management Co. Pvt. Ltd, which runs a phone-based directory enquiry service aimed at allowing the company to offer integrated phone and online local search services.
While some firms use agents, others such as Google Inc., offer voice-based search through an automated response system.
“It is very hard to build a virtual business in India,” said Kiran Konduri, co-founder of Four Interactive. “Mobile is the largest (opportunity) in the country, (but) it is not getting to the potential.” The firm will have 23 people round the clock answering about 2,500 calls from customers. Asklaila currently has search options via website, mobile Web, text message and digital satellite television and the phone-in service is an extension to expand the market, Konduri said.
Analysts say factors such as India’s low Internet penetration, cultural differences and the access that’s provided through knowing the local language, makes such firms to offer an off-line option.
“Not all online users are comfortable with all the online methods. Even now, there are a large number of cases when a call is made even when you are booking tickets,” said Diptarup Chakraborti, analyst at technology researcher Gartner Inc. “Cultural issues are still there, and the Internet in India is largely an English medium.”
India has between 34 million and 50 million Internet users, according to various estimates. On 16 November, Internet market research firm comScore Inc. said the country had 35.8 million Internet users as of September, but did not count the users who access the Internet from cyber cafes.
Just Dial Pvt. Ltd, which runs a phone-based service offering business information to consumers, has successfully travelled in the opposite direction, having seen its online service grow larger since putting the database on the Internet two years ago.
“Today, there is more traffic online with 250,000 visitors, while we get around 200,000 callers,” said V.S.S. Mani, founder and MD of Just Dial. “The future is definitely Web. But yes, there could be a hybrid, multi-platform text search.”
Google, which has a voice-activated search that can be used on mobile and fixed phones in India, says that it will continue to follow the automated route.
“For us, what we don’t want to do is be in the call centre business. That is not the Google model. (In that case) we can’t scale without adding people. If they (users) want to call and ask, let them make voice a modality as opposed to a call centre thing, where you need people on the other side,” said Vinay Goel, head of products at Google India.
![Screen shot 2009-12-08 at [ December 8 ] 11.09.20 AM](http://www.mobilecrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Screen-shot-2009-12-08-at-December-8-11.09.20-AM.png "Screen shot 2009-12-08 at [ December 8 ] 11.09.20 AM")
