Go For HP

If you have to close your eyes and decide for a brand for Desktop,Notebook,Laser printers,MFD or Enterprise Storage, close your eyes and go for HP. Why? Yes because HP is the leader in these categories according to Data Quest CSA 2008-09 survey.

The categories of Desktop and notepad has close competition for top slot. The Notebook category is close fight between Dell,HP-Compaq,Lenovo,Acer,Sony,Toshiba. So all in all the result of the survey indicates that the consumer has plenty of choice there to choose quality products from and that a number of vendors are competitive with regard to the Customer Satisfaction needs.

Networking products is lead by Cisco, Enterprise Applications by Oracle, Notebooks by Dell, IT Services by HCL Insys.

Software Adoption Life Cycle : Business Intelligence and Analytics

various offices use basic software's like Office Word, Spread Sheet, presentation and E-Mail solutions for communications.

many organization's may use proprietary software's because they are cheap and customized for use in organization. This may create a situation where org's may end up with multiple packages from different tech co's . This is all good while the whole thing is new.

With time challenges like scaling of technology and integration of data is arises. Also top management needs integrated trend reports which can not be easily compiled from these disparate silos.

Hence arises the need for ERP packages. These are costly but can handle large amount of data efficiently and reports can be easily generated. But some amount of BPR may be required for implementing these. Also cost of failure is high, hence lot of factors like Change management needs to be taken into account.

Next comes related technologies like SCM, CRM et al. These arte required to manage customers and suppliers respectively. Smooth oprational efficiencies and cost savings result, but then all these work as Silio's with the ERP system.

Thus the need for Business Intelligence and Analytics to pull information from all these sources and compile them in useful form for the management to draw insights.

Smart Phone Market

While Dell is entering Motorola is leaving the Enterprise Smart Phone Market. Why so much interest in the smart phone market? The reason is simple, Smart Phone is up there in the Value Chain and represents high growth potential as more and more users are likely to switch to Smart Phones in a evolutionary manner.

So dell is to compete with well entrenched players like Palm,Apple, Nokia and HTC in the space. Motorola is going to concentrate on the Media market for now which was its original Forte. Dell is going to use Android OS in its planned high secret mission on developing a smart phone.

Indomitable Internet Explorer?

No not at all, firefox gained and gained a firm footing. I was going through the Browser section of my Google Analytic and what I see is a result of random sample of users. More and more users are using the Firefox browser of Mozilla. Second is Internet explorer.

Now this is a real opportunity for the Mozilla to exploit the fact and create a marketing Buzz around the same fact and make more and more other internet users to switch over to the new Browser.

Safari and Opera doesn't see that much success with a few percentages market share. So the browser wars are seeing Microsoft bowing, but it has its position intact in the OS space with a lions share of over 90% market share. Now maybe its due to its better user friendliness and due to large scale piracy in India.

Mobile Marketing and Bollywood

Creating a Buzz around the Movies with Mobile marketing. Mobile is ubiquitous and is now being utilized by bollywood to market digital content and create viral campaigns for their Movies. Song and movies promos are being promulgated through mobiles. It had all started with the Marketing of Armaan through mobile campaign.

Wall papers, ring tones etc all can create a hype around the movie and also an important cash flow for the movie. Hence Mobile emerge as a new distribution channel for the Movie Producers.

Transcend India launches 2.5 inches portable hard disk

The hard disk priced between 5,000 Rs to 11,000 rs for 160,320 , 500 GB capacities will have varied designs and bundled utilities software like no trace internet browsing.

Government of India To Bridge Digital Divide

a $10-$20 laptop with 2 GB main memory and WiFi access. Well sounds impossible but the pilot of this device developed by IIT Madras and IISc bangalore has just been unveiled in Tirupati. Although more specification details have not been realeased but it will certainly boost the usage of educational portals in India with govt. planning to distribute it to educational institutions. Provision has been made in the 11th plan for it with over 20 billion Rs. earmarked for the same.

The same is likely tro improve the quality of education imparted at the institutions in rural india and digital study material sharing will lead to boost of overall educational sentiment in India.

So what next a dollar 1 I-Pod?

Local Language Content and Internet In India

The other day I was reading Data Quest and the story writer was arguing about how little Indian language content is available on the internet. I was quite surprised to read that there are only about 1250 web sites in Indian language. This compared to the fact that there are about 1600 total Indian language and 22 constitutionally recognized languages.

So the fact is that there are 650 million educated Indians but only about 60 million net users. And that too those using Indian languages may be even less. So there is no demand for local language content. There are 40,000 blogs in vernacular Indian languages. But the preferences and topics as also the authenticity of these may be of little pertinence.

So the question that arises is when will we be able to have local language content. Well I think when internet would be pervasive, also when AI based translation software built into the browser itself would be able to convert entire pages written in one language to the other , till then be content reading your Magazine or Newspaper ( Regional I mean).

3G and WiMax : The Enterprise Choices

Current internet technology in vogue in India is GPRS and EDGE. 3G has been launched in Delhi and WiMax is being experimented in Beta runs elsewhere. So what would be the choice of Enterprises. There are mixed responses from shunning to adopting from various CIO's interviewed by a magazine.

Some say 3G is costly and requires new investment which is costly. WiMax can be used with existing equipments. But WiMax is capable of Bandwidth of 70 MBPS where as with 3G upto 15 MBPS is only possioble. So 3G itself can be used for Video Conferencing and host of E-Mail applications which the Enterprises would be requiring.

So there is all possibility that 3G and WiMax networks to co-exist together for some time to come with the individual preferences taking over the decision criteria of various enterprises.

Many critics claim that 3g has a lot of evolution left for it in way of 4G and LTE but WiMax is saturated, also standards have already evolved for 3G which will take some time for the WiMax, but as such WiMax is cheaper and faster. Also many people argue that even 2G may survive for non value added customers and using all networks together may also solve the spectrum issue whcih the private agencies have with defense personnels.

Google Quits Radio Advertising Business

Google is quitting Radio advertising business, experts say that after three years Google finding profits not worth expectations very surprising that they are not able to manage new Vista's of new age Media's.

Surely lot of people take on Google as a one trick Pony due to its excessive dependence on search engine advertising revenues ( to the tune of 99%) . This makes it even more imperative that Google manages its new businesses with more astute business acumen and turn around fledgling business units into new cash cows.

But Google has so far not been able to turn the tables on rivals and shut the mouth of the critics by significantly diversifying its business risks. Well lets see what is in store for this Fortune 100 leader and a worlds most popular Brand.

Managing Deep Lost Content

Ambush marketing and TV go along. People have a tendency to fight, take for example the singing reality shows. They produce almost 4 - 5 programs which are aired at the same time on week and users are expected to vote for all of them and decide the winners. Makes the whole affair a bit insipid for the users, who then choose their preferences and then begins the TRP wars. People fore go one program over the other, but then the program forsaken could be watchable at some other occasion.

That could be done through PC's with DVR recording facility, but do people care. The result is that a lost of content in less popular channels get lost in the process and one is left with few options for entertainment once these shows go out of seasons.

Here comes the Internet to the rescue. All these many of historic performances are re watchable and it is the duty of the content creators to use this content to the hilt. Hence in a fetish to create more content, the existing good content is lost/ This content should be used to the full by the media houses.

Gaming and India

Gaming is all set to move the Indian markets. Indian gaming market is different from other gaming markets showing more breadth as it is not only the young in the bracket of 18-29, but in the bracket up to 49 years. Unlike foreign locales in India average age is not 20 years but 28 years. This all is good news for the Gaming market.

More people in the Gaming arena means more games sold and higher revenue par capita. Also the In game Advertisement is set to grow as a market and more revenues can be expected of the same.

Zapak.com of ADAG and Jumpgames are free Indian gaming sites which are supported totally by adverts and are free and yet offer quite quality games. With frequent contests and reward points an d sweepstakes prizes to the regular players.

Now that is some good news for the nation, maybe in by 2020 there will be virtual olympics with India winning quite a tally of golds and platinums.

Amazon's Kindle 2

Amazon has launched new version of Kindle 2, at 360 dollars a piece. Kindle's sales at 130 million is 1% to the total Amazons sales.

With the online publishing market set on a high growth path, Amazon wants to be present in the market and hopes its profit and sales from the particular product line to raise in the near future. It is interesting to note that the market in the west is ready for e-Book readers and with ample wi fi connectivity and payment options one can subscribe to books and magazines online.

While the emerging markets languish in the paper based magazines and book packs.

Blogging and Pros ( & Cons)

I started blogging two years back. The same content may click in one community or may backfire in another community. I got platinum league in IBIBO but at Blogger I am just making my ends meet. Is it due to too many blogs , or due to the demographics of blogger, now I can make some sense out of it.

The problem is that there are too many blogs and too little readers, so there is this perennial problem of traffic of blog site. There are many ad networks but they give you visitors and not customers.

That in turn results in decreased adsense revenue for the blogger. So I am just trying to emphasis e the fact that it is very important for you where you blog. Sometimes you may fail as a blogger because you fail to connect to your audience, but that doesn't prove you are naive. You may be an expert and an educational blog network may give you that elusive page views and make you successful overnight.

So the jest of the post is to not to give up and continue with your blogging and pick up inimitable skills while waiting for the lady lucks pendulum to sway in your favor.

How Free Sites are Eating Into Profitability of Paid Sites

Match.com a site for dating. PlentyOfFishes.com a web site for those looking for free dating with up to 25% of traffic, forces Match.com to launch its own free dating sites. Only one of the examples of how free sites are snatching away the business of paid sites.

There are plethora of How to Do anything sites, there are product opinion sites in almost all social networking portals, there is Yahoo answers and expert section in any website giving for free what pre internet era was available only for a certain price to be paid.

There are free educational sites and free white papers plus open source material available on the net. So what is the direction of magazines and books, certainly southward compared to what it could have been in the absence of internet.

Paid sites could do well by changing their strategies accordingly and corner their share of business from the available pie.

Online Technology Sources Vs. Offline

With ubiquitous internet availability and many magazines whifting to only online mode and also E-Book readers like Kindle avialbale, this is a logical debate. Where to find your daily dose of technology dough. It is avialbale in hot blogs as well as technology section of all major publishing web site. And man let me tell you its really happening.

Magazines started it all by being Multimedia, but the internet beats them all, by offering unlimited good quality content available at the drop of a hat, with even visiting a book store and free of cost. So what else do you want. I visited the Media Center of Business week and found it greatly interesting. With plethora of videos on plethora of subjectes vying for my attention. the only problem which I faced over there was my lousy Dial Up connection. Now I signed up for a Broadband with MTNL but the Wireless connection signal is lousy and never ever speeds up. But man video qulaity is real good.

So you have podcasts and what not available hot in  a magazine sometimes updated daily. Then all the chronicles are neatly stacked for you view or perusal. Man if you have appetite for knowledge they have the appetizers all lined up for you and I am sure you will never leave famished from any portal.

So all in all, online content is scrumptious and hot.

Why wait when you can go for it?

Technology of the Future

Yesterday I was watching a tech video by Business Week International edition. They were speaking about 10 Economic and Technological trends to be witnessed in the 2009 year. Some of the trends certainly caught my Imagination and I am listing them here for you.

1. Phone Apps

With 30% market share being cornered by the smart phones. Phone apps are certainly the favorites. Pinger is a new phone app with UC capabilities built into it. It also works with myspace and twitter, and is free. Generally phone apps are free and otherwise between 1-5 $ cost. Hence phone apps would certainly be a source of revenue for the telecom organisations in the coming time.

2. Wall PC's

Wall screens would also be a favorite where all employees share a giant screen whcih can be used to update all employees of a department of the latest in thier sphere of notification. Brokerages and Media houses may be benefitting from wall PC's.

Innovative Handsets

Handsets which have touch screen which can be used to play 7 instruments on it. Handsets with 3D screens where you can play 3D games. 3G phones which can be used as an entertainment console with streaming audio, video and video conferencing. Some out of the box thinking on the part of the telephone manufacturing companies is really creating a compelling market for the buyer with Cell Phone becoming a style statement rather than just a communication device.

Nokia N85 is designed for the gamer. Similarly every day there are announcements of products. New products and gadgets really hog the market with increasing frequency.

This creates a choice for the customer which was hitherto unseen in markets. User can choose a phone according to her preference and have fun. So the point is that the life cycle of a typical phone is reduced to 1 year to six months depending on the type of the user.

Nokia was quite complacent with its basket of product till Sony Ericcsson stepped in with its quality products and Motorola came out with its stylized offerings. All these forced Nokia to get into the fray and get together its act on these two fronts.

New Threats To Hog The Internet Security

1. TCP / IP Architecture has certain lacuna's in it which makes it possible for the hackers to create e-Bombs which can make large portions of internet non - usable. This can cause a loss of billions of dollars to the businesses in lost revenues and lost opportunities, good will and service restoration costs.

2. Islamist proponants have legitimised using cyber space to carry out Jihad which means that the Internet is going to be more and more vulnerable to such attacks in the near future.

3. Web borne Malware is increasing at an alarming pace, which means that the PC's connected to the internet and corporate intranets need better and better firewalls and integrated anti-virus technology to prevent the attacks from these online pirates.

All in all internet needs a lot of preventive and proactive activities like installation of software at the back bones to randomly check the sources of spams and malware and destroy them. In addition to all these it may need a lot of software and hardware installed to check using heuristic suspicios online activities and inform the concerned agencies to curtail such measures.