Apple - Playing Rhaspody??

Hi Folks,

So I will be continuing the story which is focused only on the cat and mouse game played by Apple on Real Network's brainchild - Rhapsody.

Rhapsody is an online subscription based application which allows user to get unlimited access to 8 million songs. All this things look good for the end user. But not for apple. Rhapsody is direct competitor of apple in terms of music sharing concept. Also, at one time, it was suppose to be a threat for iTunes.

So.......

Now the question is:
Will Apple play dirty game to reject Rhapsody? The same way it did to Google Voice App and many other apps (It is supposed to be a never ending list.)

Or will apple go out of tune to get things done as per the customer's view and will allow the application to be rolled out without creating scene?Hmm.. Now that things not me but Mr. Steve Jobs has to decide.Will Apple approve an iPhone app that rivals iTunes??Its a million dollar question.

Lets see.

Till then keep reading my blog.

Copyright © Hardik Upadhyay

You can follow me on TWITTER

JSK

Apple Updates Aug 30 2009

Hi,

At Last…

Apple is selling OSX -> Snow Leopard Well, it's not September, but we're not going to hold an early launch of its performance-focused Snow Leopard OS against Apple. The Apple store has come back online bearing an order page for OS X version 10.6 in Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Pro... oh wait, it's just $29 as an upgrade from 10.5. August 28th, that's when, now go 'n get it.

I am not describing you any of its benefits which are far better than its predecessors. But you can have a look at the apple's official website.But the thing which is hitting to my mind is that they didn’t even wait for the apple conference which is supposed to be held next week. So what could be the possible reason?Actually there is lot of reasons like:

Steve Jobs currently focusing only on iTablet (Rumored iTablet which is supposed to come shortly.)

Apple wants to increase their revenue. They are already way ahead in terms of growth rate compared to industrial unit but still, they are expecting around $66 Million for the next quarter by selling new Operating system MAC OSX

Also they are expecting to sell around 5 million copies of snow leopard this quarter.

Ahead of Microsoft -> Rumors says that Microsoft’s new operating system Windows 7 is partially welcomed by the manufacturers and the beta testers. So it might be a kind of warning to apple's management. So to get ahead of this thing, they have released the OS early compared to the expected date.

All this things apart, being an apple fan, I have lots and lots of things to share apart from the usual product launchApple's Current Controversy:As far as the last week's news is concerned, let me give you the update.AT&T has denied any kind of involvement in the denial of Google talk's application rejection by Apple.So what is all this things to do about?? I was wondering why apple is doing all this. People say that the answer is very simple and clear. Apple wants to avoid competition.

But this is not true.Apple has evolved out from the highly competitive market and has adapted to new changes only by the support of the word "INNOVATION".Anyway, I got the hot news just now. Apple is brewing up another controversy by trying to reject the competitor's application Rhapsody (Real Networks product).

You can check it out from my next blog: Exclusively coverage of this issue.

Copyright © Hardik Upadhyay

You can follow me on TWITTER

JSK

Indian Mobile Subscriber Base - August 2009

Hi,

Again I am here with the statistics of Indian Telecom Market ending July 2009.

India adds 14.38 m wireless users in July.

India's telecom industry is growing at a rapid pace. You can check the subscriber base details of previous months from my blog.

India added 14.4 million new mobile subscribers in July, bringing the total number of mobile subscribers in the country to 442 million, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said on Thursday.

The demand for mobile phones has been growing despite an economic downturn because Indians view mobile phones as a necessity, said analyst firm IDC India. The increase in July can also be attributed to new rollouts by some service providers and a focus by large operators on rural markets.

The country added 12 million new subscribers in June. The number of fixed line subscribers in the country continued to decline from 37.54 million in June to 37.41 million in July.

The country's largest mobile operator, Bharti Airtel, added 2.8 million subscribers in July for a total of 105 million subscribers. Reliance Communications, the second largest player, added 2.4 million subscribers, bringing its total up to 82 million.

Tata Teleservices, which is rolling out its GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) services under the Tata DoCoMo brand, saw the number of subscribers for its GSM and CDMA services grow by 2.3 million to 39.4 million in July.

Tata Teleservices added 624,905 subscribers in June. NTT DoCoMo holds a 26 percent stake in the company.
State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam added 1.6 million mobile subscribers in July, taking its total to 56 million.

Indian mobile operators and handset makers are targeting India's rural markets. Nokia announced this week plans to launch micro-finance schemes across rural areas in 12 Indian states. The plan means people can buy a handset and pay it off in weekly installments for as little as 100 Indian rupees (US$2).


Analyst firms such as Gartner, however, describe India's rural market as low margin and too geographically spread out to be comparable to the country's urban market.

While the total wireless—GSM, CDMA and WLL (F)—subscriber base stood at 441.66 million in July, the wireline connections declined by 0.13 million to 37.41 million during the month.

The broadband subscriber base reached the 6.80 million million mark. India's mobile user base rose 25 times in the last five years and research firm Gartner expects it to touch 737 million by 2012.

Will keep you guys updated with latest news about Indian Telecom Industry.


Copyright © Hardik Upadhyay

You can follow me on TWITTER

JSK

Research In Motion - Gearing Up

Hello Guys,

I was reading today and came up about lot of buzz happening around the world’s fastest growing company named Research In Motion which we usually know as RIM.

Overview:

RIM has often played a nice strategy by changing the habit of the way they do business. They are considered as the front runner in mobile market with around 19% of smartphone market share in their kitty. The following charts tell the story.

Source: Gartner 2009.

Others include Palm and similar devices of Japan and China. Palm is in 10th place in the smartphone market and sold 205,000 Palm Pre units in Q2.

Also RIM is on cloud no. 9 by Fortune Magazine Rating. According to Fortune, RIM is the fastest growing company of 2009.

Now RIM is again competing with iPhone by acquiring Torch Mobile. Yes it is true news today. BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) has acquired Canada-based WebKit browser developer Torch Mobile, known primarily for its Iris mobile browser. According to Torch Mobile, "Our team of developers will join RIM's global organization and will now be focussed on utilizing our WebKit-based mobile browser expertise to contribute to the ongoing enhancement of the BlackBerry platform.

Result:

Now blackberry will be in direct competition with Opera browser and iPhone Safari. This is a warning bell for all the mobile browser players. RIM has lot of money to invest now and they have taken calculated risk by this acquisition. So we just have to wait and see what the result is.

Also in another move, Research in Motion (Rim) would probably describe every BlackBerry as flash, but now the firm's phones look set to become even more so: rumours are circulating that full Adobe Flash support is on its way to the range.

It remains to be seen whether Rim will roll out support across its entire range or just to its leading models, such as the Bold - reviewed here.They are rumored to have support for both adobe flash and microsoft's silverlight. Now that's what I call a diplomatic move. They are avoiding all the things which will create things worse for them in the future.

Copyright © Hardik Upadhyay

You can follow me on TWITTER

JSK

Happy Birthday Linux - 18 Yrs OLD today

Breaking News:

I am so glad to get the news and saying it to all my friends who are the supporters of Linux that today on 24th August 2009, Linux OS has turned 18 yrs.

It has been an old saying that linux has been one of the favorite OS for geeks. But this is not true. The OS has been adopted by many of the people who actually changed the scenario of web OS technology. It is the best example of technology which has evolved with time. I can bet you with that. Currently there are around 9 different types of Linux OS in the market.

Now lets come to the point.

Aug. 25, 1991: Kid From Helsinki Foments Linux Revolution - Linus Torvalds. He was 21 yrs old when he posted this mail.

Hello everybody out there using minix —

I’m doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won’t be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since april, and is starting to get ready. I’d like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons) among other things).

I’ve currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work. This implies that I’ll get something practical within a few months, and I’d like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions are welcome, but I won’t promise I’ll implement them :-).
Linus (torvalds@klaava.helsinki.fi)

PS. Yes — it’s free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs. It is NOT protable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that’s all I have :-(.

So it was the mail which revolutionized the world with lot of hopes regarding the word “OPEN SOURCE”.

I wish that the kernel of Linux OS will be growing and scaling a lot more in coming days.

Wishing once again Happy birthday Linux.

Copyright © Hardik Upadhyay

You can follow me on TWITTER

JSK

Google Official Blog List

Hi,

Here, I am coming again with post about Google.
I like to read blogs especially the official blog of Google, Apple and Microsoft. But every time I searched for one blog, I get less information about other blogs, so was keen to jot down list of Google blogs.


All you know that Google have blogs for each of Google products and services, recently I had an idea to check out how many Google products and services are having blogs to describe them, finally I got this list of blogspot blogs which is unbelievable, even I am myself not sure whether I have covered all their blogs, if I had missed some thing, please inform me about it to add the same.





The Official Google Blog - Insights from Googlers into our products, technology and the Google culture.
AdWords Agency Blog - The latest from Adwords from you and your client.
AdWords Retail Tips - Adwords tips for the retailers
AdSense Blog - A look inside Google AdSense. With newbie, optimization, AdSense features, and more.
Adwords API Blog - The official source of information about the AdWords API from Google.
Adwords Blog - Google’s official blog for news, information, and tips on AdWords.
AJAX Search API Blog - At this Blog Google gives info about how to use the AJAX Search API.
Google Affiliate Network Blog - News, views and product information for Google affiliate network advertisers and publishers.
Analytics Blog - Here you can get the latest news, tips, and resources from the Google Analytics team.
Android Blog - Blog for developers working with Android, An Open Handset Alliance Project.
Base Blog - Get news, tips, and resources straight from the Google Base team.
Blogger Blog - The Official buzz from blogger.
Checkout Blog - The official Checkout Blog with news for sellers using Google Checkout.
Code Featured Projects - Blog about featured projects on Google Code.
Code Updates Blog - Read all about the latest Google Code updates at the Code Blog.
CPG Blog - News and notes from Google’s Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG).
Custom Search Blog - The latest news updates and tips from the Custom Search Engine team.
Data APIs - Official Google Data APIs blog.
Desktop APIs - Your official source on the Google Desktop APIs.
Docs Blog - News and notes from the Google Docs team at the official Docs Blog.
Enterprise Blog - A blog about enterprise information, search, and the users that live there.
Feedburner Blog - The Official Feedburner blog of burning questions.
Finance Blog - News and views from the Google Finance team.
Gadgets API Blog - Intended for people who use the Google Gadgets API to write gadgets.
Gears API Blog - Keep up to date on Google Gear’s progress with Gears API Blog.
Gmail Blog - News, tips and tricks from Google’s Gmail team and friends.
Grants Blog - We started this Blog as a place to read about the latest Google Grants news and information
Let’s Take it Offline - The latest news form Google’s TV, Print and Audio Ads team
Lat Long Blog - News and notes by the Google Earth and Maps team.
Mac Blog - Macs inside Google. The official Google Mac Blog.
Maps API Blog - Official Google Maps API blog.
Mashup Editor Blog - The official source of information about the Google Mashup Editor.
Mobile Blog - News and views from the Google Mobile team.
News Blog - The official blog from the team at Google News.
Notebook Blog - At the Notebook Blogs you can read news and tips from the Notebook team.
Open Source Blog - Open source at Google with news about Google’s open source projects and programs.
OpenSocial API Blog - OpenSocial provides a set of APIs for social applications across multiple websites.
Orkut Blog - Your official guide to staying beautiful on Orkut.
Orkut Developer Blog - Learn about APIs, changes and events related to the Orkut developer platform.
Google Online Security Blog - The latest news and insights from Google on security and safety on the internet.
Picasa Blog - News, tips and tricks from the Picasa team at Google.
Public Policy Blog - Google’s view on government, policy and politics.
Reader Blog - News, tips and tricks from the Google Reader Team.
Research Blog - Google research blog where Googlers write about their public research.
Security Blog - The latest news and insights from Google on security and safety on the Internet.
SketchUp API Blog - All about the ins and outs of the SketchUp API.
SketchUp Blog - News and notes from the SketchUp folks.
Students Blog - Google news and updates especially for students
Talk About Blog - A blog about voice, IM and open communications with Google Talk.
Testing Blog - If it ain’t broke, you’re not trying hard enough.
Google Traditional Media Ads Blog - News form Google’s TV, Print and Audio Ads team.
Video Blog - Celebrating creative works from the many contributors to the Google Upload Program
Webmaster Central Blog - Official news on crawling and indexing sites for the Google index.
Web Toolkit Blog - About the open source Java software development framework for AJAX applications.
Website Optimizer Blog - The most up-to-date product news, industry insights, and testing strategies.
YouTube API Blog - For developers using the YouTube API.
YouTube Blog - Official YouTube blog for latest features and happenings.

Too Much Right!!!! But you can hand pick any of the blog which you like. It will also give you cool ideas what all things Google is doing now a days.

Will keep you updated with more information.

Copyright © Hardik Upadhyay

You can follow me on TWITTER

JSK

iPhone - AT&T and O2 : Exclusive Deal

Hi,

Today I was reading about the updates made by apple for the start of Annual Music Event 2009 on September 9^th. There are lots of speculations regarding this conference like

Steve Jobs will be coming back on stage hosting the event. (With or without bang, No one knows!!!)

· New line of iPod is going to get released.

· Few updates for in iPhone and iPod.

· Latest version of iTunes which will be a bundled software including the support for blue-ray.

· iTablet – Innovation by Apple – But it was later chucked out by them saying that the product is not yet ready. Still there are pictures which are leaked in the website by engadget and other websites.

But all these things may not come on the surface till the final day comes. I will give you updates as soon as I get to know something about it.

But now days, I was reading about few news in which lot of analysts believe that iPhone is behind the loss of many telecom service providers. Profit and loss are the part of business but I was shocked to hear that it was the fast paced innovation of Apple responsible for the loss of company like AT&T. This is not fair!!!

Few companies want to innovate, want to give people something which is very new and innovative without giving any problems with higher amount of customer satisfaction of around 85/100 is not accepted. It was the mistake of the TSP who lagged behind in adopting the technology. They should focus on their infrastructure rather than blaming apple for their exclusive deal. Same thing is happening in Europe also for 02 UK.

Now after posing loss, they fear of losing the exclusive iPhone deal. AT&T might lose iPhone to Verizon and O2 UK might lose it to Vodafone. Now these companies are trying hard to retain their position by taking all the possible measures.

But if the time is bad, there will be still lot more problems coming in the way like FCC of US have decided to investigate on the exclusive deal between apple and at&t. Wising that it will be good for the end customers at least.

The only question which is making me think more and more is that

Why iPhone is so dear to TSP???

Is it the phone which will decide the fate of TSP or it’s the service provider who has the real customers.

What will be your main priority? Mobile handset or Service Provider.

Can TSP play the important role for the customer or it’s the handset which is the wow factor.

All these questions will remain in dilemma till other players (Telecom Service Providers) pitch in and get access to the real treasure called – “iPhone”.

Check out this in the blog

Copyright © Hardik Upadhyay

You can follow me on TWITTER

JSK

Will you "PAY" for Free Content

Hi Folks,

Now-a-days, internet is the prime necessity for most of the users. Every user wants the content to be online so that it can be easily accessible but what about the solution to this system. The patterns which get formed by these complicated things will make the system worse.

I will give you an example.
Mr. A says that he plans to put his content, which covers the known world and some others as well, behind a firewall so that people will have to pay for it. He thinks the future of web content will be pay-as-you-go.

But is he thinking right? Will customer pay for the content provided by him by paying when at the same time, it is provided free of cost by the other provider.

Today’s New York Times has a nice puff piece today about the Financial Times, which also charges people for access to its content on the internet. So on the one hand, there seems to be a groundswell moving to make charging for content the hipster move on the web. On the other hand, the only really hot spots in the cloud are free.


Would anybody pay for YouTube?
If it cost 5-cents per tweet, would there be so many tweeters?
How about Facebook or Orkut? Will you make so many friends or so many scrap if it will be paid service?
Would millions of lonely, homebound losers be encapsulating their lives in their entire digital splendor if they had to whip out a credit card to do so?
Or Google?
Would we thoughtlessly search a billion times a year if at the end of every month we were awarded a bill that tabulated the cost of every click?

Hmmm... I guess we never gave a thought to it. But now lots of these companies are trying to find the solution and to increase their revenue.

My opinion is that media has always been driven by advertising that users can choose to entertain or ignore. Even newspapers — which would seem to break that mold by charging a pittance for their content — have been subsidized by their advertising for centuries.

The moment I hit a site that asks me for money, I simply navigate to calmer waters. How about you?

The big media outlets are all abuzz with the financial plans of online entities to move to a new business model based on subscriptions. Would you pay for the stuff you do online? I mean the clean stuff?

Copyright © Hardik Upadhyay

You can follow me on TWITTER

JSK

Mobile Advertising Industry

Hi Folks,

The advertising industry is gearing up. I thought to get data on how much exactly is the amount of money which the industry is spending on the advertising.

According to the recent reports I got the following data for advertising on mobile.

The advertising pool is small. Magna, a unit of the Interpublic Group, reported in May that it expected advertisers to spend $229 million this year on mobile media, including mobile Web sites and applications. Though that is up 36 percent from 2008, it is revised down from Magna’s forecast in the summer of 2008 of a growth rate of 43 percent. And $229 million is a tiny slice of the advertising pie. - Data is for US only.

“It is experimental — no one’s moving their TV budget to mobile — but it is a part of every conversation we have with business advertisers,” Mr. Howard-Sarin said. “We have a lot of oars in the mobile water because we think there’s money there.”

But the research says that it is supposed to increase to around 1 Billion in US by 2012. All these all are predictions but the pace at which people are thinking to move their content on mobile and usage of mobile broadband of customers, forces the marketing team to change their strategy.

Copyright © Hardik Upadhyay

You can follow me on TWITTER

JSK

Telecom Market Overview - Part 2

Hi Folks,

After a long time I am updating my blog. I would like to continue with my previous article in the changing mobile market scenario.

In recent days, I found one very interesting thing. The concept of "Pay-Per-Use".

Pay Per Use Strategy:

The ‘Pay-per-use’ model represents a paradigm shift in the overall telecom experience. It allows the consumer to pay only for the seconds utilized, heralding another revolution in the mobile telecommunications industry, not only in India but all over the world. This business model will help user to pay money only for the amount which the customer has actually used.

Previously, they were following the concept of 'Pay-for-all' but there was no profit related to it. The customer was using this because there was no competition. But now the scenario has changed. New companies are coming to market with very innovative strategy.

Rise of TATA-DOCOMO:

Tata-Docomo is a joint GSM service provided by TATA teleservices of India and NTT Docomo of Japan. They started a GSM service in India. But what is so special about this? The answer is the innovative model "Pay-Per-Use".

The pricing model is very innovative. They charged only 1paise/sec. Wow!! Isnt it interesting? Ofcourse it is. The proof is clearly visible from the next line.

Tata Docomo, the GSM-based mobile services of Tata Teleservices, on Aug 7 2009 said it has crossed the 5 lakh-subscriber mark in Tamil Nadu within a month of launching its services in the region.

"We are focussing strongly on network superiority, coverage and service offerings... Tata Docomo will soon unveil a portfolio of value-added services that will reinvent mobile telephony in India, with products and services like free voicemail, timed SMS service, free missed call alerts and call-me tunes" - Tata Docomo Strategy

Problem with this NEW model:

The following are the problems which I thought which will give jitters to TSP.

• Cheap mobile cost and cheap pricing strategy. Will it reduce overall ARPU?
• Is the pricing model beneficial for the TSP?
• Complicated billing engine?
• Real time pulse calculation and phone usage?
• What is in it for the TSP?
• What is the Return On Investment (ROI)?

The answer to these questions are bit complicated and not much clear. As per the recent press release, the company said that they are in loss currently. And the balance sheet is supposed to be in red for this financial year. The company might come out of this losses by the end of 2010.

But the main benefit was due to the joint venture. TATA teleservices has lot of infrastructure which is not a problem for them. Same goes with NTT Docomo. They have designed the most complicated billing engine. So it wont be a problem for them too.

It will reduce the ARPU in the initial stage as people will talk less and they are likely to get more benefit. But as the time pass, people will be increase in the call usage.

Ntt-Docomo uses iMode technology and possess state of art technology especially in the billing side. They will make most of the use for it and get more profit.

So try to give thought about this technology and business model. If you have any comments do contact me.

Copyright © Hardik Upadhyay

You can follow me on TWITTER

JSK

Telecom Market Overview - Part 1

Telecom market is growing inspite of the recession. You can check out these details from my previous blog "Mobile Market In INDIA"


Lot of companies are entering in the market to find out some business. India is such a country where there are lot of opportunities. Its the country with huge population and diversity and is often termed as a "Developing Country".

Before going in the business, let me give you few overview about Indian telecom market. Indian government has proposed a rule that any foreign company cannot start as a Telecom Service Provider (TSP). They need to start as a joint venture with some Indian company. Now this sounds bad!! But this is business and trade agreement. No need to be more political.

So many companies came to India and invested in the existing Indian mobile market. I will list out few companies.

Also there are two technologies which are dominant in india

1. CDMA

2. GSM

Mobile market is changing in the recent scenario.

To Know How you need to read my next blogs...

Few things which I will discuss next time.

• What is the future of the mobile market
• What are the benefits of the TSP by reducing the mobile calls
• What complications will be arising by reducing the pulse rate
• TATA DOCOMO deal.
  
• New Zealand mobile phone rates.
• Cheapest mobile rates of Finland, Amsterdam and Norway.

And much more.

So keep reading.. And do give your comments.

JSK