Microsoft - Voice Based Communication Approach

I am not the big fan of Microsoft but there are things about Microsoft which brings lot of things from the business perspective and has ability to cash the series of product line launched by them.

They have set of products like Microsoft Office, Microsoft Operating System which is dominating till date despite of the futile attempts from Google to take over the office market from Microsoft.

The perspective of Microsoft is on the next generation users.

This includes

• Youth from age 15 to 25 – Teenagers and adolescents who are tech savvy and want everything available at ease
• Working class people – 25 to 35 years of age – this group has tendency to  follow the trend set by the youth and then adjusting it according to their needs. This mostly caters to the dependency of them on gadgets and technology

Now Microsoft has identified this thing and are coming up with the series of product using which they can survive for the next decade.

They have ruled the market from a longer time and they are identifying threat from Google and Apple. 

The only way to defend them is to come up with something out of the box.

So they have started propagating through their best selling product for youth XBOX. This magic box has created wonders for Microsoft and thy are trying to use it further and make it smarter in a way where a user can control things based on the Xbox Kinect.

Microsoft is going to use the voice based commands which will be fed to the Kinect and which will eventually flow to the Xbox system.

Microsoft can do wonders based on this if they put it and propagate it in the best way. Example they can make the system a hub for unified communication and can control lot of things based on this. 

They can also incorporate this technology on their upcoming windows 7 smart phone which will act as one more medium to connect from human to the device.

All this boils down to the way Microsoft use this technology in their existing product line.

Let us see what Microsoft has in mind to rule the market for the next decade.

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Hardik Upadhyay

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Next Era of Content Licensing

Hi Friends,

I still remember the time when I paid around Rs. 12000 ($ 299 ) for getting one XP license for my PC. I also paid around $500 for other software like adobe photoshop and office. I was more than happy to use the licensed software which was handy and usable. But later the sad part was it was based on the number of installations which are done by that particular key.

I used to wonder, why they are tagging software to the machine in which it is installed. I have got rights of the software, I have purchased it then why am I deprived of using the software on multiple machines.

I think that Apple might also have thought on my lines... By the way not on my lines exactly (trying to be modest).. but on the customer sentiment and their marketing strategy. They decided to find the way around this problem. They did this before also while launching App Store where they started selling single song to the users. Users were more than happy to pay price for their favorite songs among lacks of songs.

Now this time apple is back with new thing.

Apple changes the fundamental way of software license by launching the app store for Mac.

Features of this process:
There is totally different approach to this solution where a software is not tagged to a machine but to the user.  Here a user downloads the software and he is given the liberty to download the software again on any other new mac. This makes it simpler for the user to utilize his rights of software purchase and use it to the maximum potential. Now this has lot of impact on the mindset of the customers. This give them chance to utilize the software even after the system is formatted.

There are no limitation for the machine tagging. User can also transfer rights of the particular software to some other computer. They have actually given the power of software usage to the customer itself without any limitation.
Impact on the Gray Market:

This move from apple will support a lot to the general market who want to use pirated software. They will be happily using the software on the machine which they want. They will not be inspired to use the software without updates rather than the software which can be controlled by then. Software which gives them the pride of ownership.

Hopefully, this strategy will help Microsoft to learn something from Apple.

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Hardik Upadhyay
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Broadband Game Changing Strategy : BB over PL

Hi Friends,

As the technology improves, we get to see lot of new things around us. Things those are hard to imagine. Things those are unbelievable. We have seen lot of revolutionary products in 21st century and will be seeing more in coming years.

One of the things which caught my attention is the new IEEE standard for broadband connectivity. I think that it will solve lot of our problems and will create new ventures for the business and technology.

IEEE Standard for Broadband over Power line
IEEE standard - 1901-2010 – [IEEE Standard for Broadband over Power Line Networks] has finally helped us to reach those frontiers where we always imagined but never captured.

They have launched a totally new communication model. This is going to be a business opportunity for most of the power grid companies in India and all over the world. India has for long time tried to rope in rural market for better broadband connectivity but has failed most of the times. There were number of reasons for it

Reasons for Broadband connectivity to fail in Rural India

• Lack of awareness of internet among the rural market
• More usage of mobile compared to PC
• Lack of basic amenities like electricity are missing
• Low purchasing power
• Dearth of quality education and information

Due to this there is reduction of broadband market penetration rate in India. Current broadband penetration rate in India is only around 2% in early 2010. This might be shocking in compared to the 8.6% growth rate of India. But this is reality. Now to face this kind of issues, IEEE has come up with the new communication model to reach mass market with ease.

Features of New IEEE Standard


By the help of this new standard, the companies can adopt this model more easily as it has lot of advantages which easily distinguish it from the existing Ethernet standard.

At present, broadband connection has a speed of 100 MBPS, but broadband over standard AC power lines promises 200 MBPS and an easy-to-use connection within 30 minutes. This is more than enough from the rural market’s perspective.

Apart from this, the interference between the radio waves and the electricity field will be reduced to a larger extent.

Opportunities for Big Companies


In the transportation sector, for example, the standard’s data rates and range make it possible to deliver A/V entertainment to the seats of airplanes, trains and other mass transit vehicles.

Electric vehicles can download a new entertainment playlist to the A/V system while the car is charging overnight. In the home segment, PLC will complement wireless LANs by providing a link through walls and other RF impediments as well as over distances beyond the normal range of wireless networks.

It will also complement wireless networks in travel and hospitality industry where in, hotels and other multistory buildings carry multimedia data over the longer distances and allow wireless to complete the communication link over the last few meters by the help of this standard.

 IEEE 1901 will also benefit utilities, service providers, and consumer electronics companies – anyone with a stake in smart grid technologies – as well as smart-meter providers and home appliance manufacturers.

Interesting thing about Android and Trend Micro

Interesting thing about Android and Trend Micro – Smart Bonding of OS and Antivirus

Couple of weeks back, trend micro spread a warning to all the android users that the android OS is not secure to save your data and to protect it from the hackers. Interestingly, just after a week trend micro released antivirus for android OS.

Now some might think that it’s a marketing gimmick to sell more antivirus and to generate a more powerful channel to sell antivirus on an exponentially increasing mobile OS platform.

But this makes me think that whether the CEO has given warning seriously or not. Currently as per the article from PC world, Android Gingerbread (latest version) found a critical bug in the OS. The current OS has the capability to get the data from your micro SD card and can be exploited by some of the apps.

Now this is a matter of serious concern. Like this, there might be many other critical bugs which might come into limelight after proper review of the applications and the developers. But it might be too late by then.

Also the reasons for Android to be so much vulnerable to such critical bugs, is its Open OS architecture. Android was developed on open OS and this made its kernel level files open to hackers. Now it’s dangerous in certain scenarios. Apple has not revealed its kernel and shell files to the developers which have made it safe and more secure than Android OS.

Hopefully android will find some way around this problem in short time or else they will be regretting about this problem in the future.

Strategy of Android:

• Android is currently trying hard to capture market share in mobile OS and releasing subsequent version in the market which are more and more stable and with added features.
• Android is roping in more app developers currently to become more serious about its underlying security and to improve its app store.
• Various tournaments(hacking and app creation) are organized to make sure that people are actively involved in android
• Latest antivirus are getting added to the league of antivirus which are supporting the OS. 

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Hardik Upadhyay
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Future of Wireline/Baseline Business

Ethernet is gaining lot of traction for simplifying the usage of the customers due to which they are able to take the profit for sustaining longer time. The dependencies are creating lot of opportunities for the customers to get faster data at cheaper rate. But there is a bigger problem lying for the Fixed line operators like Qwest which is facing problem with the declining revenues and loss of customers.

Opportunities for Wireline Service Providers
Also, at the same time some future gurus are suggesting to go for LTE instead of the baseline internet. The amount of profit obtained from the same product will be far more useful for the Unified Access Operators and Fixed line Operators.

The other opportunity for the wireline providers is to go for IP based dialing on the same network. This helps them to go for more varied call scenario which will also help them to design the future. IP based calling is supposed to be the future for most of the companies. So the fixed line companies can switch over to this option to retain more enterprise customers and also to get more revenues from the existing customers.

Challenge for IPV6 Network
Challenge in second option adoption is to go through the pain of designating IP on IPV6 network which is still under experimentation. People are still adopting such technology for the usage. IPV6 is still under experimentation stage

Roadmap for Baseline Service Providers
They are creating lot of opportunities for the future world to choose their technology at a cheaper rate and at more ease. But this will take time. The window for getting this thing revamped is around one year as per Gartner and to make sure that LTE and IPV6 setup is done by the companies will take a year more. So eventually if the companies decides to take some drastic steps in changing their business models, then they will be able to do so only by 2013.

This leads to the selection of the product based on proper analysis by the technical team of the enterprise. Proper analysis is also required in doing such changes. Lets hope what all things are there in the bouquet of these companies in the future to sustain this aggressive telecom enterprise model change.

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Hardik Upadhyay
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Gartner Reviews on Enterprise IT budget

Gartner is true on various aspect (Although I am trying to be a Devil's Advocate) in recent times. Gartner is trying to show its expertise in the field of IT research.

In the recent survey of Gartner, it suggests that the use of technology is good for the business but the information management committee is spending more time in deciding which technology to use rather than trying to analyze its impact of business benefits.

IT management of the company is trying hard to adapt to the new futuristic technologies which are wooing them by their expert advice and cheesy consultants. Also the pricing is also competitive in the market.

But there is a bell of warning by Gartner in this kind of approach.

Ex. - IT management is trying to implement cloud computing, Database Management (Using SAP) or implementing Enterprise mobility tools (Afaria product of Sybase iAnywhere)

But these managers fail to understand and trace out long term or even short term benefit of implementation of these technologies. They are not able to quantify the benefits and just follow the tide.

Also, there is high amount of risk involved in this kind of approach. As the investment in these things is very huge and the IT service companies are increasing their margin, the SMB struggle to get profits and block their large amount of money.

I rather agree with Gartner to advice big companies to be cautious and measure their approach for IT management.

Please do not go for Technology but go for the business values and returns first.


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Hardik Upadhyay
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Happy New Year!!!

Dear Friends,

A Very Happy New Year to all. 2010 is over and now we all are looking forward for loads of things in "MMXI". Past year I was not much active on my blogs and technology things. I was not taking things more seriously which I should have taken. May be the new year will bring lot of new things in me and I will make sure that I carry out all the new year resolutions upto the mark.

So now, lets start the new year with my favorite word which is on everyone's mind..... "APPLE"  - Yeah.. how can I start the first blog of my new year without this word. This has changed he whole new aspect of how a product should be and how to sustain a business. How to capture the mind of mass public without compromising on the quality. This is indeed a great achievement of apple.

At the same time my second favorite company "GOOGLE" is not far behind. It was a great year for them too. With the success of android, they are far more satisfied with their work and still will be trying harder to compete Apple's iPhone and RIM's Blackberrys.

The next year will bring lot of changes in the perspective of the enterprise and their decisions and investment in the IT market to sustain their business. Large corporates are trying harder to make their system better by investing chunk of their revenue in the technology without expecting short term returns. Handling large data and making use of the data, analyze it and monetize it is the target of these new companies in 2011.

So friends, lets share the good knowledge - Analyzed concepts among us and make sure that we all have a great business ahead this year.

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Hardik Upadhyay
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3 Golden Rules of Innovation - My Experience

Hello Friends,


The market is changing frantically, making it more aligned to the changing needs of the customers.

But the true thing is there is a bigger picture which is created due to percolating mentality of the higher management which conceives the innovation. The term "innovation" is changing in recent days and its mainly due to the remorse mentality and pale focus towards the new trends.

Now the million dollar question rises that is innovation is heading towards the right direction or its just a term which is still in the process of understanding?

The answer lies in the attitude of the people. It applies to all the people in the pyramid right from the bottom to the top. Every member should be actively involved in the creation of the new innovative business process or service implementation.

Journey from Deception to Real Innovation:

I might sound weird but this is what I have faced in my 2.5+ years of experience in Telecom Innovation Lab of Tata Consultancy Service. When there is any kind of incubation of idea, there is always some kind of inconsistency arises between the business alignment and the success of the innovation. People often makes fun of you by saying that innovation is too big thing for the freshers like you.

It made me wonder that why people cultivate such kind of mentality. People usually thinks that innovation is the duty of scientists or PhD people. If you do not have that knowledge, you are not fit to innovate the idea or create new things. 

By this thoughts, you are blocking the process of innovation and creating a mindset among the fresh minds to follow linear thinking rather than trying for unconventional approach towards the problem. The aspect of lateral thinking comes to a complete standstill and your mind gets rusted with the routine work.

Everyone says that to stay fit, you need to do exercise. But the same thing applies to your brain. We never try to question things, and by any means, try to question the process, are made fun by our friends. They often says that you are not Newton or Einstein that you will discover things.

I just want to say them one thing. NO, I am not a scientist but I have every right to use my knowledge which I have gained over these years and question the existing process. Sometimes, a stupid thought can create new innovative business model. You just need to think out of the box.

Measuring Innovation:

The second problem which I have faced is to quantify innovation. Guys, wake up. You need to understand that there in never a timeline for innovation. You just cannot put a gun of some one's head and make sure that there is innovative idea in return. You just cannot get things back in a specific time frame. You need patience to get the desired results. This lead to one complicated theory. The characters include higher management who funds the innovation and the people  who has the duty to find new things and to innovate.

Fostering innovation is a difficult process and it becomes complicated when external factors like business model creation comes into picture. You just cannot find a business model on every innovation. Its the first step to improve the process. Once the process significantly improves, there will be visible amount of profit for the company.

Avoid Vicious Circle in Ideation:

This is also one of the bigger aspect of ideation procedure. People who are amateur or highly experts tend to involve so much into the process that they tend to repeat the mistakes again and again. They try to evolve the idea on the same lines without thinking anything new. 

The only way to avoid this, is to just get a break and try to read about other's innovative ideas and try to mould your thoughts on their aspects. You can ask question to yourself for the success of various ideas and their evolution. This will give you a way to think beyond your scope and you will improve significantly.

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I would like to say one more thing. 

No One Is Born Brilliant. Its The Knowledge Which Gives You Power To Think "Out Of The Box". Use It Wisely.

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Hardik Upadhyay

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