My Journal

Photos on the go!!

2013-09-07T10:23:00.000-07:00

One of my best shots. Just loved the pay two shades of light play a role in adding drama to the picture.

Gives me a feeling of an early morning...

The Sun stands behind the man who stood for the country..

The light of Hope...!!!

The God in Sin City...!!!

4:00 AM....Las Vegas...!!!

5:30 AM Las Vegas...!!!!

Sunset at Maldives

Shilparamam......Hyderabad

The Buzz around Apple

2013-08-27T09:09:00.000-07:00

Since the sad demise of Jobs, Apple and especially Cook has been under the speculation of almost everybody. There have been reports and in depth analysis about how other OEM's and OS providers have surpassed Apple's market share. There have been analysis on how Apple's share price has been crumbling in the last one year.
I have a different angle on this. I have always looked at Apple as a luxury brand and therefore comparing it to the likes of Samsung and HTC would be unjust to both sides.
One study talks about a luxury brand influencing the emotional component more than the functional component.

The same study uses 5 variables to measure the strength of a brand.

Modernity: Apple has a strong history, Steve Jobs story can be a bed time story to any kid and Apple's story ties up very strongly to his. The kind of cutting edge technology that Apple has given the world in the last one decade has been a story of its own.
Eccentricity: Apple since inception has always stood out from social norms. Be it the first company to believe in providing a completely new eco system in terms of iTunes, iCloud, App Store, iMatch etc or the very few to believe in the future of mobile and tablet technology. Even after the prominence of Windows, maintaining a strong stand with their closed system.
Opulence: Owning an iPhone, iPad or a MacBook has been synonymous with wealth. One look at an Apple product can make it stand out from the crowd and that speaks volumes about the opulence of the brand.
Elitism: Apple is a very elitist brand. An iPhone carries a certain persona which the user wants to associate himself with. The simplicity yet power of the product has always made them stand out.
Strength: There are thousands of break test videos on YT comparing iPhone to other phones and surprisingly there is no video where the iPhone fails to the other one.

Apple stands strong on these parameters but for me there is one lever that this measure completely misses out on. I call that "Buzz". I define buzz as the amount of user interest a brand creates in the mind of the user that he proactively seeks information on the brand. There are two ways in which a user can seek information about a brand. Digital and the rest of the world. Since access to data on the digital platform is more easy, I would like to measure buzz for Apple with the amount of volume terms like iPhone and iPad generate on all search engines and across internet.
I have used entire internet data for all major brands in this space to see their share of total internet access.

This study of the iPhone vs others shows how the term "iPhone" has been way higher in the search share. There is nobody even closer to the iPhone search share on the internet.

There have been speculations about Apple's history since 2013. The data above is for Q1 and Q2 2013 and the graph shows an upward trend.

Data has been similar for iPad as well but here Kindle comes close second and Nexus 7 3rd.
So by my definition of Buzz, Apple has been doing well and the user is still interested in the brand. They are searching for Apple and Apple related terms. A little more thought went into the process when I realised that it might not be true that all people searching for these terms might be brand owners. But as long as people are creating that buzz online and looking for Apple's products are potential customers for Apple.
Apple still stands strong in the technology space and as long as they keep up to their loyalist expectations who swear by the brand, they are good to go.

The Virtual Window

2013-08-27T03:42:00.000-07:00

The shift in consumer behaviour isn’t in dispute. People now spend almost as much time online as watching TV, but brands still spend three times as much on TV ads than online marketing, according to a recent analysis.So why does this chasm between where brands spend media dollars and where consumers spend their time persist? It’s hard to single out a single reason, but the proliferation of platforms and staid corporate cultures are two.Yet some brands are effectively moving out of traditional into digital, with their media spending ratios now more rationally reflecting this shift in consumer behaviour. Consider footwear and apparel brand Converse. The brand’s spending ratio today is a window into the future of advertising spending. Less than 10% of Converse’s spend is on traditional media. Where’ the rest going?

A whopping 90% gets spent on what Geoff Cottrill, chief marketing officer at Converse, defined as “content development,” during a keynote marketer panel, “The Great Digital Transformation – Are We Here Yet?” at this week’s Ad Age Digital Conference in New York.

There is no doubt that the internet has revolutionised the way we work, the way we access news, the way we interact with each other and increasingly, the way we interact with brands.

The introduction of consumer engagement through digital is complex as consumers engage with multiple channels simultaneously.

The benefits of digital media are:

Measurability: Digital media allows targeting messages to customers at the right time, in the right place, through the appropriate channel. Interactive and real-time engagement.
Targeting:The ability to understand why, when and where customers need a product or service is very compelling.
Cost:In some instances almost no barriers to entry.
Agility:Ability to adapt to market needs and changes almost instantly.
Longevity:Once visible you are there to stay. The key is keeping visitors coming back for more.

While some benefits of traditional media are:

Wide audience:Traditional media has the ability to reach a large group of viewers and readers at the same time.
Static message:Ideal if the message is static and directed at a wide audience that doesn't need to change.
Creativity:Advertisers often try to tell stories within their ads that have an impact on the audience. Traditional media offers visual and audio elements that arguably have a greater impact on the audience.

Consumers receive messages through numerous media touch points.

A typical scenario

A typical scenario may play out like this: A person sees a TV advertisement or billboard for the launch of a new vehicle. It may then lead him or her to visit the company website and then search for luxury sedans in order to compare vehicles. Once searched for, the user is more likely to be targeted with digital display ads for that product or related products because the way they interacted with media determines how advertisers reach them.

Having visited the company website, the user may be enticed to click on social media links. Perhaps even 'like' them on their company Facebook page and 'follow' them on Twitter.

Should the person be lured into the brands social media space the challenge then is to persuade them to stick around and connect with your brand and each other (which is what an online community should do).

The problem for marketers comes when analysing channel performance and making a choice in order to achieve maximum ROI (Return on Investment).

There is undeniably a shift to digital media but there is still a place for traditional media.

Marketers should not consider it a direct choice between one or the other but rather determine how best to engage customers and compel them to buy. Digital media offers an ever increasing number of tools available to do just that.

Future in safe hands...

2013-06-14T02:24:00.000-07:00

I am always the pro Apple guy at office, home, socializing the idea of why Apple is the greatest company in the world. I have always believed in the idea and would probably believe in one. This idea was strong until I came across this video

I was watching this video and I was falling in love with Apple all over again, thanking them for all the change they have made to society and technology. Just then I saw a small logo at the bottom of the video in red and white. It said YouTube.
I started thinking, how would I see the video if we did not have a website called youtube and a company called Google to spread the joy. That is when I started thinking about how technology is changing or atleast trying to change things around me to make life for me, and my fellow humans more easy, simple and beautiful. For me technology could mean showing off the latest phone or the latest app but to the guys in the video, it means life.
Technology is breaking barriers and creating a new world, a unique world of its own and I like that new world.
Apple created the whole market for apps but Google with Android took it to the masses. Apple created tablets, and greener technology, Google created Maps, owns YouTube and the list can go on and on. But what they created together is a better life for so many of us.
There are so many ways in which we can compare, fight over which one is better of the two, but to think of them as one, it kind of gives a good feeling about the future.

Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android

2013-04-17T09:14:00.000-07:00

Who’s winning the mobile platform wars, Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android?

It’s one of the blogosphere’s favorite tech topics. Every new nugget of competitive information is fodder for an avalanche of coverage. Oftentimes, a story will declare that Android is beating iOS or that iOS is beating Android.

Really, though, it’s silly to obsess over any one data point. If what you’re after is a clear idea of how the world’s two dominant mobile operating systems are doing — rather than an excuse to make bold proclamations and/or cheer for your favorite — you want to consider lots of data points.

So that’s what I’m doing in this post. I’ve rustled up results from a bunch of studies, focusing on information that’s relatively fresh. (In some cases, it dates from the fourth quarter of 2012 — stats for the first quarter of this year are still scarce.)

Which platform is selling the most smartphones?

In research conducted from mid-November through mid-February, Kantar Worldpanel Comtech showed sales of all Android phones outpacing the iPhone by a hefty margin: 52.1 percent to 43.5 percent. However, judging from past Kantar studies, these figures may be more of a freeze-frame of the competition at one particular point in time than a permanent reality: last year, Kantar had Android in the lead for a spell, and then it said that iOS had bounced back into first place.

That’s the U.S. — how about everywhere else?

Worldwide, all those companies making Android phones sell a lot more units than Apple sells of the iPhone, says IDC. In the fourth quarter of 2012, Android had more than 70 percent share, vs. 21 percent for the iPhone.Another thing to add here would be that an Android starts at $100 but an iOS would be available for $499 at best. So looking at this number could be misleading for smartphone sale. In countries like India, OEM's like Micromax and Karbon sell Android at $100 or equivalent whereas iOS is sold at $599. Therefore not the perfect way to compare smartphone shipments.

And tablets?

Tablet shipment data is harder to come by than data for phones, and the most recent specific numbers by platform I could find were IDC’s full-year estimates for 2012, which it released on December 5 of last year. They had demand for 7″ Android tablets adding up to a decrease in the iPad’s dominance — but iOS still remained the most popular tablet operating system.

Which companies are selling the most smartphones?

Worldwide, according to IDC, Samsung — which deals primarily, but not exclusively in Android models — was the top manufacturer in the fourth quarter of last year, unit-wise. Apple was in second place.

In the U.S., however, Strategy Analytics says that Apple’s iPhone shipments outpaced Samsung.

Who’s making money selling smartphones?

As you might guess from the above two charts, Apple and Samsung are the ones raking in the bucks, says Canaccord Genuity. And Apple is raking in far more of them than Samsung, taking 72 percent of the profit in the last quarter of 2012. Samsung made 29 percent of the industry’s profit — mostly for Android phones, although it also has Windows Phone handsets. Everybody else in the business, including Android-centric makers such as HTC and Motorola, either broke even or lost money — which is why Apple and Samsung’s profits add up to more than 100 percent.

Which platform has the most apps?

After years of obsessing over the sheer quantity of apps available for these two platforms, the numbers seem to be similar, and similarly impressive, on both sides. Both Apple and Google currently claim more than 800,000 third-party programs for their respective platform.

What do the numbers look like for tablet-specific apps?

For iOS, Apple says there are more than 300,000 iPad-optimized programs. For Android: I wish I knew! As far as I know, Google hasn’t disclosed this number. But it’s safe to say that it remains piddling compared to Apple’s figure.

O.K., who has the best apps?

I hesitate to bring this up, because app quality is inherently subjective. But a company called uTest uses a system called Applause to crawl Apple’s App Store and Google’s Google Play, collecting user reviews and rankings. It then turns this data into scores from 1 to 100 for individual apps, and calculates average scores for each platform. In data published in a ReadWrite story in January, it said that the average iOS app, with a score of 68.5, is superior to the average Android app, at 63.3.

Which platform’s users are downloading the most apps?

According to Canalys, just over half of all apps downloaded in the first quarter of this year were for Android. iOS, at about 40 percent share, was the only other big-time player.

Who’s making money from app downloads?

According to Canalys’s data for the first quarter of this year, iOS users are spending much more on apps even if they’re downloading fewer of them overall. In this digital era when the world says that Google is the best company to monetize digital space, this data can prove otherwise.

Which platform gets used most on the Internet?

NetMarketShare publishes monthly stats on which browsers and operating systems are being used on the Net. Its report for March 2013 says that among mobile devices, iOS rules with 60.1 percent share. Android is way behind at 24.9 percent. Given that there are more Android devices out there, the data suggests that iOS users are disproportionately active online. Remember this is global data and although Android outnumbers iOS in international shipments, iOS outnumbers Android in internet usage. Does this speak about the web experience on the two platforms?
.

Which platform is more widely used in business, iOS or Android?

A Citrix report covering the fourth quarter of 2012 comes as close to addressing this question as any recent study I’ve seen. It covers Citrix customers that “have deployed enterprise mobility management in the cloud,” and shows iOS as trouncing Android and everything else.

iOS Apps offer better Quality than Android

2013-04-17T08:58:00.001-07:00

The horse race between the app stores has become a tedious exercise. Apple says it has 800,000 apps in the App Store. Google Play is about at 800,000 and is likely to hit the million app benchmark before iOS. But, as our readers so dutifully informed us, they do not really care. App store volume has become a non-story.

Quality, by its definition, is a subjective thing. Especially when it comes to mobile apps. When it comes to Apple and Android, fans of each will scream at each other that their apps are better, more numerous and generally awesome.

Who is right? The general perception is that iOS apps in Apple’s App Store are of better quality than their Android counterparts in Google Play. There has been really no way to quantify that though the history of the mobile app ecosystem.

The Data Doesn't Lie

What is this, you say? You cannot quantify quality? Well, that is true, to a certain extent. Perception of quality is clouded to an individual’s subjectivity. That did not stop application testing company uTest from setting out to answer the question. Today it released Applause, a service that uses an algorithm to crawl all live apps in the App Store and Google Play to aggregate every app’s ranking and user reviews to determine the quality of an individual app.

It is some powerful data and the results are fascinating.

Applause ranks every app in 10 categories and gives them an Applause Score of 1 to 100 along 1-0 categories. uTest can then look at average scores for app categories (such as games or media etc.) and yes, entire operating systems.

By uTest’s metrics, iOS apps have a mean Applause Score of 68.53. Android apps average Applause score is 63.34. The margin of difference between the two is ~8%.

That does not necessarily mean that any individual iOS app is going to be better than its equivalent or similar Android app. Each platform offers unique characteristics that can make the experience better or worse.

Upon ReadWrite’s request, the team at uTest took a broad level look at some popular app categories and compared them between the Apple App Store and Android Google Play. As you can see with the chart below, Apple generally comes out ahead in most major categories.

Note: Apple and Google do not use a common taxonomy for how they categorize apps. uTest had to map equivalent app categories to each other to come up with comparable rankings. Apps can be listed in two separate categories. Amazon Appstore for Android rankings are not included.

As you can see iOS ranks higher in nine of 11 top app categories. Android comes out ahead in productivity and medical apps. While these are not straight one-to-one comparisons, the data is deep enough from a categorical level to give us a good understanding that iOS users are ranking app quality higher than Android counterparts.

Phone before the iPhone

2013-04-17T08:44:00.004-07:00

It’s easy to forget a pre-iPhone world – who can blame you? Who wants to remember their KRZR K1 (!?) when you are now happy with your Android or iOS device? Well, I’d like to quickly remind you of the Mobile Dark Ages you were living from 2003 – 2007: poorly conceived devices that lacked any concern for the consumer’s true needs, and complete ignorance to a changing internet-centric society. These devices were your only choices before the iPhone, and in many ways, are just as responsible for its success by way of their mediocrity. Here are the 5 “best” devices that would have been available to you within 30 days of the first iPhone announcement. Some of the big brands that boast of innovation like Samsung looked something like this before the iPhone

The bulk of Samsung's pre-iPhone offerings for the U.S. market were bar-type phones, sliders and flip phones such as the BlackJack (center) and D900 (right). They came in the same familiar shapes being produced by most cell-phone manufacturers.

The F300 (left), which boasts two LCD screens -- one on each side -- was included by Samsung in its trial brief in a graphic purporting to demonstrate Samsung's early-stage touchscreen design. However, the 2006 phone has no true touchscreen capability, only the ability to scroll by swiping your finger along the edges of the sensor button.

These phones didn’t have even the most basic features you love today, and they were considered the best that money could buy – 4GB+ storage, gyroscope, visual voicemail, proximity sensor, capacitive touchscreen, gesture-based navigation – these simply didn’t exist. Rather, no one else cared to create them, though clearly the technology was there. This post isn’t meant to promote Apple or say it’s better than any other phone out there (though it may have come across that way – sorry, I do use the iPhone). After a while of having things so good for so long with Android and iOS, we sometimes forget why we broke up with the Cellular Industry in the first place – this post is meant to just be a reminder. Imagine where we might stand if that man called Steve Jobs had not launched the iPhone on June 29, 2007. We might still be using a Nokia or a samsung and our best source of entertainment would have been the Snake on Nokia phone. There would have been no Android and Blackberry would still be considered the epitome of mobile technology. For every business,it’s easier to give people the same product over and over, and ignore an ever-mounting desire by the consumer for innovation – it takes sheer will and fortitude on the part of every member of the company to make something that’s actually better. It’s easier for manufacturers like Motorola, Blackberry, and Nokia to show up to work, make an ad that uses the word “Innovation”, and then just push out the same old product with more features we don’t really want. I call 2003-2007 the Dark Ages of mobile technology, as the entire industry was asleep at the wheel – I’m glad someone stepped up and made a real product, something that calls to the needs of real people. If ever you need motivation to innovate in your work, and take your company out of your own Dark Ages, just look at these five craptacular cell phones you would’ve still been using today if a team at Apple hadn’t hit the bricks and made the iPhone.

Rethinking the 4P's

2013-04-11T07:05:00.003-07:00

4P's have been the marketing foundation for ages. They have been the Bible to huge marketing initiatives and check points on every marketers note book. But with the dynamics of the market changing there a lot more elements that are coming into the game and especially the Business and Industrial Markets.
I found a very interesting article on HBR that reframes the 4P's into SAVE.
The article basically talks about the following:

Instead of Product- Focus on Solution: Define offerings by the needs they meet, not by their features, functions or technological superiority.Management must encourage a solution mindset.

Instead of Place- Focus on Access: Develop an integrated cross- channel presence that considers customers entire purchase journey instead on emphasizing individual purchase locations and channels. Management needs to ensure that the design of the marketing organization reflects and reinforces the customer centric focus.

Instead of Price-Focus on Value: Articulate the benefits relative to price, rather than stressing how price relates to production costs, profit margins or competitors prices.

Instead of Promotion-Focus on Education: Provide information relevant to customers specific needs at each point in the purchase cycle, rather than relying on advertising, PR and personal selling that covers the waterfront.Management must try and create collaboration between the marketing and sales organisation and with the development and delivery team.

Is WhatsApp the obvious choice for Google??

2013-04-08T10:42:00.002-07:00

Its a neck to neck out there and anything with a million plus active user base in up for acquisition. It was Instagram for a billion dollars and now all eyes are at the green thing out there that has been making some noise on App Stores across all platforms. WhatsApp has been at the number position on the iOS App store for some time now.

On the second day of 2013, WhatsApp tweeted that it had reached a new milestone: 7 billion inbound messages a day. This happened little more than four months after August 23, when WhatsApp had reached 4 billion inbound messages a day. 75% volume growth since August 23 would translate to roughly 500% annualised volume growth.

Nevertheless, the growth is white hot. The three months leading to November 2012 was the period when RIM’s subscriber base finally started shrinking globally. The combination of turbo-charged WhatsApp messaging growth and a new wave of dirt cheap Android models from Samsung Micromax, Karbonn probably has something to do with the slowing BlackBerry momentum in Africa and South-East Asia.

WhatsApp is benefiting from the global clash of BlackBerry, Android and iPhone camps, because it offers a cross-platform messaging solution. On January 1, 2010, WhatsApp was a top-10 iPhone app in 16 countries across the world. a year later, the app had hit the top-10 chart in 63 countries and remains there even now in 54 countries. It’s a top-5 iPhone app in several markets that are particularly important to RIM – Malaysia, South Africa and Indonesia. Interestingly, WhatsApp is also either number 1 or number 2 app in Malaysia, South Africa and Indonesia in the Google Play app charts.

Mobile is a hot property and the real estate prices for mobile are soaring up high especially with search volume growth almost breaking through that of desktop. WhatsApp seems to be the right spot to get into. With WhatsApp not marrying Facebook, Google seems to be the obvious choice.

The only thing to do is to wait and watch!!

The "Bose" Magic

2013-02-27T02:19:00.000-08:00

After owning the Bose IE2, my personal audio had redefined its own dimensions and there was always more that I was seeking from my personal audio. This time it was the SoundLink™ Bluetooth® Mobile Speaker II - LX . Bluetooth speakers meant to be stream music wirelessly with bluetooth compatible devices and what an amazing job it does at that.
The new SoundLink Bluetooth Mobile Speaker II, includes new neodymium transducers and an updated digital signal processing algorithm that gives the speaker slightly better sound. Those modifications, plus a tweak to the design of the integrated protective cover/stand (it comes in leather or nylon) and the system's ability to now remember up to six devices for automatic pairing, are the key updates.

Design

Bose seems to have taken a few design cues from Apple: along with the compact shape and clean, elegant design, the unit is equipped with a magnetic protective combined cover and stand that automatically turns the speaker off when closed.It looks sturdy and some of the crash videos on youtube make my case stronger.

Features

The speaker has a built-in rechargeable lithium ion battery that's rated for 3 to 4 hours of use at high volume between charges and double that at moderate volume levels.The Bluetooth Mobile Speaker II has a wireless range of about 30 feet (I managed over 40 feet) and works with any A2DP Bluetooth-enabled device, which includes nearly all smartphones and most tablets, including the iPad. Around back you'll find a standard 3.5mm audio input for connecting (via an included cable) any other audio devices that don't offer Bluetooth, like an iPod Classic, for instance.I had no trouble pairing my iPhone 4S , HTC One X and my iPad with the speaker. You simply hold down the Bluetooth button on top of the speaker and it goes into pairing mode.

Performance

While the cutting-edge hardware design is the biggest factor behind the speaker's sound, there's also a nice piece of software running in the background to process what's coming into the speaker and make it sound as good as possible going out.As I said in my review of the original speaker, the results are shockingly good: the speaker plays incredibly loudly for its size. This thing can actually fill a medium-size room with sound. What's also impressive is that the sound doesn't distort at higher volumes. You can crank the Bose and it does just fine, with the bass holding together well and without any rattling or shaking of the speaker.I played a wide variety of music on the speaker. With the Wilco album "The Whole Love," the mellower, acoustic guitar tracks sounded rich and detailed, like what you'd get from a larger speaker. I then hit it with some rock and pop tracks from David Guetta, Rihanna, and Pitbull. It all sounded quite good for a Bluetooth speaker this size, though sound quality will vary according to the recording quality of the track.The new neodymium transducers are supposed to give the speaker a more "natural" sound.

Conclusion

Since the original Bose SoundLink Wireless came out more compact, portable Bluetooth speakers have it the market, including the highly rated Jawbone Big Jambox. Please do not compare Bose Sound Link to your normal speakers or home theatres, it is a different category. If you are looking at a music system that can be carried to the beach or in your car while driving, this is the one. Priced at Rs 24,000/- this is a one time investment.

The Impossible

2013-01-05T05:34:00.000-08:00

A late Saturday afternoon and there was nothing much to do and I was reading reviews on IMDB and comparing to to stuff available for download. The Impossible popped up as the 1st choice with a rating on 7.7/10. Not bad I said.

I prefer not to read anything about the movie if the ratings are good and therefore proceeded with the download. After watching here is my review of the movie.
The film stars Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts as the two parents of three young boys that were vacationing in Thailand over Christmas when the tsunami devastated the country and shocked the world.

With a prerequisite set-up of the main characters, the tsunami hits early in The Impossible and packs an incredible punch. As the wave crashes through the hotels pool area and sweeps away the five members of the family, we watch in terror as Maria and Lucas struggle to stay above the raging water and within arms lengths of each other.

Once the water settles, the badly injured Maria and Lucas begin a journey of survival without knowledge as to the fate of the missing three members of the family. Lucas is forced to mature beyond his years and assist in getting his mother to a hospital for immediate emergency attention and is the key to the more emotional scenes that conclude the film.

The Impossible is only the second film made using new 3-D sound technology (the film is in 2-D) and the crashing and fast flowing water sequences can be heard, and almost felt, throughout the entire theatre.

When not fully engrossed in our characters' plights and emotionally tied to their survival, we are thoroughly repulsed by the graphic scenes of bodily destruction that blood soak the screen.

Thanks to the trailers, we know how the movie concludes. But just like Ron Howard's masterful Apollo 13, J.A. Bayona still keeps us at the edge of our seats even with an ending that is both clear and true to the original story.

Watts and McGregor pull off incredibly emotional and physical scenes and films that deal with real life tragedy and the human spirit that overcomes those tragedies usually find favour with award voters.

But whether or not The Impossible gets any gold plated hardware it does not take away from the tiring and emotional journey that audiences will take with their characters. The Impossible is the best depiction yet of the Indian Ocean tsunami and the horrors that succeeded it. It is also one of the best movies we have seen so far this year. Packed with equal scenes of tearful drama and graphic horrors. And although the wave is the catalyst that propels the plot, the characters are so strong that the big wave that hits the resort will hardly be the thing you most remember.

Go for it before I write up the whole story on my page!!

Mapping to Glory!!

2012-12-12T21:53:00.000-08:00

Apple has been the mother of all inventions but the iOS 6.0 maps was a face down. Reports of people in Australia landing up at a snake infected desert with Apple Maps was killing it for them. But building a map takes time. It is a gradual process but the customers are not patient. They wanted something fast. They had to keep their customers happy.
What could they do??

Probably somebody else had to save the day for them.
Who would it be??

Google, thank you. We were waiting for this and you just saved the day.

This ad just kills it for me right there.
It is a complete user experience overhaul from any Google Maps experience you’ve ever had. The new swipe gestures to bring up menus, as well as the great detail in which information is displayed are clear as soon as you open the app. Good thing, because 50% of the Google Maps usage comes from mobile devices, obviously.
As I mentioned, the UI is unlike what you saw previous to iOS 6, which used Google Maps exclusively. It’s also nothing like you’ve seen on Android, either. The team really hunkered down and pushed out something that utilizes all of the available design elements and gestures built into iOS.

THE INFO SHEET

Swiping up from the bottom of the app brings up an “info sheet” that displays information brought in from Google+ Local. You can still see the map while the info sheet is up, which makes navigating from place to place a snap. Say you want to check out a few bars, simply swipe through some of the suggestions based on the search you just performed.

There’s a “look around” mode that shows photos that people have taken, as well as 3D modeling inside of venues. Those things, seemingly very graphic intensive, load quick as hell. You’ll also find reviews that people have submitted via Google+ Local, which is now tied into Zagat. It’s pretty comprehensive, and could even get a bit social, even though Google+ isn’t fully integrated as of yet. I think that it will follow pretty quickly though.

NAVIGATION

Once you find a place that you want to go to, and sadly this doesn’t include air travel yet, another one of those things that Google simply must include in a future version, you pick your location, pick your starting point, and then you see all of your options. All of the routes are of course dependent upon current real-time traffic conditions, so you might find that you should take a way to work that you’ve never taken before. It takes trust, but once you use the app a little bit, it should come naturally.

Naturally, this is all voice guided, turn-by-turn, much like you’d find on Android devices using the Navigation app. It’s Siri-like, yes, but the voice will be familiar to you from Google Now. At the bottom of the route, while travelling, simply tap the time and miles to cycle through to see where you on your trip, something that’s difficult to do in iOS 6 maps right now. Basically, I’ve found that you have to start your route all over to see an updated destination time.

Tap the three dots on the right to bring up routing information, such as list view, or simply do a two fingered swipe to the left.

So have fun, enjoy and for people who have not updated to iOS 6.0 because of the Maps, please go ahead!!

Happy Living

2012-12-12T05:46:00.000-08:00

When the year dawns, there are memories that I would want to carry to the next level. I wanted to write a blog about that but Google made my life simple again. It gave me a gift in the form of a video that sums up not only my life but the world for me in 2012.
The urge is to watch it, feel it and live it like you lived your year with happiness, joy, hope, faith, confidence, inspiration, aspiration, commitment and some more hope.

The next year will bring the same because we belong to that race that makes God proud.
The world cannot end on 21st Dec 2012 because we are not done yet!!

Happy Living!!

The fascinating facebook

2012-11-13T06:13:00.002-08:00

How fascinating is the world of Facebook. The moment it was launched to the point at which it is today, what an amazing ride it has been. But, let us keep the business aside and think about the ways in which it has affected lives. There have been instances where fb has been life changing but there have also been instances where fb has been personality changing and that is what is interesting.

Suddenly all the girls in the world have come to limelight and facebook takes all the credit for that.

A small social experiment was observed by me when a friend(guy)- 512 friends, updates his status as "Missing Home, away from Diwali for the first time:)" and he got 3 likes and 9 comments out of which 5 were his own and the remaining 4 were from a friend who said " Stop begging for sympathy."

A similar post was updated by a girl-497 friends, and not surprisingly she had 46 likes and comments like "Feeling sad for you sweetie", "Why didn't you come to me?" etc counting to 78 comments.

I mean what wrong did the guy do?

He was feeling equally lonely and sad. But no, men don't get that on fb.

Another category of people who like to express all their sorrows of fb like "I wish I could die" or "I am soooo sad" or even better are the sentimental Hindi poetry. Nobody likes their updates except themselves or a equally stupid friend saying "Kya hua dear?"

Another category of people on fb are the ones who like to play with their keyboard with fonts LiKe ThIs or like thissssss or like this!!!!!!!!@#!!. I mean seriously toggle case is a PAIN.

Then comes another sort of characters who like to post pictures of themselves and tag it as "This is meeee" or "Who is the is cutie Pie" or " "Me and Mah sweetie". Oh really!! I thought it was the orangutan I saw at the Mysore Zoo.

Then comes the most amazing species. People love to gossip and gossipers want attention and what better place than fb. I mean fb has become an oracle of news and information, most of which is spam.

Above all this is the linguistic disaster that happens on fb every freaking second. What irks me more is modifying normal words in a miserable attempt to sound 'cool'. Believe me, 'kewl' is NOT cool. There is no rational explanation for typing in this disastrous manner.The sole purpose of SMS language was to reduce texting time. You're typing the same number of letters so you're not achieving that either!

My sincere request, 'Puhleez' grow up and get a reality check or else, i'm 'sowwie' to say, but one fine day people will throw 'Rawks' at you and then only 'Gawd' can save you.

Yet another annoying aspect, excessive punctuations.

Do you want to sound like you're on an adrenaline rush ?

What difference would it make if you typed "Hey!" instead of "Hey!!!!!!!!!!!"

It just makes you sound unnecessarily excited and personally, I find it kind of creepy.

Using a zillion dots is also vexatious. An ellipsis consists of three dots. It's supposed to indicate a short pauses or breaks in the writer's train of thought not a mini coma.
And finally coming to chat abbreviations, I know you're in a hurry but you're not exactly the busiest person in the world. Why butcher the English language?

It won't kill you to write 'what's up' instead of 'Ssup' or 'wazza'.I can still fathom using it if you don't have a qwerty keypad. I honestly don't see the laboriousness in typing a complete, grammatically correct word when all the alphabets lay right in front of you.

The bitterly sweet life

2012-10-19T09:44:00.001-07:00

It's amazing how I become a total mess at airports. I hate it when I carry extra baggage not because I need to shell out Rs 250 per kg(WTF) but because I become a chaos and Mr Joker chaos is not at all good. Anyways..
You know there are times when the person checking in before you is so irritating because he always takes so long to check in and the second most irritating person is the one after you because he seems to have no patience at all.
I wish the story of misery could end there but I can only wish. I like the guys at the security. They are so good at what they do, and what fascinates me the most is their eye for perfection. I mean they sometime unpack everything that you had taken weeks to effectively manage into a baggage and what they find at the rock bottom is a nail clipper. Dude, please pack this thing for me now is what I wish I could say but my respect for that guy stops me which is not at all related to the gun in his pocket.
Then when you wish you would lie in the laps of luxury and beauty the air hostess in saree welcomes you. Forget the flirting and the staring, I wish I could touch her feet and take her blessings but now since I am engaged that is the only chance I have with every woman except my life.
But with all this chaos there is a smile on my face because I am starting a new journey and this jet is taking me there. I am travelling a thousand miles and with all this chaos and auntiness around me, the journey is going to start well.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Delta Flight 15

2012-10-09T12:41:00.003-07:00

SOMETHING GOOD DOES COME OUT OF SOMETHING TERRIBLE. THIS IS SO REFRESHING.

Here is an amazing story from a flight attendant on Delta Flight 15, written following 9-11:

"On the morning of Tuesday, September 11, we were about 5 hours out of Frankfurt, flying over the North Atlantic. All of a sudden the curtains parted and I was told to go to the cockpit, immediately, to see the captain.

As soon as I got there I noticed that the crew had that "All Business" look on their faces. The captain handed me a printed message. It was from Delta's main office in Atlanta and simply read, "All airways over the Continental United States are closed to commercial air traffic. Land ASAP at the nearest airport. Advise your destination."

"No one said a word about what this could mean. We knew it was a serious situation and we needed to find terra firma quickly. The captain determined that the nearest airport was 400 miles behind us in Gander, New Foundland.

He requested approval for a route change from the Canadian traffic controller and approval was granted immediately--no questions asked. We found out later, of course, why there was no hesitation in approving our request.

"While the flight crew prepared the airplane for landing, another message
arrived from Atlanta telling us about some terrorist activity in the New York area. A few minutes later word came in about the hijackings.

"We decided to LIE to the passengers while we were still in the air. We told them the plane had a simple instrument problem and that we needed to land at the nearest airport in Gander, New Foundland to have it checked out.

"We promised to give more information after landing in Gander. There was much grumbling among the passengers, but that's nothing new! Forty minutes later, we landed in Gander. Local time at Gander was 12:30 PM! .... that's 11:00 AM EST.

"There were already about 20 other airplanes on the ground from all over the world that had taken this detour on their way to the U.S. After we parked on the ramp, the captain made the following announcement: "Ladies and gentlemen, you must be wondering if all these airplanes around us have the same instrument problem as we have. The reality is that we are here for another reason." Then he went on to explain the little bit we knew about the situation in the U.S. There were loud gasps and stares of disbelief. The captain informed passengers that Ground control in Gander told us to stay put.

"The Canadian Government was in charge of our situation and no one was allowed to get off the aircraft. No one on the ground was allowed to come near any of the air crafts. Only airport police would come around periodically, look us over and go on to the next airplane. In the next hour or so more planes landed and Gander ended up with 53 airplanes from all over the world, 27 of which were U.S. commercial jets.

"Meanwhile, bits of news started to come in over the aircraft radio and for the first time we learned that airplanes were flown into the World Trade Center in New York and into the Pentagon in DC. People were trying to use their cell phones, but were unable to connect due to a different cell system in Canada. Some did get through, but were only able to get to the Canadian operator who would tell them that the lines to the U.S. were either blocked or jammed.

"Sometime in the evening the news filtered to us that the World Trade Center buildings had collapsed and that a fourth hijacking had resulted in a crash. By now the passengers were emotionally and physically exhausted, not to mention frightened, but everyone stayed amazingly calm. We had only to look out the window at the 52 other stranded aircraft to realize that we were not the only ones in this predicament.

"We had been told earlier that they would be allowing people off the planes one plane at a time. At 6 PM, Gander airport told us that our turn to deplane would be 11 am the next morning. Passengers were not happy, but they simply resigned themselves to this news without much noise and started to prepare themselves to spend the night on the airplane.

"Gander had promised us medical attention, if needed, water, and lavatory servicing. And they were true to their word. Fortunately we had no medical situations to worry about. We did have a young lady who was 33 weeks into her pregnancy. We took REALLY good care of her. The night passed without incident despite the uncomfortable sleeping arrangements.

"About 10:30 on the morning of the 12th a convoy of school buses showed up. We got off the plane and were taken to the terminal where we went through Immigration and Customs and then had to register with the Red Cross.

"After that we (the crew) were separated from the passengers and were taken in vans to a small hotel. We had no idea where our passengers were going. We learned from the Red Cross that the town of Gander has a population of 10,400 people and they had about 10,500 passengers to take care of from all the airplanes that were forced into Gander! We were told to just relax at the hotel and we would be contacted when the U.S. airports opened again, but not to expect that call for a while.

"We found out the total scope of the terror back home only after getting to our hotel and turning on the TV, 24 hours after it all started.

"Meanwhile, we had lots of time on our hands and found that the people of Gander were extremely friendly. They started calling us the "plane people."
We enjoyed their hospitality, explored the town of Gander and ended up having a pretty good time.

"Two days later, we got that call and were taken back to the Gander airport.
Back on the plane, we were reunited with the passengers and found out what they had been doing for the past two days. What we found out was incredible.

"Gander and all the surrounding communities (within about a 75 Kilometer radius) had closed all high schools, meeting halls, lodges, and any other large gathering places. They converted all these facilities to mass lodging areas for all the stranded travelers. Some had cots set up, some had mats with sleeping bags and pillows set up.

"ALL the high school students were required to volunteer their time to take care of the "guests." Our 218 passengers ended up in a town called Lewisporte, about 45 kilometers from Gander where they were put up in a high school. If any women wanted to be in a women-only facility, that was arranged. Families were kept together. All the elderly passengers were taken to private homes.

"Remember that young pregnant lady? She was put up in a private home right across the street from a 24-hour Urgent Care facility. There was a dentist on call and both male and female nurses remained with the crowd for the duration.

"Phone calls and e-mails to the U.S. and around the world were available to everyone once a day. During the day, passengers were offered "Excursion" trips. Some people went on boat cruises of the lakes and harbors. Some went for hikes in the local forests. Local bakeries stayed open to make fresh bread for the guests. Food was prepared by all the residents and brought to the schools. People were driven to restaurants of their choice and offered wonderful meals. Everyone was given tokens for local laundry mats to wash their clothes, since luggage was still on the aircraft. In other words, every single need was met for those stranded travelers.

"Passengers were crying while telling us these stories. Finally, when they were told that U.S. airports had reopened, they were delivered to the airport right on time and without a single passenger missing or late. The local Red Cross had all the information about the whereabouts of each and every passenger and knew which plane they needed to be on and when all the planes were leaving. They coordinated everything beautifully. It was absolutely incredible.

"When passengers came on board, it was like they had been on a cruise. Everyone knew each other by name. They were swapping stories of their stay, impressing each other with who had the better time. Our flight back to Atlanta looked like a chartered party flight. The crew just stayed out of their way. It was mind-boggling. Passengers had totally bonded and were calling each other by their first names, exchanging phone numbers, addresses, and email addresses.

"And then a very unusual thing happened. One of our passengers approached me and asked
if he could make an announcement over the PA system. We never, ever allow that. But this time was different. I said "of course" and handed him the mike. He picked up the PA and reminded everyone about what they had just gone through in the last few days. He reminded them of the hospitality they had received at the hands of total strangers. He continued by saying that he would like to do something in return for the good folks of Lewisporte.

"He said he was going to set up a Trust Fund under the name of DELTA 15 (our flight number). The purpose of the trust fund is to provide college scholarships for the high school students of Lewisporte. He asked for donations of any amount from his fellow travelers. When the paper with donations got back to us with the amounts, names, phone numbers and addresses, the total was for more than $14,000!

"The gentleman, a MD from Virginia, promised to match the donations and to start the
administrative work on the scholarship. He also said that he would forward this proposal to Delta Corporate and ask them to donate as well. As I write this account, the trust fund is at more than $1.5 million and has assisted 134 students in college education.

"I just wanted to share this story because we need good stories right now. It gives me a little bit of hope to know that some people in a far away place were kind to some strangers who literally dropped in on them. It reminds me how much good there is in the world."

"In spite of all the rotten things we see going on in today’s world this story confirms that there are still a lot of good and Godly people in the world and when things get bad, they will come forward.

Anonymous

2012-10-06T07:44:00.001-07:00

I was checking out videos on you tube that created the biggest controversies in history and was surprised to find a video of Tom Cruise in the list. This was fascinating and started digging deeper and what story it turned out to be.
Tom Cruise made a video with a group called "Scientology" to talk about how a scientologist can make a difference in society. He spoke about how a scientologist always looks gives his hand to the people in need and he looked grave and dead serious when he spoke about it. Few days later another video was leaked that was like the making of the previous video. In this video Tommy was found laughing at the lines and the script of the previous video. This video became a rage online and people were making fun of the "Church of Scientology". This group was not too happy with this and got the video off YouTube.
Now another group called Anonymous did not like the idea of a video being removed off the net. This group represented transparency online and the removal of the video by Scientology was offensive. They raged an online war against Scientology where they hacked their website, sent spams, sent email floods on their servers. Scientology tried to file a lawsuit against Anonymous but was unable to do so. Why this was not possible is another interesting story.
Facebook is a website where people with known identities post pictures, upload videos, comment share etc. People know each other personally and therefore the kind of content that is flowing is restricted for personal interest. On the other hand exists another website called 4chan. This website believes in maintaining the anonymity of its user therefore the content that is uploaded on their page is unrestricted, unfiltered, unadulterated etc. Any user who posts, comments is always termed as anonymous unless someone is interested in revealing their identities. This website became quiet a rage especially some users like /b/. Issues like Scientology was openly discussed on the 4Chan forums. Coincidently majority of people actively involved on 4chan were hackers. The term anonymous thus came into existence from 4chan.
They all got together when wiki leaks had leaked the US govt official documents. Following the controversy Paypal, MasterCard and Visa stopped accepting donations for wiki leaks through their portals. 4chan was getting flooded with discussions, rage and anger on this issue. These guys were getting together with a common string of thoughts and one fine evening they hacked and brought down the websites of these e-commerce giants. This was the first stepping stone for Anonymous.
When Scientology issue was rising up, a thread was started on 4chan were the group decided to meet up and protest outside the church of Scientology. There were all unknown people and no one actually knew the other person personally.
On the decided date around 10000 people gathered out the churches all over the world wearing the Guy Fawks( V for Vendetta) masks. They protested against the church of Scientology. This was indeed a great achievement but something bigger had just started. They brought down Scientology on its knees but yes a few arrests and investigations were made.
History was created when civil war broke out in Egypt and protests against Mubarak went online. The Egyptian government cut off Internet access in Egypt and suddenly twitter hits went from 1.09 million to ZERO from Egypt with 15 mins. Anonymous was not taking this well. They tried connecting with people in Egypt, hacked the Egypt govt servers and got Egypt online. This might have not got Egypt what it wanted but people from Egypt were back online and telling the world about ground realities.
So was this the ultimate power that the world was waiting for, people who would fight for a transparent world, a world where every man has access to any information?
Well, I would have said yes until all of this started going haywire. Power in the hands of the wrong people can turn out to be disastrous and this point was proved when these people hacked into the play station servers. More than 80 million people were affected and millions of back informations leaked. This was threatening and it cost Sony a lot of money and material to get things back to normal.
Anonymous whoever or whatever you are, you were legions. A group of hactivists who could have changed so many things in the world but to be honest you presence scares me. I am more comfortable with known devils than the unknown ones.

Life is Beautiful

2012-09-17T01:04:00.001-07:00

Since her entry in my life, life has started to make so much of sense. Heart brought us so close because we were not meant to stay away. Distance was not meant for us.
There were some dreams that were destined for us, and we have to fulfil them together. Today I want to accept my mistakes. Today I want to fulfil all my desires that were suppressed somewhere deep inside.
Fate had to give up, I was not giving up on you.
Today I am not listening to gravity, stop pulling me down, I am going to fly today. My heart is not ready to listen to me, and I am ok with that. " go wander away, come back when you will".
My mind says I want to stop thinking cognitively and I agree.
I want to close my eyes and dance as if nobody is watching. I want to walk backwards with the absolute absence of fear.
What do I do, things are moving so fast around me but I have my own pace and I love it. A little smile, a little laughter, and a small part of the moon.
Words half untold make so much of sense.
I don't want the four walls and a roof on my head, the clouds would do. Life is taking small steps, but I like the way it's moving. My lips are whistling tunes that I have never heard of but it sounds so good. My eyes are doing the talking, while I drift into a land, foreign but beautiful.
Tonight we are young and we shine brighter than the sun.

(App's)le

2012-08-27T02:17:00.000-07:00

I have been using Apple products for about half a decade now, starting with the ever green iPod and then slowly upgrading to an iPad and now an iPhone. So in about 3 years from now I would be completing the apple cycle where an iMac would become the final addition. When i started using the iPod, apple's technology fascinated me but honestly there were hundred other mp3 player doing equivalent or in some cases better job. Apart from the feather wheel, what was setting Apple apart from other brands??
I could not find the answer to this question until I bought the iPad.
The day I unboxed the beautiful little creature and then logged in to create the Apple ID. Once I was done with that, I opened the magical App Store. This was a world of its own. It was like opening the Narnia wardrobe and discovering a new world, the Narnia. I mean there were billion of apps, priced up $99.99 and starting at $0.00. I was amazed, that there were so many applications, games etc that were so amazing and most of them were being offered for free.
I tried to download the most common ones like Angry Bird, Temple Run, Facebook, Twitter, Skype etc without paying a penny. All I needed was an Apple ID. This was so much of fun.
These apps were amazing, worked perfectly fine. This continued for about a month, and then I slowly started moving towards the Tier II of apps. These were apps that were not very well known. These were apps that were very job specific like a to do list creator, a journal management, a "drink water" reminder but amazing at what they were doing.

One of the apps that amazed me was All Do. A free app dedicated to creating to do lists. The USP of this app is the simplicity, the same Zen philosophy on which apple products have been designed for decade.A blue color logo with a white arrow at the centre and a blue tick, amazed me with its reviews that I had to download it. Divided into 4 parts today, tomorrow, this week and Later you can add, edit and delete reminders with a swipe on a finger. Create a shopping list and keep striking them off as you buy them is fun. Very well integrated with iCloud, the update occurs real time. Now imagine your wife sitting at home and updating the shopping list on her AllDo and you get the updates on your phone while you are out shopping.
The layout of the app is simple and you get the option of filtering your reminders on the basis of Date, Category(Work,Personal), Done(completed tasks).
Overall a brilliant app, for free on the app store.

Shantaram, the long term relationship

2012-08-24T03:22:00.001-07:00

There on the 5th shelf of the third rack I found the book I was looking for. The unusual combination of red and green with a tinge of black was giving the Taj Mahal a very frowzy feel.
The first impression I got when I picked up the book was,wow! this is some stuff, 1000 pages of an Australian's experience in India and I picked it up. I mean, Shantaram has been doing rounds in India for about 9 years now, and every book store in India has sold atleast one copy of this book.
Thats amazing!!
I picked it up. There was always a sense of pride in carrying a book to the hostel.Friends want to know more about the UFO kind of stuff you are carrying with you. Some guys want to tell you facts about the book but basically what they are trying to tell you is " Dude, I finished reading this book when I was like three", and some pretend to do so.
Whatever!!
I went to my room and I started turning the pages reading about Lin's first experience of India at the Mumbai airport.I read about 30 pages and then a well wisher tells me this book is going to take ages and we might have a surprise quiz tomorrow.
I return the sacred book to the 5th shelf of the third rack.
My first encounter of this book ended like most of the relationships do today.
!! Whoof!!
2 years later, one of my friends tells me about this amazing book she read called Shantaram. She keeps on talking about this book, about the story of this Australian guy who comes to India and then lives here and becomes a part of the crowd. She tells me about this book being a real life experience and stuff and that I should definitely read it. Ok, I had to read the book, I mean my friend has finished reading it. I had seen this book with a lot of people especially foreigners travelling to India. Probably this book was
Iike a Lonely Planet for India?? I did not know and therefore I had to read it.
A few days later I was at a book store and Shantaram was not in my mind. I was looking at Rashmi Bansal's new work on Dharavi Slum. While billing the other one, I found the same old weird combination of red and green. I asked the shopkeeper if Shantaram was selling, he said " like hot cake". I had to pick it up.
I was waiting for somebody at CCD and I had nothing much to do apart from waiting so I opened the book and started reading. The book started with Lin's first experience of India at the Mumbai Airport. I kept reading and it was good and getting even better. I read for about an hour and had finished a good 100 pages or so but then I needed a break so I turned the book around to read stuff people had written about this book.
There were a few lines about Georgy(the author of this book). This book were his experiences in India penned down. Soon after he left India he was arrested in Germany and there in the jail he wrote this book. His work along with his spirits was torn down twice or thrice, but he kept on writing it again and again. This is a 1000 page book, with a lot of details about his experience. This was something that moved me, now the whole hue and cry about this book even after 10 years of this book been written made sense to me. I knew, this fact about the book is going to keep me going till the last page.
This book was a long term relationship, took me about a month of good reading to finish it, to get to the last page but then what an experience. The way the book inculcates love, friendship, betrayal, loyalty, thrill, excitement is just amazing. The journey of a man from Australia to Mumbai to Afghanistan.
Even in the world of hollywood Shantaram has been having quiet a journey. Russel Crowe wanted to play the lead in the movie but Jhonny Depp bought the rights for the movie and that made it quiet obvious he would get to do the honours. Meera Nair was supposed to direct the movie with Mr Amitabh Bachchan playing the role of Khaderbhai, another interesting character in the book.
When I finished reading the book, i started thinking about something. I had seen a lot of foreigners carrying this book with them when they travel to India. Was this what they expected to experience when they came to India, the experiences of Lin???
Probably they thought of India to be like the way Lin had spoken about in his book. I dont know but I am sure Shantaram has definitely helped boost India Tourism.
Jokes apart, one of the best books I have ever experienced.
I wish every body takes some time out to experience this story

The world beyond reality

2012-08-16T11:35:00.001-07:00

The desire to be heard and to reach out to an audience has grown more than ever before. Blogging in that sense has come as a messiah to this world absorbed by this need. The number of opinions and views which need a medium
has reached such a large number due to the phenomenal dissemination of information that today's interweb has created. Blogging becomes that medium. At the same time reaching out to a huge audience, all over the world is intoxicating. It makes bestsellers out of nothing and this power of boundless coverage makes self expression, cooler.

Ideas take flight on the blogosphere. With self expression becoming a community movement. Thoughts are no more restricted to the individual They are being processed, broken down and taken to the world unlike ever before.
This will be the new world order. A generation free to allow their minds to wander as blogging helps make expressing yourself a game changer in an era dominated by the individual. The next turn in this incredible journey of self expression can only be bigger and better. Hail Twitter, Blogger. Wordpress!! You just broke the shackles.

Apple, a luxury brand???

2012-07-10T11:46:00.000-07:00

This is a small article, my team mate and I had written for our MBA project work. Thought I should share this.
As we know apple was founded in 1976 by Steve Wosniak and Steve Jobs in California, around a vision: that of the computer with a human face, the computer as a servant of man and not the other way around. If we recall this era, computers equipped with IBM’s disc operating system were shocked by the introduction of Apple 2 in 1977, its user friendliness and ease of use. Macintosh created a revolution. The little smiling man who appeared when you switch the Mac on, offered to be your guide in this new universe, while the screens of other computers which displayed reams of figures and terms that were incomprehensible to the ordinary mortal, confirmed from the start that you were an unwelcome intruder into the universe.
Despite the success of this strategy, Steve Jobs was considered too young and unpredictable to manage a listed company, and in 1983 the shareholders of Apple hired John Sculley, the #2 at Pepsi Cola, one of the best marketers in the business, as CEO thinking that with the launch of Macintosh, it was necessary to implement a true marketing strategy in order to move to the next stage, and make Apple a challenger to IBM.
The clash of culture between Sculley and Jobs quickly escalated to the point of Jobs departure in 1985, due the personal and strategic conflict, leaving Sculley the complete freedom to act. Profits began to go rapidly downhill, and in 1996-97 the situation at Apple was dire. Apple thought it better to acquire NeXT, the company founded by Steve Jobs after his departure, to regain Jobs and hand the reigns to him once more.
Jobs returned to the original strategy while adapting the management style to the new situation. The rest is history: the iMac, then the iPod and iTunes, the iPhone and finally the iPad, and entire series of global successes both in terms of financial profits and technical terms, was spectacular proof of Jobs wisdom in an ultra-competitive market.
The case of Apple is a prime example, even the impossibility, for a brand or a company to cross this border between “luxury” and “premium”, in either direction, even within the same market niche, and if the market is not a traditional luxury market.
Let us review Apple’s strategy that has all the characteristics of luxury Brand applied to a classic market:
· A strong vision at the beginning, a creative Utopia
· A historic, creative founder, nurturing and personifying this Utopia, who, having been supplanted, returns to save the declining company.
· A temporal dimension that solidifies over time: a messianic creator ousted from his own company and replaced by traditional marketing, is recalled to give the company a creative lease of life.
· A status component: when you use an apple you show It off proudly. The famous apple logo has been inverted on laptops so that everyone around can identify in a meeting when it is open.
· A collective cultural dimension and a personal one( any apple fan can spend hours explaining you to what extent their apple is nicer and better than any other brand), the exceedance of pure functionality through an aesthetic dimension and sensual material ( glass and aluminum for the iMac)
· A relationship to art, since the brand is worshipped by design professional, who are its most faithful clients and believers.
· Personalization taken to the extreme (thousands of different covers for the iPod in even crocodile and python skin), and the “iPod-isation” of your car.
· The systematic creation of virtual rarity, hence the queues of clients waiting an entire night in lines for the opportunity of an iPhone as soon as it come.
· Increasing controlled distribution: exclusive boutiques (the Cube) and dedicated Apple stands which are multiplying enable s them to remain in direct contact with their clients, and never in direct comparison with other PC brands. Apple distribution took a further step with the launch of iPhone, which is granted to a single telephone operator per country at a high price or a considerable royalty rate, which speaks volume about the gross margin.
· We can understand the rush of sharp minds and hackers around the world to unlock this device and render it compatible with all operators. For Apple this is the equivalent of counterfeiting a grey market, typical of the luxury market.
· The prices are clearly higher than all competitors and are never reduced.
· Clients are set at a distance: Apple was revolutionary in its day through its open invitation to techies on all sites, to the nerds to freely create with and for the Apple. With iPhone and iTune, they are moving into another logic, closed and aiming to manage demand.
The fact that Apple strategy is a luxury is confirmed by the failure of John Sculley to return the Apple collective to the straight and narrow of classic marketing, a failure that demonstrated the specificity of the brand, or better yet, the fact that Apple is not only a brand, but above all a universe, that of the original dream of human user friendly computing.

Aisle or Centre

2012-06-26T01:25:00.000-07:00

“Aisle or center Sir???”

What??

“Aisle or center Sir, your seat, what would you prefer?”

“Aisle” like that’s a question to ask.

“Here is your boarding pass, have a nice flight!!”

I really wish I do, rest has been something I had been desperately looking forward to, and this flight from Pune to Kolkata via Ahmedabad would be just perfect. 4 hours of peace, no phone calls, no mails, just some good sound sleep. Actually sleep has been more peaceful for me on a chair from the past 6 months because I have been spending most of my time in cars, buses, flights and that has been the best time for me to grab some sleep.

I had 40 minutes to go through the security check and grab some snack before I boarded the flight. This was also a good time a have a look around, to try and guess the kind of people who would be travelling with you. The best way to do that is to try and take a peek into their boarding passes. I was doing the same thing while I grabbed a veg-roll and some cola. I saw some men, typical business-man, some old couple, very loving, romantic, some salesmen, young people, and then you find a girl, who is usually reading a book, listening to music or talking over the phone. I have no idea why but suddenly you start behaving in a certain fashion as if you know everyone at the airport, and you are kind of a regular here, flights have always been your thing etc. I mean stuff that you think makes you sound cool, well I was no different. As if of all the people in the crowd she is most interested to notice how you behave, that’s funny, we know it, but the next time we still behave the same way. Well, the good part was this was taking most of my time and now we were ready to board our flight. My eyes were trying to screen boarding pass of people, trying to figure out my humsafar for the next 4 hours, high hopes that it will be the only girl in the airport.

“Excuse me Sir, can I see your boarding pass?”

“Excuse me???”

“Your boarding pass Sir”

“Why is there a problem??”

“No Sir, just the seat number, trying to help you with the seat number”

Pheww…”Oh no that’s ok, I will manage”

These air hostesses especially the carrier I was travelling with, have a very interesting way of presenting them. A blue dress, blue shorts, a typical wig, same for all the air hostesses on the flight (it took me a while to figure that out though) and a very neat hat. With a smile on their face, I could not believe this flight could be what it would turn out to be.

Well, moving on, 17 C was somewhere near the wings, thank God right after the wing otherwise I would have got a non-reclining seat. Ahhh, I could see my seat, and tried to rush to it, but with people carrying a lot of luggage, were busy stuffing it on the baggage cabinet. The whole scene where people try to stuff their luggage is very interesting and people from every state have a typical behavior towards their luggage. I had the fortunate experience of observing people from different geographies. People from Delhi especially south Delhi carry these bags that look very expensive ( but actually are not) and try n stuff it next to them. They rather sit on the floor, but their bags should receive a royal treatment (reminds me of the bag in ZNMD, Bagmati). People from Gujrat, Maharatra are peculiar in the sense, they like to carry a lot of snacks with them and I would like to take up this issue in a little detail in the later part of my story. Bengalis treat their luggage nothing less than the relics of Rabindranath Tagore or Bankimchandra Chatterjee.

I was seated, 17D looked comfortable. A man was seated in the window seat and looked like the salesman type, with an iPad, reading something and suddenly I was jealous (people who understand me would understand me reason of jealousy). Anyways moving on, I was expecting a empty center seat, which was making me happy but an interesting company is always a pleasure (remember the girl!!). People were still setting in their luggage, and then came the girl, boarding card in hand, looking for her seat. She looked at 17 and some sort of satisfaction, relief could be seen. Was it really happening, no can’t be that lucky. Please, please, please 17 B, but nope she entered the other side, ok please 17 D, but no again, 17 E??? 17 F finally. This close but that far. Ahh so sleep it will be and sleep it is.

Flight was ready to take off at 13:00,and there was absolutely no time left, and the gates were about to close but then there was one last entry. It was a couple, seemed newly married and they walked their way in.

“ Oye Bhaisahab, excuse yaar”

“Haan??”

“Bethne de yar”

“Oh Sorry, seat no??”

“Tussi TT ho, ha ha ha ha, hatho oye”

I walked out, and this man, probably late 20’s entered 17B.

The flight was ready to take off and the signs for the seat belts were on. The lady with him was seating on 17 E next to 17 F, I hope you understand what I mean. We were now on the active runway and the flight was all set to take off.

“Hello Brother, myself Ravi, that side is my wife, she is very far, please adjust, you go there and she comes here”

Why not, this is what I wanted, 17 E, this was perfect

“ Sorry Bhaisahab, center seat nahi chahiye”

Wait, why did I do that??? This could be just prefect, 4 hours of good company. But I think by now the only thing I was thinking of was some sleep, plus I did not want to look so desperate. That was a wonderful thought, I have always believed I think better when I am half asleep. May be Mr Ravi might ask 17 F to shift here and that would be perfect. Well they tried 17 D, and old uncle just shooed them away and 17 F also kind of declined the offer. I am sure the reason was the center seat again.

“Arey Bhaisahab please samjha karo”

“Ok let’s see, but let the flight take off first”

“ Arey what take off yaar” and he removed his seat belts and stood up, asking his wife come over.

“ Sir, please be seated, we are about to take off” shouted one of the air hostesses

“ Arey two minutes madam, Bhaisahab move fast yaar”

“ Please sit, let the flight take off, we will see”

“ Sir, please sit down, its our last request”

Finally one of the air hostesses had to get up and settle down the issues, and I with a sigh of relief and a mark of embarrassment tried to hide my face from the crowd which was staring at me with their eyebrows raised.

Finally the plane took off and all I wanted to know was to sleep my entire way through the flight.

“Bhaisahab, chalo ab move, the flight has taken off”

“Nahi, I don’t want to, I prefer this seat.”

Why was I doing that again???

I was too embarrassed to go sit next to the girl and anyways I just wanted to grab some sleep. There was no point changing my seat now, ok fine and also I was trying and being a little selfish. Maybe I was just too lazy but whatever the reason be I just didn’t want to move.

“Arey, not fair yaar, you promised you would move. Brother, we must always try and adjust and you are being so rigid.”

“See I agree but I just want to sit in an aisle seat, center is too crumped up for me, so please let me be where I am and grab some sleep. Its just a matter of 2 hrs and I am sure you can stay away from your wife for that long”-(don’t act so desperate)

“Chado ji, nowadays nobody wants to help people around them. Its ok, you sit there only”

Ahh, was this over? Could I go to sleep now? I still had 105 mins and that should be sufficient.

Well with my hands on the armrest, I reclined my seat, plugged in my iPod and finally closed my eyes.

Stop pushing me!!

This is my area!!

I cannot see your name engraved here

Well I have got a ticket

What do you think I am travelling for free?

Well with people like you, never know

Ohhh!! If that is the case, why don’t you hire your own private jet the next time?

If you are so concerned, take a train the next time. You will have enough space to move around.

Why don’t you get your own the next time you board the flight?

Because I did not know I would be travelling with a jerk like you.

Ok enough now move!

Why should I move? You move!!

My hands were desperate for the armrest onto my left, but the problem was that so were Mr Ravi’s. Now whether that was the act of revenge or sheer need for the armrest, but it was making me very uncomfortable. The worst part was there were no words, just our arms fighting. After 10 mins of fighting I finally gave up, I wanted some sleep-with or without the arm rest.

What else could go wrong now??

I unplugged my iPod as I wanted some peaceful sleep and no-one could stop me from getting there.

“I remember the time ji.”

“It was so roumantik”

“ohhh, I hate you ji”

“why”

“Why didn’t you get our seats together??”

“Ohh, I am extremely sorry, I tried you see. Some people just don’t co-operate.”

“Its ok, what can we do??”

Now, when you are trying to sleep and someone as loud as Mr Ravi screams into your ears, trying to talk to his wife who is sitting just two seats away from him. The icing on the cake is that they were trying to be ROOUMANTIK. God!!! I had to plug in my music again. Daler Mehandi was sounding better than Mr Ravi’s roumantik gossips.

Wow!! 30 mins and there was absolutely no disturbance, or was I so desperate for some sleep that I was ignoring the world around me. Actually I was. I couldn’t even hear any music from my iPod. Wow, this was brilliant.

“Excuse me Sir”

“What?”

“Sir, would you like something to eat??”

Was I dreaming? How could I hear the voice of the air-hostess and yet be so unaware towards the sound of everything else.

“No, thank you”

Looked at my iPod and realized the battery was juiced out and Mr Ravi was not in his seat ( Ahemm!! Sorry no super powers for you kid)

“Actually just give me a Coke and some sandwich”

“Sure Sir, Rs 150 please”

I pulled the tray in front of me and kept the food there, opened the Coke can and had a sip. A chilled glass of come after some good sleep is something else and some good sandwich before another hour of sleep is the mother of all joys. I put the coke on the tray and was trying to put my wallet back into my bag.

“Arey yaar, why did you keep it here??”

“Keep it here? Instead of being apologetic you are trying to get back at me.”

“Ab aap hi batao, who keeps his coke here. You should be holding it in your hand, achcha move now and let me get back to my seat.”

“What?”

I just couldn’t believe what just happened. He just blindly walked in and hit the tray; my coke can went flying up in the air and landed on me. My shirt was wet, the coke probably also got in laptop bag, and this guy was blaming me for what??? I just furiously got off my seat and rushed towards the washroom to wash myself. On the way I informed the air-hostess about the mess and asked her to clean the mess on my seat.

“What are you doing?”

“Arey good collection brother. I can’t believe you listen to Daler Mehandi. “

Tunak tunak tun tunak tunak tun

This guy after all this was listening to music on MY iPod. After all this.

Probably that was the best way to keep him away. I just gave up on him, offered him my sandwich. He very happily accepted it and also while chewing dropped some bread crumbs on me but by now I was not at all affected. I did not care. I just kept my eyes closed while he enjoyed my sandwich and some music on my iPod.

The plane finally landed and we made our way through. Collected our baggage and rushed to the pre-paid taxi stand.

“Pearless Inn Hotel, Esplanade”

“Rs 245, no change for 5”

Paid 250 bucks and got into my taxi. It was pouring outside and I was just thinking about the whole incident. Now when I was into a different mood all together I was trying to analyze the entire incident. Was it actually his fault? Only if I had exchanged the seats with him and sat there quietly, nothing of this would have happened and I would have sat next to the girl from the airport. We might have exchanged numbers and could have found a common cord. Wow, one small help to those guys would have changed the outcome of this entire event. Something so small as offering my seat could have got me a friend/good friend or atleast some good sleep for sure.

Reached Pearless Inn and went to the reception desk and asked for the booking on my name.

“Sir we have a small request to make”

“Excuse me?”

“Sir the room which you had booked faces the stadium. A couple from France desperately wants an Howrah Bridge facing room and yours in the only one left. If you do not mind, would you like a swap. Your tariff would remain the same”

I just wanted to sleep, and how did it matter if my room was facing the Howrah Bridge or not. Yes I agree Durga Puja season was on and the bridge would be lit up and it would be quiet a view but who cares. I just wanted to sleep and those lights could actually be a problem.

“Ya please. But just make sure I get an equally comfortable room”

“Sir, do not worry about that. We are giving you the room they had booked.”

“Ya please make it fast”

The bellboy escorted me on the 8th floor and opened my room no 809

“Is this a??”

“Sir, this is a suite, have a nice stay sir”

I could not believe my eyes; I was staying in a suite in the Pearless Inn while I paid for the deluxe on 5th floor.

Well, wasn’t a bad day after all and now I had to explore the suite. It was beautiful, with automated lights and the view from the window was actually not that great but cares about the view, I was enjoying the suite.

By the time I was done with the excitement, it was already 1:30 AM and I had to get to bed for the early morning meeting. The 9 inch mattress on the low raise bed called for a beautiful night. It wasn’t a great start to the day but like Mr Shakespeare always says “All is well, that ends well”

Customer Service- The Dilema

2012-05-19T07:01:00.000-07:00

Customer service has become one of the largest challenges
today for most of the business. During my one year that the company that I have
been working with, I have observed and I strongly believe that Customer service
can become a core competency for any business to differentiate, flourish and
nurture its growth for the long run.

I feel that most of the efforts put into the path of
Customer Service are calculated in terms of ROI and that is when companies
start to get it wrong. When you start looking for returns, the whole process
gets commercialized and slowly the customer service element creeps out of it.
Yes, the objective of customer service is to retain or grow business but
ultimately it is to make your customers happy. The other day while sitting at
Pizza Hut, I receive the bill with a small note written behind it saying it was
nice serving you. That note reminded me of my college days when you wanted to
pass on messages to somebody unnoticed. Now this does not mean that a customer
is going to order an extra Pizza or pay more for what he already ordered. He
might tip the guy but what might affect Pizza Hut is that a customer walked out
happy, amazed and surprised. He might ring the Pizza Hut service bell, which
might affect other customers sitting in the outlet but most of all the
employees working for you. What is appreciative here is that Pizza Hut has not
spent an extra penny on this effort but it is definitely doing some good
somewhere, whether that is customers or employees.

Another example was when I received an Allen Solly birthday
card on my birthday. There were absolutely no discount coupons or any other
offers for me, just a birthday card with simple wishes. The part that I liked
about this was, they by no means were telling me visit their store by offering
me discounts. That card just wanted to tell me “Happy Birthday” and nothing
else. I did go to the Allen Solley store after that and today Allen Solley is
always a part of the choices I am trying to make when I am planning to buy
apparels.

Now there are instances when you go overboard with your
services that begin to annoy customers. This happened very recently when I
entered a UCB store. This store was new and I am sure some guy must have
briefed the employees on how to greet and help a customer choose. Probably what
was not told was one salesman per customer. As soon as I entered the store,
every employee of the store jumped on me. The store was divided into zones
based on apparels like jeans, shirts, T-shirts etc and every employee wanted to
do well. In the process what happened was, while I was looking at T-shirts the
other employee came with a few shirts from his shelf and started distracting
me. In the meantime some lady from the ladies section started selling me the
idea that I should buy something for my wife/spouse. By the time 10 minutes got
over, I was so frustrated with the whole chaos that I had to run away from the
store although I was seriously planning to buy some shirts from there. Now,
here the manager did not mean to do this but the way the work was divided, and
the extra service that they wanted their customers to get was just not getting
implemented on the floor. This also brings me to the point that effective
monitoring of the kind of service that your customer is receiving is very
important.

Another problem with customer service is the lack of power
that is passed onto the service carriers’ i.e the people who are interacting
with the customers, people who are the flag bearers of the brand. This is another incidence that took place in
a CCD in Guwahati. This was a self-service CCD but as I walked into the store
tired and exhausted, I failed to notice the sign board. I went and took my
seat. A waiter came and took my order and went to his table. Suddenly I could
hear a manager scolding that guy in the local language, which I failed to
understand. The same waiter came to me, asking me to walk to the counter and
place the order. My reason for stating is not that I was asked to walk to the
counter, it was completely my fault that I failed to notice the self-service
sign board. The problem here is that the waiter is being stopped from going out
of his way to help his customer. May be he noticed the tiredness on my face and
walked up to me to help with the orders. It would have been such a nice gesture
but the rules had become so important for the manager that he completely forgot
that he is into the business of offering SERVICE.

Today, all the companies are talking about customer service,
keeping the customer happy etc and to map customer happiness Hyundai motors has
devised a measurement system where in after you get your Hyundai car serviced,
somebody from the service center would call to map customer satisfaction.
According to Hyundai, 1-8 is bad, 9 is good and 10 is very good. So when this
lady called me she gave me the information on the rating system which was
already biasing my ratings. I was honestly not very happy so I told her 8 would
be good. The lady was very smart; she wanted to know what did not make me
happy. I told her that the quality of car cleaning was not upto the mark. I was
happy that she was trying to find out the reason for the ratings. But after
this the drama started. “Sir, actually there was some problem with the machine,
you come the next time, we will wash your car for free.” Wow, this was brilliant;
she is actually trying to help me out. I said-“OK, that would be great, I would
come down sometime next week. Thank you.”

“OK Sir, so how would you rate our services?”

“I already told you, my answer is 8”

“Sir, I am getting your car washed again, I think you should
re consider”

I got the story then, and I made my point clear. I mean, she
wanted to hear that 9 or 10 from me and now she was trying to negotiate. It
really put me off. I told her how does it matter, she could fill up whatever
she wanted because the feedback system was not honest. At the end of the
quarter Hyundai managers would congratulate their managers on achieving good
customer reviews, but Hyundai your customers are actually not happy. This was
just a small example to show the gap that exists in the delivery,
implementation and feedback.

This is something that is also discussed in the GAP model,
and stands so true in a lot of cases.

The little joys of life

2012-04-27T10:03:00.001-07:00

Life is what without all the little joys of life.
Going to buy a bottle of coke when you are 1 ruppee short, and when the shopkeeper agrees. Coke will never taste better
Getting a mail from someone saying that there is hope.
Getting a message from someone saying " i love you"
Getting a kiss from a kid saying " thank you"
Getting a hug from a friend who says" thanks for being there"
Getting a pat from your father-" i am proud of you"
Getting a letter from your girlfriend/ spouse-"i miss you"
Getting a hand shake from your boss with a warm " good work"
Going back home and listening to a big" surprise"
Receiving a call at well past midnight which says" wish you were here"
Throwing the umbrella away or lowering the window of your car when its drizzling outside
Clicking pictures of faces you see on your journey and looking at them after a month or a year with a smile
Finding a Rs 100 note in your jeans
Finding a picture on your old folders which you thought you had lost long back
Your iPod suddenly playing exactly the song you want to listen to in the shuffle mode
Your freind suggesting the same cusine you wanted to eat
Finding a choclate on your work desk with a note saying anonymous and yiu never find out who it was
Shuffling through channels and finding exactly the same movie you wanted to watch the other day
Finding exactly the same dress you had in mind when you go shopping
Getting a surprise discount at your favourite store as a part of loyalty
Your wife telling you how much she loves you, when you thought she was still angry
Mom making exactly the same thing you had wanted to eat that evening
Ohhh the joys of life, ohh the joys of living
And I think to myself what a wonderful world....
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:M.P Rd,Siliguri,India