Bits Byting By

Availability of iPad2 in India is not a big issue

noreply@blogger.com (Wblg319) — Sun, 01 May 2011 08:38:00 +0000

This is a follow up on the retail check I did yesterday, 30-Apr-11. Based on my discussions with the mutliple salesperson across the Apple iStores, the next stock of iPad2 is expected to be reaching the stores by by Fri or Sat. however those who are keen to buy the iPad2, options are available.

Based on my conversations with multiple salespersons across various Apple stores (iStores)

Apple stores sold out on Friday (29-April)
Salespersons at the iStores are aware that iPad's are still available in mutli-brand retail stores. While they wont say anything openly they will provide hints as to where one could find an iPad2
The Apple stores are expecting to receive the next stock on Fri or Sat of this week.
The Apple stores are sort of pre-booking iPad2, one could give them your phone nuber and they will give you a call as soon as stock is received.
The much talked about iPad Smart Cover has not yet been received by any of the iStores

One salesperson in an Apple Store tole me that, 28 iPad2 were received on 29-April and they got sold out in a few hours. While they sold out in a few hours, he confirmed there were surely no queues outside the store.

A lukewarm response to iPad2 in India

noreply@blogger.com (Wblg319) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 09:57:00 +0000

In stark response to the first iPad launch in India the launch of the iPad2 has been a success by local standards, but a very poor response when compared to the response the iPad is used to other global markets. Compared to the reception the iPad1 got in India, iPad2 has got a very good response, but on an absolute level the response can at best be described at lukewarm. This how I felt after the retail check on the iPad2.

Compared to countries like USA, Japan, China etc there were absolutely no queues in front of stores selling the iPad. There was no mad rush at all. I had planned to do a retail check on how the iPad2 is faring. Based on my various discussions with the salespeople in stores I came across the following

The iPad2 was launched on 29-Apr-11 and stores have got a quota of 20, 40 or 120 iPad2
The 16 GB WiFi + 3G is appearing to be the most popular choice among customers
The next popular choice is the 16 GB WiFi
Contrary to the claims by Apple(India) on Facebook, iPad2 is not yet sold out. I am not sure why media reports on stock outs have to be published and try to create a buzz when there is not.
I visited a Ezone store in Bangalore on 30-Apr-11 at around 1:00 pm. As per multiple salesperson out there 14 iPad2 were sold on 29-Apr-11. Currently they still have stocks available. As per the assessment of the salesperson they believe that stock should last till at least Sunday evening if not Monday
There are two demo pieces available in stores. One is a white iPad2 and the other is a black iPad2
What was very interesting that in one of the shops I spent an hour playing with one of the demo pieces and inquiring about the product. While the staff was somewhat knowledgeable but very courteous, I noticed the second demo piece was lying and no other customer came for at least an hour either to look at the iPad2. This struck me as the real response and interest in the iPad2.
What was another very strange thing happening at the multi-brand stores, that iPad1 instead of the iPad2 was being pushed. In of the stores one salesperson was agressivley pushing the iPad1 (16 GB WiFI + 3G for 23,000 open to hard bargaining). The salesperson pushing the iPad1 was saying that there was no point in buying the iPad2 as there is no significant difference between the two products. The iPad2 salesperson was on the other pushing the iPad2 saying that they have few pieces left and that one needs to make a quick choice or the products will go.

On the balance

Response to the iPad2 is better than the iPad1. However, the response is poor compared to global standard.
The news around stock outs is a partial truth. Stock is still available. Seems that Apple(India) and its PR mechanism supported by the traditional media is spreading half truths to make us believe that iPad2 has been super successful in India.
The interest or the awareness about the iPad2 in the store is nearly non-existent. No crowds around the demo units are seen. There is hardly any POS material supporting the iPad2
iPad1 is being pushed ( available at deep discounts subject to hard bargaining) against the iPad2 in an attempt to clear old stocks. Those on a budget could consider this option

While this is not a product review, I felt that the iPad2 is a good toy to have (if you can afford it) though the Indian market is not fully mature to adopt it. Maybe iPad3 would do even better in India as compared to the iPad2

Retail check to see how Apple iPad2 will fare in India

noreply@blogger.com (Wblg319) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 19:59:00 +0000

The biggest gripe that customers had against Apple in India was that it was selling an old product i.e. the iPad at a premium and hence was not doing well. Now that Apple has launched a new product i.e. the iPad2 at a premium price, it would be interesting to see how it fares in India. The launch on 29-Apr-11 will surely create a buzz in the Indian consumer electronics market.

I look forward to doing a retail check this weekend to check out the reception that the iPad2 gets in India. I would be talking to salespersons and fellow browsers at the stores selling the iPad2

The initial response that I have received over multiple phone calls in the retail channel is that a lot of buzz is expected, but still no one is confident about the sales. Lets see how it goes.

Cooking at Apple: Global Marcom VP Allison Johnson Leaving

noreply@blogger.com (Wblg319) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 20:18:00 +0000

Steve Job's direct reports seem to be sorely feeling the impact of his medical leave of absence. The departure of Bertrand Serlet, Senior VP of Mac® Software Engineering, followed by the news around the departure of Allison Johnson, Global Marcom VP appears to be an impact of his absence which could give this message to the direct reports of Steve.

Self-align to the emerging power centers or exit Apple

Imagine calls to Steve being responded with an air of inevitability of the change. What if the inevitability met with a strong resistance, which could not be sustained. Any failed resistance leaves only a single option for the resistors. It could seems that two of Steve's direct reports have taken the way out.

If this is what it is, isn't it interesting.

The Story: Bertrand Serlet leaves Apple

noreply@blogger.com (Wblg319) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 20:46:00 +0000

The official story on Bertrand Serlet leaving Apple talks about Serlet's desire to focus less on products and more on science.

However, it would be interesting to visualize a scene where Serlet calls up Steve Job, while Job's is away on medical leave of absence. Imagine Serlet informing Job's that he intends to focus less on products and more on science. Job's is shocked, and feels angry at Serlet. Job's doesn't show it and reacts calmly in an even voice. He offers Serlet a raise, a generous triple percent point increase with the added sweetener of stock options. This is the best Job's can do. Job's knows what cooking inside Serlet. He made the offer, but he know that Serlet would not stay. This cold and short call would make make it final. The issue had been finally laid to rest.

Amazing! won't it be, if it turned out to be true.

iPad Launch in India: High on novelty factor, Low on sales

noreply@blogger.com (Wblg319) — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 18:26:00 +0000

After recently reporting on the traction the Samsung Galaxy Tab has got in India, I was looking forward to the channel check on the reception that the Apple iPad has got in India. I visited multiple stores in Bangalore over this weekend (29/30-Jan) to get a sense of the interest that the iPad has generated in Bangalore. I visited the Apple iStores along with the multi-brand electronic retail chains carrying not only the iPad but also the Samsung Galaxy Tab and the Dell Streak. Even though iPad was launched on 28-Jan-11 (just a few days back at the time of the reporting) in India the findings were interesting.

Some observations from the checks at the Apple iStore were:

The Apple iStores at any given time had about 5 people waiting to try out the iPad. However, these observations have been made over the weekend and may indicate an higher level of interest.
While talking to the salesperson at the Apple store it was clear that most of the customers trying out the iPad were at best the curious onlookers trying out the much hyped iPad with their own fingers.
The salespeople had hardly seen a serious customer interested in buying the iPad.
I happened to strike a conversation with many customers trying out the iPad. The response I got from all of them them was that they had come to see the iPad and not buy it.
I also happened to talk to a very few potential buyers of the iPad. They had come to see the product and try it out. If they liked what they say the would ask someone to get it for them from the US.
The serious potential buyers thought that only a crazy person would buy the iPad in India. They felt with the iPad2 coming in a few months only the stupid and ill-informed would buy the iPad in India. Even if one wanted to buy the current iPad, it would be better to get it from the US as it would turn out to be significantly cheaper.

On the whole the visits from the Apple iStores indicated that the future for the iPad does not look very bright in India. While none of the salespersons mentioned sales explicitly, it was clear that the sales figures for the iPad over the weekend at the Apple stores were close to zero.

Moving on to my observations on the store checks at the multi-brand electronic retail chains

Things looked up for the iPad at the multi-brand stores. The salespeople at various stores were consistently recommending the iPad over the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Something seems to be working in favor of Apple while Samsung needs to worry about this. None of the salespeople bothered to mention the Dell Streak.
The most commonly recommend configuration at the multi-brand electronic retail chains was the 32 GB WiFi + 3G
The reasons provided by the salesperson in recommending the iPad over the Galaxy Tab were the looks; screen size and the display quality, while agreeing to the fact that one could get the 3G feature at much lower cost with the Samsung Galaxy Tab.
The consumer response at the multi-brand retail chains was no different from the response one got from the customers at the Apple iStores.

In terms of sales at the multi-brand electronic retail chains the message from the salespersons was that its to early to talk about sales. As per them the iPad has just come out, the consumers need to first check out the product and then only we can talk about some sales. My assessment of the situation is that sales are close to zero.

Though these are early days for the iPad, one doest foresee great volumes for the iPad specifically and tablets in general in India unless

India is not seen as dumping ground for legacy products (Apple) with India launches aligned with the global launch
Pricing needs to be worked out. Seems no one is thinking about price points. Even those who are ready to buy at the available price points, could so easily get the latest product from the US at cost cheaper than India.

Samsung Galaxy Tab not doing well in India

noreply@blogger.com (Wblg319) — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 13:54:00 +0000

While Samsung in India would like to claim that the Galaxy Tab is making inroads in India, channel checks on the Samsung Galaxy Tab indicate to the contrary.

Findings from 12 visits to stores of multiple retail chains in Bangalore, conducted over this weekend revealed that

Not all stores chains like Chroma, Ezone etc are carrying the Samsung Galaxy Tab
Most of the stores who claimed to be carrying the Samsung Galaxy Tab did not carry stock. They had one demo unit.
The salespersons interviewed indicate that while a lot of customers are ocming to have a look, the sales are low to negligible.
The biggest issue seen is the pricing at Rs 36,999 which seems to be a rip-off and is the main reason for the low pick up. The low pick up is leading to a tepid response from the retailers.
The retail staff in stores have not been trained on the product. They are not sure what it does.
The key takeaway is that the Samsung Galaxy Tab is expensive and is not selling in India

While Samsung has been running a TV campaign and has billboards of the Samsung Galaxy Tab being sold along with the 3G connection from Aircel, the sales have not yet picked up.

Carol Bartz @ TechCrunch Disrupt: MG Siegler's decription is stupid

noreply@blogger.com (Wblg319) — Tue, 25 May 2010 19:51:00 +0000

sMG Siegler's description of Carol Bartz's chat with Michael Arrington at TechCrunch Disrupt is stupid to say the least.

Carol Bartz To Michael Arrington: “F*ck Off!”

Seems that either Seigler did not listen to the chat or did not comprehend it (other than the expletive). This is not just an issue with Siegler but others who are more interested in the F word from Carol. Wished that they reported something more substantial.

Even for some one who is not very fond of Carol, the chat had many more interesting headlines than the F word. As for Carol she just seems to be playing to the galleries and the likes of Mr Seigler.

My key takeaways from the chat

The pruning of the portfolio is near complete.
While Yahoo! techies are working on cool stuff .... financial health is important in the interim.
Collaborate rather than build to improve the offering.
Carol Bartz has given herself more time to come up with the cool stuff. ( Reference to Steve Job taking 7 years to deliver on the success of the iPod is an indicator). Whether she will be late by then is for all of us to see

IBM: The view from the trenches

noreply@blogger.com (Wblg319) — Tue, 25 May 2010 19:30:00 +0000

Have heard a lot of variations of IBM, but the view from the trenches suffering from the bureaucracy is Idiots Become Managers

Bada could help Samsung gain 5% of market share by 2010-11

noreply@blogger.com (Wblg319) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:09:00 +0000

Samsung’s newly introduced software platform the OS, Bada, which is expected to be unveiled on 8-Dec in London is expected to be used in most of its low end feature phone. It is expected that close to 50% of these feature phones will be running Bada within 12-18 months.

The Bada does not seem capable to take on the Smartphones running likes of the iPhone and the Droid. However, the Bada appears very capable to develop apps and deliver Smartphone like features for the mid to low end feature phone user. The traditional feature phone producers like Nokia, Sony Ericsson and LG would feel the direct impact of the Bada.

The strategy of delivering Smartphone like capabilities via touch screen is yielding results as seen from the success of the Star and the Corby in 2009. These initial successes will be leveraged via the Bada to deliver a smartphone like apps ecosystem in 2010. With 100 million touchscreen phones by Samsung forecasted in 2010, the developer community should definitely look forward to the large potential market available.

Feature phones have been the core of Samsung’s business which has been seriously threatened by the uptick in adoption of smartphones. The Bada strategy if executed properly could easily create a moat of applications developers which will help it differentiate its offering to the low-mid end feature phone buyer in both the developed and developing markets who either cannot afford a smartphone.

Based on a model of the 2010 handset market we are conservatively estimating that Samsung can easily gain up to a 5% market share within the next 12-18 months. Sony Ericcson will face the biggest impact of the Bada followed on by LG and Nokia.

Motorola: 1.8 million Droids and 2.25 million Android in Q4-09

noreply@blogger.com (Wblg319) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:17:00 +0000

While the Droid is not yet the iPhone killer many had hoped for, its success has been far greater than what Motorola would have hoped. There are quite clear indications that the Droid will exceed the earlier conservative forecast of one million phones by 80%.

The Droid closed the week of 27-Nov-09, after 4 weeks of sales with retail sales of 700-800K (~750K) of which the first week contributed close to 250K of sales. This would indicate that it clocked retail sales of close to 500K in the last 3 weeks of Nov-09. This would translate into a weekly sales rate of around 167K. While we believe that the momentum continue we are taking a conservative run rate of 110K for the next 5 weeks from the week ending 27-Nov till the end of the year.

This would translate to a total of 750+550K = 1.3 million Droid’s sold to the retail. We would estimate another 500K inventory in the channel lead to a sell in of 1.8 million of Droids of which 1.3 million would be sell thru.

This would be really satisfying compared to the forecasts before the launch (Macquarie Research) which indicated a sell in of 800-900K and a sell thru of 1.2 million.

We conservatively estimate that Milestone the multi-touch European cousin of the Droid will contribute 250K. The Milestone is currently available in Germany and France and is available for pre-booking in the UK

The other Android phone namely the CLIQ/DEXT has not done well. The jury is out, whether it was not as well promoted as the Droid or it just did not do well. One can expect a volume of around 200K which is quite a steep reduction of ~300K+.

Motorola would sure end the year on a high with volume of 2.25 million Android phones up from the earlier forecast of 1.3 million.

Competition in the Cloud: Oracle working on a cloud platform

noreply@blogger.com (Wblg319) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:34:00 +0000

Since Sep-2008 Oracle has had a partnership Amazon where customers can license Oracle's Database, Fusion Middleware and the Enterprise Manager on Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). While this is the first partnership, more can be expected in the future.

Rackspace and Oracle are also collaborating on the first Java-based public cloud based on Oracle's WebLogic Suite and Cloud Sites. The new beta platform is expected to be available for a private pilot in the coming months.

Richard Sarwal, SVP Product Development for Oracle Enterprise Manager has clearly indicated that they would be announcing partnerships with new service providers.

Yes, we are working with several other cloud service provider partners right now, and will outline these in future announcements.

What is not clear is whether Oracle would continue working down the partner route or develop its own cloud platform.

There may be some signs of Oracle building its own cloud which has lead to this speculation. This speculation has been reported by William Blair and Company in a report on salesforce.com covering the recently concluded DreamForce. As per the report an ecosystem partner of salesforce.com who works on both the Force.com and Azure platform, has claimed knowledge of the fact that Oracle is working on a cloud platform.

We will keep track of how this speculation takes shape.

New Bing Maps a good start but a long distance away from Google Maps

noreply@blogger.com (Wblg319) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:44:00 +0000

While the new Bing Maps has gone live it still lags Google Maps and needs to do a lot before it catches up with the Google Maps.

Bing has the Streetside to compete with Google’s Streetview. Street View has launched images in 28 countries of which the US has more than 80% coverage while Spain has close to 80% coverage. While Google is working on increasing its depth using Street View Trike (deploying tricycles outfitted with its 360-degree Street View cameras) , which is gathering images to map areas not accessible by Street View cars, Streetside still needs to works towards increasing its coverage in the US let alone the rest of the world.
While Streetside has been launched it’s still not competitive to Google Maps.

Google Transit provides point-to-point directions using public transportation in more than 440 cities across the world. In collaboration with public transport agencies in these cities, Google has added municipal transit systems into Google Maps. Bing still needs to come up with something similar.

Google Navigation on the recently launched Android 2.0 smartphone (Motorola Droid) provides turn-by-turn driving directions along with many features like voice search, real time traffic data etc. While Microsoft has had a Windows Mobile for many years now, it’s only now that they have woken up to come up with a Bing for Windows Mobile application. Yet Microsoft just does not have enough users as of now to be able provide any useful realtime data.

To quickly catch up Bing can use the crowd sourcing approach as Google Map Maker where uncovered regions are updated by users. The Map Maker by Google is working in 170+ countries.

Bing Maps in an effort to cover up for its inherent weaknesses is that its building a more open platform than Google, in which third-party developers can create their own apps to the map platform.

While the Bing Maps may keep Google on their toes, but it will be some distance away when it can really compete with Google.

BlackBerry : Consumers and not the Enterprise will support it in its battle against the iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (Wblg319) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:39:00 +0000

It has been subtle but a significant change none the less that BlackBerry in India has been airing ads on the radio targeting college students, telling them how it could help them take on the questions from their teachers, while sharing pictures of their pets and staying connected via Facebook and chat. The same theme is also driven in the point of sale (POS) material promoting the BlackBerry brand in general and the Curve 8520 in specific.

One is not really sure if its BlackBerry or some other phone when one sees the POS material talking about Facebook, messaging and music and we used to think that the BlackBerry was all about enterprise email. Its clear that RIM is working hard to shed its enterprise only image and latch on to consumers. Without consumers, holding on in the face of the attack from the iPhone would be impossible.

Another change in the retailing of the BlackBerry, the salesperson would generally never suggest a BlackBerry to a female customer. However one did notice that female customers were being recommended the Curve 8520 as an option to consider. This is a very clear change in the demographics being targeted.

While not noticed by many, consumers had take over the enterprise segment during the 4Q-FY09 of RIM. As of Aug-09, it has been estimated by MKM Partners, that 57% of the subscriber base were using the BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS), while the enterprise segment using the BlackBerry Enterprise Service comprised the remaining 43%. This change in the subscriber profile is driven by the fact that less than 20% of net additions during the last few quarters have been BES users.

Traditionally RIM has been week if not non-consequential in market outside the US. The strategy of going after the consumer in markets outside the US with a low priced offering which is not locked to an operator and distributed via multi-brand outlets appears to be showing some initial results.

The iPhone which has been been at best a limited success if not a failure in Japan, China and India with very inital success in korea would do well to keep an eye on this new approach of RIM.

SAP's Plan: Overtake salesforce.com by 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Wblg319) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:30:00 +0000

As per the analyst report published by Santander, the key takeaways from an SAP roadshow in Iberia was that Cloud computing was the "next big thing" for SAP. Finally we have someone other than salesforce.com in the legacy enterprise apps space who is a convert to cloud computing. SAP, better late than never.

Key takeaways reported from the roadshow include:-

SAP considers ‘cloud computing’ as a very important change in the software business.
Business ByDesign will be its main bet in 2010 and would be widely available in 2H10
SAP expects it could add US$1bn in revenues, more than 10,000 customers per year
Though SAP’s main bet in 2010, it is not likely to contribute significant revenues until 2011.

After a wide release in 2H10, SAP believes that with 10,000 customers it would add US$ 1 billion in 2011 and with a 10% growth in 2012 take on salesforce.com who with 67,000+ customers has a revenue of close to $1.3 billion. SAP attempting a billion with only 10,000 customers would be interesting to see.

salesforce.com who has observed that SAP is missing from the market in the last few quarters, would be looking forward to the challenge but then 2011 is still some time and way and a lot can change.

SAP's strategy seems to be unfolding with news coming out that its readying a rival to the Google Wave. While the hype is pointing towards some kind of competition to the Google Wave, its hard to believe it. The cometition is not the Google Wave. Is it Salesforce Chatter?

New Google Search: Looks Good

noreply@blogger.com (Wblg319) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 21:18:00 +0000

We tried out the new Google search and our first reaction is that we like it.

We have tried out some random searches and compared it with Google in its current form. We are not sure if the quality of the search results have changed, but the structuring of the search results improves the search experience.

Waiting for the new search to go live and take on Bing.

Thank you Gizomodo for sharing the hack.

91% of users just dont get the Google Wave

noreply@blogger.com (Wblg319) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:07:00 +0000

Following a recent post about older men using Google wave we went about trying to know a bit more about the kind of people who use the Google Wave. So an email was sent out to 317 Google Wave users asking them a simple question. You have been using the Google wave for at least a few days, do you get it?

The respondents were asked to respond to a single question

You have been using the Google wave for at least a few days. Do you really get it?

Respond with a number between 1 to 5, where 5 means I get it completely and 1 means, I just don't get it.

There were 113 responses from the 317 respondents cam back with a reply. Most of the uses of Google Wave just dont get it. The distribution of responses is shown below.

Is the Google Wave going the Twitter wave. It seems that the Google Wave is facing an on boarding challenge similar to the one faced by Twitter

Microsoft CEO to leave at end of year, says NYTimes

noreply@blogger.com (Wblg319) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 07:36:00 +0000

It was really interesting to see the NY Times breaking the news that the Microsoft CEO was planning to leave at the end of the year

(You can double click to see the enlarged image, if its not clear)

But the excitement was really short lived when we dug into the link to realize it was a typo by the NY Times. They were talking about the CFO and not the CEO

It could have been the breaking news of the year .... but it was not true

Linkedin + Blogs or Facebook + Blogs: The next thing in Blogs

noreply@blogger.com (Wblg319) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:25:00 +0000

As Twitter grew approximately 10x from 5+ million in 2008 end to a current number of 50+ million users, it seemed that all interest had turned towards microblogging, while the bloggers did not seem interesting enough.

Blogs are pieces of one's online social identity that are disconneted from social networks. While one can definitely show one's Tweet on a Blog. Alternatively they can tweet when a new blog is published. Yet, the blog stands out slightly disconneted from the social networks.
The next round of innovation in blogs will be a tighter integration between say a Facebook wall or a Linkedin profile with ones blog. This integration would definitely be better than the existing RSS feeds, the basic URL or the limited APIs which are available.

It would be nice to have a well rounded online social identity where peices of information from ones social networks and posts on the blog integrate better and complement each other.

This should be the next milestone for the blogging providers to achieve as they get comfortable with the idea of thrving in an envioronment where micro-blogging creates a larger buzz.

PowerPoint Twitter tool: SAP has been busy with Enterprise 2.0

noreply@blogger.com (Wblg319) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:31:00 +0000

It’s funny to hear that SAP launched a free PowerPoint Twitter tool. Is it a reflection what best they could do in the area of social collaboration? While we know that SAP and Microsoft have aligned, the PowerPoint Twitter tool would have looked better coming from Microsoft.

Conversations with industry contacts continue to suggest that Web 2.0 and social collaboration tools are a game changer, yet the large enterprise vendors like Oracle and SAP are slow. The slowness is not on account of their size, but their arrogance. Larry Ellison’s ridicule of the cloud is well known and this attitude percolates down many layers below in the organization

Salesforce.com claims that SAP is nowhere to be seen as a viable competition. Seems SAP has been busy building the PowerPoint Twitter tool. One the other hand, Salesforce.com is busy launching the Salesforce Chatter, while ex-Facebook employees are solving issues are around enterprise productivity via the newly funded Asana.

Chrome OS: Multimedia entertainment disappoints

noreply@blogger.com (Wblg319) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:36:00 +0000

This is in continuation of my earlier post exploring the Chrome OS. While my earlier post focused on just using the browser., this post focuses on the multimedia experience the Chrome OS could provide us.

What struck me first that the Chrome OS in its current form has not been designed for the non-US user. Hula and Pandora are unavailable to users outside the US. One could have hoped the Google veep in-charge of product management (non-US ethnicity) would realized this simple thing.

Lala is available but then it would interest a very limited non-US audience.

The only multimedia entertainment option available to the non-US users is youtube. But after watching a video on youtube one no longer cares about the multimedia entertainment options. Despite the 2MBPS broadband internet one is reminded of the dialup connections we used not so long ago (5 years ago is not so long ago), that how bad the OS is on the virtual box.

While this is not a beta, guess Google could have been more creative with the entertainments options on offer.

Before I forget, what happens to the few GB's of music on our hard disk.

So long, till the next round of exploration.

Trouble for iPhones in India, Vodafone stopped selling iPhones in India

noreply@blogger.com (Wblg319) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:22:00 +0000

Visited an iStore and found from the store employees that Vodafone has no longer been selling the iPhone in India for the last 6 months. Sounds strange but then that's what they say. Is this an indication of how bad it is for the iPhone in India?

Some other interesting insights from the visit

Bharti Airtel is the only operator sells the iPhone in India
Only 8 GB phones are now sold
16 GB phones sold in India are jail broken phone being passed of as authentic stuff. Find this very strange, but then thats what was told.
iStore employee were actively encouraging potential customers to jail break the iPhone to use the phone with other operators. (They were clear that while they would give all the information they would not do it)
iStore had zero stock and they suggested that it would be better if we went directly to the Airtel store
One really interesting observation, the portrait to landscape view works only for the SMS, browser and a few other apps. It does not work for most of the apps. We had missed out on this one earlier.
iStores corporate relationship with Airtel helps them get unlimited data usage at Rs 99 per month.
The only form of subsidy provided to iPhone users by Airtel is 500MB of monthly data usage for the first one year

First blog published using Chrome OS: An Aw Snap Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Wblg319) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:05:00 +0000

It was an exciting feeling as we logged into the Chrome OS

The first experience with the Chrome OS was not too great thanks to the numerous Aw Snap. This in contrast to the raving reviews we have read about the Chrome OS

While we would like to believe that this is the first blog published using the Chrome OS, we would not be surprised if some one else has already done so.

While we are still trying it out, we must confess it reminds us of the mainframes that we have worked on. Type an alphabet wait for the alphabet to appear and then type one.

As a compromise the blog was written in Google docs in an Windows XP environment and saved. At the time of publishing Google docs were accessed via the Chrome OS and the text pasted.

You can blame this on our computer which runs the Windows XP( We never wanted to spend money on the Vista and are not sure if Windows 7 does something which the trusted XP cant), but we never came close to the less than 7 seconds to boot kind of experience claimed by Google.

Shudder to think when the world is using the Chrome OS and the internet bandwidth is not too great.

We maintain that while the Chrome OS is interesting, it is limited in its current form and needs some real before it can meet the computing needs of a user accustomed to Windows XP (not the Vista) and Mac experience.

Thanks to Techcrunch for sharing with us the steps to install the Chrome OS. Thanks to GDGT for providing us with a working version of the Chrome OS.

Update: Chrome OS: Multimedia entertainment disappoints

Chrome OS is different, yet a market share of even 10% by 2013 is a challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Wblg319) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:02:00 +0000

Its Google, so its no surprise that the buzz created by the Chrome OS is amazing. However this is a lot of noise while the underlying message is weak at best.

The Chrome OS works on a paradigm similar to the thin clients of the mainframe era. The difference is the cloud instead of the mainframe.

It will work great for a certain segment of users the way the Mac has worked for a certain segment of users of computing. Being Google the Chrome OS will also generate the fanatical following that Apple has.

After all is said and done about the Chrome OS, the final fact remains that without the internet the net book is as good as a paper weight.The idea may be ahead of its time. Globally we are still far away from ubiquitous broadband internet. Ubiquitous internet would decide the adoption of the Chrome OS.

While some Google fanatics would buy a Chrome OS net book on the personal computer, the big losers would be Linux and it ilk on the the desktop.

Microsoft should be wary but not unduly worried till 2013. One never knows what the internet delivery infrastructure would be by 2013

While SAP needs a Microsoft, talks of acquisition in premature

noreply@blogger.com (Wblg319) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:30:00 +0000

While a lot of the analysts were busy following Google's Chrome OS, the Microsoft and SAP arrangement to take on Oracle hardly created a buzz.

Oracle has been hurting SAP’s in the enterprise application software space while Microsoft’s database is fighting for market share. By collaborating they intend to turn on the pressure on Oracle in both the businesses.

While Microsoft's strategy is similar in the collaborative approach followed in the Yahoo deal, SAP could do with any help it can get as it bleeds in its fight against Oracle.

One needs to see if the collaboration go take some other shape following some M&A activity