OHA – Google forays into wireless domain

OHA (Open Handset Alliance) is a body setup by Google along with some operators, semiconductor vendors and handset companies to develop a new mobile platform. Through this body, Google has developed Android, an OS having Linux kernel bundled with a web browser and a user interface and few other applications. As such, there’s nothing “open” about this platform, it follows Apache Software License that allows closed source redistribution. But the best part is that this platform is shipped free and hence will result in cheaper handsets.

It may take some time for Google to compete against the likes of Microsoft and Apple in PC operating system, but through OHA, its certainly posing a commendable competition to the big guns of mobile operating systems such as Symbian, Windows Mobile, Palm OS, etc. It must be already giving them sleepless nights !!!

But Google’s entry into the wireless space could actually be a boon for the telecom industry as a whole. Google's apps would induce more customers to subscribe to the high-speed wireless Internet services such as HSXPA or 1X EVDO. This could inturn revive the currently dwindling ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) rates & hence result in more money to all those involved in the telecom value chain.
Furthermore, the bandwidth guzzling apps such as YouTube.com, etc could make it necessary for the faster adaptation of 4G technologies.

Now, if the package that requires years and millions of $$ to develop is sold for free, how are Google and its partners going to get back their investment? To get to the answer, we need to understand how Google revolutionized fixed Internet domain through advertisement revenues based business model. Google will be implementing a similar strategy in wireless Internet too. Infact, the searches done over mobiles are more localized and specific due to which Google can charge more to the advertising companies.

Here are the strengths of OHA:

1) the Google brand name. I think this OHA’s biggest USP. Google has become a household name today. Its killer apps such as YoutTube, Google docs and not to mention the Google search have revolutionized the way people use the Internet. Now, if the company comes out with a wireless Internet product, there’s no doubt that its gonna be a runaway hit.

2) Its free and hence cheaper. Hence there will be more customers going for handsets having Android.

Here are a few challenges that could be of concern to the OHA members:

1) most mobile manufacturers have strategically aligned with OS developers and hence they may resist the penetration of Andriod. For instance, the market leader, Nokia (40% market share) is using Linux for its high-end phones, while Sony Ericsson (8% market share) is using its in-house UIQ platform. The other dominant players: Motorola, Samsung, LG are already part of the OHA. It should be noted that these other players are more dominating in the high-end category.

2) The important tier-1 mobile service providers see the entry of Google to the wireless space as a threat to their domination. AT&T and Vodafone have not joined the OHA and may support OHA’s competition. Google is trying to woo the SPs by allowing to share a portion of ad revenues with them.

All said and done, as an end user, I welcome Google’s entry into the handset domain & expect some cool stuff from it in the years to come.

www.openhandsetalliance.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rYozIZOgDk

Nano, naanu, neenu.. (Nano, me and you)

I think Nano is up to redefine the concept of family car, like the way Maruti did two decades ago.
The ever inspiring and soft spoken Ratan Tata’s words “a promise is a promise” just showed the dedication and commitment this man had for his words. Despite several hurdles, he and his team managed to limit the price to the magic number of Rs. 1,00,000. It’s said necessity is the mother of invention. It’s this necessity to curb the price to 1 lakh rupees that resulted in the development 20 new patentable innovations.

I am sure come Deepavali, despite fears of traffic congestion and environment isuses, there would be long queues of people in front of Tata Motors showrooms booking their Nano. It should not be surprising to see the waiting-list running to 2-3 years !!

But there are a few threats that I feel could potentially impact the excepted sales:
The safety aspect of the car is still unknown. Even though it’s publicized that the car is compliant to all statutory safety standards, some of the default safety features such as side impact bars, etc have been given a miss. Many of the customers may hesitate to venture into untested waters..

Besides, all of us have a natural craving to feel special and a desire to be recognized to have something the only a few others have. By owning a car, we feel special by belonging to an exclusive class of car owners. Now, with the 1 lakh car, this feeling of exclusiveness is certainly going to be reduced. This may possibly turn-off a few potential buyers while on the other hand induce some others to shell out few more bucks and go for a costlier car (thus making them a little more exclusive).

Only time can say whether my skepticism has any truth in it. Until then, its wait and watch.

I am off to play badminton now..ciao.. : )

a nice joke..

got this forward from one of my friends..it had me in splits.. : )
read it..

Bill Gates organized an enormous session to recruit a new Chairman for
Microsoft Europe. 5000 candidates assembled in a large room. One candidate
Is Raghu, a Kannadiga guy!!!


Bill Gates thanked all the candidates for coming and asking those who do
Not know JAVA programs to leave.2000 people leave the room. Raghu says to
Himself, "I do not know JAVA but I have nothing to lose if I stay. I'll
Give it a try"


Bill Gates asked the candidates who never had experience of managing more
Than 100 people to leave. 2000 people leave the room. Raghu says to himself
"I never managed anybody by myself but I have nothing to lose if I stay.
What can happen to me?" So he stays.

Then Bill Gates asked candidates who do not have management diplomas to
Leave. 500 people leave the room. Raghu says to him, "I left school at
15 but what have I got to lose?" So he stays in the room.

Lastly, Bill Gates asked the candidates who do not speak Serbian - Croat to
Leave. 498 people leave the room.

Raghu says to himself, " I do not speak one word of Serbian - Croat but what
Do I have to lose?" So he stays and finds himself with one other candidate.
Everyone else has gone.

Bill Gates joined them and said "Apparently you are the only two candidates
Who speak Serbo - Croat, so I'd now like to hear you have a conversation
Together in that language."

Calmly, Raghu turns to the other candidate and says "En guru, aarama?"
The other candidate answers "Nann magane, Sooryange Torcha??"

seems it was originally intended to poke at our Mallu friends.. : ))

Why did Preethi Yake Bhoomi Mele Edi flop? -- An Object Oriented Analysis : )

I had read somewhere that OOA can be used to analyze any system. Here I am trying to apply few of those concepts on Preethi Yake Bhoomi Mele Edi.

Let me first give my experience of watching that movie. I was still under the euphoria of Jogi (which I had seen FDFS & three times later) & felt the in the worst case, even if Prethi.. is 50% worse than Jogi, I can watch it comfortably. But even this tiny expectation was shattered in the initial stage itself in the scene where Chandu (Prem), standing on a bridge, totally drenched in rain, tries to convince his friends that he’ll show his “girl” to his them at the same place. The arguments between his friends & him are vague & abstract.

Then there’s an attempt to bring in mother’s sentiment that is the highlight in all Prem movies. But this part also fails to arouse the kind of emotions that was brought out in Jogi. On the contrary, you start wondering if this was brought in simply as a placeholder.

The only soothing thing in the movie was the song “Sulle sullu..”. Its quite a hummable number that you can use to pull your friends’ legs..

Now to my OO analysis; OO philosophy says that each class must specialize in ONLY ONE functionality. Violation to this rule leads to a buggy program. The mistake Prem did was trying to display a new behavior: acting, whereas his specialization was in directing. Due to this, he was not able to do justice to neither the directing section nor the acting section.
I think even super-star Upendra is suffering from the same problem.
How about actors such as Sudeep & Ramesh who’ve tried to display a new behavior called direction? I think they’ve faired no better. But sometimes they get away with it by “playing safe” & directing remakes.

One exception to this OO philosophy according to me is Dr. Rajkumar. He was both a glorious actor & an amazing singer. But if you observe carefully, you’ll realize that when he started his career as a stage artist, besides acting, he would sing as well. So you can say that Dr. Raj specialized in the combined art of singing & acting. Hence he succeeded in winning accolades in both acting & singing.

So this is my argument. How was it? Please let me know by leaving your comments.

my 1st blog

okay, at last I started to blog.
Wanted to do this from a long time, but was preparing (read procrastinating) all this time..
Until now, I was downloading more bytes from the Net than uploading..so, this is an effort to reverse the phenomena... : )
( This one was inspired by Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat )

Through this blog I want to share with the world my passions -- telecom technologies, C++, Kannada, Annavru, movies, MBA preps, my "Kodak moments", etc, etc...

1st bike, 1st kiss, 1st salary are all precious. So is this 1st blog..

u are welcome to my world..
suswagata...
cheers..