Another reason to use Online Apps
April 25, 2008
Here is another reason to use Online Apps..
For those who are heading to the US, here is a word of caution – the border agents can now search your laptop even without a cause.
This follows a US Federal Appeals Court ruling, earlier this week, that agents at the border do not need any “reasonable suspicion” to search through travellers’ laptops.
In other words, computers are like any other luggage going through the border, and hence, subject to searches at US national borders and airports.
More info here…
Tata Bags Jaguar & Land Rover
March 26, 2008
Today, Tata finished the acquisition of two major brands – Jaguar & Land Rover – for $2.3Bn from Ford. That amount doesn’t seem a lot for some reason.
On one side, Tata has the world’s cheapest car and now with this aquisition, they have a distribution network. It’ll be interesting to see how these brands will emerge under Tata’s leadership.
This is the second acquisition for Tata in 2008 that ran over $1Bn. More info on their acquisitions here.
Android vs iPhone: Who Will Win?
March 15, 2008
There has been some interesting predictions on Android outselling iPhone. While this is interesting, it is too early to call.
The openness and free nature of Android will certainly make it very popular choice for most of the device manufacturers and carriers. But then, openness and flexibility doesn’t necessarily mean winning consumers.
I can’t help but compare Android to Linux. Both are open and gives the flexibility to the user/manufacturers/carriers. Like Linux, I expect Android to gain huge traction and gain decent market share. But then on the negative side, like Linux, we probably will see several versions of Android floating around going forward with a layer of carrier/device specific versions confusing the end user.
Linux has gained good market share on the server side but failed to gain a decent share on the desktop. One of the key issue, according to me is the User Interface. A good user interface makes a HUGE difference in consumer apps. I think Linux lacks that. There are some versions better than other (Ubuntu?), but then, we cannot compare most of these with Mac or Windows.
I expect the same issue with Android. Unless there is a company who can focus on bringing innovation on the UI side for Android, I expect it to have the same fate as Linux on the desktop. Don’t get me wrong, I love linux, but to get mass adoption, it needs to get a new face, kind of like the Mac which is actually built on BSD. Google is a great company on the server side, but unlike Apple, their expertise is on the server side which doesn’t help Android much.
If there is good focus by vendors/manufacturers/carriers etc on the UI, Android can outsell iPhone. On the other hand, if iPhone opens up their platform (which is unlikely knowing Apple), it is going to be a totally different ball game. Even then iPhone will still have lots of other advantages with its integration with iTunes etc.
Android and iPhone are taking two different approaches in the mobile market. iPhone started as a consumer product and is now becoming a platform with the recent SDK release. Android is taking the opposite approach where it started as an open platform and is moving towards end user products. Who will win? My vote is on iPhone. What do you think?
Could the fall in Indian Oursourcing lead to Innovation?
March 1, 2008
Sramana Mitra has an interesting article on “The Coming Death Of Indian Outsourcing“.
The death of this industry is far from anyone’s mind.
However, the reality is that wages are rising in India. The cost advantage for offshoring to India used to be at least 1:6. Today, it is at best 1:3. Attrition is scary.
….
Forbes recently published some scary statistics on wage inflation in India. (See “Indian Employees Enjoying Swift Pay Hikes.”) Salaries rose 15.1% in 2007, up from 14.4% the previous year. The 2008 forecast: 15.2%. This would be the fifth consecutive year of salary growth above 10%.
Raising salaries, falling dollar, raise in cost of living etc in India could hurt the outsourcing industry. Recently I was looking to buy a house in Hyderabad, India and it turns out it is cheaper to buy a house in Silicon Valley than to buy in India.
But then, in the long term, I see the fall of outsourcing industry in India as good news. It’ll pave the way for the new breed of innovation. India got a jumpstart with the outsourcing market. It now has a HUGE pool of resources to build on. If it can focus more on innovation and entrepreneurship instead of ‘outsourcing thinking’, it can turn itself into a new innovation powerhouse. I see this inevitable.
Time for India 2.0
