Source: PCMag.com - MWC: Microsoft, Rivals Remake the Mobile World
WP7 doesn't work or look like Apple or BlackBerry or Android or Windows Mobile, for that matter. It looks a little like Zune, as if Windows 7 Phone had swallowed Zune.
Windows Phone 7 has one big problem: it's not coming out until "the holidays." (I assume Microsoft doesn't mean Easter.) WP7 looks great, but there will be a new iPhone out by "the holidays."
Every presentation, it seemed, had a little fillip in it about how "operators" (that's the Verizons or AT&Ts of the world) could customize, exclusivize, differentiate, or own whatever new technology is discussed.
Even Google's Eric Schmidt bent a little bit to try to make the operators happy, saying he's not trying to reduce them to being carriers for Google services.
MWC went crazy about apps, too. Everyone had to have an app store. Way too many app stores. Operator app stores, manufacturer app stores, and app stores that you'll never want or need or see.
the app-store land rush reminded me of how mobile apps have existed for years, but nobody seemed to pay attention until Apple popularized them. What will Apple do this summer - and will that change the agenda again?
Apple goes "extreme lengths" to protect even the smallest details of its new products under development.
- It's manufacturing complex in the South China city of Longhua resembles an industrial fortress.
- To enter the facility, workers swipe security cards at the gate. Guards check the occupants of each vehicle with fingerprint recognition scanners.
- Inside the walled city — one of several compounds run by Foxconn International, a major supplier for Apple - employees are provided with most of daily needs. There are dormitories, canteens, recreation facilities, even banks, post offices and bakeries.
- Information is assiduously guarded and handed out only on a need-to-know basis; employees suspected of leaks may be investigated by the contractor; and the company makes it clear that it will not hesitate to sue if secrets are spilled.
- The company gives contract manufacturers different products, just to try them out. That way, the source of any leaks becomes immediately obvious.
- And unlike other electronics makers, some of whom prefer the convenience of one-stop shopping, Apple doesn't rely on a single firm to supply everything for a product. The company will often minutely divvy up projects. The upshot is that even the people who man the assembly lines have no idea what the finished product will look like.
- Apple's obsession with secrecy is the stuff of legend in Silicon Valley. Over the years, it has fired executives over leaks and sued bloggers to stop trade secrets from being exposed.
- Another way Apple keeps leaks to a minimum is to bring suppliers in at the absolute last minute.
- An official at a South Korean supplier who said he has participated in Apple projects complained that the company sometimes makes unreasonable requests.
Apple also wants unique size and specifications,That means we won't be able to use a common platform or rework those components for other clients.
Source: Economic Times - How Apple guards its secrets
In recent years there has been tremendous paradigm in box-office barometer of Bollywood.
According to SRK
The best answer is that a T20 match is being gauged like a test match. The whole business of cinema has undergone a change. The days of percentages, housefulls, silver jubilees and long runs are over. The faster we accept this, the better it will be for the whole industry.
Today, if a cine fan is coming to watch a film, I have to ensure that he does not go away without watching it. Films are not Louis Vuitton products that you have to book them, if you come out to watch a film, you must be able to watch it.
Source: Economic Times - MNIK: Shah Rukh works box-office math differently
A report on Eric Schmidt's keynote address at MWC 2010.
it was an honest and skilful performance by Google's Chief Magician, even if some of the most important pieces of information were in what was quietly spoken or not said at all. It could only have been improved if the intelligence of the presentation were matched by the skill of the facilitation and interaction with the other brains in the building.
Source: Telco 2.0 - How Google’s Chief Magician Stole the Show
WSJ compares market leaders of India and China who will be facing off in African territory.
Bharti-Airtel
- Punters can start by observing of Bharti that you don't become the largest mobile provider in the world's second most populous country by sheer dumb luck. The competition is too fierce.
- It has pioneered a method of outsourcing nuts and bolts ranging from various IT services to the mobile network itself.
- Those who expect great things of Airtel in Africa point to this innovation in particular, combined with the Indian company's competitive agility in its home market, as predictors of success.
China Unicom
- This all makes for a striking contrast with China Unicom. Luck might not suffice for success in India, but in China's mobile market it's everything.
- Unicom's particular good fortune is to be one of only three well-connected state-owned mobile companies situated in the world's largest country.
- It helps that China is governed by an authoritarian regime so skittish about communications that it blocks any foreign competitors from entering the market.
Read in detail at WSJ: India's Competitive Edge
Handicapping Bharti Airtel and China Unicom's African investments.
Handicapping Bharti Airtel and China Unicom's African investments.
Summary of summaries :
The mobile OS battle is becoming a three-horse race between Google, Apple and a reinvigorated Microsoft. Despite the best attempts of other companies, such as Nokia, to create new platforms for mobile devices, industry analysts agree that developers - and consumers - will start clustering around these three main operating systems.
Read more at Telegraph.co.uk -> MWC: what's the future for your mobile phone?
Business-week raises question mark tech coolness of South Korea in the arena of Smart-phones.
According to the article
In December, Koreans bought some 200,000 iPhones—the best month ever in Korea for any handset model. In a country where domestic giants Samsung and LG together control 80% of the cell-phone market.
Read in detail at Korean Tech Is Losing Its Cool.
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