Calling All Innovator |Forum Nokia

Forum Nokia has a launched an enticing program called “Calling All Innovator” and I am planning on giving a serious look  to it this time. Thought I will share this with all as I  mobile enthusiasts might find it very interesting. Here is about the event from the website.

“Forum Nokia, Nokia’s global developer programme challenges mobile and web application developers worldwide to submit best-in-class applications for use on Nokia devices – with a total prize pool of more than $250,000 USD.

Register here

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Indian Idol – Why zero sum game?

I am hooked to Indian Idol this season as well but what causes a lot of uncomfort to me is the fact that Indian Idol ( and all other singing talent show in so many other languages)  is a zero sum game. There are many forces driving such a show – discovery for new talent, reality induced TRP leading to pricey ad inventory, mobile based revenue stream but none of these reasons I think are causal enough for it to be zero sum then why is it  hit driven ?

Someone told me markets will all save us

Well how can that be look what markets gave us.

There are massive failure of institutions at large, the pinnacle of which was these events that unfolded in the financial sector over the  weekend.

While it is a well known fact that communities/networks become unstable at large scale ( we have seen it in ample in the past) and does not work as it is a vulnerable resource especially when open leading to control be taken over by opportunistic vested interests  (Soviet/China etc are testament to that).  Whereas markets despite its problem of information cascade, herding was hailed as the saviour of all ills of the globalized countries but that too failed us leaving us all wondering which is better a institutional system of making a sustainable living.

Maybe it is time that revolution itself needs a revolution as this revolutionist points out.

Chrome – what abt it ?

I have seen the tech media go crazy about Chrome’s release last week but I don’t  get what it is about. Installed Chrome over the weekend and gave it a run, certainly it has a small footprint and runs faster,  it is based on webkit and has some key features as Firefox blah blah but not did not find anything that stands out remarkably as yet.

As has been with many cases with google in the past, it is not what it is shown/done so far but what it will do with that is going to do with it that makes me hugely hopeful.

So let the browser wars begin, I for one grew up in the tech industry hearing folklores about it and it is good to see it unfold infront of the eyes.

MoMo Monsoon

Our regular monthly event take a slightly larger form this month , dubbed as MoMo Monsoon it will be held as a day long event.  With the help from many kind souls in the community have been able to assemble some fantastic panels and put together some wonderful topics.  As I blogged before this is a great year for mobile industry and we would be discussing some relevant topics from an Indian context.

For all those who complained that can’t make to MoMo on Monday, well here is the chance as this event is on the coming saturday.

iSing – Online & Mobile Social network for Indian Music

Our latest work that has been keeping me busy for some time now, www.iSing.in, a music based social networking platform for Indian audience available both online & mobile. Request a help from readers, please go through the site and help me improve it.  It is in early stage alpha , so expect many kinks but do send in your candid feedback/sugestions to me. ( rajan_AT_motvik _DOT_com)

Best time in Mobile Industry

2008 has been the year of open source causing serious impact in the mobile industry but I could not imagine Symbian getting open sourced and that is exactly what Nokia has announced to do after acquiring Symbian. This has very long term implications for the mobile industry.  One can expect to see business model innovation happening in this industry that has been bereft of innovation for more than a decade. Now this is is why I think now is the best time to be in this Industry. (Business model innovations are the most scarce form of innovation and is one of the toughest to make happen).

As always the best commentary about this development in the mobile industry is available at VisionMobile.

May MoMo summary, Livemint article

Since recently I have written few articles for what is called Tuesday Post in LiveMint. The most recent one was the summary of the most recent MoMo event.  You can find the article here.

We are not a VAS company

This was one of the most resonating message delivered by Viren Popli,(head of Star TV, mobile entertainment) as a representative voice of content & media companies in the Mobile VAS 2008 event put together by IAMAI. Now this might sound like a bold, foolish or even cocky message depending on which stable you belong to but it speaks volumes about the tremendous pressure that the current mobile value chain structures are in right now. I think the usage of term VAS itself is more than a matter of nomenclature, it reaffirms the telco as the centre of network view of the world which is not how inter-networks function. As rightly pointed out by Viren we should stop using that term. If you are a company in the mobile space I think you should also seriously think about usage of that term. From what I know I am sure IAMAI is thinking about it hard too.

More about the whole Mobile VAS 2008 event held two days ago.

What went right

• A packed house with a very diverse crowd consisting of 10-20 % technology companies, 10% operators and the rest as content and media companies.

• The first , third and the last panel discussion were great discussions with extremely interesting insights.

• For a change this was not an event for me where the same faces were seen again.

• Most of the speakers were very eminent and knew what they were talking about. So it was a great download of substance for me.

Things that could have been improved

• 5 panel discussion back to back with very tightly packed seating arrangements with delegates literally elbowing each other made the whole day mentally as well as physically exhousting.

• 2 ( 2nd and the 4th) of the panel could have been done away with to provide more interacting/networking time. (Especially the one on Enterprise Mobility discussion as it was a barrage of marketing pitches from most of the panelists)

My key takeaways from the event.

• The low hanging fruit in the so called VAS market has been taken away.

• There is a large amount of uncertainty in the future of this market(next version), the industry players are divided and are debating amongst themselves whether the market is supply constrained or demand constrained.

• There is a tipping point in the making and some relatively unknown player will shake up the market and wake rest from their slumbers. (I subscribe to the belief that it is supply constrained )

• Contrary to what many would have you believe 99% of what is posited in the next generation market of mobile VAS is hype and that includes solutions from old players, telcos and heavily funded startups.

• Newer value chains will be much much different from the old ones (trumpets are being sounded already, see the title of the post)

• Clearly older players in the market will definitely have an edge even in this times of turbulence and they will exert their influence based on their past learnings.

• Mobile Advertising is one of the most hyped up topic and half the people in the room are already doing mobile advertisement or planning to do it in the near future but very few realize of what it is.

• Technology companies are not putting as much as effort understanding the media business as media companies are putting to understand the technology business. I was aghast at how much media companies knew about mobile and how much less of the reverse was true.

To sum up the question is the following

Next generation of the value creation ( & subsequent establishment of value chains) are non initiated because of a coordination failure, who should be a catalyst for it. VC & private equity capital through investment in game changing startups, fat media companies or Telco who have traditionally played that role.

Video of the week

“Here comes another bubble“, this is simply just too hilarious.