Aircel, Ibibo offer social games on mobile phones

Telecom service provider, Aircel has partnered ibibo. com to offer social gaming on mobile phonesfor the first time in the country.

The popular game "Great Indian Parking wars" from Ibibo will now be offered on the Aircel Pocket Internet. India's fifth largest GSM mobile service provider plans to add many more games to the offering soon.

The users will either require an ibibo. com ID or can access the games through facebook connect. The users can only access the game through WAP-enabled handsets. The offering also brings the micro-transactions to the mobile phones where users can purchase virtual items in the games and pay through theservice provider.

Mr. Gurdeep Singh, COO, Aircel said, "With first Social Gaming on your Mobile Phones the intent is to drive innovation at the convergence of Games and Social Platforms while you are on the move. It is our endeavor to offer our consumers exciting and engaging opportunities such as gaming and staying socially connected anytime, anywhere."

The Great Indian Parking wars game allows users to connect to their friends and purchase icons, manage parking, issue wrong parking fines and other such activities. The game has been popular over the internet as it does not require any download and is free to play.

Aircel a joint venture between Maxis Communications Berhad of Malaysia and Sindya Securities & InvestmentsPrivate Limited and has a subscriber base of more than 36 million users.

Please let me know if your suggestions about ibibo and aircel in the comments.

Apple launches 3G iPad, looks to maintain momentum

In the second stage of a two-part rollout,Apple Inc on Friday began selling the pricier, high-speed wireless version of the iPad in the United States, following the successful launch of the short-range Wi-Fi tablet earlier this month.

Although the event certainly lacked the buildup and excitement of the April 3 debut -- with the heartiest waiting in line overnight -- some Apple retail stores in big cities still saw decent-sized crowds ahead of the 5 p.m. launch.

At a store in downtown San Francisco, roughly 75 people stood in line 90 minutes before the 3G iPad went on sale.

Several people said they had waited for the more expensive version of Apple's tablet because they saw it as a potential replacement for their laptops, at least in certain situations.

"I'm going to take it everywhere with me, I already take my laptop everywhere, and it'll definitely replace my laptop in a lot of cases," said Long Nguyen, 22, who works in IT repair and was first in line.

The 3G model -- which is also Wi-Fi compatible -- starts at $629 and tops out at $829. The Wi-Fi-only iPad starts at $499.

The 9.7-inch touchscreen iPad is essentially a cross between a laptop and a smartphone. It is intended as a media consumption device, good for video, games, electronic books and magazines and Web browsing.

But some said they were hoping to also use it for work, mainly because of the device's thin-and-light profile.

"I travel a lot for work, and I have a lot of projects that are out in the field, so I think it will be useful for some of that," said Gary Riley, 36, an environmental engineer.

"I'm on the road all the time, and I think it will give me a nice choice, especially when I travel," said Bob Geib, a consultant. "It will complement my laptop."

AT&T is providing the wireless data plans for the iPad, charging $29.99 a month for unlimited access.

AT&T is also the exclusive U.S. carrier for Apple's iPhone, and has been subject to plenty of criticism over the quality of its network. It remains to be seen whether iPad users will encounter any problems with their service.

Apple sold 300,000 iPads on launch day April 3 and a half-million units the first week. Although the device won't reach international markets until late May, some analysts expect Apple to sell roughly 5 million or so this year.

The iPad rollout has been accompanied by a crush of media hype, but it has not been without its hiccups. The company delayed the international launch for a month for what it said was stronger-than-expected demand.

Analyst say the company has also had difficulty ramping production of a new product.

Shares of Cupertino, California-based Apple closed down 2.8 percent at $261.09 on the Nasdaq.

Via Yahoo! News.

Apple iPad goes on sale for first time in US

Apple's iPad hits stores today amid fevered speculation over whether the gadget can meet expectations.

The iPad, which Apple chief executive Steve Jobs hopes will bridge a gap between smartphone and laptop, goes on sale across America from 9am.

Industry analysts and Wall Street are now waiting to see whether the touchscreen tablet will prove as successful and revolutionary as the company’s iPhone mobile and iPod music player.

The company has already received several hundred thousands in pre-orders and first-year sales are estimated to be between 4 million to 7 million.

Last night those wanting to be the first to buy the device started queuing outside a few of Apple's 200-plus US outlets. Queues were shorter than for the launch of the iPhone three years ago, as the iPad has been available to pre-order since last month.

The lightweight device, which features a 9.7 inch touchscreen, is an attempt to fuse the best qualities of laptops and smartphones. It allows owners to access the internet, play video games and view a range of media from films to magazines.

Pricing ranges from $499 for a short-range Wi-Fi model to more than $800 for a 3G-enabled version.

Apple’s stock has risen steadily since the iPad was launched to much fanfare in January.

However some commentators have critisced the device as an ‘oversized iPhone' lacking the processing power of a laptop and questioned whether it will be able to compete in either market.

Rival software giants Hewlett and Packard and Dell are also planning to launch tablet devices later this year.

Internet Explorer losing ground

The world’s most-used internet browser, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, is on a steady decline in India, reveals a study by Irish metrics firm StatCounter. IE, as it’s known, has lost almost 20% market share in India in the past two years, even as Google’s Chrome and Mozilla’s Firefox make great strides.

According to StatCounter, the percentage of PCs running Internet Explorer in India dropped from close to 70% in 2008 to about 51%, currently . The drop was despite an absence of any regulation by a trade commission , unlike that mandated by European Union on Microsoft, this year.

In Europe, Internet Explorer lost three times more share this month than usual in some European countries since the company was forced to mandate a ballot screen by EU in its Windows 7 operating system.

The ballot screen offers a choice between Mozilla’s Firefox, Google’s Chrome, Apple’s Safari, Opera and others, by displaying icons of rival browsers.

Worldwide, Internet Explorer’s market share has suddenly started dipping, and rivals Chrome’s and Firefox’s rising, from this month, following the EU regulation. Worldwide IE has a market share of about 55% followed by Firefox’s 31%, Chrome at 7% and Safari at about 4% currently. 

According to StatCounter, the percentage of systems running the browser dropped in several countries , since March 1. India does not have any such mandate but still the erosion in market share has been steady. Besides security, the decline is also due to slow connectivity in a country already plagued by slow internet speed. Of the 71 million internet users in India, just 8 million have a broadband connection. 

Replying to an ET query a Microsoft spokesperson said, “PC manufacturers and users around the world can install any browser they want on PCs today.” When asked about plans of implementation of a similar browser ballot in India, Microsoft said issues in the Internet Explorer case have already been the subject of extensive legal action in several countries. “Each country has developed their own legal solutions. We are committed to complying with the laws and regulations of other jurisdictions around the world.” 

Meanwhile, in developed markets like Germany, Firefox has already beaten IE while in France it has lost close to 6% to Firefox and Google’s Chrome since January, this year. 

Rivals Chrome and Opera are upbeat about the change. “We believes believe user choice is important because that’s what stimulates innovation ,” says Vinay Goel, products head, Google India, commenting on the introduction of browser ballot in European market. 

Browsers are important to an internet company’s revenues as one can add monetisable websites and applications through it. It acts as a gateway to the internet. Any application installed at a popular gate is bound to generate revenues.

Motorola Backflip brings Android to AT&T

After a long period of letting the iPhone hog AT&T's spotlight, the carrier has finally opened its arms to Android. Today, the carrier unveiled the Motorola Backflip, the first of three AT&T phones powered by Google's operating system.

Backflip not only represents an end to the Apple/BlackBerry smart-phone hegemony at AT&T, but also incorporates several really interesting design features.

The phone's name comes from its inside-out design. A keyboard swings out to complement its very iPhone-reminiscent touch screen. The curious part: when tucked underneath, the keyboard faces outward. Also, hidden behind the screen is a trackpad, which offers users another way to navigate through applications. The concept seems intuitive enough, but it's weird that users won't be able to see the trackpad while they use it.

While based on Android, Backflip comes with Motorola's Motoblur, a user interface that highlights social-networking features such as Facebook and Twitter. We talked about Motoblur in more depth in this article about the Motorola Cliq.

Backflip will cost $100 with rebate and two-year contract, and debuts March 7.

Why Google is Bad for the Newspaper Business

One of the key core competencies of a publication is the process of selecting “all the news thats fit to print”.

No one can read every news story. Instead of even trying to consume everything, we all have a process we go through for discovery of news, information and topics of interest to us. We have sources we trust for our news and information. It may be a printed paper or magazine, a website, tv news, facebook or twitter updates, or some combination of everything we have access to.

No matter how we get information there is one certainty, there is a finite number of sources we will use.

When someone selects google news as their destination for news discovery it is probably at the expense of another destination or product who aspires to be a “discovery destination”. But lets pretend it is just an incremental source. That for a while at least a consumer will both go to Google News and to the website of their local paper. What is the branding message the consumer is receiving ?

When that newspaper allows itself to be included in Google News it becomes a de facto endorsement of Google News as an acceptable and probably preferable “discovery destination” . The branding message to the consumer is “I dont need to go to the newspaper homepage. Everything the newspaper has is referenced here in Google News. So if there is something of interest to me from the local paper, Google News will send me to their site. I don’t need to go to both sites any longer. I can just go to Google News.

Thats not good for the publication brand and business. They just lost their position as a trusted source where real people make decisions on what content they think their readers will want to discover – to an algorithm.

But wait it gets worse.

When that consumer goes to Google News, it lists the number of sources. You immediately become one of 2,172 articles. It is never good for a brand to be considered one of 2,000 plus sources. Ever. That makes you a commodity. All that promotion you did saying how good your reporters are ? On its way to becoming worthless. To the consumer there are 2,000 other people able to do the same thing (even though there really arent 2k sources, thats not what the branding message they get from Google)

And the bad news will keep on coming.

As a newspaper or other information source, you can never discount the very real possibility that Google starts becoming a content creator. Why couldn’t they hire reporters ? Why couldn’t they give their content priority over all others ? More importantly, why wouldn’t they ?

Never happen you say ? See AOL. See Yahoo. Both are now creating original content in huge quantities. I promise you, someday there will be a bunch of Googlers sitting in a meeting discussing how they can generate enough revenue and profits to increase earnings per share by a penny. You can bet someone will pull up a spreadsheet showing the increase in CPMs for original content with the trusted Google News brand on it. It will show that by simply hiring a bunch of reporters to create news, with Google’s traffic and the higher CPMs of original content, we can make a lot of money for our shareholders. You are in denial if you think this will never happen.

It was smart to ride the Google wave of traffic when you were able to sell it all. Things change. Now you can’t sell all your organic traffic, let alone the traffic you get from Google. Now the value equation has shifted. You are endorsing Google News as a discovery destination making their brand stronger by the day. Google News’ brand value will increase fast enough on its own. There is no sane reason to allow them to co-opt your brand and use it to accelerate the growth of a business, Google News that will very likely be your biggest online competitor

Update: I want to put a qualifier here because some people think this applies to any or all media companies. It doesn’t. This is meant for media companies that have established brands and brand equity. If you are a startup, you should use Google for everything its worth. It can be very valuable. If you are trying to create or establish a brand, you should use Google.Google News. If you have no revenue, you should probably rethink your choice of professions and /or business, but Google traffic can only help.

For you, every visitor is a good thing and an opportunity to convert that user and build your brand image.

On the flipside if your company name is one of multiple choices that comes to people’s mind when they need the type of information/news/info you provide, then you need to think through just what impact Google.GoogleNews has on your business today and in the future.

Reports: Apple Will Sell Eight Million iPads by 2012

An analyst with Needham & Company has projected that Apple will sell 2 million iPads this year with an additional 6M being sold in 2011. The sales will come at the expense of Apple’s iPod Touch, according to reports today.

Sales will begin moderately. The anticipated spike in sales will occur after “the arrival of a catalyst,” but the report did not specify what that incentive would be. The iTunes store worked before, and it may work again.

That is evidenced by reports of interactive textbooks headed to the iPad. The iPad also could appeal to people who have light computing requirements such as seniors.

In comparison, the iPhone was much more mass market. Over 1 million iPhones were sold within 71 days of its introduction, and sold over 8 million units last quarter. The iPhone has contributed remarkably to Apple’s revenues–without massively cannibalizing the sales of iPods. The iPad could be viewed as a substitute for the iPod Touch.

The thing to keep in mind is that this is only the first iteration of the iPad. There’s no shortage of speculation about what Apple may or may deliver when the iPad ships – from evidence of a camera to an “intelligent bezel.” We don’t know the entire story of what “it” is yet, or what it will become. The iPad could very well end up carrying other Apple products.

Whether those reports are accurate or not, they do prove one thing: there is no shortage of potential for the tablet category. Even if Google enters the market, increased category awareness and growth should only support Apple’s sales.

Chrome aims to steal some iPad thunder

Fresh off the unveiling of Apple’s iPad, we have a whole new batch of tablet rumors—this time regarding a Google Chrome-based tablet device. The Chromium Project, the core behind the development of the Chrome operating system, has released a number of mockups and early concepts regarding what a Chrome-based tablet PC might be.

Next to Apple, Google is arguably the most-qualified to launch a tablet device capable of being a game changer. One thing that Apple and Google have in common is that they tend to think outside of the mainstream and are capable of creating paradigm-shifting innovation.

After all of the hype, rumors, and speculation, the Apple iPad is really more of a giant iPod touch than a full computer. While some tablets, like the HP Slate unveiled by Steve Ballmer at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), operate on Windows 7 or some other desktop operating system, the iPad runs the iPhone mobile operating system rather than Apple’s Mac OS X.

An “iPhone on steroids”, as many have dubbed it, may not seem very compelling, but the reality is that the iPad looks to be a very capable device for what it’s designed to do. The fact that it runs the vast library of apps available in the iTunes App Store gives users tens of thousands of free and cheap programs to choose from, and developers will soon create new apps uniquely suited for the iPad form factor.

Based on the early conceptual ideas regarding the Chrome tablet, Google may be taking a completely different, yet equally innovative, approach to the tablet PC. Whereas the Apple iPad revolves around apps—similar to the popular iPhone and iPod touch devices, the Chrome tablet takes a Web-based doc, or file-centric approach.

The very concept of the Chrome OS revolves around creating a Web-centric operating system that sheds all of the excess weight and frivolous features of standard desktop operating system, and provides a streamlined Web browser interface that enables users to interact with Web-based services like Google Docs, Gmail, Picassa, etc.

The tablet C page on the Chromium site has a variety of mock photos depicting what a Chrome-based tablet might look like. It also lists some of the design elements currently under consideration:
Keyboard interaction with the screen: anchored, split, attached to focus.
Launchers as an overlay, providing touch or search as means to access web sites.
Contextual actions triggered via dwell.
Zooming UI for multiple tabs
Tabs presented along the side of the screen
Creating multiple browsers on screen using a launcher

Aesthetics and user interface aside, a Chrome OS tablet may make a better business tool than the Apple iPad for a few reasons. First, many businesses have existing Web-based tools and applications. A tablet that works seamlessly with the Web would be a more natural extension of existing business tools than a tablet PC centered around iPhone apps.

The nature of Google Docs, Gmail, Google Wave, and other tools from Google allow for seamless synchronization between the tablet, the desktop, the mobile phone, and any other platform because the tools and the data reside online.

The fact that the applications and data are Web-based also makes it easier to share data with other users and collaborate—in real-time, or not—with peers, partners, or customers.

Finally, the Chrome operating system is open-source which enables businesses to freely customize it to fit their needs, or develop tools for it that integrate with other systems and improve business processes. Further, they can deploy those tools without having to get approval from Google, and without having to make them available to the general public in the app store.

Don’t get me wrong, the iPad actually has way more business potential than many give it credit for. Once it arrives, I have faith that new tools will continue to be developed to enhance its business functionality even farther. And, let’s face it, the iPad has been officially announced and will be available soon while the Chrome tablet is pure speculation, so the iPad wins in that department as well.

Whether or not the Chrome tablet ends up being a better business tool than the iPad will remain to be seen, if and when a Chrome-based tablet actually exists.

Strong Windows 7 sales boost Microsoft profits

 Software maker Microsoft recorded a bigger-than-expected 60 percent jump in quarterly profit, thanks to strong sales of its latest operating system, Windows 7.

The company also said it expected business technology spending to recover this year.

"We didn't see enterprise spending growth in our fiscal second quarter just ended," Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein said.


"However, our general view is a recovery will occur starting this calendar year and gradually over the next several years," he added.

Microsoft's net profit came to US$6.7 billion, or 74 cents per share, for its fiscal second quarter, versus US$4.2 billion, or 47 cents per share, a year ago.

"Make no mistake, these were very good results out of Microsoft. Expectations were heightened ever the last few weeks, given Q4 PC shipments and good numbers from Intel," said Andy Miedler, analyst at Edward Jones.

The company stopped making specific profit or revenue forecasts in January 2009, citing market volatility. But Windows 7 has proved to be Microsoft's strongest-selling operating system to date after the disappointing Vista. PC sales grew 15.2 percent last quarter.

Microsoft's revenue rose 14 percent to US$19.02 billion, including US$1.71 billion of deferred revenue from the Windows 7 launch in October. Excluding that, sales were US$17.31 billion.

The company's stock has risen 62 percent over the past 12 months, outstripping a 40 percent gain in the Nasdaq.

"Last year the [Microsoft's] stock was a big outperformer. A lot of people think the stock has already had its run," said Jane Snorek, technology analyst at First American Funds. "But I think with PCs doing this well and a new Office coming in June, that the stock can still outperform. I think Office can be a big hit."