Why aren’t More Indians Using Twitter? – Pandodaily is wrong

I frequent the recently launched Pandodaily.com for its excellent coverage on Startups and Technology trends. Their recent coverage on Google’s Search-Your-world fiasco was splendid. Especially Sarah Lucy’s (former Techcrunch Blogger) articles are a treat to read. But her recent post on Indians’ twitter usage is factually wrong. You can read the orignal article by clicking here (at Pandodaily.com).

The article lists the below reasons for Indians not using Twitter much.

1.India’s Poverty inspite of its size

2.Very less(??!!) English speaking people.

3. Pseudo Democracy

4. Rapidly growing but still small middle class.

All of the above might contribute to the less usage of Twitter in India to some extent, but they are not the main reasons, The main reason for Indian’s not using Twitter much is – Text Messaging (SMS).

Yes, Text messaging heavily in India. Apart from being very effective and convenient, the cost of Text message in India is very less or absolutely zero.This is unlike US, where text messaging is costly than in India This also needs to be seen in the context of feature phones still being more prevalent than smartphones (though that situation is changing).

Yahoo/Google/Facebook messengers are used personal and group chats. Add to this the now popular Blackberry Messenger Service. For all other social needs Facebook is used. (Earlier it was Orkut) The recent Facebook stats proves that. More details on the statistics is available here.

With Texting and Messengers taking care of short conversations and Facebook covering Social Networking, where does Twitter fit in? Many have signed up for Twitter and nobody uses it. Twitter is not alone here. The same arguments apply for Google Plus.

And again, this doesn’t mean, Twitter is not used at all. Twitter is making fast inroads and a list of popular tweeters can be found here. Once SmartPhones are more prevalent twitter usage will shoot up.

So, the real reasons for Twitter Usage less in India is the above and not what has been mentioned in Pandodaily’s post.

Apple Disrupts Personal Computing Dynamics

With HP announcing that it will be exiting PC/Laptop business today, the end of PC seems more inevitable than ever. This needs to be seen in the context that HP is the largest maker of PCs.  The earlier big weight was IBM when it sold its PC business to Lenovo. Dell too seems to be struggling in this low profit commoditized business. The future of computing seems belong to Smartphones and Tablets.

In mobile space the struggling Motorola Mobility (manufacturer of Droid Line of Phones) was agreed to be bought by Google for a whopping 12.6 Billion Dollars this week. Switching to Android earlier, didn’t help Motorola to yield the expected turnaround. The pioneer in smartphones, Palm (part of HP) is officially announced obsolete today.

Though these news indicate the changing dynamics of the Computing Technology space, the most important revelation is the amazing rise of Apple to prominence. With PC and Mobile OEMs struggling to maintain their bottomline with declining topline, Apple’s growth in both the these areas is astounding.

Within a decade, Apple has conquered the PC and Mobile space and has risen to be the pioneer of innovation and high quality consumer goods.Here is the list of Apple’s products that have been the leaders in their respective markets.

• IPod Mp3 players (Smashed Sony’s Walkman series and commends >80% market share)
• IPhone (Revolutionized the Touchscreen Smartphone with IOS and AppStore Concepts.)
• Mac computers (Highest Growth Rate and most profitable, when PC sales are faltering)
• IPad Tablets (Created a new touchscreen Tablet market and commending >90% market share. Consumers starting to refer all tablets as Ipads)

Not only the above, Apple gives competitors a run for their money. For instance, Sony was dethroned as consumer electronics giant, Dell & HP struggling in PC business, Google struggling to keep Android’s momentum by overspending for patents. Google is no more known for innovation,Apple is. Nokia no more leader in Phones, Apple is.

The question is how did Apple achieve this phenomenal success? Here are the 2 main reasons

• Create products that are innovative, usable and above all that works. Apple plays down specs and features and concentrates on usability and aesthetics. While competitors boasted high end specs Apple has historically concentrated on features that users want most. While an Android phone/tablet always feature high specifications, Apple phones are designed to be sleek,hip and usable.
• Avoid tempting price points and concentrate on value. Apple has always avoided indulging in price wars that is race to the bottom. While competitors are struggling with wafer thin margins, Apple is reaping profits in the same businesses by offering more value to customers for the money that they spend on its products.

Though Apple’s policy of maintaining tight control over its platform might hurt it in the long run, until it delivers the same high quality and innovative products it will remain the leader of Personal Computing Space both in Software and Hardware.

5 Reasons Why Google Delayed HoneyComb Source Code Release

Google’s recent announcement to delay release of Android 3.0 Honeycomb source code to developers, has raised the question whether Android is truly open. Critics argue that software can be either Open or Closed and should never be selectively open. In an e-mail statement to WSJ, Google claims that

“while we’re excited to offer these new features to Android tablets, we have more work to do before we can deliver them to other device types including phones. Until then, we’ve decided not to release Honeycomb to open source. We’re committed to providing Android as an open platform across many device types and will public the source as soon as it’s ready.”

Now that sounds reasonable, but are these the real reasons behind delays release of source code? Here are the 5 reasons we believe why Google had to take this decision

1. Google Circles: Rumor suggests that Google has completed developing the Social Network service touted as Facebook killer “Google Circles” and might be releasing it anytime now. It is expected that the service will be built into the OS itself rather than available as an app. Google doesn’t want to release the code now which will have the components of Google Circles. It want to keep it under wraps and announce it in the coming weeks or months.
2. Google Music Service: The same reasoning goes with Google Music service also, which is rumored to debut in the coming days. The OS might have some components related with this service and Google doesn’t want general public and competitors know about this service much before it debuts.
3. IP Law suits: With a bunch of lawsuits already against Android, Google doesn’t want to reveal the source code now and invite a host of more IP violation law suits. It wants Honeycomb capture enough market share before getting into IP related troubles.
4. UI experience: With critics slamming the recently released Xoom running Honeycomb for bad UI experience and buggy software, Google wants to tweak and refine the OS before releasing the code to general availability. It wants to avoid the glitches that users faced with Xoom, in its upcoming rumored Nexus Tablet.
5. Finally as Google has suggested, it wants to avoid further fragmentation of Android with third party hardware manufacturers and developers using Honeycomb on Phone. Currently Android 2.x OS targets smartphones and 3.x targets tablets. Google wants to optimize 3.x so that it can be used in smartphones. If that’s the case, Google will discontinue 2.x OS for good.

Taking into account above reasons it’s clear that Google is slowly becoming a proprietary software company. Following in-house development of OS and then delaying the source code release even though products are released with the binaries are clear indication that Android is open no more.

Can Yahoo! do it?

Yahoo is struggling to keep up with the current Web trend. Carol may sound more optimistic in the above video, but the latest news suggests that Yahoo is planning to cut 5% of workforce. Nevertheless, she does has a point about the Microsoft-Yahoo search deal. The ten year deal allows Bing to power Yahoo search and allows Yahoo to keep 88% of the search ad revenue. Microsoft gets remaining revenue and gains access to the user info and preferences thereby helping in more targeted ads. This might add additional $500 million revenue for Yahoo.
But this still is not enough to stop the other businesses from faltering. Before the Y2K boom Yahoo was the trendy web and search company attracting most of web traffic. Its failure to innovate in search and missing the Social Networking wave has cost it dearly. I am afraid Yahoo shouldn’t become the next Sun Microsystems or Novell.

Oracle and Open Source

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Oracle’s War on Open Source
Oracle has been in the news for the past few weeks not only because of its  stunning quarterly results but also its dealing with the opensource products it  bought along with Sun. Oracle claims it is world’s largest OpenSource Company and does offer numerous Opensource products. Though Redhat rebuts the claim, based on number of products and sales, the claim is atleast in theory true. But again Redhat is right when it says, Open is not just seeing the code, but having a community of developers and not keep some part open and some part closed. Redhat goes further to say that Oracle doesn’t even qualify as an Open Source Company. Oracle’s recent moves some how is substantiating Redhat’s claim.
Opensolaris
initially MySQL was feared to be the FOSS product that  will receive Oracle’s axe or indifference. Though MySQL seems to be safe atleast for now, Opensolaris is not. It is official and has ended months of speculation   and uncertainty. Opensolaris is dead. Oracle has made it clear that Solaris  will be its mainstay product to get the latest feature updates. The Solaris source code  will be released to “partners” after the product release itself and the brand  Opensolaris will cease to exist.
Java and Google
Then Oracle sued Google claiming its Dalvik VM implementation in Android infringes several of Oracle’s Java copyrights and IPR. In oracle’s words, Google "knowingly,  directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle’s Java-related intellectual  property." Now in this case it seems Oracle has chance of winning the suit or Google will take the route of out-of-court settlement. Either way Oracle is going to squeeze good amount of money from Google. This case has indeed rattled many other IT biggies who have invested in Java as their  choice of platform for their products. They are slowly falling in line with Oracle. Take the case of IBM, which Oracle says its enemy number one, shifted gears and decided to collaborate with Oracle on the OpenJDK project thereby abandoning the Apache Harmony project. Looks Redhat and Canonical are on their own to back Harmony now, may be they too will choose to fall in line with Oracle eventually.
OpenOffice.org
The other product that has been making news is OpenOffice.org or OOo, as the  Document Foundation has forked it into LibreOffice. Though Oracle has not done  anything from its side to result in this fork, the Foundation has decided that  this route is safe seeing the indifference from Oracle. I see the Document Foundation’s point here but can LibreOffice survive on its own given the reach of OOo’s brand name reach? Only time will tell.
Linux and Redhat
Finally Oracle stunned the world with its announcement in OpenWorld 2010. Going to extreme, Oracle has announced that it is forking the Linux kernel itself and has come up  with Unbreakable Linux kernel optimized for Oracle Database. This is perfectly  valid in Opensource world but it kind of hints what Oracle’s intentions. It is clearly taking shots at Redhat. Its earlier attempt to undermine Redhat Linux with its offering of Oracle Unbreakable Linux never worked. Now Oracle will arm twist its customers saying the new Oracle kernel is better than one in Redhat’s.
The above developments has sent shock waves across FOSS communities,  although not surprising, bringing in the question of what will happen to MySQL  eventually. It is very clear that Oracle wants to invest time and money only in  projects and products that will add value to both to its topline and bottomline. It wants to squeeze money out of all OpenSource products it owns, by all means. Though that’s understandable as a corporate responsible for provding value to its Shareholders, it should also should embrace the communities behind the projects rather than act as big brother dictating terms. But the question still remains, is this what always happen when a proprietary software company buys an  opensource company or product..? Especially when companies like Novell will be eventually up for sale and the industry heads towards consolidation. Not always true, but in most cases  unfortunately the answer is yes.

My Write-Up published in Rediff.com

>Rediff.com recently published my write-up about iPad. It is available here. I am also pasting it below…

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Apple’s other iProducts are usually an improvement over existing products in that category and usually revolutionises the way people use them. A good example is the iPod which was not a brand new product in that category but it changed how people use it as part of their lifestyle. iPhone too is a good example.
But iPad’s story is different. Though there are tablets/ handhelds/ pdas/ gaming consoles/ MIDs/ ebook readers already available, this machine doesn’t fit any of the categories. It is a new product and is trying to create a new category of its own with all the above usages in mind. The usability and satisfaction should be seen in that context. In this regard, Apple’s bold decision to introduce a new product is welcome.

It is a fine product just as any other Apple product. But there some quirks that needs to be mentioned.

One good example is how to hold this device? Whatever is the target purpose of this new device, either gaming or ebook or business device, the lack of a good holder/ handle to hold the device is a big disappointment. With a device of this size and with the glossy finish, I would have expected a way to hold the device safely, especially when the target audience of this device is frequent travelers.

Lack of camera, less pre-installed apps, flash are few other concerns.

Other major concern is Apple’s proprietary attitude. The processor is Apple’s own, OS is iPhone OS, app store is again totally Apple governed and the list goes on. If Apple expects it to be adopted widely, it sure might want to think about opening up some of these areas should not be hurting.

Otherwise this product looks awesome and might be a hit in India [ Images ] too. But wait, what I am saying? Apple had its flop products too.

— Balaje Sankar, 28, Minneapolis, US


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Oracle hints on Sun SParc Assets Part II

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With US DoJ approving Oracle-Sun deal, Oracle is slowly revealing its plans for Sun H/W assets. Here is another teaser/advt that Oracle runs about Suns hardware assets. I have seen this on most prominent web sites. It looks Oracle is willing to keep the Sun’s Hardware business with itself and is ready to invest more on developing the same.
There is another angle to these teasers. The recent decision by EU to investigate possible antitrust issues in the deal has delayed it. It might take till mid January to complete the investigation. Already IBM and HP are grabbsing Sun’s customers utilizing the uncertainity of the deal. The antitrust scrutiny can be dealt by either selling out MySQL or promise future development of MySQL. (I really love the words used by the Eurpean commissioner in his statement “The commission has to examine very carefully the effects on competition in Europe when the world’s leading proprietary database company proposes to take over the world’s leading open source database company“ Oracle wants to thwart customers jumping ships and hence trying to clear the uncertainity by promising that it is still committed with Sun’s Hardware.

Its not me alone but most of the experts still feel that Oracle might sell Sun’s Hardware business to HP. And that makes real sense.

Oracle hints on Suns Sparc Assets

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Here is a teaser that Oracle runs on its site. It might be a hint on what Oracle is planning with Suns Hardware assets.

Lets just wait till Oct 14 on the real intentions of Oracle.

VMWare acquires SpringSource

>VMWare is acquiring SpringSource for around half a billion dollars.For the people who wonder what is a Virtualization/Datacenter has to do with a Java Enterprise application software company, you are not alone. I was too puzzled when I heard the news. Whatever the explanation CEO of VMWare gives or SpringSource’s CEO gives it doesnt somehow add up. Yaa, these kind of acquisitions are not uncommon nowadays. Oracle’s ongoing acquisition of Sun is one such example. Whereas Oracle is a Enterprise Software company, Sun is primarily a Hardware company. What on earth is Oracle going to do with Sun’s RISC based assets…? Word is that Oracle has already decided to shelve Sun’s ambitious ROCK processor project. Now will same sort of thing will happen with some of the assets of Spring Source. We will eventually see. For me, I would be happy someone buys redhat and keep a check on the self proclaimed guardian of Open source movement.

Sun says its my SQL

>Suns acquisition of mysql didnt surprise me at all. Given Sun’s recent flirting with Open Source movement this is a logical outcome. But what surprised me is the cost of this acquisition. A staggering 1 billion dollars. Now how could Sun gets the maximum returns out of it..? Sun might want to convert the popular “LAMP” Linux Apache Mysql Php into SAMP Solaris Apache Mysql Php. But how does it going to monetize the effort and resources its going to pump into the further development of this free database software which is not that popular in large entertprises..? Charging for support and hardware does not seem to increase the topline of Sun in the short term as far as I see. Lets wait and watch.