Mobile Apps In India

Since the advent of mobile phones, courtesy Dr Martin Cooper of Motorola, in 1973, the journey of these little portable devices has been a remarkable and unique one. It has been a long way for the antenna carrying cell-phones to go all touchy-feely today.

The upcoming variation in the world of mobile phones is applications development, more popularly knows as mobile apps.

Mobile apps enable cellular phones (and other portable or hand held devices like the iPad or Amazon's Kindle or India's very own Olive Pad) to download apps and software like music, videos, games, e-books and numerous other forms on your mobile handsets.

While the mobile apps industry has been immensely popular and has a widespread market in foreign countries like the US, Sweden and Japan, India is still to catch the fever. The global market for mobile apps is huge and has been expanding faster than ever.

Gartner says consumers will spend $6.2 Billion in Mobile Application Stores in 2010, and forecasts that worldwide downloads in mobile application stores to surpass 21.6 billion by 2013. Free downloads will account for 82 per cent of all downloads in 2010, and will account for 87 per cent of downloads in 2013.

India is yet to catch up with the hysteria of apps industry that has engrossed an international crowd. The pace in India, though consistent, is slow.

A Knowledgefaber prediction says that though India is lagging behind in the usage of mobile downloads and software uses, there is a vast market for the apps industry in the Indian market in the near future.

With 400 million mobile phone subscribers, and the growth showing no signs of plateauing, India is expectantly being touted as a mobile hot spot globally. Today, mobile has become the only medium to reach out to a large part of India's population. No consumer business worth its name is ignoring the potential of reaching out to customers through mobile applications, for customer service, marketing and of late for transactions. By and large, that is what is driving Indian enterprise mobile applications adoption in the initial phase of the market rollout.

Adoption in the intra-enterprise space is low but gaining momentum. We are still at a stage where only a few sectors like retail and BFSI are using mobility apps for conventional areas like sales force automation, transaction management, etc.

A new entrant on the mobility street has been the government. Governments across India are busy mobilizing their operations and their workforces. The sector has emerged as an enthusiastic consumer (of mobile enterprise apps), and has niche requirements of developing its wireless capability, especially for domains of security, reliability, and scalability of its operations. Another area that the government is exploring is tracking and locational services.

Distribution Platforms

The digital distribution platforms for mobile devices mainly provide mobile software to mobile devices. The most popular apps distribution platforms are Apple App Store, Blackberry App World, Nokia's Ovi, Google Android and Palm App Market.

1. Apple App Store: Launched on July 10, 2008, with an estimated number of available apps of 225,000 (June 2010). The device platform used in App Store is iOS and it allows individual developers to publish content. The download count by July 2010 was 5 billion.

2. Google Android: Established on October 22, 2008, Android offers around 90,000 available apps. The download count of Android's apps is one billion by July 2010.

3. Nokia Ovi Store: Launched on May 26, 2009, Ovi provides 6,118 apps as on February 2010. The download count is 10 million. Symbian and Java based phones support the download from Ovi Store.

4. RIM App World: Started on April 1, 2009 by RIM, by June 2010, it had 7,422 available apps. The device platform is Blackberry OS.

5. Microsoft's Windows Marketplace for Mobile: Launched on October 5, 2009 it has 376 apps to offer. Supportive on devices with Windows Mobile.

6. Palm App Catalog: Palm/HP's apps market was established on June 6, 2009 and within a year it has 3,281 available apps. Almost 64 million is the download count via App Catalog which uses webOS as its supportive device.

Distribution Platforms in India

Airtel launched its apps store named 'App-Central' in February 2010. App-Central, powered by Cellmania, provides more than 1,250 downloadable apps in around 25 categories like entertainment, e-books, games, travel, photography, themes, utilities and social networking sites. Airtel claims to be the first in India with mobile market place.

Aircel's 'My Aircel' apps launched in January 2010 and can be easily downloaded in a Symbian or Java supportive mobile phone. This operator-based apps store created with the help of Infosys Technologies on the Flypp platform provides access to entertainment, sports, videos, social networking sites to name a few.

Reliance Communications said the first version of its apps store would go live for GSM customers by the end of February 2010, and by the end of March 2010 an expanded version would be available to its CDMA customers as well. The apps would be available through its data portal RWorld 2.0. It will be 3G ready data-portal with world class content management system supporting all the latest features available on mobile handsets.

Vodafone has also officially launched its Mobile apps Store in India. After its official launch on February 15, 2010, today Vodafone Mobile Apps Store offers over 800 apps under various categories like entertainment, utility, finance, social networking, games, etc. Vodafone has already introduced improved convenience features such as 'tabbed browsing' with 'Newest Apps', 'Top Apps' and 'Just for You Apps' which offer a customised set of apps as per consumers' preferences.

With the advances of leading operators in the world of apps industry, it won't take the others to follow shortly and the competition would result into an extensive growth of the apps stores and the market.

Indian mobile users are mostly satisfied with basic apps like making calls, sending texts and MMS and at the most downloading themes, ring tones, music and videos occasionally. Downloading bigger apps and software is still awaited in the Indian market in a wider space.

Moreover, the Indian market and the users being price sensitive, the cost of downloading the apps has to be brought down by the service providers and the mobile manufacturers before more and more users get attracted to apps store.

The slow speed of 2G or 2.5G technologies is another reason for a low inclination to download software and apps. Though 3G has already stepped in, only state-owned operators BSNL and MTNL provide the service in metropolitan and big cities. While several countries in Europe have already started using 4G technology, India is still to get equipped with its processor 3G, and that makes a major difference in the influence of mobile apps industry.

The Mobile Entertainment Forum or MEF suggests that the second quarter of 2010 will have 21 per cent of all mobile entertainment revenues from mobile apps industry only. Much of the credit for the boom in mobile apps industry goes to Apple Inc. App store which holds a high ratio in the apps business. With the iTunes stepping in to the global scenario, the entire device ecosystem has undergone a revolutionary change.

And needless to say, Google's Android is the new kid in the town and it would soon evolve as a market giant in the days to come... so be prepared!

India, being a trend following country, wouldn't take much time to open the door to embrace a full-fledged mobile-apps market. Given time till a maximum of 2012 we promise the world to make the apps industry overcrowded with downloads!

Be it the hype, be it the research or be it the growing awareness, Indian users wait for smart apps soon to make their phones as well as living smarter than ever before!

Employer Branding

Employer Branding is still quite new and perhaps misunderstood term. Some professionals see it more as a modern buzz word, while others feel it is so intangible that it is difficult to qualify.

Employer Branding means building an identity, a story, a culture that has the ability to talk to the right target populations wherever they may be around the world. Employer Branding distinguishes a company from its competitors !

The employer brand is “the image of your organization as a ‘great place to work’ in the minds of current employees and key stakeholders in the external market, and is concerned with the attraction, engagement and retention initiatives targeted at enhancing a company’s employer brand.”

Corporations have finally understood, that it is very important to develop an employer brand that makes sense for their organization. Talented candidates need to identify with companies that can offer the type of career they are looking for and the environment that appeals best to them. Communication and transparency is vital.

An employer brand must be managed consistently and exists whether a company actively manages its Employer Value Proposition (EVP), or not. The disciplines used for managing a corporate brand are increasingly used by the human resource and talent management community to attract, engage and retain talented candidates and employees in the same way marketing applies such practices in attracting and retaining clients.

A company’s corporate brand speaks to all key audiences – clients, prospects, investors, media, and partners – all stakeholders – including existing and potential employees. Employer brand is a facet of the corporate brand, not a separate competing brand. The two are inextricably linked and they have to be aligned.

Corporate branding is not just tagging your logo onto everything you do...it is the core values that define what your company stands for. Think long and hard about your identity. Is this branding campaign simply like a big advertising campaign, or is it a campaign to tell the world who you are? If it's the former, you're in for a tough time. If it's the latter, you have a shot at making it through a difficult branding process and coming out on the other side stronger, with a deeper, wider moat to protect you from the competition.


There is a definite global shift in candidate attitudes to employment, career development, employers of choice, international mobility, work-life balance, women in the workplace, etc… Companies need to understand that this modern & transparent “attitude” is not simply a trend, but, a reality.

It is becoming increasingly competitive to attract and retain talent (at all levels). With the increasing global shortage of talent driven by an aging population, increased mobility of workers, especially generation Y’s, migration, and technological advances, attracting the right talent for your organization will become increasingly difficult.

Companies that spend time and money on employer branding reap the benefits. Just a few…

1. Companies that ‘live the brand’ spend less on advertising…companies like Starbucks and Google.

2. Companies with consistent, distinctive and deeply held values tended to outperform those companies with a less clear and articulated ethos.

3. Retention costs are significantly lower than the costs associated with hiring, training and integrating a new employee, not to mention time lost when the role is not filled.

4. Companies with a strong EVP/brand recruit the best talent and curb attrition.

5. Employees more likely to be engaged and perform consistently at a higher level when employer brand is strong.

Employer brand management should be a priority for companies of all sizes. Remember, while an unsatisfied customer tells ten people about his experience, an unsatisfied employee tells a hundred.

Business Success through Storytelling

The universe is made of stories. Our lives are a series of stories woven together--our own stories and the stories of those around us.

Great leaders--religious, political or business--realize this and are good storytellers. Jesus spoke in parables. Krishna and Rama came to life through the stories they told.

In the business world, many successful top executives are very good storytellers. They entice us with their stories all the time, telling us how they started their businesses, what they stand for and where they are going.

Bill Gates continually told us of his dream of putting a personal computer on every desktop and in every home. That great story inspired Steve Ballmer--and probably others--to drop out of business school and join a small company in the far northwest corner of the U.S., even as Ballmer's mother, not having heard the story, wondered why anyone would ever need a computer.

Howard Schultz, chairman of Starbucks tells us the story of his trip to Milan and the passion for fresh, richly brewed espresso he discovered there and carried home with him.

Stories of ordinary people accomplishing the extraordinary inspire others to dig deep down and find the energy and passion to do the same. They help us--employees, customers, shareholders--derive meanings for everything a company does.

Stories are easy to tell and easy to remember. Therefore they're easy to spread. A leader can start a good story on its way and watch it take on a life of its own. As it does so, it creates a community. A CEO who has a great story and tells it has a much easier time reaching out to people, connecting to them and creating a sustainable community of them.

We live our lives by the stories we tell ourselves and tell others.

What stories are you telling to yourself, your team, and your customers?

Avoiding skill rot

Skill rot is a very real problem for everyone in the web industry and I have often been confronted with this problem in helping team members develop and reach goals.

You experience skill rot when your skill levels remain the same, while the expected skill levels required from a person in your position keeps increasing, leaving you behind. what can we do to make sure we stay on top of the necessary skills we need, in order to be effective and successful in what we do?

First, determine what skills you are hoping to keep up-to-date. These may be project management, design, development, front end code, server administration; whatever they are, list them in order of your priorities. Always remember that no matter how hard you try, you'll never be the expert on everything. Be selective about what skills best complement your existing abilities, and what you truly need to invest time in learning. Learning new skills doesn't need to be a chore; make these up-skilling tasks an enjoyable part of your routine, and challenge yourself to learn more every month.

"Learning is finding out what you already know. Doing is demonstrating that you know it. Teaching is reminding others that they know just as well as you. You are all learners, does, and teachers."
— Richard Bach (Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah)

Change The Way You See Work and Change Your Life

Did you ever think there was a better, different way to live? Did you ever think, “Maybe I don’t have to go to a job and work 40+ hours a week, feel drained, wish for more time for yourself or your family, and wonder when the frolic begins?” If so, get ready: your life’s about to change.

When I was a pubescent boy, I woke up every morning with the sun. I opened my eyes, heard birds chirping outside my window, and smiled, thinking about the adventures of the coming day. Fast forward to my last corporate job, when I woke up with the alarm clock, slammed my hand down on the snooze button and laid in bed, a feeling of angst in my stomach, thinking about the eight hours I was about to spend working under fluorescent lights, in a small cubicle, so my boss could take credit for my work and someone else could profit.

Why do we do this to ourselves? When I look back on the time I spent in India Inc., I realize that I didn’t know any better. Despite the entrepreneurial spirit I’ve felt through my entire life, there was a period of time when it simply didn’t occur to me that my life belonged to me and I didn’t have to live according to the narrow path that had been defined for me.

It took carpal tunnel syndrome and an obdurate corporate environment for me to realize that I desperately needed a change. And that’s what it took to remind me of the philosophy my dad taught me as a young boy, something I’d long forgotten: that work is what makes the rest of your life possible.

From this perspective, “work” takes on substantially less meaning, while “life” takes center stage. I like this because it reminds me where my priorities lie. I’d much rather my tombstone read, “He truly lived,” than “He worked a lot.”

It’s easy to say “work makes the rest of my life possible,” but how does it look in real life, and how do you put this into play in your own life?

How it looks in real life:

I wake up each morning, knowing that the day belongs to me. I have a schedule, but I’m not beholden to a boss or supervisor who will dock my pay or fire me if I decide the schedule doesn’t suit my mood that day.
 Then, depending on the day and what I’ve committed to, I may work with clients, do some writing for my blog, or read one of the several books I’m into at any given moment. Aside from scheduled meetings with clients and deadlines, I do what suits my mood the best - if I’m struggling for inspiration for my articles, I spend more time reading. If I’m in the mood to go to the movies, I do. And I’ve structured my businesses so that if I want to get on a plane and fly to South America, England, or New Orleans for a weekend, I can do it without a second thought and my income doesn’t change a bit.

The point is, no day is completely consumed by work, it’s all flexible, and everything I do for “work” is something that I enjoy doing. If I don’t enjoy it, I either don’t do it or I find someone who does and I outsource that work to them.

I’m often asked, “How many hours a week do you work?” Sure, just like Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek (a great book to read if you want to get another, similar perspective on this philosophy), some weeks I only work four hours. But if I’m working on a project, I work at least forty. Those are the extremes: most weeks I stay somewhere in the twenty to twenty five hour range. But I can tell you this: I wake up with the sun and the birds chirping, just like I did when I was a boy. I always wake up smiling, and I love what I do.

But I’m not that different from you. I’m not overly lucky and nothing that special has happened that made this possible for me. Virtually anyone can do this.

So how can you incorporate this into your own life?

The ethos comes first. You have to take responsibility for your life and know that it is yours to live in whatever way that you want. Think this is easy? It’s not. This can be one of the scariest things you’ll ever do. But as Seth Godin wrote, “the riskiest thing you can do is play it safe.” So take a risk and believe that your life belongs to you.

Second, figure out your priorities and your goals. What’s most important to you? Are there things you want to do, places you want to see? Maybe you just want more quality time with your family, or want more time to relax- that’s okay. The point is to figure out what’s most important to you.

Third, design a business to suit your lifestyle goals. This is the most challenging aspect of applying this philosophy, because it requires some extra knowledge- what opportunities are out there, how to repurpose what you already know and/or do, how to brand yourself and market your business. There is no one-size-fits-all solution- a business model that works for one person may not be suited to another. Your best bet, the easiest and fastest way to accomplish this, is to work with someone who has successfully made the transition themselves, who knows the opportunities out there, can help you figure out what suits you best, help you put it all together and show you the ropes.

Finally, be prepared to work to get to the point of living the dream. I’m not going to lie to you. It rarely happens overnight. Some people I know have transitioned into this lifestyle (what I call the “Business in Blue Jeans lifestyle”) within a month or two, while others have taken a bit longer. Some of it depends on the industry you’re in and some depends on what you’re willing to put into it and how focused you are. Because the fact is, even though you aren’t working as much or as hard as before, in this lifestyle, when you are working, you need to be really focused.

Ultimately, the bottom line is that when you’re working for a life that you’ve designed, when you love what you’re doing and when you know that you aren’t just putting in the time, everything changes. Change the way you view work, and you’ll completely change your life.

Is Your Next Laptop a Smartphone?

The smartphone might not be one's first choice for spreadsheets and documents, but let's face it, everybody has one (in business, anyway, all over the world), and those that have one will buy a new one sometime in the next two years as cellular products and wireless technologies continue their rapid evolution. The level of capability in contemporary smartphones is remarkable and continues to grow.

Smartphones are as powerful as PCs from just a few years ago, with significantly better software, user interfaces, and flexibility. Smartphones won't replace the laptop for typical business users, but over the next few years, many people -- my guess is 12% to 15% of business users -- will be able to leave their laptop at the office and handle essentially all of their mobile computing and communications tasks with a pocket-sized device.

As you might guess, size here is both an advantage and a challenge. Smartphones need to be as small as possible for mobility while still maximizing the size of the keyboard and the display. The keyboard on a smartphone, be it physical or screen-based, is obviously never going to get bigger than is acceptable for the two-thumb typing technique, although I predict a surge in add-on Bluetooth and USB keyboards that can be quite effective for writing longer missives. The display is similarly constrained, although being able to connect (via wireless) to an external display with better resolution -- the TV in one's hotel room, for example -- should become quite popular in the future.

Networking, storage and processing aren't really issues anymore, as tiny devices can have lots of each, and a connection to the Internet addresses any concerns here in the same fashion as for computer users everywhere. A much bigger issue is battery life.

So, you might conclude at this point that there are really no showstoppers with respect to replacing a laptop computer of any form with a smartphone. But, should you conclude as such, you would be ignoring the effect of the culture surrounding the PC: From IT departments to enterprise users to just about every technology user on the planet, the PC is viewed as the mainstay of personal and corporate IT and thus a core requirement. But it is nevertheless very likely that we'll still be carrying both a notebook or Mobile Internet Device and a smartphone for some time -- well into the foreseeable future. I think that my 12% to 15% number above will grow over time, however, as Web services and cloud computing become the popular, if not dominant, model for enterprise IT.

For now the convenience of needing only one tiny device -- again, one that everyone needs to carry anyway -- is so compelling that more progress toward the single-device solution is certain. Personally, as one who lugs way too much technology around every week, I can't wait.