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  • Top 10 Impressions From Mobile World Congress 2015

    Top 10 Impressions From Mobile World Congress 2015

    Mobile World Congress Is The Mecca Of The Mobile Industry. Nearly 90,000 People Landed In Barcelona For The 2015 Edition. It Was The Fifth MWC For Me.

    As You Know There Is Lot Of Usual Stuff – New Device Launches, New Buzzword, Old Wine In New Bottle Etc. But It Helps To Know The Overall Trends. It Is Also A Great Event For People To Get Together – The Entire Eco-System Is There. Crack A Couple Of Deals And You Have Got Your ROI. Plus The New Knowledge Is Always Helpful.

    The Best Way To Enjoy MWC Is To Attend Parallel Conferences, WIP Sessions, Networking Events Etc.

    So What Were The Highlights This Time?

    1. Digital Transformation: The New World Is A Place With Multiple Devices And Wearable, Connected Homes-Cars-Cities And M2M Transactions. There Are New Opportunities In Connected World For All Players – OEMs, Telcos, System Integrators (App Developers). The Digital Transformation Story Is More Compelling Than Ever Before. The Players Who Clear Their Baggages, Learn The Emerging Themes And Present A Compelling Story Will Move Forward. The New Winners May Arise.

    2. Incremental Innovation: The MWC Saw Continual Ascent Of The Wearable, IOT And Connected Themes. More Refined And Defined Use Cases, More Tangible Evidences, More Clear Positioning Emerged. But Nothing That Can Shake The World.

    3. Google Vs FaceBook: Google Announced Its MVNO Plans. It Was An Important Step Towards Further Control On Customer Lives In A Mobile First World. FaceBook’s Mark Zuckerberg Preached About internet.Org And FaceBook’s Vision. FaceBook And Google Are Watching Each Other Closely. (Mark Gave Hiring Mantra For Business Leaders – “only hire someone to work directly for you if you would work for that person.”)

    4. 5G: 5G Discussions Start At Mobile World Congress. KT Telecom Will Offer 5G At 2018 Olympics – Cool – 2GB Per Second. (But Let The World Experience Good Quality 3G – Forget 4G)

    5. Fusion Of Smart And Real World. WPP Group’s IkonMobile Had Some Of The Best Showcases Of Fusion Of Existing Products And New Technology. Mirror, Oral-B Toothbrush, e-Bikes Etc.

    Ford Showcased A Great Example Of Adoption Of New Era With e-Bikes. It Showcased Two Bikes – For City Travel And For Delivery Purposes. It Had A Companion App That Showcased Pending Orders For Delivery Person, Route Etc. It Even Monitored Heart Rate Of The Rider.

    6. Good Showcases:

    – Runcible: Most Interesting Device From Monohm. A Watch For Generations Like A Family Jewel. It Is To Out Last Smartphones. It Has All The Cool Features But It Is A Round Jewel That You Can Handover To Kids And Grand-Kids
    – HTC VIVE Was An Impressive Example And Showcased The Maturity Of Virtual Reality
    – BabyMe Demonstrated How A Pre-Mature Baby Can Feel That It Is In The Womb Of The Mother – Nice Idea Worth Taking Ahead. The Motherly Comfort Can Aid Faster Development For The Baby
    – LG Showcased Magic Mirror – Mirror That Can Analyze Your Face And Suggest Different Make-Ups For Office Party, Casual Look, Formal Event Etc. It Can Even Suggest Products Based On Your Skin Type.
    – Different Use Cases Of Beacons, IOT, Wearables And Overall Trends By S K Telecom.
    – Supercharger From StoreDot Charges Phones In 2 Minutes. That What We Need !
    – Smart Luggage Tags – Location Enabled
    – Eye Tracker. Last Year I Played Fruit Ninja With Eye Trackers. This Year, The Smart Watch Is The Focus Of Eye Tribe. Control Smart Watch With Eye Movements
    – Wearables For Kids, Pets, Senior Citizens. Smart Kid Shoes With Mediatek Chips For The Kids Were On Display. They Had Chips – So Track The Child, Geo-Fence Them…2 Days Batter Power. Nice Shoes For Naughty Kids !
    – Krystal Liquid Screen Protector – Create A Nano Layer On Screen In 2 Minutes And Prevent Stratches On Phones
    – S-Disk 300GB SD Card – X Times More Space Than My First Computer ! A Year Of Movies In One Card – Even If You Watch A Movie Daily !
    – Credit Card Sized Phones
    – Smart Clothing – AiQ

    7. The Usual Big Launches: All Major OEMs Launched New Devices. The Big Launch Was Samsung S6 – Its Bet On High Design And Finish. But I Was Surprised That Samsung Kept Its New Baby S6 Under Wraps For Crowds At MWC – While LG, HTC Clearly Showed Their New Labour Of Love – HTC One M9 – Just More Features, Nothing Breakthrough To Earlier Versions. In The Perspective Of Slowing Superiority, Greater Competition, Xiaomi, And ‘No Apple Dying’ Scenarios, Samsung’s Move Was Indeed Very Surprising. Blackberry Showcased Its New Phone – Leap. Microsoft Showcased New Lumia And Portable Foldable Keyboard. Sony, Lenovo, Alcatel, ZTE, Huawei, Blackphone And Many Others Announced New Devices. But The Most Interesting Launch Was Runcible From San Francisco Based MonoHm – Heirloom Product !

    Chinese Device Makers Climb The Ladder – The Device Space From China and South East Asia Gets Crowdier And Crowdier As Outsourced Manufacturers From Schengen Move Up The Value Chain And Build Their Brands. You Get Phones With All The Latest Specs At USD 29.99. The Commoditization Of Devices Looks Complete With So Many Samsung Killers. And Xiaomi Was Not Even Present!

    8. Commoditization At Birth: Smartphones And Tablets Took A While To Get Commoditized. But The Growing Aspirations Of Chinese OEMs Has Ensured That Smart Watches, Wearable Bands, Fitness Bands, Weighing Scales And All Other Devices Are Commoditized At Birth. It Was Interesting To Note That We Had FitBit And Garmin At Corridors Near Entrance, But All Chinese OEMs Dominating The Main Halls At MWC. How Will Fitbit Survive? I Guess The Answer Lies In First Mover Advantage, Overall Experience, Superior Branding, Allied Services, Software Etc!

    There Are Wearables And Embedded Devices For Every Purpose – And Every Body Part!

    9. Mobile Payments: Samsung Pay Got Announced. Mobile Payment Companies Were In Herds!

    10.Apple: Apple Was Not There But Was There – Apple Cannot Ignore Mobile Mavens Shaping The Industry. Apple Was Present – But Not Directly.

    Trivia:

    Walked About 60,000 Plus Steps In 3 Days. Wow !
    Jai Shri Krishna Heard In Even Super Uber Hotel W’s Chic Parties
    Another Mahatma Gandhi Restaurant Serving Non-Veg Food Spotted!
    The Future Of Mobile Was At MWC But One Shop In Barcelona Promised The Future Of Sex With Gadgets! Even 50 Shades Of Grey Merchandise Was There!

  • CES 2012 Impressions

    Rutesh shared with me “CES 2012 Impressions” by Chetan Sharma. It is indeed a good read and gives key indicators for the near future….

    CES 2012 Impressions

    The Grand Slam of electronic gadgets brought back the faithful to the sin city of Las Vegas to indulge in the future of electronics, gadgets, and consumer behavior. This note summarizes my observations from the CES show.

    Pass the baton – CES is turning into a wireless show. With Microsoft no longer leading the keynotes in future editions, my vote will be for Qualcomm’s Paul Jacobs who gave a fun and eloquent keynote himself to occupy the opening keynote next year.

    Connected Everything – Our theme for last year’s Mobile Future Forward was “Connected Universe, Unlimited Opportunities.” It was one of the central themes of this year’s CES (and is likely to be for many more years). From health monitors to Sony Vita, from treadmills to autos, connectivity is driving new features, behavior, and hopefully consumer demand.

    Gesturize Everything – Touch is for oldies, gesture (wave and voice) is driving the new interactions. If you thought talking to machines was weird, well! get used to it. Starting with TVs, autos, gaming devices, and PCs, gesture based computing is invading the internals of electronic devices everywhere.

    Microsoft/Nokia resurgence? – Nokia’s Elop was everywhere to help introduce the windows devices in North America. AT&T could do to Windows devices what Verizon did to Android – give it a boost that is. While the OS is fresh and elegant, the consumer interest has been tepid. Though there are a number of things that could go wrong with pricing, execution, and marketing, at least they have some operator allies in the North American market this time around.

    1K is so yesterday, 4K/8K is in – TV manufacturers touted higher resolution 4k/8k displays. Never mind the content in new formats won’t be available for months. However, the displays are getting sharper with exquisite clarity. It is a great time to be a consumer.

    Live Mobile TV, No it is not dead yet – I have been a believer in broadcast mobile video. Dyle could succeed where Mediaflo failed; it just needs to get the top tier operators behind the endeavor.

    Waterproof is the new black – It seemed like the OEMs have been reading from research that consumers are not aware off. They either expect us to start using the tablets and phones in shower or start colonizing oceans in search of greener pastures. Almost all OEMs had their devices in “hold-your-nose-and-dip-in-water” mode.

    Chinese are coming – Pretty soon “Made in China” will also mean conceptualized and designed in China. The Japanese and Korean gizmo manufacturers should be bracing for a tough slug in the months ahead. Chinese brands are starting to make an impact on the show floor, often a precursor to the impression on the global marketplace.

    You say MacBook Air Imitators, I say Ultrabooks – Intel and partners were out in full force to demonstrate that sleek designs can go hand-in-hand with windows as well. It is not a substantially new category, will just eat the share from notebooks.

    Intel’s entry into smartphones – Will they, won’t they? The question of when will Intel be a player in the mobile space has been out there for a while. Intel’s partnership with Motorola + the OS partnership with Samsung is its attempt to alter the mobile ecosystem. While our Predictions Panel gave man finding water on Mars a higher probability than a new mobile ecosystem emerging, Intel might be one to watch.

    3D Printers – Having a birthday party, no problem! Something new and cool, now you can print kids’ toys right from your desk. It will set you back $1300 but you will be the geekiest dad on the block.

    Phablets – Getting tired of phones? tablets? How about Phablets with your morning tea sir? Samsung’s Note is trying to convince customers that hybrid is all they need for making phone calls or drawing a portrait for an art gallery. OEMs are launching devices for every inch in the range of 4” to 12” and see what sticks.

    Tablet Bloodbath – There were so many tablet launches at CES that it is hard to keep track of them. One thing most of them had in common – no pricing, no launch dates which is generally a precursor to their trip to the graveyard of electronics.

    Home Energy Networking – If your home lights are starting to flicker without any sane reason, there is a good chance that someone has gotten a hold of your WiFi router which controls your house’s electric outlets via adaptors that are about to flood the market. Other devices for the home like kitchen tablets etc. have also started pouring in.

    AT&T Developer Summit – The mobile developer summit was very well executed, full with announcements (how about free unlimited API access for one year), buzz, and gravitas. Google would have been proud.

    The ghost of Apple – As usual, the ghost’s presence was felt at the show (including some execs in human flesh).

    Coolest demo – For me it was Samsung’s transparent window. Gives a new meaning to window shopping.

    Coolest toy – My vote goes to Parrot’s AR.Drone. Will set you back $300 but will make you the neighborhood ninja. What was missing was a drone that can carry humans so they don’t have to walk 50,000 CES miles in one day.

    Coolest booth – Auto industry can teach a thing or two about stacking up the booths. Audi with its blindingly fluorescent lights and futuristic concept cars was quite impressive with Mercedes Benz a close second. LG with its massive 3D TV wall was also quite impressive.

    CES Star of the Show – Samsung with its omnipresence dominating virtually every important CE category has to be the most dominating player in the industry. Of course, Apple gives its Korean counterpart run for its money but Samsung made its presence felt with a slew of devices, future vision, and an integrated view of the world.

  • The FMCGization of Indian Mobile Handset Market

    The Indian Mobile Handset Market is coming of age. There are more than 30 Indian Mobile Handset players. The Industry is going strong with impressive numbers and is now resembling the marketing favorite FMCG Industry.

    Let us look at the few common features with FMCG Market:

    1. Strong Global Players With Indian Challengers

    Indian FMCG Market is a vibrant place with global players like Unilever and P&G. Global players have been successfully challenged by Indian companies like Nirma, Cavin Care, Marico, Ghadi etc.

    Similarly, Global Companies like Nokia, Samsung, LG have been strong in India. In fact, Nokia enjoyed Maruti-like status in India. However, now it is challenged by Indian players like Karbonn, Maxx, Fly, Videocon, Micromax, Intex etc.

    India is a very important market for Unilever as well as Nokia, P&G as well as Samsung.

    2. Price Wars

    The FMCG market has seen price wars and companies like Unilever launched Wheel to counter-attack Nirma. Similarly, Nokia, LG and Samsung have launched sub-2000 Rs phones to counter the various Indian brands.

    3. Product Enhancements

    Indian FMCG Players have used strong product features to differentiate themselves. Whether it is special packaging, different price points, product ingredients – FMCG players have been innovating and improving products.

    Similarly, Indian players have innovations like Dual SIM, long battery hours to differentiate themselves apart from price advantage.

    4. Distribution

    In FMCG, Distribution is God ! Companies like HLL, Colgate, Cavin-Care have built a great distribution machinery. It is their biggest advantage. Similarly, Nokia and others have created a great distribution network and a strong sales team, which has resulted in nearly 2 million handsets being sold every month in India!

    5. New & Improved !

    FMCG Products excel in re-launches with minimal changes – The New & Improved. FMCG products play with different colors, size and ingredients.

    Indian Mobile players are also playing with bold Indian colors, new sizes and aesthetic appeal.

    6. Celebrity Advertisement

    Indian FMCG Players have developed and promoted the concept of celebrity advertisements. In fact, Lux prides itself in promoting Indian beauties and every top celebrity is promoting multiple FMCG Products.

    Videocon, Maxx India, Lemon etc have started using Indian Celebrities for differentiating themselves in the Indian advertisement scenario.

    7. Counterfeit

    The Global Players face the problem of product plagiarism in India. Whether is Vicks, Colgate or Parachute, there are several Indian versions.

    iPhone and Blackberry handset designs are the most copied designs in India. There are many foreigns handsets which are openly sold with duplicate designs.

    8. Product Flanking Strategy

    Unilever, P&G started it and Nokia and Indian players are mastering it !