Mistakes Amazon made while positioning their new Fire phone.

A long period of guessing, speculations, leaks and lies came to an end when Amazon revealed its Fire phone this week. Now is the time to match the hype with features of the phone.

Here are some points, why I feel that Amazon has made mistakes while positioning their Fire phone in the smart phone market.
Fire OS vs Android vs iOS
Till now, Kindle fire has worked well and proved as a successful product in satisfying customers need but Kindle was positioned as an e-book reader and that’s why it was successful in creating a different space for itself and managed to stand apart from tablets or OS’ war. Now Amazon is entering in pure competition with other smartphones as well as OS’ and now Fire OS has to compete with other established OS’ like iOS and android not only in performance but in their apps strength, where it certainly lacks.

Apps
iOS and Android have a large apps base ranging over 1,000,000 while Fire as only 230,000 apps and number of apps supporting 3D feature is very low and that may be a drawback. So, in terms of services they are not offering or solving any existing problem. If they don’t come up with strong apps solution it will merely become an e-commerce phone.

Pricing
Amazon is known for their different pricing strategy, they want user to use their devices and then generate revenue. For that they offer device in lesser price and same strategy worked well with Kindle. For Fire phone they have introduced 32 GB and 64 GB variants and they are not offering 16 GB. Though their price for 32 GB is less than 32 GB iPhone price but they are not offering 16 GB. So, starting price for iPhone and Fire is same as 16 GB iPhone is same as 32 GB Fire. That’s why they are almost missing the opportunity to position their product as a less price offering than iPhone and S5.
May be after starting sales results, they come with 16 GB variant.

Vishwa Ratna Nigam
Telecom & Mobile Analyst

Reliance Jio 4G: A ray of hope to build connected living services market in India.

Reliance Jio is finally ready to enter in India’s telecom industry and not only entering but it’s taking india to a next level technology that is 4G.


4G technology has already been tested in some metropolitan cities in India but still 4G is a tommorow’s technology for India. Now, when Reliance is entering into the market, what should we expect and what can they offer? It will be interesting see.

India has grown in terms of penetration and applications are also attracting users but still almost 85% of the telecom revenue comes from voice usage and call rates are declining continuously. Therefore telcos are also facing troubles in terms of maintaining their revenue. In voice and data usage pattern, India is not matching foot with western world yet, where data is becoming more prominent source of Telco revenue.

There are many reasons behind voice portion being prominent source of revenue in Indian market, as users in rural India are mostly voice users and they have basic- feature phones. So, they are not data users.

Another reason behind less data usage in India is that Telcos are not investing or looking into connected living services as next revenue source. In US AT&T and Verizon are providing full suite of home care services for remote monitoring and remote automation. Many western operators are providing mHealth services for Diabetes management and monitoring, HIV/AIDS help/information services and heart related services etc.

These services are mainly data based and it can be a source of huge revenues for telcos, who are struggling to match their past revenues due to lower call rates and low data usage.

Reliance is entering in the market with 4G, which can fulfill technology gap and create suitable environment for connected living services and it can be expect by an operator of reliance’s measure only to start investing in new dimensions.

So, if Reliance starts focusing on this area, we can expect some really exciting and helpful services in Indian telecom market also.

Vishwa Ratna Nigam
Telecom and Mobile Analyst

Legalizing Lottery/Gambling will boost India’s economy.

When I was a kid, I used to see a huge crowd outside some shops, many eager and generous people gathered on a place and waiting for something but that time I was unable to understand what is going around. For me it should have been a sweet house or a toy house, if it attracts that much crowd. Those shops were lottery shops and people gathered around shops were those, who were waiting for results to be announced. After some time government declared lottery illegal in most of the states. While Horse racing and share market, which have taken shape of gamble now a days are operational and lower income or daily wage earner can’t participate in it.
Government's decision was appropriate because lottery had an unfavourable consequence as most of the gambles have, it attracted so many people from lower income group and mostly daily wage earners, who wanted to earn a huge sum of money in gamble and solve all their daily problem but unfortunately they ended up with increasing their problems with losing their daily wages in lottery but the question is - can't we implement lottery system in such a way that it doesn't ruin one's house but help country's economy.
I strongly feel that anything uncontrolled is harmless, even if it is money or success or talent. Same is the case with lottery system as well. If people are giving their whole salary for gambling and lottery then it will certainly not give good results.
So, how can we implement it in a controlled manner? Just to give a rough idea, if a person earns 25000 per month he/she can easily spend 500 or 600 rupees per month on these things or we can say this amount will not ruin his/her monthly budget but again how can we track that who is buying how much amount of tickets? the answer is PAN cards, they can work as monitoring one's lottery purchasing behaviour as well as help in getting one's identity related information.
Again, until we can't monitor lower income group, problem will not solve. So, for those who doesn't have PAN cards or do not come under income-tax range, one limit can be decided let's say we have tickets of 10, 20 50, 100, 500 denomination. Then people with income under minimum tax barrier can get certain limit of certain denomination tickets for example at max 40 rs. ticket in one week after showing due identity proves (Ration cards, as they can work for monitoring these activities as well).
Now, how will it help in improving country's economy? Government earn a decent amount as transaction tax from shares purchase/sell in BSE and NSE. If lottery also gets a well-structured and transparent transaction model, it can also flourish as a big market parallel to share market. Another favourable consequence may be reduction in black money and declaration of income and more tax to government. Normally small and medium business men don't file accurate income tax and show just a minimum amount of income, so that they can save their taxes but if Lottery system needs person's PAN or ITR to access their limit of purchasing tickets, this may encourage them to show their income in some or other form.
And now, being a telecom guy it is my duty to provide some telecom related solutions as well. One thing checking identity and other is monitoring person's ticket purchasing behaviour. So, for these two requirements Mobile apps will provide good support as the person who owns the SIM will be an authorized person to purchase tickets and that App will monitor their lottery tickets purchasing behaviour as well.
Vishwa R. Nigam
Telecom Market Research

US and UK: Major markets showing diverging behavior

USA and UK are two major markets for telecommunication industry but both are very different in their nature and behavior of wireless business. One is CDMA centered other is GSM, one has significant wired base while other has wireless centered approach towards telecom. Their regulatory authorities also behave quite differently.

This is the reason we have seen a divergence in their telecom nature and business, specially in wireless segment. In similar research on these two market, Forrester research also shows same pattern stating - in UK less number of people use mobile/WiFi in public in comparison of US.

Recent Forrester Research World Mobile Adoption Forecast, 2013 To 2018 (Global) shows that about 61% of US mobile subscribers use the mobile Internet compared with 49% of their UK peers — and we expect these numbers to grow to 75% and 70%, respectively, in 2018. More striking is our 2013 data that shows that usage of smartphones at home is comparable in both countries — but it’s the usage at restaurants and coffee shops that really differs:

Source: http://blogs.forrester.com/reineke_reitsma/13-08-30-the_data_digest_mobile_phone_usage_in_public?cmpid=pr:soc:tw:DI_Reitsma_8-30-13

Another research report, published by GSM Association on Mobile Wireless Performance in EU and USA, shows the diverging performance of both the markets in Mobile wireless Business.

Source: http://www.gsmamobilewirelessperformance.com/GSMA_Mobile_Wireless_Performance_May2013.pdf

-Vishwa Nigam

Telecom Researcher and Analyst.

Mobile payments: A step forward for regularizing money channels: stop money laundering and black money

World is fighting against corruption so as India and I see mobile payments as a potential solution to check on corruption, if they are made mandatory and this quite possible in a country like India and other developing nations where mobile phone industry is growing rapidly.

According to the recent DoT data, Total telephone subscriber base in the country grew by 4.42 per cent to 939.57 million, while the teledensity has increased to 77.28 per cent at the end of August 2012. The user base stood at 899.78 million and teledensity at 74.96 per cent the end of August 2011. The increase in teledensity is mainly coming from wireless section, which has grown to 908.3 million in august 2012, from 865.7 million in the same period last year, while wireline user base declined to 31.2 million by August end this year, from 34.1 million in August 2011.

With mobile penetration approaching almost 100%, talking about mobile payments or NFC seems realistic in current scenario. As per the KPMG global assurance survey of 2012 for telecom industry mobile payments are at highest priority of CSP respondents. In a growing economy, this is one of the factors which are going to transform the telecom industry.

If we look towards other emerging economies, Mobile payment is quite successful in countries such as Kenya, where Over 50 percent population has access to mobile payments while it is yet to take off in a big way in India.

Yes of course there are some key issues and challenges which need to be met to make mobile payments successful in large and diverse country like India. Security and diverse economic levels are some of the key challenges. Having said this the penetration and trust level of mobile payment has reached to a significant level but there is still a large vacuum and scope of various services.

Our inter-bank settlement system is improving which is one of the key factors for mobile banking success. Large and dependable retail networks are also important issues before mobile payment attains its peak in India.

This is a segment, which needs to be watched carefully and be ready with various applications and services which will be of utmost importance for the success.

- Vishwa Nigam,
Market Researcher & Analyst

Latest Trends in Carrier Wi-Fi

Carrier Wi-Fi will get bigger in 2013 as operators expand their 802.11 footprints and look for smoother ways o move between hotspots and 4G.

Highlights of the report

As carriers' 4G data traffic grows, Wi-Fi offload with a seamless user experience will become an increasing requirement for CSPs, due to long-term network savings and customer benefits.

Hotspot 2.0 Wi-Fi offload will soon emerge as a carrier-grade offload solution.

CSPs are looking at solutions for better in-building coverage, like femtocells, but Wi-Fi, which has a larger installed base of compatible user devices, can also be leveraged.

Telecom equipment vendors will be evolving solutions by combining femtocell with Wi-Fi capabilities and localized routing to save on bandwidth for shared content.

Chipset vendors like Picochip, have announced converged gateway solutions by integrating 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi with 21 Mbps Release 7 High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA+) followed by Hotspot 2.0 and Long Term Evolution (LTE) support.

Smartphones/tablets will also join the march.

Deployment measure will be large especially in emerging economies like APAC region.

Main Players and Their Strategies

Telecom Equipment Vendors

Telecom equipment vendors Strategy:

Support the ecosystem of Wi-Fi access point (AP) functions or leverage the emerging trend of combined femtocells with Wi-Fi AP functions, with localized routing.

Support session continuity with voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications servers, such as IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMSs), voice call continuity (VCC), data session continuity

mobile Internet Protocol (IP) standards and potentially, video adaptive bit rate functions, to allow users to have a better experience in more cost-effective Wi-Fi locations.

Communication Service providers

Deploy policy-based control of the network, including seamless exchange of authentication certificates for both Wi-Fi and cellular. Plan for policy exchange with Wi-Fi ISPs leveraging peering relationships as needed.

Plan now for newer Wi-Fi offloading functions in the core, such as IMS VCC applications servers, session border controllers with mobile IP support and newer functions providing traffic shaping and optimal redirection.

Here's a look at the trends CSPs and Vendors will be riding.

Gigabit Wi-Fi

The new 802.11ac standard -- sometimes known as 5G Wireless -- could push Wi-Fi speeds beyond 1 Gbit/s on the 5GHz public band. Chips from Broadcom, Marvell Technology Group Ltd. and others use multiple-antenna arrays and channel-bonding techniques to further bump up the speed of Wi-Fi. Broadcom is expecting that 802.11ac will be interesting to carriers as a means of delivering video traffic over-the-air.
Integrated Wi-Fi & LTE
After the individual expansion of 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi services. Now, 3G and 4G small cells that integrate Wi-Fi into their connectivity buffet will make the scene in 2013. Vodafone Group plc is expected to be among the first carriers to deploy the new technology.
Larger deployments
In Future large size Wi-Fi deployments will capture Telecom Headlines. Cisco Systems Inc. has just won a deal to deploy 100,000 access points across Indonesia. KDDI Corp. has already rolled out 120,000 access points in Japan. Expect to see more big numbers of Wi-Fi radios deployed for offload and faster access especially in Asia in 2013 and the trend may continue in coming years too.
Roaming between Wi-Fi & LTE
Asian carriers such as SK Telecom, which already has large Wi-Fi hotspot deployments and 7 million 4G LTE subscribers, are likely to push seamless roaming between 4G and Wi-Fi. The move will require Hotspot 2.0 support in handsets and other devices to enable a smooth move between networks.
Smartphones & tablets driving Wi-Fi in 2013
The Wireless Broadband Alliance reports that smartphones already overtook laptops as the main access method to hotspots in 2012, with tablets already representing 17 percent of the access devices. This number is likely to grow in 2013, with increased sales of Wi-Fi-only tablets from Apple Inc, Google and others boosting the market next year.
Impact of Wi-Fi Boom on Market Players and End users

Impact on CSPs:
Newer revenues with the HD experience being sold across network access methods (cellular and Wi-Fi). Newer network elements supporting policy-based control of sessions, session continuity gateways, real-time charging systems and subscriber management systems supporting tiered services. Savings from Wi-Fi offload, backhaul savings and reduced churn.
Impact on vendors:
Newer Hotspot 2.0 solutions. Newer core network elements supporting policy-based control of sessions, session continuity gateways and real-time charging systems. Newer upgrades to the LTE core, supporting the functions.

Impact on end users:
Newer devices to be purchased supporting Hotspot 2.0 and femtocells supporting Wi-Fi.
Reduced data usage costs.

Extended battery life if less power is used.

A better user experience if sessions are flowing seamlessly (and with consistent quality).

A single authentication, shared across cellular and Wi-Fi, means less stop and go.

One single charging and billing function within the same plan.

Carrier-grade QoS, security and resiliency, compared to ad hoc and unmanaged Wi-Fi AP deployments.

-Vishwa Nigam
Market Researcher & Analyst.

Top Cloud App Trends: Expected In 2013

Key Findings
• Growth in mobile options and embedded analytics will meet early expectations of market.

• Big data analytics and financial apps will see an unexpected growth.

• Previous partners will expand their partnership to leverage cloud more effectively or new partnerships will be formed.
Some of the trends we'll see in cloud-based enterprise applications in 2013 are obvious, while some might surprise. Here's my take on five trends to expect in the new year, along with examples and advice on how to ride each wave.
Mobile options multiply. This is one of the obvious trends, as it's clear that tablets and smartphones are the preferred interface for executives, salespeople, managers and even not-so-mobile employees who accept that there are no longer barriers between work life and home life. Every credible cloud apps vendor is addressing mobile, but one standout isSalesforce.com, which offers native apps as well as growing HTML5 support. There's no single right way to support mobile, so look for options. Does your vendor (or prospective vendor) have separate native apps for tablets and phones that do justice to each form factor? If not, has the vendor progressed to HTML5 content that adapts to a range of devices? If the vendor relies solely on Web-based access, has it at least designed with mobile browsers in mind? If you still see scrollbars and tiny buttons that were designed for mouse-and-keyboard interaction, it's not mobile-friendly. Try before you buy.

Embedded analytics proliferate. Here's another established trend that's sure to keep growing in 2013 because users naturally want reporting and dashboarding options right in the context of the apps they use every day. One standout on this front isWorkday, which offers particularly deep and configurable embedded analytics. What should you look for? Start by considering the out-of-the-box options for reporting and dashboarding. Next, consider the configurable options. Can you bring external apps and data sources into the mix, or is it a stovepipe of analysis of data generated within the app? What's the latency of the data -- will the reports and metrics show up-to-the-minute data, up-to-the-hour data or yesterday's information? Don't forget to consider the analytics embedded in mobile apps. Can your phone truly be smart if it's not serving up metrics and dashboards? When it's mobile, it really should be up-to-the-minute data. The need for insight usually goes beyond the confines of a single app, so it's important to consider partner offerings and options for working with well-known BI systems and data warehousing platforms. Salesforce.com has a panoply of partner options, while Microsoft (with Dynamics CRM Online), Oracle (with Fusion Apps, Taleo, RightNow and so on), and SAP (with SuccessFactors, Business ByDesign and other cloud options) offer ways to work with their popular respective BI and data warehousing platforms.

Configuration options abound. Configuration options are quickly replacing the need for customization across all applications, whether delivered in the cloud or on-premises. That's because most organizations want to avoid developing and maintaining custom code. In the configuration approach, the vendor supplies menu- or wizard-driven interfaces that let you expose industry-specific functionality or set company-specific controls. Workday, for example, uses configuration to deliver features designed for colleges, universities and government agencies. It's not that configuration is easy; it's a setup step that will likely have to be handled by deep technical experts during an initial deployment. But at least you won't have to worry about tweaking and testing code every time the application gets an upgrade. When you're using custom code, there's always a chance it will have to be redeveloped when changes are made to an underlying application. There are cases when custom development can be a big help, particularly when you need functionality that the vendor just doesn't offer. That's why Salesforce.com, for one, offers the Force.com development platform while Net Suite provides SuiteBuilder customization tools and a SuiteFlow workflow engine. Consider both configuration and customization options when choosing a cloud app, but customize only when there's a clear return on the ongoing investment required.

Financial apps emerge in the cloud. Cloud-based financial apps are growing in number and seeing healthy demand. Cloud suite vendors Workday and NetSuite provide the general ledger and accounting functionality associated with ERP systems. The same is true of FinancialForce.com, minority owned by Salesforce.com and majority owned by European ERP firm Unit4. On-premises giants Oracle and SAP seem to be waking up to the threat. Oracle introduced cloud-ready Oracle Fusion Financials in late 2011, and SAP released Financials OnDemand in November. The latter is based on functionality from the SAP Business ByDesign suite, and it's likely to be paired with SAP SuccessFactors human capital management applications to answer the competitive threat from Workday. For a deeper level of planning and budgeting functionality in the cloud, look to pure-play financial performance management vendors such as Adaptive Planning, Anaplan, Host Analytics, and Tidemark. Adaptive Planning, founded in 2003, has more than 1,200 customers and 30,000 users, and in 2012 it acquired cloud business intelligence vendor MyDials to bolster its dashboarding capabilities. Host Analytics, founded in 2000, has deep CFO-oriented functionality, including consolidation, and it's the second-largest vendor in this group, with more than 800 customers and 14,000 users. Anaplan and Tidemark are fast-growing startups. SAP and Oracle are just starting to bring performance management functionality into the cloud, so check their roadmaps if you're inclined to stick with your on-premises software vendor. Financial apps may never become as pervasive as CRM in the cloud, but the increasingly global nature of even midsized organizations -- with income streams and financial management needs on several continents -- makes cloud-based deployment an attractive option.

Big data adds benchmarking value. A few cloud vendors have recognized that they're sitting on an incredibly valuable asset: the data generated by their many customers. The trick is aggregating this information in a secure, de-identified way such that it can't be traced back to a particular customer. This idea is not new. ERP vendors and user groups have collected and aggregated data for years in order to compile benchmark statistics. It's usually a data-swap affair in which you agree to provide your own data to the aggregated pool in exchange for access to the average and best-in-class statistics across your industry. SuccessFactors jumped on the benchmarking bandwagon even before it was acquired by SAP, tapping into aggregated data from thousands of cloud customers to deliver by-industry employee, departmental and total-workforce metrics such as operating profit per full-time employee, the turnover rate among top-performing employees, internal hiring rate and voluntary termination rates. Workday recently announced plans for aWorkday Big Data Analytics offering, set for release in the second half of 2013, that will bring third-party data sources into the analysis without complex ETL requirements. The more data you can bring to an analysis, the more accurate it's likely to be, so we like the idea of big-data-enabled benchmarking. These are five cloud apps that we'll be watching in 2013, and given Oracle's plan to acquire Eloqua, announced just last week, there's one more trend to watch in 2013: continued acquisitions of cloud-based marketing automation and marketing analytics companies. That trend started with IBM's purchase of Unica a few years ago, and since then SAS, Teradata, Oracle, Salesforce.com and others have jumped on the bandwagon. As we see it, most of the demand for marketing applications is in the cloud.

Vishwa Nigam,

Market Researcher and Analyst