Archive for July 2009
GPS Technology Comes of Age in India
Global Positioning System or GPS is one of those inventions that has had a profound impact on society. This is something I really missed when I moved from the US to India in 2004. I was so used to having a GPS in my car in the US that my internal compass in the brain has stopped working. It is like how when we rely on calculators to do arithmetic, the ability to compute in our brain dulls. I was an early adopter of GPS in the US and really liked the convenience of never having to look at a paper map or going to the nearest AAA office in the US to get detailed point to point directions when driving long distance. GPS was developed by the US Department of Defence and is managed by the US Airforce 50th Space Wing. It is essentially a constellation of 24 and 32 low earth orbit satellites that transmit specific signals that GPS receivers (devices) can receive and determine their position precisely based on a triangulation algorithm.
Apple iPhone is a disruptive Gaming Device
We all know how disruptive the Apple iPhone was to the Mobile Devices Industry. However, it is really interesting to note that Nintendo has acknowledged today that the Apple iPhone has disrupted the handheld gaming device market as well.
Please read Nintendo finally sees Wii demand slowing, calls iPhone a DS / DSi competitor
Nintendo has been the dominant force in the handheld gaming market so far. Nokia has wanted a piece of this action for a long time and built several crude gaming phones branded N-GAGE and tried to create a game developer ecosystem with very little success. Despite several attempts by Nokia to capture this market they have been unable to have an impact. So, what is the difference in DNA between Nokia and Apple that makes Apple so good at what it does.
Is your company fundable? What do VCs look for?
I meet a lot of young bright people in India that have an idea and want to be part of the startup lifestyle. A lot of them come to me for advisory roles or to be a sounding board. The number of teams I meet that I get excited about are just so few and far in between. I am sure VCs who see a lot more startups than I do probably feel the same way and hence the high rejection rate of startups that don’t make the cut for funding – about 99% in India. This got me started to think about what are the things that I personally believe that are the secret ingredients of an exciting startup that VCs want to fund. Before I address these topics let us make sure we understand the term Venture Capital.
Android Surpasses Microsoft Windows Mobile
Just as I had predicted, less than a year after Launch, Google’s Android just surpassed Microsoft Winblows Mobile with 5% of the global marketshare in Internet traffic from Mobile phones. Really impressive! I think it is great that the iPhone has competition from none other than Google and the race between Apple and Google to build the worlds coolest Internet Services enabled phones is just going to benefit all of us. It is also not surprising that Apple just shipped its 45 millionth iPhone OS device. These devices simply make all the Nokia Symbian based devices and Microsoft devices look like they belong in the Museum. Nokia is soon going to get relegated to become the IBM of the mobile world – a hardware and network equipment manufacturer. The Mobile Phone market has evolved into a software industry where Nokia’s competition is from seasoned Silicon Valley Software companies (Google and Apple) who know how to build great software. In a few years, I am predicting that Nokia will be shipping devices that run Android or iPhone OS and will be competing with Chinese, Korean or Taiwanese handset OEMs/ODMs.
For application developers, this should be great news as we are now not limited by the capability of the device but by the limits of our imagination.
More Reading:
Google Chrome OS – What does this mean to you?
Google announced the Chrome OS to the world today and Wall Street responded by drubbing Microsoft whose stock fell over 2% today. If any other company had made an announcement of a new operating system challenger to Windows, the street would have probably not reacted the way it did. However a direct challenge from Google warrants some serious attention. Google’s strategy is very clear – to deliver a open source, light weight, secure, web optimized modern operating system designed for the next generation.
Building a Kick Ass Team – Part II
4. Reward Performance - Anyone that has worked in tech and has a thorough understanding of this business knows that the output of one great engineer adds more value to the company than the output of one hundred average engineers. Unlike the services industry which prides itself with the numbers of warm bodies it has on its rolls, the best tech startups pride themselves for being able to create huge value with the least number of people. We all live in a capitalist society and the laws of capitalism are designed to reward the best.
