Excited about India Mobile ? Look at China's growth Story !!

Wall street journal writes :

The listed arm of China's largest mobile carrier by subscribers reported net profit of 17.56 billion yuan ($2.28 billion), up from 14.36 billion yuan in the year-earlier period. Revenue increased 20% to 77.71 billion yuan.

The company added 14.89 million subscribers in the first quarter this year, up from the 14.08 million users it added in the fourth quarter. It added 5.12 million subscribers in March, up from February's addition of 4.91 million subscribers. China Mobile had 316.12 million subscribers as of the end of March.

Average revenue per user per month in the first quarter fell to 85 yuan from 93 yuan a year earlier.

The company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose 14% to 40.72 billion yuan. Its margin for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, was 52.4%.

Google giggles and Microsoft riddled

Businessweek on Google and Paul Grahm on Microsoft :

Google - through its text ads strategy - has managed to weave itself into the very fabric of the Web. In doing this, the company freed itself from even Internet geography and became ubiquitous. By empowering companies and individuals to publish Google ads on their sites, Google solved the unlimited supply and demand problem in one fell swoop.

What killed Microsoft ? Four things, I think, all of them occurring simultaneously in the mid 2000s.

The most obvious is Google. There can only be one big man in town, and they're clearly it. Google is the most dangerous company now by far, in both the good and bad senses of the word. Microsoft can at best limp along afterward.
...
[Ajax] was the second cause of Microsoft's death: everyone can see the desktop is over. It now seems inevitable that applications will live on the web,not just email, but everything, right up to Photoshop. Even Microsoft sees that now.
...
The third cause of Microsoft's death was broadband Internet. Anyone who cares can have fast Internet access now. And the bigger the pipe to the server, the less you need the desktop.
...
The last nail in the coffin came, of all places, from Apple. Thanks to OS X, Apple has come back from the dead in a way that is extremely rare in technology.

A beautiful mind and a not so beautiful one.....

12 PM . Midnight in Bangalore. Pitch Dark. Out in the balcony. Smoke on my lips. Overlooking the lush green. Mother nature. Dead calm . Inside. More than anything else, I feel worry free right now. I feel alive. I am not shaking. I don’t feel like complaining, about anything. I am not numb. Just comfortable.

There is a strange calm about my mind that I haven’t felt since years. Excessive planning, ambitions and expectations, worries, trying to do many things at the same time, running away from facing fears and unpleasant situations, indecision, anxiety, nervousness about the future, brooding over past, insecurities over imperfections have dogged my life for the last 10 years. And that should be just about enough, isn’t it!

This morning I met Gungun who is now an year and half. I saw her when she was born . What did I see today? A look of absolute glee on her face .Eyes squinched up to straight lines, screaming at the top of her voice. You never know what goes on inside that little head of her . A mind that's worry free, A mind that's anxiety free , a mind that's without any nervousness about the future , a mind that just lives in the moment . An absolutely free mind and a beautiful one. It defines freedom. You got to see it, to know what the heck I am talking about. You got to see those eyes, that expression, the glee and the noise level.

I left the sight of Gungun after an hour or so but her glee was still infront of my eyes and I was thinking if I am losing it . I could have wept like a kid when I left my mother at the airport last week, were it not for the good old ‘Act your age’ voice inside my head. Well, I escaped with moist eyes. Quite commendable indeed, if you saw bapa, 62 years of age, father of three grown-up adults, seen it all, been through it before, done it all, strong man of experience, fighting hard with the ‘you-thought-it-wasnt-there’ tear glands of his. Kerchief in hand, he had the ‘Dont-look-at-me-right-now-You-might-be-thinking-I-am-crying-but-I-am-not’ look. You could forgive the women. Tears are part of their inner fabric, flesh and blood for their emotional skeletons. Can I not become Gungun again ? Can I not weep again in my mother's lap ? Worry free? I am losing it !!

I am quietened. Cool breeze outside my balcony. The world is an incredible place, full of amazing experiences. I just need to stop and think, and soak in it as they happen to me. Life is not the sum total of what we do in our days. More often than not, it is all the things that we cannot do, or sometimes just forget to do in the midst of the daily grind. Things that remain in our subconscious, waiting for that quiet moment to show their faces. The mind is an inexplicable mesh of thoughts. It is just impossible to see clearly all the time. But we try, in the course of self discovery. Everyone does, I guess, at some point or the other. I don’t know what I want. I haven’t the faintest idea. I just know right now, that I need to be worry free. I need to get back the beautiful mind like that of Gungun.

What is a webtop?

What is the "webtop"?, well the webtop is basically a web-centric version of the desktop OS. Microsoft's $270BN market valuation attests to the value of the desktop OS (and its suite of integrated applications) and there is a growing belief in the tech world that much of that $270BN may be up for grabs again as end-users make the platform transition from desktops to webtops. There is also a realization that in the standards-based world of the web, the only real sustainable advantage is control of unique customer data because without that data one webtop OS is basically indistinguishable from the next.

To put this another way, if you think about what really makes your PC or laptop "your" computer it's not the desktop operating system, but all the unique data and applications you have installed on top of it. If you take away that data all you have left is a terminal that most people could care less about. On the web, there is no need to install applications because all applications are universally accessible. That leaves personal data as the only unique asset that defines one webtop from another.

अब अपके लियें हिंदी मैं ब्लोग्गिंग ....कुछ जोकेस......

अजित: रॉबर्ट, टेस्ट मैच में क्या हो रह है?
रॉबर्ट: बॉस, विवियन रिचर्ड्स छक्के पे छाके मार रह है
अजित: साले को सबक सिखाना पड़ेगा। लंच ब्रेक में उससे फ़ोन मिलाना
रॉबर्ट: येस बॉस
अजित ( रिचर्ड के साथ फ़ोन पे) : विवियन रिचर्ड , तुम्हारी माँ हमारे कब्जे में है ....
अजित: मैकल , इस सेल के एक हाथ में लाल और दुसरे हाथ में हरा रंग लगा दो।
मैकल: लेकिन क्यों बॉस?
अजित: बेवक़ूफ़ , इतना भी नहीं जानता ?जब पुलिस येन्हा आएगी तो इसे रेंज हाथों पकड़ लेगी। हे हे हे .......

Did you watch The Namesake?

One of my earlier posting did mention about this recent work by Meera Nair. I just came across a review in economictimes that I would like to share with all of you... Growing up in two worlds simultaneously

Where is my nearest Starbucks?

From News.com:

Coffee behemoth Starbucks has launched a new cell phone-based service that lets you efficiently locate the nearest store and get your caffeine buzz on. Starting today, when you send a text message with the ZIP code of your location to the number "MYSBUX" (697289), you'll receive another text with the addresses of the three nearest Starbucks locations. It won't cost you anything besides your cell phone plan's normal texting fees.

Only problem is, if you're wandering around in an unfamiliar city, you might not have any clue as to the exact ZIP code of where you're standing--unless your phone or car is GPS-equipped, and then you'd likely have some kind of satellite-based directory feature at your fingertips anyway. Starbucks has, however, also launched a mobile version of its Web site so Web-enabled mobile phones can access maps and directions. Plus, the company has asserted that it has now provided store location data to the mapping services that are used by in-car GPS units.
Then again, the average American city now has a Starbucks on about every third block, so in truth, you probably don't need any kind of gadgetry to find one.

Questions for Enterpreneurs

Chriswand's Questions for Enterpreneurs:

This is one of those lists which no entrepreneur should do without. Every now and then, it is a good idea to review these questions and answer them for the venture that you are doing. Better still, the entire management team should independently answer these questions and then compare notes.

1) WHAT IS YOUR VISION?
- What is your big vision?
- What problem are you solving and for whom?
- Where do you want to be in the future?

2) WHAT IS YOUR MARKET OPPORTUNITY AND HOW BIG IS IT?
- How big is the market opportunity you are pursuing and how fast is it growing?
- How established (or nascent) is the market?
- Do you have a credible claim on being one of the top two or three players in the market?

3) DESCRIBE YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE
- What is your product/service?
- How does it solve your customer's problem?
- What is unique about your product/service?

4) WHO IS YOUR CUSTOMER?
- Who are your existing customers?
- Who is your target customer?
- What defines an "ideal" customer prospect?
- Who actually writes you the check?
- Use specific customer examples where possible.

5) WHAT IS YOUR VALUE PROPOSITION?
- What is your value proposition to the customer?
- What kind of ROI can your customer expect by using buying your product/service?
- What pain are you eliminating?
- Are you selling vitamins, aspirin or antibiotics? (I.e. a luxury, a nice-to-have, or a need-to-have)

6) HOW ARE YOU SELLING?
- What does the sales process look like and how long is the sales cycle?
- How will you reach the target customer? What does it cost to "acquire" a customer?
- What is your sales, marketing and distribution strategy?
- What is the current sales pipeline?

7) HOW DO YOU ACQUIRE CUSTOMERS?
- What is your cost to acquire a customer?
- How will this acquisition cost change over time and why?
- What is the lifetime value of a customer?

8) WHO IS YOUR MANAGEMENT TEAM?
- Who is the management team?
- What is their experience?
- What pieces are missing and what is the plan for filling them?

9) WHAT IS YOUR REVENUE MODEL?
- How do you make money?
- What is your revenue model?
- What is required to become profitable?

10) WHAT STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT ARE YOU AT?
- What is your stage of development? Technology/product? Team? Financial metrics/revenue?
- What has been the progress to date (make reality and future clear)?
- What are your future milestones?

11) WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR FUND RAISING?
- What funds have already been raised?
- How much money are you raising and at what valuation?
- How will the money be spent?
- How long will it last and where will the company "be" on its milestones progress at that time?
- How much additional funding do you anticipate raising & when?

12) WHO IS YOUR COMPETITION?
- Who is your existing & likely competition?
- Who is adjacent to you (in the market) that could enter your market (and compete) or could be a co-opted partner?
- What are their strengths/weaknesses?
- Why are you different?

13) WHAT PARTNERSHIPS DO YOU HAVE?
- Who are your key distribution and technology partners (current & future)?
- How dependent are you on these partners?

14) HOW DO YOU FIT WITH THE PROSPECTIVE INVESTOR?
- How does this fit w/ the investor's portfolio and expertise?
- What synergies, competition exist with the investor's existing portfolio?

15) OTHER
- What assumptions are key to the success of the business?
- What "gotchas" could change the business overnight? New technologies, new market entrants, change in standards or regulations?
- What are your company's weak links?

The New AT&T

Taken from The New York Times:

The new AT&T has 66.5 million land-based telephone lines, 61 million wireless subscribers, 12 million broadband lines, and sells local phone service in 22 states. It has 302,000 employees.

AT&T's $242.77 billion market capitalization by far surpasses that of the next largest phone company, China Mobile, at $ 183.13 billion, and is double that of the nearest American competitor, Verizon Communications, at $109.62 billion.The company has come a long way largely on Ed Whitacre's vision,said John C. Hodulik, an analyst with UBS.Right from the beginning, he realized the benefits of scale in the telecommunications business.

The Namesake

I got an opportunity to watch "The Namesake" this saturday. Based on the best-selling novel by Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake is set in New York and Calcutta over a period of several decades. It's one of those adaptations that's so sprawling and episodic and crammed with incident that, at times, you may wish you were reading the novel. I haven't read the novel as yet but would definitely read it in coming days. Nair tries to shoehorn too much of a big novel into a small two-hour movie. But her ardor for the material matches her ambition. This is a generational family saga everyone can relate to, and Nair gives it her special magic.