iPhone5 Vs Android Phones is like Obama Vs Romney debates – Decision on AAPL stock is up to independents

Today, Apple announced its new iPhone5. While I was reading this article from Mashable and the comments mostly from angry Android users, it reminded me of how this debate is so similar to what democrats and republicans have about their candidates Obama and Romney. So let us use that analogy and see if Apple will be winner with its iPhone5.

Independent voters/users will decide fate of AAPL

Like the presidential politics it is clear that democrats are voting for Obama just as existing iPhone users are going to buy iPhone5. Similarly republicans are going to vote for Romney just as existing Android users who are continuing to buy their Android phones whether from Google, HTC or Samsung. Just as this election is going to be decided by independents so will the selection of the phones be made by independents (neither an Apple fanboy nor an Android fanboy). According to JP Morgan study, success of iPhone5 may have a positive impact on the US GDP.

How will independents vote? To buy iPhone5 or Not!

There are three categories of independents who may make their decision differently

• People taking their first plunge to smartphones
• People taking their first plunge to touch based smartphones
• People unhappy with their existing phones

People taking their first plunge to smartphones

This may be the largest segment for success of Apple or Samsung. Many of these users are likely to be price sensitive and so Android may win here or the older iPhones (iPhone4S, iPhone4) may win some percentage of these users. Also since many of these users are looking for pre paid plans, Android is likely to win here too. However, Samsung may not be the winner here as there are many more cheaper Android smartphones available from other manufacturers. This segment is generally ignored by Apple.

People taking their first plunge to touch based smartphones

This segment is mainly the remaining Blackberry users who have finally decided to move to a touch based smartphone. In this case the likely winner will be Apple since iPhone is approved by many more companies and is relatively easier to use compared to Android smartphones

People unhappy with their existing smartphones

This segment is probably biased more towards iPhone users since Apple does keep its users more happy whether through its stores or other Apple fanboys. If Apple succeeds in creating more hype as iPhone5 launch approaches this segment will shift more in its favor.

Will iPhone5 be a victory for AAPL

Granted that iPhone5 launch was nothing spectacular but Apple will succeed due to support from its

• Existing iPhone users
• Users migrating from Blackberry
• Unhappy Android users

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Enterprise Mobility – My impressions from Tech Symposium sessions

Thanks to Muppalla Sridhar, one of the organizers for Tech Symposium, I had the pleasure of moderating a panel entitled “ Enterprise Mobility – Challenges and Opportunities”. This is a summary from this session which will give a quick overview of various issues in this sector.

Thanks to my following fellow panelists who helped me with various questions including some from the audience

• Sanjeev Gupta (General Manager, Avaya)
• Ashwin Krishnan (Director, Product Management,Juniper Networks)
• Indranil Chatterjee (VP Product Management, Openwave Mobility)
• Toby Rush (CEO,EyeVerify)

The issues discussed can be split into the following main heading

• BYOD – Bring your own device
• Type of Device – Android, iOS or Windows
• Making a Business Case
• Security & Authentication
• Applications and App Stores
• Connectivity and Service Provider Issues

BYOD

With the consumerization of IT, consumers are more in control of what mobile devices they use. So rather than employees having multiple phones and tablets, enterprises have decided to allow employees to bring their own device or as someone put it more aptly as LYOD – lease your own device to the enterprise.

 Type of Device

Some discussions reaffirmed that RIM’s Blackberry failed to deliver to market expectation and is losing market share constantly. Apple iOS is very popular and almost the only tablet device in the corporate world. Android is important and with some new advancements like from Samsung in virtualization, it may become more enterprise ready. Microsoft Windows8 is great on paper but it is not clear if users will adopt it as fast as IT and/or Microsoft may like to see. Bottom line, any device that wins users will become the choice of enterprise as well.

 Making a Business Case

Sanjay Gupta, both in his session and at the panel, offered many examples of companies in healthcare and government who have justified use of iPad due to increased productivity like saving of 15 minutes per day of nurse time. May be we can share some of those slides in Slideshare at a later time.

 Security & Authentication

Security is paramount but focus of securing device needs to shift to securing enterprise data. VPN systems may not an ideal solution for securing mobile devices unlike PCs due to various reasons including power issues of mobile device. Toby Rush feels time for biometric security has now come with new cameras and additional capabilities on mobile devices and their software.

 Applications & App Stores

First and foremost, users need access to everyday files on their mobile devices something DocSync.Net offers. Then there is the issue of porting and running enterprise apps and with the fragmentation of so many devices this task is not easy. To know whether a particular app is secure or not is a challenge for which there are no clear answers but user education and enterprise authorized app stores were offered as possible solutions without any conclusion.

 Connectivity and Service Provider Issues

Ideally enterprises would like to get data only plans and family calling type plans for data services. The service provider billing systems will take some time to get there even if they are ready to offer such services. It was also felt that large operators like Verizon and AT&T have less incentive to offer these services and these services may initially come from regional operators.

 Conclusion

Enterprise mobility is a new frontier with many issues and so there are many opportunities for entrepreneurs and enterprising vendors in the eco systems to take advantage of it.

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Access, Search & Edit Google Docs on iPad – DocSync.Net has the answer

Many users of Google Docs want to use it on their iPad and the only way available from Google is to use it in a browser window. We came across this article from Tony Bradley of PC World on using Google Docs on iPad which inspired us to write this blog.

When we polled users of Google Docs, these are the top five requirements:

• Access any document from my Computer as well as Google Docs and upload it to Google Docs from iPad

• Search content of any file on my Computer as well as Google Docs from iPad

• Edit content of any file on Google Docs right from within the app on iPad

• Downloading any Google Docs to iPad for offline viewing

• Additional security and control

In order to meet these requirements we created DocSync.Net app which is now available in iTunes. The following description goes into details of how these requirements are met:

Access – Users can access any of the last 50 files they worked on either on their computer or in Google Docs. Any of the documents from users’ computer can be uploaded to Google Docs from a simple touch as shown in the diagram below

DocSync – Uploading files from Computer to Google Docs on an iPad

Search – Users can search file name or content of file to find relevant files quickly from their iPad

Edit – Just simply select the Edit button on any document and it enables users to edit their files which are kept in Sync just as if you were accessing it on the computer

Offline Viewing – Any document you open on DocSync.Net is available for offline viewing. You can also explicitly use upload to iPad for any of the documents

Security – You can use an additional PIN on your computer to control access to these documents on your iPad. Moreover if you misplaced your iPad and after few wrong attempts, all of the documents uploaded to iPad are wiped out.

What would you like to see?

We have received requests for many more features and would like to know what would you like to see added? Please email to features@docsync.net with your suggestions.

Conclusion

If you want to securely access, search, edit, offline viewing and move documents from your computer to Google docs right from your iPad, DocSync.Net is the perfect solution.

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surprised to see that Google’s own blog

surprised to see that Google’s own blog only lists Google Buzz and not Google+. Check it out http://ow.ly/bohbJ

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For all #GoogleDocs users on #iPad, try

For all #GoogleDocs users on #iPad, try DocSync.Net from iTunes. Access, Search and Edit GoogleDocs from your iPad.

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Is iPad a great business presentation tool? What else is needed?

iPad with its stunning resolution seemed like an obvious candidate for making business presentation but is it a good tool in all circumstances? Also what else do you need to make it into a great tool? The answers to these questions are provided based on my personal experience. Please share your experiences!

On a broad level, presentations can be split into three main categories

• 1-on-1 presentations
• 1-to-many presentations
• Remote presentations

In this blog, we discuss the first two of these situations and provide tools and tips and evaluate iPad usefulness as a tool for making business presentation.

1-on-1 presentations

iPad is probably the best tool here – way better than laptop since that barrier of screen is removed as you can see in the picture below. For this category let us assume any situation where one can sit across the table with couple of people. For this purpose no screen projection tools are needed and iPad by itself is sufficient. However, you need to make sure your presentation is readily available not just in an online but also in an offline mode. Even though there are many tools on iPads to create presentations, the best approach still is to create presentation on your computer and then transfer it to iPad. Also avoid animations as they don’t transfer well on iPad.

       

Transferring your presentation from computer to iPad – There are three broad choices here

• Email to yourself – inefficient and cumbersome
• Putting it in a cloud like Dropbox and then saving it on iPad – inefficient and cumbersome but slight improvement over the first one
• Use a tool like DocSync.Net from iTunes and just select the file from your computer or cloud and it is automatically available on your iPad as shown on the picture on the right above.

1-to-many presentations

Your laptop is still a better tool for these situations than an iPad. Why? It is assumed that you definitely need to connect your output to an external monitor or projector. Needless to say that kind of connectivity is readily available from most laptops but for the iPad, you need to buy another connector from Apple or a third party. These connectors are available with VGA or HDMI options. We had a chance to hook our iPad to a projector and found some issues.

If you own an iPad1, probably none of these connectors will work as was my experience of having tried two of these. However, if you have the new shining iPad3 that Apple calls “The new iPad”, there are no issues but HDMI is preferred if you have an HDMI enabled projector or monitor. With our iPad2, I had the most consistent connectivity with VGA connectors. If you tend to move a lot while making presentations, the wire mess can also cause issues. I just wish there are more Airplay type projectors available in corporate environments.

Conclusion

For 1-to-many presentations, laptop is still a better tool but if you must use iPad to project, you will have the best options with iPad3. For 1-to-1 presentations, iPad is the best presentation device. However, you need to make sure your presentations created on computer are accessible. Of the three options of using Email or putting in the cloud and then transferring to iPad or just using DocSync.Net app to get your application on iPad, the later seems to be the best and most efficient alternative.

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Please read & comment my article in tech

Please read & comment my article in techrepublic – Business travel with #ipad – challenges & solutions – http://ow.ly/9D6y3

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Google’s buyout of Motorola – Winners and Losers

My company socialnuggets scoured through social media data to see who the winners and losers were in Google’s acquisition of Motorola. Some of them are very obvious. Motorola and Microsoft in the winners section, and Android OEMs such as HTC, Samsung and LG in the losers section. However, it is unclear whether Apple, Nokia, RIM and Mobile operators are winners or losers in this race. Here are some of our thoughts. Please add your comments:

Clear Winners

Motorola is a winner since it got an excessive premium over its current share price. Microsoft is a winner since all of Android licenses now want to at least invest some portion of their resources on Microsoft’s Windows Phone and its latest Mango version of Windows Phone is making progress in the market. PC Mag’s article has done a good job in explaining this.

But how will Nokia, RIM and Apple  fare from Googorola?

Clear Losers

Google’s Android, which has been gaining in popularity, may see some defensive moves from its OEMs such as HTC, Samsung and LG who feel threatened by Google- Motorola phone despite Google’s assurance to the contrary. Google is a loser since it has overpaid for a patent portfolio that may not have the same level of relevance today as when these patents were developed. To quote Dan Ravicher, the executive director of the Public Patent Foundation from this Huffington Post article” There’s a patent bubble — a lot of speculation and bidding up. This reminds me of the housing bubble, the dot-com bubble. Five years from now, people will realize that they have overbid.”

What about Apple, Nokia, RIM and others?

Is Apple a loser in this? If OEM’s jump the Android boat, Apple will see less competition from Android. In that case, Google will put its energy in Motorola phone and in creating an end-to-end experience like Apple which may be more of a threat to Apple in the long term.

Is it a win for RIM, the makers of Blackberry phones? RIM has been losing market share and this may accelerate it. However, it also has a rich set of patents which will now be overvalued like that of Motorola’s thereby helping increase the valuation of the company if someone were to acquire it.

Is it a win for Nokia? Nokia had a choice of betting on either Android or Windows Phone and it chose the later and now must be happy with its decision. If Google indeed becomes an end-to-end supplier that will put Nokia at a disadvantage. Like RIM, it also has a very rich patent portfolio that may be overvalued if Microsoft were to pull the trigger on buying Nokia.

This may reduce the choice for both the consumer and mobile operators and when that happens prices go up and innovation suffers. So no matter which company wins, the consumer loses.

Conclusion

With this deal of Google buying Motorola, Microsoft and Motorola seem to be clear winners while Google and most of Android OEMs seem to be clear losers. Apple may benefit or lose depending on how Google handles this acquisition. RIM and Nokia may benefit or lose depending on what Microsoft may decide to do. This may also affect consumer and mobile operator choices when it comes to smartphones.

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Are you still syncing your Media the old fashioned way?

Like many of you, I have a large selection of music and podcasts that has been purchased/downloaded over the years – running into 30GB.  I used to sync with my iPod using the cable and lot of patience until I got a message that all of my music doesn’t fit anymore on my iPod.  Over time, Android phone, Blackberry, iPhone and iPad have been added to our family’s collection of PCs and Macs.

With my music spread amongst two computers and limited available storage capacity of my mobile devices, I decided to look for alternatives and here is what I found when I evaluated the following:

• Syncing my Music to the SD card/internal memory of the phone
• Radios like Pandora
• Monthly Music services like MOG and Spotify
• Streaming my own music using services like Jam11

Syncing my Music to the SD card/internal memory of the phone

Apple offers an ability to sync iPhone and iPad with iTunes  and many third party alternatives exist on Android and Blackberry phones to sync your library on iTunes as well. If your music library is any larger than 5GB (1,000 songs), Syncing is a bad alternative as there is never enough space left on these devices after leaving room for apps, pictures, videos and other data.  Yes you can pay $99 extra for each 8GB of storage on Apple’s iPod and iPhone or buy a larger SD card but it is unlikely that you can sync all of your music library on it for ever.

Radios like Pandora & Slacker

Internet Radios like Pandora and Slacker are great alternatives and offer a great selection. It is a great way to discover new music. However, if you are in a mood to listen to your Beatles album, Pandora will offer one of the songs from Beatles and then offer you similar songs due to Radio licensing restrictions. There are other Internet radios like SHOUTcast wherein I found a large selection of music, news and talkshows.

Monthly Music Services

There are many alternatives like MOG, Spotify and Rhapsody and cost between $5 to $10/month. The selection varies but I couldn’t find majority of the music that I like in most of these services. Also, I do have problem in paying to listen to the music I already own and hence these choices are not for me.

Streaming my Own Music using services like Jam11

With ubiquitous 3G/Wifi data connectivity, it is now easy to stream all of your music off your computer. Yes it needs your computer to be on but with streaming services like Jam11, I can now listen to my music anywhere from any phone. I can search for my music on my Android or Blackberry phone and listen instantly and make sure I don’t buy yet another song I already own. You can download Jam11 from Android Market or Blackberry App World and give it a try.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there is no one solution for everyone. I settled on using Jam11, have some local music on my SD card and listen to SHOUTcast radios on my Jam11 application. Let me know if you are still not syncing the old fashioned way and buying more iPods.

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Android Market Share 28%, Google 10% and iPhone 21%. Should Google continue on its mobile path or change?

This week NPD released a report which had some encouraging report for Google’s Android which had 28% market share this quarter with iPhone’s 21% and Google’s Nexus One with 10% in the US. Finally, Android powered phones like Droid from Motorola and Droid Incredible from HTC are making inroads into Apple’s iPhone market because of the combined effect of good phones and a good network. Many iPhone enthusiasts will argue that these comparisons are not real since one phone is being pitted against 18 Android phones but that is the topic for a different blog.  The topic that I want to tackle in this blog is  – Can Android do even better and if so what should Google do before it is too late? I have owned and played with Nokia N series phones, Blackberry, Google’s G1, N1, Droid Incredible and iPhone.

Here are things I think Google should do if it wants to be a true leader in this space

1)   Reduce Fragmentation of Android

2)   Build phone for the masses and not just for tech savvy consumers

3)   Improve App Store Experience

4)   Leave hardware sales to OEMs

Reduce Fragmentation

Fragmentation = Too many versions, no defined minimum hardware spec, no defined minimum app set and incompatibilities across versions and vendors. Nokia is a prime example of a vendor whose customers and developers suffer everyday because of this issue while Apple enjoys almost zero fragmentation. Yes there is Linux but even that was organized by Redhat and couple of other vendors.

So, Google, please take a leadership role and put some discipline into various licensees, define and force some standards for the OEMs but maintain its open source, freely available advantages.

Build phone for the masses and not just for tech savvy consumers

I have used three generations of Android phones – G1, N1 and now HTC’s Incredible. Yes these phones are getting better with every release but Google needs to be improve Android’s usability for everyone. For doing most tasks, Android requires at least 2-3 times the number of clicks compared to an iPhone.  Being a tech savvy consumer, it didn’t take me long to get used to Android phone and get almost spoiled by the customization it offers.

So, Google, please hire some great UI folks who can mask the complexity for average user while keeping the customization advantages.

Improve App Store Experience

With the sales of Android going up, developers are happy and ready to look over many of the disadvantages of App Store. Monetization possibilities brings developers but actual easy monetization will keep them there. There are many forums just discussing issues after issues like mobile only availability, currency issues, poor discovery, lack of ability to send app links in blogs and others.

So, Google, please improve usability of App Store and make it easier to discover content and monetize while keeping control to the minimum.

Leave hardware sales to OEMs

After looking at what amazing additions HTC has done with its new Incredible phone and how OEMs have managed to make Android phones available through all operators in the US and abroad, it is high time Google abandons its own hardware sales and instead concentrate on doing the best in software that it is capable of. Yes, it should promote all OEMs and especially ones that are most innovative.

So, Google, please leave the hardware sales and manufacturing to your OEMs while you promote them and help them be successful.

Conclusion

Google has built an incredible software platform in Android which can be exploited fully by various handset manufacturers. Google should exercise some control in reducing fragmentation, improving usability, improving App store experience and leave hardware innovation to the handset vendors.

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