Report: Google planning app store for businesses

Report: Google planning app store for businesses: "Third-party developers might soon be able to sell add-ons to the Google Apps suite of software for businesses through a Google-hosted online store, according to the Wall Street Journal."

Social Media and the iPad Brouhaha

I am returning back to blogging with a new fervor..so for iteration 2 here's the entree.

The last few days have been gripped by the iPad hysteria..as WSJ aptly put it "Last time there was this much excitement about a tablet, it had some commandments written on it". To me what was really fascinating was the way Social Media played a pivotal..no..an almost all-pervasive role in building and feeding the hysteria.

Harken back to the days of iPhone launch..people were beginning to see the potential of crowd sourcing..it was more of a consumption pattern..news was being published by few quarters and consumed by many..Product leaks even if present did not worm their way into main stream consciousness..ergo when the man in Levis and black turtleneck took center stage to say they were launching 3 new devices..rolled into one..and you could finger it !! It was total mayhem..the market knew Apple would launch a phone but something of this revolutionary proportions!! Not a fat chance..Apple's love for secrets and Jobs's showmanship had one upped the market.

Fast forward to late 2009, the eReader market is heating up with B&N entering the fray with the Nook to compete with the Kindle. The market is agog with the expectations of Apple launching a tablet based eBook reader. Product leaks come in thick and fast, with spyshots, potential spec leakage and people scouring the patent filings for potential clues of what the fabled tablet can do. The information is not only flowing in from nondescript quarters but is also being furiously propagated by the foragers. Leechers became Providers!!

2 days before the launch, Engadget ran this article and Gizmodo ran this snippet and everyone new what the tablet was going to be..(There were some good and bad surprises though, Apples A4 processor, the smart pricing structure and no contract 3G..no multitasking, no camera and no option for note taking!!)

News networks like CNN, WSJ and NYTimes relied on crowd sourced non authenticated data to publish speculative articles about the iPad..Were they crazy to do so?? Is this good journalism?? Most importantly is this the future?? Yes, Yes and YES!! It is simple statistics..it is truth in numbers and democratization of information..old schoolers can choose align with it and evolve or debunk it and perish..

So what does this mean for Apple and companies who have similar strategies?? On the positive side, for Apple it was a lot of hype and marketing at no extra cost. They have struck the eBook market when its hot and delivered to market expectations. Most importantly, they have earned a 60 - 90 day respite when they will fall back on their SVP iPhone Software, Scott Forstall, to come up with iPhone OS 4.0. I am speculating here that it will have multitasking and other nice bits which will make the iPad suddenly a must buy..time will tell..

On the flip side, with Apple aligning with more an one vendor (product components, manufacturing, content partnership, software development, etc.) on products such as iPad, maintaining a leak free ship is becoming increasingly hard. Ergo, the flash and awe effect is harder to achieve in its product launch. Is it time for Apple to rethink its secrecy strategy?? Maybe..

One a final note, someone in my Social Media Marketing class asked the question..what is social media??

One version of the answer : It is a medium for contributing to and querying the larger social intelligence. It is a mechanism/ protocol by which multiple singleton twines of intelligence collude to form a thick strand of knowledge/ consciousness. Sounds like a line from a self help book dosent it?? :) But think about it..it actually is that..As a stand alone person you are limited by the amount of information you can absorb and recover. You use appendages like books, dairies, computers to store your information but again recovery and comprehension is limited by individual potential. Now look at a collection of people..coalesce them as one single entity..now imagine possibilities..that is social media..to me..

Puchka

My tryst with Bombay and its denizens continues..this time the location is the strip where the rich and poor loose identity..

“The temptress goes by different names, indeed even distinctive tastes in different cities. I risk being dunked in the pitcher for such heresy, but i'll say it: Mumbai's is the worst. 'Pani puri' — what a pedestrian description. Forget Lucknow's flowery pani ke batashey, it's no match for the well-rounded gol-guppa. Delhi's term encompasses not only the roly-poly product, but also its purpose; eating it serves the same social role as gossip, gup-shup. Call me biased, but Kolkata bests them all. A literary city would naturally coin a word straight out of the Golden Treasury. 'Puchka' — how onomatopoeically it mimics the squish in your mouth, and echoes the explosion of sensations on your palate.” – Bachi Karkaria, ERRATICA, TOI (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/bachi-karkaria/erratica/Mooh-mein-pani-puri/articleshow/2076753.cms)

Yeh Hai Bombay Meri Jaan

I recently had a marathon walk down one of the arteries of Bombay (Eastern Express Highway). These few hours gave me a chance to interact with many people who characterize Bombay and look up to it for their daily grub. In this series I am trying to capture some of the tonalities of the daily life in Bombay. Please opine, as your comments will be helpful when I snap more in the forthcoming weeks.

Bombay Series – 1: This snap was taken on the Eastern Express Highway@Vikhroli. This bloke and a few others were working to lay a new layer of tar over the highway. The amount of soot, grime and heat amidst which they were working was amazing.