How smart is using smart phone??

Moore's Law states that the number of transistors packed into a single IC would double every 18 months!! Meaning, exponential advancement in memory and processing technology. An ordinary students's laptop todays holds more processing power than a mainframe did just 2 decades back. Smart-phones are becoming what laptops were to desktops a few years back.

With the advent of 4G technology along with higher and higher processing power smart phones are becoming everyones best friend..

Be it social networking or board meeting, people literally carry their work in their pocket. Now think of these smart-phones as 'little tiny mobile bill-boards'. Bill-boards that change themselves according to every individuals needs. The more people get accustomed to the perks of using a smart-phone the harder it is for them to revert back to ordinary phones. As the trends show the use of smart-phones is expected to double just in 2011. This makes smart-phone the next most ideal battle ground for marketeers.

The impact of such trends is already being felt in inconspicuous industries such as the printing industry. Even just a couple of years back security printing such boarding pass printing, Pin mailers etc were a lucrative industry. In today's paperless age where PIN numbers are sent through encrypted e-mails and boarding passes have reduced to a mere graphic image on ur smart-phone, commercial printing has taken a tough blow.

In mu opinion this is a change that has come about to stay. But like any other technological revolution the pros and cons interms of safety and impact on other industries is yet to be seen!

Boon or bane!!

Music piracy has a global strong hold immaterial of the type of governance or treasury balance! Unlike software piracy, where Developing countries steal software produced my developed countries. The stats are such

• US - music piracy annually costs 71,060 U.S. jobs lost and a loss of $422 million in tax revenues
• India - US$959 million and 571,896 jobs lost due to piracy

Governments pass laws day in and day out. These laws are then followed my amendments to accommodate the interests of lobbyists (freedom of expression etc etc). But since not all can be satisfied all the time the debate continues while piracy honeymoons around the world. For any law to be effective it has to enforced with ' Certainty, Severity and Celerity'. And a law that is not enforced is as good as not having one.

Though enforcements of agreements such as TRIPS, WIPO etc are relatively more effective in developed countries than in developing countries, piracy is still widespread. But in most cases the penalty for piracy are mere monetary fines (which are not generally formidable) and ridden with loop holes; hence rendering them ineffective.

Music piracy is a pandemic. As any pandemic, like AIDS, Environmental pollution or breast cancer the only effective way to curtail its spread is through awareness. An Indian saying goes 'Theft cannot be stopped unless all thieves decide to'. If people could be educated on the consequences of their actions it could go a long way in curbing household piracy.

Budding and struggling artists generally tend to view piracy as an effective short cut to instantly reach hordes. But this benefit is short lived. Once an artist gets the initial recognition it is the sales of the music which makes the artist truly successful.

This coupled with properly enforced laws could prove to to be the remedy we r looking for!

Regulation in moderation!!

It is fascinating, the power man has bestowed on something as intangible as the internet, and the extent to which he lets it influence his life. Neuro-marketing, Behavioral marketing, tele-marketing, database marketing, personalized marketing and the list goes on. Marketing has evolved alongside technology from mere bill boards to almost a science which studies customer behavior. Every now and then comes a point in time when marketeers come up with a newer strategy, throw it out in the open to attract customers until someone gets hurt and then hastily come along a set of regulations to save the day!! It happened to print media, it happened yo Television media with cigarette ads.. and now its the turn of the "online environment"

Somethings are just easier said than done... It took a mess as big as the wiki leak for the FTC to step up and take a closer look at how information flows in the virtual world. How many of us truly take the time read a mere 300 lines 9 font sized document inconspicuously named "Terms and conditions" before giving out our personal information that we hold so dear?? Most of these so called 'sophisticated consumers' are not even aware of the ways in which their information can be used.

FTC's attempt at standing up for the consumers in commendable but whether it will be effective would all depend on how it is implemented. Extending the 'Do not call' concept to online marketing - 'Do not track' is promising, but the method that FTC proposes to implement this through an 'opt-out' mechanism is questionable. Implementing this mechanism would mean companies would have to spend on using cookies to store info of consumers who might as well decide not to opt to give their info later.

The other cornerstone of the recent report - "Affirmative express consent for material changes to existing privacy policies" requires companies to notify their customers every time there is material change in the way the company decides to use the data collected... Are consumers really that concerned as to what companies with the data they have already consented to disclose??! (other than financial institutions.. of course you don't want your bank messing with your checking acct!) Imagine all the extra effort and cost for companies to actually comply with these regulations!

A law which is not implemented is as good as not having one.. FTC is on the right track in trying to take the first step to regulate the cyber space. There is no way we re turning back to old ways of doing things.. The sooner we understand and learn to disciple ourselves in this future virtual world the better off mankind will be..!

Right place at the right time!!!

Here is the deal!! On one side we have an economy crippled with recession and the lowest individual incomes recorded in a decade. Which means displaying stuff from Walmart at home is no longer socially awkward. On the other we have this amazing company which offers deep discounts on all the luxuries- (massage, fine dining, clothing... you name it!) that u were so used before the darned recession came along. Put them together and you have yourself a Jackpot business model!

And thats exactly what it is 'A jackpot!'. Its like winning a lottery, the founders of Groupon had the good business sense to see am opportunity where merchants were ready to negotiate any deal to increase their sales even infinitesimally and customers were relentlessly on the look out for better deals to save every penny they could. But minus the recession from the equation then the business model becomes a little wobbly. Groupon is betting on a reversible economic trend which may or may not revert back to times when people did not care as much to spend quality time looking for deals to buy a shirt. This is something only time will answer.

Even for merchants, the Groupon strategy only brings in a temporary spur in sales and is not sustainable. As long as the deal keep coming in retailers would keep afloat.. but if you do this long enough, how long would it take before there offers start losing their appeal??

With the competition quickly following, Groupon has milked the cow as much as they profitably could with 50-50 deals with merchants. Groupon's biggest strength currently is their market penetration and email list. It wouldn't be long before competition catches up and starts offering merchants better deals forcing Groupon to compromise on their current profit margin.

Is Groupon a good business model? I'd say it is but am not sure if it WILL be.