I’m an Entrepreneur in Residence (in action really!). I’m keenly interested in the intersection of technology and business. Looking forward to engaging conversations on themes such as technology adoption, technology monetisation, new business models etc.
Past few weeks have been a lot of fun for me. First we had the ideastorm where the sheer volume and enthu levels were overwhelming. Then we had the barcamp Mumbai 2 where the turnout exceeded all our expectations. And then came the launch of CTO blog. The number of comments on Ananth’s post is amazing. All these goes to show that web 2.0/social is very strong right around us.
This is fun but is there money in it?
Theresa Wise, Global Director at Accenture’s Digital Media practice, certainly thinks otherwise.
“There is no evidence that these sites are monetizeable.”
I find it hard to agree with her given actual data. There is certainly money in Myspace - $ 300 Mil of it. Blogs make money - not all but some do. The best Indian example is that of Amit Agrawal who makes a decent amount of money - all by just blogging. Also, I can post content on Youtube and get a share of the ad revenue. In spite of the ill founded conclusions, she does raise a valid question: Is there any new business model?
Let’s look at this in a more structured manner. Any web 2.0 site has the following constituents:
1. Platform for the interaction: Orkut, facebook, Blogspot, wordpress, youtube, flickr etc
2. An Author - You are an author when you blog or when you upload to youtube, flickr etc
3. Respondent - You consume the content posted by the author and respond via comments
The dominant business model is to produce content, get eye balls and then sell them to advertisers. A simple model that has been around almost as long as newspapers. It has different variants -
1. Platform keeps all the money - Orkut. Orkut decides what Ads come on which page and makes money from it
2. Author keeps all the money - Blogging world has adopted this model
3. Share between Platform and Author - Youtube has this model. Interestingly, in this case, protests from authors led to sharing of revenue.
Obviously the respondent never makes any money. S/he only spends money with the ISP. This is very interesting since the value lies in the discussion itself and not in just getting people together on a site. The repondent is also adding value but getting no reward. It’s platform first and then author. Its a funny situation for web 2.0 which prides on “participation”. I wonder if other business models have any play here.
Here’s an idea. Just the way we have a Digg button against each post on a blog, why not have a “pay” button against each profile on any Web 2.0 profile? If the post or comment helped me, I can press the button and make a micro-payment - say 10 cents - $ 1.00. This wouldn’t have worked in the early days of web 2.0 where getting people on board was more important. But now that there are many on board and the emphasis is on quality, this may just work.
Think this is new? Then think again. Wikipedia raised money for survival through folks who though wikipedia added value. This is just the same as the idea above except that I’m suggesting a payment infrastructure integrated with web 2.0 rather than as an after thought. Not everyone will pay but then not everyone clicks on Ads either. The clickthrough rate is as low as 1%!
What do you guys say? Will this work?
Feedback@ duvvurusandeep@gmail.com
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Inculcate a GREEN culture
“GREEN” is the most talked-about topic of discussion these days. Companies are spending hefty amounts to find various ways for reducing their carbon footprints. Governments also are equally concerned about the environmental crisis and are taking all probable steps to reduce the carbon emissions from the industrial sector. However all these brilliant efforts of reducing the carbon footprint are concentrated on Industrial sector completely ignoring the fact that individual contribution towards the CO2 emission is also substantial?
I believe that “Thinking green” and “embracing green” are two completely singular concepts. Today we are taking all possible pains to reduce emissions from the industries which I agree is very important. But have we really embraced a “green way of living”? We all should pause for a while here and think hard on this issue. Is it the case that the moment we step out of our company premises we completely forget about the “Think green” motto?
After all who wouldn’t like to travel in an AC car, sleep comfortably in an AC room, document hard copies for quick reference, light up all the rooms, watch movie in an AC Theater, exercise in an AC gym, etc? Given a choice we all would love to have a relaxed and easy life. We earn so as to be able to afford these luxuries. But have we ever thought about the price that we actually pay to have all these extravagance?
Human being is considered to be the most intelligent of all the species on this planet. But look at what are we doing to our own habitat!!
We are mindlessly using the free resources available to us without giving a second thought about the purpose their use serves us. As an rightly quoted by an anonymous:-
Only after the last tree has been cut down,
only after the last river has been poisoned,
only after the last fish has been caught,
only then we will realize that money cannot be eaten….
It will not be an exaggeration to say that this mass exploitation of our environment is soon going to put all of us in grave danger or should I say that we already are? That time is near when mere existence will be a problem. Dearth of basic resources will spawn various social problems, thus violence.
Only by “embracing green” in our lifestyles can we reduce this senseless misuse of the wealth gifted to us by mother earth. Governments need to take initiatives to encourage the masses for opting greener ways of living.
Reducing Industrial emissions is a mass endeavor which depends on several entities and various factors many of which are totally beyond our scope of control.
But we have complete power on our own choices and thus our carbon emissions. We can contribute in saving the environment by consciously making choices that are “green”.
Like preferring a bicycle over car/bike to go to a nearby place or best, walking over, reducing the use of air conditioners at our homes, pooling for cars, choosing e-paper instead of a hardcopy for any financial transaction etc. This list is endless. I for one have started avoiding the use of vehicles as much as possible. I prefer to walk over to the places that are in and around 3 kms of my house. And encourage my family members to do the same. Initially it was a little painful because we are so much used to the comfort of riding a vehicle that even the saying “where is a will there is a way” also fails. Body simply refuses to cooperate. But gradually the stamina increases. To my surprise walking down to the nearest store was quite a pleasant experience. Not only did I get a break from the fast life of Mumbai but also got enough the time to notice many small things on my way. Like a household garden with varieties of beautiful flowers and veggies which is a rare sight in Mumbai. Earlier I never paid attention to these minute details as speeding vehicle never gives sufficient time to notice anything except maybe for the patches on the road. I have also planted a few trees back at my hometown. My parents take care of them. In Mumbai space is a major constraint to even think of having potted plants.
They say there are three kinds of people:-
“People who learn by observation, and there are the few who learn by experimentation. And then there are those who actually TOUCH the fire to see if it’s really hot.”
In the case of “global warming” none of us would like to actually live in an ecologically imbalanced world and experience the dread and fatality to believe in it. Imagine how difficult it would be to actually survive in scarcity of basic resources like drinking water, food or oxygen to breathe!!!!!
Struggling for basic resources on daily basis is not what any of us will like to do.
So our individual contribution towards having a green planet is what we need to concentrate on at this point of time. Only when we imbibe nature in our lives will we be able to really help in reducing industrial emissions also. “Green” should be a culture and not a mere thought.
All we have to do is make tad bits of changes in our lifestyles leading towards a green society. These ways may initially need conscious efforts but once we start making those they will come to us naturally. Living the “natural way” will become our habit.
As famous English novelist “George Eliot” has said “What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?” Let us all join hands and go the green way. Share how you make intelligent green choices in your daily lives.
Feedback @ duvvurusandeep@gmail.com
I believe that “Thinking green” and “embracing green” are two completely singular concepts. Today we are taking all possible pains to reduce emissions from the industries which I agree is very important. But have we really embraced a “green way of living”? We all should pause for a while here and think hard on this issue. Is it the case that the moment we step out of our company premises we completely forget about the “Think green” motto?
After all who wouldn’t like to travel in an AC car, sleep comfortably in an AC room, document hard copies for quick reference, light up all the rooms, watch movie in an AC Theater, exercise in an AC gym, etc? Given a choice we all would love to have a relaxed and easy life. We earn so as to be able to afford these luxuries. But have we ever thought about the price that we actually pay to have all these extravagance?
Human being is considered to be the most intelligent of all the species on this planet. But look at what are we doing to our own habitat!!
We are mindlessly using the free resources available to us without giving a second thought about the purpose their use serves us. As an rightly quoted by an anonymous:-
Only after the last tree has been cut down,
only after the last river has been poisoned,
only after the last fish has been caught,
only then we will realize that money cannot be eaten….
It will not be an exaggeration to say that this mass exploitation of our environment is soon going to put all of us in grave danger or should I say that we already are? That time is near when mere existence will be a problem. Dearth of basic resources will spawn various social problems, thus violence.
Only by “embracing green” in our lifestyles can we reduce this senseless misuse of the wealth gifted to us by mother earth. Governments need to take initiatives to encourage the masses for opting greener ways of living.
Reducing Industrial emissions is a mass endeavor which depends on several entities and various factors many of which are totally beyond our scope of control.
But we have complete power on our own choices and thus our carbon emissions. We can contribute in saving the environment by consciously making choices that are “green”.
Like preferring a bicycle over car/bike to go to a nearby place or best, walking over, reducing the use of air conditioners at our homes, pooling for cars, choosing e-paper instead of a hardcopy for any financial transaction etc. This list is endless. I for one have started avoiding the use of vehicles as much as possible. I prefer to walk over to the places that are in and around 3 kms of my house. And encourage my family members to do the same. Initially it was a little painful because we are so much used to the comfort of riding a vehicle that even the saying “where is a will there is a way” also fails. Body simply refuses to cooperate. But gradually the stamina increases. To my surprise walking down to the nearest store was quite a pleasant experience. Not only did I get a break from the fast life of Mumbai but also got enough the time to notice many small things on my way. Like a household garden with varieties of beautiful flowers and veggies which is a rare sight in Mumbai. Earlier I never paid attention to these minute details as speeding vehicle never gives sufficient time to notice anything except maybe for the patches on the road. I have also planted a few trees back at my hometown. My parents take care of them. In Mumbai space is a major constraint to even think of having potted plants.
They say there are three kinds of people:-
“People who learn by observation, and there are the few who learn by experimentation. And then there are those who actually TOUCH the fire to see if it’s really hot.”
In the case of “global warming” none of us would like to actually live in an ecologically imbalanced world and experience the dread and fatality to believe in it. Imagine how difficult it would be to actually survive in scarcity of basic resources like drinking water, food or oxygen to breathe!!!!!
Struggling for basic resources on daily basis is not what any of us will like to do.
So our individual contribution towards having a green planet is what we need to concentrate on at this point of time. Only when we imbibe nature in our lives will we be able to really help in reducing industrial emissions also. “Green” should be a culture and not a mere thought.
All we have to do is make tad bits of changes in our lifestyles leading towards a green society. These ways may initially need conscious efforts but once we start making those they will come to us naturally. Living the “natural way” will become our habit.
As famous English novelist “George Eliot” has said “What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?” Let us all join hands and go the green way. Share how you make intelligent green choices in your daily lives.
Feedback @ duvvurusandeep@gmail.com
My take on - ‘Empowerment through Education'
Since mankind’s incipient stages, the ability to read and write as the primary means of communicating and understanding history, cultural traditions, political and social philosophy and the news of the day has been valued. In more recent times, traditional literacy skills ensured that individuals could participate fully as engaged citizens and functioning adults in society. Today families, schools and all community institutions share the responsibility for preparing young people for living and learning in a global culture that is increasingly connected through multi-media and influenced by powerful images, words and sounds.
On one hand where the elite society is putting education to its best use through sophisticated devices like palmtops and business phones to gain access to the latest information, the underprivileged do not have access to something as basic as books. This is so unfortunate, especially in a country like India where the founding principles of our constitution are democracy, secularism and equality among all. Being citizens of this country, if we are entitled to freedom of speech and expression, freedom of religion etc then why is it that a multitude of us are still deprived of education and below poverty line? Each individual has the right to attain at least a secondary school education if not that of high school. This would benefit not only the individual but also be in the best interest of the country. It would be really heartening to see schools coming up for street children, the illiterate and for women who are denied the right to education.
Education is an essential element of the empowerment of an individual. A good quality education, designed on the basis of an individual’s immediate and strategic needs, builds his/her capacities and prepares him/her to seize opportunities in the public and private domains. Similarly, empowerment through education of underprivileged children would be instrumental in shaping their development as able persons who could put themselves to better use to the society. Since their education would eventually lead to their employment, it would be a better world to live in with the crime rates coming down and other vices like drug abuse, female feticide and child marriage taking a back seat.
It’s a very relieving feeling to see organizations like UNFPA working day and night to go at lengths in undertaking the responsibility of educating the youth. Particularly UNFPA works with ministries of education on teacher sensitization and training and curriculum development. It employs participatory and interactive methodologies, including role-playing and other theatre techniques, exploration of feelings, analysis of gender stereotyping, training in negotiation skills, and question and answer sessions thus, not only imparting information, but also fostering critical thinking, problem-solving and interpersonal communications skills that results in an all round development that leads to informed, responsible and voluntary decisions. This has been successful in enabling young people to challenge harmful gender norms and resist peer pressure. This helps them to navigate safely through the passage to adulthood.
However, it is important to realize that it is not enough to enrol children and women in education and training programmes. It is equally important that the education they receive, at each step, is of high standard in order to ensure appropriate learning outcomes that form the basis of lifelong learning, and provide knowledge, skills and attitudes for an active citizenship. It is on this basis that education leads to personal development and allows one to manage one’s life. Thus, in sync with a prior statement about equality that I made, I would also like to state that there is no quality education without equality. Education must challenge existing power relations and be a basis for attitudinal and behavioral change of both girls and boys, and women and men.
To sum up, education appears to have tremendous scope to enhance poor people’s opportunities. These opportunities are usually translated in the form of access to jobs. Provision of subsidized education could, therefore, be a major source of empowerment of people – especially those belonging to the socially and economically backward segment in a developing country like India. Education is important as it teaches one the right behavior and good manners and equips him with all that one would need to make to realize his dreams and in the long run it is important for the economic growth of the nation. I am a part of the VMS blind school initiative by TCS-Maitree and it is a very fulfilling feeling and it would be very encouraging to see many more individuals contribute towards the society by ‘empowering through education’.
Feedback @ duvvurusandeep@gmail.com
On one hand where the elite society is putting education to its best use through sophisticated devices like palmtops and business phones to gain access to the latest information, the underprivileged do not have access to something as basic as books. This is so unfortunate, especially in a country like India where the founding principles of our constitution are democracy, secularism and equality among all. Being citizens of this country, if we are entitled to freedom of speech and expression, freedom of religion etc then why is it that a multitude of us are still deprived of education and below poverty line? Each individual has the right to attain at least a secondary school education if not that of high school. This would benefit not only the individual but also be in the best interest of the country. It would be really heartening to see schools coming up for street children, the illiterate and for women who are denied the right to education.
Education is an essential element of the empowerment of an individual. A good quality education, designed on the basis of an individual’s immediate and strategic needs, builds his/her capacities and prepares him/her to seize opportunities in the public and private domains. Similarly, empowerment through education of underprivileged children would be instrumental in shaping their development as able persons who could put themselves to better use to the society. Since their education would eventually lead to their employment, it would be a better world to live in with the crime rates coming down and other vices like drug abuse, female feticide and child marriage taking a back seat.
It’s a very relieving feeling to see organizations like UNFPA working day and night to go at lengths in undertaking the responsibility of educating the youth. Particularly UNFPA works with ministries of education on teacher sensitization and training and curriculum development. It employs participatory and interactive methodologies, including role-playing and other theatre techniques, exploration of feelings, analysis of gender stereotyping, training in negotiation skills, and question and answer sessions thus, not only imparting information, but also fostering critical thinking, problem-solving and interpersonal communications skills that results in an all round development that leads to informed, responsible and voluntary decisions. This has been successful in enabling young people to challenge harmful gender norms and resist peer pressure. This helps them to navigate safely through the passage to adulthood.
However, it is important to realize that it is not enough to enrol children and women in education and training programmes. It is equally important that the education they receive, at each step, is of high standard in order to ensure appropriate learning outcomes that form the basis of lifelong learning, and provide knowledge, skills and attitudes for an active citizenship. It is on this basis that education leads to personal development and allows one to manage one’s life. Thus, in sync with a prior statement about equality that I made, I would also like to state that there is no quality education without equality. Education must challenge existing power relations and be a basis for attitudinal and behavioral change of both girls and boys, and women and men.
To sum up, education appears to have tremendous scope to enhance poor people’s opportunities. These opportunities are usually translated in the form of access to jobs. Provision of subsidized education could, therefore, be a major source of empowerment of people – especially those belonging to the socially and economically backward segment in a developing country like India. Education is important as it teaches one the right behavior and good manners and equips him with all that one would need to make to realize his dreams and in the long run it is important for the economic growth of the nation. I am a part of the VMS blind school initiative by TCS-Maitree and it is a very fulfilling feeling and it would be very encouraging to see many more individuals contribute towards the society by ‘empowering through education’.
Feedback @ duvvurusandeep@gmail.com
Mobile! More than a device for communication!!
We have had many posts stressing upon the advantages of a mobile, I share some more ideas. Though a few of the ideas which I have written about below currently exist on a piece by piece basis, a complete implementation of these ideas is yet to happen in the markets.
Have you ever thought of an application on your mobile through which you can do banking, access your company e-mails, pay your bills, fix an appointment with your doctor, pay your child’s school/college fees, book your tickets, and more? All these facilities together in a single application on your mobile?
Yes, the day has come! Without the pain of registering on different sites, without much of GPRS charges and with the facility of offline access to your details JAVA ME has made this possible. And the day when you use your mobile as a remote to open and shut doors, swipe it before a reader in a shop to buy a ring for your loved ones, or use it to buy vegetables in vegetable shop, is very near! The day will mark the complete evolution of Golden M-Commerce era with the support of JAVA ME.
What is JAVA ME?
Java Platform, Micro Edition (Java ME) provides a robust, flexible environment for applications running on mobile and other embedded devices—mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), TV set-top boxes, and printers. Java ME includes flexible user interfaces, robust security, built-in network protocols, and support for networked and offline applications that can be downloaded dynamically.
The Java ME technology is based on three elements;
a configuration provides the most basic set of libraries and virtual machine capabilities for a broad range of devices,
a profile is a set of APIs that support a narrower range of devices, and
an optional package is a set of technology-specific APIs.
Over time the Java ME platform has been divided into two base configurations, one to fit small mobile devices (Connected Limited Device Configuration )and one to be targeted towards more capable mobile devices like smart-phones and set top boxes (Connected Device Configuration). The MIDP specification was defined through the Java Community Process (JCP) by an expert group of more than 50 companies, including leading device manufacturers, wireless carriers, and vendors of mobile software. MIDP 1.0, MIDP 2.0, MIDP 2.1 mobiles are currently available world wide. MIDP 3.0 devices are yet to be released in the market.
Why is JAVA ME world’s popular Development Environment?
Rich User Interface Capabilities: MIDP applications provide the foundation for highly graphical and intuitive applications. The graphical user interface is optimized for the small display size, varied input methods, and other native features of modern mobile devices. MIDP provides intuitive navigation and data entry by taking full advantage of phone keypads, extra buttons such as arrow keys, touch screens, and small QWERTY keyboards. MIDP applications are installed and run locally, can operate in both networked and unconnected modes, and can store and manage persistent local data securely.
Extensive Connectivity: MIDP enables developers to exploit the native data network and messaging capabilities of mobile information devices. It supports leading connectivity standards, including HTTP, HTTPS, datagrams, sockets, server sockets, and serial port. MIDP also supports the Short Message Service and Cell Broadcast Service capabilities of GSM and CDMA networks, through the Wireless Messaging API (WMA) optional package.
Multimedia and Game Functionality: MIDP is ideal for building portable games and multimedia applications. A low-level user-interface API complements the high-level UI API, giving developers greater control of graphics and input when they need it. A game API adds game-specific functionality, such as sprites and tiled layers, which take advantage of devices’ native graphics capabilities. Built-in audio provides support for tones, tone sequences, and WAV files. In addition, developers can use the Mobile Media API (MMAPI) optional package to add video and other rich multimedia content to MIDP applications.
Over-the-Air-Provisioning: A major benefit of MIDP is its capability to deploy and update applications dynamically and securely, over the air.
End-to-End Security: MIDP provides a robust security model that complies with open standards and protects the network, applications, and mobile information devices. HTTPS support enables applications to use existing standards such as SSL and WTLS to send and receive encrypted data.
Challenges in JAVA ME Business Application Development
1.Wide range of mobile models manufactured by different companies with different technologies.
2.Non-compliance of few mobiles to the MIDP standards with few documented bugs related
to the execution of the executables on mobiles.
3.Restriction in JAR size, Runtime memory size, processor speed in the mobile devices.
4.Security of the details stored on the mobile device, details transmitted through the air.
5.Risks in case of mobile being stolen/lost.
6.Not supported commonly in CDMA mobiles.
Ways to overcome the hurdle
1.Applications are to be developed after market analysis of the devices and the kind of API or executables which they can support. Since Symbian leads the World markets, developing applications for Symbian devices can be our first target. Blackberry devices require few changes for the execution of the same application.
2.Security of the details stored/transmitted can be enhanced by usage of customized encryption algorithms.
3.Implementation of TWO factor authentication.(For authentication of the registered user -RBI guideline for Mobile Banking)
4.Securing the application on the mobile with password. So that even in case of theft of the mobile the application cannot be misused.
The other good news is that most of the recent devices released by the manufacturers like Nokia, Sony Ericson have JAVA ME support (unlimited or increased JAR,Memory Heap sizes)and GPRS connectivity which has made JAVA ME available in the hands of every common man.
Also the capability for establishment of the HTTPS connection through JAVA ME applications has made it have a clear edge. JAVA ME based applications can perform equally good to the traditional computer based internet applications
What Next?
The introduction of the Unique Id concept and the existing PAN for every individual have brightened the path for the development of the JAVA ME based Mobile solutions. The Mobile Banking guidelines released by the Central banks (In India RBI has released the guidelines in 2008 and notifications regarding the same in 2009) also has made the path clear for development. A person’s Mobile number, PAN, Unique id can be linked for developing a secure M-Commerce system.
Banking solutions: User can perform the normal enquiries/transactions done through internet banking. User must register his Mobile number for this service. Since funds transfers are covered by the Banking guidelines the activation of the banking services forms the fundamental step for the usage of M-Commerce solutions.
Payment Solutions: Payment based services can replace the concept of credit/debit cards with M-Wallet. JAVA ME devices with bluetooth and NFC API’s can replace the cards and transactions can happen through the NFC API’s in them which will communicate to the access points/readers placed at the shops,hotels,cinema halls. In future devices supporting bio-metric features will be easily available and these transactions can be made more secure with the following factors.
What he knows?(Passwords)
What he has? (Mobile/SIM ,GRID cards, NFC cards)
What he is? (Bio-metric solutions)
Insurance solutions: Insurance based solutions can be provided through which the user can perform the payment of premiums and can register the claims. (IRDA rules if any must be followed)
Mutual fund solutions: Mutual fund based solutions can be developed which can help the user to check the status and also invest in the funds by transfering from his registered bank accounts. The present plan of introducing Super ATMs by SEBI will be a boost to the mutual fund industry and the introduction of such a mobile based solution will help them reach common man in all regions of the country.
Mail: Mails from the server can be synchronized with the mobile application and the contents can be accessed easily.
Ticket booking: Booking of tickets for cinemas,trains,flights can be made easy and the usage will appear similar to the internet based booking.
The guidelines for the mobile based stock trading are expected very soon from the SEBI and development of successful Mobile based trading solution requires the support of JAVA ME for development of the client application running in the mobiles.
JAVA ME also known as J2ME has great potential of developing business solutions for Mobiles.
The success of the application depends on the way how we tackle the hurdles before us.
Facts to be remembered
1.There are 2.7 billion number of mobile users in the world .
2.India ranks second in mobile phone usage to China, with 506 million users as of November 2009.
Rich User Interface Capabilities,Extensive Connectivity,Multimedia Functionality,Over-the-Air-Provisioning,End-to-End Security(capability of establishing SSL connection) have made JAVA ME a brilliant technology for the development of Mobile based business applications. Recognising the importance, popularity of JAVA ME Mobile manufacturers are also launching mobiles with >75% of models supporting JAVA ME.(Approximately mobiles costing >Rs.3000 have JAVA ME supported.)
Friends! please share your views regarding my above write up. Also you are invited to share your thoughts regarding the advancements in M-Commerce.
Have you ever thought of an application on your mobile through which you can do banking, access your company e-mails, pay your bills, fix an appointment with your doctor, pay your child’s school/college fees, book your tickets, and more? All these facilities together in a single application on your mobile?
Yes, the day has come! Without the pain of registering on different sites, without much of GPRS charges and with the facility of offline access to your details JAVA ME has made this possible. And the day when you use your mobile as a remote to open and shut doors, swipe it before a reader in a shop to buy a ring for your loved ones, or use it to buy vegetables in vegetable shop, is very near! The day will mark the complete evolution of Golden M-Commerce era with the support of JAVA ME.
What is JAVA ME?
Java Platform, Micro Edition (Java ME) provides a robust, flexible environment for applications running on mobile and other embedded devices—mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), TV set-top boxes, and printers. Java ME includes flexible user interfaces, robust security, built-in network protocols, and support for networked and offline applications that can be downloaded dynamically.
The Java ME technology is based on three elements;
a configuration provides the most basic set of libraries and virtual machine capabilities for a broad range of devices,
a profile is a set of APIs that support a narrower range of devices, and
an optional package is a set of technology-specific APIs.
Over time the Java ME platform has been divided into two base configurations, one to fit small mobile devices (Connected Limited Device Configuration )and one to be targeted towards more capable mobile devices like smart-phones and set top boxes (Connected Device Configuration). The MIDP specification was defined through the Java Community Process (JCP) by an expert group of more than 50 companies, including leading device manufacturers, wireless carriers, and vendors of mobile software. MIDP 1.0, MIDP 2.0, MIDP 2.1 mobiles are currently available world wide. MIDP 3.0 devices are yet to be released in the market.
Why is JAVA ME world’s popular Development Environment?
Rich User Interface Capabilities: MIDP applications provide the foundation for highly graphical and intuitive applications. The graphical user interface is optimized for the small display size, varied input methods, and other native features of modern mobile devices. MIDP provides intuitive navigation and data entry by taking full advantage of phone keypads, extra buttons such as arrow keys, touch screens, and small QWERTY keyboards. MIDP applications are installed and run locally, can operate in both networked and unconnected modes, and can store and manage persistent local data securely.
Extensive Connectivity: MIDP enables developers to exploit the native data network and messaging capabilities of mobile information devices. It supports leading connectivity standards, including HTTP, HTTPS, datagrams, sockets, server sockets, and serial port. MIDP also supports the Short Message Service and Cell Broadcast Service capabilities of GSM and CDMA networks, through the Wireless Messaging API (WMA) optional package.
Multimedia and Game Functionality: MIDP is ideal for building portable games and multimedia applications. A low-level user-interface API complements the high-level UI API, giving developers greater control of graphics and input when they need it. A game API adds game-specific functionality, such as sprites and tiled layers, which take advantage of devices’ native graphics capabilities. Built-in audio provides support for tones, tone sequences, and WAV files. In addition, developers can use the Mobile Media API (MMAPI) optional package to add video and other rich multimedia content to MIDP applications.
Over-the-Air-Provisioning: A major benefit of MIDP is its capability to deploy and update applications dynamically and securely, over the air.
End-to-End Security: MIDP provides a robust security model that complies with open standards and protects the network, applications, and mobile information devices. HTTPS support enables applications to use existing standards such as SSL and WTLS to send and receive encrypted data.
Challenges in JAVA ME Business Application Development
1.Wide range of mobile models manufactured by different companies with different technologies.
2.Non-compliance of few mobiles to the MIDP standards with few documented bugs related
to the execution of the executables on mobiles.
3.Restriction in JAR size, Runtime memory size, processor speed in the mobile devices.
4.Security of the details stored on the mobile device, details transmitted through the air.
5.Risks in case of mobile being stolen/lost.
6.Not supported commonly in CDMA mobiles.
Ways to overcome the hurdle
1.Applications are to be developed after market analysis of the devices and the kind of API or executables which they can support. Since Symbian leads the World markets, developing applications for Symbian devices can be our first target. Blackberry devices require few changes for the execution of the same application.
2.Security of the details stored/transmitted can be enhanced by usage of customized encryption algorithms.
3.Implementation of TWO factor authentication.(For authentication of the registered user -RBI guideline for Mobile Banking)
4.Securing the application on the mobile with password. So that even in case of theft of the mobile the application cannot be misused.
The other good news is that most of the recent devices released by the manufacturers like Nokia, Sony Ericson have JAVA ME support (unlimited or increased JAR,Memory Heap sizes)and GPRS connectivity which has made JAVA ME available in the hands of every common man.
Also the capability for establishment of the HTTPS connection through JAVA ME applications has made it have a clear edge. JAVA ME based applications can perform equally good to the traditional computer based internet applications
What Next?
The introduction of the Unique Id concept and the existing PAN for every individual have brightened the path for the development of the JAVA ME based Mobile solutions. The Mobile Banking guidelines released by the Central banks (In India RBI has released the guidelines in 2008 and notifications regarding the same in 2009) also has made the path clear for development. A person’s Mobile number, PAN, Unique id can be linked for developing a secure M-Commerce system.
Banking solutions: User can perform the normal enquiries/transactions done through internet banking. User must register his Mobile number for this service. Since funds transfers are covered by the Banking guidelines the activation of the banking services forms the fundamental step for the usage of M-Commerce solutions.
Payment Solutions: Payment based services can replace the concept of credit/debit cards with M-Wallet. JAVA ME devices with bluetooth and NFC API’s can replace the cards and transactions can happen through the NFC API’s in them which will communicate to the access points/readers placed at the shops,hotels,cinema halls. In future devices supporting bio-metric features will be easily available and these transactions can be made more secure with the following factors.
What he knows?(Passwords)
What he has? (Mobile/SIM ,GRID cards, NFC cards)
What he is? (Bio-metric solutions)
Insurance solutions: Insurance based solutions can be provided through which the user can perform the payment of premiums and can register the claims. (IRDA rules if any must be followed)
Mutual fund solutions: Mutual fund based solutions can be developed which can help the user to check the status and also invest in the funds by transfering from his registered bank accounts. The present plan of introducing Super ATMs by SEBI will be a boost to the mutual fund industry and the introduction of such a mobile based solution will help them reach common man in all regions of the country.
Mail: Mails from the server can be synchronized with the mobile application and the contents can be accessed easily.
Ticket booking: Booking of tickets for cinemas,trains,flights can be made easy and the usage will appear similar to the internet based booking.
The guidelines for the mobile based stock trading are expected very soon from the SEBI and development of successful Mobile based trading solution requires the support of JAVA ME for development of the client application running in the mobiles.
JAVA ME also known as J2ME has great potential of developing business solutions for Mobiles.
The success of the application depends on the way how we tackle the hurdles before us.
Facts to be remembered
1.There are 2.7 billion number of mobile users in the world .
2.India ranks second in mobile phone usage to China, with 506 million users as of November 2009.
Rich User Interface Capabilities,Extensive Connectivity,Multimedia Functionality,Over-the-Air-Provisioning,End-to-End Security(capability of establishing SSL connection) have made JAVA ME a brilliant technology for the development of Mobile based business applications. Recognising the importance, popularity of JAVA ME Mobile manufacturers are also launching mobiles with >75% of models supporting JAVA ME.(Approximately mobiles costing >Rs.3000 have JAVA ME supported.)
Friends! please share your views regarding my above write up. Also you are invited to share your thoughts regarding the advancements in M-Commerce.
Human Computation - Could it be the next phase in the evolution of computing?
This post is on another aspect of computing - Human Computation. I will start with presenting two scenarios.
Scenario 1¬¬#
Circa 2110. Technology has crossed all barriers – there are robots, humanoids and complicated but intelligent systems everywhere. We can see nuclear factories and giant machines all around us. There are humans as well but slightly different or I would say “evolved” in their looks – with bulkier bodies and smaller heads. The size of the head has shrunk as it is on the verge of becoming a near-vestigial organ; and the only purpose it serves is to feed inputs, that come from the human senses, to the artificially super-intelligent systems (machines) that take care of everything else that’s going around. Gone too far? Let’s come back to the present.
# It is my vision of the future. It may not be correct and you are free to disagree with me.
Scenario 2
Year 2010. We have a group of people who are really trying their best to develop AI (Artificial Intelligence) in machines – using machine learning, pattern recognition, computer vision, etc. Another group of people, the netizens, are getting addicted to computers and a person (from this group) spends (or I will say mostly wastes) hours doing adrift-surfing and playing on-line games.
So what’s the message hidden in the two scenarios?
Scenario 1: The problem of developing the sense-related aspects in machines is difficult.
Scenario 2: Large amount of time is being spent on aimless internet surfing and on-line games.
Captchas
These are called CAPTCHA. The term CAPTCHA (for Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart) was coined in 2000 by Luis von Ahn, Manuel Blum, Nicholas Hopper and John Langford of Carnegie Mellon University. These are found in on-line form where it serves the purpose to verify that the entity that is filling the forms is not a computer program but a human. It’s able to do that because computer programs are not able to read the distorted texts presented in the CAPTCHAs like humans.
How are they using human cycles? They are not utilizing any. So, Luis von Ahn and team came up with reCAPTCHA which is a combination of two such visually deformed words. This is used to digitize old text artifacts where normal OCR (Optical Character Recognition) engines fail or are partially successful. In reCAPTCHA, one of the words is a known word which serves the purpose of a CAPTCHA and the second word is a word from the list of unknown words to be digitized. The same unknown word is given to several users and the most common answer is selected to be the digitized word for it. The unknown word estimation uses the human cycles to solve the problem that machines fail to complete.
Recaptcha being used for security check of a site
2. Another interesting example. Games like the ESP game are steps towards creating games that will help in assigning and labeling objects present inside images, which is an impossible task using the best computer vision techniques available today. Another such game is Verbosity that allows users to play and in the process enter facts related to common dictionary words and help to create the semantics around the words. Many such games are available on the site gwap.com.
So, now that we have seen the potential uses, let us see where we are heading.
What the future may hold?
In the “Computing Research that Changed the World” March 2009 symposium, Luis von Ahn claimed that reCAPTCHA was digitizing 35 million words per day and was expecting to complete the digitization of the complete New York Times archive (from the year 1851 to 1980) in a matter of 10-12 months. The ESP game is claimed to have the potential of labeling all the pictures in Google image search in 2 months with only 5000 players playing at a time. We are talking about a huge computational power here.
Now that we see that it is possible to utilize the human computation power to solve the problems that are unsolvable using the latest state of the art computers and systems available to us, what needs to be done? I think it’s very important to create systems with a human-in-the-loop at least till the time we don’t have completely tested AI systems for the purpose. Creative ways of building such games, to solve complex problems utilizing the human cycles, can be seen more in the future with researchers spending time in designing concepts to modify complex problems into interesting activities (not always games). But some people may think this is in a way exploitation of the people who actually indulge in these games or activities. I think it’s not, since the purposes of these games are specified to the players before hand. And anyways the player is in search of an interesting game. So, if not these games then some other game, but some game for sure. People can debate on this topic for long.
Scenario 1¬¬#
Circa 2110. Technology has crossed all barriers – there are robots, humanoids and complicated but intelligent systems everywhere. We can see nuclear factories and giant machines all around us. There are humans as well but slightly different or I would say “evolved” in their looks – with bulkier bodies and smaller heads. The size of the head has shrunk as it is on the verge of becoming a near-vestigial organ; and the only purpose it serves is to feed inputs, that come from the human senses, to the artificially super-intelligent systems (machines) that take care of everything else that’s going around. Gone too far? Let’s come back to the present.
# It is my vision of the future. It may not be correct and you are free to disagree with me.
Scenario 2
Year 2010. We have a group of people who are really trying their best to develop AI (Artificial Intelligence) in machines – using machine learning, pattern recognition, computer vision, etc. Another group of people, the netizens, are getting addicted to computers and a person (from this group) spends (or I will say mostly wastes) hours doing adrift-surfing and playing on-line games.
So what’s the message hidden in the two scenarios?
Scenario 1: The problem of developing the sense-related aspects in machines is difficult.
Scenario 2: Large amount of time is being spent on aimless internet surfing and on-line games.
So, why not utilize the time spent (in scenario 2) in solving the problems (of scenario 1). In other words, channelize the interest of these surfers/gaming enthusiasts to help in answering some of the issues which are unanswerable using AI based approaches. This is what the idea behind “Human Computation” is. Using human computation, researchers are trying to utilize the human cycles (time spent by humans just like the machine cycles) to answer some of the problems that are hard (I would say near-impossible), as of now, for the computers to solve.
Some uses of Human Computation
1. What’s the purpose of the images (given below) that we often see in popular websites?
These are called CAPTCHA. The term CAPTCHA (for Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart) was coined in 2000 by Luis von Ahn, Manuel Blum, Nicholas Hopper and John Langford of Carnegie Mellon University. These are found in on-line form where it serves the purpose to verify that the entity that is filling the forms is not a computer program but a human. It’s able to do that because computer programs are not able to read the distorted texts presented in the CAPTCHAs like humans.
How are they using human cycles? They are not utilizing any. So, Luis von Ahn and team came up with reCAPTCHA which is a combination of two such visually deformed words. This is used to digitize old text artifacts where normal OCR (Optical Character Recognition) engines fail or are partially successful. In reCAPTCHA, one of the words is a known word which serves the purpose of a CAPTCHA and the second word is a word from the list of unknown words to be digitized. The same unknown word is given to several users and the most common answer is selected to be the digitized word for it. The unknown word estimation uses the human cycles to solve the problem that machines fail to complete.
Recaptcha being used for security check of a site
2. Another interesting example. Games like the ESP game are steps towards creating games that will help in assigning and labeling objects present inside images, which is an impossible task using the best computer vision techniques available today. Another such game is Verbosity that allows users to play and in the process enter facts related to common dictionary words and help to create the semantics around the words. Many such games are available on the site gwap.com.
So, now that we have seen the potential uses, let us see where we are heading.
What the future may hold?
In the “Computing Research that Changed the World” March 2009 symposium, Luis von Ahn claimed that reCAPTCHA was digitizing 35 million words per day and was expecting to complete the digitization of the complete New York Times archive (from the year 1851 to 1980) in a matter of 10-12 months. The ESP game is claimed to have the potential of labeling all the pictures in Google image search in 2 months with only 5000 players playing at a time. We are talking about a huge computational power here.
Now that we see that it is possible to utilize the human computation power to solve the problems that are unsolvable using the latest state of the art computers and systems available to us, what needs to be done? I think it’s very important to create systems with a human-in-the-loop at least till the time we don’t have completely tested AI systems for the purpose. Creative ways of building such games, to solve complex problems utilizing the human cycles, can be seen more in the future with researchers spending time in designing concepts to modify complex problems into interesting activities (not always games). But some people may think this is in a way exploitation of the people who actually indulge in these games or activities. I think it’s not, since the purposes of these games are specified to the players before hand. And anyways the player is in search of an interesting game. So, if not these games then some other game, but some game for sure. People can debate on this topic for long.
So, can we create few such games and include them in platforms like Mindworks? By doing so, we may come up with some interesting ways to solve complex problems while creating activities which will be intellectually challenging to our associates. This way we can “make gain (& game) out of pain”. But I agree that it will require good amount of effort to identify suitable problems and to create innovative approaches to create interesting activities for solving them. You may also say that this can attract/make our employees to play for longer periods. If we can create such alluring games then that’s a big achievement for our creative quotient. And anyways we can keep a time monitoring system and a fixed (daily or weekly) time limit for each player to prevent over-indulgence.
Now that we have discussed a lot about the human computation, I have a question. Can Artificial Intelligence be developed to such a level that it may replace human intelligence? I have my doubts, but I would love to see and if possible make such systems.
For the time being, however smart AI systems we built with whatever sophistication and intelligence, I think human computation has a crucial part to play in them. What do you say? Could it be the next phase in the evolution of computing?
Disruptive innovation - Dare to Dream
Being a mechanical engineer I would like to start my blog on my passionate area - Cars… not about the animation film ‘cars’ by Disney - Pixar studios… but the real cars…
In this year’s Geneva auto show there was lot of attention on India and specially on Ratan TATA ..as nano is planning to enter into Europe with a high end version of the car called Nano Europa…there were lot of hope, hype and suspicion everything on the same place by the western media…..
Even two years before, I bet none would have even thought that there is a segment exists where such a low priced car will be welcomed all over the world and it is even possible to create a car for that price.. but TATA proved it.. and now the whole world is looking this as an example for distruptive innovation*…
At the same time there was display of our sister companies Jaguar and LandRover who are capturing the world on high end cars… ( should I call brother companies?..hmm, I leave it to you ).. One good thing to notice is that, Even amidst these economic situation, the whole automotive industry is looking optimistic that they will see green pastures by 2010 or at the latest early 2011. so they are betting their bets on right products which could sweep the market while it opens up…
Let me come back to nano… how does it fit in europe condition?.. there were lot of comments about that.. but my honest opinion is that, it is an ideal product for europe customers now.. being spent last few years in Europe, I would say that nano is getting well placed for the city drive segment.. people own volvo, saab, bmw etc for their long drives.. but inside the city, everyone is bugged by traffic, car parking issues.. mostly they park their car in some car parking areas and use the local transport to go around the city… think about someone who is working in the city? … he prefers bicycle now :)..
Daimler’s smart car has been a relief for city drivers for its size and similarly Suzuki’s swift has been popular in denmark… so nano is set to break in to this segment… even if it is priced 5000 euros, it is a good car for the city lovers… can TATA make it green nano.. it will be a hotcake for all over the western world.. the point to make here is, have anyone thought about this possibility two years before when TATA announced the ’nano’ release date?.. the answer is no.. but now no one stop thinking about it.. thats disruptive innovation*.. where the whole market has been shaken by an innovative product which changes the rules of the game.. because those 200 engineers have put their passion into this.. and have been asked not to limit their imagination…
I am not sure how many of us knows about this quote - ‘Cars - four wheeled laptops’ this has been shared by one of my customers to me.. you would agree with him if you see the developments in this space.. there are two areas which are more prominent now on cars.. one on fuel efficiency, green etc.. another one on electronic contents in a car.. the whole world is spending money in developing systems to enable the driver or the owner to enter into a car automatically, waking up a driver if he is dizzy or not in a condition to drive, drunken driver alert, collision avoidance, driving through narrow streets automatically, etc.. it might be a surprise for few of you that in TCS we do design some of these futuristic products, systems for our customers.. Our engineers from EIS Automotive embedded systems team in pune and bangalore would love to talk about them…. Can we say they are part of sustaining innovation* for Automotive industry? .. I strongly say ’yes’…
Think of a scenario where the car door automatically opens when you are near the car, asks for an address to go and take you there without any driver.. it recognizes your voice, navigates through GPS, finds the location and takes the best possible traffic route and takes you there at the exact time when you want.. if you are hungry on the way, it can drop you in the restaurant on the way… sounds like a futuristic car in next james bond movie? Dont be surprised if you see such a car in 2015 Geneva auto show .. Will it be possible to have it next to TCS billboard ?……..
*please refer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruptive_technology for definitions and more details
Courtesy: TCS Portal
In this year’s Geneva auto show there was lot of attention on India and specially on Ratan TATA ..as nano is planning to enter into Europe with a high end version of the car called Nano Europa…there were lot of hope, hype and suspicion everything on the same place by the western media…..
Even two years before, I bet none would have even thought that there is a segment exists where such a low priced car will be welcomed all over the world and it is even possible to create a car for that price.. but TATA proved it.. and now the whole world is looking this as an example for distruptive innovation*…
At the same time there was display of our sister companies Jaguar and LandRover who are capturing the world on high end cars… ( should I call brother companies?..hmm, I leave it to you ).. One good thing to notice is that, Even amidst these economic situation, the whole automotive industry is looking optimistic that they will see green pastures by 2010 or at the latest early 2011. so they are betting their bets on right products which could sweep the market while it opens up…
Let me come back to nano… how does it fit in europe condition?.. there were lot of comments about that.. but my honest opinion is that, it is an ideal product for europe customers now.. being spent last few years in Europe, I would say that nano is getting well placed for the city drive segment.. people own volvo, saab, bmw etc for their long drives.. but inside the city, everyone is bugged by traffic, car parking issues.. mostly they park their car in some car parking areas and use the local transport to go around the city… think about someone who is working in the city? … he prefers bicycle now :)..
Daimler’s smart car has been a relief for city drivers for its size and similarly Suzuki’s swift has been popular in denmark… so nano is set to break in to this segment… even if it is priced 5000 euros, it is a good car for the city lovers… can TATA make it green nano.. it will be a hotcake for all over the western world.. the point to make here is, have anyone thought about this possibility two years before when TATA announced the ’nano’ release date?.. the answer is no.. but now no one stop thinking about it.. thats disruptive innovation*.. where the whole market has been shaken by an innovative product which changes the rules of the game.. because those 200 engineers have put their passion into this.. and have been asked not to limit their imagination…
I am not sure how many of us knows about this quote - ‘Cars - four wheeled laptops’ this has been shared by one of my customers to me.. you would agree with him if you see the developments in this space.. there are two areas which are more prominent now on cars.. one on fuel efficiency, green etc.. another one on electronic contents in a car.. the whole world is spending money in developing systems to enable the driver or the owner to enter into a car automatically, waking up a driver if he is dizzy or not in a condition to drive, drunken driver alert, collision avoidance, driving through narrow streets automatically, etc.. it might be a surprise for few of you that in TCS we do design some of these futuristic products, systems for our customers.. Our engineers from EIS Automotive embedded systems team in pune and bangalore would love to talk about them…. Can we say they are part of sustaining innovation* for Automotive industry? .. I strongly say ’yes’…
Think of a scenario where the car door automatically opens when you are near the car, asks for an address to go and take you there without any driver.. it recognizes your voice, navigates through GPS, finds the location and takes the best possible traffic route and takes you there at the exact time when you want.. if you are hungry on the way, it can drop you in the restaurant on the way… sounds like a futuristic car in next james bond movie? Dont be surprised if you see such a car in 2015 Geneva auto show .. Will it be possible to have it next to TCS billboard ?……..
*please refer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruptive_technology for definitions and more details
Courtesy: TCS Portal
Is IPTV Doomed to Fail?
IPTV (Interactive TV) has been a buzz word for the past 10 years or so. The total no of IPTV subscribers hover around the 20 Million mark at the end of 2008. France has 6 Million subscribers which is more than a quarter of the world’s IPTV subscriber base. U.S has 3million subs, while China accounts for 2 million. India probably has no more than 30,000 subscribers (estimate by author).
So why hasn’t IPTV taken off especially in India. The challenges faced by IPTV operators (Telcos) are many: Acquisition of content, Quality of Service , Network capacity and last mile access to the home. The IP backbone, video headend, set top boxes and access networks required for IPTV are greenfield deployments and an expensive proposition. Moreover, advertisers are not willing to advertise on a medium which reaches fewer subscribers. IPTV can reach the home via any broadband pipe, ADSL line, cable, fibre or even satellite broadband. IPTV is heavily dependant on broadband penetration and unless broadband permeates in our rural areas IPTV will not mature.
However, there is hope. In Indian rural areas satellite TV (DTH) was once the preferred choice but to compete cable operators have crisscrossed cable to small villages and offer 70 odd tailored TV channels for a small fee affordable by the rural masses. Now with the release of DOCSIS 3.0 specs cable operators worldwide are upgrading their cable networks to this standard to compete against fibre deployments by Telcos. The DOCSIS 3.0 specification will enable new features and benefits for the Cable industry. Data downstream speed of 150 Mbps has been demonstrated. It’s just a matter of time before the cable operators in India upgrade their plant to DOCSIS3.0, especially in the rural areas and make their cable plants ready for handling both upstream and downstream capability.
Probably BSNL has also recognised this threat from cable operators. BSNL is planning IPTV services in rural A.P. and subsidising the cost of the Set Top Box. The plan is to use the STB as a micro computer so subscribers in rural India can use their TV for email and internet browsing. The time is near when Cable operators, Telcos will compete for the entertainment segment based on interactivity benefitting the common man. The DTH operators will have to rethink their strategy.
Feedback@ duvvurusandeep@gmail.com
So why hasn’t IPTV taken off especially in India. The challenges faced by IPTV operators (Telcos) are many: Acquisition of content, Quality of Service , Network capacity and last mile access to the home. The IP backbone, video headend, set top boxes and access networks required for IPTV are greenfield deployments and an expensive proposition. Moreover, advertisers are not willing to advertise on a medium which reaches fewer subscribers. IPTV can reach the home via any broadband pipe, ADSL line, cable, fibre or even satellite broadband. IPTV is heavily dependant on broadband penetration and unless broadband permeates in our rural areas IPTV will not mature.
However, there is hope. In Indian rural areas satellite TV (DTH) was once the preferred choice but to compete cable operators have crisscrossed cable to small villages and offer 70 odd tailored TV channels for a small fee affordable by the rural masses. Now with the release of DOCSIS 3.0 specs cable operators worldwide are upgrading their cable networks to this standard to compete against fibre deployments by Telcos. The DOCSIS 3.0 specification will enable new features and benefits for the Cable industry. Data downstream speed of 150 Mbps has been demonstrated. It’s just a matter of time before the cable operators in India upgrade their plant to DOCSIS3.0, especially in the rural areas and make their cable plants ready for handling both upstream and downstream capability.
Probably BSNL has also recognised this threat from cable operators. BSNL is planning IPTV services in rural A.P. and subsidising the cost of the Set Top Box. The plan is to use the STB as a micro computer so subscribers in rural India can use their TV for email and internet browsing. The time is near when Cable operators, Telcos will compete for the entertainment segment based on interactivity benefitting the common man. The DTH operators will have to rethink their strategy.
Feedback@ duvvurusandeep@gmail.com
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