Open Gardens

March 16, 2010

RIP Charles Moore

Charles Moore died last week. To see his iconic work, see this slide show from the BBC about Charles Moore

Image source: CBS news

Posted by ajit at 6:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

March 13, 2010

The democratic appstores and Customers voting with their downloads. The wider implications of Skype on Nokia Ovi/Symbian devices ..

Update:

Another way to say this is: 'Apps are the spearhead to Operator deals'. i.e. while Operators have blocked many applications on their portals .. the apps are more democratic and reflective of the true customer intentions. Their success motivates the Operators/handset vendors to align better with their customers's wishes by integrating successful apps deeply into the network / device

Last week, Skype announced their launch on Symbian/Nokia devices through Ovi. This means, 200 million Nokia mobile phones are capable of making Skype-to-Skype calls anywhere in the world over WiFi and 3G

This is good news ofcourse .. But there are wider implications.

With both Nokia and iPhone allowing customers to access Skype over their respective application stores, this could be a part of a wider trend. Skype was hugely successful on the iPhone with one million downloads in the first two days.

Thus, there was a clear customer demand. This was followed by Skype on Verizon (deeper integration for the Operator). And now by Skype on Nokia.

Thus, we are seeing a virtuous cycle where appstores demonstrate a demand for services

Appstores, by their nature, are Long Tail and hence 'democratic'. In other words, you would never have seen Operators rushing to deploy Skype on their portals!

So, now we create a virtuous circle.

Apps are deployed on appstores
Customers vote with their downloads
This motivates Operators like Verizon and 3 to integrate apps deeply into their network

This is a good trend. It is good for Openness, for customers, for devices(differentiation) and also networks(they give services which their customers have demonstrated demand for)

Image: http://sanlorenzolibrary.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/scales-of-justice.gif

Posted by ajit at 7:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

March 11, 2010

Has O2 taken a backward step - blaming apps for network woes ..

Historically, O2 has been trying to work with developers and of late, there has been some good outreach to developers but this appears to be a backward step ..

Apps causing data bottlenecks, not iPhones claims O2 CTO.

How do we interpret this? Are we going back to the days of 'blame the apps' or worse still - blame the developers?

I hope not .. but am interested to know what exactly does this mean (blame the apps). Is it ALL apps? Is it specific apps? etc etc ..

Posted by ajit at 3:56 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

March 10, 2010

AT&T Interactive, Verizon, Nokia, LG, Qualcomm, Infosys and others speaking at CTIA Mobile Web and apps ..

AT&T Interactive, Verizon, Nokia, LG, Qualcomm, Infosys and others speaking at CTIA Mobile Web and apps ..

Ajit Jaokar, President - futuretext - chairing
Srinivas Mandyam, VP of Mobile Engineering - AT&T Interactive.
Verizon Wireless
Craig Cumberland, Director of Web Products and Technology- Nokia
Tarang Shah, Senior Vice President of Startup Analysis and Technology Innovation - Bank of America
Mike Lurye, Director of Product Marketing- Amdocs Interactive
Noam Raffaelli, Vice President of Product Management- Qualcomm
Chetan Sharma Consulting, President - Chetan Sharma Consulting
Joe Lalley, Senior Director of Product Development for Global Digital Media - MTV Networks
Gary Schwartz, President and CEO - Impact Mobile
Dr. Taek Chung - LG Electronics
Tim Haysom, Chief Marketing Officer- OMTP
Deepak Swamy, Associate Vice President, Communications, Media and Entertainment Business- Infosys Technologys Limited

Peggy Ann Salz msearchgroove

and others .. see more at Mobile Web and Apps

Still some space on the Applications showcase

Posted by ajit at 8:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Open Mobile Summit London - May 26 - 27

Last year, it was great to speak at the Open Mobile Summit in London, and I am glad to see that it has now become a permanent feature of the London mobile events calendar.

This year, again we have the Open Mobile Summit London - May 26 - 27

Finally, the agenda for the Open Mobile Summit London is live. Check it out here.

Covering the whole ecosystem, the event will have line-up of 60+ speakers from across the ecosystem the event has both the seniority and the depth to cover such a rapidly changing and complex topic as Open Mobile.

If you are attending, please contact me (ajit.jaokar at futuretext.com) and happy to meet up.

Link to the conference is Open Mobile Summit London - May 26 - 27

Posted by ajit at 4:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

CTIA mobile web and apps - application showcase

I am chairing the Mobile Web and apps event at CTIA and there is a opportunity if you are Interested in putting your application(s) or services front and center at the Mobile Web and Apps event but have a limited budget as per below

For only $995 qualified companies* receive:

A 6ft. tabletop display/stand in the conference room
100 word description of your company and app(s) on the official website
Company literature, sales cd or other approved promotional piece in the attendee bags
Logo and link on our special Application Spotlight pre and post-show emails to all attendees and press.
Company name and link on email to CTIA list of 25,000+
Company name and link on bi-weekly show newsletter to 5,000+
Price includes Free pass to Mobile Web And Apps ($395 value) which gives you access to the CTIA showfloor and all Keynotes.

ONLY 4 SPOTS LEFT

For more information, contact Larry Lockhart at Larry@nextvisionmedia.com

* Qualified companies shall be determined by show management.

Hours: Morning Coffee in the Exhibit Room 8:15-8:50 - All Breaks - Lunch 12:00-1:00- After show hours until 6:30

Posted by ajit at 3:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

March 9, 2010

Smart mobs says about open mobile: It is not often one comes across a book which encourages an entire industry to reflect upon its essence and purpose ..

Smartmobs writes about Open Mobile

It is not often one comes across a book which encourages an entire industry to reflect upon its essence and purpose ..

:)

You can download the entire book in pdf format HERE

Posted by ajit at 8:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra on Government 2.0 - excellent talk

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March 8, 2010

Carnival of the mobilists 214 and 213

Carnival of the mobilists No 214 is now live at the mobi thinking blog Some excellent contributions.

Also, here is a link to Carnival of the mobilists no 213 at wipconnector which I forgot to post.

Posted by ajit at 5:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

March 7, 2010

Dinosaurs Unleashed Oxford Street

My son and I spent Saturday at this show. Its cool and especially if you have kids you will enjoy it. The 'life size' element in the heart of central london is cool!

Some very nice innovations like 'Dinopaint' where you paint dinosaurs on the screen and it gets rendered on a real image on the floor and hunting for fossils.

My son doing dinopaint as below

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