Economy of Social - Social Media Tips, Marketing and Business

Finally, Google pops out its very own nexus one with Android 2.1. Well the name Nexus in itself should send warning signals to you as Nexus, locked version is supposedly coming up with a price tag of $180. (A T-mobile 2 year contract). You'll understand why they call it Nexus when you'd read the terms of contract on PC World . A non-nexus unlocked version will sell for a premium of $350 over the subsidized version. I expected more from Google. he iPhone funda of lock-unlock and premiums does not go well. Its a wait and watch right now. Google is set to have a media briefing on 5th Jan . The early buzz can be simply rumors also. When it comes to Google, you might end up being a part of 1st April Doodle (Only January this time).

The professor's [Boman Irani] pen (which he had to hand over to the brightest student), was built by fischer space pen company specially for use in zero gravity. The common misconception associated with it is that NASA spent millions of dollars on making it and smarter Russians (atleast thats how I heard it) instead went ahead and used a pencil in space (I was a victim of the same misconception). I decided to check prof's argument on Wikipedia and here is what it says, There exists a common urban legend claiming that the Americans spent millions of dollars developing the Space Pen, and the Russians used a pencil. In fact, NASA programs have used pencils (for example a 1965 order of mechanical pencils) but because of the danger that a broken-off pencil tip poses in zero gravity and the flammable nature of the wood present in pencils a better solution was needed. [Read more about Space Pen here ] Assuming Wiki to be accurate, the Prof was correct at the end of the movie. Som...

The statistics for the number of unique visitors on orkut.com, myspace and facebook are alarming for orkut. It is more so since a lost visitor is almost impossible to come back in case of social networks.Once you build your network of friends on one social network, you wouldn't want to change it. Changing it means starting all over again. And all this after orkut opened its platform for applications and came up with a new and improved version. Something needs to be done by Orkut developers and soon.

Now Google is partnering with livehinsdustan to create web content in Hindi. Livehindustan.com is an HT Media venture that brings hindi news to web. Read more here . The market for hindi news readers on web is not very huge but still it has a lot of potential. I see it as a good inititative to spread Hindi as well as cater to the needs of Hindi news readers. Support of Google will also do a lot good for the cause.

They only think of work. They have work, they do it and they ultimately do it well. Wow! what a fantastic story. They do things right, but do they do the right things ??? I was having a chat with my friend outside the library taking a nap, a rather longish nap when from a dimly lit door came a guy with a face devoid of smile and focussed only on one thing. What to do next ? And guess what does he ask ? What work are you doing now and what is left ? Our answer - Boss, not thinking about work, just enjoying a chilled winter night outside library and discussing about a new business plan. I feel, to think beyond you need to think first. And you think first when you actually find time to think and speculate rather than work because somebody told you to do so. His eyes were red and from our conversation, we figured that he had a long to-do list and bla bla... He was late for his dinner and probably would have gone to work after that. Living life like a clock - Quite inhuman. You eli...

Bajaj's announcement to stop the production of scooters by the end of this fiscal clearly indicates that the era of scooters has ended. The product category of scooters has reached the decline stage or infact is on the extreme end of decline. While the Bajaj scooter has a long chequered history, it is important to see the transition in culling a product contributing little to revenues. Infact this situation came first in front of Bajaj in the early 90s when Hero Honda had gained significant motorcycle market share. Hero Honda is no:1 in India in the product still in the growth phase. Coming to online social networking, email... this segment has reached the mature phase. Nokia's ovi service is offering nothing new. Just a package of online services bundled together offering nothing new. It also cannot replicate Apple .I expected a lot more from Nokia considering their development standards to be top class. They entered a segment in the mature phase, offered nothing new, ran...

It's a happy day for me since the murderers of Manjunath finally got their sentence. The surprising thing is that despite India's one of the best management institute taking up the cause, it took time with all the evidences in place. Anyways better late than never. What has to be seen is that there should be a mechanism by the law protectors to help those cases where backing is not possible. Below is a copy of the email from MST. Greetings from The Manjunath Shanmugam Trust! The Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court today announced the judgment on Manjunath’s case. The important details of the judgment are as follows: 1. Upholding the judgment of lower (Sessions) court, the High Court has found all 6 main accused in the case to be guilty of the crime and have awarded them life imprisonment. 2. 2 convicts have been acquitted on the grounds of “benefit-of-doubt”. 3. Death sentence of main accused in the case - Pawan Kumar (alias Monu Mittal) - has been converted to life ...

Right in the hole! Hey Tiger, you put it in a lot them. Tiger’s hormonal powers took over his mind. The tiger syndrome is what I call the side effect of success. When you have big money, lots of good wine all you need is “Women” and not a “Woman”. If gods can fall for pretty angels and forget wife, children… our tiger is a mortal. Nopes! I’m not supporting what tiger did, but let’s look at it in a different way. The bottom line of Tiger’s secret cave of women is that he was not loyal. Now when you are known for your loyalty to game, self, and people look upon you as a role model you get all the money by selling your identity to brands (Advertising). If Tiger’s ads are not being aired, it’s because his identity lost the attribute of loyalty. Sometimes some controversy is good. It might not do wonders for Tiger, but would do a lot good to the business of gossip magazines.Someones loss is somebody's gain. His mastery of the game is there, but the aura of Tiger Woods would no longer...

And now TATA group comes up with a Rs 1000 water purifier. The journey from Rs. 1L (TATA Nano) to Rs. 1K (Swach) hasn't been a journey of low cost, but a journey of innovation. When we talk in a group, our voice is heard if we talk something new aka innovate. Take for instance the case of Amitabh Bachhan; he has to be innovative not because he is in a creative field, but because being ahead requires you to innovate. Amitabh's core competency was that of an angry young man. He has moved on and that is the reason he is still surving and going strong. As time passes by competition increases in each segment or competency and hence to stay ahead, there is a strong need to innovate. The greater effort we use in innovating, the faster we grow and get the beginners advantage. Had Sachin Tendulkar not reinvented himself according to the changing needs of one day cricket, I doubt he would have survived for too long. M S Dhoni too has also innovated his batting to suit h...

After one year of the Mumbai 26/11 attacks there is some introspection needed in our outlook. Exploiting the hysteria or rather "Grabbing the opportunity" to earn more money might make good business sense but does it make good moral sense ? Infact this issue was troubling me for quite a while. I was part of a team for "Warketing"; a marketing competition by a reputed Indian B-School. A hypothetical war like scenario was created where we had to increase market share for our product by using the war time hysteria created in people. For Warketing, we chose a cola drink as our product and our marketing strategy was to sell "Hope" and "Inspiration to unite people" during crisis. In return more sales, greater market share. The concept seemed good to me while I was designing the marketing strategy for the cola drink. At that point of time it did once come to my mind the moral responsibility associated in exploiting wartime hysteria, but I went ahead wi...