to buy or not to buy?

Apple Computers annouced a refresh of their iPod lineup yesterday.. of course right in time for the holiday season and yet before people have decided on their present lists. I've been one of the last people to buy an ipod and now it's time to bite the dust.

What will I buy?

hmm... Will It be the really cool video iPOD ? or then maybe the really sexy shuffle?

or hmm..maybe the voice of reason and the 8GB killer nano. Stay tuned and do give me your suggestions.

indian mobile subscriber base

touches 116mn. It will be sometime before we reach the chinese levels - 400mn. Significant achievement and yet a long way to go.

Red herring Asia 100 finalist

For those who don't know yet - Myzus was shortlisted as one of the finalists for the Red Herring Asia 100 which means we have been recognized by Red Herring Magazine as one of 200 coolest companies in Asia. Congrats to the team and promise there's a lot more coming.

Webaroo

I was just going through Rakesh Mathur's new start-up - webaroo. I've got great respect for Rakesh and his fundamental qualities as an entrepreneur. Went to their website and downloaded the free software.

My initial reaction - who would need this?

My mid-term reaction - well, very interesting thesis and interesting idea for a product. I see the utility and I see how it should be quickly sold to someone like google.

The final verdict - will i use it. I guess I have to wait for when I dont have internet access to see if I use it to search and how usable the system is.

Very interesting indeed.

I also saw a online video of a talk by Brad Husick - one of the co founders. Now he was speaking a lot about the killer technology they've used to archive the web and etc. etc.

From my look at the system. The feature I anticipate using most - the Web Packs - Its' great to have the CIA world factbook archived for instance. How much better the experience is because of their technology - time will tell. Keep tuned for my review post six months with this stuff. It shows great promise.

Some stuff I read

Satish's blog -

Rajesh Jain's blog

Venturewoods - a sort of online exchange for indian entrepreneurs

Dhruti's blog - good writing

informative casual writing on bombay roads and things you see on them

News.com
joelonsoftware.com
rediff.com
mid-day.com - this is crap yet addictive
ameinfo.com

Singapore most progressive country to run a business

According to the World Bank, Singapore's been ranked as the easiest place to do business. Followed closely by New Zealand and the United States, Canada. This is really a great achievement for the Americans where they have been able to match a really huge economy with reasonable ease of doing business.

New Indian Funds

Lots of people seem to be raising India specific funds. Not surprisingly, all the fund managers seem to be Indian or of Indian origin. Are we going to see another spate of cheecoo.com, chaitime.com, baazee.com, zipahead.coms?

What do people want to use the mobile internet for?

Interesting question and something that definitely all the VCs in India are searching to answers for. What is going to be the next money spinner ? Most importantly, what are consumers going to use? Time will tell and I'm personally working on some stuff.

Yesterday read a VC interview which reinforced my belief that yes - the bust is imminent. The quote went something like this " We want our companies to create services that people will use and find useful. If it is useful, people will pay for it. Yeah right. He's obviously fresh out of MBA school or else spent 1999 to 2001 in a cushy job somewhere without ever reading the newspapers."

cheers,

lemmings?

in the past 2 months we've seen 4 horizontal travel portals get funded in india - Makemytrip.com, yatra online, cleartrip and now it seems travelguru.. .

All the big names seem to be congregating here.. . lemmings anyone?

cheers,

New Year, New Resolutions

Hi Everyone,

I’ve just gotten into the office post a one day Christmas break. The break over the past few days (we in the Middle East are off on Friday and Saturday, Christmas fell on a Sunday), gave me a chance to reflect on the year gone by and to think about what I want to achieve in the year ahead. During a beautiful early morning walk today I resolved to get into the office today and crystallize some of my thoughts into my resolutions for the coming year once I got to my desk.

Having gotten into the office and done with usual customary conference call, I’m looking at the deluge of Christmas greetings in my Inbox and am strangely conscious of the temptation to put together a greeting hastily and send it out to all of you – my near and dear ones. However, a quick mental debate about the value of such an exercise led me to decide to do something a bit more selfish. In this email, I’ve tried to put together some of my resolutions for the New Year. With all of you aware of my resolutions I guess it will be easier to stay true to them throughout the year.

1. Fight Procrastination:- Procrastination has always been my greatest enemy. I used to think it was specific to me until I recently met a very successful senior citizen. On speaking to him I realized the price that one pays for Procrastination. Time is our most valuable resource and something which we can never regain. Too much time is spent in debating, reassuring ourselves and post-morteming issues. I resolve to do things within my control immediately. Write that email when I think of it, make that phone call immediately, learn how to do something right now, pay suppliers in advance, plan things ahead. The collective benefit of a global fight on procrastination will make our world a much more efficient and friendly place to be.
2. Go out, get some sun:- Chats with experienced people are interesting because of the places they’ve seen, people they’ve met. It’s impossible to imagine that a geriatric would in hindsight cherish any moments when he was alone in the office reading email as significant moments in life. I resolve to spend most of my time out of the office. To set up meetings with people and customers, attend conferences, meet people and encourage the people I work with to do the same. In effect this will mean us being proactive about seeing out opportunities instead of waiting for opportunity to knock. I will do this sincerely and without lip service. As part of this policy I will invest in mobile technologies for myself, my staff and execute changes in the way that the office infrastructure is viewed – a transitory resting ground as opposed to an anchor that we own and we expect is our own. Yes. Being sincere about this means using the road as your office and the office is merely a docking station that some of the team members check into once in a while without particular affinity to their desks and chairs.
3. Be Digital:- As a Technology person, I’ve always thought silently about the colossal waste caused by paper. It’s a scarce commodity and the way the IT community in particular is wasting it can be seen in its worst form at GITEX – our annual trade show in the Middle East. The amount of paper I have already consumed in my 27 years would probably equal a small forest. I resolve that I will no longer use paper – I will not print, carry business cards or authorize the production of physical brochures, whitepapers etc. I will stop buying physical newspapers, magazines or books and I will at the risk of appearing rude and condescending no longer accept business cards or brochures. I will carry a digital business card which I will beam to others mobile phones and soft copies of documents which I can beam to them or else email them via my GPRS connection instantaneously. It is important for us in the IT sector to lead others in embracing technology. It may be a romantic thought but I like to feel that if consumers reject paper en masse it will accelerate the digitization of the world.
4. Plan more:- While this is closely tied to Procrastination, I felt this had to be a resolution in itself. Planning to me is the exercise that has the highest RoI and yet time and again its something that I tend to do at the last minute. When I see the people I admire they plan well in advance so they can manage the risks before D-day and get the most out of meetings, deals and activities. I resolve to start consciously planning things well in advance. I resolve to also involve all the people important to me in the planning process and not support the last minute way finding that usually takes the charm out of living.