There’s a lot of chatter in the blogs about Sony and Amazon competing against each other for the electronic book reader market. There is also the talk of Apple entering in this market. As is common, the prices started high and started falling. My question is – when will a low cost version of Kindle like gadget become affordable and common that we can use it for improving literacy in developing countries?
Here’s my ideal kindle for developing countries.
Has text books, lectures, exams/quizzes and the usual interactive teaching content
Costs under $100 ~ Rs. 7500
Can be shared by multiple users
Has wireless access (perhaps limited) for updates and educational content downloads
Is robust and tough (like olpc)
Wireless connectivity (3G would be preferred), intuitive application and interface and local content are needed to make it a success. Its a lot to ask and one wonders if smart phones will take over and kill this category of gadgets?
Femtocells, small boxes that act like miniature cellular towers, have long been held out as a solution to spotty cellphone service and dropped calls. But the devices, which plug into broadband Internet connections to provide improved coverage inside homes, have been slow to catch on with consumers since they hit the market late last year. An obvious reason is their high price, around $250.
Support among big wireless carriers has been uneven around the globe. Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel offer the devices, though mostly as a stop gap in areas of poor coverage. Femtocells are sold by a few carriers in Japan and Europe, including Softbank and Vodafone Group.
The first wave of devices offered by Verizon Wireless and Sprint are mostly designed to boost voice reception, since they run off of second-generation, or 2G, technology. Samsung is planning to launch a 3G-compatible femtocell early next year. The device will allow the carriers to offer more wireless services and programs to consumers through the speedier connection. Ubiquisys, meanwhile, already has its 3G devices in Japan and in Europe.
Femtocells are the latest in a long string of devices intended to extend or enhance cellphone service, from stick-on boosters that attach to handsets to portable antennas. Deutsch Telekom AG’s T-Mobile USA offers a in-home service that uses a Wi-Fi router and special handsets that can hop back and forth between Wi-Fi and cellular networks.
While the companies haven’t made sales numbers available, ABI Research analyst Aditya Kaul estimates 100,000 femtocell units were sold world-wide last year and 790,000 units will be sold this year.
“I think there is a lot of promise, but we’ll have to wait a year or two before the mass market femtocell takes off,” he said.
PTA has recently announced that it plans to launch 3G services in Pakistan very soon. Though no dates or time frame has been given and the word soon remains undefined. According to this news-release, launching 3G services is one of the steps it is taking to keep the upward trends in telecom growth, a sector that is already contributing 2% of the GDP and it is expected that it will grow up to 3% in the coming years.
My question is, that a country with a tele-density of 62%, mobile penetration of 94 million subscribers with a population of around 180 million, can we still expect more subscribers to sign up?
I believe we are already reaching a kind of saturation point. Please consider the following facts before answering my question:
There is a big number of subscribers who carry more than one active sims
Pakistani population between ages 15 and 64 that most probably uses phones, is less than 60%
I just got an email about Warid’s “4 say 7 Special Rates Par Baat”, which is an offer which “allows all Warid Prepaid customers to make On-net Calls at just Rs. 2.5+tax/30 Minutes from 4pm to 7pm throughout the month of Ramadan.” Just notice the 5 pieces of information packed into this sentence: Prepaid/postpaid, on-net/off-net, rate, hours of the day and the duration of the offer.
This made me think, how many packages are enough? If you have 5 companies and each one has multiple packages for pre-paid and post-paid then at any time you can have 20-30 packages, all with different rules, expiration dates and charges. The rates are usually mentioned in a time unit which makes it attractive to market the package (30 seconds, 30 minutes ….).
One can argue that an average consumer only deals with one or two companies and therefore the choices are between 5-10 packages. Even that can be confusing. No wonder why so many people complain about wrong billing and are not happy with the service. And the time needed to calculate the savings or value may not be worth it. Or may be this is a good way to keep the minds of our youth sharp and busy. It helps when the ad makes it clear though!
As reported by WSJ. Just like Pakistan, Chinese consumers are unofficially enjoying iPhone already. Imported iPhones currently sell on the gray market in China for as little $680, and those have Wi-Fi (the official phones will not have Wi-Fi because of a Chinese govt regulation). Unicom’s challenge will be to price the iPhone at a level that is competitive but still doesn’t hurt its average revenue-per-user.
The highly anticipated release of the iPhone in China — which has 687 million wireless subscribers, more than twice the population of the U.S. — is expected to be a boost for both Apple and Unicom, one of three Chinese state-owned telecommunications carriers. Still, the two companies face challenges to realizing the iPhone’s potential in China, including competition from similar devices, and the companies left several key questions about pricing and other details unanswered Friday.
The release of the iPhone in China could turbocharge overseas growth for what is already Apple’s fastest-growing product. China is the world’s largest mobile market by subscribers, with some 687 million subscribers. That compares with more than 270 million subscribers in the U.S.
In China, however, touch screens are hot, and there are already a number of popular models that have no keypads. The Apple name has value as a status symbol, and Internet usage through cellphones is increasing.
Competing products are already in the works in China, adding urgency to the iPhone’s launch. China Mobile Ltd., the country’s largest carrier by subscribers, plans to start selling smart phones with similar functions to the iPhone this year based on Google Inc.’s Android operating system. On Monday, Taiwanese phone maker HTC Corp. announced it plans to launch seven third-generation phones, including at least one Android phone, with China Mobile by next year.
Launching the iPhone in China would likely boost Apple’s small presence in the country. Apple currently has less than 1% market share in personal-computer shipments in China. In the second quarter, Apple sold only about 36,000 units out of 11.7 million PCs shipped in China, according to IDC.
One indication of the iPhone’s strong potential in China is the thriving underground iPhone market that already exists there. Though the device isn’t officially available, BDA estimates there are already 1.5 million iPhones in use in China, and the handset is on sale everywhere from online vendors to resellers of Apple products in sprawling electronics malls.
People can use the iPhone and buy applications on Apple’s iTunes store by unlocking the device with software that enables it to work with any network operator, even if they aren’t approved by Apple.
We at Telenor are pleased to announce that now moving ahead with more safety and security Telenor Persona Weblounge is now on SSL page. Providing customers with safety and security on internet, Telenor Persona Weblounge is now completely secured.
We appreciate the concern of bloggers towards this service, who highlighted the issue in early stages of launch. Telenor is always open to criticisms and give value to the words of its customers that in true sense highlight the loopholes. Telenor has strong relationships with internet medium and look forward to make it stronger in the future.
I spotted an interesting article from WSJ, The Joys, Pains of Switching Smart Phones. For those who want to switch from one smart phone to another, there’s always this excitement of trying something new combined with leaving something familiar and convenient. Then there’s the work involved in moving information from one handset to another. In the end its a matter of personal preference. Here’s an excerpt.
The old adage that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence can be extended to our technology cravings. Even the person holding the shiniest new gadget can’t help but eye a neighbor who has a different device and wonder, “What does that do that mine doesn’t?”
Thoughts like these are especially prevalent when it comes to the devoted owners of BlackBerrys and iPhones. All too often, the people carrying these smart phones are curious about what one device has that the other lacks.
The most outstanding observation from my switch group in favor of the iPhone was an appreciation for its applications, or apps.
They used things like driving directions for the first time because these apps looked and worked better on the iPhone than on the BlackBerry. And they went through a downloading frenzy during which time they found all sorts of apps for the iPhone, such as games, entertainment and those that enhanced business-travel productivity. “Browsing for games. Probably should leave the office now,” said one person’s notes.
Though Research in Motion’s BlackBerrys also run apps (including some of the same ones as for the iPhone), BlackBerry’s App World offers only a little better than 2,000 apps. Apple’s App Store boasts more than 65,000. A shortcut to the App Store ships preloaded on iPhones. BlackBerry App World is preloaded or virtually preloaded by carriers at their discretion, so a shortcut to App World may not be visible.
The most obvious difference between iPhones and BlackBerrys are the keyboards. The iPhone uses an on-screen keyboard, while the BlackBerry (except the touch-screen Storm model) uses a tactile QWERTY keyboard. As expected, the switchers had trouble using the iPhone keyboard—especially for the first few days. But after about a week, most people in the group had adjusted well to the on-screen keys and the iPhone’s auto-correct feature that fixes mistakes as long as you keep typing rather than stopping to fix an error. One person said, “I was a skeptic, and didn’t think the typing would work for me at all, but it actually hasn’t been too bad.”
The BlackBerry keyboard’s static position below its screen means all letters, numbers and symbols must come solely from pressing those keys; this is done by pressing ALT or Shift keys for numbers and symbols. Some switchers noted that pressing a button to change the iPhone’s on-screen keyboard from letters to capital letters or numbers took a bit longer than on the BlackBerry.
My switchers were ecstatic about using the iPhone’s Safari Web browser. They enthusiastically said searching, browsing and reading were all made much better and more visually pleasing compared with their experiences on the BlackBerry browser.
The latest numbers from PTA reveal that the total subscriber base of cellular services has reached 95.5 million, and the trend between Moblink and Telenor as discussed earlier continues.
The neck to neck race of subscriber acquisition continues between Mobilink and Telenor as Mobilink gained 414K in July 2009 and Telenor added 406K.
A significant increase as compared to May 2009 in subscriber base of Warid can also be seen, possibly due marketing comeback from Warid and introduction of the Glow prepaid package.
Ufone despite their intense marketing gained less than Zong in July.
The month to month subscriber change for the first half of 2009 shows a consistent increase in subscriber base over the past three months.
If the current growth pace is sustained, the subscriber number should be close to 100 million by end of December 2009.
Vopium is a free piece of software, which you download to your mobile phone so that you can use VOIP to make calls from your mobile phone. It uses least cost routing (such as WiFi when available) to helps you save money on international calls and SMS. For details and rates check out Vopium website and see how it compares with other services. It works in 45 countries.
Vopium supports more than 900 phones including iPhone. For calls to Pakistan, Vopium’s Call Pakistan package has competitive calling rates. Currently Vopium offers double minute for Call Pakistan offer – users gets 500 minutes instead of 250. Here is more about the offer.
Until the 23rd of September Vopium doubles your minutes!
Get 2 for the price of 1. Buy a “Call Pakistan”-package (250 minutes) and get another one on top for FREE during the campaign period. Receive 500=2 X 250 min for only USD 18.55 and call any network, both landline and mobile, in Pakistan. A package is valid for 30 days.
Vopium just launched its mobile VoIP solution in 25 new countries in regions including North and South America, Western and Eastern Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific.
Tanveer Sharif, CEO of Vopium says:
The roll out of Vopium in 25 new countries meets the ever increasing demand for high quality and low price international telephony. Due to the present economic climate consumers are keen to cut cost wherever possible. International telephony rates are still outrageously high, but with the geographic expansion, we are delighted to solve that problem by enabling even more consumers to save heavily on international phone calls.
PTA has been actively going after grey telephony companies. At the same time it has launched a public relations campaign aimed at educating public about how grey calling hurts the country. They have also made it easy for people to provide tips about possible grey calling setups.
Ufone has taken a lead in the Ghanta offer race by offering Super Ghanta package. This one is unique offer as it comes with not only an increase in duration to the Ufone’s traditional ghanta package but also being offered off-net i.e. to any PTCL landlines and Vfone numbers across the country.
The Super Ghanta offer is launched with a very sarcastically funny ad. Before we take a look at that, lets follow the Ghanta offer race.
Ufone has been offering the Ghanta offer @Rs. 5.99/hour from 9am to 5pm with daily subscription charges of Rs. 3.99/day.
Earlier this month, Mobilink Jazz came up with their Ghanta offer @Rs. 3.99/hour from 9am to 5pm with daily subscription charges of Rs. 5.99/day.
An interesting thing to notice here is that Mobilink adopted the Ufone daily charges as their hourly rate and hourly rate as daily charges.
With the start of Ramzan, the Mobilink Jazz Ghanta offer was revised with an increase in time window. Ramzan Ghanta offer comes@Rs. 3.99/hour from 9am to 7pm with daily subscription charges of Rs. 5.99/day.
And now comes the Ufone Super Ghanta offer @Rs. 3.50/hour from 4am to 5pm with daily subscription charges of Rs. 5.99/day.
The Ufone Super Ghanta offer wins over the Mobilink Jazz Ramzan Ghanta offer in not only the hourly rate and time window but like I said earlier extending it to include calls to landlines and Vfone numbers.
The price war between operators have taken a new form. Now they just not announce thier packages but also denounce others. This Ufone Super Ghanta Jadoogar ad says it all.
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