Browser is the new OS even for Mobile phones

By lalit | Published: March 5, 2010

At Mobisy we always believed that the future of Mobile computing is in the cloud. And Browsers are the doorways to access the rich information available over Internet. But on the other hand, mobile device native applications provide much richer functionality that browsers cannot match. Our platform mobitop was born, exactly to solve that problem. We mesh rich functionality a handset provides with the easy of development and cloud access a browser provides. In that sense , we made browser act like a real OS on the Mobile device !!

But of course during the course of last 3 years I heard some comments contrary to our believes , let me try and bust those myths here.

1. Mobile processors are too slow to handle heavy processing needs of a full fledged browser based app :-

Just  3 years ago when we started, N80 with it’s 220Mhz processor was one of the fastest Mobile computing device. Today we have Google nexus with 1Ghz processor almost as much as a laptop .. match that ..:-)

With these processors it’s not only feasible but it’s easily possible to write rich applications for mobile handsets in web technologies.

2. The pipes are too small

Well that’s a funny one. Today in Mobisy, we have couple of interesting applications on Mobitop using only SMS as a pipe to share data. We are also working on another app which uses CBS as a pipe. Now compare that with existing GPRS and upcoming 3G pipes..

3. Battery life

Battery life is real concern, web apps with their interpreted processing and network oriented approach, do such Battery quicker than native app. Going forward, batteries themselves are getting better as well as we are inventing new ways to write smarter applications.

4. Reliability of connections

With Ajax techniques we do write completely asynchronous applications which do not really rely on reliability of connection. Especially if you know your users are going to use flaky connection. We have also integrated offline working in all our applications to get around this issue more effectively.

5. What else ?

Do you have any question yourself?Please get in touch. I love to sell Mobitop ..:-)

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Wanna be an entrepreneur, learn football

By lalit | Published: January 22, 2010

This post is on a lighter note ..

Today morning, during a casual chat with Kesava, we said sales is like “center forward” you may not be the best footballer in the team but you know how to be at right place at right time. And that’s when it clicked. Most of the good product companies should work like a good football team. This is especially true for startups like us.

R&D as Defence :- R&D is your defense. Your strong technology team will build the basis of your product. It’s R&D s job to stay ahead in the market to prevent competition from scoring goals against you.

Marketing as Midfield :- Marketing is the backbone, these are the most expensive players. They give inputs to R&D to defend better and position the forwards to give them better chance to score more goals against your opposition. These are usually the best players in the team. And if you have a weak midfield you are doomed no matter how strong your defense or attack is.

Sales as Forwards :- This the is the face of your company. They will get the credit most of the time. But most importantly they need to position themselves correctly just behind the defense of the competition to be able to score most goals. They are indispensable since you win only if you can score more goals than your competition. Another thing to note is that anyone in the team can score a goal ..:-) in that sense everyone in a startup have to do their bit of sales.

Strategy as Coach :- The strategy team of your company including very senior management, investors, board, advisors etc can help you plan the game and change the players in the middle of the game but cannot do much on the field itself.

Team spirit :- This is the most important bit. As any sporting team, you need to be a very good overall team to be successful. There has to be a healthy competition at the same time you need to feed on each others success.

What do you think?

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Will iPhone 4.0 solve the pain of developers ?

By lalit | Published: January 20, 2010

When iPhone opened it’s SDK for developers 2 years back, we were very optimistic about the possibilities. The ecstatic response to the ‘app-store’ proved that iPhone had a great market and app-store was the best way to reach iPhone users. But still the SDK itself missed a lot of key features any decent SDK should have.

While porting Mobitop to iPhone from Symbian, we sorely missed following.

1. A deeper API to Safari browser

2. Ability to run the app in background (there is Push registry but it’s nothing like a real daemon)

3. Ability to ‘listen’ to SMS or calls

4. Ability to set SMS body from APP

5. Ability to render content on idle screen

And many more …

These limited our abilities to do some cool stuff for iPhones.

Today I just read a rumor that Apple may announce iPhone OS version 4.0 soon .. I just hope it addresses all these issues. But realistically I think just the background functionality may improve.

BTW , if you are the ‘fun’ type, you can always do all these on a ‘jailbroken’ iPhone …:-)

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Android in India , hype or opportunity

By lalit | Published: January 15, 2010

When you say Android phones and India in the same sentence ,  you will here lot of pessimistic rants about how small is the market and how there are not enough phones. But while looking closer at it, to me it looks like a huge potential opportunity in a years time.

Here is why I think so.

1. Fits Indian Market needs and Price range.

India is an economy where we have hugely aspirational users who are very conscious about ‘value for money’. Which meas we expect high end functionality from our phone in the range of Rs 8000/- to Rs 18000/- ($200 -$500). In past, Nokia has successfully proved it by selling bucket loads of their most popular N series phones in Indian Market. Some notable examples have been N70, N72, N73, and of course N95.

Android licensing terms and open sourcing policy makes it an ideal choice to build such a device. For example Nexus is priced at ~$500  (it’s still a tad higher for Indian sensitivity but it surely has a promise of getting much cheaper over time).

2. Dual sim variants

Due to prepaid nature of Indian market, and aggressive pricing by new operators, we are seeing a huge growth in dual sim phones. Nokia is yet to release their first dual sim phone. But for any non-Nokia manufacturer, Android is a perfect platform of choice to build a dual sim Mobile. Check out one such credibly rumored device

3. Fits the bill for ‘Indian’ manufacturers

If the new breed of Indian manufacturers such as Onida, Videocon, Max Mobile, and Karbonn want to enter smartphone game there is no better OS available than the one from Google to counter Nokia. Android should provide them with much needed brand publicity,credibility and quick time to market !

4. Motorola is banking on it

Surprisingly, Motorola is making steady gains from their position last year. The ‘Droid’ is a reasonable success so far in the US market. And as we have seen in past with RAZR, if Motorola is able to ship a half decent device, it has the potential to make impact in Indian market.

In addition we have Samsung,LG, and HTC with their range of Android based smartphones too.

So to me , it looks like by 2012 , Android will emerge as the credible competitor to Nokia in Indian smartphone market which is currently ~10 Million handsets per year , not at all a bad place to be !

So app developers, hope you are listening and adjusting your technology road-maps accordingly.

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6 things to know for a Mobile apps developer

By lalit | Published: January 11, 2010

With new smartphone operating systems such as iPhone, Android, Maemo ,Palm WebOs and the legacy ones such as Symbian , Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Mobile application development is a booming industry.

As someone just starting in Mobile application development, it could be confusing as to where to start. So here is a list of at least 6 things to know for a prospective Mobile apps developer.

1.  Understand underlying Mobile architecture
First and foremost remember that , Mobile Phone is an embedded device.  Unless you are working for highest end smart-phones it is unlikely that you would be working on a sophisticated operating system.(Remember Symbian is also an ‘embedded’ smartphone os)

Moreover the processing power of a Mobile device rarely goes beyond 500MHz. So learn how to build an embedded application. Learn all the mobile specific quirks to optimize speed, size and memory requirements of your application !

2. It isn’t web 2.0 in Mobile

Recently I saw some REST XML apis for a Mobile application and I was about to burst out laughing.Please remember that even on majority of 3G networks the real life data speed is mediocre .. so you have to optimize your app accordingly. Maximum times you have to invent your own optimized protocols for data traffic and optimize them even further using some compression algorithms.

3. Know thy Standard

Mobile industry is historically about standards. And these differ significantly from rest of the web or computer world.

For starters please understand what is meant by 2G, 2.5 G, 3G etc. Do read up  at least basics of GSM / CDMA/ WCDMA /HSPDA modems.

On top of that your particular development environment may come with it’s own standards. For example to be a J2me developer you may have to read about different JSRs supported for the handsets you plan to work. If you want to work on technologies such as IMS they come with their own set of standards.

4. Fragmentation you should be aware of

If you read a lot of blogs, you will hear that there are more than 3 billion Mobile handsets. But if you are a down-loadable application developer, it is most likely that your target-able handsets are much lesser. Make sure you  are always aware of that when you promise ‘moon’ to your customer.

Mostly it is beneficial to target only a niche subset of handsets aka iPhone / Blackberry. They themselves represent a decent market size. But, if you are trying to target hundreds of Millions of handsets please be sure on what you are getting in to.

5 . C++ / Java ? It does not really matter

Lot of new engineers I interact with ask me this question about which language to learn to work on Mobile. There are various languages and SDKs to choose from C, C++,Objective C, Symbian C++, Windows C++, .Net, Blackberry Java, J2ME, Mobile Python, Web run time, Palm web os, Flashlite, Android Java to name a few.

My advice is to just pick one to start with, (preferably an embedded native environment such as Symbian C++, Objective C for iPhone or Android Java) if you have strong Mobile development skills, learning a new language or SDK will not be tough at all.

6. Mobile development is about integration

I have seen hundreds of Mobile application development life-cycles so far and in every project the bottleneck has been integration. Writing code is far too easy. But on an embedded system such as Mobile, the real art lies in integrating multiple components in time bound manner. It’s more of a process issue but unfortunately I have not seen a solution so far. So 99 out of 100 times you would see applications taking far too long during integration and release phase.

System integrators is a very priced community in Mobile ecosystem so if you learn the debugging and integration skills, you are invaluable as an engineer.

Finally, here is a bonus tip

7. Attitude of a Mobile developer

This is something very hard to learn unless you have it in you. Mobile phone application development can take a lot out of you. Sheer frustration of not being able to release your app for some nasty unknown crash can drive you crazy.

You need a ‘never die’ attitude with cool mind to be able to subjectively analyze seemingly irritating ‘unkown’ bugs for days to release a successful mobile app. If you are working for a handset manufacturer and need to pass certifications like FTA, you need it more that most ..

So if you have just started on this path, welcome to Mobile developer community .. and all the best for your Mobile app adventures !

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Business case for ‘Indian’ App store

By lalit | Published: December 15, 2009

Though downloadable Mobile applications is 10 year old industry, apart from iPhone applications there isn’t any other proven business model so far.  The iPhone application’s success is derived more from it’s own app store.  The success of app store is due to the fact that it made it easy to develop, market and monetize the apps. Here is my shot at looking into crystal ball and trying to define what would be an ‘Indian App store’.

India, with it’s half a billion subscribers and falling ARPUs is fast becoming a hot market for services and rich experience provided by downloadable applications. But we are still far away from becoming a thriving eco-system for downloadable applications. What the application providers lack is an integrated Development, Marketing , and most importantly Monetization platform provided by app stores to create these compelling services.

The question is what kind of ‘app store’ will work in Indian context?

Can Apple app store replicate such an impact in Indian Market? The answer is NO.

Reason :- Apple app store’s monetization bit depends a lot on credit card based ongoing payment relationship apple already enjoys with iTunes subscribers. Apple or any manufacturer currently does not command such an ongoing relationship in Indian market.

Since Telecom operator has a payment relationship with user , can operator sponsored app store create such an impact? Answer is Maybe.

Reason :- With advent of competitive pricing by operators, dual sim phones, and Number portability , this relationship enjoyed by operators is getting thinner day by day. Giving more services on top of vanilla Call/ SMS may help operators to strengthen their relationship with users, time will tell.

What I think will work is an ‘app/ content store’ created by a relatively independent entity. This “App store” will surely have to leverage on the payment relationship between operators and users but still has to maintain cross operator, cross manufacturer compatibility. I also believe that such an initiative will need some sort of regulatory blessings from TRAI.

Of course it’s easier said than done. Let’s try and do a complete SWOT analysis of such a business case. (comments/ improvements welcome)

Strengths

1. This can scale to be ‘one stop shop’ for all the user’s downloadable content needs including Wallpapers, Screensavers and Ringtones in addition to applications.

2. Positioning as a sales channel for content is a proven method to source quality content.

3. Integrated development, marketing and sales platform for content owner makes it much easier for content owners to publish and monetize their content.

4. Helps operators to improve ARPU.

5. The store can be much more ’social’ than a handset vendor/ operator sponsored App store.

6. Transparent revenue share model.

Weaknesses

1. Unproven. There is almost no precedence of such an ecosystem barring NTT docomo.

2. No immediate incentive for handset manufacturers ..

3. The app store provider will have to build it’s brand from scratch. It cannot leverage much on operator or manufacturer brand.

4. A new industry player or a startup may find this space very tough to navigate with mindset of existing players.

5. Needs a relatively big capital investment up front to build the relationships and build  the brand.

Opportunities

1. There are already 500 million users hungry for services and the userbase is still growing fast.

2. This can be a marketing platform for all the brands who want to reach mobile users.

3. Potential to reach Rural India and create a completely new market for down-loadable services.

4. Can finally counter content piracy with attractive pricing models enabled by potential reach.

5. Same version can scale to all the emerging markets.

Threats

1. Content owners business models could take a hit since there are more players in rev share agreements (operator+app store+ content owner)

2. Building relationships with all the industry players will be challenging (manufacturers, operators, content owners)

3. iPhone kind of manufacturer->operator alliance may emerge.

4. Multiple Manufacturer, Operator app stores may fracture the market

Conclusion :-

Creating an App store for Indian Mobile users is a huge opportunity which you cannot miss at this point. The company with correct capital backing and focus on building relationships in the ecosystem can exploit it to the hilt.

Full disclosure :- Mobisy has a product for app stores based on our popular platform Mobitop. You can see the details about the app store here.

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How to improve usage of Mobile Applications

By lalit | Published: October 21, 2009

It’s one thing to generate downloads for your application while it’s completely another thing to generate usage and hence value. Recent post from Ashish again highlighted this issue to me. Our experience in working with various companies to develop their Mobile applications has taught us some valuable lessons, so here I am sharing some insider dope on how to improve usage of your downloadable application.

Disclaimer :- I do not claim that all the applications developed by us follow all these rules. May be that’s the reason we learned it ..:-).

- Rule 1  Find your niche :- Mobile phones is a huge huge market. According to some, there may be more mobile phones than toothbrushes in world. That allows you to really find your niche and market to it. So , instead of trying to target half of the planet, you should try and target your idea for those 10 million users who may really need what you are providing. So next time when you hear / read that some blah blah social networking application has been downloaded 50 million times, don’t forget to ask how many active users they have.

Closer to home, 160by2 has managed this bit really well. They targeted their application only to Indian and Middle eastern users using Nokia S60 handsets. These people care about sending free sms using their data connection. And their usage figures show that.

Another Niche area where usage is extremely high is enterprise applications. I have seen that mobile applications related to accounting, CRM or contact management have extremely impressive usage figures.

- Rule 2 Generate Pull , don’t push :- This is important before you blow your millions on marketing. When you are validating your idea, make sure that you have an unbiased way to find out if your users really care about what you provide. There are many ways to do that but prerequisite is that you know your niche and are able to describe it in detail. Then it’s just a matter of reaching out to 1000 such users and getting their feedback.

I have seen many marketing campaigns with big budgets generate initial interest just to see it fizz out in few months.

- Rule 3 Free vs Paid vs freemium .. don’t worry, just go social  :- I do not subscribe to the theory that if your app is free , freemium or subscription based, usage is higher. Infact I have not seen any impact of app pricing on usage. Rules 1 and 2 affect usage much more. Well how to monetize your application is a topic for another post ..:-). But consider this, the apps which allows people to share information or just their ‘love’ with other people in their social network including their phonebook, facebook accounts or twitter accounts, see much more loyalty from their users.

- Rule 4 Focus on  fast and easy user interface :- If you want someone to use your application again and again, make sure it is fast and easy to use, period. Loosen your purse for the best human interface designer you can find, usually it’s worth it.

- Rule 5 Include help  :- Again this is something basic but I cannot count number of applications who just don’t bother. Even if you think that your app is easiest to use, it is just common sense to give your users all the help they may need. Your spend on UI design cannot replace good documentation. Someone said “Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.” and it’s true to some extent…;-)

- Rule 6 Listen to your users:- It’s unforgivable if you do not allow your users a way to let you know about a bug or a new feature request in a very intuitive way. It’s unbelievable that majority of applications today miss this part completely. Giving your users a way to express their wishes only gets them closer and more loyal to your app.

- Rule 7 Update and update often :- That’s a natural follow up to rule 6. If you listen to your users make sure that they know about it. Give them regular updates of app usually they will love you more for it. I know that it’s extremely difficult task especially on non iphone operating systems. But there are ways to make sure it can be done even on operating systems like Symbian or run-times like J2ME. We ourselves have developed one technology which allows you to update dynamically. Whichever method you use, while designing your application make sure you are able to push that important patch at later stage if you need to.

- Rule 8 Don’t depend too much on Operators or OEMs :- There is a huge tendency especially in India to “outsource” the task of creating interest in your application to either Operators or Phone manufacturers like Nokia. But really you should not depend on someone else to do your job. Remember all the cool apps like Fring, Opera Mini went solo , made a raging success and then partnered with biggies to push the limits.

-Rule 9 Embed as deeply as possible in the device OS :- Applications which run in background and embed as deeply as possible in day to day life of Mobile users using alerts, tickers and so on create bigger connect with it’s users.  Of course this is not possible on all the phones but majority of smartphones today support some level of device embedding and you should try and take maximum advantage of this.

Mobme has successfully done it with mms2.0 (embedding with native camera) and Zozoc with their SMS client replacement on Symbian S60. Mobisy’s mobitop supports background processing and device embedding too on Symbian S60.

In summary, thanks to iPhone, there is exponential growth in smartphone market share. And this is leading to an explosion in Mobile applications market. When it does happen, we will see that all the apps who follow these rules meticulously will reap the benefits. Rest will rue the missed opportunity.

Posted in Cross Platform, General | 1 Comment

Munimo is reborn

By lalit | Published: August 10, 2009

munimo.com was launched as a community effort to find the coolest applications for Mobile phones using the brains of the Mobile enthusiast community. Blame it on the slow user interface or sluggish community or the most likely reason ..  lack of effort from the promoters (momo Bangalore,Mayank and Mobisy) themselves, munimo never went beyond a handful of users. So today,  we decide to rest munimo for the time being and relaunch it as a blog.

Yes, it’ll now be a blog. At Mobisy, we have years of experience programming for Mobile handsets and it’s quirks. So we thought why not share our knowledge to wider community and learn little more from some other hackers out there as well.

BTW, if you think you are a Mobile guru and want to contribute, please feel free to write to us at munimo at mobisy dot com and if we think you are geeky enough to write here , we would be glad to include you as co-Authors of the blog !!

Here is to the new beginning ..

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