Best IPAD Apps

IPad is fast turning to be my computer on the move. At first it feels like a consumption device but as you get used to it iPad is an excellent content creation device too. this blog is written with Blogsy on IPad and I found no difference in the way I went about publishing.

This is my favourite list, you can agree or disagree with it. I will provide a new section every week.

Do you intend to take notes on iPad for personal or business use ? Then this might be a good check. one takers come in many varieties : text only, hand/ stylus written picture notes and sophisticated Hand writing recognition apps. I usually stick to text and picture editors. My main criteria is the app should have a Dropbox or iCloud sync capability.

Top text note takers
IA Writer with iCloud
Evernote
Springpad
Writings
Nebulous notes

Top picture , writing note takers
Noteshelf
Goodnotes
Adobe Ideas

Top handwriting recognition, it has not worked for me. So there are no personal favourites
Upad
Phatpad

I mainly use the text editors and very rarely handwritten notes.

What have you tried ? Lets have an conversation

Rule of three in handset world : End game of WebOS , Who is next ?

It was very surprising to hear HP pull the plug of WebOS after the investment in Palm just a year ago ( April 2010). What surprised me the most was the time given for the TouchPad Tablet to test the market. I wonder why HP launched the product in the first place if they cant sustain it for more than 8 weeks ( launched July 2011). To note: HP is the worlds largest PC maker and one of the well known company for Technologies and Innovation.

What drove HP to this conclusion and what made them move completely away from the Personal computer and Tablet market ?

1. Tablet and Cloud Disruption
As Steve Jobs puts it, Personal Computer is dead or will be dead killed by the market driven by the magical device ( iPAD aka. Tablets). There was a lot of skepticism in March 2010 on the usability of iPAD given the previous experience with Windows Tablets. Thanks to Apple and Android, a new market has been created and the user experience has driven people away from their computers. The flexibility and mobility of the tablet has created a new segment for computer savvy consumers but for the first time computer users Tablets are creating a new paradigm. My seven year old, does not relate to a PC as a computer and neither does he look at the Tablet as a computer. Interesting is that the Tablet handles most of his need for computer with a completely new experience.

Cloud computing looked so geeky in the last years and even if you are a geek, it sounded as a topic in cloud. With the new Netbooks and Tablets , cloud is slowly taking over the consumer without making much fuss. Best part of the experience is the seamless intergation on to the application which eliminates the need to know the cloud.

Together with seamless Broadband, Tablet and Cloud have increased trhe pressure onto the PC manufacturers.

I wonder why HP gave up the battle so fast and in such a hasty manner ? Are the low margins in PC market piling the pressure or is it that the DNA of HP not being able to handle the pressure of re-inventing in to a new paradigm.

It will be interesting to check the response from DELL and Lenovo and their strategy going forward.

2. Rule of three

I had read a book some time back called : "The Rule of Three" by Jagdish Seth and Rajendra Sisodia. The book argues that in most industries the market is dominated by three (3) players and very few smaller nice players survive and all the rest fall in to the Ditch.

Its interesting to note this dimension of competition emerging in the mobile handset market. After redefining the Smart phone, Apple has dominated the mind share but Android through its partner strategy has captured the market share. These two have now nearly 50% of the market to themselves, the Third player currenlty is Nokia with its previous generation Smart phones based on Symbian with a good market share. The rest of the players seem to be trying to survive.

I am not too critical of Microsoft but it has not fired the imagination of people but with the new Microsoft+Nokia deal, there seems to be a good possibility of this partnership driving to be the ‘Third’ player in the market.

This possibly explains why HP made an abrupt exit from this ecosystem and betting high on new domains of cloud and analytics.

RIM for me is the niche player who has a major fan base with Business users. If RIM keeps up  their innovation and blend the ‘Smart Phone’ in to a business phone, they might well be the Nice player who survived. But recently RIM seems to be trying to diversify with its Playbook and the other touch phones.

I dont see anyother players surviving this intense competition in mobile devices market when it has become the competition of ecosystems.

#3-2011 Effective appraisals for career development, IEEE GOLD Techie Talk

IEEE Bangalore GOLD (Graduates of Last Decade) in association with The Institution of Engineers (India), Karnataka State Centre
Date: 9th July 2011
Time: 4:00 PM
Venue:
THE INSTITUTION OF ENGINEERS (INDIA) KARNATAKA STATE CENTRE
#3, Dr Ambedkar Rd, Vasanth Nagar, Bangalore, India

RSVP:http://bit.ly/irUIe8

Open to everyone on registering at the above link.

Event Fee: Free
Tea/Coffee and Snacks served.

Best iPhone Apps – Posting soon

Nortel Patents sold to a consortium

Finally the patents are sold, they were over 6000 patents and sold to a group which were mainly internet , handset and software companies. Just E/// figured in but they just probably got a small pie of patents.

Reportedly, the portfolio of patents were sold for $4.5billion to Apple, Microsoft, EMC, RIM, Sony and Ericsson.
The main looser in the bid was Google with a bid of $900 million.

Interesting to note is that there are no other real Telco competitors who bid for the patents ( read Nokia Siemens Networks, Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei ) .  This also shows the arrival of convergence in Telecom industry and that the market will now have players who are mainly the IT and Device manufacturers. With IP networks being a reality, its time these big players could be the game changers.

Back to the bid, its reported that Google is the big looser, as it could have used these patents to defend Andriod from other patents suits. This is one of the good examples for students looking at Technology management to see that the patent portfolio can be a very good offensive and defensive strategy for large firms.

I am not sure if there was any specific patent that could make a difference to the market to any of these players and which patent went to whom in the consortium. What is definitely sure is that there were patents which were strong enough to use in defensive strategies.

Question which bothers me is … What was Nortel doing with these patents all these years and why were they not able to use it in the products. May be a case of mis-management of patent / technology management.

Reference:

Nortel patents sold for $4.5bn | Technology | guardian.co.uk.

#1-2011 Being a Successful Professional at SIT Tumkur

Talk on Being a successful professional at SIT Tumkur
17-March-2011
Inaugural address at Browse 2011 – Annual fest

Nice hospitality by professions and students. Enjoyed addressing a very good gathering on the experiences on planning professional career.

# 2-2011 Business perspectives on Managing Innovation and Technology at Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Bangalore

Talk on Business perspectives on Managing Innovation and Technology
16th June 2011
Campus at Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Electronics City Bangalore
Audience : Induction batch of 2011-2012 ( around 200 members)
Duration : 2.5 Hours

SIBM invites industry professionals to give an introduction to business practices during their induction of new MBA aspirants. I got an opportunity to interact with a large audience , who were very keen and lively. I shared with them my experiences with Innovations, Managing Technology, Product Management and Product Development.

I tried to keep the session extremely interactive and tried to explain the practices through examples and discussions with students. It was a 2.5 hour session and i enjoyed the interaction and the questions that came across.