Pittsburgh from Mt. Washington

A view of Pittsburgh from Mt. Washington on a great Spring
day.


Pittsburgh
Originally uploaded by sksachin

The True Value of Google's Mobile OS

Google finally announced it is entering the world of mobile devices by creating an Open Source operating system. The Google OS is based primarily on two other open standards: Linux and Sun’s Java. The search giant has agreed to provide the OS to handset manufacturers free of cost.

So how will Google benefit from this? While the obvious answer is advertising, it is not clear how accepting users will be to intrusive ads in something as personal as a mobile phone.

Advertising is certainly a way to monetize this investment, but Google can potentially benefit in a great way by learning more from users. All data traveling through the Google OS would be fair game for the Mountain View company to get to know the consumer better. This information can in turn be used increase the effectiveness of targeted advertising regardless of the ultimate method of the delivery. In the end, it’s all about information.

XM and Sirius Merger. Does it matter?

Many argue that a merger of the only two satellite-radio providers in the country would monopolize the industry, but does it really matter? Listeners are awed, and rightly so, by the crystal-clear quality of digital sound and the extraordinary variety of stations they can listen to cross-country. What they may be overlooking is the relation of this technology with all other Internet-based solutions.

More and more radio (and some TV) stations worldwide are now offering real-time broadcasts that listeners can tune into from any Internet enabled device. Increasing bandwidth speeds have taken sound quality above regular FM and in some cases near CD-quality.

The second issue is mobility. While currently the only practical way to connect to these stations is through a wired or Wi-Fi connection to the Internet, upcoming technologies such as WiMax and 4G CDMA technologies will make a data connection as ubiquitous as the signal on your cell phone. Add this technology to devices such as the Squeezebox and you’ve got yourself a revolutionary music device that can deliver virtually any radio station anywhere there is Internet access (which soon will mean everywhere).

All of this sounds exciting for the consumer. It should. But now it becomes questionable whether XM and Sirius will be able to continue providing differentiating value-add services, whether as separate entities or as one.

The Future of Communications, Mobility, and Business

As technology advances, some questions come to mind:

- What's going to prevent wireless carriers and ISPs from becoming mere utility and commodity companies?
- What will be the competitive advantage sustaining such businesses? (Regulation, price, quality of service?)
- Once a really solid and high-speed internet is in place, what businesses will flourish in it? (Think Gigabits per second)
- What role will small businesses play in the next decade or two?
- As corporations become more nimble, how will entrepreneurs compete?

It sure is an exciting time to be in business!

Web-based Productivity: Scrybe

Anyone who has been keeping track of the evolution of websites over the last ten years can tell we are on to something. Up and coming Web 2.0 companies offer everything from services never thought possible outside a desktop applications to a custom mashup of your favorite web resources.

I recently ran into Scrybe, which I believe serves as the perfect example of what we can expect to be doing through our browsers in the near future. Scrybe's solutions are not earth-shattering. After all, the company's motto is "Simple solutions for age old problems," but boy, are they cool. Currently under an invite-only beta, the website demos some of its solutions, which are expected to become publicly available by year-end.

Visit their website and I am sure you too will be blown away by the classy simplicity of productivity tools ranging from calendar to lists and collaboration tools. The only downside to this type of startup is the lack of cohesiveness across the different websites or platforms. This is where I believe the big players such as Google and Yahoo! should pay attention if they want to keep their market leadership and give their customers the best of the best.