The Mobile platform war...Android still Leader

Kantar Worldpanel has issued the latest figures of smartphone market share. Surprisingly enough Apple has seen mixed results.

While Apple has increased its share of the UK smartphone market it saw a decrease in its Smartphone market share elsewhere in Europe.

According to the published results, in the UK Apple’s market share grew to 31% in the 12 weeks to 30 November, up from 21% the previous year. This increase was partially attributed to the release of the latest member of the iPhone range...the iPhone 4S. Accordingly, Apple also made gains in the US and Australia.

While Apple grew sales in the UK, the picture was the opposite elsewhere in Europe. In France for example, Apple's market share dropped to 20% from 29% the year earlier, while in both Germany and Italy, its share fell from 27% to 22%.

On the other hand, Android continues to be the smartphone market leader in every territory included in the study, commanding a 47% share of the UK market, up from 35% the previous year, while one in two (53%) smartphones sold in the US run the Google-owned operating system.

BlackBerry, which faced a number of service issues this year, saw its market share slide to 17% in UK compared to 22% the previous year.

The Windows Phone has reported only round 1% market share. This share is expected to increase with the launch of the first Nokia Windows phone (Lumia) although sales of this model have yet to peak.

What do you think about the future of Mobile Phones platforms?

Google takes action against Censorship

Google has made the first step forward towards keeping faith to it's mission of providing free access to information. In the regards, Google’s issued a threat to China that it is considering pulling out of the country rather than accept to continue self-censorship.

Google declared that it was the victim of a series of cyber-attacks that originated from China. The cyber attacks where not the usual one as these were very sophisticated and targeted Gmail accounts of Chinese Activists. Google said that only two accounts were hacked into and emails were not read.

Although one would expect that other companies would follow suit given that the first step has been taken, Microsoft decided to back out. The chief executive officer of the company, described the Google affair as “a Google problem” and said: “Every large institution is being hacked. I don’t think it’s a fundamental change in the security environment on the internet.”

How will this go ahead? Will Google back down and continue to pursue large earning potentials that China offer or will it step up it's battle?

Google to launch Nexus One

Google have developed and finally launched a new mobile headset that is set to be a direct competitor of iPhone. This phone is Google's first official mobile phone device from the time it acquired mobile operating system company Android in 2005 (the mobile is being built by manufacturer HTC).

The strategy that Google will adopt will be different from that of iphone when it comes to distribution. Although Google will launch the Nexus through Vodafone in the UK, the operator partner will not be granted full exclusivity (Iphone launched in the UK with partner O2 on an exclusive basis). The phone is set to go on sale in the US, Singapore and Hong Kong initially and will later be rolled out in the UK.

The touch screen, sleek phone will cost $179.00 (£111) for a two-year contract with T-Mobile USA. Nexus One can also be purchased for around $529 (£324) on its own. Verizon Wireless in the US will plan to offer services to customers in the near future.

Like the iPhone, Android offers fully integrated web-browsing and video applications with a five megapixel camera. The phone will offer 18,000 apps and but unlike the iPhone, Nexus One allows multiple use of applications at the same time. Users will also be able access Google maps, emails and aggregated contacts. A voice enabled keyboard has also been embedded for speaking text messages, emails, tweets and Facebook updates.

Microsoft and Yahoo! to collaborate again Google

Finally Microsoft has achieved its target, or nearly...The deal that has been signed between Microsoft and Yahoo caps more than two years of effort by Microsoft to get hold of Yahoo's search business in an effort to become a serious challenger to Google. Although less drastic than the $48bn bid for the acquisition of Yahoo that Microsoft had proposed last year, the move would be still be a very expensive one for Microsoft and it will not an easy one to implement but could help Microsoft to become a credible rival for Google.

Microsoft and Yahoo! have announced a ten-year revenue-share search pact. Microsoft's Bing will now power Yahoo! search while Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies' search advertisers.

Microsoft announced that the agreement will provide it's search engine (Bing) with the scale necessary to attract more advertising revenue and increase the visibility of the brand. This will enable it to compete more effectively with Google in an attempt to come out from a defensive strategy to a more aggressive competing strategy.

Microsoft will acquire an exclusive ten-year license to Yahoo!'s core search technologies, and Microsoft will have the ability to integrate Yahoo! search technologies into its existing web search platforms.

Should this deal pass antitrust scrutiny, do you think this relationship will be a successful one? Do you think Yahoo! and Microsoft will be a real threat for Google?

Google to compete directly with Microsoft

The battle of the titans could be on again. After Launching Google Chrome to compete against the market leader Microsoft Internet Explorer and launching Google Docs to compete with Microsoft office, the final assault has been announced...

Google will now be launching its own computer operating system next year. This will take it head to head again with Microsoft and now it's the final fight. Most of the PC's and Notebooks around the world run on Windows, more specifically on Windows XP which is now nearly a decade old and hence i hasn't been developed to run efficiently on the net...Hence Google has seen a window of opportunity...

Modelled around its Chrome browser, Google Chrome OS will be initially developed for small netbook computers, launching in 2010, before eventually rolling out across every platform, including all Windows, Mac and Linux based systems. A report on Marketing, says that Google said the software will be "fast" and "lightweight", with minimal bells and whistles "to stay out of your way", much like its search engine and browser. The Operating system seeks to reduce the frustration inherent in Windows-based computers, such as slow loading times and computer viruses.

As with all other products offered by Google,, Google Chrome OS will largely be internet-based and open source, meaning web developers can create applications for the system, as with Google's suite of online products. The announcement had been made early so as to give developers time to begin working with Google's source code, which is likely to be released at the same time Microsoft launches its new operating system, Windows 7, before year end.

We have to wait and see before we can run into conclusions but it seems that Google has all the intention of wanting to dethrone Microsoft in all areas....will it succeed?

Who are the new Entrepreneurs?

I was reading an interesting study about entrepreneurs and found various articles that relate to it...I have summed up what I found and thought of sharing this with you. While reading it remember that any research displays averages...any results are not set in stone and you are the one in control of your future.

The Research Findings:-

When you think of the word 'entrepreneur', who do you visualise? You might be inclined to think of a student who is in his early 20's who dropped out of college to follow his or her dream.

But according to a study by the Kauffman Foundation, it's not young people who are driving entrepreneurial activity in the United States. It's actually the Baby Boomers.

The study found that over the past decade, the highest level of entrepreneurial activity was seen amongst the 55-64 age group. What about the wonder kinds we see featured on most renowned magazine covers? Their entrepreneurial prowess is largely an illusion. It was actually found that the 20 - 34 age bracket who are thought of risk taker youths (think of Google, Yahoo, Facebook) has the lowest rate of entrepreneurs.Perhaps most surprising, this disparity occurred during the eleven years surrounding the dot-com boom—when the young entrepreneurial upstart became a cultural icon.

In a related study that looked at 5,000 companies started in 2004, the Kauffman Foundation discovered that two-thirds were started by founders in the 35-54 age bracket. When it came to technology companies specifically, the average age of a founder was 39.

When you think about it, this really isn't all that surprising. Although stories like that of Mark Zuckerberg, who co-founded Facebook in his Harvard dorm room, make for great stories, they're great stories precisely because they're so unusual. When it comes to the reality of entrepreneurship, it makes sense that older people would be more apt to start businesses. After all, an older founder is more likely to have significant experience, greater knowledge, better networks and the financial resources required to start a new venture. The hunger and ambition typically associated with youth can only take you so far.

In looking at what the future holds, the Kauffman Foundation notes that the ongoing recession could increase the incidence of entrepreneurship amongst those under 30 but also points out that other trends, such as the diminishing notion of the 'lifetime' job and longer lifespans, likely supports a healthy crop of old entrepreneurs.

So what's the key conclusion? As much as the tech startup community values youth, it's a bad idea to ignore those who are more experienced and more knowledgeable. Given that the billion and trillion dollar markets of tomorrow aren't going to be found in the consumer internet, for instance, wisdom is more important than ever. So the next time you're networking, don't forget to talk to the guy who looks like he could be your dad. He may not be starting the next Facebook but he could be the founder of the next Cisco.

Cashing in on Problems

The recent Swine flu, like its predecessors the Pandemic flu and the SARS has caused quite a havoc amongst the worlds population. It has been a headline news for quite some days and a lot of people are interested in ways to prevent it and, if the undesirable had to happen, how to cure it. You might say this is natural as everybody needs to be informed as to what might happen and what actions need to be taken to prevent such potentially catastrophic diseases.

This natural instinct of people has push them online and billions of searches have been initiated with the words flu, swine flu and Mexican flu...so what did innovative marketers do? Just what is natural to them...analyse that the customer trends are and serve your customer needs. Companies such as google saw a huge potential in this and for example google has launched Google Trends. Google Trends uses time series analysis and tries to find a link between the search behaviour of people and the actual spread of the disease. In this way, they were able to launch the Google Flu Trends in association with the US Centre for Diseases Control.

Google is not the only company that has taken advantage of this. Online pharmacies are all flocking up to try to sell all kinds of stuff that "they say" would prevent the spread of the flu. The sell all sorts of stuff from face masks, gloves to the notoriously known Tamiflu (which is supposed to be banned from online sales). Amazon has also recognised the pontnetial and in fact started supplying anti-flu kits to it's customers (image below)...if the big companies do now there the go ahead for all companies to follow.

The use of Web2.0 is also helping companies in this regards. Website owners are linking up with sites and getting mashup content, such as up-to-date news of the spread of the flue, so that their site increase in popularity and they obtain a better natural search result on search engines...PPC campaign and Google Adsense is another option that companies have...so what are you waiting...the sky is your limit today. The most important thing is that you keep your eyes open and as in any other business try to obtain a first mover advantage...

Google, is there a new competitor on its way?

Professor Stephen Wolfram a very well renowned British physicist has founded a new company that is set to go head-to-head with Google as from today it has launched it's new search engine http://www.wolframalpha.com/. This new search engine seeks to be totally different to google as it provides answers to specific questions instead of giving users numerous search results that most of the time end up confusing the user more than helping him up. For example in response to the question "what is the population of London?", http://www.wolframalpha.com/ gives a single answer (7.421m), whereas Google provides 28,500,500 website links.

Although this is being indicated as a good candidate to challenge Google, the developer of this idea. Prof. Stephen Wolfram, does not want to admin this. He states that his company does not provide a search engine facility but it offers a computational knowledge engine. The website actually checks the question against a number of database entries and right now can answer questions on topics ranging from the population of a country to the distance between two places or the weather in a particular place. However, the site is unable to answer general questions. If the questions haven't been asked before it is unable to provide an answer...

The company which was set up by Wolfram is actually moving ahead as it currently employs 300 member of staff and is working on the improvement of the computer algebra system "Mathematica" which was created by Wolfram research. With the increase of popularity that is expected from this new search engine capability, the company is seeking long-terms plan to expand this project and if possible it will be willing to sell advertising space along its searches.

Will Wolfram beat Google or will Google catch up to this innovation?