How DelectableBefore you take that sip of wine — what do you know about it? In today’s society, it’s not just about the taste of wine, but your knowledge of its characteristics. If you’re an iPhone user, get yourself the app, Delectable, and use its camera to click a wine label. Now, once it’s been recognised, see what Delectable has to say about it, where is it from, what vineyard, etc. And more interestingly, go social with it. If you let the app into your contact list and networks, you can see who else has been partaking of the particular wine and what they’ve said about it. In fact, you can see what wines your friends have been drinking and what they like. Delectable is both a wine scanner and a wine journal and a lot more enjoyable way to learn about wine than attending a course. Also a way of getting reviews and recommendations before you buy.Get your ColoursArtists, designers, interior decorators — or anyone who frequently has to deal with colours such as when creating marketing material, schemes for an app or logo colours — here’s a wonderful tool on iOS. Spectrum is a great way of creating or capturing colour schemes and sharing them with others who may be working with you on a project. The app has colour wheels and matrixes of various kinds, but the more interesting part is how you can extract the colours from a photograph and use them for something else. In fact, if you spot a set of colours that grab your attention, just take a good picture and then pull the photograph into Spectrum. The whole palette will open up for you to edit so that you can adjust any colours or add or throw out some if you like. You can save the palette to your camera roll or share it.Salient EyeAt a pinch, you can use your Android phone as a security camera. Download the free app and it’s best to watch a tutorial on how to use it though it isn’t very complicated. You configure the app on various parameters like whether to switch the screen off, how many seconds to take to arm, password, etc. You then set the phone to have the rear camera face an entrance or vulnerable area, press the button to arm, and get out of the way. The problem is that it’s rather fussy and insists the user stop moving so it can finish arming. You can experiment with the sensitivity level. If it detects movement before arming, it’ll just start all over again. Once it’s armed, you move away totally. If anyone passes in front of the camera, even from a distance, an almighty alarm will go off and only stop when you enter your password. (This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 11-08-2014)
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Rest Easy And PanicSafety apps are are a dime a dozen, but here’s one that’s backed up by a whole call centre. Smart 24x7, an app on the Google Play Store, is your gateway to all kinds of help. Register with your details, including blood group and address, and rest easy. Should you or anyone else around you need help, you can trigger the app and ask for help whether it’s for fire, or you need the police, or an ambulance. An alert goes out to a primary contact of your choice but it’s the call centre that will make sure you get the help you need at the soonest. A big panic button will take recordings and your GPS data and send it off to the call centre for help. The app and service is free but in future additional services may be added on at a nominal price.Police On Tap On An AppIt's not pretty, but it’s comprehensive and hopefully, helpful. The Delhi Police aren’t just on social media, they have their own Android and iOS app to give you information and take in complaints. Someone should help them redesign it to make everything more readable, but for now let’s be grateful that they are there. The app just needs your name, number and email id. Once you’re in, you can complain about everything from auto drivers over-charging or refusing to go to defective traffic lights, towed away vehicles, and so on. You can also get traffic advisories. There’s a list of emergency numbers for the police, fire, ambulance, help for senior citizens, for women, reporting corruption, and more. Now all they need to do is help.Offers On Offerthe name of this free Android app, Shoffr, should pretty much explain what it is — offers on shopping. A quick install and you register with your phone number because that’s how you’ll get an offer code via SMS should you opt for one. The app also knows your location so you can get offers from around you. In fact, once you’re past the login screen, you get offers on various lifestyle items — food, clothing, books, cosmetics, jewellery, etc. The offers are by brand, not by item, and you need to get yourself to the shop to buy. It’s a little like the apps some malls like the Select CityWalk in Delhi have; only it isn’t restricted to a mall. I see there’s a 20 per cent off on my favourite shoe brand and 50 per cent off on a Domino’s pizza that I’m getting withdrawal symptoms for. (This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 28-07-2014)
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The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has been on an overdrive. Till June-end, it had already made four modifications and issued 18 clarifications to the Companies Act 2013 — a legacy of the UPA government. The changes, some yet to be approved, have been lapped up by industry.
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I’ve learnt two big lessons this week. One is that there’s no limit to how ridiculous a piece of technology can get. Two is that there’s no accounting for human tastes.Who would have thought that someone would go to the trouble of putting together an app that goes “Yo” (in the most annoying little voice, I might add) from one user to another and that this app would then go on to become among the five most popular apps on Apple’s App Store with 790,000 users already? And the story does not end there; investors are actually willing to back it up with $1.2 million – with more promised! Luckily, the Israeli duo, Moshe Hogeg and Or Arbel of Mobli, a company that develops more serious applications, seem to be unwilling to go crazy with Yo. Very sensibly, they’re waiting to see how it goes. It’s being suggested that Yo could be developed to include more interesting features, including different sounding Yo’s, and that it would be a perfect fit on a smartwatch.The Yo app and phenomenon has dominated social media news, made it to the Stephen Colbert show, and received due attention from hackers who’ve used it for a bit of target practice. You can check it out for yourself on iOS and Android and see if you become one of its addicted fans. I tried it for a bit and promptly and without regret, offloaded it. Like the developers, I’ve also often used punctuation marks to communicate with someone who understands the context. But a Yo is probably something I’d be able to tolerate say once a year at best. It’s funny when you think that the app wasn’t supposed to be out in the wild in the first place but was meant for internal communication. Even Apple reportedly rejected it as having too little substance. Who would have thought it would get that popular, though who knows how long the world’s amusement with it will last. When you look around, there are many other apps and games that are simple one-trick ponies but end up becoming frantically popular. I’d count Flappy Bird in that category. In fact, I’d even say Talking Tom, mimicking everything you say, should have outlived its funniness. But oh no. The art and science of viral content and its longevity has not been cracked yet. Which is why the future of Yo is being watched with great interest. But at this point I’d say one can neither ensure virality nor can you take it for granted and sometimes, it just knocks you off your feet. One thing’s for sure: things like Yo certainly teach us something we didn’t know about people.
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Something that started off as a nice to have channel has now overtaken other traditional channels of consumer interaction and purchase. Customers are searching for vendor information, checking user reviews, making purchases on the go with the help of mobile devices. The latest mobile usage statistic by WebDam shows that 1.4 billion people own and use smartphones globally; that's 1 in 7 people worldwide! According to a projection by ComScore monthly data consumption by an individual using a smartphone will increase from 150 MB in 2011 to 2.6 GB in 2016. Mobile devices have changed the way customers think and purchase and this is evident more than ever in the year 2014.Looking for more proof? Well, Forrester finds that more than half of retailers they surveyed stated mobile as top priority in 2014 with increase in investment, and 48 per cent will continue to remain the same. Speaking of the power of mobile, it is delightful to know that 70 per cent of mobile searches leading to online action within an hour!What does this mean for marketers?A huge opportunity is up for the grabs, and success goes to the fittest. A few things to keep in mind:Email CampaignsA study by Radicati showed that currently 46 per cent of email users access their email via a mobile device and this number is expected to increase to around 80 per cent by 2018. It is critical for marketers to ensure that email campaigns are not just focused towards engaging desktop users but also target an increasing mobile audience. Mobile Apps Vs Mobile WebsitesThere was a time when marketers were scrambling to create mobile websites to cater to the mobile audience but in 2014 that doesn't cut it anymore. 85 per cent of users prefer native mobile apps to mobile websites with iOS apps generating about 4 times the revenue compared to Android apps. If you want higher engagement and ultimately higher revenues, mobile apps are the preferred mode of engagement with your target audience.Evolution Of Human Interactivity In Mobile AppsThe availability of apps on our smart phones continues to play a much greater role in defining user experience. The ability to download an app in seconds, in real-time has evolved rapidly. Now consumers are seen spending more time in mobile apps and less on the web. An interesting research says, 75 per cent of Americans actually carry their phones even to the bathrooms! Interactivity between human and mobile is now seeing a major step-change. The industry is moving towards making app experience more and more humane, with better touch, feel and sound. A testimony to this is also the gaining popularity of wearables - which is perhaps a sneak peek into the future. Measuring ROIWhile this marketing channel gains speed rapidly, its newness is keeping businesses from being able to measure its ROI and most of them are not sure how. Good news is that measuring ROI in mobile is possible. The first step to it is setting up an appropriate measuring strategy with clear goal setting and key performance indicators. Besides, there are now several third party tracking tools for both in-app and site activities. Setting up custom events based on the KPIs, such as installs, in-app purchases or time spent on the app makes tracking streamlined and lot more effective. With the right approach, mobile marketing can soon move from a trend to a measurable, profit-making business strategy. As mobile devices permeate almost every aspect of our lives, marketers need to utilize the immense potential to understand different consumption patterns of consumers and tap into their lives with the right products at the right time.
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A Secret For AllPeople have always loved secrets. But with the app Secret, it's not a matter of "don't tell anyone..." rather the opposite. Secret is all about anonymous confessions and gossip and you can use this social network to get things off your chest. The immensely popular iOS app has just made it to Android as well as to the world outside of the US. Now you can just say whatever without anyone knowing who you are. Sounds childish? It probably is — but it's also addictive. Very much like another app Whisper, Secret, so far, has been more focused on corporate gossip. That may change as the app opens up to the world at large. Secret knows who you are so it can let you see stuff from nearby and from contacts, but anonymously. Secret is worth a look to see what we humans can really be like when allowed to.Travel And Tellmotormouth, a free iOS app, is based on a great idea. However, I think someone should rebuild and improve on it. What MotorMouth does is pair voice notes from users with a map. Wherever you happen to be, you can leave a voice clip, created from within the app. As people travel around they can open the app and get interesting information and reactions from others who've been there. Sadly, a nice idea doesn't mean people use it nicely. I heard wholly unnecessary clips saying, 'Hello, how are you?' And some others were in languages I didn't know. But it's early days yet for this new app, which has the potential to be really cool if users let it be. If the app were better designed and used images as well and allowed you to use ratings and leave more detailed text notes, it would be far more interesting.Slack Off To Do Stuffa collaborative tool still in limited preview (but downloadable), Slack is a combination of chat, email, file sharer and more. You add others, who also need to download the app on Android, iOS, PC, or Mac, and form a team to work together on something. Chat would have been too temporary and difficult to exchange files on. Email is sometimes too confusing as multiple people send mails and inevitably someone doesn't get someone's mail. But Slack is that combination that makes collaborating easier. It also works with other services such as Google Drive and Dropbox. Everything concerned with your project is all in one place and searchable as well. On top of that, you can use it as a task manager by setting reminders to complete your part of the work(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 30-06-2014)
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If it were a murder, it would have been the perfect murder. It was quick and quiet. In February, while India’s corporate governance vigilantes obsessed over Maruti and its deal with Japanese parent Suzuki, Alstom Transport India, a wholly owned subsidiary of French engineering major Alstom, bought out the transportation division of Alstom India, another arm of Alstom. The division was sold for Rs 176.9 crore, a figure far lower than the division’s sales for the previous 12 months, leaving minority shareholders of the Indian arm high and dry.
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If the barbs, wisecracks, jabs and wordplay by politicians in the electoral fray have not particularly tickled your funny bone, here’s something that certainly will: Portly politicians taking each other on in a game of cricket. Narendra Modi, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, decked up in a maroon kurta and a saffron scarf walks to the crease to face the bowler — none other than Rahul Gandhi, the Congress’s de facto PM candidate. Rahul begins his run-up — rather long for a 43-year-old — and delivers a fast ball. Modi is clean bowled! This in no way implies what is in store on the D-Day, 16 May. The setting is just part of a gaming app — Kursi Cricket — available on Android and iOS platforms, where Modi, Rahul and Arvind Kejriwal fight it out on the cricket pitch. The three of them battle it out to defend their wickets, well, kursis, if you get the drift. Kursi Cricket has been developed by a Mumbai-based gaming firm Games2Win. The game has seen close to half a million downloads since its launch in February this year. While India is witnessing one of the most debated, fractious and exciting elections ever, app developers are doing their best to cash in on the poll sentiment. Developers, from India and abroad, have introduced several election-themed gaming apps which have attracted considerable traction. In the past three to four months, such games have seen between 10 and 15 million downloads on iOS and Android platforms. Some developers say they have also managed to make money out of this euphoria and will be launching upgrades till the election fever lasts — that is, till the results are declared. Election-themed apps are not limited to games alone (though gaming apps constitute a majority). Some of them have utility value as well. For instance, there is an app — India Politics by XAPPSO — that provides background information such as educational qualifications, past experience, etc., on those contesting the elections. Then, there are apps poking fun at politicians. Yo Yo Kejru Singh! by IOTASOL is an app which parodies rapper Yo Yo Honey Singh’s ‘Lungi Dance’ number on your cellphone. You can also watch Kejriwal dancing to ‘Lungi Dance’ with yesteryear character actor . A Modi Wave? Even as political pundits continue to argue about whether or not there is a ‘Modi wave’, when it comes to the gaming industry, there is no denying the phenomenon. Of the 500-odd games launched on the two major platforms, around 70-75 per cent have Modi as a central character. In the remaining 25-30 per cent, characters based on Kejriwal and Rahul are in the lead; Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa has around 10 apps with her in the lead. A Knockoout: Games modelled around BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi have dominated the election gaming apps market“I am a big fan of Modi and that was the main reason I decided to come up with an application based on him,” says Lakshmikant Reddy, founder and CEO of Outset Apps Technologies, a Hyderabad- based firm. The firm’s app named Narendra Modi gives you information — news, views, his social media status updates and tweets — on the Gujarat chief minister. It has been downloaded around 5,000 times. The most popular of the gaming apps — Modi Run — has seen 8.68 lakh downloads. It attracts 4,000 new users every day. “Modi Run was our first India-specific game. Due to the popularity of Modi in the 18-30 age group, which forms the majority of our target audience, we launched Modi Run in India,” says Kumar Mettu, founder, Dexati, a California-based gaming firm. In the game, Modi runs through different states with varying difficulty levels. Gujarat, not surprisingly, is the first and easiest level. As you progress, levels get tougher — Maharashtra, then UP, and so on. The toughest levels are Jammu & Kashmir and Sikkim. All these games have popped up in the past three months and most will find it difficult to survive once the election euphoria fizzles out. “We are aware that after the elections, the interest of most users in election-centric games will dry up. So, we are coming up with an update that will not only give a new look to the game but will make it even more interesting and relevant once the election results are out,” says Mahip Vyas, head, Alliances and Distribution, Games2Win. While most games and apps are not offensive, some tread the thin line between freedom of expression and its abuse. So, there are games like Pappu Versus Modi, Feku Versus Pappu and Pappu Prime Minister. In Feku Versus Pappu, you can “choose your favourite party leader and vote for him. You can punch and slap the opposition”. So, this game can serve as a virtual punching bag and help you get rid of your anger at politicians’ hollow promises. Sadly, the Samajwadi Party leadership has not found favour with app developers. break-page-breakPolitics & ProfitsWant to rile a game developer? Ask him whether India will ever see a game as big and as successful as an Angry Birds or a Temple Run. “It is like asking whether India will ever see a Microsoft. It depends on several factors. India is a different country and our games are different, but we are doing everything in the book and even outside it and we are seeing results,” says an agitated Alok Kejriwal, co-founder and CEO of Games2Win. As gaming apps gain traction globally, gaming enthusiasts in India are migrating towards them. However, the acceptance of locally developed games is still not high. According to mobile measurement and analytics firm Infomate Mobile Intelligence, globally popular games such as Temple Run and Angry Birds figure in the top 25 apps used by Indians in 2013. There is no built-in-India gaming app in the list. Some industry trackers say that built-in-India gaming apps, especially those with elections as their theme, will find a place in the list of top 10 games to have been downloaded in the past four months in India. Are these games making money? Currently, the Indian mobile gaming industry is at a nascent stage with revenues estimated to be around Rs 560 crore, according to KPMG and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. The mobile gaming segment could increase to Rs 1,800 crore by 2016-17, says their report. Compared to global figures, the Indian gaming industry is very small.The global mobile gaming industry is estimated to be around $13 billion and, by 2015, it could become a $22-billion industry, according to a report by technology research and advisory firm Gartner. While the exact data on the number of apps launched around elections is not available, industry experts estimate, collectively, between Rs 10 crore and Rs 15 crore has been spent on their development. Developing an app may cost as little as Rs 60,000 ($1,000) or as much as Rs 1.5 crore ($250,000). Industry experts say that Angry Birds creator Rovio spent between Rs 75 lakh ($125,000) and Rs 1 crore ($ 180,000) in developing the app. This is, however, not the case in India. Apps developed during the election season are estimated to have cost between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 10 lakh. No app developer was willing to disclose the exact cost incurred. App developers are, however, willing to talk about the money they have made from these apps. They estimate that political apps have generated between Rs 40 crore and Rs 50 crore in the past few months. While this number may look small, it is quite substantial given the size of the industry in India (though not all developers are based in India). Most election-themed apps are free-to-download. In-app advertisements provide the revenues. “The games around elections have huge potential for earning profits. Normally, profits are made through the advertisement pop-ups, and we have seen very good numbers,” says Vishwas Dwivedi, founder, Born2Win, an Indore-based firm that has developed the Modi As PM game, in which the player has to make Modi jump over hurdles to reach the “PM’s throne”. The game has seen close to 5,000 downloads. It broke even after 500 downloads and is now making profits. “Once we launched the app, we aggressively approached advertisers who saw the potential,” says Dwivedi. One such advertiser, Poland Tourism, is the game’s main backer on the Android platform. Similarly, Dexati’s Modi Run has generated returns through advertisements which, till date, are 10 times its initial investment. While advertisements may be an irritant for users, they are a dependable revenue stream for app developers, particularly because mobile users may not be inclined to pay for such apps. Also, these apps are more popular on the Android platform where only 3 per cent of the apps downloaded are paid for. Some developers, however, have decided to forego profits from their apps. Games2Win, for instance, has kept its game free of advertisements and is not planning on monetisation. “Our focus right now is to give a good user experience,” says Vyas. Riding the election wave, mobile app developers have managed to generate interest among users. The big question is: How will they transform themselves once the elections are over? (This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 02-06-2014)
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