Monday, April 06, 2009

update from me

Sorry its been a while ( almost more then 2 months) that i have posted. Last 2 months was quite interesting and hectic for me. Month of Jan we had remaining 3 core exams ( Business economics, accounting and Finance) . I got to say accounting was my most dreadful exam of all time i thought i would flunk at it although the results proved otherwise !! Overall I am happy with my results of 6 core courses ( marketing , strategy, Business economics, accounting and Finance).

Based on how i fared in these exams and also my involvment in these courses proved a point that finance is not my cup of tea !! Finance is good for any industry and very useful but it is not what i see myself doing for life. Also the recent recession proves that not many jobs are out there for finance and it is really not a good time to be in there.

So where do you want to be or where do you see yourself in next 10 years i asked myself whilst sipping coffee and looking at beautiful sunshine outside my flat.. My Gut said strategy, marketing and P&O would be my strong areas although i really appreciated economics and accounting. As of now i plan to get into business development or strategy consultant in telecoms or IT. Back up option in this difficult times would be to get into project management in high techs. Time will tell when my MBA ends sept 2009 till then i have few things to enjoy ...electives, IED project ( very interesting expereince till now , and final thesis)

........to be continued

3Iphones make 1 Tata Nano !! Why Iphone is not making grounds in India

Tata Nano or popularily called "people's car" was launched At Rs 1,00,000 ($ 2,500 when announced and $ 2,000 on the launch day thanks to Dollar appreciation against Rupee) Tata Nano is the world’s most inexpensive, yet it is a very modern car that gives 100 Km for a charge of 5 liters of petrol, has a stylish finish and meets the European norms for emission.

It will be interesting to watch Tata Nano unfold in the market over the next couple of years. BBC endorsed it best when it calls Tata Nano a demonstration of Indian ingenuity. !!


The unveiling of Tata Nano, the cheapest car in the world, triggers an important event in the car market. The car cost brings down the cost of ownership of an entry level car in India by 30%

So what does tata nano got to do with my title "3Iphones make 1 nano !!Why Iphone is not making grounds in India". The topic of The fortune at the bottom of the pyramid
By C. K. Prahalad proposes that businesses, governments, and donor agencies stop thinking of the poor as victims and instead start seeing them as resilient and creative entrepreneurs as well as value-demanding consumers. He proposes that there are tremendous benefits to multi-national companies who choose to serve these markets in ways responsive to their needs. After all the poor of today are the middle-class of tomorrow.

Since India has a huge base of middle class families if the products satisfy the needs of those growing middle class indians then product will be a hit.

We all know Iphone was a paradigm shifter in mobile industry as it made most of the manufacturers to focus on

> User interface
> Touch

The phone is doing quite good overall with 30 million sales worldwide but still iphone is not huge sucess in India these are few reasons I could think of

> Pricing needs to be bang on ! The iPhone is also priced far beyond the reach of even many middle-class Indian consumers. Even though market research company, estimates iPhones cost less than $175 to build, both Apple and Airtel stuck to the approximately $700 price for the phone in India, vs. $199 with a two-year AT&T contract in the U.S. In India, then, three iPhones equal one Nano, the $2,000 car that Tata Motors (TTM) launched in India just two weeks ago. If we see why Nokia has been strongest player in India The price tags of every Nokia mobile phone is very reasonable. I mean, I can still get a GSM mobile phone for as less as Rs. 1200 ( 22 $) in India with all the basic features and that will last long enough to pay me back with my dues.

> Functionality : Indians just use their phones differently. With spotty data coverage and slow download speeds on non-3G networks, the iPhone just doesn't dazzle the way it does in the U.S. Also, Indian customers like to forward text messages; Nearly 70% of them do that at least once a day. Until recently, the iPhone didn't allow users to do that. "It's a big functionality issue" solved only recently

> Competition : Nokia the world leader in mobile industry along with other players launch mobile phones which are customised to indian needs for eg Nokia 1100 which is simple and easy to use phone which has a torch light which people can use during nights in India. Over 200 million Nokia 1100 cellphones have been sold since its launch in late 2003, making it the world's best selling phone handset

> 3G: Iphone is best used when we use it with applications !! such as google maps on iphone. This would need data connection which works best on 3g etc. 3g is yet to be rolled in India even after the promised to auctioned by Dec 2008. so hopefully launch of 3g and wimax

Many things happening in India ..polictics, launch of Nano, india gaining ground in G20 west finally understanding that fortune is "truelly at bottom of pyramid"