Hope we are doing good... How is mobile industry doing?

Hello everyone,

MPE-II exams are half way through and it tempts me to reiterate those famous lines of Shweta - "I hope we are doing very good so far in the exams [she said, in presentation!]":-). As expected, the Business Strategy exam yesterday was interesting one - some wrote about dhobi ghaats (radically different thinking, you know!), some predicted future of PCs, some gave out-of-the-box strategies for innovations. It also made me read a lot in past few days about PCs, PDAs, Mobiles and Digital Divide.

1) A couple of days back D Shivakumar, MD, Nokia India, wrote an excellent piece on "Mobile phone: the ultimate personal product" in The Economic Times.

"A mobile phone has become the ultimate personal product in India. It is the huge personality statement and competes with other ‘notice me’ products like a watch, a pen, shoes, hand bags, sunglasses. A mobile phone is with you 24 x 7. Not even a wrist watch is with you 24 x 7.

It’s estimated India will have more than 500 million mobile subscribers by 2010. Of the 500 million phones in people’s palms, 250 million will have Internet connectivity, 250 million will have imaging (camera) capability, 200 million will have radio capability and 200 million will have music capability and a 100 million could have video capability. This is the India PC. A traditional PC will find it difficult to compete with a mobile phone in India."

[And today's ToI has a big ad on the first page - iPhones are coming to India very soon and Vodafone has started registration as well.]

2) We studied about Intel's strategy of "Intel Outside" and how they phased out the business in 2001. Latest news is that the Intel has just launched their new processor "Intel Atom Inside" for MIDs and Smartphones.

Read more at http://www.intel.com/technology/atom/index.htm

The mobile industry has huge growth potential and spotlight is well and truly on emerging markets including India.

Negotiation with Dentist

A couple of teams today presented this funny video of negotiation with dentist. Just thought of sharing it...

Presentations over, time to gear up for exams

Today we completed all presentations / assignments for semester II. Our presentation on 'Power in Negotiation: Sources & Uses' was really good. There are few things I personally am quite satisfied with:

• The way team used a 'refreshing' approach to presentation: having 2 people present in the mode of conversation (like two hosts for TV programs). It was a challenging task that requires lot of coordination, preparation and spontaneity. And the performance of the group was duly appreciated.
• There was healthy dose of role-plays - four of them to be precise. And who will forget how impressed Prachi was with Anand's acting in role play:-)
• Everybody in the group got opportunity to enact in role play as well as present specific topics!

I think it was a job well done! Congratulations and thank you, team!

I must also mention that I was quite impressed by the presentation of Jitu's group on 'Who makes a good negotiator?'. They truly demonstrated how 'less is more'. And what to write about those A/V clips - spot on! Congratulations to the team! It was a treat to watch.

Well, presentations are over now. Exam date (Jun 21st) is nearing faster than I could imagine. Lets wish ourselves all the very best and go for it!

Inspiring story of Sana Raoof - winner of Intel Foundation's Young Scientist Award

Sana Raoof , a 17-year-old high school girl, is one of the top three winners of Intel Foundation's Young Scientist Award. Intel selected three top young from among more than 1,550 young scientists from 51 countries, regions and territories for their commitment to innovation and science at the end of the world's largest pre-college science fair, held between May 11 and May 16.

Sana's research provided new insight into how a better understanding of mathematical Knot theory could help resolve classic biochemical problems. Read the inspiring story of the 17 year old, very talented girl...

http://us.rediff.com/news/2008/jun/05teen.htm