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Sunday, September 9, 2012

To "platform" or to "Service"



A recent conversation with a group of senior technologists unwittingly turned into an interesting debate. This post covers a few areas that I felt may be relevant to all engineers.
We discussed at length about platforms, services, APIs and offerings or products. I stand more focused on building offerings and services. Hence I poured out my opinions on how offerings and services bring a variety of challenges and need focus on business and engineering which is complex in its own way.
Such debates seldom finish with a decided winner. Our debate was no different. However mid-way into the debate, I realized that each of us had a definition of “platform” and “service” that varied significantly. Our arguments were based on our biased definitions of these terms. Fighting these definitions seemed harder than concluding the debate. Indeed the debate was beyond just these definitions.
In any case, the conversation inspired me to get my own definitions right and also look at comparative answers at Wikipedia and beyond. So here is a compilation of a few definitions in my own words borrowed heavily from the Internet.
Platform or Computing platform: Hardware and a software stack that provides engineers a ‘stack’ to extend and build a particular type of solution. By definition it is expected to set constraints and serve as the basis to solve a particular type of “technical” problem. Most platforms offer a framework based on best practices and suggested ways to solve a problem. So far so good. The interesting aspect of a platform is that it rarely solves any business problem in itself. It is for most part a suggested way to solve problems of a particular type in any domain. Work flow platforms, Content platforms, BPM platforms. These platforms are suggested ways to solve a problem in many enterprises. The platforms that come to my mind are – J2EE, Android platform etc. A platform is too broad based to help build solutions at a faster pace. It only paves the way to setup “services” or “APIs” which in turn will help setup the right solutions.

Services and APIs: API is an interface against which one can program. Typically an API is download-able piece of code that you can deploy with your own code and leverage the API’s functionality. APIs also fine grained by nature and does not always provide a business service by itself. One is expected to stitch up a few API calls and orchestrates these calls to setup a service. The term service today is associated mostly to “SOA” or Service oriented architecture. Services by design solve a business problem, are scalable, are available on the net, are secure and are platform independent (client and service need not be coded in the same language).
The word API is often used in place of service – E.g. Facebook graph API. Some of these online APIs, are essentially services. As these APIs do not solve a business problem themselves and only expose the underlying data over the web; the word APIs suits them better.
Most products have to begin their journey with a strong service / API layer. Depending on your domain, clientele and ecosystem, you would have to build a service / API strategy and develop the offering around it or even share the services so that engineers can program to it. The dominant design patterns of today discourage engineers from building APIs and allow the ecosystem to “download” it. Services built on top of APIs or hosted APIs that expose the underlying data / logic leverages the advantages of distributed computing and scales better.
Services and APIs are written on top of a platform. They are hosted as per the platform specifications and the clients who invoke them care less about the platform that was used to setup the services.

Offering or the product – The offering or the product is what a company creates for their customers. The Interface, packaging, distribution, support, reliability etc. form an integral part of this offering. A Saas offering is best developed by creating services and then building the offering around it, as though the offering was the first customer for the services.

The key difference between platform and service is the kind of problem it solves. A platform does not solve a business problem. It only provides a path for engineers to build services / offering. A service is the solution that engineers have to build if they wish to setup an offering or offer a service to their customers.

Very often I hear engineers intending to say "services", but instead, they say "platform". I believe that the intent of these 2 engineering terms is to define something very different and a broad agreement on what does it take to call something a service or a platform is important. At least 1 engineer going forward will be more careful when using these terms.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Mobile apps - in India, for India, by India

The new roulette in geek town is the mobile app store and the gamblers this time are fame (and presumably money) hungry engineers. The cost to play a round is quite low. Most engineers can get an app developed within 2 months (if the idea is clear). Launching an app on the world stage is now a structured process and a non-event.

But how do u rate a mobile app. Is it a downloads?  Is it revenue? How do you compare a free app download against a paid app download / revenue? I don't think we are at that point in the maturity curve of mobile apps. Not until angry birds still rules the charts.



This makes it very interesting for engineer entrepreneurs, who have an idea and want to take it to market. What makes this domain even more interesting is that Intel has ploughed in USD 20 million into 6 Indian companies. All of them in the mobile domain.


In this post I try not to get into the rating game and instead look at mobile apps in India, meant for use in India and (hopefully) created by Indian engineers.

Banking apps - ICICI and SBI seem to be the only Indian banks having a mobile app. On the Android market, the SBI app seems to have about 50k downloads. The reviews are not too friendly to the app. ICICI app seems easy to use and it has more downloads too (it falls into the 100-250k downloads category). The reviews are also kind to the app and the bank.  I was able to activate and use ICICI bank mobile on my android phone in under 5 minutes. The app definitely has improved since I first tried it on my Nokia phone. 
Most other banks tend show case themselves on the ngpay app. The ngpay app is like a shared app space with balance enquiry and atm location as the primary features. I could spot the axis bank and HDFC bank options on ngpay.
With under 400k downloads on the android market, one can project the total users is under 1 million for such apps. By volume one can conclude that the app is not much of a success. The 2 leading banks are the only ones with some play in this field right now. This sector may take a long time to show ROI for a mobile app

Media Apps - NDTV, CNN-IBN and TOI seem to be leaders in this market. These companies naturally stand to lose their traditional bastion with the entry of mobile apps. Ad revenue is what runs these companies and if advertisers spend on mobile apps, then the media companies cannot be far away. Most of these apps allows users to view videos and news items from their online portal. Overall I like the NDTV app on iPad for the clean UI. As a sector this space needs high innovation to compete in a crowded market (more crowded than the TV channels list). Providing access to their real programs and other content for offline viewing could affect their primary revenue. So balancing this out is crucial. 
The competition in the sector is not clear yet. Is yahoo a competition, or is the competion for NDTV from TOI? Is TED a competition to NDTV? Hard to call right now. In any case, good to see that these companies have a presence in the sector. Most of these apps are free and show ads for their revenue, which is not unexpected. How far will the ad revenue take them?

SMS based apps -  SMS as a service to inform users has hit the right chord with Indian users. Credit card swipes in India are now followed by an SMS being sent to the credit card owner within 10 seconds. This is awesome. With the latest ruling by TRAI, marketing messages are also now a thing of the past. This sector looks fresh and inviting for innovation. Pull based services could be on the rise. App stores like appshup and txtweb provide an easy way to link up an existing service to be offered over SMS. Cricbuzz is a great example of a cricket scores over SMS. The number of apps in these stores are a testimony to how SMS based apps can still make sense to the masses. The Bangalore traffic police also has an SMS complaint service to help commuters complain about auto rickshaw drivers. 

Payments and ecommerce space
ngPay, obopay and mChek have been on the payment horizon for a while. Even with the new IMPS payments framework, one has not seen this segment reach the inflection point. The field is still open for the next big or small company to enter.

Other important mentions
BookMyShow - About 100k downloads and going strong. Primarily allows users to book movie tickets apart from other events in your city. Has an excellent 4.3 star rating.

Tata sky - An interesting app that allows you to use your mobile as a remote. Some social features also make it a fun app to own.

Last note: The Indian consumer is far from becoming a mobile app junkie. 'There is an app for that' is not yet the local lingo. App stores by telecom carriers mostly host social and gaming apps. Apps a a way to accomplish daily tasks is not yet the in thing. It is going to be a while for us to get to the inflection point. One can only hope that the smartphone revolution brings this point closer. For now the leading tech adopters in the Banking and media organizations have a presence and will make hay once the sun rises.



Thursday, October 6, 2011

News from the world of business and tech - October 6th

Here is some interesting news from the world of tech biz.

InMobi gets $200mn investment - In a very positive move, Bangalore based mobile ad network, InMobi gets a $200 million investment from a Japanese Internet company - Softbank. So many things about this investment make it a landmark deal. The size of investment makes InMobi to be valued at  $800mn. The new truth - Companies based on the mobile story is a big play. Bangalore now is home many aspirational startups, including flipkart, Myntra and InMobi.




Groupon moves into next stage of India Strategy -  Groupon which had earlier bought sosasta.com, has renamed it as 'crazeal.com'. A new leadership team and a new sales strategy for India is now in place. Groupon is an interesting company to watch out for. While it's IPO plans have hit some rough weather, it continues to persist on that objective. On the other hand will deep discounting become a major play in an emerging economy like India or will it turn out to be sour grapes like it has for many in the USA. While restaurants and other leisure services seem to be lapping up such deal sites, it is a great time for 'crazeal.com' to go live.


Kerala set to become India's first "fully Banked state" - In the early nineties, Kerala achieved the seemingly impossible goal of 100% literacy. They have continued to remain stable on the education front, and now have proved the  old hindu adage, Lakshmi follows saraswati (or riches will come to those who are knowledgeable). With 6.5 mn households and 33 mn population, Kerala now boasts of a bank account in every household. With Aadhar and banking, need-based credit now has a chance of becoming super-efficient. Can Kerala also lead the way and become "zero corruption state"?


Interesting read


What are the telecom companies up to?
Vodafone and Myriad AG, have signed a deal to deliver social networking over SMS and USSD. Vodafone continues to bet on non-data services and leverage social networks to deliver VAS


BSNL launches an app store - Even though it is a laggard in the space, BSNL has launched an app store. The UI is not appealing (to me), but the fact that revenues on data has to be driven on the basis of apps is now an accepted truth.


5.3 mn mobile subscribers in August - The staggering growth story continues in the telecom sector. Airtel and Vodafone added about 1.15 mn subscribers each, to their fold in the same period. As we see the mobile phone reach saturation point, the telcos are laughing their way to the bank.

Monday, September 12, 2011

News for the week ending Sept 12th

News from the world of tech biz for the week of Sept 12th.


The past week will mostly be known as the week when Yahoo's board fired it's CEO. While many were pre-occupied following this story, other things did take place. Read on....


1. Tablet Sales in India - An interesting read on the market share of tablets in India. A report by Cyber media research tells the story of about 100k tablets sold till march 2011. The leader by a mile is Samsung galaxy and Android. 
Another quarter of a million tablets is expected to be sold between march and December 2011. Many are waiting for the post holiday season sales numbers of the tablets from Reliance and Bharti. if 2-5 million tablets can be sold over the next 2 years in India, then an app store for India centric software will definitely be worth pursuing. A lot of activity around software centered around the Indian tablet user  could be in demand(calculate your auto fare, translators from Indian languages to English, access text books  etc.).  


2. Chrome and FireFox leads the market - The 30-30-30 rule is at play in India. Based on the research done by statcounter, Approximating the numbers tells us that the aggressive marketing (including an advertisement at prime time TV), has paid big dividends. Given that Google seems to be into everything and failing on many fronts, this data will help compensate for other bad news. While FireFox and chrome do have a lot in common (plug ins, developer centric browsers, multiple tabs and most importantly speed), it is interesting to see IE being beaten even in free software market. IE's global market share is about 38%.  Microsoft is the new IBM (the one that cannot innovate because it has become too big) and Google is the new Microsoft (in a good way though, Google has helped re-write online software with new terminologies like perpetual beta and single version browser for all). With popular support for HTML 5 and a lightweight browser becoming a reality, this battle will be worth fighting for.


3. Draft IT bill to emphasize on connectivity for all - It is always boring to read about a new law in India. But policies are a different thing. TRAI, IRDA are some of the many policy initiatives that have borne fruit at an alarming pace (considering India's pace with policy and execution). This new policy will bring the focus onto connectivity between devices, wifi in public transport, rural adoption of IT. Combine this news with MSME, a good push by mobile carriers to achieve higher penetration and lastly the demographic state of India. This can only spell more Internet based business will start and prosper in the country. It may no longer be enough to copy business models from the US, but actually think of scale-able ideas that work in India.


Interesting read


Bangalore is not a bad place to work in - This time a great read about Bangalore and it's traffic state which is nothing new  to anybody who may have visited the city anytime over the past 10 years. There are so many things about this article that is interesting. IBM has something called commuter pain. Wow! how do they even model that! Here is chart that shows Bangalore's traffic is not the worst one. Even in the BRICS, it is not the worst. Bangalore is the worst traffic in India, but it is better to commute in Bangalore than it is in Beijing or Shenzen. Yeah finally Indian traffic is better than China's. Here is a metric where we are better off by doing less.  It led me to the IBM microsite on traffic management.  What was interesting is that the hardware spec for the product is quite detailed. I wonder how effective can a packaged solution be when applied across many cities.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

News for the week ending September 4th 2011

Here are some important news from the Indian technology business scene


1. SMSSupshup receives 5th round of funding - Taking the total funding to $47 m, Investors seem confident of a long term game in the SMS / messaging market. This round was led by Tenaya capital along with existing investors. The advertisers lining up to SMS gup shup is impressive - Microsoft, Kingfsher and more. It would be interesting to see whether a pure play SMS company can derive returns in the future as data plans become very affordable in India.


2. NDTV partners with InMobi's to handle Mobile advertising - InMobi has bagged a good deal to be the front agency for advertisers who wish to advertise on NDTV's mobile app. NDTV's mobile app on iOS and Andriod allows users to view live TV, news videos and more. The app is free and  allows ads to be placed both in video and regular txt ad formats. InMobi will indeed leverage it's own ad platform to deliver the value. This also allows InMobi to be in a leadership position when it comes to getting new sites / apps partner with them.


3. Karnataka government leads the way with eGovernance - Government of Karnataka, has arguably invested the most on eGovernance within  India . Long lines to pay utility bills are thing of the distant past. Bangalore one is also a very unique concept in citizen-government interaction using a private-public partnership. The latest initiative  by the government will ensure that all government orders, circulars, land records etc. will be scanned and uploaded for public consumption. With an earmarked budget of INR 32 crore, it will be an initiative that will help Karnataka cement it's leadership position as the more e-Governed state. The problem with such initiatives, is that they are separate initiatives which build applications in silo with no SSO or common infrastructure in mind. The future challenges for content aggregation and managing BigData is huge. 


4. Just how big is the Indian Internet and eCommerce market? - based on a report by JuxtConsult, this articles puts the online market size in India at 50 million with 17 million being open to eCommerce. While the Indian internet is about a 12 years old, the last 3 years have seen sustained innovation by .coms.The users seem to be out  from their shell. A projection of these numbers taking the addressable market size as 150 million (read last paragraph of this article), will show us that the eCommerce market will be about 50 - 70 million in the long run. Not bad market to pursue as long as one can deliver value at a competitive price. Can Flipkart still deliver a book within 24 hours of placing an order across India and be profitable? - If it can then Dalal street will regain appetite for .coms.


Interesting Read


While the US job scene seems to always give bad news month on month, this chart shows the ironic twist in the tale - Profit per employee is at historic at a high. The profit per employee is at USD 15000/-. Job loss and new efficiency mechanisms definitely prop these numbers up. While political America hopes to understand whether Government spending should go or Income should rise, Corporate America is waiting in the sidelines becoming more worthy than the government. Many people already believe that Wall street and Main street control the US political scene, the balance sheets of  private companies and that of the Government will only reinforce this belief. Who will be the next President of USA?- this time watch CNBC not CNN.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

News to follow - Week ending July 3rd 2011

Important tech news for the week ending July 3rd

1. Apple and Microsoft join hands to beat rival Google - This story begins in Jan 2009, when a former telecom major 'Nortel', filed for bankruptcy. After this Nortel began selling the company assets. A key part of this sale was about 6000 patents believed to be related to 4G and wireless networks. Google was first off the block by offering USD 990 million. Soon a consortium of companies joined the race. It was Google vs 'Microsoft + RIM + Apple + EMC + Sony'. So each of the companies individually paid less than 990 million, but in total they coughed up USD 4.5 billion to clinch the deal. Google has stated that it is "disappointed' with the result, but so much for trying to win the race alone.The interesting question is whether the consortium of companies can stay away from suing each other in the future with regard to these patents. Google may eventually have the last laugh :).

2. Oracle wants 2.6 Billion from Google - While this lawsuit was expected to be worth billions, it was never clear, how many. Finally the word is out. A new filing in the case shows that Oracle wants USD 2.6 billion from google. It has also alleged that sun had offered google reasonable licensing terms, despite this, Google went ahead to create andriod. Will this be the biggest revenue that the java platform has been able to earn for it's owners? The other way to look at this - Oracle bought Sun for USD 5.6 billion (nett of cash and debt on Sun's books). If they win this deal, then they would have got Sun for just USD 3 billion. Good thinking Mr. Ellison, it all makes sense now.

3. Reliance shuts down india's Social networking site bigadda.com - While Facebook and Zynga prepare for mega IPOs, india's social networking site bigadda.com will turn itself into an ecommerce site instead of focusing on social networking. Good idea. It seems to have been a busy 4 years for the team behind the website, who can do better fighting flipkart rather than facebook.

Interesting read

Here are 2 links that celebrate similar news. Windows phone marketplace has crossed 25,000 apps. Meanwhile Apple celebrated 100,000 apps on the app store for ipad. It justifies the market cap of the 2 companies too.


Sunday, June 26, 2011

News to follow - Week ending June 26th 2011

Here are the interesting links to follow from the past week. Don't miss the links related to SMS based marketing....:)

1. Email marketing leader takes note of SMS channel - With the new text-to-join feature and other text / SMS based features the market leader in email marketing seems to view SMS based communication as a viable model for digital marketers. While the intrusiveness of SMS is well known, it's ubiquity and ease of use makes SMS a killer medium for consumers and marketers. The company's press release also speaks of an opportunity in the loyalty program space which could go viral. Multi-Channel marketing with social, email and SMS could pose a big threat to traditional modes of marketing given the total time people spend on these media.

2. Foursquare gets USD 50 million funding - This funding comes at a valuation of USD 550 million (pre-funding). What makes this interesting is the valuation, because, foursquare got valued at USD 95 million in June 2010 and received a USD 20 million funding. Indeed foursquare has been able to launch it's services and reach 10 million user accounts. In the post linkedin-IPO era, these astronomical valuations and their sudden growth despite lack of a revenue model indicates a bubble. Valuations seems to be linked to the people who run the organizations rather than the economics or business model of the company. The number of "deals" based services in the planet will soon make the sector un-viable and soon lead to advertiser fatigue. A new model in marketing will also disrupt these existing companies. Till then enjoy the lunch foursquare.

3. Airtel's health mobile packs - This is definitely a novel way to bridge the digital divide. If health information is available at the keyboard for many of us, why not offer it via SMS for the millions who only own the mobile "computer". How to market these services and bring about awareness....? Is there a need for an SMS app store...?

4. Skype wanted to save a few bucks while selling out for 8.5 Billion ? - In a slew of articles and blog posts by former employees and denials by the investor group a public battle is being waged about how greedy can companies get. Before the big Microsoft buy out could be completed, the new CEO of Skype fired a few executive rank employees (articles say these exits were not from the technical staff, but from the business side of the organization - ouch). This meant that a new CEO denied these leaders a share of the big valuation pie and as expected the leaders including Chief marketing officer went to press with a great story on greed. The company denied any greed and spoke about incompetence as the reason to fire these employees. The mystery will remain so forever, but many lessons to be learnt if you are joining an organization for the equity.


Interesting read

A survey by Gartner of CIOs in Asia indicates that cloud computing will remain a top priority in the coming years for them. At the other extreme is the news from companies heading out of "public cloud" like Amazon cloud. Cloud computing means so many things to each of us, that in some form or the other it will remain in the news for some more time. On the surface, it seems like, organizations like target now see value to going back into their own "cloud data centers". is the real value of cloud only virtualization and elastic scale? Will public cloud like Amazon EC2 view themselves as the first choice only for bargain hunting startups.