Swype for Nokia

Swype keyboard is one feature that is changing dynamics of message typing. In April, Franklin Page made Guinness world record by typing a text message in 35.54 seconds using Swype keyboard on Samsung Omnia II. Then last month on 23rd August 2010, a British woman broke this record by nearly 10 seconds and typed same message using Swype on Samsung Galaxy S in 25.94 seconds though Guinness book still have to put this in their books. Anyways main point is Swype is one cool feature on smart phones and it started from Windows Mobile platform then to Android and now to Symbian.

Below is the message you can try on your phone and check if you can beat the record. Type the exact message without quotes.

"the razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human"

Here is the link to video of current registered world record though its broken but new one is not registered yet.




I typed(Swyped) the message on my N97 in 2 minutes. Well i ain't expert on this used it first time. I bet after few days would definitely type(Swype) this under one minute.

Below is the video of me using Swype on my N97. Quality is poor but still you can see how Swype works on it though you won't be able to see typed letters. Still you can see how easy its to type using Swype.






Swype application for Sybian can be downloaded from here

3D Craze or Sensible Move?

Sony today held conference in 3D talking about upcoming products which all revolved around 3D. Is Sony trying to have first movers advantage in 3D field by bombarding product lines with 3D options or would it end up as a big failure?3D on a 70 inch movie hall screen look amazing but wen its brought to home on nearly half the size or in Sony's vision nearly 1/4 of the size would it leave the same experience?Well, only time can answer this. In my opinion 3D is next big thing but having a craze for it and bring it to every electronic item doesn't make sense. 40 inch 3D TV do make sense but 15 inch 3D Laptop? Anyways lets discuss 3D gadgets Sony promised to launch in near future.

3D PS3: Best product which soon be available in Sony stores. Only product in my view which made sense and holds great future. 3D gaming is one industry which is still on its infant stage and holds great potential in future.

3D movies: As usual after Avatar success Sony Pictures Entertainment have few upcoming movies in 3D like Spider-man, Green Hornet. Nothing much new here just more 3D movies and bye bye 2D. Spider-man 3D home series would also be released which would run on 3DTV without glasses.

3D World Cup: Yeah this is the biggest news for soccer fans (Not so big for Indian). This world cup was aired in 3D by ESPN but only few were able to enjoy but with more 3D devices coming in near future more and more would be able to. Although manufacturers are selling 3D TV's in India but 3D TV's and 3D channels would take a long time to be part of our routine lives.

3D Laptop: Yeah right what next 3D phone?Oh how can i forget that Samsung already announced that so i am sure Sony would be working on the same. Anyways i don't understand how a 14-15 inch screen can give 3D experience comparable to a 70 inch movie hall screen or even to a 40 inch 3D TV.

Apart from above there would be a new upcoming 1080p 3D projector, Blu-ray players getting 3D update.


Source

Branding or Product Innovation?

On 31st July 1995 India made its first cellular call on a Nokia phone using Nokia network and today after 15 years we have 15 companies fighting in telecom sector to reach on top. Apart from this we have over 50 mobile phone manufacturing companies selling there mobile phones in India. With current mobile subscriber base of 635 million every mobile manufacturer is trying to expand its market share. Irony is the company which started all in India is taking the maximum beating.

In upper segment Nokia faces tough competition from Apple, Samsung, Sony-Ericsson, RIM(Blackberry), Motorola. Nokia's current best smartphone N900 features and technology is already lagging behind of iPhone 4, Galaxy S, Milestone, Xperia X10. To stand against them Nokia needs to come up with some product innovation to remain in smartphone market or else the biggest manufacturer would be wiped out of the segment ruled by it. Latest in line from Nokia is N8 which shows some signs of a good product but i guess its entry is too late in market and also it runs on Symbian OS which itself is way behind of Android(Google OS) and iOS(Apple OS).

Now, if we talk about lower segment there are new player raining in market and eating up Nokia share. Although these players are targeting lower and middle income group of Urban and especially rural, they are spending hefty for branding. We have seen Micromax coming and shouting aloud in market and grabbing a chuck of Nokia market share, same thing Karbonn tried although it wasn't as successful as Micromax. Branding ideas from these newly entered manufacturers are quite unique and appealing. For instance Wynncom mobiles not only made Bipasha Base and Saif as there brand ambassadors but also they recently came up with new scheme i.e with their mobile one can send free sms to anywhere in India, UAE, Singapore, Malaysia etc.(powered by 160by2.com). Another example is Lava mobiles which made their phone with Alpha keypad instead of QWERTY used by every other manufacturer to be different and visible in crowd and now they have announced to be the first mobile manufacturers to include rupee sign on their phone.

With such unique marketing ideas tried by new entrants to make a brand and also pressure from technology advanced companies such as Apple, Samsung, Motorola is making a sandwich out of Nokia.

Nokia is fighting with all this on the brand name and service network they had established for years in India. But only relying on brand name won't help for long. It's time for them to come up with some product innovation along with re-enforcement of their brand.

Are You a Smart User??

Smartphone is the hot sell in today’s market but what is the meaning of a smartphone? According to me smartphone is one that provides at least following features apart from normal mobile phone features.

• It should have an operating system which can be any Symbian, Maemo (Linux based OS), Blackberry OS, OS X (iPhone OS), Windows mobile, Android (Google OS) or latest Windows 7 series which is ready to debut later this year.
• It should allow internet access via GPRS or EDGE as it is becoming standard feature in mobile industry because of the increase in social networking sites such as Twitter or Facebook.
• It should allow installation of third party software. Most common software standard has to be quick office or any other software which support reading of office files.
• All email provider compatibility is the basic function a smartphone is required to support.

If all the above features are there in a phone than it qualifies to be called as a Smartphone but I feel these were standards of the past. Today’s smartphone need to perform beyond all this. We are already witnessing one more standard being added to this list i.e. QWERTY keyboard either physically present or on-screen keyboard on a touchscreen. QWERTY keyboard in the phone was made as a standard by Blackberry in the smartphone market is now shifting to on-screen QWERTY keyboard by Apple through their iPhone. This left many manufacturers wondering whether to keep physical keyboard or on-screen one, this led many latest phones designs to have sliding QWERTY keyboard along with touchscreen which provide on-screen keyboard.

What has ignited this smartphone market further is the induction of players like Google in OS market and apps world brought by Apple. The future of a mobile manufacturer in this market would largely be depending upon the choices they make.

Choice of OS as the operating systems has witnessed a generation jump in the recent past. Windows mobile 7 series operating system is the next big thing in OS market and it can be said had it not been Google coming up with Android Microsoft wouldn't had Windows mobile 7 series hitting market this soon. Already OS market saw a huge deflection with Android changing standards of mobile OS. These changes have left market leader Symbian to really produce something out of box to catch with these fast changes to survive in rapid growing smartphone market.

Apps stores have become one of the most important factors in decision making of buying smartphone. Apple initiated this change by changing the standards of the smartphone industry and smartphone went beyond business segment and becoming a buzz in the youth segment.

According to me following features apart from normal mobile phone would be the standards in a smartphone:

• Operating system.
• Apart from GPRS and EDGE at least 3G and WLAN.
• Own apps store with wide range of applications.
• Processor. (Like we have in computer and already exist in many phones going as high as 1Ghz)
• RAM and ROM. (Already exists in many smartphones)
• QWERTY keyboard.
• Multiple e-mail accounts. (Already provided by many smartphones)