Commerce in the Connected Era - What are Consumers Using Mobile Devices For?

Smartphone or Tablet? Shopping or entertainment? Social Networking or Business? Search or Post-purchase?

The mobile revolution has taken the world by storm in 2010-11, and the signs for continuing growth are still looking good, with the mobile wars between Apple's iOS and Google's Android getting fiercer and fiercer.

But, if you are in any kind of business today - tech or otherwise - there's no escaping the impact the mobile devices have begun to have on it. Businesses - and their IT - are in a mad scramble to figure out what to do, to get a share in this pie. Just like the hype around cloud computing, there are no easy answers, but this interesting survey by Nielsen tries to provide a hint to answer the questions above.

It's a good report, and could be a helpful tool for helping that organization identify their strategy to how to just get that market share away from their competitor.

Mobile commerce

Happy reading - and feel free to post your comment if you used a mobile device to read this one. LOL!

Mobililty Applied - The Supermarket In Your Hand

As the number of mobile devices the world over continues to climb higher, and statistics show the ever increasing rise in smartphones and tablets over the first-generation phones, frankly, one can't help but wonder, how all these things will really come together. For whom? Well, for both consumers and businesses alike.

It's easier for consumers as they find novelty and amusement in the 450,000+ Apple iPhone or Google Android apps on App Stores (see this excellent peek into how the Mobile influences your 24 hours). Game providers (ala Angry Birds) are probably singing their way to the banks. But what about the remaining 449,000 apps? Who is really using these?

What we see here is the 'Long Tail' phenomenon at play. And, while this has indeed become possible with the innovations and platforms provided by companies like Apple and Google, no doubt, the million dollar question that's asked in enterprises is - what can we do with this new disruptive force?

Well, one company appears to have got it right - and superbly too. Tesco, a leading UK retailer, has demonstrated an amazing way to make a difference to the lives of Koreans in the way they live and work. This video (below) explains exactly how, and in so doing, Tesco has become a leader in this new geography, a true sign of innovation powering growth in unchartered territories!

10 Best Tablets of 2011 (Reviews)

The mobile revolution is already making deep inroads. After the fancy phones, this year has already seen almost every one going crazy after Tablets - those uber-cool devices that Apple introduced to the world sometime ago. Not to be left behind, and with the rising popularity of Google's Android, there's been a score of tablets that have flooded the marketplace.

As we come to a close of 2011 shortly, here's an easy to use review of the best tablets of 2011.
(PS: You may or may not agree to all the review criteria or the ratings, but it's still a good, quick summary, to help you make a more informed choice, if you're planning on getting one of these anytime soon! Happy shopping!)



(PS: Use the option buttons above to zoom in/out, navigate or interact better with the visual map above)

Big Data Architecture(s)

"Facebook is the world's largest social network, with a user population exceeding 800 million and 2.5 billion photos uploaded a month (2009)." Twitter is the largest micro-blogging site in the world with millions of messages exchanged everyday. "About 5 billion mobile devices are in use (as of 2010), the world over, and that doesn't even include everyone in the most populous countries of the planet."These are staggering facts by any standard...
This is the digital age, and we are using technology everyday - rather, every second of the day - to connect, collaborate, share, with the people who belong in our social sphere, be it for work or fun. And, with the rise and affordability of means of capturing and sharing digital information at the click of a button, there is just an extreme burst of data that flows through the guts of the Internet (and systems) today.

A new age is beginning to dawn where the ability to process, analyze and visualize these vast bits of data will lead to newer insights into the way people are leveraging the technological innovations to improve their personal as well as business relationships. It is this new paradigm that is aptly called BigData, and is here to stay.

The great presentation below walks us through the internals of what make up such Big Data Architectures, and also provides a peek into the (earlier) architectures of Facebook and Twitter.

Thanks to Philippe Julio for sharing this presentation.

The Rise of the Social Enterprise: Enterprise 3.0 is on the way

Ever since the dawn of Web 2.0, there has been a revolution that's underway. The new(er) web has been dramatically changing the way folks live, work, interact - whether for accomplishing their work or personal goals. And, this is all enabled by the rich internet platform that is only likely to get richer, with the advent of cloud computing, social media and mobile devices. There's unlikely to be a disagreement on that one.

And, there's no doubt, that while individuals on this planet are increasingly embracing this new, social web, through means such as [no prizes for guessing!] Facebook (oh, yeah, and now there's Google+) and Twitter, there is a lot to be said for the same in the capacity of say, an employee, a customer or a partner. Enterprise-adoption of these "social" channels is on the rise, but has been slow to pick up since the past few years, barring may be examples of a few who hopped on to the Social Media bandwagon.

Last week, at Salesforce.com's premier event, Dreamforce 2011, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff's Keynote presentation showcased a strategic vision for the 'Social Enterprise', a coming together of sorts of Cloud Computing & the Social Web for the Enterprise (aka Enterprise 2.0). The messaging and presentation was engaging, crisp, and invigorating ( a la Steve Jobs, may be?).

In case you missed this major, annual event of the pioneer of Cloud-based (SaaS) services, then check out the presentation (and don't forget to tune in to the keynote video too).

Dreamforce 2011 Social Enterprise Keynote @benioff @salesforce

Hope you enjoy it. And, should we say, don't hesitate to socialize this, if you like it. Cheers!

What's different in Google+ compared to Facebook?

Ok, so there's a lot of discussions that this can trigger, and it has been so, in the online world. Is Google's launch of Google+ too late to catch up with Facebook? Is Google concerned with the rise and rise of Facebook? (well, yeah - duh?). Is it facebook's turn to be concerned now?

Oh, well. We think that there's enough of all those debates and views being discussed, and that's probably adding to the 'unanticipated capacity' that Google+ experienced a day or so after it's launch. So, we thought, let's not add another to the lot, but let's get under the hood, and find out what's the difference in Google+ going to be vis-a-vis Facebook.

Thanks to NixonMcInnes, here's a quick look at what Google+ is all about. Well, there's nothing about facebook in there, for it's unlikely that you'll not be in the 500+ million who already know how facebook is!)

Google Plus briefing notes

View more presentations from We are NixonMcInnes

(PS: Hmm, it appears, Google+ apparently seems to share - or is it called leverage? - a few things that were in Google Buzz. Most likely that's not pure coincidence. But hey, does it matter - it's Google, after all!)

The Rise of the Mobile (Mobile Trends)

Mobiles are the rage today. With an increasing penetration and the continuing popularity of Apple's iPhone and Google's Android, the mobile revolution is clearly under way.

Here are two great presentations that take us through what the mobile trends unfold in the years to come ( or at least in the near future)
1. Mobile Trends - June 2011

2. 2010 Mobile Trends, Mobile Development Strategy, Mobile User Experience - Realcommerce consulting

Building Scalable Web Applications: The Non-relational Way!

A trend that's emerging since 2009 (see graph) shows that there's been an increasing interest in a new (type of database?) architecture to cater to the "super applications" of the web era of today. Examples cited include the likes of Facebook (500+ million users), Google (Petabytes of data), Amazon (millions of items, reviews, comments), and others.

The question that's been doing the rounds therefore is, how does one design for such scalable, resilient, highly available and efficient applications. Well, one of the factors is being/has been addressed with the advent of cloud computing architectures, and it's no surprise, that Amazon, Google and Facebook have played a pioneering role in that.

But, that apart, research that has been going on has shown that a relational datastore may not be the best option for everyone, and thus, was born the concept of NoSQL, meaning 'Not Only SQL'. Or, in other words, 'not only relational'. NoSQL is an area that gaining increasing attention, especially when dealing with distributed systems architecture, and as the presentation (below) explains, for good measure.

To be relational, or not to be relational? That's NOT the question!

It may not be the end of the RDBMS, but there's definitely one more way to architect the web applications of this age. (See the earlier post: 'Understanding NoSQL Databases' for a more detailed look into NoSQL)

Amazon.com: The Hidden Empire

Amazon.com is the largest e-retailer on the planet, and while books is probably the first things that comes to mind, they are into an amazing number of things.

Jeff Bezos has laid out the vison and has left no stone unturned to turn this into reality.

The presentation below is a superb compilation of what's behind this leading brand today, and how this mammoth enterprise is driving its strategy towards innovation and customer satisfaction.

Amazon.com: the Hidden Empire

(Thanks to faberNovel for sharing this)

Web-Oriented Architecture (WOA)

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) has been under discussion for more than a few years now. Likewise, we have seen the advent of Web 2.0 and the evolution of social computing in the blink of an eye. And, now there's the whole cloud paradigm that's the talk of every technical conversation, whether in the real or digital world. The following wonderful presentation takes us through how SOA and the new Web (Web 2.0) are intersecting to form, what is being referred to as the Web-Oriented Architecture.

Web-Oriented Architecture (WOA)

Facebook Engineering and Open Hardware

Facebook just announced that it is going to open source its server and data center designs and has announced the formation of the Open Compute Project, an industry-wide initiative to share specifications and best practices for creating the most energy efficient and economical data centers. This could potentially mark the beginning of an era, akin to what open source software did for the software industry: Open Hardware.

Surely a great thing to happen in a world that is becoming increasing open, both technically and of course, socially. The Open Compute project is about making available the "hacks" that the Facebook Engineering team has worked on to efficiently power their data centers. This opening-up is with the intent to encourage innovation in the hardware design space, much like open source promotes innovation.

Watch the folks at Facebook Engineering in this short video speak about this, first hand.


Oh, and just one thing: don't expect hardware to become free anytime soon, like what's happened in the software industry. Till then, well, cloud computing may hold the promise for those who cannot do the engineering themselves!

Understanding NoSQL Databases

Of late, what with the rise of phenomena like Facebook and Twitter, that are pushing the envelope, requiring handling requests and data at scales not seen so far, there is clearly something different at work, under the covers. Sure, this has been possible with the rise of technologies that enable Web 2.0, Social Media and Cloud Computing, but there's probably another key element at work that powers this.

This key element - the ubiquitous data store - is not your classical relational database aka RDBMS. Instead, it's a new kind of database (architecture), viz. NoSQL or the non-relational database.

The following presentation is an excruciatingly detailed, but very good look into the innards of the NoSQL Database architecture, and also helps to understand how this compares to RDBMS.

NoSQL Databases: Why, what and when

Thanks to Lorenzo Alberton for putting together this wonderful presentation.

See also, 'Building Scalable Web Applications: The Non-relational Way!', which provides a glimpse into the new, emerging trend of non-relational aka NoSQL databases.

100 Years of IBM

International Business Machines (IBM) is an iconic symbol of our times. In it's centennial year, the company has made an amazing video, where people aged 100 to 1 recount IBM's momentous milestones all the way from 1911 to 2011.

Understanding Facebook - A Web 2.0 Phenomenon

Started in only 2004, facebook.com is today, the world's largest social network, boasting more than 500 million (yes, that's half a billion!) users, who collectively spend more than 5 billion minutes per day.

The rise of facebook to it's present stature is awesome and incredible, by any yardstick, and its hardly surprising that Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of facebook, was named 'TIME Magazine's Person of the Year, 2010'.

facebook has come a long way since it's early days, and has revolutionized the social dynamics of the human race today, be it in the personal or corporate or community sphere. It is thus, a first hand example of the awesomeness of the era of Web 2.0. Since the number of facebook user's is now crossing 550 million, it's likely that you too are already using it, or have at least seen it at some point. So, it's no point discussion 'Facebook 101'.

However, if one wants to get a sense of what this phenomenon is all about, check out this comprehensive presentation.

Facebook: Beyond The Fundatmentals

And, if you found this helpful, as we did, then, in the spirit of the theme, you may indicate your 'Like'ness !!