Microsoft Windows – What’s up with PCs and tablets?

Traditional PC units (desktop and notebooks/netbooks) are in secular decline, consistent with most investor expectations that have observed the cannibalization of this market by smartphones and tablets over the past several years and the data points over the past two quarters that point to not only slower growth but an actual decline in unit sales year over year. Many of us still have a notebook, but we just don’t use it as much since we adopted a smartphone to function like a BlackBerry and an iPad to take notes and access email and content on the web.

There are things we still need a notebook for, so we bring it along when we know we need it, but we don’t upgrade as quickly as we used to (and we don’t drop it as often), (more…)

Do Tablet Users Really Care about Microsoft Office ?

We think many users do not care about Office functionality; their needs are for content consumption and ability to access the internet and note-taking. Where there is a need for greater functionality in content creation, Office should be an important lever to anchor productivity users to the Windows platform. The desire to have one device instead of carrying both a tablet and a notebook (also a smartphone of course) would work to Microsoft’s advantage, particularly if Apple is predominately selling the 8 inch iPad mini, where the screen is more limiting as a productivity device.

We expect Microsoft to leverage the collaboration capabilities of Office 2013 by putting the ability to read and edit an Office document on the iPad in 2013 and maybe on Android as well, but not the full functionality of Office that would have greater cannibalization potential to Windows. To increase the ability to share documents, this is important to be cross-platform, particularly if the other platforms are measured in hundreds of millions of users.

Microsoft has already made available a limited (more…)

Facebook Mobile Beginning to Monetize

Mobile was the highlight of Facebook’s 3Q results, as Facebook’s mobile advertising grew to ~$152mn. This rapid mobile ramp is encouraging as it showcases Facebook’s ability to draw advertiser display dollars into mobile (which generally continues to be a challenging medium for display advertising) as the company keeps innovating and improving monetization around its overall platform.

That said, it is important to note that for now we believe this quick mobile ad traction is largely (though not entirely) being driven by advertiser Facebook budget shifts away from poorly performing units (such as non-FBX right rail units) to new, better performing mobile Sponsored Story units. The availability of mobile units has indeed caused budget shifts within Facebook as desktop advertising year-on-year growth decelerated. In all, mobile contributed to 53% of Facebook’s total platform 3Q:12 advertising growth. This is due to multiple factors including: advertiser preference for better performing units on the platform, mobile making up a larger portion of the total Facebook use and ad units available (more…)

How do Mobile / Wireless Tariff Work in India – Beginners Guide

In India, different type of prepaid vouchers are available and 95% of the Indian Mobile / Cellular Market is Pre-Paid. We’d like to discuss on the Various types of vouchers in India and How Telecom Tariffs Work ?

What is New Sim card + first recharge (FRC)
New sim card sales provide a customer with a new sim card, a new mobile number. This pack generally provides some talktime and a
basic headline tariff structure valid over a given period.

What is Plan Voucher
After the initial validity is over, the customer uses the plan voucher to enrol in a tariff plan for a certain validity. It does not provide any monetary value.

What are Top-Ups ?
Top-ups only offer monetary value to customer’s account and do not change the tariff plans or validity.

What are Combo Plans
Combo Plans alters one or more items in the tariff plan of the consumer and adds (more…)

Bharti Infratel CEO on Future of Telecom Infrastructure Services in India

DS Rawat, CEO, Bharti Infratel Limited in an exclusive Interview answers Questions on the Future of Telecom Infrastructure Services in India.

What have been the key trends in the telecom tower space in India over the past two years?
Wireless telecommunication in India has witnessed rapid growth and is likely to see more traction with the advent of services based on next-generation technologies. Telecom operators across the industry have realized the importance of passive infrastructure sharing, which implies robust opportunities for the tower industry in the long term. The past year saw a slowdown because of the import restrictions on BTS equipment and also the high auction prices for 3G and BWA, which made mobile operators adopt a cautious approach toward their network rollout plans. 2011 is expected to witness stable growth on account of next-generation technologies driving the demand for data services and expansion in rural areas. (more…)