What 2012 has in Store for Us

Major  Events

•   London 2012 Olympic  Games- - July 27

      

•        India to host fourth BRIC summit in March ,2012.    

•   The first Winter Youth Olympics will be held in Innsbruck, Austria – January 13 – January 22.

•        The 2012 World Expo is to be held in Yeosu , South Korea – May 12 – August  12.

•        China to have world’s fastest train by 2012.

•     United States presidential election, to be held on , November 6, 2012.

•  The first quad-core smartphones will be available .

Diplomacy & Politics 

•         US diplomacy  will continue to frustrate China ‘s assertiveness  & hegemony in Asia  by building & strengthening its  Naval & Airbases in Japan ,Taiwan & Australia  & protecting its information networks  from perpetual Chinese hacking attacks   shifting its focus from war –torn & politically repressed  countries of  Middle East .We can expect a  Cyber war between ailing superpower (USA) & rising superpower(China).

•      India will try to proactively resolve its territorial &  cross border terrorism related issues with China & Pakistan .

•       Pakistan will become more isolated in the global community with (perhaps) China playing a greater diplomatic role who Islamabad. Pakistani Military  will try to wrest away power  from Civilian Governments.

·        Sectarian violence will continue to plague  Iraq as the Sunni Muslim minority seeks greater rights from the Shia-majority government and cabinet, without the presence of U.S. troops.

•        Woman diplomats will rule the roost in 2012.

•   Iran could have nuclear weapons by 2012 ,destabilizing & creating political & economic tensions in  Middle East again this year .

Economy 

•     World economy will grow at a snail’s pace with dismal performances in Europe , but emerging markets and the United States should at least keep the world economy moving in the right direction.

•      Europe faces another year of  stagnation &  grim economic outlook in 2012 that will weigh on global growth.Greece may be the first nation to exit Euro Zone.

•        Indian economy  will grow faster than Chinese in 2012 at 8.7% to China’s 8.4%.

•        The U.S. economy will grow faster in 2012 at  2.4 percent from less than 2 percent in 2011 reinforcing investors confidence in World stock markets.

•       China’s economy will slow down, reflecting the grim global climate, as well as the ever-weakening domestic property market and prospects for declining exports.In  the silver lining ,China will open up & ease its restriction in its  capital markets  to foreign investors & Yuan (Chinese currency) will challenge the primacy of US dollar in foreign exchange market.

•    Japan will recover & rebuild its economy  aided by continued reconstruction spending in the Tohoku region, ( Tsunami & Earthquake struck region) &  aided by higher exports  to grow at 2.2% in 2012 after contracting 0.2% this year .

•       Russia, faces  high inflationary risks and growing discontent with Vladimir Putin’s heavy-handed rule, will likely endure a turbulent year in 2012

Technology 

•                Year of Digital Convergence which will integrate the present array of medias & platforms and  Television will become  the new center of gravity in Tech Universe. Eg- Apple TV latest entrant in this segement ,Improved Google  TV 2.0 ,Samsung Smart TV's etc. 

•       Google+ fails as a social network
  
  
  ·        Market shrinks & new survival strategies unveiled by  RIM & Nokia .
  
  
  ·        Amazon.com  to become market leader in  e-readers, online streaming, grocery deliveries, etc.
  
  
  
  ·        Android vs. iOS  2012 – Clash of the Titans .
  
  
  ·        Applications will move to cloud  & companies will start revamping its IT infrastructure for cloud computing.
  
  
  
  
  ·        Tablets will take market by storm & will emerge as the most dominant mobile computing device.

           E-Commerce & Branding 

Brands will enable eCommerce on their own websites in new markets and launch online stores on marketplaces in multiple countries. Eg-  Amazon preparing to enter India. Or Brazil.

Next Year we can expect the Ecommerce organizations & Global brands cover  the World with localized offerings :

•        More brands will sell direct in international markets - An increasing number will look to extend their reach online globally, with brands expanding beyond French-, German- and English-language eCommerce sites in Europe, and increasingly enabling transactional sites in Asian markets such as Korea China & India.

•         International shippers will focus on consumers in specific markets  .

•        eCommerce companies’ “Tier 1” markets will include multiple emerging markets.    

 

•   BRIC will still be the acronym, but CBIR will be the order – China  will be the highest priority by marketeer.

    

•       Mobile enabled E-commerce will grow & flourish rapidly.

World's Cheapest Tablet - Ubislate 7 opens up for pre-orders at Rs 2999.

UbiSlate 7, the upgraded commercial version of the Aakash tablet ( World’s cheapest tablet ),is available for pre-booking which is scheduled to be launched in January next year & is priced at Rs 2,999 .

This Android tablet computer is jointly developed by London based company Datawind with Indian Institute of Rajasthan & made in China.

It was only last week when the Aakash tablet was released online . The low cost tablet has been receiving an overwhelming support from students and the general public alike and DataWind has already sold out what is touted as the world's cheapest tablet. aakashtablet.com.  So,  those waiting for the UbiSlate 7 can still go ahead and pre-order it.

Features of Ubislate 7 :

• High quality web anytime and anywhere.
• You can connect your Ubislate 7 via GPRS or WiFi.
• The amazing GPRS system will eliminate the need of external dongles and allow free access to internet anywhere.
• The faster WiFi connection will never make your YouTube videos to lag.
• You can use the Datawind’s patented acceleration technology for a faster web access even when on any GPRS network, across the country.
• You can have access to Web, Emails, Social Networking and much more.
• HD quality video playback will never disappoint you.
• The expandable 32Gb will give you access to many apps and many files to store in your tab.
• You can use any ordinary pen drive to access the data.
• The best part is, its a phone where you can make voice calls and receive calls.

Looking at the design ,built & specifications of this revolutionary gadget, this is an alluring value proposition for folks who are seeking to grab this opportunity .I just pre-ordered my Tablet today to be part of the dream, the change that is going to cause a revolution in digital media .So what are you waiting for  ?

India on the verge of Crisis as Rupee recedes

India may face its worst financial crisis in decades if it fails to stem a slide in the rupee, leaving the Reserve Bank of India  with a difficult choice over how to make best use of its limited reserves to maintain the confidence of foreign investors.

The rupee, which has dropped 16 percent in the past four months, got a relief  last week after the world's big six central banks banded together to try to ease dollar funding strains, helping it to snap a four-week losing trend. But analysts widely expect the rupee, trading on Monday at 51.26 per dollar, to resume its slide.

Current state of Indian Rupee perpetually  depreciating  makes RBI intervention into market mandatory through its monetary policies & other instruments available to its discretion.If  RBI’s intervention  is too timid, it add to risks by averting  portfolio investors, which India relies on heavily to cover its imports tab Aggressive intervention would leave the central bank open to criticism that it is wasting precious money on problems that are beyond India's control anyhow, noteably Europe's debt crisis.

Unlike most of its Asian peers, India has recently been running large current account and fiscal deficits. That means it must attract sufficient foreign money -- namely U.S. dollars -- to close the gap, and a weaker home currency makes that costlier.This is a perennial problem for India. The current situation is so worrisome because India is grappling with big internal and external economic threats simultaneously. Growth is slowing. Inflation remains high. Political paralysis has stymied domestic reforms.

The RBI, the last line of defence against a currency meltdown, has cautiously begun to support the rupee, but its firepower may be more limited than its $300 billion in reserves would suggest.Beyond India's borders, Europe is the biggest worry. As its banks deleverage, investment money has flooded out of India's markets. If Europe's debt troubles deteriorate, India could be hit If Europe's crisis deepens, India's trade deficit would widen even more rapidly, and it would have even more trouble attracting foreign capital.Risk appetite will obviously collapse and gradually the currency crisis is likely to take the shape of a balance of payments crisis.

India's current account deficit swelled to $14.1 billion in its fiscal first quarter, nearly triple the previous quarter's tally. The full-year gap is expected to be around $54 billion.Its fiscal deficit hit $58.7 billion in the April-to-October period. The government in February projected a deficit equal to 4.6 percent of gross domestic product for the fiscal year ending in March 2012, although the finance minister said on Friday that it would be difficult to hit that target.

India relies heavily on portfolio inflows -- foreign purchases of shares and bonds -- as a means of covering its current account gap. Those flows are fickle.Foreign portfolio investors have sold a net $50 million worth of equities so far in 2011 , in sharp contrast to the $29 billion they invested in 2010, data from the Securities and Exchange Board of India's website showed. In November alone, foreign funds pulled $661 million out of Indian stocks.

The drop in portfolio inflows and the hefty current account and fiscal deficits have been a key factor behind the rupee's decline. A deputy governor said on Saturday that the central bank would use "all available instruments" to stem a downward spiral.

POSSIBLE REMEDIES

If the RBI decides to step in more aggressively, its manoeuvring room is more limited than its reserves tally would suggest.After covering the current account deficit, short-term debt and foreign investment flows, there would be less than $20 billion left over.

 RBI's immediate concern would be arresting the spread of currency woes into the money market.India's banking system already borrows more than $19 billion from the central bank to meet reserve requirements, so if the RBI moved to prop up the rupee, it would drain more liquidity out of an already tight market.Companies make quarterly advance tax payments around mid-December, which puts an added strain on liquidity.In addition, a glut of foreign currency convertible bonds, issued when the rupee was much higher, falls due in the first quarter. 

The bonds are too expensive at current levels to be converted into stock and the sharp depreciation of the rupee will leave issuers with a heavy redemption bill.

The central bank could boost liquidity by cutting the cash reserve ratio, the proportion of deposits banks must set aside with the central bank as cash. Talk of a cut has circulated in Indian markets in recent days, although some economists argue that such a move could stoke already hot inflation.This move can exacerbate the already hot inflation in Indian Economy.

Going back to 1991 crisis foreign exchange reserves went to near zero levels, India rapidly depleted its reserves, forcing a currency devaluation.Looking at the present state of India’s political & economic condition , the risk is that RBI will wait too long to act .

" Is Nokia's Lumia series its Last Bet in Smartphone Market"

Finnish handset major Nokia today said it is eyeing the leadership position in the smartphone segment with the launch of its Lumia series in India today. Nokia  is  positioning Lumia as more than a smartphone which will help it to achieve leadership position in the global markets.

True to Nokia style, the Lumia comes with 8-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens.

The features that stood out included Microsoft's enterprise software, Xbox Live feature and NFC facility (near field communication), which one day may replace plastic money and help customers pay bills with their handsets. Two other preloaded apps that caught our attention include Nokia Drive and Nokia maps, but the functionality of these in the Indian market is not known.

While Android and iOS have similarities (especially after iOS 5 was released), Windows phoneuses a completely different interface. The home screen is a system of colourful 'live' tiles - the tiles get updated with new information periodically. For instance, a Gmail tile will continuously display the number of unread emails, a weather tile will display the current weather and the calendar tile will show upcoming appointments. Tap a tile and it opens to a new page with a fluid animation.

The company's overall global market share also fell - to 29 per cent, its lowest level since the late 1990s  facing intense competition from Android phones globally & Apple Iphones in North American & European markets.

Nokia is coming up with a multitude of strategies targeting across market segments in mobile segments.

Latest among them is its diversion from it smartphone cum multimedia mobile focused strategy  to target Dual phone SIM segments(latest target segment for Nokia).Nokia's absence from the dual-SIM segment for nearly two years allowed domestic players such as Micromax, Lava, Spice and Karbonn to make strong inroads into the mass market. It will leverage its experience of selling dual-SIM phones as it launches new products, including the Lumia. The results have been fruitful ,In the last quarter, It  went from no dual SIMs to selling 18 million such handsets.

The most robust  & promising strategy that Nokia is adopting now is its strategic alliance with Microsoft on Windows Phone ,Bing ( Microsoft ‘s search engine) ,Xbox Live ( Microsoft’s online gaming console service).

Windows Phone is becoming Nokia's principal smartphone strategy expected to supersede Nokia ‘s Symbian dominated smartphone by 2015. Microsoft's Bing and adCenter will provide search and ad services across Nokia devices, while Nokia will look to innovate "on top of the platform" with things like its traditional strength in imaging. Ovi Maps will be a core part of Microsoft's mapping services and will be integrated with Bing, while Nokia's content store will be integrated into Microsoft's Marketplace. Xbox Live and Office will also, as is to be expected, feature on the new MicroNkia mobile handsets.

Most of the above promised smartphone features have been featured & implemented into Nokia 800 priced at Rs 30,000 & Nokia 710 priced at Rs 19,999 to be launched in Indian markets next week.

But ,the most burning question before Nokia is that will its newly launched Lumia series mobile phones( Nokia- Microsoft ecosystem) solve its persisting market problems & restore its competitive edge with its traditional competitors.Well ,that depends on how markets react & appreciate these promising smartphones. Lets hope for the best to come out .

Viral Marketing - The Reason & Nxt Kolaveri

The latest rage on social networking sites is the song sung by Dhanush ,son-in law of Tamil Superstar Rajnikath ,called "Why this Kolaveri Di"  which has generated more than 11 million views on Youtube ,1.5 million downloads  & innumerable tweets & retweets on Twitter .It is in vogue all across the world from Night clubs in Birmingham to Social get-togethers in New Jersey.
The underlying reason for this hysterical sucess is a marketing technique called Viral Marketing.

Viral marketing describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message's exposure and influence.

It also refers  to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses or computer viruses.

It can be delivered by word of mouth or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet. Viral marketing may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames,  ebooks , brandable software, images, or text messages.

Elements of a Viral Marketing Strategy

      1.   Gives away products or services.

      2.  Provides for effortless transfer to others

      3.   Scales easily from small to very large

4    4.   Exploits common motivations and behaviors

      5.  Utilizes existing communication networks

  6.  Takes advantage of others' resources.

The ultimate goal of marketers interested in creating successful viral marketing programs is to create viral messages that appeal to individuals with high social networking potential (SNP) and that have a high probability of being presented and spread by these individuals and their competitors in their communications with others in a short period of time.

Top Viral Marketing Campaign of all time :

Hotmail

In todays era of social networking it’s easy to think how quickly the likes of Facebook and Myspace grew but the real viral marketing pioneer was Hotmail.
In December 1996 Hotmail had 500,000 registered users – less than a year later they had over 12,000,000 users. This astonishing growth rate was down to the fact that every single email sent from Hotmail included a small advert promoting the service in the footer.

 

Ronaldinho: Touch of Gold (Nike)

. Watch as Ronaldinho takes delivery of a new pair of boots and spends over two minutes demonstrating the most amazing football skills the internet has ever seen.

Subservient Chicken (Burger King)

Launched in 2004 and racking up an amazing 46 million views in the first week Subservient Chicken is deserving of a place on any viral marketing list.

Gorilla Advert (Cadbury’s)

Another recent example of how an amazing advert can get millions more views thanks to the web comes in the form of a gorilla playing the drums for Cadbury’s.

FDI Retail in India - A Boon or Bane !!!

Before we delve deep into present raging issue of  FDI retail that has stalled Indian parliament for days and has gained undue political mileage all across the country , we will discuss the retail formats & CoS (Company of Secretaries) proposal for allowing FDI in retail sector.

Retail Formats in India-

1.      Cash & Carry format -Businesses accept only cash for their product or services .Company has no Credit & Recievables .This format affects the Wholesale dealers in the supply chain of retail .

     2.   Single Brand FDI - Proposal to raise it from present 51 % to 100 %

.

      3. Multi Brand FDI - To raise to 51 %.   

CoS ( Company of Secretaries) criteria for allowing FDI in Retail Sector of India :

1)  Stores should be opened in the cities with population of over 1 million. As per 2011 Census ,45 

Cities in India satisfy this condition.

2) Minimum capital required for FDI is $100 million out of which 50% should go for back-end infrastructure development.Thus , the retail chain will have minimum $50 million for core business, i.e. to set up retail chain across India.

3) 30% of goods and commodities should be purchased from local suppliers.Presently,our current retail chains purchase around 65%-70% of their supplies from local suppliers.

Advantages :

1)  Efficiency -Improves Supply chain efficiency by introduction of modern & globally competitive supply chain in Indian retail sector ,therby reducing wastages & inefficiencies from Producer end to Consumer end.

2)  Pricing -   Retailers will provide competitively lower priced products of higher quality in market.

3) CRM - It will improve the customer relationship & feedback network with retailers which in turn will help to better profile customers .It enables companies to  launch future  products & services in alignment with consumer behaviour.

4) Economies of Scale - Reductions in average costs attributable to production volume increases resulting in overall cost advantages & operational efficiencies  of businesses.

5) Assortment -  It ensures the right product in the right store at the right time and at the right price. It implies anticipating what your customers are looking for and building a product mix that attracts the customers. 

Disadvantages :

  

1) Small traders and store owners (called Kiranas in India) don’t have enough capital and expertise to compete with big retail chains like Wal-Mart and Carrefour.They will not able to buy goods and commodities at lower price from vendors and suppliers contrast to big retail chains who have strong supply chain network all across the world thus have a high bargaining power to buy goods at lowest price.

2) With high working capital in big retail chains.They do have a capacity to sustain losses for a longer period ,therefore able to undercut prices of goods & commodities which eventually lead to desertion of small stores and traders at initial stages.

3) Multibrand is customer-centric rather than vendor centric .As a retailer you have to decide your business strategy.

In the bottomline ,taking all factors into consideration ,the benefits associated with Multibrand retail outweighs the disadvantages attached to it if implemented & regulated in a standard synchronised manner.

 

 

Social Media & Technology Predictions for 2012

·          Top Predictions for social media in 2012   

• Privacy will be given top priority  
• Complete decentralization of social networks                                                             
• Our interaction with search engines will be revolutionized                                              
• Rise of the content aggregators                                                                               
• Social media augmented reality                                                                                 
• Influencer marketing will be redefined

·               .   Facebook set to reach 1 billion users by 2012   

   .  Smartphone sales to surpass combined PC & Laptop sales by 2012.

·                . Cloud Computing implementation to double by 2012.

·              .  Plastic Money  loses relevance .Near field communications (NFC) and mobile payments will  accelerate.

·              . Blu-Ray Disc  will be 50% of the market by 2012   

·               . Mobile-Phone Companies Team Up for Standardized Charger by 2012

·      Talking cars to be on the road by 2012   .

    

·         IBM to deliver world's first 20 Petaflop Supercomputer by 2012   

·         95% of enterprise workers will use Instant Messaging (IM) as primary interface for real-time communications    

 

·         WiMAX to cover 1 billion users by 2012   

·          50 million projectors built into phones by 2012   

·         900 HDTV channels by 2012   

·         Social media users to exceed one billion by 2012   

·         25% of Entertainment by 2012 Will be Created and Consumed Within Peer Communities   

·         Nearly 24 million subscribers to use 3G LTE technology for mobile broadband services by 2012   

·         Mobile VoIP users to hit 250 million by 2012   

·          Invisible military  tank ready for service by 2012   

·         Global Ethernet market will exceed £15bn in 2012 

·          Mobile TV Worth $6.6 Billion & 120 Million Viewers By 2012   

·         Google to tell us what we want by 2012   

·         Online ad spending to double to $ 35.4 billion by 2012  

·          Online gaming to cross  $13 billion by 2012   

·         Global mobile broadcast TV subscribers to exceed 150 million in 2012   

     .     Gmail storage to reach 3560 MB by 2012   

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Wi-Fi phones will disappear from the market by 2012   

·        
Broadband to reach almost half a billion subscribers worldwide by 2012   

·         Residential VoIP users to hit 267m by 2012   

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iPod will release a new model by 2012 capable of holding a whole year's worth of video contact   

·         India To Have 13 Million Wireless Broadband Subscribers By 2012   

·          

·         The Web will be out of IPv4 addresses by 2012   .IPV6 will emerge as the new standard.

·