The Future of Instant Messaging

In the past weeks several instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp, WeChat,  have started to offer voice calls, the trend of messaging applications offering voice calling capabilities is nothing new. Tango, Viber, Line all have offered voice calls before WhatsApp even thought of it. Is voice call the future of instant messaging? We as consumers use instant messaging applications for one simple reason, messages are delivered instantly, then comes the addons such as emoticons… With voice calling being introduced is it still right to call it an instant messaging application?

In a world where instant messaging are provided in various ways including messages that disappears, messages that are secure what do we as consumers actually like? We have seen very fast adoption of WhatsApp because it was a simple messenger, we have seen Line generates the highest revenue per user since it tickles our fancy. Having said that messaging applications are converging into the same set of offering . Will there still be a need for differentiators for one application to be the adopted globally?

What about going back to basics, messages that are delivered instantly even if you are not online? Now, how about adding the beauty of instant messaging by delivering those messages free? While we are at it why not do the same for voice calls? How about voice calls that are free even if you are not online? The question is going back to basics enough to be the dominant instant messaging application of the future?

Leaving Facebook - Never ever give your ID to FB!

CNN published an issue  in Facebook today... where FB users are most likely billed high on their mobile data due to autoplay settings in FB. Now I turned off autoplay on FB but then FB suddenly logged me out and starts to ask to upload my ID... Something I will never do in social media considering that they already know a of things about you, why would you give FB your ID.

Giving your ID to FB allows them to control everything about you,  from your permissions to bank account to government records and can be used by hackers to have access to everything about you and everything you own...

So if FB ask for your ID, you have been warned!

MWC what's next?

2014 Mobile World Congress is official over.. so what did we learn and what's next?

First off Samsung launched a new Smart phone, now the S5, making the one-year old S4 old... do we really want to change mobile phones every year? Why do you want to do that when you are only getting used to the phone.

Zuck of Facebook used the keynote address to justify that the price of WhatsApp... Hours after WhatsApp went out of service.

Lots of wellness and wearable stuff.. If you ask me the battle of the wearables in MWC was won by Fitbit.. their stand is always full of people, long queues of enthusiasts who wanted to try out the gadget.

Augmented reality haven't grown old. Despite the fact that the augmented reality hype died down long time ago, the upcoming devices like Google Glass is making it sexy again... Speaking of Google, they want to increase privacy by not letting others like Carrier IQ just collect customer data... now the question who actually collects the most data and monitors customer behavior on the net and sells that to advertisers?

Less and less people walk to visit the exhibition stands. Now is is bad news for exhibitors but good news for managing your time while you are there since most meetings are pre-arranged... Question is how do you like your MWC to be?

Can Nokia's 42MP camera phone (1020) generate more sales for Nokia?

Nokia recently released a phone with 42MP camera, the Nokia 1020. A brilliant marketing ploy, however the camera as Nokia put is takes 5MP pictures but allows finer details especially images that are far away. Will consumers be enticed to buy this device?

When we look at today's world there are a lot of us who use our phones to take pictures. Some of us even turns it into a hobby, publishes pictures in Facebook or Instagram or other forms of Social Media. In the past month I have observe people who likes taking pictures, most of them carry a separate camera from their phones and casually use the phone to take picture. However the common thing is that pictures taken with the phone are immediately shared on social networks. In my own little world of observing people, for Nokia's 42MP camera phone to be successful it must first and foremost should have all the capabilities of smart phone today coupled with an ecosystem of use application and social networks much like what Android and iOS have.

The problem with Nokia's 42MP camera is that it runs on Windows Phone 8, which in itself is a self is a let down to most users considering that more than 80% of the market prefers Android or iOS devices…

If you are buying this Nokia 1020 with 42MP camera, please let me know your motivation for doing so.

Along the foot steps of facebook and silicon valley

Facebook's IPO is the current talk of the town. It even set its own price for its shares which most analyst think is undervalued never the less Mark Zuckerberg will pocket a cool 1 B$ and his shares will be worth more than 17.6B$. A very good pay off after a few years. There's no questions how great Facebook has become can even afford to snub bankers putting Silicon Valley over Manhattan.

Looking at this achievement and how it comes about is not to look within Facebook itself but in a grander scale, Silicon Valley the playground of large tech companies, exciting start-ups and most importantly industry collaboration. So why are successful tech companies in Silicon Valley? Being part of a cluster initiative in Sweden, Mobile Heights we try to emulate the success of Silicon Valley. However there is something in Silicon Valley not present in the Oresund's region, a trait, a very simple one... Inclusivity. The culture of ensuring everyone is included and involved, until Sweden and Denmark acquires this trait it will never emulate Silicon Valley, and I stand by that word.

In Sweden, Denmark and the rest of Western Europe, it's never about inclusivity, rather its about exclusivity. This is ingrained in the culture and very difficult to change. To emulate Silicon Valley inclusivity must start from the onset, from the schools, from the home so the next generation will have this trait as they embark on the journey to future of financial success.

Let's take my daughter as an example, who grew up in a typical Western European environment who had her birthday months ago but will have her birthday party together with her current best friend in the coming weeks. They were listing who should they invite and all I heard was why they should not invite her friends she used to play with and their mothers actually encourage them not to since its a lot of work to have more children in a party. Recently she complained she was not invited on another friend's birthday party. If you have not picked up what I wanted to say, here it is. From childhood, Western European children are encouraged to be exclusive and not inclusive. This carries on all the way to business where it is never inclusive, that's why Silicon Valley will stand on its pedestal for a considerable period of time.

I believe that if we want to change that and be inclusive it must start from the most basic institution, the home and family. We must practice what we preach and have our children embrace being inclusive... only then can we truly claim we have set the real foundations towards emulating Silicon Valley's success.