Contagious 2007

Those lovely people at Contagious has published a sum up of all the cool stuffs that happened in the year 2007. Its interesting. Insightful. A ready reckoner. And it gives you a perspective of where we're all heading towards.

Click here and read Most Contagious 2007.

Cheers.

Diwali SMS (Simple Mind Semiotics)

Morning newspaper says, "Average noise level in Bangalore yesterday was 122 Db." Authentic news and I can assure you that because no amount of ear plug, muffler, sound masking or closed window could help me reduce the noise. Isn't Diwali supposed to be a celebration of light not sound? Anyway, "We Are Like This Only."

Around 4 pm, my mobile started beeping continiously, some 70 SMSes in one go. Felt enlightened on the festival of light. SMS is a great subject for semiotic studies.

So here are few observations and my take on the human psyche:

Type 1. "Wsh u vry hppy Diwali n prsprs Nu Yr" or "Thnks wsh u da same" - Good understanding of the medium. Heavy user of the medium. Technophobics. Non Experimental. Boring. Single. Nanominded (believes in short and simple) Less emotive. Individualistic. Schizo. Busy. Talks straight and less. Politically (grammatically) correct. Non-multimedia phone owners. One to one communicator (P2P).

Type 2. "Wish you and your family a very Happy Diwali and Prosperous New Year" or "Our best wishes to you and your family for a most blessed and prosperous diwali...x, y, z1, z2" - Straight. Simple. Happy-go-lucky. Understands the medium but value conscious. Uses the medium on only purpose. Mostly group message senders. Techno-ambivalent. Feature driven. Narrow-minded. Family oriented. Very emotive. Lazy. Fun loving. Talks more. Non Multimedia phone owners. One to many communicator.

Type 3. "You received a Flash File SMS/ Picture Message/ Emoticons (.flv .swh .jpeg)" - Creative. Expressionists. Confused. Energetic. Image conscious. Heavy user of the medium. Technophile. Experimental. Gizmo freak. High Sociability Quotient. Late adaptor. Possessive. Multimedia phone owners. Many to many communicator.

Type 4. "Bursting cracker in front of the house. Have a blasting Diwali. MMS (.mpg.4)" - Heavy user of medium and features. Creative. Technophile. Experimental. Gizmo freak. Trend setters. Early adaptor. Family oriented. Thrill seeker. Gamer. participator of group activities. P2A, A2P communicator, oops many to many communicator.

Well, this is how I did a quick classification/ segmentation of the 70 SMSes. As a planner, I think this small observations and mental notes help is developing hypothesis that can be later used to validate brand problems. VAS (value added service) is the highest revenue generator ($ 1.2 bn) for service providers yet not many brands are utilizing this medium effectively. So, how can a brand talk to these four types of SMS users. Which brands will talk to whom? Only HSBC, RR City Taxi and Airtel were kind enough to send me a Diwali wish. Where are other brands present in this medium? No one will sue you or get offended when you send a good wish unlike your irritating messages like buy now, discount on immediate purchase, send SMS to 4455 etc. Now, isn't this an interesting hypothesis?

Do discuss.

We Feel Fine

A hectic week. Suddenly the agency is buzzing, papers flying, servicing guys screaming at production, creative throwing tantrums over brief, endless call from client, office boys running twenty times to publication for delivery of material. Madness of the festive season. But let me tell you, this is what brings you back every morning.

In between all these chaos, I managed to find "We Feel Fine." This web site offers the exploration of human emotions in six different movements. Madness, Murmurs, Montage, Mobs, Metrics and Mounds. We Feel Fine has been harvesting human feelings from large number of blogs. Every few minutes, the system searches the world's newly posted blog entries for occurrences of the phrases "I feel" and "I am feeling". When it finds such a phrase, it records the full sentence, up to the period, and identifies the "feeling" expressed in that sentence (e.g. sad, happy, depressed, etc.). All of this information is saved. The result is a database of several million human feelings, increasing by 15,000 - 20,000 new feelings per day. Using a series of playful interfaces, the feelings can be searched and sorted across a number of demographic slices, offering responses to specific questions.

If you're not aware 'I feel' :-) you should explore this. This is really amazing and am sure the site will keep you glued for quiet sometime. Wondering if this is the future of communication? Different technologies joining hands to form new ideas and ways of interaction.

Wish you all a very happy, lightening and a cracking Diwali.

India Mobile Mania

Mobile telephony is one evolving category. Evolving everyday. So I thought will keep a tab of all the latest data doing rounds apart from what you get in IDC.

• Smart phones contributed 4% of the 65 million handsets sold in India in 2006
• 32% of mobile users wants every available feature in their handsets
• In the Q3 of 2006, smart phones shipped to India increased by 200%
• Mobile enterprise email growth rate for India from 2006 - 2010 will be 43% CAGR
• 3G phone market in India are expected to grow 70% in 2007 - 2008
  
• Churn rate of service providers is growing at 10 - 12 % per month
  

Well do watch out for MotoQ, Nokia E90 and the new Blackberry about to hit the Indian market.

Source: Tech Today

Innovative changes in our lives

IBM recently unveiled its new study called "IBM Next Five in Five" - Five innovations that have the potential of changing the way people work, live and play over the next five years. So what are they:

• Remote healthcare access system from anywhere in the world: Now this is a big innovation. Imagine a Doctor keeping an eye on you 24/7/365 from somewhere in the world. WOW.
  
• Mobile Phones will start reading your mind: Intelligent phones which will adapt to the user. Termed as "presence" technology. Which means it will do things as per your preference. Well, do remember that features will vary based on price.
  
• Real-time speech translation: This is already happening in Japan and Korea. For example when you travel from Delhi to Rameshwaram and you don't know how to speak Tamil, don't worry. Your hand-held device will translate real time Tamil into English as you speak to the person for direction.
• There will be 3D internet: Hmmm, that means from now on I can walk the retail aisles in Ebay or Amazon. An assistant or an expert will be ready to help me out. Makes sense in a techno-ambivalent nation like India.
  
• Nano-technology will address environmental issues: Nano-technology has the ability to manipulate which I always knew. But now it will be able to manipulate the environment. Get you fresh drinking water, help grow more trees, etc. etc.
  

Out of the 'Big Five' I like only one - Remote Healthcare. I'd love to have a doctor attending me all the time. Though it might be pain in arse after sometime, but doctors are good people. In this case, I guess it will be a 'supercomdoc' monitoring me. I also think real time speech translation and mobile mind readers will become standard features like we have 2.0 megapixel cam, FM radio. Go ahead read the entire article here.

Start thinking digital, baby, but do remember not to become a humanoid.

Not a open mind behind closed doors

The big daddies of Indian advertising are all knowledgeable sods. They are the harbingers of change, disruption, integration, activation, three sixty, holistic ideas who can sway clients in their boardrooms. They create ideas which sell products in millions. They create brands which are always energized. They are those pathetic passionate professionals who will do anything to solve a client’s problem. They have a brilliant websites which has a long list of client and the creative portfolio. Yet none of the Indian advertising agencies have a blog. They don’t have a point of view about their own work. They have nothing to say to the world at large. They have but agencyfaqs, where they explain about ads they just created and why it is so unique. Why? Because no body in the focus group during the pre-testing of the concept understood it, so they need to explain it and generate PR, post the ad being on air.

So the forefathers of the most open minded profession lives behind perpetual closed doors in India. True reflection of the closed door policy in our industry. Indeed open minded they are. They fear if they talk, others might steal their unique concept. Their ideas will become public. Their clients won’t be happy. Or let’s just put it this way, they are too busy doing an offline for a 30 second TVC that they don’t have the time to do any faltu kaam. Advertising industry in India was always a closed door industry. So frightening the scenes behind these closed doors are most young people find it difficult to enter. Now there’s a dearth of talent. Huge tantrums about not finding the right person with right experience to do the task. Head hunters are running like headless chicken.

On the other hand, as I keep reading W+K’s blog, LB’s blog, Russell’s blog, Rob Campbell’s blog, Richard Huntington’s blog, Jon Howard’s blog, John Grant’s blog I realize how much these agencies and these people benefit from sharing their thoughts with unknown others. Open Intelligence Sharing is not a Linux concept. There’s nothing techie about it. It’s all about gathering collective intelligence and then refining them to produce and create bigger and better ideas for the benefit of all, sometimes even including the client. You have a marketing problem to solve, post a live brief/assignment on the blog. You get 100 replies. Filter and measure them based on the objective, you have your campaign ready in 7 days flat. But then, they are also the most interesting people on web. Thousands like me look forward to their next post, just to know, learn and contribute more. Selflessly. That’s why they create stuff, which we look at and say Wow.

I guess it’s high time for our big daddies to understand these basic principles fast and act upon it. No point going and selling User Generated Content to advertisers unless you start practicing it. No wonder GOG has become a case study.

Long live blogging. Long live planning.

Get the glass

Am sure you all remember the famous Got Milk campaign by Goodby Silverstein . Now the latest campaign from California Milk Board is this new online Interactive Board Game called Get The Glass.Brilliant. And everything centered around life without milk. Now this is a real good example of interactive web2.0 work by a brand. All kudos to Goodby.

Our very own Amul can do so much. Huge potentials looming large. The Amul Girl is such a wonderful brand property which can be taken to new heights. Alas they don't think like me ;-) Maybe you (Amul) should hire my agency and give us the task to create something interesting.

Mail me soon. Am waiting.

Making life easy

Commute Easy is making news for all the good reasons. It's a collective effort to ease commuting to office. Started by a young entrepreneur, Commute Easy is redefining the old concept of Car Pooling. Started at Bangalore and slowly moving to cities like Pune and Mumbai.

Why Commute Easy is a great business concept:
1. Builds a community
2. Forces (though willingly) people to share and care
3. Helps in easing traffic congestion in cities like Bangalore which suffers from basic road infrastructure
4. Creating the right buzz among fellow office-goers

I previously wrote about this and Wassif is on his way to create a niche for himself. I'm looking for other good examples of innovative business/business ideas/entrepreneur doing the right things in India. Share one if you have any.

Creating equity

We have a lesson or two to learn from the Sony success story. Sony undoubtedly is one of the best and smartest marketer in the world. Here I'm referring to the success story of its mobile telephony business.

Sony first created the Walkman. Created a hugely successful brand out of it. Technology developed rapidly. MP3 took over the Walkman space. Sony quickly responded and launched the Walkman Phone. They regained their lost ground albiet with a new device.

Next they created the Cyber Shot. A leader in its category. As competition in camera/imaging technology heated up, Sony quiet smartly integrated their mobile phones with the camera technology to create another sub-brand Cyber Shot Phone. Am sure Cyber Shot phones will become a success story in due time.

Vaio is one of the best laptop brand in the market at the moment. And Sony has the potential to integrate its computing technology with their mobile phones. Probably a Viao Phone will be up for grabs very soon.

Mobile TV is the future. Sony already has an advantage there. Maybe Bravia Phones by the end of next year.

Sony is indeed breaking new grounds, everytime. And am sure these individual brands will add up to create a better brand equity for Sony in the near future. First movers advantage or smart thinking or both. Lot to learn from Sony. And it starts with this book.

Can you think of any other brands that has successfully integrated two seperate products/brands in it's own portfolio to create another niche product/ brand? Examples anyone?

Immobilised

It had to happen one day. Unfortunately that day was yesterday evening. Vanished just like that. Stolen right under my nose. Well, I am speaking about my 5 years old Nokia 1100 'Made in India' phone.

My fault to leave it on the window near the entrance of my apartment in sheer excitement of the India/SL match. By the time I realised, it was gone. That lil black Nokia indeed stood for me (I changed the phone jacket twice in five years) It waked me up diligently at 6.30 every morning. Allowed me to be in touch with the world and listen to the voice of my loved ones. Though recently the battery was creating some nuisance, I must admit it was a tough toy. It survived several fall and Choco's bite. My real loss is my phone book. I don't have a backup. What a fool I am. So, I guess you understand the trauma and pain I'm going through at the moment.

Infact, this phone was performing so well and given my technophobic nature, I actually never had the desire or aspiration for any of those fancy gadgets out in the market. Mobile phone is just another phone, the analogy I always gave to my peers. Mine was a basic device which allowed me to make and receive calls, send and receive message and I was happy. It also allowed me to keep my monthly rental, nominal. Now do I sound like a laggard in the chasm curve?

The good news - I gifted myself a Nokia 6270 this morning. Don't know why. As I am writing I'm trying to justify my purchase decision as a consumer. Why did I buy this phone? Firstly, few of my friends recommended me this phone before. Word of mouth. Secondly, I'm loyal to brand Nokia. Checked out all that is available (even though I am loyal to Nokia) in the market and settled for 6270 at a discount of 10% from a friends shop. Loyalist but a value seeker. Thirdly, I wanted a phone with a decent camera to shoot all odd things on the street. Upgradation.

If any of you had to ask me what was that one reason that made me buy this phone, my answer would be, becoming techno-progressive from being a technophobic.

Since I don't have a backup of my old numbers (my itemized bill helped me in recovering some numbers though), I would be grateful if you can mail me your contacts once again. And I promise to keep a backup this time onward.

Ok, I'm off to fondle my new phone.

ARCB Media Inc.

Rusta Media is a wonderful example of interactive communication. T0 sell media space and time for SABC Channels in South Africa during ICC World Cup, Tequila\Johannesburg created this website.

Interesting is the way Rusta Media shows coconut branding, roaming goat branding, restaurant branding, beach imprints and umbrella branding. Well they ain't selling any of those expect their Radio and TV though but as you know inspiration can come from anywhere.

My inspiration: Abandoned Roaming Cow Branding in India (we have millions of them, don't we?) As long as I take good care of them, I don't think CUPA or PeTA will come running behind my arse. ARCB Media Inc. is the name of my new project. Any Vulture Capitalist interested?

Web Power

Finally marketers in India realized the potential of worldwide web. “Something interactive karna hai,” is the common cry in all client corridors. Most big agencies have set-up their own interactive department and clients are very excited the moment they hear interactive. Therefore, communities building, post a blog, share a picture, post an opinion, invite or send to a friend etc. are fast picking up, marketers and their advertising agencies have decided to do something meaningful with the medium.

The latest in the bandwagon is Mentos. Quirky but err interesting.

Gang of Girls was a break through piece of interactive work while Being Girl was an immediate answer from P&G since they didn’t want to be left behind.

No doubt, the web is a powerful branding tool. Since there’s lot of information about it on the internet and several books by renowned branding gurus, I thought I’ll let you know few practical things to keep in mind (which I learned while working on an interactive project) while creating a powerful brand experience on web:

• Express the brand’s personality as effectively as possible. Being an interactive medium it actually gives you that freedom
• Think about the content first, technology, html, flash etc. can wait
• No one likes to wait for eternity for your page to open. Try to grab the attention of your visitors while the home page is being downloaded
• The website should reflect the brand’s core values because it gives that opportunity to the visitors to forge a meaningful relationship
• Give out interesting information about the brand which will keep your visitor engaged and allow them to dig deeper
• Try to put photographs of real people. Gives authenticity to the message
• Feedback is important, it provides you with valuable information about what they like and what they not

Axe is one brand which has always been at the forefront of web experience. They have always managed to keep visitors engaged.

Nike is another brand which offers a similar experience. TicTac in USA is another good example.

Marketers in India are truly experimenting in the virtual which is a good sign. Well, will someone also try experimenting in the real world, please?

Personal Billboards

How about a personalised billboard? The one which calls out your name and greets you very morning when you drive to work. Or remembers your birthday an wishes you when you come close to it. Mini USA is breaking new grounds with technology-meets-billboard-advertising.

Imagine a similar feat. on M. G. Road as Mr. Mohit Sharma approaches the Dickenson Road junction saying "Santrowale Sharmaji suprabhat, nashta kiya aapne?"

Read more here.

Music for the ears

The Indian music industry is growing through sea-change these days. Traditionally a cassette and CD playing market, India is suddenly waking up to the potential of digital music. Recent example of digital music by films like KANK, DON, Jan-e-Mann, and Salam-e-Ishq are prime example of the growing demand in digital music. The crucial point is that promoting an album in the physical format is expensive, while the money that accrues from digital sales is all profit because it is one file that is downloaded again and again.

Physical sales of CD’s and tapes dwindled to Rs. 720 crore from Rs. 1081 crore in 2001. Though the number of CD’s sold has gone up from 10 million in 2000-01 to 36 million in 2005, the fall in the sales of cassettes has been drastic. On the other hand sales of mobile music – ringtones, true tones, full track downloads and video clips – have zoomed to Rs. 450 crore with 300 million downloads per annum. This figure is set to double over the next 12 – 18 months.

According to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report on entertainment, the mobile music industry in India will be the largest at Rs. 3600 crore by 2009-10.

India, with its mobile consumer base of 130 million, is witnessing a boom in the consumption of mobile music. This segment s likely to contribute Rs. 120 crore to the bottomline of music companies this year, while consumers will pay up to Rs. 450 crore for downloading music on their phones.

This is another reason why marketers should bank on this growing category. No wonder, mobile companies like Nokia, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson are increasingly focusing on music playing mobiles.

And how exactly can they benefit? Maybe start creating more memorable jingles, brand songs, memes, signature tunes etc. which can be downloaded as music on the move. Maybe create a database of consumers who like certain brands and send it as free gift.

Digitization allows music companies to cater to specific needs of consumers. For instance there is a significant market for old classical music by artists and consumers are willing to pay different amounts for multiple devices. Not to forget the advantage digitization allows in combating piracy. To check piracy now phones are designed such that once a track is downloaded, it gets locked on the handset and cannot be forwarded enabling any kind of revenue loss.

Digital music (online and mobile) will outsell physical music in India by the end of this year. It will be largely defined by the growth in the mobile music sector. With new delivery channels of music such as FM stations and WAP sites emerging, entertainment companies, music publishing companies, production houses and equipment manufacturers are waking up to a booming music market. This revenue stream has given lease of life to some very old music companies too.

After music, it will be the digitization of our favorite Bollywood flicks. What’s next? Mobisodes of K serials?? Podcast of Sri Sri and his meditation techniques???

Technology you’re truly transforming.

Good 'Jobs'

The long wait has ultimately come to an end. Apple's celebrity CEO Steve Jobs announced in the Macworld Conference, SF, the launch of iPhone, describing it as "the ultimate digital device."

“Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone,” he declared, showing off a thin handheld device with a 3.5 inch screen that displays touch-screen controls. Mr Jobs said it would play music and video as well as display email and act as a better handset for browsing the internet than anything else available. Watch the keynote here.

Price: 4GB $499 with a two-year contract; 5GB $599 with two year contract. Shipping in June (to groans from the audience) to US; Europe by Q4, Asia in 2008. Confirms partnership with Cingular.

Battery life: 5 hours talktime/video/browsing; 16 hours audio playback.

Accessories: headphones with mic for handsfree, tiny Bluetooth headset.

Guys call up all your friends and families, right now in the US and book an iPhone for yourself before its too late.

I'll call you from a iPhone ;-)

Just the beginning

Steve Jobs is expected to deliver his annual keynote today in the Macworld Conference at SF. Apple has a new teaser, already up in it's website. "Welcoming 2007," says a half Apple, "First 30 years were just the beginning." Err...are we missing out something here?

Rumor buzz has been in high gear. What will Apple do, launch a new cell phone or unveil a new iPod thoroughly optimized for video playback, new Macs, new softwares? Apple, in typical fashion, isn't saying a word instead allowing the buzz to gain momentum.

Whatever it is, keep your eyes open, Mac definitely has something up its sleeves. Question is what'll Steve unveil now?

While we wait for Steve's announcement, here's the new ad of iPod Shuffle. Enjoy.

ON the 'Joy' Switch

In the latest issue of Economist, an interesting article on Human Emotion drew my attention. Dr. Tor Wager from the Columbia University in New York carried out a meta-analysis (after collecting fMRI studies on emotion) of human emotion thereby producing an emotional map of the brain.

Most neuroscientists recognise six basic emotions: anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness and surprise. Dr. Wager shows how fMRI can be used to see the link between different parts of the brain involved in the emotional process. The evolution and function of these emotions is bound up with an area of research called, "Theory of mind."

With my very little knowledge about the subject, after reading the article, I started thinking, we (advertising professionals) often try to capture the EQ of our consumers. Spend lot of money on research to find what motivates them. Maybe we shall in the near future also start applying these new technology and techniques. Will we be able to capture the emotion of the Indian public through a fMRI study (which tells us to hit the 'Joy' part of his left brain on the frontal lobe?) Can we ensure a change in his shopping behavior? Will he start buying into my brand? Question here is, do we see the picture through the eyes of our consumer?

End of the day, it is our 'Gut Feel' that needs to be communicated in the most entertaining manner and not images of a brain scan. I think my new year resolution would be to shun away from all FGD and spend time in understanding a person better. Out of a billion people, maybe I can manage to know 50 people inside-out in 2007.

The Saga of Saya!!

Saya - The Receptionist (c) Copyright Washington Post

The Complete Star Wars Saga will be shown on Star Movies. I was thrilled. Let me tell you at the very beginning, I always fantasized extra-terrestrial beings and matters. Spend a major chunk of my childhood days thinking about how life on the Moon and Mars will be or an evening walk on Venus will be.

The small black and white idiot box arrived in our house during the early eighties when the only channel was Doordarshan. On Sundays from eleven in the morning the TV was completely mine. “Star Wars.” No matter what, I used to be glued to the television set. Darth Vader and Ric Olie were my heroes. Again on Wednesday evening at 7.30 the idiot box was just mine. “Johnny Sokko & His Flying Robot.” Robots are still one of my special interest. Errr…its humanoid more than robots now.

For decades, popular culture has been enthralled with the possibility of robots that act and look like humans. Research is moving towards developing commercial humanoids that will cook for us, clean for us, become our best friends, teach our children, and even fall in love with us. . Like many new technologies, these early generations of commercially available humanoids are costly curiosities, useful for entertainment, but little else. Yet, in time, they will accomplish a wide variety of tasks in homes, battlefields, nuclear plants, government installations, factory floors, and even space stations.

Till now humans adapted technology. In the future it will be the opposite and technology will adapt to us. And the way we interact with machines will undergo a humongous change which in turn will impact our lives. With billions of dollars being invested on the development of robots which will alter our daily lives, the ‘age of robot’ will see an early dawn. Japan is leading the pack mostly so because of its unique societal needs. Low level of birthrate in the country which has the longest lifespan on earth, Japan is fretting about who will staff the factory floors in years to come.

For robots to be profitably integrated into the everyday lives of humans within military, commercial, educational or domestic contexts, robots must be able to interact with humans in more meaningful, natural ways. As artificial agents inundate our lives, it will be increasingly important to enable multi-modal, intuitive modes of communication that include speech, gesture, movement, affect, tactile stimulation and context. Body dictates behavior, and if we want a robot to relate with and learn from humans, it must be able to map its body to our own.

Humanoid Robotics also offers a unique research tool for understanding the human brain and body. Already, humanoids have provided revolutionary new ways for studying cognitive science. Using humanoids, researchers can embody their theories and take them to task at a variety of levels. As our understanding deepens, we will be prompted to freshly reexamine fundamental notions such as dualism, will and consciousness that have spurred centuries of controversy within Western thought.

Current Humanoid projects:

Cog: Developed at MIT AI Labs. Cog is equipped with a sophisticated visual system capable of saccades, smooth pursuit, vergence, and coordinating head and eyes through modeling of the human vestibulo-ocular reflex.

Kismet: A Robot designed to assist research into social interactions between robots and humans at the MIT AI Labs.

Wendy: (Waseda ENgineering Designed sYmbiont) is being developed by the Waseda University as a robot that has the ability to perform co-operative tasks.

Hadaly 2: A Humanoid Project by the Waseda University for interactive communication with human beings.

Ursula: An entertainment robot developed by Florida Robotics to amuse crowds at Universal Studios

ASIMO: A new humanoid developed by HONDA that uses the walking technology developed over the past 20 years at HONDA, but in a smaller, more affordable package

Fujitsu has developed the HOAP-1 (Humanoid Open Architecture Platform).

Sony has developed the SDR-4X that can sing and dance.

Most likely, we will never fully understand, much less recreate everything that it means to be human. As the frontiers of our self-understanding expand, humanoid robots may simply follow (and, at times, propel) our continuously changing conception of what we are

This leaves me with only one thought; how will marketers in moon in the year 2050 deal with branding. Maybe the surface on Moon will have large format interactive LCD screen displaying only your favorite brand message as you walk past them along with Saya hand in hand.

Do let me know, if you come across any interesting information about humanoids.

I call from iPhone

Everyone is talking about Apple’s next move, the iPhone. How will it look like? What new features will be included? What will be the price? Will it develop on the iPod?

Speculations rife.

A quick Google Image search will yield you hundred of images. The above two are my favorites. Now let’s keep our eyes open for the next big Disruption Story.

And don’t forget to grab one when it actually arrives. Until then wait happily.

Game On

Microsoft launched its new XBox in India. The grey market is already flooded with host of game console devices. You name it and you'll find it. PSP, Nintendo, XBox, Sega, Evo, Genesis are readily available at an unmatched price. The sixth generation consoles are ready to conquer the heart and soul of Indian Gen Z kids, their adolescent brothers, their 35+ fathers and their be-at-home-and-take-care-of-the-family grandpa's.

Sify launched the Game Drome (a decade ago it was their cyber cafes) a computer gaming zone across every city in the country. Game Mobile, an OOH promotional activity by Sify has taken Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi by storm. Before kids used to bunk schools and college for the latest movie show, now they drop their Organic chemistry class for an intense fight with Odysseus or Telemachus beautiful wife Penelope. MMORPG (Mom, My Online Role is Potty Greg) is a big hit in India now. Counter Strike, Ragnarok and the endless number of games, blogs, forums, discussion panels only points out that games are here to stay. A search at IDC, Info-shop will reveal numbers which will blow anyone's head. Of the 37 million internet users in India, 11% plays online game (not very good with numbers though).

Indeed, days have changed. I have came from a small < 1lakh population town to a big city to earn my daily bread. There was a time during our childhood days when we used to borrow Rs. 5 from dad and grandpa and sometimes employed elder cousin brothers to buy a Tennis Ball for a Saturday afternoon inter-para(neighbourhood) cricket match. Those were big events with all elderly, retired men from both the competing neighbourhood cheering, screaming, shouting and sometimes abusing (incase, the ball reached the boundary while trying a Jonty Rhodes stunt) for a three hour exciting extravaganza. Later, in the evening over a cup of tea heated discussion, crticial scrutiny and ball-by-ball projection of the next match used to keep people busy. As a big city dweller, only rational reason to console those bygone era is people in small town had nothing better to do then.

Theres only one question which is bugging me. Will Online game add up to the short-comings of India's search for real sports talent. We as a country are pathetic when it comes to sports. No matter how much we try to hype about our sports person the country has a serious shortage in supply of quality people. Cricket is niche, so kids from well-to-do families take it up as hobby. Do we have a national football team?? Hockey, well ... errr ... swimming, archery, athletics, kabadi ...

Don't worry, India Games is launching a new mobile football game in association with Airtel for all its mobile subscribers. So, go play!!