Day 2 at HeadStart started off with a bang. The inaugural key note presentation was given by Ram Shriram of Sherpalo and he had many things to share. Key summary of the presentation is that Mobile and Web Applications are going to be the future of Technology.
I am here at the venue trying to live blog to share my experiences here. So, if the writings are a bit raw, you will need to bare with it 🙂
Sonim – The all weather phone
As part of technology presentations, Sonim demonstrated their all weather phone technology.
- Key aspect of the phone is that it works from -50 Degrees to +50 Degrees weather (Snow, Desert, Sea etc)
- 500,000 key press guarantee and 200,000 PTT press guarantee.
- Target customers are Hospitals, Factory, Police etc.
They are looking for Innovating Entrepreneurs who can build applications for their phone.
Q: Do you use a high level OS/how can u support third-party applications?
A: Our next gen phone will help solve this problem
Q: Do you support OTA?
A: Yes
Q: Are your applications only for your phone or for other phones?
A: Our applications run on Windows Device and NXP. We are concentrating on Windows Mobile.
Q: What is the exact OS this phone works on?
A: Philips NXP
A technology innovation and licensing company focused on enhancing the usability of hand held devices.
- India is a very interesting market for us for the variety and complexity it has in its dialects.
- Our usability research indicates that end users spend up to 10 minutes looking for certain letters.
- At time one needs to press the same key 12 times to print a single alphabet.
- Fastap – One Keypad, Two levels of functionality
- Provides two levels of key pad for easier handling
Q: Have u targeted countries like Russia?
A: Yes, in Ukrain
Q: Did you do any statistical analysis for your product?
A: Yes.
Mobile + Easy = mobisy
- Facebook on mobile browser
- Share pictures
- Facebook on MobiTop – Will help you synchronize with your facebook contacts
- What else we can do? Access to native Handset Data and functionality and offline mode
- Key Features – Easy development in AJAX, Deployment over internet, Mash-up of mobile device access and Internet and provides offline access.
Q: Is MobiTop platform independent?
A: Yes and No. People can develop applicatios for MobiTop using Java Script
- Working on WiMax applications and services
- 3.4 GHz is licensed for India and we cover this region
- We wanted to change the way networks are deployed
- We could get to 50% of our goals
- Widgets which can help you stay connected always.
- From the widget on the profile page, you can call the person on the device to which he/she has configured.
I am really impressed with this application. Am definitely going to signup 🙂
Panel Discussion
Rajesh Srivatsa – Ojus Startup Ventures
Muralikrishna – Sasken Communications
Jagannath Rao – Motorola
Alok Mittal – Cannan Partners
Viswanath Ganapathy – HoneyWell
Karthee – QualCom Capital Funds
Rajesh Srivatsa – rajesh[at]ojusventures[dot]com
- What we have seen in the last 3 years is around $4 Billion investments into telecom space.
- 158 companies taking less than $10 Million in 2007
- In 2007 there were 9 investments
- Shift in focus to carrier class consumer applications
- Popular sub sectors – Mobile VoIP, Mobile Social Networking, Mobile Content Sharing, Mobile Banking, Idle Screen Advertisements, Location based Application and Anti-Spam
- Understand the ecosystem and trend in your business arena.
Muralikrishna
- Personal opinions on how the industry changed – Going digital improved the industry, SMS – made the phone multi-functional.
Jagannatha Rao
- When another 10 people out of 100 have mobile phone GDP goes up by 0.6%
- Challenge – Creating a general purpose hand held
- Infrastructure – Cost, Geography coverage and energy
- Build it for India and take it to the world next 🙂
Alok Mittal
- Mobile phone is exciting in India. 400,000 users and growing by 200,000 every year.
- Range of opportunities are limited and this is exciting.
- Mobile phone as a lot of potential as media.
Viswanath Gapanathy
- Provided an overview of 802.XX standards
- Mobility in WiFi – Moving Client, Load Balancing.
Karthee
- We have invested in60 companies in last 10 Years.
- Four categories of investment – Application development, Gaming, Payments, Mobility