Anuj Agrawal

My Posts on TechCocktail

 

 

 

When I first started this blog, it was a great place for me to throw out my perspectives on mobile and the tech world in general. But then I realized, it would be great if this site had an audience who could actually read this stuff.  So I went out and started contributing to TechCocktail, a popular tech blog based in the DC area.  TechCocktail is one of the most comprehensive outlets about startups and entrepreneurship across the country.  My posts tend to have a bend on the product choices and strategy of the companies that I write about, both startup and Fortune 500.  Below is a running list of my contributions to the blog:

11/22/2011 - App Review: Unleashing Your "Creativity"
10/6/2011 - The Apple iPhone Strategy: We've Seen This Before (picked up by Techmeme)
9/15/2011 - 9 Startups Created at Startup Weekend Delaware
9/1/2011 - ZipTip's Mobile Payment App Acknowledges Great Service
8/26/2011 - Jumio Update: Targeting Bloggers
8/12/2011 - 3 Ways to Survivie App Fatigue
8/4/2011 - Jumio: Processing Credit Cards Through Webcams
7/19/2011 - Goshi: The Location-Based Marketplace
7/5/2011 - MoviePass Launch Fizzles Out
6/24/2011 - "Shazam"ing Interactive Content on TVs
6/9/2011 - Food for Thought: Analyzing the Pizza Industry for Startup Ideas
5/27/2011 - Apple: Eating Their Own Dogfood
5/19/2011 - The Chicken and Egg of 3DTVs
5/5/2011 - Is the Battle for the Living Room Becoming Over-Rated?
4/21/2011 - Kindle Library: Driving Mass Market Customer Adoption
4/14/2011 - Newspaper Digital Paywalls: A Test of Consumer Loyalty
4/7/2011 - Mobile Payment Apps: A Starbucks Case Study
3/25/2011 - Keeping the Madness In Your Pocket With Live Mobile Streaming

"Checking In" On Location-Based Marketing

So wouldn't it be cool if you could walk by a Starbucks and get a mobile coupon?  Haha, just kidding.  If you've been in the mobile space for a while, you know that has been the promise of location-based applications for nearly a decade.  While mobile coupons are starting to appear, they aren't quite making the splash that has been promised since data started being delivered to the phone.  But leave it to social networking to get things cranking around location-based services that are actually compelling, consumer friendly, and have real potential to be a serious marketing tool for businesses.  

With social networking becoming mainstream over the last few years, location-based services are gathering the most traction through social networking tools like Foursquare, Gowalla, and MyTown.  My early experiences with these services provide a sneak peek into how they have the potential to transform the loyalty program landscape.  Before, other than standard reward cards almost every establishment offers, McDonald's Monopoly game was one of the more inventive and fun loyalty programs.  But with restaurants beginning to offer discounts, no wait times, and even free vacations (Moby Dick's in the DC area had this running recently) for their Foursquare "Mayor", people are again incented to visit establishments to gather badges and mayorships to show off to their friends.  I must say I myself have been caught up in this when I see an establishment offering up freebies to frequent, um, checker-inners.  

iPhone 4: Thoughts On The New Video Features

I will save the general iPhone 4 reviews to the thousands of other outlets covering the device (although I am pretty impressed with the elegant feeling hardware and updated iOS4 functionality.  The updated iPhone 4 form factor reminds me a bit of the XM SkyFi3 from a few years ago, but with a much more premium and sleeker feel to it).  For this post, I wanted to point out a couple thoughts as it relates to the video functionality within the new device:

1. FaceTime - wow, what a compelling app, but its use will be severely limited out of the gate.  Actually, there are 2 points to bring up on this, which indicate it will still require time to realize the full utility of FaceTime.

• Wi-Fi Only - Jobs mentioned that they have some work to do with the "carriers".  That's carriers with an "s".  So did he mean U.S. carriers?  Is Verizon or another provider in the mix and determining the features of the current handset, or was he referring to the many international carriers who sell the iPhone around the world?  With AT&T's recently revised data plans, AT&T shouldn't have had a problem with this appliciation being used over its network, thus its interesting that other carriers have forced Apple to make this feature Wi-Fi only.  Of course, this severely limits the places where someone can use this.  I'll pretty much only be using this feature when I'm at home (or maybe while I'm hitting lunch at a Panera, etc.), where I could already use Skype on my computer.

Can The Has-Been Handset Makers RAZR the iPhone?

We all remember how cool the RAZR was when it came out with its super-thin design and “Back in Black” theme song in the commercials. It was the phone that changed consumer expectations on how small a mobile phone could be.  Since then, things have gone downhill for Motorola, while the new 800-pounders are in Silicon Valley redefining how users interact with the web, play games, and socialize with their friends on their pocket sized iPhones and Android devices.

Now it may soon be Nokia’s turn to be the future "has-been" of dominant handset providers as they are steadily losing share to smart phones.  What will they do to protect their turf?  They still have a big lead worldwide as the graphic below shows, but clearly their growth is flattening as people move to Apple and Android based handsets.

Social Matchbox DC Spring 2010 - Recap

Earlier this week in DC was the Spring installment of Social Matchbox, an event that brings together promising startups in the community to present their business ideas, seek funding, and gather feedback from a crowd of passionate digital media fans.  It was an impressive roster of presenting companies with a heavy emphasis on consumer facing concepts.  I fully expect at least a few of these companies to get funding.  In particular, here are the ones who stood out:

 

 

Love this concept.  I walk around with CVS, Barnes & Noble, and grocery store loyalty cards in my wallet, and each time I visit these places, I need to empty out my entire wallet to reach them.  CardStar takes the hassle out of managing each card and makes the card available on your phone by re-creating the bar code associated with the card.  The best part is that beyond the simple convenience factor, this allows retailers to push down special, personalized deals to your phone.  This app is going to make my wallet seriously thinner...literally. 

 

Nokia: Expanded Services Portfolio Is Starting To Come Together

With all the noise Apple is making around the 3G iPhone,  Nokia has been making tremendous waves recently that should leave the company in an interesting position to maintain its relevance and spot as a major player in the mobile market.  One of its primary new initiatives is Ovi, geared at providing new Internet based services to mobile devices.  They have also been on an acquisition spree to strategically expand the range of its businesses. It will be interesting to see how Nokia is able to integrate these various components into a cohesive customer experience.  Here is a quick rundown of some their major announcements over the past year: 

1. Comes With Music

For starters, they will soon be releasing their "Comes with Music" initiative, a subscription music service that will waive the fee for the first year with purchase of a new Nokia music handset that supports the service.   The big attraction is that for the first year, a customer can download as many tracks as they want and store them on their PC even after their subscription expires.  There is a hot debate on the "catch" to this.  There must be some sort of DRM that limits the amount of songs you can download, otherwise everyone can go out and buy a huge hard drive and go nuts.  In any event, Nokia can now have a stronger hold on the customer experience by selling the hardware and supporting it with music content.