VoIP phones on today's woot !!!

sunil, the future is here awreddy.

today's woot features a two-pack of Atcom Voice Over IP (VoIP) USB phones.


how does it work ?


you send your partner one, and sign you both up for a VoIP service like Skype.
Calls from one VoIP user to another don’t incur per-minute charges no matter where in the world that other IP is. there’s a monthly fee, but it’s a lot cheaper.

and if the two of you live in the same city you can still use VoIP as a supplement to a your cell line, so you don’t pay for valuable daytime minutes.

all for a princely sum of US $ 17.99 plus $ 5 shipping.

for more comments on this product go here


sighhhhhhhh............

customer engagement

the longer you keep him with your brand, the better it is.
thats what engagement is.
with brands and brand experiences that are sticky.

and so this is how a few do it. by creating groups of involved, happily hooked conumers.


india's leading karaoke jockey KJ Subz does it by offering his fans the chance to turn rockstar. and so teeming crowds hang around waiting for their turn to belt out their opportunity from behind the mike.


vikas verma's Colour Factory at an upscale DLF mall in gurgaon is therapeutic, as i discovered.
at this DIY ceramic studio, one can pick a choice of pottery and personalise it, paint it, jazz it up. and eat and drink alongside while trained assistants attend to your queries and top up your colours and select paintbrushes for you.


so can't record labels team up with KJ Subz ? to do a karaoke evening of their music exclusively ? or promote the music of a forthcoming film by getting consumers to listen to it and sing along ? throw in a few simple quiz type questions for prizes and you have a winner.

and can't the camlins and the fevicryls of the world tap in to the world of the colour factory ? or even the juice or snack brands of the world may be ?

are we looking at fleeting levels of brand exposure which may or may not impact consumers ? or a guaranteed 2/3 hours of pure passionate involvement from them ?

take your pick brand marketers.

Matrix Revisited

Yesterday I was rapping as usual with a friend from the CellCos and ended up talking about how little the guys who decide what kind of content will reside on their GPRS portals know. Take some content to them and they will ask you how you would promote the same. (before hitting you on the head with a 50% revenue share they have dreamt up for themselves) The content provider has to bear the cost of developing the content, sharing rights fees with the original owner and media costs to promote the content. Net result - few content guys have the balls to be orginal. They simply cannot be innovative knowing that at the end of all this they will be left holding about 10% of the total value of the content. Dont blame them for treating content likse e onions - buy by the ton and sell by the kilo.

What if I had Satyajit Ray content - Feluda, The movies and everything else, would CellCos be interested? Yes they would be in West Bengal and BanglaDesh. Try talking to a Hutch guy in Mumbai and you will know what I mean. Now what if I were to get a media house as a partner? What if they push the content to ensure stickiness of their readership? Now does that change the game?

What if I use search marketing? Every true Bengali searching for anything to do with the language or the culture would come to the website. I get ad revenue on the webpage that hosts the content, get revenue from operators through whom my visitors download the content.

Now does it become interesting?
The art of working in the digital space is not in looking at components in isolation but in being the zubin mehta of creating a matrix of sounts that work together to give a symphony.

Are there any companies that you know of that is taking interactive and mobile along with brands and content and creating a unified solution? If you send me a list of these I promise to buy you a cuppa in which ever city you are located.

__________________

Interesting read

Blogging for Dollars

more magz...

hah !

the guys at business today agree with moi.*

my post finds an echo in their story "magazine mania".

the whole world and their moms want a price of the action.

forbes, businessweek, vogue, glamour et.al. could be gracing indian shelves soon.

and then new niches - magazines on pups and dogs. spas.

such fun, no ??

* subscription needed to view the link

Passion Drives...

Gadget geeks go here
News-hounds and gossip mongers go hereTechnology geeks go here

What’s common to woot which sells one sexy product “deal ” as it dubs itself.
And sells itself out only to re-invent itself every 24 hours.

To warfornews which quietly slips in to the world of today’s TV channel journalism and uncovers their deepest, darkest secrets.

To a barcamp, a concept which has originated in "saddi dilli"..surprise surprise and not in Bangalore. Where lovers and users of technology get together to rap and share ideas and visions of what they want to do with technology.

All of these are unique ideas which give groups of consumers what they are looking for.
It taps in to their passions and deepest desires.

So that apart from the initial effort …to drive traffic, the consumer gets hooked and keeps coming back for more and much much more.

And one more thing. Viral marketing has created the buzz around all these.

What now brown cow you may say ?

A desi woot avatar will work. Assuming the stuff up for sale doesn’t come from Chinese rip-offs or from grey market junk.. Rediff and Baazee are you listening ? Try and figure why that zircon pendant doesn’t sell despite 20 identical listings and a one rupee pricetag plus three hundred bucks delivery charges.
And why that Nokia handset doesn’t get enough bids. That’s because its cheaper at the nukkad store.

Some passionate soul who KNOWS gizmos can turn this in to a money spinner.

Rock music passions can open up another front. I keep telling my dear buddy Naren Kusnur to start his music blog. Given his exposure in the business and his contacts with musicians that’s a slot that he can do full justice to. Rise O Naren. History awaits you…

Then given our passion for gossip and Bollywood who will be the first to blog the darkest secrets of that world ? Film rags are pure childs play didn’t you know ?
This could be the worlds first pay to read blog. Mint millions.

The gaming world where game driven souls can meet, rap, play.

Niches could tap in to karaoke, hacking, net usage, business games, brand developments, trend spotting… the list is endless

Enough people are passionate about many things

Cash in.

the secondary network of wonderful things

Cold media buying types occassionally gather together and speak in hushed tones about circulation numbers etc. They also chew on the bing bang that mainline newspapers can provide to brands that fall prey to their games. A couple of weeks ago I had a good friend try to explain to me the strategy behind the launch of a new service by a courier company. His solution was simple - full page ads in Times of India all editions, Economic times, BusinessWorld and TVCs across news channels. Money burnt - about 80 lakhs in one bloody day. I looked at him and blinked twice and gave him a look over. Was this guy for real? I wanted to check his pulse and poke him in his ribs to ensure that he was indeed alive.
It was then that my friend spoke in hushed tones about a secondary network of media that exists. This media network lives in the shadow of the biggies, it speaks local languages and is generally looked down upon by the Anghrezhi speaking types. But when you want to reach the grassroots, target the mass markets then you have to go to them. They are not expensive and they dont have flash value. No one will ever talk about them in glorious terms. But they do the job.
Think again - why the ^%$##$ did Hutch introduce vernacular Ads for Chota Recharge? And why do brand want to go local? The answer is that we city folks have reached media saturation, we dont look at ads

SO! can I be the first to lay claim to the future of Online advertising? Can I say that I intend to create a huge network of websites and blogs and forums and all that which cater to chota communities who are consumers? Can I tieup every small newspaper in the country and run their websites and drive visitors and thereby create value for advertisers? Can I therefore break the stranglehold of the bigg guys?

Can I do the same with the mobile phone?

Can I offer a potent combination to advertisers ? Mobile and online platform to reach the right consumer? Can I mine the data to know what patterns are emerging ? Can I link SBI Debit cards usage to predict when a family in Ludiana or in Vellambalam buys its next colour TV? Or tell Paramount Airways when Mr Parthasarthy from Chennai will take his next trip to coimbatore or When Mr Waghmare will fly to Kolhapur?

It is exciting times and by god the best to make history and not remain a footnote.

where all will you touch...

...your consumer ?

a quick visit to the washroom at delhi's turquoise cottage last night in the midst of rocking karaoke do left me stunned.

on the left hand side of the mirror. there was a nicely printed sticker. classy graphics too. saying that i was looking at a marie claire woman. and on the right of the mirror was pasted another sticker with a visual of the international marie-claire magazine.

i dont know if it was there by chance or deliberately put there. but pause now. think.

then there was this promo done by dettol handwash liquid soap in the washrooms of PVR cinemas where users had free bottles of the product for their use.

is this ten seconds worth of brand exposure in a washroom albeit in an "upmarket" what we are coming to ? imagine WC's with stickers saying they use harpic and nothing else !

there was this guy on e bay who was auctioning his forehead for a brand tattoo.
imagine if he was a co-worker or a family member.

sheesh !

move over SMS. MMS. inflight promos. pop-ups. in-film placements.

but the scrabble seems to be for newer and more innovative ways of brand exposure. in a myriad of ways. newer and innovative touch points.

the beauty is that now brands have people looking for that connect.

via podcasts. or message boards or discussion groups. or an online virtual walk through. or contests like this one which ask viewers to guess the ending of the movie "fanaa'. via gaming.
and yes even thru blogs !

so are there any more ways of touching consumers? capturing them while they remain willing slaves to a brands experience ?

possible areas could be around

movie seats
IM / chat browsers
search engine home page ( google allows you to brand the home page )
wiki
spa
at your shrink's office !
on your inflight movie screen
on your GPRS display screen
on your ice-cream cone


any one for any more ??

WiFi Zindabad

Over the last couple of weeks I have been travelling extensively between Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore. Since most of the traveling is on short notice I end up with Air Deccan tickets, which almost everytime means that I am stuck at the city airports with two to three hours to kill. Till a few months ago this delay would mean that I would buy a few mags and read them, now with a wifi enabled wireless laptop I can get on to the net at Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Delhi (Mumbai is still in the backwaters).

I suppose very soon we will have sify, vsnl, bsnl wifi networks which cover every major building and maybe even cities. That brings us to some wonderful ideas:

1. If I am a VSNL wifi customer can I access a sify wifi network? Not yet, but imagine if such a thing was possible - it is possible if we build the system ( stupid!!) and extend it to roaming like we have in the cell phone domain. It would be wonderful to be online always via a laptop and be able to access information on a 15 inch monitor instead of a measly 4 inch Treo. I wish this happens asap and then it will open possibilities galore.
2. If there is a wifi network covering the entire city then why do i need a cell phone? can I have a handset which connects to the net via wifi? Have a skype equivalent on the handset ( some techies say that it is possible to build such a software) and lo and behold you can dial and speak to anyone using VOIP.

Is this the reason Google is investing in wireless networks in some cities? Can you begin to imagine what is going to happen?

sunil nair is famous !

read all about him here

pop the bubbly and make merry !!

magazines wanted

mala bhargava's take on how difficult it is to figure if a new mobile handset is for you, set me thinking.
plus my geeky buddy sanjeev sarma who lives with technology and tries to take us simple folk closer to it, had this idea.

a magazine on mobile phones.

i know IT and digital content publications do it partly. but there is now enough meat and enough consumers to make a go of this niche.

and then one more.
gaming.
and may parents, teachers all slaughter me. the truth is out there.
alongwith online gaming on PC's and at reliance web worlds , downloadable games for mobile phones and game CD's and cartridges for computers and Xbox and the PS series...

the websites which carry cheat codes for games ( shortcuts ) must be getting huge hits from lazy bones who want to get to the next level on their game without making the effort. so a real or a virtual gaming hangout would be BIG methinks.

does anything exist for the booming biotechnology and retail and entertainment sectors ?

then i am taken back to my salad days where a cult called Junior Statesman aka JS existed. once it closed down, no one has been ever able to re-create that magic.
perhaps today's youth may not even relate to a JS. but us youngat heart diehards surely would.

so it magazine time...wake up and smell the paper guys!!

wanna do this in india?

Tribeca online film festival ka desi avtaar? wanna try?

Writer's Marketplace

Many moons ago I was involved in something that evolved into Caferati . The idea back then was to provide writers with a forum where they could interact and explore and eventually find their own space and confidence to go and write that Booker winner. Caferati has been bumbling along doing nothing much other than sporadic readmeets (must remember to copyright ideas). I had visions of getting sponsors for every read meet, sponsors for books that would be published and so on. Did Not Work!

Time now for version two of the idea:

Create a forum for writers
Communities based on interests and genres
Drive registration : Free with limited access and features and a paid membership
Price it at Rs 249 for six months
Allow paid members to submit their work
Give away premium content that the members can read.
Rate content on basis of number of downloads, the best ones rise to the top based on reviews and number of downloads
Share revenues with the writers
Distribute content to offline media
Distribute content to Mobile
PUBLISH!

I have a feeling this will work. But this one needs some bit of seed capital. Coffee anyone?

Write to me if you want to explore this idea further

food 24/7/365

picture this.

a bustling food court. serving anything and everything.

soups. mocktails. slushes. chuski. ice-cream. desi. southie. pasta. biryani. snacks. street food. pastries. chinese. pizzas. continental. desserts. salads.

packed with families with kids. just married types still shy of each other. cuddling couples. all male hang-out types. BPO types who stick out a mile.

here's the surprise part.

its 2 am on a saturday morning in new delhi.

and the location is "comesum", the eatery outside the hazrat nizamuddin railway station.

run by the irctc, and located in select cities .

comesum is not just a food court at railway stations. there are smaller comesum restaurants and takeaway kiosks at railway stations.

and the best is this one. call up their phone numbers. place your order and have your food delivered at your seat on your train.

whew. non-shatabdi types can finally take heart.

given the proliferation of eating out options today plus the choice of ready to cook/ ready to eat foods, home-delivery options from waiters-on-wheels to dominos to humble dhaaba / dabba fare.... i wonder.

may be there will come a day when we too turn in to a nation that almost always eats out ? much as in the west where domesticity is a pain.

i dont really think so. as long as servants are here to wait on us it seems a remote thing.
even two or three generations after todays mcfood types.

the frequency with which i take my son out to eat is once a week. minimum. the order-ins and takeaways are separate.
the ready to eat foods and chips and assorted junk is separate and not accounted for in this discussion.
but pretty much what i want to say should be clear.

we are eating out like never before.

and anything new and innovative - sushi, veda, juice bars, office lunches flaunt salads, vodka filled gol-gapppas, flambe-ed gulab jamuns, branded vada-pav...

convenience foods, ready to cook, ready to eat tom tom virtues of being natural with no preservatives to anxious homemakers. the working types simply put their guilt and doubts on the back burner and snap them up.

restaurants turn in to brands and market their speciality dishes in cans or pouches in ready to eat avtaars.
cook books routinely sell out. foodblogs have appeared

food rocks. business wise. even other wise.

so when will some one do a concept store that does any thing and everything around and with food ? a foodie version of the planet m / music world. tough. but not impossible. enough footfalls, trials and repeat visitors are guaranteed.
will messers biyani or pillai oblige ?

when will the roads of chandni chowk be turned in to an endless food street the way it is in lahore ?

microwave marketers have long since used the recipe / food route to familiarise buyers with their product and ensure that a new style of cooking is taught to desi women. post the initial flush and enthu how many have bothered to stay connected with their database of users and ensure interest and involvement levels are maintained? after all its easier to retain a customer and upsell rather than acquire a new one. scope for community building here. especially amongst home makers. samsung, LG et. al. wake up.

and then there is this. the ultimate tribute that one can pay to a brand. more so when promoting it is not allowed in any media except at point of sale. brand heritage and other sundry facts aside, this is something that constitutes the holy grail for any marketer. meakins and co must take a bow for inspiring this effort.
also a fit case for brand sustenance in the blogosphere.

stuff that case-studies would be about.

sometime in the distant future.

and now am HUNGRY...


p.s. no thanks to blogspot who swallowed this post twice before. hungry kya ?????

of knock-offs and pavements....

take a look at the teeming, milling crowds on the streets.

all doing just one thing.

shopping.

and the maximum crowds i see are at the pavement stalls and the "khokaas" selling shoes and clothes at rock bottom rates. almost always to women.

nice, kitschy stuff with assorted glittery thingummies. all at prices that don't burn a hole in the pocket. quality of course is pretty suspect. but as long as it lasts a couple of months, no sweat.
and a bit of bargaining proves irresistible. even though deep down we all know that even after supposedly bullying the shopkeeper down by a few bucks he is STILL making his pound of flesh from us..who cares ? we have got what WE wanted, right ??

makes me wonder in the midst of our so-called retail revolution and hypermarkets et.al., when will anyone come up with a chain of pavement stalls ? a brand of pavement stalls around the country. offering the same kind of products at the same prices and the same experience, everywhere ?

a chain of pavement stalls selling designer knock-offs at knock off prices - would be a smash hit, methinks.

we guys are great at fake stuff. so merhcandise shouldn't be a problem. stalls selling fakes abound, but lack credibility. and quality is always suspect.

so may be a chain of pavement shops selling QUALITY designer knock-offs and tom-tomming that fact would give that credibility stamp perhaps ? i think the crowds would attack in droves.

the west has made a virtue of designer fakes ...perfumes, clothes, sunglasses, shoes.
no reason that it can't happen here ?

well ??




p.s. - delhi has this cute-in-pink "chota" shop chain called "impulse". where you pick up baubles, beads, bags and shoes. and get nail art done. almost always crowded.

then a long while ago, a foodie friend who had his own chain of fast-food reastaurants serving kebaabs, had decided to innovate and take his kebaabs to the masses at office complexes. branded "kongo" (short for kebaab-on-the-go), the idea was to have a uniformed seller with his own tray of kongos ( kebaabs in roomalis with chutney and onion rings, foilwrapped and packed in cartons a la mcdonald's ), much like the food-sellers you see walking about in the west, during soccer and cricket matches.
replenishments could come from a nearby storage source or a central kitchen.

willing to bet this would work like a dream....

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so there !!!

the game of games...

they are laughing all the way to the bank.

or they soon will be.

game creators and content providers are finally beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel. courtesy the fans of PSP and Xbox.
online and mobile options add to the fun and games. pretty literally.

service providers, and the porn industry lick their chops in anticiaption of all that moolah they can lat their hands on.

then sundry brands see this as THE way to get through to their difficult-to-reach hard-to-please consumers one on one. seasons, characters, events also have a role in game creation.

and the kids are left way behind the grown-ups (!) who want a piece of the action .. 33 % versus 11 % as reported in one of the mainline dailies.

so the new timepass is this perhaps.

assuming we get games on our i-pods ?

school lessons woven in to games so that kids can at least get to learn their lessons that way ?? ( pretty please, someone go in to this new paradigm of learning and make trillions )

and we can create our ideal partner in a game ?

play pranks on others through games ?

next we will have game olympics ( shudder !! )and spawn a new monster !!!

Defining moments ...www style !!!

The World Wide Web’s defining moments as researched by CNN make interesting reading.

Would be interesting to see if our lists of defining moments coincide with the majority speak or not.

Imho, e-mail and the mobile phone are the two things that have simply revolutionised the way we do business now.
May be voice and video too. However they have been more along the lines of value-adds to an existing base of technology based work enablers.

My next defining moment with regard to how technology will redefine our work and living styles –

Office / Wallet / Entertainment all in one.
On a mobile phone or mobile communicator. Right now it takes the shape of a handheld external device.
What if it is an implant under the skin? Or adhered to an external garment ?

Who is the mad genius who will get us there ? Which is the corporation which will invest ?

Futurists have predicted the possibility of creating an invisible force-field around humans that will enable all communication possibly by thought and telepathy….

Welcome to our Brave New World.. circa 2084 perhaps ??

What do the kids of today want ?

As mother to a pre-teen, metropolitan, elitist, semi-spoilt brat it’s pretty clear.

The latest game CD’s ( both for PC and PSP aka Play-station Portable ), Nike soccer jerseys, Mall shopping sprees, Gatorade, safari holidays in Africa ( Disneyworld ? What’s that ? ) , a personal mobile phone, notebook PC's, birthday bashes at farmhouses with girls coming in for an “evening dance party”……

A lot of these are a function of the super-informative age and the one-upmanship scenario that we live in. Where the world has shrunk in to reside on our idiot boxes or PC’s. And kids selectively pick out this kind of information and take it in like super-absorbent sponges. Retain it all, too.

Given the nature and level of information flows, research in the West has shown , that the average sleeping times of babies have gone down considerably due to the level and quality of stimuli that they are exposed to.

That doesn’t make it any easier. In fact, we all know how tough it is to get and hold the attention of these guys for more than a brief length of time.

So. How does one harness the power of information to kids about a brand and make moolah out of it ? Time and time again ?

This example comes to mind.

One where a brand has a unique offering, at least in the Indian context. Obviously the quality and presentation has more than exceeded consumer expectations.
A presence in strategic locations in a few malls is enough. Word has spread like wild-fire.
( Oh yes, pundits call it “buzz”, “WOM”, “viral marketing” and suchlike ) amongst son’s peer group.

On two successive weekends my son dragged me to different malls in an effort to find the store. There was no advertising whatsoever to go by. No one had the exact location, only vague directions to go to so-and-so mall and such-and-such floor and it was next to a particular store.

Once we located it, it was bliss. For the child at least. He was lost in his Paradise. A whole range of assorted candies were neatly arranged in rows of crystal clear containers. Stuff which we had read about in Enid Blyton books or seen in Archie comics as kids.

Dolly mixture, liquorice sticks, chocolate coated footballs, fudge, marshmallows, bulls eyes, humbugs and god knows what all else. In flavours from cola and mint to peach and grape. In shapes ranging from dentures to cola bottles to creepy crawlies.
We could mix and match an assortment of candies as we pleased with the large spatula there. Designed to pick up large helpings every time.
All priced at a flat rate of Rs. 60 per 100 grams. Works out equivalent or more than the most expensive “pista burfi” or dry fruits that one could pick up elsewhere.

You could pick up as much or as little as you wanted.
They were weighed, billed and packed in a food grade zip lock bag with colourful candy coloured streaks on it.
Mind you, the candies were still visible through it. Anyone carrying this sort of a bag would be instantly tagged as being a customer of “Candy Treats”. And in “that” stratospheric league of people who would go to such places.

And we keep going back there. Again and again. And I half-heartedly, semi-willingly shell out the moolah for over-priced candies that I know will cause tooth decay in the long run with dentists bills as a side benefit.

But this guy at Candy Treats has got his act down pat. He has created a tribe of regular, loyal ambassadors at no extra cost.

Google did it with g mail. Once upon a time a g mail invite was the most wannabe thing on Earth. They’ve been smart enough to keep it still by invitation only.

Smart. Very smart. Or did Mr. Candy Treat just get lucky, being the first in his business ? Was he in the right place at the right time ?

Makes me think. Where does he go from here ? Even the biggest cult brands (think i-pod, for instance ) need to innovate and move on in order to maintain and grow loyal consumers.

May be the answers could lie in low-cal or sugar free candy to attract health conscious adults ? Or even “naughty” candy ? These could be placed at pubs and restaurants. Customised candy in desired shapes ? Play-and-eat dough candy for babies ?

Or better still. Ask the kids what they want.

A confectionery company called Candico had a few years ago run a contest, where they had asked kids to write in with their suggestions as to what kind of candies they should manufacture. The best suggestions would be rewarded with the opportunity to become Brand Advisors and Tasters for the company. Imagine the hoard of information they would have managed to gather.
Strangely, though, I don’t seem to recall anything happening with that company and its products.

But for now, my drooling continues…...



p.s. - thank you sunil :))

Random thoughts on a pale Saturday

1. When advetisers want people to know about the existence of their brand they use print, Tv and outdoor. But when they want people to respond they will use other means. Those means include interactive and mobile. When Voltas has a cherubic kid saying "India ka AC, Korea ka nahi" (India's AC, not from some Korean company) they want to establish their coolness in an overheated market. If a potential buy goes to the consumer durable market to select an AC he or she would most certainly be seduced by the glib talk of the sales guy and will 90% of the time come back with the AC that was not even in their consideration. The last mile battle is won by those companies who promise better margins and deals to their outlets / dealers etc. In this scenario if Voltas wants interested consumers to contact them direct so that they can send their representative to ensure a sale they need to have some sort of contact mechanism in place in their Ads on TV. The best is to put in a call centre number, but then how many people will remember to call - after all expecting people to call in the middle of some Saas Bahu conspiracy or Dhoni's sixes is asking for too much. The next is to get people to SMS so that a call centre voice can call back. Both are call to actions that are mucked up by uncertainities. Now if Voltas just wanted to get people to know that they are around then their objectives are served by having non response advertising.

Suppose we were to have a solution in place where the user gets to call when he is online and browsing for information about how to make payasam on an obscure portal? Can we offer multiple options to contact Voltas? Can we send him an SMS after he has opted in to remind him about buying the AC when he is in the confines of a multiplex?

2. Response advertising will move to the Internet and mobile in the next one year. It will assume and then consume major budgets. The next big players in this space are going to be nimble operators who can take convergence to the next level.

3. Is anyone reading this blog at all?

Take your Google personalized page with you

I am sure this has been discussed about 100 Googol times before. But hey I just rediscovered this fact and I am thrilled to bits about it's possibility.

Click here

And you will know what I am talking about. After taking over the net, Google makes things thrilling by promising to take over the mobile screens. They have a few things you can do from your mobile phone right now. But that will change soon. What happens when a uniform shortcode for Google comes into effect. Imagine what you can do with ringtones and screensavers and images which can be accessed from Google on your mobile. Will it mean that the mobile content providers will be out of business? Or will this mean that there would be an easier way of distributing content. It would be fun to see Ashish Kashyap - Google India Head trying to compete with Mobile2Win for business. And Indiagames selling games using Google.

Imagine enterprise solutions on your mobile phone. Delivery schedules coming to your Supply Chain Management system visible on your handset. Order confirmation when you are on the move.

Imagine being able to get all that you now take for granted on the net getting ported into your mobile.

Imagine text ads on Google Mobile, Imagine being able to call direct the number you see on the ad and ask for a quote. Oooh, this is exciting times.

Wonder how many of us marketing jerks are already onto the bandwagon? I can imagine a few smirks.