BlackBerry “It’s Not a Toy” Video Made to Wake Up its Management and Refocus on Corporate

Last September I wrote a post titled “Can Blackberry Go From Enterprise to Consumer?” I argued both cases if they should try or not and if they did, could they succeed. At the time, my sense was that smartphones are so ubiquitous that the division between enterprise and consumer is fading so quickly that BlackBerry had to try transitioning and they did. But now it is quite obvious they failed and the RIM ship is heading for an iceberg as executives jump off.

Sales and sentiment has gotten so bad, it has come to the point where RIM is considering selling the company. They have also been taken to court after being accused of infringing six patents on chips. Total worldwide sales for last quarter have dropped 25% and 57% in the U.S. alone since last year.

BlackBerry tried to battle it out with iPhone and Android but clearly does not consumer DNA to compete. I remember talking to a representative from BlackBerry in Barcelona at an after party at the Mobile World Congress and he kept trying to convince me that BlackBerry was going to succeed by giving consumers all the apps they could ever want. But I just felt little hope and thought he was a little delusional.

Now after being smacked in the head by market reality, RIM is aiming to refocus on their roots in the corporate market and persuade loyal users (if any) that they can still deliver value.

With the aim of sending a clear message for RIM management to focus on the business consumer and do things right again, independent American film director, Pawel Pawelczak of Hand Hammered Films and admittedly heavy BlackBerry user has produced a commercial titled “It’s Not a Toy”. The independent commercial urges BlackBerry to realize that it is not a toy for fun but a serious tool for business people.

Pawelczak said “RIM’s announcement last Friday (March 30) that they’re shifting focus to corporate customers is a critical step in the right direction. They need to accept that BlackBerry users are a niche market. Instead of trying to have it both ways (i.e. “we’re like all the other smartphones, only better”), RIM should aggressively embrace what makes BlackBerry different, specifically: security, reliability, and integration with desktop office applications.”

Check out the video below but be aware you will need a vpn to watch it.

 

Related posts:

1. Can Blackberry Go From Enterprise to Consumer ?
2. China Unicom Deputy GM: Huge User Base Benefits WO App Store
3. Apple Tim Cook Visits China Mobile Maybe for iPhone cooperation

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The Online Grocery Market in India [Report]

We have earlier profiled egrocery stores like ZopNow, Aaramshop, MyGrahak.com, Shopveg.in and Farm2Kitchen, but this time we are going to do a round up on the egrocery market in India, its trends and challenges.

You will be surprised to know that India is the sixth largest grocery market in the world. So much for a country where 41.6 per cent people are below the poverty line. The food and grocery segment constitutes about 70 per cent of the $470 billion retail market in India. While only 5-8 per cent of this market is organized, the rest are actually disorganised mom and pop shops run by family members. But the trend is fast changing. More and more food and grocery stores are falling in line and growing at a rate of 18.4 per cent YoY.

And now with the growth in nuclear urban couples, internet friendly shoppers, rising disposable incomes and rising ecommerce reliability, times are changing. Grocery e-tailing has caught on as one of the new verticals and spawned many a startups, including a few mentioned above. According to a study conducted by D’Essence Consulting, 85 per cent of those who shop for groceries online are in the age bracket of 22-45. While studies show more men shop online, women eshoppers are also growing rapidly.

So what is it that really influences people to come online and buy groceries? Has the touch-and-feel factor we always preferred, diminished? What is it really? When questioned some said it was because of convenience of shopping within the premises of a comfortable zone and to avoid crowds, hankering over prices, rising conveyance costs, and ease of delivery. Some others felt that it was also due to the fact that ecommerce has opened up, people are more informed about possible transaction risks and the modes of payment are numerous. The study portrays other factors that influence people to shop online are the advantages of discovering products that are not so easy to find on the retail shelf, valuable discounts/offers, and the benefit to stick within the pre-envisioned budget.

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But is everything really perfect in wonderland? We doubt so. While egrocery tailing may seem to be a no fringe business model, the reality is that these online companies are finding it pretty difficult to scale up the business. On one side where they face constant hiccups in maintaining a solid supply chain management, building up first and repetitive customer base is a gigantic challenge. This is because profit lines are marginal and there are numerous players offering similar services. And the competition is not limited within new-generation e-grocers alone! The good old kirana stores also give them a run for their money as people often buy groceries and other utility items from local shops while enjoying a personal rapport with the owners, built over a long period of time.

However, times are changing and ecommerce is seeing a new dawn every day. What subsequently happens only time will tell. For now we are keeping our fingers crossed.

 

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Recommended Read: A feature that every India based online grocery site needs to implement

Data: What sells in online grocery category? Customers spend twice as much on cleaning toilet over teeth

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An Entrepreneur Says Goodbye: The Story of a Chinese Failure

Early this morning, the China Business News ran an interesting feature on a failed Chinese entrepreneur. If you can read Chinese, I suggest the original, but for those who can’t, I thought it also would make sense to share the story here. What follows is my own summary of the story, based on the China Business News piece.

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Chen Jun’s first job after graduation was working for a huge state-owned company in Wuhan. He had majored in insulation engineering, and it quickly became clear to him that he was being groomed for promotion at the Wuhan job. In the long-term, he could expect job stability, a decent salary, and the social status that comes from being a mid-level manager at a state-owned enterprise. It’s a position many Chinese people would have envied, especially back in the late 1990s when Chen was there. But in less than a year, he chose to walk away. His salary — 800 RMB a month (equivalent to $126 now, but worth even less in the late 90s) — wasn’t high enough and he disliked the workplace culture.

He was also captivated by the boom that was happening in internet technology. In 2000, inspired by what we now know to have been the first internet bubble, he founded and launched his own startup. At the time, the joke in China was that there was a venture capitalist hiding in every tree in China, just waiting for internet startups to walk by so they could shower them in money. Chen had dreams his company would become great and that he’d be invited to speak at Harvard about his successes. But before the company had time to really develop, the bubble burst, and he was forced to close up shop.

The failure devastated Chen, both emotionally and financially. He took up temporary work at a print shop that was owned by a friend and eventually put the failure out of his mind. He got married, had a son, developed a gambling problem that caused a lot of friction in his home, and excelled in his work at the print shop.

But his dream of founding a startup hadn’t died, and after a few years, he founded another company. This one was more closely tied to his expertise in insulation, his company would sell central air conditioning. This time, he threw himself fully into the lifestyle of a Chinese boss, spending his time wining and dining important friends and officials to establish the connections he thought could help his business succeed. Unfortunately, this didn’t have much of an effect on the company, which he just couldn’t seem to get to turn a profit. Eventually, it closed up shop.

Around this same time, though, Chen Jun made a lot of money in real estate. He did this sort of by accident; he just happened to be buying a house as Shanghai’s real estate market was just starting to take off, and he quickly realized he could make a ton of money by just buying an apartment, waiting a few months for the prices to rise even higher, and then selling it. He flipped several apartments this way, and at the same time made what turned out to be a wise venture investment in another company that brought him exponential returns. Suddenly, Chen Jun, the twice-failed entrepreneur, was rich.

He still hadn’t given up on founding a startup, though, and he was excited by Alibaba’s B2B e-commerce model. He came up with a plan for his own B2B e-commerce site, and against the advice of friends, founded it. Chen was counting on a massive upswing in the market, sort of like what he had experienced in the real estate market, but it never came, or at least Chen’s company couldn’t wait for it. The company quickly lost several hundred thousand RMB, and Chen pulled the plug.

Chen was still wealthy, of course, but he wasn’t happy, and he didn’t think highly of himself. His financial success was, he felt, a fluke, and his real attempts at success — his three startups — had all failed. If this story were a movie, this would be the part where we see Chen walking the streets of Shanghai in the rain before suddenly thinking of another idea — a great one — that would lead him to his dream: a successful startup.

But this isn’t a movie, and Chen might have walked the streets of Shanghai in the rain, but the epiphany never came. Instead, Chen emigrated to Canada. He wanted to start over in a new place, and he wanted to ensure his son got a “normal” education. He also wanted to live somewhere with an effective social security system, as his failed startups haven’t left him fully prepared for retirement. He hopes to work as an engineer in Canada, and may also start a Chinese restaurant on the side.

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Although the China Business News story is unfortunately light on details about how Chen’s startups operated, I think there are some lessons here for entrepreneurs. Timing is important. Luck is important. And success is not guaranteed, even with hard work and sacrifice. Sometimes you just fail, and when you try again, you fail again. It’s depressing, but it’s also reality. And I think it’s worth sharing this sort of story to balance out the stories of success we’re surrounded by day in and day out, stories that make success seem like something that is inevitable.

It isn’t. Just ask Chen Jun.

[Image via Shutterstock]

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10 Chinese Social Video-Sharing Apps to Watch in 2012

As so often happens in the Chinese web landscape, there’s already a very healthy amount of competition amongst what some people think will be the hottest type of app in 2012: social video-sharing apps. Or, to put it another way: “microvideo” apps.

These apps capture short videos of fun things that are happening to you, and let you share them to microblog sites like Sina Weibo. Many Chinese-made apps of this kind also feature video-filters so that you can stylize your mini cinematic exploits as well. Among the competition, users can pick out which app best suits their needs based on what kind of a social network it involves, which services it can sync/share to, and how much they can customize their clips.

Here are the ten main social video-sharing apps coming out of China right now: seven are from startups, three from major web companies. In each instance, click on the red-highlighted name of the app to get it from its homepage:

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WeiPai

Video upload limit: 3 minutes
Apps for iOS and Android
Video filters: Yes

The first such social video app that I tried was this one, Weipai. Now maturing nicely into a social network filled with young, smartphone-toting users, its iOS app is looking well polished and already up to v3.0. But, very bizarrely, its Android app is buggy and very rough, left pretty much abandoned since it came out last summer. With more Chinese on Android than iOS by some metrics, that seems like an unwise choice.

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WeiKu

Video upload limit: 30 seconds
App for iOS only (with Android in the works)
Video filters: Yes

We looked at Weiku quite recently, and found that it decided to limit videos to just 30 seconds in length. The app developers apparently believing that was quite enough time for your friend to show his no-hands biking or for your cat to look adorable. On top of that it has built a mini-social network (as have most of these apps) where you can browse video missives from fellow users of the app.

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iSheHui

Video upload limit: None
Apps for iOS and Android
Video filters: Yes

The two founders of iShehui snagged funding from Cyberagent Ventures back in February that amounted to 10 million RMB (US$1.59 million). The company claims that its app has been downloaded just over two million times, and it features the usual array of fellow members’ videos to browse and several methods of sharing your videos.

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Movie360

Video upload limit: None
App for iOS only
Video filters: Yes

This is the only app that’s not free, costing 18 RMB in the Chinese app store. From the makers of Camera360, this Movie360 app is a little different from the others in this list in that it really is just an app that’s stripped of ancillary social networking. Instead of all that, you upload your video straight to major video platforms such as Youku, Sina Video, or YouTube. The Chengdu-based Pinguo startup behind this employed the same tactic with its photo-filter app, which has enjoyed some international success as a result.

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Yi Xia

Video upload limit: None
Apps for iOS and Android
Video filters: Yes

We looked into Yi Xia last December and found it to be buggy yet promising. In the intervening months, it has gotten a bit more stable and also had a facelift so that it now resembles the American app Path. With 36 video filters to choose from, it has more stylistic choice than all the others.

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Vida

Video upload limit: 20 seconds
Apps for iOS and Android
Video filters: Yes

Vida began as just a photo-sharing app – but it recently got updated to support short (very short – just 20-second) videos using its array of real-time filters that it called “insta-render.” With a swish UI and a pretty dynamic social network attached to it, videos are still a small part of its service. Vida has explained to the Chinese media that video uploads are currently only 5 percent of its resources right now.

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Vlook

Video upload limit: None
Apps for iOS, Android, and Symbian
Video filters: None

The Vlook app looks the most basic of the selection made by startups (the six apps above this one in the list) and is the only one that lacks video filters.

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Sina Paike

Video upload limit: None
Apps for iOS and Android
Video filters: Yes

And now we get to the big boys. Made by Sina (NASDAQ:SINA), this app is hard-wired to Sina Weibo, its popular microblog service. Though it could also be used to do some citizen journalism – which is idiomatically demoted by the “Paike” phrase used in the app’s name – Sina’s app still retains an element of fun with a choice of photo filters.

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Youku Paike

Video upload limit: None
Apps for iOS and Android
Video filters: None

Youku Paike launched earlier this year, and has more of a news-oriented flavour. The app lacks any filters and is filled up mostly with other users’ submitting reports about things happening across the country. As such, it’s not very good as a social video-sharing app – but perhaps Youku (NYSE:YOKU) was aiming instead for clicks and hits coming from breaking news. This isn’t the place for your doe-eyed puppy videos.

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Q Pai

Video upload limit: 30 seconds
Apps for iOS and Android
Video filters: Yes

Sina’s main microblog rival, Tencent (HKG:0700), is a bit behind the curve with its Q Pai app, where the video capturing is a bit buried in its mainly photo-oriented feature-set. Geared mainly to work with Tencent products such as QZone and Tencent Weibo, it’s of no use to any people who might want to tweet their videos to Sina Weibo.

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Startup Weekend Cebu – 11-13 May

Startup Weekend is an intense 54-hour event which focuses on building a web or mobile application which could form the basis of a credible business over the course of a weekend. The weekend brings together people with different skillsets – primarily software developers, graphics designers and business people – to build applications and develop a commercial case around them.

This is the first time Startup Weekend will be held in Cebu, Philippines! It is organized by a whole bunch of people led by the folks from TechTalks.ph.

Our editor-in-chief, Gwen will also be there mentoring. Say hi to her!

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Event Details

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When: Friday-Sunday, 11-13th May 2012
Where: University of the Philippines Cebu, Cebu City, Cebu, Philippines

Get your tickets here!

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Unitas Global deploys on Equinix to support global expansion

With Platform Equinix, Unitas Global can connect directly to a rich customer and partner ecosystem

Equinix, a provider of global data center services, yesterday announced that Unitas Global, the world’s first and leading managed infrastructure service provider, has selected Platform Equinix™ in Singapore and Sydney, Australia to support its global business expansion plans. The deployment will allow the company to securely reach cloud service providers and enterprise customers operating in Equinix data centers across the Asia-Pacific region.

Unitas Global, which designs and operates IT Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) for more than 100 customers, also has plans to expand into other key Equinix data center locations in Asia-Pacific to accommodate rapid growth in the region. Unitas’ flagship product, UnitasONE allows companies to purchase their entire IT infrastructure as a single managed service, simplifying operations and eliminating capex, helping companies to focus on their core business functions

“We wanted to work with a service provider who could serve as our gateway to Asia-Pacific and help accelerate our business growth in the region,” said Grant Kirkwood, Chief Executive Officer at Unitas Global in a press release. “We chose to work with Equinix because of its strategic locations in the region, rich customer and partner global ecosystem as well as its track record of operational excellence and the reliability of its IBX data centers, all of which will help us assemble best-in-class services for our customers.”

Equinix has 11 data centers across five key markets in Asia-Pacific, in Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Sydney and Shanghai. The company services more than 900 customers in the region, including cloud and IT service providers such as Voxel, IBM, Kyocera and Fujitsu.

Photo: Datacentreknowledge

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Huge security risk from selling your Android phone could lead to Identity Theft

Probably best to sell to people you know or trust. Photo: PC World

According to Robert Siciliano, a security researcher at McAfee, data still remains on Android devices after following the standard wipe protocols.

“What’s really scary is even if you follow protocol, the data is still there,” Siciliano said. He bought 30 different used devices from Craigslist, and using his own expertise along with  a forensics expert managed to recover data including bank details, social security numbers, and credit card logins. He also added that BlackBerry and iOS users do not have to worry as the standard wipe procedures on them really does wipe all the data. His advice to Android users planning to sell their phones was simple:

“Put it in the back of a closet, or put it in a vise and drill holes… [sic], or if you live in Texas take it out into a field and shoot it. You don’t want to sell your identity for 50 bucks.”

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Roomorama finds complementary fit with Lofty, merges to expand reach

The travel industry is definitely the next industry that is set to disrupt, if not already. The limelight on the success of companies like Airbnb which has changed the way vacation rental industry was done has now led to more and more startups innovating the travel industry. Nearer to home, Roomorama, which has a base in Singapore, is one such startup, and has recently merged with Lofty, a similar vacation renting startup based in the states.

Photo: Lofty

According to TechCrunch, backing this merger is a $2.1 million seed round from names that are already connected to the online travel market, including Jose Marin (investor in Russian travel site HipWay and hotel booking site GuestMob), PROfounders Capital, Lerer Media Ventures, and Thrive Capital Partners.

Mergers are good. Not only does both companies leverage on each other’s resources to overcome its limitation, it would also result in having a wider reach, thus standing a higher chance to build a long lasting company. With more and more startups sprouting out everyday, startups generally have a tough time making it big. For every startup that made it, there must be hundreds more that are shut down. Instead of fighting against one another for the fixed amount of market share, which might end up causing more harm, in my opinion, it is definitely wise to see how startups can help one another if they complement each other.

For Roomorama and Lofty, both focus on the mid-range to high-end travel market, and since Roomorama had the customers but lacked inventory; and Lofty had inventory but not enough customers to fill it, the merger made sense. Adding on to the factor of merger between the two is the complementary fit geographically: Roomorama is based in Singapore and does a lot of business in Asia, while Grinda says that a full third of Lofty’s business is in the U.S. with another third in Europe.

A while back we did an interview with the cofounder of Roomorama, Federico Folcia to find out about their expansion plans to Asia. Federico will also be speaking at our Singapore, Vietnam and Taiwan Echelon Satellite event.

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Cacoo makes wire-framing even easier with Google+ Hangouts

Cacoo, a user-friendly online drawing tool that allows you to create a variety of diagrams, such as sitemaps, wireframes and network charts, has started to provide “Cacoo for Google+ Hangouts” to help extend the users’ real time collaboration experience.

So what is Cacoo? Cacoo is a product of Nulab, a ten year old Japanese startup which aims to provide an easy-to-use online diagramming and design applications solution for anyones who wants to collaborate with one another. Cacoo runs on Flash application and hence is entirely browser-based, free and features a library of icons users can drag and drop to create site maps, wireframes, flow charts, network diagrams, mind maps, and more. On top of that, you could also explore its other features such as resize, flip and skew them, create their own components from existing ones, upload images to include in the diagrams, and more.

Photo: Techcrunch

Aside from being free and easy to use, its main selling point is that it allows multiple users to create and edit designs collaboratively and in real-time, so naturally, it makes sense for the platform to launch its new “Cacoo for Google+ Hangouts“, which brings “the future of meeting room” to users now. With this integration, members can now share diagrams during a live video chat:

Photo: Cacoo

This is really great news for existing Cacoo users and also for those who are new to Cacoo. There have been good reviews from Techcrunch as well as Mashable so if you are interested to find out more, do check them out at their website.

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Let’s Go Innovate! by SG Geek Girls

Hi ladies! SG Geek Girls has another event coming up on the 18th of April.

This time round, it’s going to be called Let’s Go Innovate! The event will be a meet-&-pitch session, and what’s exciting this time is that Monica Tsai, Director of Investments at SingTel Innov8 will also be joining the event.

Description:

Let’s Go Innovate! is centered around innovation. It’s about bringing great ideas to life and getting help along the way. Share your ideas with us! Monica Tsai will shed light on the Investment process & what it takes to make a great idea a reality.

Where and when:
LET’S GO INNOVATE! Wed, 18th April, 7pm – 10pm
Plugin@Blk71 71 Ayer Rajah Crescent #02-18
MRT one-north (Circle line)

Brief Agenda:
7pm – Registration and Dinner
7.30pm – Introduction of Monica + Short Q&A
7.45pm – Pitching Begins! (Everyone gets 2 mins to pitch and 2 mins for Q&A)
8.30pm – Chill out and have fun!

So mark down your calendar, and register now at bit.ly/letsgoinnov8

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Singapore students dream big at Microsoft Imagine Cup 2012

Watch tertiary students pitch their hearts out at the Semis and Finals of Imagine Cup 2012: Singapore

We all know that students are future leaders, the same way most leaders nowadays were once students. Microsoft Imagine Cup, the world’s premier student technology competition, aims to find out what these future leaders are thinking and how they can use their imagination and passion to create a technology solution that addresses the Imagine Cup 2012 theme: Imagine a world where technology solves the world’s toughest problems.

Happening from 13 – 14 April at SCAPE, this year’s Imagine Cup 2012 : Singapore Finals will be open and free for public viewing this year. Talented students from the various institutions of higher learning will compete and pitch their hearts out in this national software design competition to represent Singapore in the Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals held in Sydney, Australia.

Details:
Event: Microsoft Imagine Cup: Singapore Finals
Venue: SCAPE
Date: 13-14 April

You can register here for the event.

In ten years, the Imagine Cup has grown to be a global competition focused on finding solutions to real-world problems. Since 2003, over 1.4 million students have participated in the Imagine Cup with 358,000 students representing 183 countries and regions registering for the Imagine Cup 2011 competition.

The Imagine Cup 2012 competition is a platform for students to:

· Solve tough problems facing the world today, and maybe even turn your ideas into a business.
· Learn new technological skills.
· Test yourself against the brightest students around the world.
· Make new friends.
· Win cash, grants , and prizes – plus, a chance for a free trip to Sydney, Australia, next July to compete at the Imagine Cup 2012 Worldwide Finals!

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Freelancer.com unveils regional websites and looks to double users by end 2012

Freelancer.com CEO Matt Barrie

Freelancer.com unveils regional websites in India, Singapore and the Philippines and continues to eye bigger expansion.

Founded three years ago by Chief Executive Officer Matt Barrie, and having one staff assisting him since day one, Freelancer.com has grown phenomenally into around a hundred people with offices in Australia and the Philippines in three years. Coined as the world’s largest outsourcing marketplace connecting over 2.5 million professionals across the globe, and in the top 250 websites globally, they are looking to double their number of users by the end of 2012. Recently unveiled their regional websites in India, Singapore, and the Philippines, they are looking forward to launching more regional websites for Asia Pacific countries.

The aim of launching these sites in each country’s local language is to assist more entrepreneurs in the countries where Freelancer mark their foothold in. By offering local currency transactions within the sites, they expect more small business owners and freelancers in Asia to benefit from this feature as they will be arriving in more countries soon.

Primarily connects small businesses and individuals from the western world with freelancers in the developing world, empowering entrepreneurs on both sides of the globe, as of now, over one million projects have been outsourced through Freelancer.com. To fulfill the target, they are focused on building out the functionality and usability of the site. They want it to be in every country in every language for every job the members can think of.

Matt, a serial entrepreneur, has been raised over US$40 million in financing, from venture capital, strategic investors, and through government grants while running or assisting technology companies. The Masters in Applied Finance, and a Masters in Electrical Engineering graduate from Stanford University is also the co-author of more than 20 US patent applications.

Realizing there were many parts of the task at hand that could be completed online by anyone in the world, he used an existing service offered by his first company Sensory Networks to help outsource parts of the job. Everything seems clicked at that time whilst the net was about to deliver a disruptive shift to the global labor market. Seeing the flaws in the way existing services operated, he acquired GetaFreelancer.com in 2009. “A site that looked terrible but on the other hand it had huge potentiality that amassed around 500,000 users,” Matt explains. The architecture and code base was rebuilt and then moved to Amazon EC2 as he re-launched it as Freelancer.com.

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