Author: Prasad Ajinkya

Prasad Ajinkya is the Big Fat Geek and often he spends his time working on the WordPress or Google eco-system. He loves to solve business problems with technology.

Indians are Brand Conscious

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This is from LiveMint. They say that Indians rank third in the world in terms of being brand conscious. The study further says that Indians are not only conscious about the imported brands but also know about the domestic brands as well. Heres a quote –

In a luxury brands survey conducted by The Nielsen Company, a global information and media research company, India ranked third after Greece and Hong Kong in the list of most brand conscious countries in the world.

And if you look at it, its true! Heck, I just bought an iPod … I would categorize Apple as a luxury brand. Just take a look around you, and you will see brands everywhere …

  • He is an IIM grad
  • I just took a Kingfisher flight, the air hostesses were worth it
  • Moods please
  • It’s a SONY
  • One Signature large please

Need I say more?

Customer Orientation

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Are the modern sales guys really selling to us what we need? Or are they selling to us what they want to sell?

A couple of years back I had applied for a silver credit card (this was when I was a student). The card (Citibank) was good enough for me to use during my student days. And the great part about it was that my father booted the bill!! Once the job had started, the card was no longer needed, and soon it expired. I applied for one more credit card, to my chagrin, this time Citibank never responded. No issues, ye nahi to koi aur sahi … so saying, I got another card.

Now, some months back, they sent me a renewed credit card – an exact replica of my expired card … with my student photo as well (I was so “thin” back then!). This time around I feel no need for one more credit card; its almost equivalent to one more headache. Who has got time for paying those pesky monthly bills which always crop up when your bank account is doing the balancing act of the century (SideNote – bank balance is an oxymoron!!)

So, I tell them that I have no need for a card, can they destroy the card? Sadly, they advise me that the paperwork involved will be too much for them and for me. I believe them like a dimwit, and now I am still carrying my student credit card. I have no intention of using it. Upto this part, I am fine with it.

For the past week or so, everyday I recieve a call from our friendly next door Citibank salesguy intimating me that I have been selected for upgrading my card to an International Gold card (as if!!). I tell him that I am not interested in increasing my credit limit, every time. Still the calls keep on coming. Are they really listening or are they simply following through motions? If they are doing the later, then why bother with the futile exercise?

Apple

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I just bought my first Apple product. Its a black 80GB iPod classic. Hmmm, a little bit late … but I am still excited with the prospects!! Have installed the iTunes application + last.fm software. Now whatever that I am listening to, will be published online … :-)

Sidenote: Do you think bloggers are secret exhibitionists?

Stardust

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With an 8.0 rating, it was a sure shot plan for this evening. And with such a star studded star cast like De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Claire Danes, Pete O’Toole … I kind of expected a lot out of this movie and frankly speaking I was kind of let down.I dont know, maybe its just me … but I feel it could do a bit more. Claire Danes and Pfieffer could have put in a little bit more … but thats the way I feel.

Had I gone to the movie without any preconceived notions, then I would have enjoyed it a lot more. Well … De Niro’s role is enough for the paisa vasool factor. In fact, now that I think back, the casting is the one factor which has pulled the movie into the higher ratings. Its a fantasy movie that takes place in a magical land of Stormhold, which just so happens to share a “wall” with England. Beyond the wall in Stormhold, lies a whole different world of magic, wizardry and fantasy.

Of lightning bolts that can be sold, of flying pirate ships, of unicorns and of course of witches. Enter Pfeiffer, who plays the evil sorceress poised to take Claire Dane’s heart for her eternal youth. Original plot … indeed.

Theres a hopeless romantic within all of us. Its there within me, I endear it. This movie appeals to that silly person who likes the entire love-conquers-all concept. Thats why it is liked by people of all ages.

Bandwidth

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The fastest I have surfed is when I was alone on the campus (during a brief stay in summers) at Planet-I. It was a glorious 2mbps speed. And it rocked! All you want at a click of a button. Even when the campus was in full swing, with 300 odd participants surfing the internet, the net was still at a decent pace. This is India we are talking, where people still pay a big premium for connectivity.

Last week, one of my room-mate informs me that in UK, they are working on this new technology thats going to shoot the transfer rates beyond imagination. Just imagine, what would you do with transfer rates of 100mbps!! All data you want is completely accessible and available to you within seconds. An entire movie within seconds … infact, the individual user’s need for a personal storage drive just might go down. This combined with the fact that many websites are now showing a conceptual web-OS … like Desktop2 or Fanbox. Also, many SMEs are now opting for the Software As a Service (SaaS) model, where in the firm does not have to invest in the licensing cost of any software, but would rather pay a periodical amount for that service.

You could in fact, cut costs by having an hosted ERP, Google Docs, a web OS and dumb terminals hooked up to a hosted storage server all on the internet. Your capital expenditures go down, but the variable expenditures might go up. If the opportunity cost of your capex beats your opex, then you definitely have a winner here.

Think about an individual user, all media content available … on a pay per usage basis of course. For gamers, there is the WWW as your LAN … talk about one huge LAN party.

It does change your perspective on connectivity and storage doesn’t it?