Well Webaroo folks have launched sms groups {sms gupshup}. My first reaction is they seem to be lacking some real tech talent or innovation! Having pioneered offline mobile storage thought – they well ahead on the curve (and in the right direction) in terms or vision and technology. But their recent sms forays in terms of following twittr and textmarks and MyToday stuff – I am wondering if they have started gettting their priorities mixed up!
What I can see new here is just some lovely eye-candy regular web2.0 CSS stuff. Nothing new. Given the fact that SMS is here to stay and that they have got venture funded – can we see some more india relevant technology thats new and useful??!
May be its possible as I realized – they will be able to implement it properly and take it to market sooner/properly than MyToday folks. Reminsd me back in September when we started the SMS Groups at MyToday we were genuinely interested and really enthused. Though the service has taken sometime to build up (all virally! I estimate there will be close to half a million customers as of now), I wonder whether they have started making money with Ads. Rajesh needs to be more aggressive. Its was initially a Blue Ocean Space and its becoming bloody really really fast! There is definitely money to be made – but I guess its going to be a wait and watch game!!
PS: Don’t get me wrong if I was critical, I am just genuinely concerned of the mobile / tech scenario in India. Yes, its true I have personally worked at Netcore (MyToday) and have interacted with Webaroo when I was in MyToday and also checked them out when they called me for interview. We need innovation, hard core indian ones. Common the american mobile market is less mature and competitive than the Indian market and all we can do is ape the Americans in this matter too! wtf!!
This reminds me of my twttr comment a week back when I read about google gears – I had said:
Google gears + MOBILE! Webaroo better start thinking fast. Imagine possiblities of offline ajax apps on mobile – thats like being on ecstacy
yesterday it was me, now ajit talks about google gears on mobile – http://tinyurl.com/28lrjl note: google checkout mobile is out!
>> the american mobile market is less mature and competitive than the Indian market
Not sure where you get that idea from. Here, I can read pretty much any site I want on my mobile phone, have unlimited email/IM on mobile, browse (gps-capable) maps and get directions on mobile and search for local restaurants, bars, shopping etc – all from my phone at between 128kbps and 3 mbps.
Last december when I was in India, I struggled to get a consistant 64kbps bandwidth on my phone – even in downtown mumbai.
U2, I was moblogging in Bay Area – 3 years back on the Sprint Network!
When I say market – I mean the consumer and consumer behaviour. The data rates and ARPUs is far less.
The companies have over invested in the infrastucture but the customers are not yet ready! That is very unlike India. The demand for mobile data outstrips infrastructure here! Operators are buzy getting networks in place and don’t want to upgrade to 2.5G everywhere! They want to make the dive to 3G directly …
i would like to join u