Monthly Archives: January 2014

Snapshot of Wearable Device Market

Posted in Hot, Technology
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The biggest trend from recently concluded CES-2014 is that the wearable device market is exploding. There are new entrants from everywhere and their rate of arrival is perhaps greater than the growth of the market itself.

I wanted to get my head around who’s who in the market and get a single page snapshot to keep track of majority of players in this area. The below picture is an attempt to capture existing and upcoming players.

WearableDeviceSnapshot

The wearable market is broadly divided into fitness, sports and health and there is a big concentration of players in fitness and sports sectors. Some brands are differentiating with advanced offering for professional athletes while few can be placed in me-too category. In the snapshot above, activity tracking includes statistics like calories burnt, steps taken, floors climbed, distance traveled, hours slept etc.

The second way of differentiation is based on how you wear devices – wrist, headband, ear-bud, carry, glasses, clothing etc with wrist devices in majority.The third way of differentiation is based on the social context in which the product is used – individual, family, kids, social, gamification etc. Maybe I should try to create an equivalent snapshot using these two ways of differentiation.

Well, the market is quickly moving towards commoditization, the real differentiation will be in terms of services and continuous usage of the product.

Till then, just go with price and looks and maybe good battery life!

Can you create a song on “How Bangalore inspires you” using crowdsource?

Posted in Ideas, Technology
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I was hearing the “Empire state of mind” version of “New York” song by Alicia Keys & Jay Z. It is a good sound track and gives some glimpse of the famous city. If you have been there, and I have been there recently, it is a crazy city. Check the YouTube video with lyrics here.

As someone with a Bangalore connection, if you have to make a song on Bangalore that talks about how the city inspires you, or your experiences and encounters with it, how would you pen it?

To get started, fill in the line below – “In Bangalore … ” or share whatever lines come to your mind. It will be cool to be able to create a crowdsourced song on Bangalore.

Bangalore

And yes, there are problems with every city and I request you to stay positive!

Let’s hear for Bangalore!

Real state performance for housing market

Posted in Analytics, Data visualization, Ideas

The Economist published a study on appreciation of house-price in last few years. The data for most developed countries is available from 1975 but for India it is available from 2011 year onward.

So, if you are invested in property market in India recently or are interested in knowing how you property has appreciated in recent times, I have prepared a quick summary –

1. The nominal increase in house price in India is 25% since 2011.

2. Not surprisingly, inflation has eater away much of the gains resulting in just 2.4% price appreciation in real terms.

3. Year 2013 is significantly bad in India with 7% yearly decrease in first three quarters. However, housing price in US has actually grown by 7% during the same time.

house price

This measurement is in real terms meaning it takes into account the effects of inflation on purchasing power.The city wise data drill down is available for USA but not other countries. I guess, India is not really as thorough in collecting house-price data as other important indicators like price against rents (to gauge return on real state investment) and price against average income (to measure affordability) are missing.

Here is the direct link to the charts.

 

Let 2014 be a year of hope!

Posted in General
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If you follow Indian politics, the latter half of last year was fascinating. For the first time, millions of Indian are able to hope that they can bring about a real change in the political system that directly and indirectly impacts their life. An anti-corruption movement that started couple of years ago turned into a revolution where a new political party came to center-stage with the promise of clean and transparent politics. Let 2014 be a year where hopes and aspirations of millions of people are fulfilled.

hope

What am I hoping from 2014? I hope 2014 will bring new and helpful innovation to common people in rural, healthcare and social space in India. I hope many organizations working in this field will finally be able to achieve the penetration and impact they dream of with the advent of technology in mobile, cloud and data sciences. Let 2014 be a year where technology can fulfill its promise to masses on a very large scale in India and around the world!

I am sure all of you will have more aspirations, hopes, resolutions and plans for the new year – I certainly do. As one of my friends posted – “Let 2014 be full of mistakes and surprises both pleasant & unpleasant. U turns and dead ends too… Just not the same ones as 2013 – OK?”

Wish all of you a happy new year, let 2014 be a year of hope!