The Rise of Killer Smartphones

It seems Nigerians, like most Americans, are missing out on an interesting revolution happening out there in the smart phone universe. But then, if you stood on a rail track with your Beats headphones on and oblivious of the rushing train, does it make you safer? Or maybe an ostrich, with its head planted in the sand and nice rump in the air, wouldn’t know that it’s about to get bitch slapped.
That was a digression. It seems I can’t keep a conversation without drawing a wonky line.
I remember vividly how Blackberry sneaked on Nokia and ate its breakfast. Then Android + Samsung ate Blackberry’s lunch. Seems Samsung is going to be hungry tonight because two bad ass boys are around the corner but the demolition promised would upend everything.
Quite a number of smart phone makers are all over the world with most around the middle kingdom but the cachet that Samsung and Apple have over everyone has been selling high-end phones: powerful chipsets, stunning graphics and expensive clothing. Of course, the price of this phone can buy about a third of a Tata Nano.
Here comes in Xiaomi. A recent entrant into the smart phone arena and in a few months have rocketed to number 3, sniffing annoyingly at Samsung backside. It’s on track to sell 100M smart phones in 2015. What’s the trick? High-end phones at knockoff prices. What’s their game? They want to take over the world, that is, do bloodletting with Samsung then come back and earn some money.
You wonder if a business can survive without earning a decent profit? Yes. Amazon!
So far it seems to be working and investors are pouring in more cash than Hurricane Katrina.
This would have been perfectly OK if another Chinese ain’t doing same. OnePlus is just a year old as a company and wants to push out about 5 million phones this year at cutthroat prices but with hope to make money on services.
Of course the gloomy pictures I just painted is for the like of Samsung to brood over. As far as consumers are concerned, they could slug each other to death.
By the way, when are we getting a mobile phone with 8GB RAM and 48 hours battery?

The strong also fail and it’s no big deal

Sometimes you just need to know when to call it quits. Does that make you a loser? Hell no! Or maybe. You can’t be sure until it’s all over.
The way it is, the most important thing is to win the war but you may lose some battles or side street skirmishes in the interest of overall success of your military or career campaign.
Some stories come to mind – Apple dropping Ping, a social network (I wonder if any of you know about it) like a bad habit when it wasn’t going north. Microsoft quarantined Nokia like a virus and took a $7.6B haircut while at it.
Recently, the folks at Google had a serious heart-to-heart talk with each other and decided that Google+ should go the way of the dodo. Starting weeks ago, Google+ is getting kicked out of Google assets, inclusive of YouTube where forcing users to have a Google+ accounts has drawn backlash
Which comes to a critical question – how do you know when to throw in the towel and declare the current adventure dead or push through and succeed? The world is replete with anecdotes of people who succeeded despite odds stacked against them. Same world is also replete with anecdotes of those who didn’t pull back on time.
Sometimes life feels like a coin toss with two heads or two tails. The luck isn’t in the spin, it’s in the pick.

Apple Watch is Evolution in Real Time

Could this be the beginning of the end or end of the beginning?
I’m not trying to sound dystopian but an evolution may start where normal watches would join dinosaurs in the archeological dig.
Ok, what happened?
Apple launched a $10,000 smart watch. You heard me right, 100 Benjamins for a digital watch! Not even Seiko ever dreamed of that.
It’s official, Apple got into the wearable fray and everyone sat up. While we thought that the likes of Samsung, LG, Motorola and Pebble are in for a genocide, the actual victims may be far away in cozy Switzerland, oblivious of the catastrophe heading their way; faster and deadlier than a Tsunami.
The market for expensive watches has been around for centuries and it’s every man’s dream to own something he could pass on to the next generation. Till date, their prices have been largely unaffected by the global economy yoyo. The brands are classy and exclusive. The wearers, especially the nouveau riche, are obnoxious and want everyone to notice them.
Money is good.
Why do we even buy these expensive time machines? So that all those tiny chewing gum chicks can know we have arrived? Or maybe get some respect from the old cougars? It is mostly the pass to the rarefied world of the upper class.
Here comes Apple the electronic bully. With a $10K watch, the average dude that has part of his brains in his nether regions may use that as a cheaper alternative. While there are markets for very expensive watches most watchmakers are usually sustained by the cheaper, more affordable models. Take that away, and Rolex executives could find themselves mopping floors of Geneva’s local malls.
Maybe I’m just beefing. Maybe not. But I can’t help feeling schadenfreude.