i, Samsung Galaxy Note

Hi,

This is my story. And I am the Samsung Galaxy Note that hangs around with the owner of this blog. Its been three months since he picked me off the Samsung store someplace in Delhi and I've been with him ever since. To tell you an honest truth, he spends more time with me than his laptop now (smirk)! In fact lately I've noticed that even his kids seem to find me unputdownable :).

You see, I figured out pretty soon that I was way more than a dumb smartphone and smart as I was, I figured that I had to tell the whole wide world my story (before Anupam got any stupid ideas on reviewing me on his stupid blog. I am the self appraisal kind). And I've penned this using my blogger app; no laptops or PCs were harmed in this production. (Update: had to use the laptop to fix the paragraph breaks and the pic positioning. The blogger app needs to get some of its priorities sorted.)

No one is paying me a penny to pen my story. Not Samsung. Not Apple. Not anyone in between. So what you hear here will be an unbiased expose. Plain, simple and raw.

My editor asked me if I was trying to rub off the iPhone charisma on the title of this post. I simply said that 'i' was as much an English word as it is an alphabet and just because some unimaginative American put it before the 'phone' (and the 'iPhone' became a minor celebrity) did NOT mean that they owned the letter i! I used i to simply assert myself as folks have for ages. I certainly am not copying anything!

The first day Anupam held me by his ear to make the first call, some of his colleagues thought he was holding his bathroom slipper in his hand! (i am sure they are myopic and would advise them to consult an optician). I admit I am slightly-larger-than-your-regular-phone but I am not THAT big. I would describe myself as tall, slim (and gorgeous). In case you feel shy holding me close to you, (you're missing something) you could always get a dumb Bluetooth hands-free.

With my 5 and a half inch super AMOLED screen, I show things crisp and bright. Maybe not as glamorous as the retina displays, but a class apart nevertheless.

The only problem I must confess is that all this requires me to have a high metabolism rate and hence the need to get frequently hooked to the power charger. I ain't the marathon type and I ain't the cross-country kind. I am more like the 9 to 5 office goer who is used to the usual niceties of life. So don't expect me to be all charged up by the end of your road trippy unless you'd thought well in advance about hooking me up with your car charger.

I must admit that i can handle 3d graphics and hd video pretty nicely. In fact I think my screen size gives a distinct wide screen touch. Youtube and TED videos? No sweat!

Its the apps on the Android store, recently renamed playfully as Play, that add a zing to my life. I sure don't make Anupam miss his antique Blackberry thanks to the Google mail app (I still don't fancy the Samsung mail client; have simply disabled it). Skype and whatsApp and gTalk do everything to keep him in voice, message and video contact with his kith and kin. Google plus auto syncs all his pics on the cloud. I have a low-res eye infront for the video calls and a high-res one behind that should make you throw away your old point and shoot. Google maps shows directions, places and distances. Unfortunately Navigation does not work in India :( i guess it must be a giant challenge for Google! Book readers, pulse, news apps- you name it. I've got GPS, gyros and accelerometer. I can also double up as a wifi router!

That brings me to my USP. Note. I come with a stylus! Would you believe that? Most folks had thought these appendages were prehistoric and obsolete (remember the palm pilots and the iPaqs?). Well Samsung seemed game to go retro. As i'd said, you'll only hear the honest truth from me. So here goes. The truth is; I still ain't a substitute for the good 'ol pen and paper as far as note taking is concerned. However, if you feel artsy, boy can I inspire a masterpiece? And kids simply love me. I have a whole range of stuff for them to touch and learn. Drawing apps, jigsaw puzzles, games and a cat that repeats what they say.

I do have my quirks as well. For instance, imagine you were calling up the customer care number for your bank; now the IVR plays: "press 1 for this and press 2 for that". By the time you want to press 2 the screen gets locked (timeout?). Now you have to go through the entire phone unlock routine (which at times screws up). Once unlocked you've got to pull down the top tray, then click the green phone icon. Then the keypad shows up. Now if you're not lucky enough; do expect to drop that call.

With all the tech wizardry and the buttonlessness, I realized that for my makers, making the good 'ol phone call was a lesser priority. Another case to the point. I have what is called an integrated address book. I can aggregate all your contacts on your sim, personal email, official email, facebook, twitter and what not. Result? I have over 300 contacts in triplicate and 400 duplicates. So Anupam has to figure out which of the 5 Anjus listed on his contacts holds the latest phone number of his wife! (he better remember his better halfs number, i'd say). I think id have done way better if i'd been designed with a simple green button and a red button; atleast on the edge if not on my face.

All said and done, i'd consider myself closer to a laptop than a phone but still have the slim looks of a phone. And I definitely ain't cheap. So if you wanna have some fun on the go, at home and in your workplace then its me you've got to befriend. If you're still looking for a plain phone or a long distance runner, look elsewhere.  5 million of my brothers have been 'placed' so far and counting. Samsung has also promised an ICS update for me soon. Dreaming about it! And don't dare dropping me, it would break my heart, display, my cheap plastic exoskeleton and your bank account.

So long folks. Adios amigos! Get a work life balance :)

Powering the next billion cell phones

Despite the state of affairs with the world economy, there seems to be a sense of a treasure hunt as far as mobile companies' approach to the developing world is concerned.

Considering all the 'little' insights seriously could go a long way in ensuring the viability of a product or service in such a challenging environment. In other words; I think that the best way to approach this market is with a clear sense of the opportunity it presents and a much clearer sense of its constrains.

From a recent trip to rural India undertaken as a part of a usability research team, I realized that the biggest constraint to the uptake of mobile phone there was not money. From our conversations with existing users, we found that almost all of them used really basic handsets, some even bought as second/ third hand refurbished devices where the cost was just a couple of hundred rupees ($4 or 5!).

Connectivity was also fast becoming a non-issue with major operators trying to set up really extensive rural networks and even competing with each other to offer 'lifetime' pre-paid connections for less than half a dollar! We even saw how local village stores (each, just about the size of a small car) had morphed into outlets there selling small value airtime recharges.

The major concern there was finding a means to recharge ones phone! and to find a phone that required shorter recharges and lasted longer. I'd like to share two interesting developments (thanks again to textually.org) in the past week give some hope here.

Solar powered phone.
Heres a launch news from Samsung and LG - earlier this year. I think these should become as ubiquitous as solar powered calculators. Rural India is blessed with enough sunshine to at least supplement the need for (non-existent) power sockets!

Ambient radio powered phone.
This is more interesting, though it sounds slightly more ambitious. I have always wondered why this could not be done! There is enough 'free' radio noise around to feed some power circuits. I remember having experimented with Crystal Radios (basically AM receivers that do not need power source) when I was into hobby electronics (the most difficult part I remember was getting the ear-piece right). All one needs to do is have a gazillion tuned circuits to harness the spectrum. Anyways, the good news is that Nokia allegedly has done just that!. This makes for an exciting powering solution for the mobile phone, especially in the Urban context.

I don't know if the news links are really trustworthy news sources, but I do know that these are relevant pointers in the right direction and at scale their cost should be really low.

On a side note, I think it is constraints that push the human ability to innovate and every era and region has its fair share of the same. If all was well with the stone age, I would have been engraving this blog post on a stone tablet now :) - Flintstones anyone ;)?