App-store for TV channels

Are you hooked to the current packages that you have bought (paying for channels that you dont watch)?

With Television becoming more and more social, it makes sense for an App-store style application for the million television channels available. No longer the consumer is forced to buy all channels in one package, whether he is willing to see it or not.

The Cha(nnel)-store should contain apps sorted by different genres, popularity, cost per month so that the viewer can select and view them (and probably take a decision to remove/retain after a month).  This way, the viewers will have more choice as well as flexibility over the channels that he can view. Of course, his bill at the end of month can be in his control rather than the whims and fancies of the Service Provider.

This is one way, television channels can move forward from the existing model. Don’t you agree?

My technology predictions for 2012

There are a number of technologies which will be in the limelight during the year of 2012. Last year, I struggled to pick one among 3 (Mobile payments, Web-TV, Check-in sites) technologies. Usage of check-in’s did not pick up as much as one thought. The first two reappear in the list below since they still have a long way to go. This year, I am hedging my bets on the six below that I feel will be discussed across the world.

1. Cloud. Probably a no-brainer for most of us but I expect it to get mature in the next year and more standards to come in place. Hopefully the lessons learnt during the SOA-hype will be used by the Cloud vendors to ensure that they fall into a similar trap. With a not-so-encouraging financial climate, organizations will try and go for the cloud and fail (if they don’t read the fine print)
2. Rise of the Consumer Devices. Not just the tablet, the television will occupy a higher status of attention from all the biggies. Apple and Google are in the race to release their internet TV‘s. Pay-TV model itself will move from the current package-based to a realistic model (not dissimilar to the mobile plans)
3. Mobile payment will increase – Google (again) Wallet will increase adoption of payment by the hand-helds. Maturity in the NFC technology will be slow (2013 maybe) but a lot more sound-bytes will be heard
4. Mainframe technology will make a big comeback when organizations will realize that there is so much capacity available within their existing hardware.
5. Social Networking scene will have a consolidation. Maybe an acquisition of a big player?
6. Analytics will pick up in a big way as organizations try to increase their sales by going through consumer behavior.

What do you think of these technologies? Do you see any other technologies that will overtake these?

Related articles

• Top Technology and Business Trends predictions for 2012 that will affect consumers (ceoworld.biz)
• Intuit releases debit card to be used with its mobile GoPayment system (venturebeat.com)

Will the Mainframe ever go away?

When I started my career, everyone said “The mainframe is dying“. I still hear the same comment today as well.

This was a comment that I heard yesterday from my colleague who is 20 years old in the IT industry. Application Transformation, Legacy Modernization are buzz-words that one hear in the industry but have the mainframes retired? Not at all. I heard another colleague say that 499 of the Top Fortune-500 companies have a mainframe. Why then is the talk still heard about the Mainframe going away? Are the Modernization exercises successful? Very rarely.

One hears that Mainframe developers are retiring and hence more firms are planning to move out of the Mainframe. Will they ever do it? All discussions about retiring the mainframe are mainly because there are no skills in the market. Looking at the robustness of the solution deployed, why do organizations even think of changing the technology.

Is Offshoring the best solution then? Maybe. Most of the Indian IT firms have tonnes of developers in the Mainframe technologies. New joinees are given training in multiple technologies – Java, Microsoft, Mainframe. Thus, there are enough developers who can support the Mainframe. If so, why bother moving out?

Do you agree? If not, what is your opinion?

Travel Television

Television is improving in a big way with recent developments – LCD, LED, 3D and now, Web TV.

Shortly, we will be able to see a day when we can take our television with us when we travel. Not the television but the content that we see on our television at home.

For instance, I stay in India and watch a lot of sports (of course cricket, badminton, etc.), bollywood-based shows (movies, songs, comedy clips, etc.) and Indian news channels (national, state and city-based). When I travel overseas, I miss out on most of these and have to watch channels that are suited to the local country. While this is good to learn about the new country, it becomes difficult after certain period of time.

To continue watching the same content that I watch at home, I need to subscribe to the different channels (if they are available) separately. Business and Leisure travel makes so many of us to travel and definitely we like to keep updated with what is going on in news, sports, business, soaps, etc. With so many channels going digital, there is no issue in them being available in other countries. If I travel on short-term, it is not worth the effort to subscribe separately for these channels.

But, surely, isnt this a business opportunity to pursue? Why not allow subscribers to create a package of channels that one would want to see and allow them to watch it on any TV in the hotel. Of course, there might be a need to have a “bridge” to play the content on any TV but surely that is a minor issue. One can do it without any problems within a country; how to do it across countries and continents would need a bit more planning and scale. Is Google (through Youtube) just scraping the surface now? Let us wait and watch

What do you think? Wouldnt you want this package when you travel ?

Related articles

• Who Owns What You Watch On TV? (ritholtz.com)

This should be taken care

How many times has one heard this phrase during discussions or meetings – “This should be taken care”. Everyone nods and agrees. Period. Matter is forgotten. Nobody picks up the thread to say that I will ensure this is taken care.

Very often, we see our colleagues and friends talk animatedly (mostly in hindsight) about how things were not taken care.

If it had been taken care, we should have been in a much better situation.

If we knew it before, why did we not assign it to someone and say “You take care”. What is the worst case scenario? The person will say that it is not his responsibility and redirect to another. Finally, the round-robin has to end with someone, right?

Next time, please use “This should be taken care by xxx” – this puts the responsibility squarely on a shoulder.