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11.30.2012

By all indications, Japan is experiencing a shakedown in the mobile phone handset industry. For a long while, the Japanese market has been a very insular business. Foreign phone manufacturers like Nokia and Motorola, had a hard time selling their phones in Japan. This was mainly due to the feature sets the Japanese consumer has come to expect.

One prominent feature for Japanese smartphones is their use in dispensing electronic money. Japanese phones can be used for paying for most daily consumer items, like train tickets and bus tickets, and convenience store purchases. This level of use of electronic money is only now gaining ground in some western countries.

Of course, there is the difference between how the Japanese use their phones for purchases. The concept of electronic wallets as implemented outside of Japan is much like sending a text message to the carrier or electronic money repository. In Japan, mobile phone electronic wallets are used like toll-free e-cards. The Japanese just swipe their phone at a reader in order to pay or to transfer cash. There are even some applications where the phone does not even have to be turned on in order to be used.

Even before Android phones and the iPhone were introduced to Japan, mobile phone apps have gone beyond communications. Besides phone calls and text messages, electronic wallet and dedicated applications, cell phones are also used for gaming which is one of the largest markets for mobile phones in terms of revenues.

The market penetration of Android and iOS phones and tablets in Japan is unprecedented. No other product, electronic or otherwise has had a successful run at the Japanese market. Currently, Android devices account for 64% of the smartphone market, while Apple iOS accounts for 32%. There are, of course, Japanese manufacturers which have Android as their operating systems, but nevertheless, the use of feature phones seems to be in danger of extinction.

With the success of these imports, the features which make feature phones so compelling might soon appear as apps in Android, iOS, and to a certain extent, Windows Phone. The only hurdle remaining are the same hurdles that feature phones already encounter. These are usually isolated instances of interoperability, where one e-wallet may not work with a particular phone model. It would be sad to see the demise of feature phone models which are almost exclusively sold as bus ticket containers, but even then, these can be easily replaced once the manufacturers have made their minds about the direction to take. The infrastructure for electronic wallets has been painstakingly built, robust and won’t go away anytime soon. It just makes sense for developers and phone manufacturers to create apps to replace feature phones.

Another good news for Android and iOS fans, as well as developers, is that the carriers and service providers are actively pushing these phones. For Japanese manufacturers, there has been a shift in strategy. More and more feature phone manufacturers are now designing and releasing Android or Windows phones.

Apple fans need not worry about iOS presence in Japan. In terms of actual units sold, the 32% market share is a solid number which does not seem to be shrinking anytime soon. Apple has always had a great fan base in Japan, and this has translated to the iPhone and iPad as well. Japanese developers taken notice of the large installed base and have been creating new titles specifically for the iPad and iPhone. Existing apps are also being ported to iOS. With loyal followers from users to developers, Apple presence in Japan is certain, at least for the near future.

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About the Guest Author:

Rodolfo Lentejas, Jr. is a fulltime freelance writer based in Toronto. He is the founder of the PostSckrippt, a growing online writing business dedicated to producing top quality, original and fresh content. To know more about him, please visit www.postsckrippt.ca. Like him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest

11.29.2012

There is no doubt that Facebook today has become a typical example of how a small start-up can grow into a household brand. However, only a few people realize that cloud computing played a significant part in Facebook’s rapid growth. It is important to state that cloud technology did not only encourage the expansion of Facebook’s size, it constantly contributes to the social network company’s environmental conservation policies in a number of encouraging ways that are described in this article.

The success story of Facebook is closely related to the enviable development in Data Center services. Previously, the operators of Data Centers were constantly troubled about how to manage their ever increasing amount of servers as the number of their clients ballooned. Then, Data Centers reportedly consumed about 30 billion watts of electricity, which was estimated to be equal to the output of 30 nuclear plants. Sadly enough, only 6 to 12 percent of this amount of energy was actually used in computing activities, the rest of the 90 percent or less were wasted and instead polluted the environment. Running those Data Centers then was considered environmentally unfriendly and unprofitable. But that changed dramatically since the advent of cloud technology.

In 2006, Facebook housed its several servers in a server site that was a rented 40-by-60 place located in California. The company struggled to manage its mere 10 million users then who, perhaps, sent messages, uploaded photo, videos, music files and shared other documents. Facebook faced serious problems as its servers were overwhelmed by the requirements of these users.

Facebook’s groups of computer servers that were meant to process, store and retrieve information produced from members’ accounts almost suffered sudden meltdown as electricity rushed into the computers, overheating the Ethernet and its accessories (sockets etc). According to Jeff Rothschild, Facebook VP of Technology, to arrest this dangerous situation, “We cleaned out all of the Walgreens in the area to blast cool air at the equipment and prevent the Web site from going down.” He urged the employees of the company to rush around and purchase as many fans as possible to achieve this feat.

Now with nearly 500 million users and still counting, Facebook has finally resolved this headache by entirely moving its myriad of operations to the cloud. This move explains why Facebook users have been able to enjoy uninterrupted operations for a long time. This does not only lead to better performance on the part of the company, it also helps create an environmentally friendly working ethic for both Facebook employees and users. Without doubt, the company has been able to grow from this circumstance through the process of saving on energy and innovating to new areas of operation as the varied needs of Facebook users diversify.

Here are some simple questions to reflect on: What could have happened to the image of Facebook as an innovative company if its operations were disrupted for days because of sudden system shutdown? How would the company have gained the reputation of being energy-saving and environmentally friendly enterprise? How could Facebook have saved on the energy wastage that occurred in its operations before and turn that to optimum performance and profitability?

The answer to these questions is as well simple: cloud computing does it all. This indicates that company managers that still show serious reluctance to move their IT requirements to the cloud are doing their business a lot of disservice. This is because they will continue to waste the scarce energy, lose money and fail to innovate!

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About the Guest Author:

Jerry Olasakinju, a Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) degree holder, is a passionate researcher and writer whose interest in everything computing is unparalleled. He blogs about his literary works at http://jerryolasakinju.blogspot.jp/

11.28.2012

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a technology that has existed for over a decade now. It has created opportunities for people to communicate over distances via the internet saving them a fortune that would have been spent on telephone charges had they not opted for it. VoIP-based services are used extensively by business enterprises today as they look at more ways to cut costs and reduce infrastructure by making everything as virtual as possible.

Using a VoIP-based communication system in your business has great advantages. Here are some of them:

First, you do not have to change your local phone number as VoIP is not based on your normal telephone line. You can communicate with your customers or with your employees through an intra-enterprise VoIP system right from your desktop PC or Laptop or even from handheld smartphones and tablets.

Today internet speeds have shot up to such a level that using it to convey audio as well as video signals is quite easy and very affordable as compared to normal telephone cable infrastructure.

It offers the freedom to connect with your customers and employees from virtually anywhere on the planet through an internet connection thereby making it one of the most flexible communication systems for an enterprise.

Automation within your customer contact system is made possible by VOIP systems. You can set up an automated response for a customer call directing him or her to the concerned department automatically thereby reducing service time and delay and providing better satisfaction for your clients.

VoIP based employee communication systems are scalable. When a new employee joins the team, you do not have to assign a new telephone and a telephone number to him or her but you simply have to get an extension for them from your VoIP system from which they can operate a new line via their computers.

So VoIP-based communication systems are in fact a big asset for enterprises as they can easily cut down on heavy infrastructure costs if they were to allot physical telephone lines to each and every employee and they were to implement call routing and scheduling physically each time a customer call is transferred to their service department. Automation largely reduces service time which would translate into great savings because the more number of satisfied customers, the better it will be for your brand’s image and the more will affinity of customers will be to return to you for any other services.

However, it is not wise to choose any VoIP system without having to conduct a detailed study of both your business requirements as well as the service provided by the VoIP vendor. Let us examine the criteria that enterprises should follow while selecting a VoIP service provider:

Flexible Service Plan:

This is a vital norm as your business only needs what it requires – nothing more, nothing less. The provider should offer whatever services your business needs, whether it be international call management, intra organizational calls and much more. Choose a specific business plan that offers you with enough minutes of service and that which suits your organization’s support infrastructure budget.

Features:

It is quite natural to overlook features that normally all VoIP providers provide such as call forwarding, voicemail, automated response, etc. because they are guaranteed to be in every basic VoIP system. What should you look for?  The service providers offer more utility features such as call queuing systems, mobile forwarding applications that direct the calls to your mobile if you are away from your office and unable to attend calls from your computer and several other specific call features.

Usability:

The VoIP system you choose should be easily integrated into your business environment and control of your VoIP network should be a piece of cake for whoever manages the process.

Reliability of Network:

Losing a live call due to network errors is something an enterprise cannot tolerate especially when they work on tight deadlines and hence, it is important to ascertain the network infrastructure of your VoIP service provider to ensure that it is fail proof and reliably.

Support:

Any issues or faults that may arise in your VoIP system should be rectified at the earliest possible time because any disruption of customer service for a longer period would seriously affect brand image as well as lead to escalating losses owing to lack of communication. Hence the service provider should provide reliable assistance and support for their VoIP products to ensure that enterprises using their systems are not left alone to fend off faults and failures.

Hence when you select a VoIP provider, make sure you properly follow the abovementioned criteria because there is no room for mistakes as every minute of communication within the organization or with your customers is vital for your business’ prolonged existence.

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About the Guest Author:

Mandira Srivastava is a fulltime freelance writer who specializes in technology, health and fitness, politics, and financial writing. Equipped with degree of mass communication and having worked for both private and corporate clients, I have experience meeting a wide range of writing requirements and styles.

11.28.2012

Although development news involving OnLive and Gaikai, two of the pioneer cloud gaming service providers in the market, have not been prominent lately, cloud gaming is still considered by most experts as the future of this industry. This is because it solves the main issues that have plagued PC gaming since its beginnings: Software piracy and the high cost of hardware and upgrades on the user end.

It is clear that, despite what many thought initially, the technology for cloud gaming is already here. In fact, the potential for the future is still far from realized. Perhaps with a few tweaks to their business model, cloud gaming service providers can start making gains in this market. Hardware manufacturers and developers have started to bet on cloud gaming, creating products that anticipate the rise of many new cloud gaming projects for 2013. This is especially true when it comes to graphics card manufacturers, particularly Nvidia that has pushed the envelope in developing graphics cards specifically for cloud gaming servers.

What makes cloud gaming services attractive for graphics card manufacturers?

Only a few years ago, the idea of computing games at a data center and allowing computer users to log in from any location started to gain traction as network technology advanced. When these kinds of ideas were restricted to remote desktops and enterprise, graphics card manufacturers had little reason to become involved. However, when cloud services providers started to adapt their technology to gaming, this spurred more interest on the part of graphics card companies.

One of the main reasons for this is that it has the potential to allow graphics card manufacturers to influence television gaming directly; the union of big screen gaming and high-end PC processing and cloud computing sets a clear path for the future of gaming. While these companies have supported television gaming by manufacturing components for gaming consoles, this more direct approach allows graphics card manufacturers more freedom to innovate.

High-end graphics card used in both domestic and public clouds across multiple platforms

When most people think of this kind of cloud gaming, it involves using high-end graphics cards located in data centers that stream to end users’ homes for use on televisions or terminals. Many graphics card manufacturers are also looking at the idea of creating home-server based graphics cards that allow users to use their own gaming computer system to stream to different screens within a single home.

One of the most important reasons why this market is particularly attractive for graphics card manufacturers is that it solves one of their main problems: cross-platform compatibility. Graphics cards are notorious for having multiple releases and versions designed to deal with the many different idiosyncrasies of specific platforms, often making debugging, installation, and customer support a nightmare. However, by using the cloud gaming model, graphics card companies can now create versions of their hardware ideal for a specific hardware setup and platform which can then be streamed to a variety of platforms (including mobile phones and tablets) without the need for adapting to their hardware to an infinite number of possible hardware and software setups.

Coming up with possible financing models for the future of cloud gaming

It is possible that, in the future, new, more efficient models for organizing the cloud gaming industry could arise. On one level, IaaS providers may operate data centers and be charged with providing the capacity for high-end GPUs without actually providing this kind of hardware. Graphics card manufacturers may go into the business of providing their graphics processing power on a HaaS basis that could be layered on top of that. Finally, companies looking to distribute games using the cloud would use these two services in order to provide their own SaaS packages.

This model may provide companies with a clear business model for financing these kinds of systems. At this point, the main problem that needs to be solved is one of finding financing models – the technology exists already. Of course, there may be companies wanting to find a solution that integrates all of these better in order to retain control of their own services directly.

Graphics cards manufacturers like Nvidia and AMD are putting considerable resources into developing cloud-focused strategies. While, initially, some graphics cards companies balked at the idea of reducing their direct sales to gamers, now they are starting to realize that there is a positive tradeoff by selling their products to data centers. The main reason for this is that it expands the number of gamers and attracts new consumers in proportions that would not have been possible before. PC gaming has always had a high entry barrier. However, with PC gamers now having access to these games from any device, it opens up a huge, untapped market that is very attractive to everyone involved in this industry.

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About the Guest Author:

Nida Rasheed is a freelance writer and owner of an outsourcing company, Nida often finds herself wanting to write about the subjects that are closest to her heart. She lives in Islamabad, Pakistan and can be found on Twitter @nidarasheed.