Mobile Copycat Galore: The $45 iPhone!

Posted on April 19, 2013 by AR Rafiq

Earlier this evening the boy who works in my family’s home in Karachi returned, very excited might I add after grocery shopping with a $45 (PKR 4,500) Android dual SIM iPhone made in yours truly China! He showed it to me for advise if he should buy it or not. First impressions it looked like a damn good device – it has all the functionality of an iPhone, BlackBerry or Samsung Galaxy device.

It looks like the real deal, if it weren’t for the touch screen which is the give away. It uses the inexpensive resistive touch technology vs capacitive touch technology. However from the OS standpoint its a complete Android OS with a fully functional Android App store, capable of running all the commonly used apps -from  WhatsApp,  YouTube,  GoogleTalk, Yahoo, games, etc.

The global mobile revolution is on the verge of an explosion; Where inexpensive copycats like this “iPhone” are fast becoming main drivers of the mobile economy. Emerging users of such devices hold the keys to future of mobile commerce in the vastly underdeveloped world.

This phone is only one example, there are numerous other copycats produced produced everyday – from Sony, HTC, to Samsung each having some aspect replicated - of-course lets not discount popular South East Asian QMobile brand that provide $50 – $150 (PKR 5,000 – PKR 15,000) smartphones, a little more sophisticated catering to the burgeoning middle class consumer.

Armed with a cheap “copycat” smartphone, and a post/pre paid economical mobile service plan the poorest of the poor can pull themselves and their communities out of poverty –paving the path for a whole new genre of micro-business opportunities!

Visuals of the “copycat” iPhone on Android:

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Piercing Minds, and Hearts – Accenture

Posted on April 18, 2013 by AR Rafiq

The past few weeks I have seen the following Accenture campaign video appear on my Facebook timeline. The video is a remarkable, if I may say work of art, invoking a sense of excitement from it’s intended audience – while grabbing their complete attention.

It does a fantastic job in projecting Accenture’s business successes as real life stories by connecting the intended audience to the solutions; An art businesses, both small and large can take lesson from. Connecting customers and prospective clients to a company and brand is especially challenging for technology companies; Filtering through technical lingo, piercing through minds, and hearts is an art form in itself.

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Branchless Banking Pakistan: Market Sizing Overview

Posted on April 15, 2013 by AR Rafiq

Branchless and Mobile Banking in Pakistan and in much of the developing world has a different definition to what it is known as in the developed world.  In Pakistan the concept of Branchless Mobile Banking refers to an alternative banking infrastructure, though legally sanctioned and supported by traditional brick and mortal infrastructure.

In a country where 90% of the population is unbanked due to immense bureaucratic red tape and lack of education into western banking forms and procedures the space has been created for this alternate form of banking.

Branchless Banking is a form of banking that straddles the eastern traditional banking methods such as the Hawala System with that of the western form, while depending heavily on technology to maintain transparency and provide the paper trail that the western system dictates.

In Pakistan Branchless Banking first saw the light of day when the mobile carrier Telenor acquired Tameer Bank to launch EasyPaisa.  With EasyPaisa’s success the industry started to see traditional banks partnering with the handful of Telco’s in the country to offer their own unique version of Branchless Mobile Banking in the country.  This wave in Branchless Banking has been driven by the Telco’s more than the banking sector whom until fairly recently were quite comfortable offering traditional banking services. Given the restrictions by the country’s banking regulation these Telco’s started to seek out partners within the banking circle.

With a population of 180MM, where 90% are unbanked there is a dire need for financial services that meet the needs of ordinary people, while providing a means to document the vastly undocumented economy.

mobile_market_sizing

Branchless banking agent’s network in Pakistan grew by 16% in Q2 for FY11 to FY12 reaching 22,512 agents covering the entire length and breadth of the country.

With an average size of branchless banking transaction at PKR 3,855 (USD 38.55) while the average number of daily transactions was 228,855

Bills payment and mobile phone SIM card top-ups remained the dominating activity.  53% share in total number of transactions, followed by fund transfers and deposits with share of 39% and 8% respectively.

While P2P payments remained the most popular mechanism with 74% share in the total funds transfer, mobile branchless banking is penetrating all areas of payments such as utility bills, Government-to-Person (G2P) and Person-to-Person (P2P) payments while scaling up other services relating to deposits and loans.

Core Branchless Bank Services:

  • Bill Pay
  • Money Transfer (Domestic and International)
  • Repay Loans
  • Save Money
  • Balance Inquiry
  • Mini Statement
  • Mobile Air Time TopOff
  • Branchless Banking Shop/Agent finder

Branchless Bank Operators:

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Mobile Phone Market Size:

telco_subscribers

Typical Branchless Banking Functional Architecture:

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Data Source: State Bank of Pakistan 2012 Branchless Banking Report, Mobile and Branchless Banking Operators, ProPakistan Blog & News Website

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Mobile Asia – Observations From My Travels

Posted on January 9, 2013 by AR Rafiq

Hong Kong to Pakistan, mobile devices are the norm. Step in and out of trains, cable cars, ferries, and planes every second person is seen with some sort of mobile device. Ranging from the globally recognized brands — the likes of Apple, Samsung, and HTC to not so well known brands such as QMobile and Huawei. Yes, that’s the infamous Huawei which in some circles is known as earning it’s initial market share by piggy backing upon Cisco, as it rose to becoming a leader in the networking and telco space, and now fast coming out as one of the market leaders in mobile devices.

Riding the Hong Kong subway system as a tourist it’s intriguing to find the varied applications users have on their devices. From SMS and social media apps catering to the local Chinese culture, where through touch users communicate by drawing Chinese characters at lightening speeds – chatting with peers at even faster uninterrupted data rates that many a times aren’t possible in the U.S. where signal degradation or drops are common place, especially in large urban areas.

The predominant mobile  brands in Asia are Samsung and HTC in Hong Kong. Other brands such as QMobile are fast becoming popular in lesser affluent developing nations such as Pakistan. For around 30 USD you can get a dual core, Samsung Galaxy look-a-like. With some capable of holding dual SIMS cards. Miles ahead from what Apple offers on it’s iPhone!

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On Facebook Privacy

Posted on October 6, 2012 by AR Rafiq

“Restricted” and “Show In News Feeds” in the case of profiles or “unsubscribe” the case of pages are tools one can use to un-clutter your Facebook News Feeds.

These features are neat in the sense that you are able to control what information you see on your News Feeds, and what others see of you.

The “Restrict” feature on peoples profile allows you to restrict people from seeing your news feeds without having to “unfriend” them. Great if you only want to share content with Friends and Family.

The “unsubscribe” feature on Pages is compelling. You can “Like” a page yet not be subscribed to it. That way posts from the page wont show up on your News Feeds.

Unchecking “Show In News Feeds” on a profile Is a neat feature by which you can control what or what not to allow on your News Feeds, without having to unfriend someone.

The features I have described above are some of the tools individuals have in their Facebook arsenal, controlling what content they can see and what others can see of them.

Businesses or organizations who host Facebook pages need to realize that Likes on their page do not necessary translate to readership.

These features force users – both individuals and business to think creative, and to find out what type of content makes people tick.

The days of unchecked mass postings on Social Media channels are long gone. Users are becoming smarter with increased privacy controls at their disposal.

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On Outsourcing & Democrats Misplaced Criticism

Posted on September 9, 2012 by AR Rafiq

Although I support the Democrat platform and have campaigned for President Obama, I do not agree with the Democrats attack and misplaced criticism towards outsourcing, as explicitly depicted in attack advertisements against Mitt Romney. It is not as evil as the Obama Campaign is making it out to appear. Outsourcing within moderation is a valuable tool for any small business owner or entrepreneur.

There is nothing wrong in outsourcing menial work abroad, it actually helps Americas small business sector in becoming more productive, competitive and profitable. In turn enabling them to create more high paying jobs in the United States.

Small businesses are the backbone to the American economy. Democrats and the Obama Administration claim to support small businesses yet to date have acted as advocates for big business and Cooperate America. Not to mention the Obama Administrations poster Jobs zhar who heads up General Electric (GE) has used outsourcing to GEs advantage. More on GE and outsourcing jobs.

Indeed, it is true the Obama Administration has given tax cuts to small business and have encouraged their growth, however the support has been minuscule and to some degree short lived.

Case-in-Point: take the recent import tariffs imposed on Chinese Solar Panels. The move is counter productive and only helps the big Solar panel manufacturers and not the large number of the America Solar Installers, most of whom are small business struggling to keep afloat in these recessionary times. There competitiveness depend on low cost Solar Modules from China, however with the newly instated import tariffs many Solar business may end up shuttering down. More on impact of US Import Tariffs on Solar here.

Democrats need to realize without the ability to outsource Americas small business sector is doomed to failure. The America that was built by small business entrepreneurs will not survive if restrictions on outsourcing are imposed. Business, small or big demands space in a borderless world to operate.

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Homeless in Siliconattle

Posted on July 5, 2012 by AR Rafiq

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A homeless guy availing of free WiFi for his laptop while standing next to his bike laden with personal effects, outside the closed Starbucks on University Avenue in Palo Alto on 4th of July 2012

 

 

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The Community Side Of Silicon Valley

Posted on June 30, 2012 by AR Rafiq

People being people on a beautiful Friday evening. From Engineers to Corporate Executives to Startup entrepreneurs. Comes the weekend – life in the cubicle and board rooms seizes – people of Silicon Valley venture out scoping the social scene.

Walking the streets of Downtown Palo Alto one finds people – families, children, husbands, wives, girl friends, boy friends, one night stand candidates – all living in the moment, setting aside personal and business related stuff.

The Valley isn’t just the technology mecca of the world. It’s uniqueness resides with the people – a diverse community flocked to this tiny spot on the planet with dreams of hitting the jackpot making some technology product or the other.

The weekend is one of the few moments Valley denizens get to flex social skills – whether attached or unattached – man or woman – each is seen trying hard, fast and loose to stand out to the opposite sex

You see people of all ethnic, national, and religious backgrounds -Muslims, Jews, Indians, Street Musicians, Indie Artists, cute puppies – you name it the streets of downtown Silicon Valley -Palo Alto to Mountain View are abuzz with life.

This is when techies, corporate guys and gals stop living their job and become living, breathing social beings — savoring the moment as if there’s no tomorrow, or no yesterday.

 

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Technology: To Ends, or To Means?

Posted on November 29, 2011 by AR Rafiq

All to often policy makers, bureaucrats, and technologist make the mistake of  perceiving technology as the solution to all vices, not realizing that technology alone will not help in their quest to achieving nirvana.

It’s understandable when technologists from the High-Tech capital, Silicon Valley look upon technology as the one stop solution to all of humanities problems, after all Silicon Valley techies live, breath, eat, and drink technology day-in and day-out. However, it’s  quite shocking when policy makers, government officials, Ivy League MBA graduates and many a times entrepreneurs are found evangelizing technology solutions as the ultimate solution to everything, and forget the human aspect of the problem they are attempting to solve.

I admit,  early in my career, as a Silicon Valley Technologists I to would look upon technology as a one stop shop — an Ends to a Means. However, I realized, or rather was made to realize early that just because it exists, it doesn’t mean it’s got to be used. Technology, as I have come to learn  and accept, is nothing but a means to an end.

Technology solutions are mere tools that enables drivers — policy makers, business professionals, Entrepreneurs, and bureaucrats to be drivers, and find solutions to issues faced at their organization or country.

Technologists, whether at fortune 500 corporations, or fledgling startups in some remote corner of the globe know only one thing, and that is how to create kick-ass products, it’s up to the world  (the client) to find a use for it — though nothing  stopping the technologists from suggesting use case scenarios as guide posts.

Just because a technology solution exists, it does not mean it should or can be used. Users of technology need to be mindful of the problem their solving, identify the requirements and then go and look for, or if needed develop the specific technology application.

 

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Entrepreneurship: Path to Political & Social Reform

Posted on August 17, 2011 by AR Rafiq

Entrepreneurship is the solution to achieving sustainable grassroots political and economic empowerment for marginalized peoples of the world.

Some say the bang rests in providing basic education. And rightfully education is a top priority, however empowerment through entrepreneurship kills two birds with one stone — i.e. Education and Economics.

In a nation like Pakistan it is imperitive for the nations economic health to equip the common man with the tools that will enable him/her to break free from the shackles of poverty and the dominant feudal systems. Only then can s/he be truly free to enjoy the fruits of living in a democratic society.

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