Future of Smartphones use

6 Reasons Why people use smartphones more than desktops by 2015

This is a topic under serious discussion for last 2 years. With high-end smartphones dominating the public conversation these past few years, lower-end smartphones have been under the radar.

Nevertheless, this market segment offers a fast-growth opportunity particularly in emerging countries such as China and India.

 "Seven Shades of Mobile" study, conducted by InsightsNow for AOL and BBDO, 2012

Consumers in emerging markets are growing less tolerant of basic mobile handsets, known as feature phones, that can only be used to conduct a phone call and other rudimentary functions. They want their smartphones to do more than that, at least be able to download email and have some level of Web browsing capability.

Which  will cause the propel of the growth of smartphones

(1) Improve battery live with inductive technology

In future smartphone will have an inductive receiver loop embedded into the device itself which can be placed on a wireless pad and have its batteries fully replenished without the need for wires or an electrical connection.

(2) Flexible screen

These new displays will allow manufacturers to produce devices that can be easily rolled into a shirt or pants pocket. Prototypes of these types of devices are being developed and the first signs of commercially available models are expected to be avaialble by 2015.

(3) Use for shopping

Today 12% people expected to use smart phones for shopping and the same is expected to cross at least 20% in next 2 years.With online sales increasing more than 30 percent on Cyber Monday compared to last year, mobile devices can take credit for a large chunk of what has been called online retailers’ biggest day ever; according to IBM, mobile sales grew by more than 96 percent from 2011.

(4) Enable residents to conduct their own home energy audits.

Using phone sensors, cameras and GPS data, today’s smartphones could analyze appliances, break down their energy use and provide energy-efficiency rankings of comparable homes, the study found. They could even potentially let users know when federal rebates or better rates take effect so they can make changes when they would bring the highest financial benefit.

(5)The mobile payment system allows the use of any smartphone or iPad as a point-of-sale terminal and is aimed at small businesses.

(6) Use of smartphones as virtual assistant for smartphones, automobiles, natural language virtual assistants  like google glass.

Apart from these six reasons there are additional trends in smartphones  like water proofing of smartphones using surface coating called Liquipel, dawn of HTML5 enabled phones which work on low power devises, synchronized operating system  so that users won’t need to use one OS for a smartphone and another for the desktop computer.

You may get more detailed information on "What do consumers use their mobiles for" at http://mobithinking.com. Here you can find country specific utilization summary.

Author, Arindam is working as strategic consultant for business transformation project.  

Security Risk in IE

Another Security Threat Of IE

A vulnerability affecting Internet Explorer versions 6 through 10 could make it possible for a hacker to monitor the movements of your mouse, even if the browser window is minimized.

Video on Security Risk of IE 

According to UK-based web analytic firm Spider.io, this means that passwords and PINs could be captured by a man in browser  if they are typed on a virtual (on-screen) keyboard.

However, there are no reported cases of any consumer having their information compromised.”

The security loophole essentially allows attackers to track an IE user's mouse movements, even if they haven't installed any software as such.

All that attackers have to do is buy a display ad slot on any website. Spider.io adds, "This is not restricted to lowbrow porn and file-sharing sites. Through today’s ad exchanges, any site from YouTube to the New York Times is a possible attack vector."

2 impacts of this security loophole in IE

1) First those using virtual keyboard as a way to avoid possible keyloggers can now no longer assume that the virtual keyboard is safe.

2) Secondly it appears that unscrupulous ad companies have been using this flaw for a while to  measure the view ability of display ads.

 How the loopholes exactly works?

The way it works is this: IE’s event model logs attributes relating to mouse events. When combined with the ability to trigger events manually using the fireEvent() method, researchers explained, JavaScript in any webpage or iframe can poll for the position of the mouse cursor anywhere on the screen and at any time. The fireEvent() method also exposes the status of the control, shift and alt keys.

Opinion of Microsoft

Dean Hachamovitch, Microsoft corporate vice president for its Internet Explorer division, disagrees with Spider.io’s assessment:

“The underlying issue has more to do with competition between analytics companies than consumer safety or privacy. … We are actively working to adjust this behavior in IE and will provide more information when it is available.”

How 3D printing can influence waste management?

 I was talking with few young entrepreneurs on possible new business idea . One of them, Som Sen from IIM told that he is planning to start a 3D printing business.  I really found his business idea is interesting because it's expected 3d printing business will grow 300% by 2020. 

What's the size of 3D printing industry?

2012 - 1.3 billion USD
2016 - 3.1 billion USD
2020 - 5.2 billion USD


In this post, I will first talk about why I think impact of 3D printing is bigger than internet and I also added an interesting 3D printing video.

Here are some key idea on 3D printing and its impact

3D printing is taken seriously by manufacturers as an alternatives to cutting, bending, pressing and molding things. Actually it can help in improving lives of poor in developing countries.

3D printing can be used for creating boats, rain ater collector or custom build composting toilets. Actually making them from plastic waste is also beneficial to environment. 3D printers, by the very nature of their additive process, provide an incredible environmental impact.  When compared to traditional subtractive manufacturing processes, less material is used and less waste is produced.

3D printing is a mind-blowing process. It’s not a need-based business, but a want-based one.It actually helps people to define themselves what they want. 

3D-printing has proven useful in medicine, where it’s been used to print jawbones, prosthetics and replacement hips. In fact, Weijmarshausen of Philips says that a 3D-printed ball joint and the mesh pin that goes into the bone enables the bone to grow into the mesh, facilitating a very strong connection.

Companies like Organovo and Invetech have already built 3D printers to layer human cells and print any type of a desired 3D pattern. When further developed, these tissues could create blood vessels and hopefully, organs! Millions battle life-threatening complications in medical therapies and these solutions could save their lives. Because the parts would be built specifically for that person, the hope is that several complications of regular transplants will be bypassed as well.

3D printing machines are also known as rapid prototyping machines. Old rapid prototyping machines were quite huge and expensive.  This was the main reason for the technology only being affordable to big companies involved in manufacturing. The price was the biggest constraint and the main reason for smaller companies to outsource the task of creating 3D models to professionals who made 3D prototypes.

Here is an interesting article by Andrew Purvis on  3D printers "Will 3D printers make food sustainable?"

Please see another interesting video on DIY 3D printer in a most cost effective way 

Formlabs, Cambridge, raised $2,945,885 from kickstart to build high quality low cost 3D printers. .

Resources : How 3D printing works? 

News: 3D-Printable Guns Face Federal Ban :"Congress passed a law banning plastic guns for two decades, when they were just a movie fantasy," Israel said. "With the advent of 3D printers these guns are suddenly a real possibility, but the law Congress passed is set to expire next year."