Glad that Mozilla is following the steps of Chrome.

Few months back, i wrote a post on the Google Chrome's software release cycles. I praised the short release cycles(6 weeks) followed by Chrome team to iteratively/quickly release new features to end users. I also felt that, it was surprising Microsoft and Mozilla doesn't seem to learn from it for their IE and Firefox teams.

Now, Mozilla has announced a new engineering process for Firefox releases on the similar lines of Chrome. They have a new variant of build called 'Aurora' which is aimed at shortening their release cycles. Read this techcrunch post to know the details.

Patent generation hubs across US.

Below is a snapshot of patent trends across US and the hubs since 1976. (Image Courtesy: TechCrunch)

It's interesting the second most active after Silicon Valley is Austin, TX.

What does Android AppStore mean for Amazon?

Amazon's intent to open it's own Android AppStore is old news. There was much speculation about more fragmentation of Android with multiple AppStores apart from Android Market. The fragmentation is very likely given Android is an open mobile platform for anyone to the following without requiring the blessing of Google.

Build apps, build phones/tablets, sell apps, even penetrate consumer electronics, cars and anything that provides a source of power.

The choice of word to describe differs with perspective. It's like the glass is either half full or empty depending on the eyes of the beholder. To me, what's happening in the Android space is the norm and is just the beginning. This is especially good for developers as the Android Market isn't putting up a great show as the Apple's AppStore. Amazon has showed it's prowess in online B2C commerce through amazon.com. So, selling Android apps is just another commodity as far as Amazon is concerned. It knows best, how to sell to consumers online.

Is Android AppStore a huge investment for Amazon? Probably a fraction of it's operational cost. Imagine it being just another web portal hosted on it's massive AWS web farm. Even hundreds of thousands of apps would be tiny data for it's data farm.

What about the ROI on AppStore? More than anything else sold on it's website. There is no shipping cost. No cost maintaining the inventory in a warehouse. I can't imagine a lot of supply chain cost either. And, finally the whopping 20/30% cut on every app sold would add up to a large ROI.

What is the probability of success? Being late to the party is sometimes good for business. You avoid being a guinea pig. Amazon would have learnt a lot from Apple AppStore and Android Market evolution. 

Is there an advantage to Amazon? Apple and Google built the app stores from groundup with no prior experience in online business. Amazon on the other hand is just expanding it's list of products sold online by adding Apps to it's web store. Does it need to be a tech whiz to do this? Not at all. That burden is delegated to  developers. So, Amazon is better at this game than Apple and Google.

Can it be without risks? Hard to imagine any form of risk. The worst would be Amazon writing off the store, which won't affect it's bottom line or business prospect. 

Amazon has built it. Will they come? Most probably will. Given, Amazon has lot of existing customers, it won't be hard to sell more to them. Especially it's online webstore feature "Customers who bought this also bought.." is the easiest way to start selling apps. The apps market for themselves. Angry Birds is a good example. It will be lot easier and probable for someone to buy it on Amazon than Android Market. I can imagine someone making a purchase on Amazon for anything related to Android being recommended a certain App and eventually selling it. 

Where is the competition? There will be more such Android AppStores in the future and therefore the price war, which is good for consumers. Selling Apps in volume is like volume licensing of software. Amazon can cut the competition by providing better deals to app developers and making it up on the volume. Doesn't need any explanation.

Android App Store is a very logical thing for Amazon to do. And, could turn out very lucrative if Android continues the pace of adoption the way it is now!

Why Google Chrome releases are terrific and IE et al still doesn't get it.

If you are like me testing all the different types of web browsers, you will notice that Chrome releases a new version(major/minor) every 6 weeks. In Agile/Scrum based software development world, it's like two sprints or just one given the planning and testing needed.
On the contrary, IE9 and FF4 have been on the horizon forever recently hitting rc and beta. That's like a typical waterfall model trying to build a monstrous product for months together and releasing it to wild praying for adoption. Doesn't it sound like the old way of building software?
The new way is build something quick, release it and iterate quickly. This way you have something in user's hand sooner and an opportunity to twist and tweak depending on the feedback. You probably run a lot lesser risk this way than trying to build something big that finally may not take off with the user.
Build, release and iterate quick has become the norm for web portals for sure. It's agility! Is Google bringing the same to the world of desktop apps development through Chrome? Why not? After all, we know it works. And, the user feels like their browser is anew every six weeks waiting for the next 6 weeks. It's like Apple releasing something every 6 months. Doesn't matter what is released as long as something shows up to keep the buzz!!
Wait! Does Chrome releases comprise any major change to compare it with the monstrous IE9 or FF4? Not really and need not be. That's the point!
I am tired of waiting for FF4 to get released. It feels eternal! Time to change..

Was Groupon right to shove away Google's $6B offer?

With so much buzz around Groupon denying $6B offer from Google, I feel compelled to put my take on it. 

If i were Groupon's CEO, I wouldn't sell it for $6B to Google. The explanation is simple. Groupon is all about connecting online users to physical stores. No one has cracked it like Groupon. It's like PayPal cracking the online payment mechanism(when dozens of PayPal competitors never made it!). 

Groupon is all about local unlike Google. An yet untapped market. 

With the flourishing of online stores like Amazon, eBay etc, it's been a far greater challenge for brick-n-mortar companies to bring the online users into their physical stores. Groupon solves it pretty easily and that's what it does best. Google has been struggling to get into this market on its own(Google Local) and has failed trying to acquire the promising 'local' business-oriented startups(Yelp for example). Facebook is revealing its own 'Deals' product. Amazon has invested $175M in Groupon competitor. Does it ring a bell? 

Google is merely gambling with bombarding ads online; technologically sophisticated though. Facebook gets better as they know the users' interests far better than Google does. But again, this doesn't mean a financial transaction for the businesses, as the users normally only view the Ad and may choose to ignore it. The advertisers(or the businesses) pay for ad conversions or click-thru-rates(references below) and not necessarily a real business. Now, what Groupon offers is real business transactions where Groupon gets paid if the minimum business transaction set by the business owner is met(this is real money!). How does that sound to a business owner? And, the feedback the business owner gets is very direct unlike the very complex analysis of the click-thru-rates and the combinations of ad words posted on Google. Local businesses can better understand simplicity over the techno CTRs. Do you think a local bread store would hire a Google AdWords agency to put an ad? What is the chance of this ad bringing business with a typical 2% CTR for ads? 

And, Groupon is building the treasure trove of demographic-specific local needs which is probably an accurate indicator of what really sells in a demographic. So, it gets better at knowing what deals tick. Also,Groupon could make money just selling this data over the years to companies that benefit from it. Does Google have any such stat? NO. Because, Google is an ad-delivery platform and not an ecommerce platform. 

One last note. Groupon potentially seems like the darling of ailing businesses and helps them succeed. Ailing businesses could make a turnaround with just one deal! And, these businesses have the best chance of survival only with Groupon. 

Personally, I have bought a couple of deals from Groupon ranging from 50-90% off. You can read about the Groupon teardown article from the references and see the margin they make on the deals.

Links:

·         http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click-through_rate

·         http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/02/teardown-groupon/

·         http://www.seattlepi.com/business/1700ap_us_amazon_group_buying.html