Applications, lots of them

I wonder where the mobile applications industry is heading to. Everybody who is anybody wants there own application. And there is nothing wrong with it either. If i am a small designer shop, i will come up with a small application of my own, and ensure its placed in proper markets. This will help me crossing the ‘local silos’ and open new markets for me.

India, as happened with the ITES businesses, has also become the hub for economical and reliable applications development.

So if you want to develop your own application, you know where to look to !

Let’s Print some money, but can we?

THE fed’s announcement last week of going slow on any further quantitative easing has increased in the unrest in the global markets. The fed is obviously giving more stress on creating employment rather than going ahead and just minting any new money. This, for all reasons sounds extremely rational and apt, especially in these times of economic upheaval.
Quantitative easing (also referred to as printing money by some) basically means a government pumping money in to the economy. This is done by means of flooding accounts of banks and financial institutes by buying bonds and corporate debt. The rationale behind this financial stimulus is that the banks in turn will lend more money and spur growth by means of increased demand.
This is a step which essentially triggers inflation and hence is meant for economies suffering from deflation, where the interest rates are almost near to ( or even less than ) one. It is generally believed that pumping money in to the system triggers inflation. How does this happen? Let’s take a simple example. Let us assume that you had 10 rupees earlier and 10 goods were available in the market, so you paid 1 rupee per good. Now if the government puts more money in the system, you will have 15 rupees but the number of goods will still be 10. As a result, you would end up paying 1.5 rupees for the same good. What this basically means is printing money is simply not enough. It must be associated with a real push in output of goods and services as well. It is generally believed that financial stimulus spurs growth by means of increased demand.
For economies like India, suffering from inflation, reverse is the truth. The Reserve Bank of India has been seen increasing interest rates every now and then. Raising the interest rates is generally aimed at reducing the excessive money from the system. The logic being, banks, institutions and blokes like you and me will save their money more rather than spending it, in order to avail the higher interest rates. However, raising interest rates is not the only solution to rein in inflation. If the demand is still higher, the prices might keep raising (Also known as demand pull inflation).
Any further easing in the US will have its impact on the developing economies as well. This excess liquidity could easily enter economies like India and spur inflation further. We have already seen the Indian stock indices like the Sensex and the Nifty swell (and eventually deflate) on account of the excess foreign liquidity. Any easing in the US might also make the dollar cheap, eroding the profits of global companies exporting goods and services to the United States.
(The author is thankful to the countless internet resources !)

The endless saga of consumer thirst !

The story of mobile applications has almost become a cliché’ now. The tale of apple and android apps crossing the hundred thousand mark too has become old. While companies are churning newer applications days and nights, the users don’t just seem to be satisfied with what they are getting, they want more!! This eternal thirst of the consumers for something new is probably the single most important factor behind the mobile applications industry.
The latest buzz in the apps world is the game ‘ Angry Birds’ which has reportedly crossed the 50 million downloads mark. It is basically a puzzle game where the user is in control of this bird flock, trying to kill the evil pigs. Today’s ‘Economic Times’ has reported that the game has 10 M android users of the free versions while 13M are using the paid version. These numbers, by any account are huge and provide some idea of the kind of promise and money this industry holds. Rovio mobile, the Finland based company must be a happy lot to have received such a humongous response by users.

The success of this game would obviously prompt more and more firm’s world over to come up with exciting games that engage the user’s mind in a small window for hours. As more and more people are getting hooked up to the mobile gizmos,

One question that might come to anyone’s mind now is, what’s next?