Meet the app millionaires in India - Times of India

Meet the app millionaires in India - Times Of India You are here: Home>CollectionsWhat you need: A unique idea. Little or no investment. A few hours. What you get: A global market of over 250 million smartphone and tablet users.Meet the app millionaires in IndiaKamya Jaiswal, ET Bureau ISTTags:IOS|android

What you need: A unique idea. Little or no investment. A few hours. What you get: A global market of over 250 million smartphone and tablet users. A time share in 33,675 downloads a minute, or 17.7 billion a year.

The trade off has never been so one-sided, in favour of entrepreneurs. Start with minimal investment (no cost is also possible) and access a market with no physical boundaries. What do you make? Mobile applications — bite-sized programs that make millionaires of entrepreneurs holed up in nondescript places, even tiny Udupi in Karnataka. Rohith Bhat, the 39-year-old Udupi based app maker who boasts clients like Apple and addicts of his products like Prison Mayhem HD and WordsWorth in far-flung Europe, is one of India's little-known cache of star mobile app millionaires.

They have the agility to keep up with the fast-moving technology and produce apps based on new ideas with user-friendly presentation choc-a-bloc with features. As app-making is an idea intensive, not capital-intensive business, small outfits can make it big — a perfect fit for creative, tech-savvy but resource constrained Indians.

The opportunity is huge in both volume and value. A 2011 report by Gartner predicts annual worldwide mobile app downloads will reach 185 billion by 2014. Juniper Research says these clicks are likely to add up to over $25 billion in revenue.

"The potential has never been higher. At the same time, the entry barriers have never been lower," says Kenny Mathers, Nokia's head of developer relations for Asia Pacific. He is not referring to the investment but the technology required to build an app. All major platforms, Google's Android, Apple's iOS and Nokia's Ovi, offer comprehensive software development kits (SDKs) online. Now, you may know nothing about coding and still put your app out there.

So if not in-depth programming, what does it take to make it to be in Bhat's league? And is the road to their millionaire club as simple as it seems? To find out, ET on Sunday spoke to the Indian app-preneurs with global hits in their kitty . They share some everyday challenges: lack of adequate talent. Some unique ones: making money from freeware. But collectively, they can't stop gushing about the hottest new business. And explaining why the next Angry Birds may come from their research labs.

Where idea is king

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Sony facing its problems head-on by bringing down costs - Los Angeles Times

Question: I am worried about my Sony Corp. stock. Do you see any kind of upturn ahead?

Answer: This is a trying time for the consumer electronics and entertainment giant.

Among its woes are the slow economy, a campaign of cyber attacks on the company's online video game service, and supply disruptions caused by Japan's earthquake and tsunami.

Longer-term, Sony must adapt quickly and effectively to shifting trends. If it can't, it won't be able to command premium prices, despite its premium-brand reputation.

The Tokyo firm's results also are subject to the volatile effects of currency translation as well as the inherently uncertain performance of its motion pictures and new products.

Sony lost $3.1 billion in its fiscal year that ended in March — after a $439-million loss the year before — mostly because of the earthquake and the string of computer hacks that compromised customer information and caused a monthlong shutdown of the PlayStation Network game service.

The company's sales totaled $86.5 billion in fiscal 2011, up 11% from fiscal 2010. Its share price sank 27% in the 2011 calendar year's first half, which ended Thursday.

Also weighing on Sony's results is a drop in sales at Sony Ericsson, a mobile phone maker that Sony owns in partnership with Sweden's Ericsson. The joint venture has an aging product line, despite the recent introduction of two high-end Android phones.

Sony is facing its problems head-on. To bring down structural costs, Chairman and Chief Executive Howard Stringer has initiated layoffs and factory closings and dismissed some longtime managers.

Taking a page from Apple Inc.'s playbook, Sony has opened a retail location in Los Angeles that features a new design with brighter lighting and more open space. The design could serve as a template for remodeling the company's Sony Style stores.

The stock's consensus analyst rating is "hold," according to Thomson Reuters, with three "holds" and an "underperform."

American Funds Fundamental Investors more volatile than many of its peers

Question: Are shares of American Funds Fundamental Investors worth having in my portfolio?

Answer: More volatile than many of its peers that hold large-cap stocks, this fund isn't for everyone. It owns a sizable number of energy and technology stocks and can invest more than one-third of its portfolio in foreign companies.

The fund's "A" shares have gained 28% in the 12 months that ended Thursday, ranking in the upper one-third of so-called large blend funds, which buy both "growth" and "value" stocks. The fund's three-year annualized total return of 1.3%, however, placed in the bottom third of the category.

The portfolio's experienced investment team, led by James Drasdo since 1984, analyzes the financial results of companies to find undervalued stocks or firms with long-term growth potential that have been overlooked. The managers often let winning stocks ride for a while.

Industrial, energy, technology and financial services and healthcare made up the bulk of the $54-billion portfolio at the end of March.

The fund imposes a 5.75% sales charge, or load, on purchases of its "A" shares and requires a $250 minimum initial investment. The annual expense ratio for the "A" shares was last reported at 0.64%.

Andrew Leckey answers questions only through the column. Write to him at yourmoney@tribune.com.

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Android 4.0 loaded Google Nexus 4G : This "monster" could chomp down Apple - International Business Times

Sporting a "monster sized" screen with high definition capabilities, dual processor, very thin size, and Android Ice Cream Sandwich OS, Google's Nexus 4G could give Apple's iPhone 5 some heavy competition as both devices are set to have similar release dates. 

The Nexus 4G rumors have sounded very attractive as the latest Android device may seem to be the most powerful smartphone to hit the market.  One of them says that the device will be powerful enough to run the Android 4.0 operating system which will include 3D features, Open GL head tracking for facial expressions and sensing.  For gamers, they can have USB capabilities enabling them to plug in external hardware devices such as an Xbox controller.  The open platform can allow developers to sync up various devices ranging from remotes, controllers, to bikes.  This opens a huge door of opportunities for apps running on the next generation Nexus 4G. 

According to reports, Apple has many features rolled up in its sleeve for the iPhone 5, including integration with the anticipated iCloud and ramped up iOS.  Speculations on iPhone 5 specs include an A5 processor with large end-to-end screen and very thin sized incorporating a teardrop shape design. 

If the iPhone 5 is to run with the same A5 processor found in the iPad 2, floating in the 1 GHz range, then the Nexus 4G will have an advantage with its 1.2 or 1.5 GHz dual core processor, possibly a 28nm Qualcomm Snapdragon Krait, and 1 GB of ram. 

The Nexus 4G design utilizes a spacious touchscreen but eliminates all the hardware physical buttons, possibly utilizing Google's continuing development of voice search and commands.  The iPhone 5 curved glass touchscreen has also been in talks with reports of Apple already processing machinery to create the touchscreen glass displays.    Apple also will launch their iOS 5 platform that incorporates voice technology through Nuance voice command app.  Apple's move may appear to be a counter to Android, which has already integrated voice features early on with much investment in improving the feature for Ice Cream Sandwich.    

It may still be too early to determine if Nexus 4G can truly take a bite out of its rival, but the specs and rumors have seemed very impressive for this fall's matchup against Apple's iPhone 5.   

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Nittany Mall app now available - Centre Daily Times

The Nittany Mall and other area malls now have a smartphone app.

Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust has launched a free mobile application for the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.

App users will be able to view a directory of retailers, keep updated on sales and promotions, and view an interactive map and a calendar of upcoming events.

To download the app, visit the App Store on the iTunes website and type in “PREIT” in the search field.

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The economic link between investment and movement of goods and people - The Seattle Times

The direct link between the improvement of transport and the economic vitality of their communities is not lost on dozens of local officials in Snohomish County.

Call it consistent optimism or a vision focused on reality. They see how the future and they are ready to say aloud.

Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon convened a meeting Tuesday, has attracted more than 125 people for the Edward d. Hansen Conference Center at Comcast Arena in Everett. For three hours, the exuberant talk has dynamic links between road improvements, rail service and bicycle paths and their impact on employment and livable communities.

Reardon and others are clearly landing jobs associated with the next generation of Boeing 737 s is a priority for the County. Movement of people and products is the key.

Identify and promote a site - to Paine Field, the long 5 or near Marysville and Arlington - also, is having the infrastructure planning to be competitive. As Rep. Rick Larsen, D - Lake Stevens, noted, investment creates jobs, not blame and finger.

Talk is already burbling on thrust on transport in the Legislative Assembly of 2012. Reardon argues that the debate must go beyond taxes of gas for the update of the public-private partnerships and to decide how to make investments.

Larsen stressed the importance of a plan of cutting-edge which feeds the skills, knowledge and, even one time, investment in infrastructure.

See the particular portrait is applicable to the rail, a term which begs definition. Opportunities abound with rail at high speed, which Larsen recalled that the audience is a contentious element in the next six-year federal transportation plan.

Freight mobility is fundamental, the basic function of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe system. Since 1998, a freight Action Strategy has strengthened the movement of goods via the corridor Everett-Seattle-Tacoma.

Bruce Agnew, Centre of Cascadia Seattle passenger Discovery Institute, long a promoter of rail service expanded, boasted a new rapid Northern Corridor of the intertwining of complementary regional economic development efforts.

Rail-Amtrak commuter service Sound Transit sounder and ST link light rail are all attract clients seeking options and alternatives. Mayor of Snohomish Karen Guzak wishes to establish links to commuter to Everett and Eastside communities. She sees bike trails as the basis for all packages of contemporary transportation improvements.

Steve Schweigerdt, representing Western conservation of Washington, D.C., focused on the Rails-to-trails, describes a national movement managed to convert the rail corridors to accommodate paths. Locally, the former route 42 miles on the Eastside BNSF is an extraordinary opportunity and a bureaucratic muddle.

As commuter options appear, they get used. Joni Earl, Director Executive of its Transit, makes the point, noting that his agency needs more places park-ride to meet the demand. Roland Behee, Director of strategic planning for Transit community, said that his agency rapid suburban express bus service, either four years of projections of the number of users.

These community leaders know commuter from suburb to suburb is growing, bike riders are not creatures and promote bus, rail and bike is not an attack on the cars. Public discourse refreshing.

Thoughtful and sensitive to the needs transportation planning is subject of mobile cargo, people and attract investment. Session of the Reardon was stripped of clichés and petty quarrels.

Column of lance Dickie appears regularly on the the Times editorial pages. Its address is ldickie@seattletimes.com

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