Just Buzz

India is considered an emerging market. Terms like leapfrogging etc are commonly used and associated with countries like India. The developed countries have access to a lot of luxuries which are not yet available in India as such. These if provided and made to reach the common man would lead to a lot of possibilities to open.

One of the ideas that I believe is going to make a difference here has to do with transmission of data to mobile handsets operator-agnostic. It seems crazy I know, but could this be possible is something that most people nowadays are thinking about.

Currently the problem with this world (mobile world) is that the penetration is good, the access is good but only problem and difference between the mobile network and the computer network (Internet) is that the underlying mobile network is controlled by the operator. This does not help in easy penetration of user-friendly applications. All the application developers have to depend on the operator for all the transactions and this impedes growth.

So now the question we got to ask ourself is how do we do some data transfer without the interference of the operator. Tough, yeah, it seems!! But it should be possible. I am not giving us the best form of refuge here but I am giving us a hope.

I was thinking about data to be transmitted over the FM channel. Anyway data is being transmitted over Fm (in the form of voice? ) why cant we just change this and encode (somehow) data and send it across. We actually dont require a transmission towards both sides. I meant to say from the server to client and client to server. In most cases this wont be required. So how about transmitting data over FM?

Effort involved would be to change the modulation before content is being transmitted over FM channels so that the relevant textual data is transmitted over FM. On the device side, the mobile owner should install a small application which will be able to successfully decode the incoming data.

The applications that this will open up are going to be many..

Massive Multiplayer Market.

I love playing computer games.. They are cool and I love enjoying getting lost in a virtual world.. What makes it even more interesting is when you get to meet other real people in a game.. Very intriguing.. seems so virtual... suddenly the distances between us suddenly disappear. Anyway the point of this post is not to admire the online sprawling world of new and new RPG's. But it is to see if someone can cash in on this particular idea.

The number of players currently in the massive world of warcraft exceeds 8.5 million users. Lets easily estimate that of these 8.5 million around 2 million ( very pessimistic.. but still) are returning and regular players. They are a market someone could address. As players of online games they would need something. there might be something that they wish to have. Selling their crafts? Trading money? Moving over money from one of their characters to another? Buying subscription every month? better deals for it? Looking out for other similar games? The possibilities seem endless. These users are also possibly good marketing zones for other new games which want say beta testers? subscribers?

So doesn't it sound logical to start an online space where these people can come together? Trade!! Make use of some services targeted for them and them alone?

For stats sake:

MMORPG Subscriber Base

World of Warcraft ~8.5 million +
Second Life ~1 million +
Eve Online ~50k +
Final Fantasy XI ~500k+
City of Heroes ~180k+

So, anyone interested in looking into this niche?
All the best.