Too much of a mouthful! Lets settle for The Cloudbook. Mmmmmmmmmm.

The Web is still young. Through trial and error, we would get to know what works and what doesn’t. As a medium, it is so powerful that changes would keep getting swifter and deeper. Then the only worry is how would Big Brother choose to interfere (as it always does in the affairs of men.)

My take on netbooks is to draw lessons from advertising (??!)

I have this crazy theory that when the Net is about to destroy a revenue model, it uses an outsider. So Google killed the traditional advertising revenue streams and performance benchmarks.

There are many such examples. In the same vein, ASUS killed the ultra portable notebook niche. Naturally, it didn’t do so in specs. But in effect. Let’s face it top executives plunk down thousands of dollars on some sleek baby then use it for email (duh!).

Then we have the roadmap factor. Flash has been with us a long time. We could have had a cheap battery-life-extending HDD-less, ODD-less notebook a long time back, but everything must wait its turn in the great roadmap factor.

The same roadmap factor has delayed mobile internet options by so many years. A very conspiracy-theory way of putting things would be that the roadmap factor wants to delay mobile internet products and services as much as possible. Then there is the problem of lack of standardization in wireless security. Also why is GPS still out of reach?

The Internet has caused enough damage to brick and mortar. Having Internet in our pockets would accelerate the process many times over. The only thing that can save brick and mortar is noise. Most people would break down under the information overload. If Big Brother excels at watching, it absolutely shines at confusing.

Remember bulk of Indians still use a two wheeler as means of transportation. While they can carry a cell phone pretty easily (and perhaps use them while riding a motorcycle), I can’t see them using any device larger than a cell phone.

Besides, the cell phone is primarily used for text and voice exchange; it’s not being used for web surfing at all. I can’t see folks Googling for a restaurant or a shop on their cell phone, they know that already.

You’ve got to bear in mind that 91% of Reliance’s subscribers use prepaid accounts, not postpaid contract subscriptions. And that $30 is about 2.5x the average India ARPU for the contract customers, and more than 5x prepaid ARPU.

http://disruptivewireless.blogspot.com/2008/10/free-netbooks-in-india-big-deal.html

By comparison, the Dell embedded-3G netbook available on a similar deal in the UK on Vodafone at £25 a month – about 60% of the equivalent average ARPU.

Interesting though it is, in my view the realistic addressable market for this type of deal is only a tiny fraction of the overall Indian population.

Dean