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Google’s Nikesh Arora afraid of two guys in a garage

Written on 9th December 2008 2 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Nikesh Arora, responsible for all EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa) Operations at Google, just took the stage at LeWeb in Paris. Conference organizer Loic Le Meur will interview him about the European start-up scene.

In 1989, Nikesh graduated from the Institute of Technology in Varanasi, India with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. After that he worked at Deutsche Telekom and with two investment companies in Boston. Now he is at Google where is specializes in squeezing more Euros, Dhirams, Dinars, Shekels and Rands out of us. Or as Google puts it “responsible for creating and expanding strategic partnerships in these regions for the benefit of Google’s growing number of users and advertisers.”

And he has one major fear…

The Google big shot confessed to Le Meur that he’s pretty afraid of the “two guys in a garage. “The next Google will come from a garage”, he assured the audience. “So people will have to step up and take the risk”. Arora regrets the fact that Europeans generally have a lower appetite for risk. Unlike Americans, we don’t see failure as an opportunity. “That’s the structural reason why the US has more start-up activity.”

Don’t target your own market

Another mistake we Europeans make is focusing on our own market – the one we know best. “There are 1.4 billion people connected to the web, that’s more than … million people from Austria. So why would you focus on the national market? That’s a fatal flaw. 1 percent of a billion is much larger than 1 percent of 1 million.” Instead, do it like Twitter and Skype and start creating something that a billion people find useful”.

Focus already!

And while you’re at it. Focus! Companies like Apple and Google were both created in times of economic downturn, because they focused. the climate does not dictate whether you’re successful or not. Redefine your product.” Arora said. “I want to congratulate all the entrepreneurs in the room”, he conclude. “These are the times, if you can survive for 12 to 18 months in Europe, you’ll come out with great business”.

EMEA, google, leweb, leweb08, Nikesh Arora, paris

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The state of the smart phone market in EMEA

Written on 19th August 2008 0 COMMENTS
Robin Wauters, Next web enthusiast & Plugg organizer

The state of the smart phone market in EMEA Research agency Canalys has thoroughly analyzed the smart phone market in the EMEA region, and has come to a number of conclusions worth sharing.

First and foremost, it’s a growth market. Smart phone shipments reached 12.6 million units in Q2 2008, up 28% on the figure one year ago. Even though that’s actually a slowed growth compared to the figure put forward for the first quarter (year-over-year growth of 44%), this makes Q2 the second biggest quarter in terms of volume ever. Canalys estimates that smart phones represented 13% of all mobile phone shipments.

Nokia is still leading the market with over 71% market share, even if their competitors in this segment are taking up market share at a much faster pace. The other vendors in the top five posted much higher than average year-on-year growth, with second-placed RIM closing the market share gap by several points, and HTC, Motorola and Samsung more than doubling their shipments. Canalys cites Apple as an upcoming competitor with the launch of the iPhone 3G in several European countries.

According to Canalys’ estimates, 58% of the smart phones shipped in EMEA in Q2 had integrated Wi-Fi, 13% had touch screens and 38% had integrated GPS.

But are these high-end features being used?

“Today, many owners are not making full use of their smart phone’s features,” said Canalys senior analyst Pete Cunningham. “Concern over usage costs is still a big barrier, though wider availability of flat rate data plans will help, and usability still needs to improve for certain applications on many devices. People are also wary of draining their battery and not being able to make calls. Battery life isn’t helped by having GPS and Wi-Fi turned on, nor by having a large, bright screen for navigation or web browsing. But there is clear demand for those features and applications, and advances in battery technology would enable quite substantial changes in usage patterns, with all the service revenue benefits that would bring.”

In a previous survey of 4,000 mobile phone users in March, Canalys found that battery life was the aspect of their phone people were least satisfied with.

(Photo credit: jurvetson @ Flickr – yes, that Jurvetson)