Some ideas are to good to be kept secret

Later this year the deregulation of Apotek/Pharmacies will take place. This is a major market segment. Key for challengers is probably not to go head to head with Apoteksbolaget. I believe the number of ways to differentiate a market entry are more then those top of mind. Some of the approaches we might see includes - internet distribution  -home delivery -preorder and pickup -price leadership might come later on.  In addition if one player could do something about the lack of integration between the different service providers it would probably appeal to clients. 

Just fresh from the Business Consultants at Crossconnect is this report on how Android and Iphone business models will change the playfield.

Last days I have updated some documents, business profile etc to be better prepared for interim management assignment, contracts, and startup projects. People and business thats wants to go big with me can look on the following links Linkedin *If you are a software engineer in mobile solutions or a skilled project manager/business leader please call in.

Yesterday I met with serial entrepreneur and online video expert Henrik Ahlen. We have met before but at this time we are both interested in expanding our business. It was a model for realtime meetings. It took place on the hotel Anglais in Stockholm. Fun to note was it dual channel meeting. This means that we had a synchronic meeting while we were maintaining some asynchronic activities. We had online capabilities through a 3G enabled notebook, skype and so on. Henrik and I took some calls with a client during the meeting. Following the meeting I am now member of the Swedish Startup Site, and we will discuss cooperation around interim management and one tender to the government. Read Henrik ideas on www.alfabravo.com

Ericsson released some very healthy figures, strong on both top and bottom line. No surprise to the readers of this blog though -) Anyway this is a fine Swedish company that will do great and create prosperity for its shareholders in the future. In the short term strong nerves are required since there is a risc that telcos cut down on capital spending the coming years despite increased data traffic.

Pic; Its me making a hard landing on Barkarby Air Field outside Stockholm:)

A friend om mine Mr Mats Olshammar just published a science fiction book on the struggle for resource domination, that is behind the new arms race of the world's superpowers. This is a science fiction book but Sweden in particular and the world might be out for some big challenges. Find out more at and order at Amazon

Being and enthusiastic pilot of Ultralight Aircrafts and paragliders I have often wondered what it would take for more people to enter into this field of either sport or business transportation. The solution is coming up. Increasingly business and leisure air transport is plagued big aircraft/airport inefficiencies (think about security checks, megalines and so on). The solution; small airports trafficked by Jet aircrafts. The news is that tech development enables small efficient, silent airplanes that can take off in any weather. Computer support decreases the requirements on the pilot (making it possible for "everyone" to fly) and enables take off in almost any weather. Sweden has excellent opportunities to take lead in this development. We have a distribution of people in rural areas + a great aviation industry still. Växjö to Östersund. Umeå to Gothenburg. Västerås to Hamburg. Look for changes in among other public policy and pricing for this to take off. John Travolta h...

Recently I had a phone conversations with a small cap/startup investor here in Stockholm . Some topics were up for brief but one tapped into my head. A European IP telephony company looking for new partnerships and clients for Winmo,S60 Ip telephony and more service. Key is not to go head2head with skype and so on. A few ours later i was on fring, skype, with a entrepreneur in Stockholm that has some distribution for this type of concepts. Bang 5 minutes in we planned for a lunch all partly done on my mobile. Later just before the lunch I had the final details from the VC on homepage and strategic outlook on the ip telephony, also on fring. This feeling of efficient, cost effective real time management is in your pocket. Small organizations has an advantage an can start using realtime management now. For larger organizations it takes a change of mindset and processes. Risk are involved as well as major benefits benefits. Look for companies like Fring, Skype, Ryanair,Virgin, Avanza,f...

Can one software make you healthier and get Ericsson, Nokia et al to the sky Recently i started to use last.fm more actively. For those of you still in majority its a personalized radio available on pc and just recently on mobile phones. www.last.fm The application carries some resemblance with Spotify . I have two observations with possible impact. One after installing last.fm mobbler on Nokia e71 my network usage 3G has skyrocketed (thanks Tele2 for a fixed plan) Two my daily exercise gets easier since i have personalized tracks everywhere. Curios about what Im rocking to? Not quite your taste one of my current playlist favourites is fon entreprenur Martin Varsavsky Here you will find latino etc music you would never have thought about else.

Another "old concept" that finally looks ready for a wide and substantial bust is Machine to Machine communication. Looking in the waybackarchive there were some push for the "Telematics" solutions already back in the 80ties. Mid 90 correlated to the widespread buildup GSM the Swedish carriers Europolitan and Telia invested money in this concept. Today some 10 years later applications are getting widespread with momentum coming from underneath. Recent activities in the area includes -Fortum, Vattenfall and other utilities being forced by law to change all electricity meters to enable realtime metering. European Union legislation to follow. -Connexion. A newly formed subsidiary of Telenor is making a global push into M2M for a number of applications including security, fleet management, service companies etc. -Kampstrup acquisition of Senea. (Old news though)

Many years ago, during the dotcom, micro payments on mobile devices were considered ready for commercialization. One company, Paybox, launched a very promising service concept for one to one, one2many payments. Then not much happened. SMS based payments has been decently successful for ringtones, tickets, and other content. There are some barriers that has to be ticked; -The fees charges by the mobile operators. Starting with some 80% 2001 the level today is still over 20% compared with the approx 2% charged for a direct debt card. Challengers has to either bypass the telcos (how?) or renegotiate competitive levels. -User Interface. Following the successful launch of the Iphone and upcoming releases on S60 and Android the developing scenario is good. -Security. Advances in encryption and usability. -Consumer awareness. Increasingly consumers are aware of the non voice centric services out there. They want to do more with their mobiles. Developing story more might come. Movers to look ...

Looking at financial market timing is key. The ugly consequences of miss timing has been felt by most investors recent years. Enclosed is one great screen shoot from the guys at CNBC that could give some clearance.

I just listened to very interesting speech on the web. I was centering around how companies are formed and innovation is made. We have all seen the great effects on user generated content. Feeding this in to the corporate world one hypothesis is that the value of structures will fall. Instead innovation will come from loosly contracted contributors. Look at Linux, Wikipedia and such things for inspiration. Apply this model on new business ideas or on existing companies. What do you see?

Nokia just announced that they will terminate the production of their only Wimax supported mobile phone. Maybe it was clear already 2 years ago that wimax wouldn't make it. When the Wimax spec was finalized some years ago Ericsson, Huwaei and others already had millions of UMTS and HDSPA modems out on the market with full interoperability on existing networks. Looking forward another big step would be to terminate CDMA an other alternative technologies in favor of the 3GSM path as well as getting full support for UMTS from the Chinese.

Inefficiencies tends to build up in good times. In Scandinavia and Sweden in particular consensus thinking and politeness has sometimes forced companies to in efficient decisions in terms of site location, personnel policies, environment, energy sources etc. Now the recession and globalization induces even more efficient processes. Swedish companies will manage this change and excel. How about the civil society. With some 200 000 jobs up for termination or relocation what changes will the economy result in. -Will the unions in the car industry consider a 20% cut the coming years to save the industry for future workers.Shareholders have already been taking a major hit on the stock market. Government will add some 30 bn in guaranteed loans. -Will government ensure long term energy provision for our important base industry. Nuclear energy or alternatives.

I just came across some utilization info of mobile networks in this country. And indeed its impressing. Leaving details to the reports of the networks supplier one investments hypothesis is emerging around Ericsson, Cisco and other networks vendors. Have the analysts been taking height for the investment needs at the major telcos coming up, due to mobile data cards, smartphones M2M applications etc. Looking at valuations Ericsson f example runs on a 5 year low and ratios are increasingly attractive. More on this might come later.

I recently checked out the videos from the Nokia World Event in Barcelona. Indeed it seem to have been a very inspiring event. One key word I remember being SOLO or social location. The combination of social networking services like fb ms etc with the gps and triangulation capabilities of the mobile network. It will create very exiting opportunities for both individual and corp related services. Think about visiting your city and seeing who is where, finding services quick and easy. Nothing here is brand new Google Maps and others have been around for some months. The thing is that devices, networks and consumer behavior indicate room for a breakthrough. Looking at the corporations one can forsee very exiting services for fleet managment, security applications and ERP. Some early candidates for this market Google of course with G Maps and the whole framework Nokia, can see this as a starting point for truly differentiated services. Wayfinder, Tomtom and the GPS sector. How should those...

Still in its first days I have had time to get in close encounter with some market analysis and trial software. The impression is that companies and consumers are underinvested in technology from a cost/benefit perspective. Techs and services ready for a breaktrough includes - Smartphones . Ie Iphone, android and s60 based. -Hosted Enterprise Software -Machine to machine communication, M2m -Pan European communications carriers and price plans -Location based services. Google maps, wayfinder, tomtom converged services.

After using the Nokia e71, as well as simulations on Iphone and Android there is room for enthusiasm. The versions of operating systems adress some of the issues that has led to failure earlier on. -General usability -Multtasking -Battery consumption -Packet Data -Easy of installation This combined with a general price fall on components and increased consumer and business awareness of non voice applications could make the trick. On the other side most consumers still have high beta priceplans around 1,5 euro/mb average in EU battling trial. Also when you most need your smartphone or notebook you pay up to 10 euro/mb when roaming. Good news coming from the EU commision though with a price cap around 2 euro taking place summer 2009.