Spiritual Gravity will bring down Apple in 2012

Most of my friends know that I am a die hard Microsoft fan. I have been working with their products for most of my career.  I have watched Apple rise from the ashes and head to the stratosphere with envy. So please take my predictions with a pinch of salt !
My prediction is  that Apple will peak out in 2012 and start their descent back to earth. Here is why …

1. Apple has to be right all the time. Competition has to be right only once for Apple to fall off its “Number 1 “ pedestal and the competition is getting  very much close to being right !
2. Apple products are not being designed and built by Aliens.Other humans will find way to break it and make something better
3. IT Corporations find it difficult to manage their own much smaller IT application portfolios. Managing over 350K  apps will soon break and rogue applications will slip in to destroy customer confidence
4. Apple products are on the verge of becoming commodities. They will soon drop in the “Cool” factor bringing them down to earth with other products
5. Without Steve Jobs, Apple will fall back into a “Microsoft under Steve Ballmer” paradigm. Still a great company making money. But not THE company !
6. What goes up must come down and what goes up faster must come down faster !! The law of Averages will catch up with Apple soon
7. Mobile virus will become more lucrative considering the exploding population of Apple IOS and we can see a swarm of them hit the ecosystem

Revisit next year same time. Let us see if I got it right !
What are your thoughts?

Raghavan (Raj) Rajendran

When the Idea creator's credibility is challenged, should the ideas credibility be questioned?

Most of my friends know that I am a big fan of Robert Kiyosaki and his books based on Rich Dad Poor Dad paradigm. I like his concepts of residual income, the quadrant approach to money making etc. In fact I had recommended his book Cashflow Quadrant to my friends 


So it was a shock when I read about John T. Read's write up about Kiyosaki. John is a very influential person with strong beliefs and ideas. He is very successful and his ideas on making money are very interesting (More on that in a later post)


He really goes to the town about the Rich Dad Poor Dad's "factual errors" and numerous "Extremely unlikely accounts of the events that supposedly happened" . It was an interesting read and John has spend quite some time to research his target. 


Whether we agree with John or not, the point which I was concerned about was the impact on the ideas and concepts Kiyosaki had put on the table. Since Kiyosaki's book's content has been questioned, does it mean that his ideas were also wrong? Was I just drinking Koolaid and not looking at the facts clearly? Should our impression of the ideas be influenced by the negative information on the author?


In my opinion, the baby should not be thrown out with the bath water.. Even after understanding all the accusations, the fact that there might not be a real "Rich Dad", I believe the central themes with Kiyosaki put forward are still valid. The fact that ideas may not be used by all of us talks more to the our limitations rather than the viability of the idea.


I still continue to believe in the concepts of Rich Dad Poor Dad.  I think ideas should be judged purely based on its merits and the idea creator shenanigans should not impact its credibility .


What do you think? 

Raghavan (Raj) Rajendran

Students and LinkedIn- Essential or Waste of time

 I have been a LinkedIn member for quite some time (See my profile here). So when my college going son asked me whether he should create his own Linked In Profile, I paused and then thought - What the heck - there is no harm in creating a profile.

More I thought about it, more I started feeling that all student SHOULD have a LinkedIn profile. Here is why:

1. As they more towards professional life at the end of the college years, a better understanding of the networking tools will be a value add 
2. It gives him an opportunity to connect with his teacher and mentors. Getting their feedback (which is hopefully positive !) will help him as he starts applying for Internships 
3. It also gives the prospective companies, a place to find more about him and helps him differentiate from the other applicants who might not have a smart Dad like me :-)
4. Finally, it allows him to show case the voluntary work he has done and other achievements 

Overall, I think it should be become mandatory for students to start creating their LinkedIn Profiles (Everybody seems to have a Facebook Profile). What do you think? 

Raghavan (Raj) Rajendran