Mobile Point View by Paul Ruppert

One Year in my Blog Life: Keeping Score at Mobile Point View

Readers from 128 Countries

Journalistic cycles  are often driven by calender milestones so today I celebrate my first anniversary as a blogger--albeit it slightly tardy. 

I started Mobile Point View in April of 2007 primarily to frame and define my "personal brand", project and shape awareness of my industry perspective and "thought leadership", enabling me to keep my eye focused on the mobile industry and global business trends through a discipline to discuss my views.

Along the journey I found it also fed internal motivations such as a love/hate relationship with writing, and my wanderlust for "Adventure Roads" and "Adventure Capitalism."

Plus, it feeds my spirit to learn more about other cultures and keep my skills sharp in making connections--both technical and human.  I've been told I've got a combinatorial world view which my blogging reflects, being part travelogue, wireless industry and global commerce analysis, pus a passionate interest in high growth markets such as China, Africa, and the Middle East.

Recognitions & Connections

An unexpected turn along the path has been the recognition of my views and writings by technoscenti like Om Malik of DigOm, Gerry Purdee of Forrester Research and mobilista Rudy De Waele. A surprising approach by Mobile Messaging 2.0 to contribute to that corporate sponsored blog has led to additional "thought leadership" and recently my being tapped to be the Managing Editor of Mobile Messaging 2.0. So now I'm a "professional" journalist, meaning my meanderings put some coin in my pocket.

Another unexpected consequence of having a cyberspace billboard has been the people I've become acquainted with--gratifyingly in other countries--who have graciously shared their time, interests and expertise with me by reaching out and establishing a personal connection as result of my views, especially Lars in Tokyo, Ben in Beijing, Mikki in Hong Kong, Tarek in Egypt, Feng in Beijing, James in London, and Mohammed in Iraq.

Reflecting a modicum of success, the connectedness of the mobile industry and power of the internet, the number of others who I have met at conferences who entered a conversation with "I know you, I've read your blog!" has been surprising and energizing.

What I'm most proud of is being relevant and interesting to readers from 128 countries.   

After a year of blogging, I've got a slurry of mixed metrics on total visits (over 100,000 ), page views, time on blog, google juice, etc., but the one which I'm most proud of is the reflection of my reach and global view point.   Having readers from so many countries reflects my purpose, passion and pursuits to illuminate the power of mobile communications to consumers and its fundamentally global characteristics. 

Interesting Quirks of Where My Readers Are 

Some interesting aspects of my readership include:  9,600 visits from readers in India, 900 visits from readers in Pakistan, 30 visits from readers in Myanmar, over 740 visits from readers in Iran, and 400 visits from readers in Nepal. I've got one regular reader in Foggaret el Arab, the dead middle of Algeria with a population of 4,300. The snowiest reader must be in Bathurst Inlet, Nunavut, Canada--probably someone visiting the Lodge.

I guess that reflects the power of the web, the strength of interest in mobile communications, and once in a while my ability to strike a chord which resonates with a variety of people in diverse international locations. 

Here's a tally of reader countries as of June 2008

A Year in the Blog Life
	Visitors from 128 Countires
Americas (25)	Europe (40)	Asia (26)	Middle East (11)	Africa (26)
US	UK	Australia	Afghanistan	Algeria
Barbados	Andorra	Bangladesh	Bahrain	Botswana
Bolivia	Aserbaijian	Brunei	Egypt	Cameroon
Brazil	Austria	Cambodia	Iran	Canary Islands
Canada	Azores	China	Iraq	Cote D'Ivoire
Cayman Islands	Belgium	Fiji	Israel	Djibouti
Chile	Bosnia	Guam	Jordan	Ethopia
Columbia	Bulgaria	Hong Kong	Kuwait	Gambia
Costa Rica	Czech Republic	India	Oman	Ghana
Dominican Republic	Denmark	Indonesia	Qatar	Libya
Ecuador	Estonia	Japan	UAE	Madagasacar
Grenada	Faeroe  Islands	Kazakhsatan	Yemen	Mali
Guatemala	Finland	Korea		Mauritius
Haiti	France	Laos		Moambique
Honduras	Georgia	Malaysia		Moldova
icaragua	Germany	Marutius		Morocco
Jamiaca	Gibraltar	Myanmar		Mutitania
Martinique	Greece	Nepal		Nigeria
Mexico	Iceland	New Zealand		S. Africa
Paraguay	Ireand	Pakistan		Senegal
Peru	Italy	Philippines		Sudan
Puerto Rico	Latvia	Singapore		Swaziland
St. Vincent	Lichtenstein	Taiwan		Tanzania
Trinidad	Lithuania	Tajikistan		Togo
Urguay	Luxemburg	Thailand		Tunisia
Venezuela	Macedonia	Uzbekistan		Uganda
	Mallorca	Vietnam		Zaire
	Malta
	Monaco
	Netherlands
	Norway
	Poland
	Portugal
	Romania
	Russia
	Serbia
	Spain
	Sweden
	Switzerland
	Turkey
	Ukraine

Tough personal quarter

Loss of Matriarchs 

You may have noticed my postings have fallen off the last few months. Its been a difficult 90 days for me and my attention has been elsewhere than the machinations of the mobile industry.

In mid-April my mother, Pierette Bougnotteau Ruppert passed away at the full age of 86. She had lived in her native France for the last 33 years, and the last decade of her life was lost to Alzhiemers. Upon hearing the news, I quickly decamped to Paris, then Caen, where she spent the last years of her life. I brought my 12 year old son for his first visit to France, and dragged him to all the places in Paris where I spent so many summers as a child with my mother while she spent time at Elizabeth Arden. She was a cosmetics sales rep at a series of department stores in Cleveland, Ohio where I grew up, being in the workplace was more her liking than staying at home. April in Paris is rainy and grey, but we relived the times I spent in the Trulleries gardens sailing toy boats and visiting the Egyptian section of the Louvre--he seems to have inherited my interest in mummies, pharos and pyramids.

Then in mid June, my mother in law passed away suddenly as the result of a car accident injuries. She was quite close with my wife, the oldest of four daughters. I knew her for 34 years, I first met my wife when I was 16, and she was both a teacher and an entrepreneur. The sudden loss put much of "normal life" on hold as we decamped to Cleveland. She touched many--here's the obituary in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Working through the grief within the extended family as well as the adminstrative aspects of closing off two lives. Just starting to get back into my past rhythms and hope to be back at speed soon.

Paul

China’s Super Affluent Class

In the 1840s an English writer famously observed that “If we could only persuade every person in China to lengthen his shirt tail by a foot, we could keep the mills of Lancashire working round the clock.”
  Turns out that a recent McKinsey study, as well as the IMF's World Economic Outlook indicates that the needs of the Chinese consumer to fit their own kit of shirts-and tails-will certainly drive their Chinese mills for well beyond the next generation as a result of the change in Chinese household wealth.

China Drives 25% of the World's Economic Growth

8 Random Things About Me

Xen Mendlesohn of Xellular Identity has tagged me...similar to school yard days, tagging in the blogosphere seems akin to a convergence of being asked to join Kiwanis, being welcomed into "the club" and ponzi networking. A neophyte to such things, I've noticed that the table stakes' inflation rate in this exercise has increased 100% in the last six months from 4 random things about the tagee to now 8. A reference by one tagee to just "come by for a drink when it gets to 11" hopefully reflects the upward boundaries.

Keeping up the good spirit of such things, the fact that I'm looking to reach out to Centers of Influence (COIs) in the mobile community, and that this is a good way to do it, here goes...ahh, "XENSEI" advises that "the theory is that you will learn a lot of little unknown facts about each other."

So, here are the rules of the new 8 Random Things tag game:

• We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
• Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves
• People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
• At the end of your blog post, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
• Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

And here, eight random things about me:

1. I've had the privilege to meet the last four US presidents, as well as their their Vice Presidents--Reagan/Bush, Bush/Quayle, Clinton/Gore and Bush/Cheney. Long long story behind how I got into these positions over 24 years through conscious effort and serendipity. In the same meeting where I met Bill Clinton and Al Gore, I also met then US Secretary of State Madeline Albright and Defense Secretary William Cohen. And it wasn't planned!
2. I was a professional ski Instructor for 4 winters
3. I collect watches
4. I landed in the wireless business 11 years ago in California, even though I had been looking for a mobile job in Europe.
5. I have a Chinese daughter and an American son....well....kinda. After employing a Chinese university student to be my "family minder" while me and my family lived in China for five months in 2005, she explained the Chinese tradition of having a "second family." No worries there since we embraced her as family while she was with us every day, but I hadn't been planning on putting her through graduate school :o)
6. I'm a morning person, usually up around 05:30 am addressing email and talking to friends across the pond.
7. I don't like chocolate, but love lemons.
8. I love being outdoors--in any type of weather.
9. BONUS: I am a transformers junkie enabler [read "Transformers & China"] and have hunted in every store in Hong Kong and Tokyo for my son's addiction to them.

I'm tagging some who know me, some who don't--just like in recess let's get acquainted: Judy Breck, Zach, Justin Oberman, Andy Chen, Bena Roberts, Ewan McLeod, Martin Sauter, and Mike Sparr.

Transformers and China

Personal Admission: I have an 11 year old son who is trasnfixed by Transformers. He's been this way for over three years. His personal domain--most of my house--is littered with transformers of various vintages. He collected his allowance since Christmas to purchase the Transfomer Movie toys. He even has rare metal transformers that I've picked up from a vintage transformer store on Akihabara while on business in Tokyo. He's been talking about Speilberg and Director Michael Bay as though they are the creative center of the universe. He's obsessed and I'm his enabler.

Early this morning I was IM-ing with my "chinese daughter" Yunsi, a Chinese University student who I called "my family minder" while we lived in China in 2005. A very bright English major at the China University of Law & Politics, she lived with my family and made sure everything ran smoothly while I was galavanting around the world running my business from Beijing. Then the lines of thought converged...China & Transformers.

The last time a Transformer movie came out in 1989, many opinion leaders in China became stressed over the effect this techno-fantasy cartoon would have on China's youth. In a People's Daily article of the day: "The Transformers cartoon, whose TV broadcasts are popular with young people, was criticized today by Hu Dehua and nineteen other National People's Congress Standing Committee members. These committee members made a statement at the sixth session of the 7th National People's Congress, saying that 'the Transformers was absurd, that it promoted violence, and that it would contaminate the younger generation.'

Reportedly, the American cartoon (personal note: it's origins are Japanese not American) Transformers has recently been airing on several TV stations. A publisher has brought out a Transformers picture book. At the same time, "Transformers" toys rejected from the American market have been sold to the Chinese market in large quantities; one set of "Transfomers" toys can cost more than 1000 yuan; a single toy costs between 10 and 100 yuan, putting a large financial burden on many households. Hence, Hu Dehua and the other committee members have recommended that TV stations and publishers stop broadcasting and publishing Transformers, and that the import of "Transformers" toys be strictly halted and the importers be dealt with.

From March 1st People's Daily: ...this reporter interviewed Comrade Hu Dehua. She took out a Transformers picture book, and said, "Once, my little grandson wanted me to tell him Transformer stories. I hadn't seen the TV show, but when I looked at the book, the pictures and text were ugly, the content was absurd, and it promoted fighting. And it didn't even make any sense, so there was no way to tell the story. Then there was the price: for a picture book of less than twenty pages, some places it was 0.8 or 0.9 yuan, others it was more than 1 yuan. 60,000 or 70,000 copies printed, or even 250,000. I brought this issue up before the NPC Standing Committee team, and lo and behold the old men and women in the team were sympathetic. They talked of how the TV broadcast times affected kids' eating habits, and then moved on to how the high price of toys exceeded what the average Chinese family could bear. So I made a few suggestions to various government agencies."

Contrasting with the doom and gloom paranoia, Xinmin Evening News issued a signed editorial that said that the Transformers TV show was brimming with the wisdom, enthusiasm, imagination, and strength of industrial society. Optimus Prime  and Megatron represent righteousness and hegemony, goodness and bellicosity; right and wrong are clearly demarcated. Adults have no way to understand the pleasure and edification that this brings to children. (personal note: He's right. Plus the movie was great. Toys and eye candy for all generations were on the screen)

Some comments were more mercantile oriented foucsing on how the popularity of Transformers toys could spur China's own toy manufacturing: "Transformers Fever" is a wake-up call to our own toy industry. Don't blame everyone else for taking away your rice-bowl. This is a time for reflection and forging ahead. The attraction of the Transformers is in their transformation. Why can't we make an issue out of transformation, design and produce toys that are loved by today's childred? Why don't we have marketing and sales strategy like they do? Some may ask, aren't our rag dolls and duck pull-toys good enough? Here, let me emphatically state: relying on those things to "defeat" the Transformers would be very difficult. The positive side of "Transformers Fever" lies in the fact that it tells us that closed, outmoded toy design and production cannot compete with the open, swiftly updated western toy industry. Our toy industry, in both manufacturing technology and business strategy, needs a "transformation."

A generation later? All the concern concern was unfounded. And the commercial vision was spot on. All of my son's complexly cantilevered and engineered Optimus Prime, Megatron, Blackout, and Ratchet were made in China. 

Which side are you on: Autobot or Decepticon? Protect or destroy?

   

My Hong Kong Tailor

He was expecting me. We had never met, but he recognized me the moment I walked in his door. Four decades of dressing executives gave him an advantage—one of his best customers had called ahead of my arrival to say I was coming. There was already a sense of who I was and what I was seeking, associating price, cut, style, all through a connected relationship--the cornerstone of his trade. Cantonese, Hindi, English, Mandarin, American, were all part of his conversation and client base spread around the globe. Friendly, engaging, professional without being sycophantic. Presenting fabric, hand, cutting, and conversation, he crafted a piece of art with durability of utility. Telepathically dedicating space for mobiles and notepads. Pockets in pockets for smartphone with a twin perfectly sized for folded currency of any country. Theater tickets at the waist. Working sleeve buttons. Teal lining. Slipped on like smooth butter. Shirts, the battle armor of modern executives, had dash and daring in their patterns, projecting confidence with a degree of conservatism, reflecting of both the boldness of a 21st century entrepreneur or a 17th century Boston seafarer in the South China Sea. Without ever mentioning it, the placement of a conversation starter stitched in imperial red: my Chinese character name on the left cuff. Consummate artist and professional, Ash Samtani, Hong Kong tailor.

Upwardly Mobile in Vietnam

The President of Vietnam visited Washington DC last week, which got me thinking about my visit there two years ago, and the impact of mobiles in Vietnam. Mobifone and Viettel were customers of mine, so here are my thoughts on the impending mobile explosion in Vietnam, and how mobile communications will lead Vietnam from the village to the villa.

Top 10 Most Livable Chinese Cities

China is Hong (Red) Hot. From the "Chinese point view", here are their ten most livable cities.

My Two Most Favorite Hotels in the World (B)

The Trafalgar Hotel, London & Makati Shangri La, Manila, Philippines

My Two Most Favorite Hotels in the World (A)

Makati Shangri La, Manila, Philippines & The Trafalgar Hotel, London