I felt my Day 1 at Orange Expo felt kinda rushed. There were things I missed, things I didn’t notice. So when the family wanted to go there today, I thought it’d be a good opportunity to go again. Turns out, I did discover a few new things.

So this post will be less about the tech there, and more about the Expo itself, its organization, ideas and some suggestions to Orange, as I go through it.

For this post, I’ll not make the mistake of trying to compare the Orange Expo with the expos you have abroad. They cannot be compared. Instead, what we should be doing is comparing the Orange Expo 2011 with its peer: Infotech. On Day 1, I wanted to see iPad 2 and Xoom and all the new shiny toys out there. As a geek, I wanted to see them, play with them. But I realized that many people who visited the expo today didn’t even know what an iPad was! To them, it was something new and wonderful.

Free entrance for students and children

A friend of mine got in just by showing his University pass. I didn’t know the expo was free for students! Nice, Orange! Which leads me to:

The “Learn” concept

Today, this caught my eye: that Orange would put the Learn cube right in front of you when you enter the expo. They really wanted to emphasize how technology that Orange supplies will be making learning easier in the future.

Throughout the expo, there were people explaining things. At the Emerginov area, which I didn’t find interesting on Day 1, I found UoM and UTM students giving demonstrations of their projects:

Innovative projects

One really caught my eye: The MoLecture project. Those dudes did a cross-platform, virtual classroom. They were video-streaming from a laptop, directly to a browser and a Galaxy Tab. Multiple Galaxy tabs! It may not sound impressive like that, but if you consider just how many great things may be accomplished with that project, it’s stunning!

Imagine you waking up late, and missing your lecture. You could just take out your mobile, connect to the web-classroom and start following as if you were there, video and sound included. You can even see who’s in the class and interact with the lecturer. And all this in real-time! Very impressive indeed.

Another project was to pay bus fares with mobiles. Quite interesting too, and could possibly help with all the issues the Government is facing with free trips for students.

There idea of showing students’ projects during the expo is laudable too. At least some of them will get the public’s attention on their projects and possibly get sponsorships later.

I wish Orange would sponsor those projects. They could, like, offer to fund the most-voted-on Emerginov project and run it to completion, and then have the students market their product, all while having Orange’s brand on it. A great way to advertise the company, in my opinion.

The missing “Explain” corner

While I was there today, I often heard a simple line: “KieT sa?” or “what is this?”, most of the time asked by parents, while the kids got to answer. I had to do my fair share of teaching too…

What would have been interesting at this expo is an “Explain” section, or whatever Orange decides to call it. There, you’d find a set of large screens in a sort of mini-classroom. People who are not familiar with technology would be able to go there and watch self-repeating videos that will tell them more about the expo.

For example, the video might give them a tour, showing them the various products they will see, what they are and what they can do. It may explain a few terms like “Android”, “Tablet” etc… so that people at least have a brief idea of what they are looking at.

It doesn’t have to be a long video; a 5 mins video would be sufficient. After the video, just show a countdown with “Session restarting in: <countdown>”. A simple thing which would have really helped today.

It’s one thing to show people tablets and touchscreens, but it’s better if they know what they are holding.

Putting tech in people’s hands

As a technology-following person, maybe you didn’t find the expo satisfactory. You didn’t find some mobile or tablet or some other device you were looking for. Maybe you didn’t get to subscribe to 100Mbps Internet. But try to forget that there is anything beyond the expo. Forget what you know about tablets.

What if you went there, and for the first time ever, got to touch a computer so flat that it looks like a magazine in your hand. Imagine what you would feel. You, who don’t even have a computer at home, are now holding a cutting-edge device in your own hands!

Let’s forget the newer devices for a moment. Orange did something fantastic here. It allowed people to test devices. Ridiculously expensive devices. Everybody had opportunities to see an HTC phone, an iPad or a Galaxy Tab. That’s what I call putting technology in people’s hands.

People got a view of what Teleworking is, what a “video conference” is, how good voice can sound through “HD voice”. For geeks, these may be “already know”, but many of the people who visited the expo today haven’t read reviews on the iPad 2, or the HTC Mozart or some LED screen. They only went there, and were delighted to get to touch an iPad or to some, a “very thin computer”. That, is something important. Now, they have learnt what a tablet is and what it can do…

The HUGE number of staff

In the Day 1 post, I said I wished the Orange people would approach the public and explain what they were demonstrating. Maybe someone read my post, because today, I got served! Staff members! EVERYWHERE! The Orange-shirt wearing folks were literally, everywhere. They were demonstrating stuff and talking to the public.

Overall, I got a better understanding of the Business Area, and the various projects at the Emerginov area.

The lack of e-presence

I said this before: I wish Orange recorded the conferences and put them online for other people to see. Unfortunately we will most probably not find the conferences online.

Another thing that surprised me is that Orange didn’t make use of the Internet enough. Strange, when you realize Orange is an ISP!

Where are the tweets regarding promotions? Tweets about live pictures from the expo? Live Facebook updates about curiosities? Or “If you are reading this, run towards Stand X and get 25% discount in the next 5 mins!”.

Alright, they DID tweet at the event. Check it out here. See the timestamps? I’d think that for such an expo, we’d be getting every-5-mins updates, but no, sorry. The picture above shows all the relevant tweets on the channel. Not many, huh?

Beyond the expo, Orange should try to reach out to its customers via the web. Like, offer special discounts online or promo codes etc. Get that Twitter channel more active, and also increase their social-network presence. It’s funny… how an ISP is not using the Internet to its full extent!

A family event

Friend of mine told me this. The expo today certainly looked like a family event, with kids roaming around, a large number of young people, accompanying their parents and explaining stuff along the way and people making good use of the seating arrangements conveniently put at various locations.

It’s great to see families and young people showing interest in technology, but the question remains: “should a technology expo be considered as a family event?” I’ll leave that for you to answer.

The simply bad

Did any one of you notice the laggy laptops at the Gaming Zone? A real pity, to see people trying to play on these things…

The ending

In the end, the Orange Expo 2011 was not a let-down. Certainly, the absence of the latest in technology was noticed. “An utter bore-fest for the geeks.”, as said by Carrotmadman6. But let’s be realistic: They did the best they could with what they have. They certainly introduced a few innovative concepts, and showed non-geeks what technology can do.

For geeks, maybe next time! I stand by my opinion: If you went to Expo 2011 for the latest, shiniest gadgets out there, you’ll be deceived. If iPad, Galaxy Tab and HTC are not familiar names to you, you must have enjoyed yourself.

Now, let’s hear your views, people!

This article comes from GeekScribes

Day 2: Orange Expo 2011 Revisited!

The Orange Expo 2011 is held this year from 8th April to 10th April at the Swami Vivekananda International Convention Center (SVICC). Anyway, if you’re reading this, you’ll only be having a day left to visit, and that’s 10th April, from 10h to 19h.

With that said, here’s my experience and thoughts on expo. Sorry for the blurry or low-light pics. My camera had big issues focusing on all the Orange there… I was kind of in-a-hurry too, so I may have missed a few things. If I did, please let me know via comments.

Alright so when you first enter the SIVCC, you’ll see lots of people crowded in the lobby trying to grab a few bags or whatnot. Good quality bags at that! Worth it! Even got a friend who went there just to grab one of those plastic bags… Hah!

So you make your way to the main hall, pass through a tunnel with video projections and end up seeing this:

This orange thing is called the Learn Cube. Inside, Orange wants to show us how classrooms of tomorrow will be. You can see for yourself how they will look like:

Do note the desks! The same ones we had in college! How nice! Wait, those will be vintage furniture in the Classroom of the Future, no?

The good things about this eClassroom that have been demonstrated are the eWhiteboard which allows the teacher to interact with its contents, modifying them on the fly. The Orange brochure says the students would get tablets, but I only saw laptops and few people having tablets. A classroom full of tablet-wielding students would certainly be an impressive sight.

I also got to see part of a lecture. Personally, I didn’t find it much different from the lectures done at UoM. So unless I was mistaken, it was a classroom with students equipped with laptops. I admit that I haven’t played with those laptops myself, so I don’t know if they have special software for interacting with the teachers and class. That would be an bonus.

Behind the eClassroom, there was a sort of conference room where people were giving mini-lectures or conferences if you want. The titles proposed on Orange’s site sound interesting.

Moving to the right, I got to see the 10 new channels that would be available on MyT soon. The channels themselves didn’t catch my attention, but the screens displaying them did. Those LED screens are really, really awesome. You’ll get to see one up-close by the end of this post.

If you continue on, you’ll get to Orange’s business area, where they are exposing the various aspects of business that Orange can help change. Here are those I found most interesting:

• The CSR stand: the person there explained that according to Orange’s CSR, they have developed a program to recycle batteries, especially mobile batteries. You only have to drop them to Orange, or at one of Winners’ outlets and they will handle the dispatch to France for recycling. That, I didn’t know.
• The Teleworking stand, which shows how you can work online. Mainly through web-apps, from what I saw on-screen.
• Remote surveillance through Internet

I have one complaint about those stands: I was walking around not really understanding what was happening. There was no guide or anything. All I could see were people sitting down at those desks and “working”. You had to approach them individually to know what’s happening…

A better idea would have been to include notes, like those you find at museums. So you just approach, read what the person is doing and move on, unless you got question. Another alternative would be video clips playing at each location, demonstrating what the person can do. Stuff like that would have been more interactive.

Just after the Business area, you will find the display windows for all kinds of mobiles. Androids, WP7, Nokia of all price ranges etc… There were a few relatively recent models to be found, such as the HTC Desire HD priced at Rs. 24,999 (if I remember correctly). Bad thing was this: those mobiles are just demonstration units! Couldn’t play with them!

That area was so crowded that I didn’t get to shoot good pics. The prices were wide-ranging, from Rs. 1500 or so all the way to Rs. 20,000 plus!

I’d have preferred they did like, a long table where every mobile gets its own slot. So you can like, queue up and test whatever you like. With their current method of putting everything in display windows, you can’t even approach those, and when you even do, you’ll only find the devices to be dummies. Sigh…

At the back of the SVICC, you’ll find the MBC stand, which was deserted when I got there. Interestingly, you’ll see a few non-Orange stands there. I saw Cash and Carry displaying their impressive number of laptops. I saw Goupille (I think) displaying Samsung product. There were also Macs displayed, as well as an HTC representatives. Not bad, I’ll say.

Around the Learn Cube, you’ll find various mini-stands. The most interesting one was, for me, the tablet demo stand. There, you’ll get to play with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 1 (the 7″ one), the iPad (first generation), and a new comer on the Mauritian market, the Viewsonic Viewpad tablet.

I got to play with the latter, and initial verdict was a good-enough tablet. It’s not a cheap device, priced at Rs. 20,000 or so. What I can tell you is that it runs Froyo, it’s fairly responsive to the touch, although nowhere near iPad-responsiveness. The display is great, and comparable to the Galaxy Tab’s display. There are many reviews of this device online, so if you’re interested, check this one for example. An interesting thing with this device: It can dual-boot Android and Windows 7. Sorry apparently, only the Viewpad 10 can dual-boot.

To end with tablets, let me say that the iPad’s retina display is simply magnificent. Just magnificent. Haven’t seen THAT image quality on any tablet till now. Maybe the iPad2, but I haven’t played with it, and Orange hasn’t brought one this time.

Continue around the Cube, you’ll eventually reach the gaming area. I got to see a few kids playing on a Microsoft Kinect there. Not an Orange product but they were keen to show what tech was capable of. Around that area, I expected to find the Emerginov area, which the Orange brochure described as “a hub for interaction between developers for various platforms, including Android.” I found nothing particularly interesting around there. Except many people sitting down and watching others move around.

Other people were working on their laptops. Basically, it was like the Business Area I said above, without the high tombstone-like things!

I ended my trip to the section called the Intelligent home. You had to wander deep inside to find interesting things. What caught my eye there was those eMeters for electricity. From what the guy was saying, they can monitor your electricity usage from a distance, eliminating the need for people to come to your home. You can also control your home electric grid from home.

That was Orange Expo for me… I hear many people say the expo was “extra seryer” or “very good” and I agree. It was. For people who’re not used to seeing news-feeds about the latest tech out there…

The Expected

I expected to see a couple of things, which unfortunately I didn’t:

• High Speed Internet

Seriously, I wanted to see that. I know it may not be feasible, but I’d have liked to test, say a 50Mbps connection at the expo. Like, get a taste of the speed or something!

• The latest tablets out there

I’d have liked to touch a Motorola Xoom. Or the iPad 2. Or the Galaxy Tab 10″. I wanted to see Android Gingerbread 3.0. None of those, sadly.

• The conferences!

Some conferences have very nice-sounding names and I’d have liked to attend a few. I so wish Orange would have recorded those and made them as videos available on their site. THAT would have been really innovative, a true demonstration of eLearning!

The Unexpected

BUT! I was pleasantly surprised too. There were a couple of things I saw that I didn’t expect:

• The prices…

I expected them to be… lower.

• The HD voice booths

I didn’t expect that there would be demonstration for high-quality voice. Ok, I saw on their brochure, but I didn’t thought it’d be like that. Well made.

• That weird device I saw

Dunno what it is. A friend tells me it’s a sort of toy helicopter that you can control via iPhone. Wished I could have seen it flying around.

• The competitors

Seeing HTC representatives, Macs etc… at Orange’s expo is a nice touch in my opinion. Any chance we’ll see Emtel there next year?

• The Kinect

I knew how Kinect worked. I tested one. The same floating-thing game where you have to use body-balance to steer. But I didn’t expect to find one at Orange’s expo.

• Huawei’s Tablet

Didn’t even know they made tablets! First impressions: The screen was not very responsive. Device is a bit slow. It runs Android 2.2.1. Here’s a review. Pictures follow:

• LED screens

The quality when seen up-close… just stunning! Big Buck Bunny looked awesome on that screen! Ok, maybe they ramped up the contrast, brightness and colors, but the result was still impressive.

• The big Droid

Good one!

• A garden swing in middle of a technology expo…

Uhh…

Alright, with that, I’ll end this post. Verdict? Orange Expo 2011 is an improvement over Orange Expo 2010. I particularly liked the way they wanted to demonstrate how technology that Orange provides will be changing our lives. The eClassroom was a good idea. Lacking tablets, but still a good idea. The conferences are nice. Sadly, I’ll miss them and I hope Orange records them and puts them online.

The bad things? The lack of interaction. The confusion. I was walking around, trying to understand what was happening at the Businesss Area. Only the person at the CSR stand explained stuff. The rest were either sitting, or doing stuff. I’d have liked explanations at least. Next, the lack of real units for the mobiles. I’d have liked to play with a few phones, like those running WP7. Instead, I’d have to hunt for a real unit throughout the Expo. Didn’t find one, even then. I’d also like to see really cutting-edge devices like the Xoom and its peers. The devices this year were fairly recent, but not 2011-recent. They are great for the general public who may not be familiar with these devices, but tech people would be left wanting more.

Orange Expo 2011 is an improvement, but there is still lots of possible improvements possible. Hopefully we’ll see more in 2012.

Opinions? Comments? Jump to the Comments section below and feel free to voice them out!

P.s. Sorry, I sort of like, ripped the Expo logo to use as the leading image. Hope Orange doesn’t mind. If there are issues, lemme know and I’ll take it down.

This article comes from GeekScribes

Orange Expo 2011: The Review

As you probably know by now, Orange has announced a price cut on its ADSL packages, and a speed-doubling measure on its MyT packages. The discussions have been raging on for the past few days on various fronts, including Twitter and CarrotMadman6′s Article on the price cuts.

MyT users are probably rejoicing by now. ADSL users too maybe, but probably in a lesser measure. I’m an ADSL user. I’m definitely not rejoicing. I believe Orange has successfully performed corporate tricks on its users, and has come out with a profit, all while announcing the price cuts / speed boosts.

Let me begin with the more obvious of the ripoffs:

UPDATE REGARDING PRICES:

The prices of the various packages are as follows, and VAT is included:

MyT 1Mbps Unlimited + 21 TV channels = Rs. 999 / month

MyT 2Mbps Unlimited + 21 TV channels = Rs. 1699 / month

MyT 4Mbps Unlimited + 21 TV channels = Rs. 2999 / month

ADSL Home 256Kbps 3GB cap (+ Rs. 0.58 per additional MB) = Rs. 399 / month

ADSL Home Unlimited 512Kbps = Rs. 759 / month

ADSL Home Unlimited 1Mbps = Rs. 1353 / month *

* This package was never offered as subscription, only auto-upgrade for former ADSL 512Kbps users.

Notice something funny up there? Discrimination I say! ADSL 1Mbps is priced Rs. 1353 after price cut. MyT 1Mbps + 21 TV channels is at Rs. 999! That’s a Rs. 354 difference for the same speed! If you ever doubted that Orange wants to migrate ADSL Home users to MyT, I think the difference in price clears away any doubts…

So my personal advice to all current ADSL 1Mbps users: Move to 1Mbps MyT, and save Rs. 354. I cannot guarantee for the quality of MyT over ADSL, but this will save you money, plus you get to watch some TV if you wish. Do the migration now, while the promotion last (Free installation, no migration fee). The promotion ends on 10^th January from what I heard.

MyT – No  TV users option get neither speed boost, nor price cut

A totally unfair and unjustified measure. Can anybody provide a logical explanation about why those users are not given the speed boost? I certainly can. Orange wants those “prehistoric” MyT users to move to the newer MyT + TV option, which you could have guessed, costs more.

So if you have MyT 512 Kbps (No TV) and wish to have the speed boost applied, you’d need to move to the current MyT+TV 1Mbps option, which costs Rs. 150 more. There you have it, the first way a profit can be made. Users, driven by want at seeing others downloading faster than them, will prefer to take the Rs. 150 added option.

ADSL users get no speed boost

Previously, I had ADSL Home 512 Kbps, which got upgraded to ADSL Home 1Mbps automatically last year. Very nice. I was very happy. Then. This year, I was impatiently awaiting the speed boost. It never came.

Newspapers did not announce this straight-out. They just did not mention the fact that ADSL users would get no speed boost, without any valid reason. By reading comments on TheMediaGuru, I learnt that apparently, ADSL would get no speed boost because the technology doesn’t support speeds beyond 1.5 Mbps.

False, according to this Wikipedia article. The theoretical limit is 8Mbps. Maybe the 1Mbps could have been boosted to 2Mbps then? Even if not 8Mbps, at least 2Mbps should be supported quite fine, no?

The question that follows was also raised: How come ADSL Home can’t support 2Mbps, but ADSL Business 2Mbps is offered as a package?

What Orange Wants

My opinion: Orange wants to turn its ADSL home users and the MyT No-TV users into MyT+TV users, resulting in less services to manage.

Since ADSL home users get no boost, they’ll want to move to MyT. And in doing this, incur additional monthly fees + installation fees (which are Rs. 0 at the moment, due to a bonus. Lasts till 10th Jan 2011 or so).

What matters is that Orange will effectively convert (some) ADSL users to MyT+TV at a profit.

Worst is that some MyT users are not eligible for the TV services due to the quality of their lines, possibly due to their distance from the nearest Telecom exchange. The thing is, these users are paying for a service which they cannot access. There is no price reduction if you don’t take the TV option of MyT. Why? Because it’s not possible now to take MyT without TV.

What Users Want

Both price cut + speed boost. We are greedy.

Most MyT users seem to be uninterested with the TV offer (according to my own mini-survey). Would you want IPTV when you already have satellite TV?

Maybe the TV offer interests casual Internet users who see it as a bonus, or maybe those who are not satellite TV subscribers. Not a lot of them nowadays, considering the things MBC is forcing upon us.

What heavy Internet users would want is a dedicated, high-speed, low-cost connection. We want MyT No-TV option to be re-instated.

If you take MyT but not the TV option, you will pay a lesser fee, say Rs. 300 less per month. That would make MyT’s monthly fee cheaper than my actual ADSL (internet-only) connection.

Such an option doesn’t exist yet: there is no high-speed (above 512 Kbps) Internet-only offer in Mauritius, which is kind of lame. The best you can have is 512K ADSL Home. Slowish nowadays, in times when streaming High Dimension Definition content is possible abroad.

So we gain ADSL 2/2+ technology, high-speed at an affordable cost, all while paying for services we use.

If the monthly price grid was as follows, I’d be a happy guy:

• MyT 256 Kbps → Rs. 250 (This will please users with low salary. Decent speed at a decent cost.)
• MyT 512 Kbps → Rs. 500 (What most users would be interested in. Good speed at a low-enough cost.)
• MyT 1 Mbps → Rs. 1000 (An upper-medium user’s choice.)
• MyT 2 Mbps → Rs. 1500 (Want more speed? Go for that one)
• MyT 4 Mbps → Rs. 2300 (“High-end” package)

And if you want MyT + TV option, add Rs. 300 to the above prices.

Wouldn’t that be satisfactory?

The Compromise

I may have entered an utopian dream there. The price grid I suggested might be infeasible. Want a mitigation solution? Offer existing ADSL users to move to MyT, while taking in consideration the speed doubling, allowing the users to maintain their current monthly rate.

So if I take myself as example, I’d be switching from ADSL 1Mbps to MyT 2Mbps, but priced at the rate of ADSL 1Mbps. Another ADSL Home 512K user would be moved to MyT 1Mbps while paying the ADSL Home 512K rate.

That would probably satisfy ADSL users who didn’t get the boost, all while satisfying Orange’s requirement to move as many users away from ADSL Home as possible, if that’s what they want.

Remember, a speed boost is an indirect price-cut. You are having access to a service which was costing more previously. So those ranting that they’d prefer a price-cut over a speed-boost, it’s the same thing. Although, I kind of understand the need for a “very low-cost” connection solution.

So let’s hear it now: your views on the issue. I doubt that you have nothing to say, so the comments section below is open for you to voice your opinions.

This article comes from GeekScribes

The Deceit Of Orange Mauritius

I went to Infotech 2010. It was better than previous years. There were more things to see. There were more things to buy. But overall, it still did not impress me much since there was a lack of new technology. And no, the iPad is not considered new. For Mauritius it may be. But it’s not new, as compared to some Android tablets out there. Anyway, I saw this “Electronic and Technology” expo which is to be held at Free Port, Mer Rouge. I thought, hey it has a fancy title. It has some fancy graphic-prospectus with a cool-looking robot on it. Maybe I’ll get to see new technology there. I think that expo is a first for Mauritius, a technology expo that is separate from Infotech. Not a bad idea, that. So I went to see. And well… it’s somewhat of a misnomer…

So to begin, here’s the brochure:

Not many well-known technology firms in there. Emtel, Orange, Harel Mallac, Jacey and the other usual suspects are absent. It does not start well. Just check how many slots Cash and Carry got! And wait… photography services? 3Events? Glace Delice? MBC? Le Matinal? Are those related to technology??

I do not despair! The cool-looking robot drove me to pay Rs. 25 or so for the entrance fee!

This is the scene that first greets me when I walk in, minus the blurriness, which I apologize for. Not much of a crowd. It’s Saturday. At around 13h. Any expo should be teeming with people at that time. Nothing technology-related at first sight. Le Matinal in front. Left is 3Events and right is Radio Plus. Moving on, I see Cash and Carry. Not bad. That, and a person trying to blend in with a pillar.

I encounter my first technology-related item: the interactive whiteboard. A feeling of deja-vu comes to me. Yes, I already saw that at Infotech 2010. It was impressive then… not now. I don’t say it’s not useful. No! It’s damn useful. I think Uni should consider getting those for classes where lots of diagrams etc are required.

What I didn’t see at Infotech though was that the interactive whiteboard supports interactive animations. I got to see the electrolysis process. Very informative for college students.

Proceeding, I see some LCD screens… and a treadmill! A fitness apparatus! The thing about this device is that its dashboard includes a color screen, so you can exercise while watching some movie which you put in. Too bad geeks are not known for being fitness-minded. If I ever bought a treadmill, that one wins my money. If it had Internet access, it wins my money twice over.

I also got to see a Bluray player among the technology devices there, priced at Rs. 6000 something. Hmm… not bad.

Beside that stand, I see a stand named “Ebook” something. Maybe I can get an ereader there? Nope. They just sell pocket dictionaries and thesaurus, among other things. Like cutlery. And knives.

As I walk further, I see more stands for Cash and Carry. Probably for payment, like they did at Infotech. Nothing there to see. Wait, I see Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation (MBC). Nothing technology-related exposed. I don’t even understand what they are doing. Nothing interesting there. There’s also the Mauritius Research Council (MRC) stand, where I got a few brochures detailing their research and activities. Sadly, they didn’t expose any of those research findings. So no fancy invention to see. Sigh…

I saw a stand selling ice cream. Yes. Ice cream. I understand people could be hungry, but I had not expected that, despite seeing it in the brochure. I was not at the end of my surprises. I turn, and see… cutlery. LOTS of cutlery. What are these doing in a Electronic and Technology expo? Maybe they have some automatic systems? Nope. Just plain old thermometer-in-the-cap.

MTML got a really tiny stand. One single stand I should say. Crammed with people. They were exposing one of their telephones, and one of their mobiles. Their packages are attractive. Rs. 250 for unlimited MTML-network calls, and unlimited SMS on the other networks. What impressed me more is that they wish to launch 2.4Mbps mobile Internet to compete with Emtel and Orange. If they offer a fair price (as they normally do) and a fair speed (which they normally don’t, according to reviews), this could become a serious offer.

I thought the expo was small. I was not mistaken. They even curtained off some parts of the already-small Free Port Exposition Centre.

At last, I reach the one stand (or cluster of stands) that offer visible technology devices: Cash and Carry. As expected, they have lots of stands. And lots of technology stuff. Well, not as much as Infotech 2010, but they beat the other stands in volume-of-technology by a large margin. The prices seem good too. Laptops, LCD TVs, netbooks, mobile phones. They were all there. I am led to believe that C&C are the only ones who seriously brought technology and electronic stuff there.

Note the Web 2.0 Transparency Effect in real life! :p

Behind C&C, I see… a stage with fitness apparatus. They stand there sadly, since no one is using them.

En passant, I land at the Rajiv Gandhi Science Centre’s stand, where they are exposing a model satellite as well as some explanation. Not very cheerful, but at least it’s somehow technology-related.

At this point, I’ve covered most of the exposition. As a final stop, I land at VJ Computers’ stand. They are exposing a TON of gadgetry. Nothing really cutting-edge, but useful nevertheless. Pendrives, Earphones, solar chargers, speakers, memory cards, solar chargers, etc… A LOT of things. The prices were good. Rs. 600 something for an 8GB Sandisk flash drive? Not bad I’d say.

I finish by visiting a stand which I heard mentioned on radio the other day. They were offering an AC unit without an outdoor unit and which was also good at energy savings. It looks like a regular AC unit at first sight. The thing is, you have to drill two large holes in your wall to act as air inlets, and a smaller hole for water outlet. An inconvenience for some, a facility for others. For me, it was the only innovative thing I got to see there.

And… that’s it. The technology devices I’ve mentioned above are all there was to see! What I want to say is, the expo is tiny. There’s not much to see technology-wise. Not much to buy either, unless you’re after cheap, common gadgets (read flash drives).

The expo is certainly a misnomer. “Electronic and Technology”? No sir! But if it was “Home Electronics and Technology”, and didn’t include the cool-looking robot, I might not have been deceived. No iPads, no tablets, no 3dTV, not many laptops, no PC parts, no gaming consoles. Not much to see indeed.

I won’t be criticizing because it’s the organizers’ first attempt at organizing such an expo. Also, I doubt they had the budget or the people that were put forth for the organization of Infotech. With the means they had, the organizers did what they could. But they shouldn’t use such a name as “Electronic and Technology”. It’s too misleading.

Conclusion? Mauritius still has a loooong way to go before we get CeBIT and CES like expo’s here.

That, and I want that robot I saw at the expo! :p

Also, see:

TheMediaGuru’s Review of the Event

This article comes from GeekScribes

Electronic and Technology Expo 2010 Review

So, what went wrong? Nothing as such. It was a perfectly engineered festival. They had planned a concert, had the shops of Port Louis participate in the event by remaining open, and even had a few hawkers and food sellers around to help. The only problem was the people who were supposed to be there. The expected crowd was absent, for some very simple reasons. Then, what are those reasons anyway?

Real night life does not exist in Mauritius. You might say that many folks go clubbing at night, but just this is not nightlife. In countries like Singapore, people tend to dine outside. Restaurants are open till very late in the night. After a good dinner, people will tend to wander around, and maybe do some shopping, which is a major “hobby” in Singapore. English folks will enjoy the traditional pubs or maybe a late night cinema session before going hope. Would anybody do this in Mauritius? I guess not, for food is expensive here. A typical dine-out would run around Rs. 500 per person. Many traditional families would prefer to dine at home, instead of out. After that, if we include maybe a movie, add Rs. 175 to this per person. It’s quite a hefty price to pay in those dire times of recession (or post-recession, for the optimists among you).

But money alone is not enough. Transportation is a problem too. From where I live, there were no buses going to Port Louis after the normal operation hours. Therefore, only the people with cars could go to Port Louis. Now, imagine that you have returned from work after a tiring day, and having endured the traffic jams of 16h, will you be ready to take the car again after hours? Uhh.. No thanks! People living outside Mauritius got underground trains, lightweight railway and a good bus service, none of which are available in Mauritius. You are forced to drive again, but by night this time. This in itself is quite dangerous at times. You just have to see accident figures to know.

Which leads me to the security aspect. Whatever the police force says, people are afraid of getting mugged in Mauritius. This alone would deter a lot of folks from venturing out at night. Now, going down and walking in the dark streets of Port Louis? Yea right!

But what is the root of the problem you say? It’s so obvious: there is nothing in Mauritius that you can’t do by day, and have to do at night. How many shows are there to visit or concerts or shows to attend? Not that many! So what do you do at night then? You would go shopping? This involves money too, and people might not be very ready to spend money nowadays, specially the traditional Mauritian dad! What would you buy after hours that you can’t buy during the day? Would you go to do your vegetables shopping at night? This explains why the market was a desert. What shopping would you do at night? Would you shop everyday? Assume you decide to shop at night one day, what do you do for the remaining 6 days? That is the root of the problem: a huge lack of activity by night.

If people don’t have things to do at night, there is no reason to have 24/7. You can’t just say “ok, we need 24/7 in Mauritius, let’s DO IT!”. It doesn’t work like that. You need a change in the habits of the people, and this is not something easy to achieve. You need to give them something that they will want to do. Oh, something funny before moving on: the event is called 24/7, but everything was silent by midnight! What about the midnight-to-6am time?

What do we do then? Here’s some ideas for starters:

- First, get the people there. We need better transport, late-night buses throughout the island. That is the bare minimum!

- Start slow! Why 24/7? For starters, do a special “Late night day” instead. Say, Wednesday would be special late-night in Mauritius. Shops would be open till late, etc. Let people get used to the concept first. I think the organizers rushed ahead regarding this.

- You should try to bring the people. Having people who have worked during the day come back to the city at night is not an easy feat.

- Bring the tourists in! Instead of the bland sea-sand-sun concept, give them sea-sand-sun-shopping-sightseeing by night!

- Encourage artists to perform live, even little-known artists. Provide cheap shows for people to attend, maybe cheap theater shows? Half-price cinema tickets for the 21h session? Find some place to do all these. Or maybe mini-concerts?

- Encourage art galleries and other expositions to open only at night.

- Discounts at restaurants for dinners? Special family-night-out packages? Because Mauritians think in terms of “family” first, so you need to cater for that segment of the market. The problem may be that there are not that many restaurants in Mauritius, or they may have provided shows for people who are dining there? “An artist-a-day” kind of concept? Why only restaurants anyway? We need those “French cafés” in Mauritius too. Maybe a Starbucks or two? We have McDo, KFC, why not Starbucks? (The coffee is what is motivating me to put this here )

- Provide a lot more security. Security cameras are not security: we need a visible police force.

- Night activities? Like some after-hours coaching for some sport? Or “learn to play an instrument” sessions provided in some schools for the general public?

- Build some kind of hawkers’ market that opens only by night? Maybe a flea market where you can do some cheap shopping. No one wants to spend money, so give them an alternative which is as enjoyable as shopping.

- Upgrade infrastructures! We need more lighting in places that people visit! You can’t expect an event to work without investing a cent in it!

The 24/7 is an interesting idea, but maybe rushed without considering all the aspects of it first. There was simply not enough things to do, therefore not enough motivation for people to attend the event. And why in the world would they do the first Festival 24/7 in this cold of winter! Should have waited for summer!

This article comes from GeekScribes

Why 24/7 concept fails in Mauritius