Apple's 'Next Big Thing' Will Be an Innovation, Not an Invention

Lots of people are wondering what Apple will invent next. If it’s true to its own history, it won’t invent a new type of product but will improve on one someone else already brought to market.

I’ve never questioned that Apple is an innovator. Its iPod, iPhone and iPad were all very innovative products. But all of them were improvements of other companies’ products or concepts in the same categories.

The iPod, introduced in October 2001, was not the first digital music player. Diamond Multimedia announced the Rio PMP 300 in 1998, and the Creative Nomad Jukebox and Archos Jukebox came out in 2000. None of these products would have been possible were it not for innovations in storage, compression and battery life from scores of scientists and inventors.

Apple did a great job by combining the hardware with its iTunes software and its music store. And that, plus Steve Jobs’ brilliant marketing, is why the iPod soon became the dominant music player.

Diamond' Rio MP3 player announced 3 years before the iPod (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

The iPhone, which came out in 2007, was far from the first smartphone. Depending on how you define “smart,” there were products from PSiAn, Symbian, Nokia and of course Research In Motion (now BlackBerry), which debuted in 1999. The first Android phone didn’t hit the street until 2008, but the open-source version of the Android operating system — backed by Google – was introduced in 2003 by Andy Rubin, who just recently stepped down as Android head at Google.

Microsoft Windows Mobile came out years before the iPhone. Apple wasn’t even the first company to come out with a touch-screen smartphone. That honor goes to the IBM Simon Personal Communicator that was first introduced in 1992.

But, as with the iPod, Apple did it right. It was the first touch-screen smartphone to be highly useful. Sure, there was a lot of hype, but the phone earned that hype by delighting millions of users and becoming the gold standard by which other phones continue to be judged. Even now, when BlackBerry, Samsung or anyone else introduces a new smartphone, reviewers immediately compare it to Apple’s most recent iPhone.

The iPad, which first came out in 2010, was also an incredibly innovative product. But there were plenty of tablets on the market from a variety of companies going back more than 10 years. I was at the Comdex computer trade show in November 2001 when Bill Gates announced Windows software for the tablet PC. Gates at the time predicted that the tablet would become the most popular form of PC within five years. That was more than nine years ahead of the Apple iPad.

Microsoft’s early attempts at tablet operating systems were a bust. But after Apple reinvented the category, Microsoft is at it again with its Windows 8 operating system and its own Surface tablets. Apple does get credit for introducing the Newton MessagePad in 1992. It failed but it was an early example of a tablet-like personal digital assistant.

For a bit of perspective on tablet computers, scroll down to view the 1994 video about the “Tablet Newspaper” from a design lab at Knight Ridder, which at the time was the parent company of the San Jose Mercury News and other newspapers. What you’ll see in this 13 minute video is a tablet with a lot of features that ultimately appeared in the iPad. Of course, Knight Ridder never actually marketed the device so, once again, Apple deserves the credit for turning a good idea into a great product.

So when thinking about what Apple will do next, look around at products that already exist but could use some major improvements. Some say it will be a “smart” watch. Indeed, there are already plenty of those on the market but none are blockbuster products. It could be an Internet-connected “smart” TV if Apple can find a way to greatly improve on what other companies have done, including Samsung, Sony and LG.

Apple could also put its toe in the home automation arena, competing with lots of smaller companies. Might Apple try to compete with LG’s “smart” refrigerator? I doubt it, but I do hope Apple will try its hand at automotive products. I don’t expect to see an iCar anytime soon, but an iDash entertainment/communications/navigation unit would be a feasible and welcome competitor to all the not-so-great systems already on the market.

So let’s hope CEO Tim Cook, along with Apple’s engineers and designers, are busy looking around at other companies’ promising products that don’t quite meet up to Apple’s high standards. Apple doesn’t have to create new categories to change the world — it just has to build products that people love and then convince us that we can’t live without them.

Android Apps Closing Rapidly the Revenue Gap with iOS Apps

An interview of Craig Palli from Fiksu provided some fascinating figures about how the value of iPad, iPhone and Android smartphone application users is changing as the device owner profiles shift and usage patterns evolve. Fiksu is one of the best-known mobile advertising specialists, with a client roster including brands like VH1 and Hearst Magazines. One of the most interesting trends popping up in the conversation with Mr. Palli was that two years ago, an iPhone user was worth more than twice as much as an Android smartphone user in revenue generation. A year ago, that lead shrunk to iPhone users being 50% more valuable – and right now, if the app is designed specifically for Android and some segmentation is considered, the revenue generation potential is the same.

This change coincides with the leading Android smartphone vendor, Samsung, pulling decisively ahead of Apple in smartphone volume sales and Google‘s attempts to improve the Google Play user experience in order to attract more high-value customers. As the Android market has consolidated around Samsung, the splintering problem that has been plaguing the ecosystem has shrunk.

Interestingly, the revenue generation gap between iPad and iPhone has been narrowing as well. According to Fiksu’s statistics, iPad owner is currently worth 20% more than an iPhone owner. In some app categories, iPad and iPhone now generate the same amount of revenue per user; casino applications being one prominent example.

Fiksu states that the average time consumers owning a smartphone spend on mobile apps daily is now hitting a remarkable two hours a day, up 50% over just one year. This could go some way towards explaining the harrowing recent declines in video game software sales and prime time network television audiences. Having achieved critical mass in their home countries, mobile brands are increasingly exporting their apps to new countries, according to Mr. Palli. The big Asian players such as RenRen, Tencent, DeNA, Gree and others are investing significantly in the US markets.

The rise of Android application market value relative to iOS app market is setting up a fascinating clash between the Japanese/Korean app vendors that dominate the Android landscape and the US/EU vendors that dominate the iOS market. The ones that cross over more effectively and rapidly to their secondary mobile OS may well be the app market leaders circa 2015.

Promoting developer ecosystem in India, says Microsoft

Bangalore, March 18 (IANS) Global software major Microsoft is promoting a developer ecosystem by empowering its about 1,000 independent software vendors (ISVs) in India with tools, technologies and training to compete in a global marketplace.

"We have played a big role in developing high-end skills of ISVs, IT professionals and students. As a result, our partners have greater opportunity to create modern apps (applications) connected to cloud services that make information more accessible to users on any device at any time," Microsoft India general manager Joseph Landes said at a technology event here.

The software behemoth is making significant investments in working with 1.2-million developers worldwide to create the second-largest developer ecosystem for developing apps on its latest platforms -- Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Office 2013, Office 365 and Windows Azure.

"Our aim is to provide the developer community with a supportive environment to drive path-breaking innovation globally on our range of platforms, which open up countless opportunities to shape the app ecosystem across multiple devices, giving developers the chance to maximise their revenues," Landes at the Indian subsidiary's 'TechEd 2013' premier tech event.

Other initiatives like 'Tech Days,' the 'I Unlock Joy,' 'Mobile Acceleration Week' and the first-ever women app developers event in India highlighted the company's commitment towards the developer community to lead innovation by building applications on Windows platform.
The two-day event evoked huge response from IT students and budding entrepreneurs to keynote speeches, demos and workshops from experts and helped them catalyse their business potential.
With the employability rate in the Indian IT services sector falling three times to 16.4 percent from 29.4 percent in 2012, there is a need for educational institutions to produce industry-ready candidates, which otherwise may become an impediment for growth for want of trained manpower for product-based and research-based projects.
"As the Indian IT industry matures, it is imperative that skill building should be the focus area for progressive growth and to bridge the opportunity divide amongst youth in India," Landes said in his address.
On the eve of Windows 8 launch Oct 26, 2012, Microsoft hosted Windows AppFest in this tech hub and made history by setting a world record for the 'most participants in a software development marathon in one location'.
The record has been set at 2,567 developers coding non-stop for 18 hours.
Developers from India and overseas participated in the event for building, designing and testing apps for the Windows platform with global mentoring and technical resources at hand.

Social networking app Path adds private messaging, stickers in v3.0 update

Path v3.0 for iOS and Android brings two new features to the popular social networking app - private messaging and stickers.
Private messaging is exactly what the name suggests, letting users communicate with each others privately using text, location (e.g. letting someone know where you are), photos, videos, the newly introduced stickers and more. Users can also leave each other a voice memo using private messaging. As Private messaging can be one-on-one or in a group of up to 15 people.
Path calls stickers fun pieces of art that can be used for expressing yourself in public or private messaging. Path has bundled a bunch of stickers like 'The Best', 'The Worst', 'Nom Nom' and others. Users can buy additional stickers from the newly introduced store. 'The Shop' also features additional photo filters that users can pick up at a cost.
Path founder Dave Morin told The Next Web, that it is on track to introduce a subscription-based in the first half of 2013, but did not offer any details on what additional features the service will offer to paying customers.
Path 3 is available in 19 languages for iOS and Android devices from the App Store and Google Play.
Path v3.0 for iOS and Android release notes

• Messaging - The fast, fun, and private way to message your family and friends one-to-one or in small groups. Use your words, your voice, your location, media, stickers, and more!
• Stickers - Say more in a single tap with handcrafted stickers from some of our favorite artists.
• The Shop - The hand curated place to find premium photo filters and handcrafted stickers to make your Path experience more you.
• Performance improvements.
• Bug fixes.

Facebook appoints former Genentech executive Desmond-Hellmann

Facebook Inc appointed a former Genentech executive to its board of directors on Wednesday, the social networking company's latest move to expand its boardroom following its initial public offering last May.Susan Desmond-Hellmann, the Chancellor of the University of California, San Francisco, becomes Facebook's ninth director and the second woman on its board.
A former president of product development at Roche Group-owned biotechnology company Genentech, Desmond-Hellmann also sits on the board of directors of Procter & Gamble Co.
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg cited Desmond-Hellmann's experience shaping public policy and operating public companies.
Desmond-Hellmann will serve on the board effective immediately, but will have to be elected by shareholders, along with the other Facebook directors, at the company's annual meeting in June.
Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg joined Facebook's board in June 2012, a month after the company's rocky initial public offering.
The world's No. 1 online social network became the only U.S. company to debut with a market value of more than $100 billion. But its shares plunged more than 50 percent in the months after the IPO on concerns about its long-term money making prospects.
Facebook shares have rebounded roughly 56 percent from their 52-week low, finishing Wednesday's regular trading session at $27.45.

Facebook to keep its users engaged

Facebook plans to announce on Thursday a substantial redesign of its News Feed - a makeover aimed at both keeping users glued to the social network and luring more advertising dollars.Company executives have broadly said they want to make the News Feed, the first page every user sees upon logging in, more relevant.
In an earnings call with Wall Street analysts in January, the company's founder and chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, offered some hints of what a reimagined News Feed might look like: bigger photos, more videos and "more engaging ads."
"Advertisers want really rich things like big pictures or videos, and we haven't provided those things historically," Mr. Zuckerberg said at the time.
Facebook declined to comment on the redesign, which is scheduled to be announced at its headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. But the adjustments will reflect the tricky balance Facebook faces now that it is a public company to keep drawing users to the site while not alienating them with more finely targeted advertisements, which is Facebook's chief source of revenue.
The pressures are acute, given Facebook's still anemic performance on Wall Street. It came out of the box last May with an extraordinarily high valuation of $38 a share, which slumped to half last fall, and has remained for the most part under $30.
"They have to walk a fine line between the user's needs and advertiser's needs," said Karsten Weide, an analyst with IDC. The user, he went on, could use "better, more intelligent filtering," while the advertiser needs "smarter, more flexible advertising formats."
Facebook's challenge is all the more important considering some warning signs of boredom.
Earlier this year came worrying news that 61 percent of users had taken a sabbatical from the social network, sometimes for months at a time; boredom was one of the reasons cited in the survey by the Pew Research Center. Even worse, 20 percent had deactivated their account entirely.
Advertisers have for years wanted to find new ways to show targeted ads to Facebook users, based on the vast data that the social network has about them. But Facebook has at times run into problems with new advertising products.
For example, last year, just before it filed for its public offering, it began to show advertisements in the News Feed, largely in the form of the controversial Sponsored Stories, where one user's "like" for a brand was deployed to market that brand to a user's Facebook "friends."
Last fall, again in an effort to drum up new revenue, Facebook offered brands and individual users a way to pay Facebook to promote a particular post on the News Feed. Those who did not pay could expect an average post to reach about a third of their Facebook friends, according to the company's own analysis. That immediately drew criticism, including from Mark Cuban, a technology investor and owner of the Mavericks basketball team, who wrote in an angry post on his blog (http://blogmaverick.com/) last fall that Facebook had made it too expensive for a brand like the Mavericks to reach its fans.
This week, responding to fresh criticism, Facebook said it did not "artificially suppress" content to feature paid posts.
The social networking giant has tweaked its News Feed over the years. Since 2009, Facebook has filtered what every user sees on the News Feed, based on the wisdom of its proprietary algorithm, called Edge Rank, which determines which posts a particular user is likely to find most interesting.
In 2010, it allowed users to chronologically filter the contents of the scrolling feed. The next year, it introduced a separate right-hand-side ticker - Twitter-esque, some said - of everything that every "friend" and brand page had posted.
At the heart of Facebook's business is to hold the attention of its one billion users worldwide. That means keeping them entertained and on the site as frequently as possible.
It seems to be losing this battle somewhat with its youngest users. Teenagers are increasingly turning to other services, including Instagram, which Facebook now owns, so much so that David A. Ebersman, the company's chief financial officer, said last week in a conference sponsored by Morgan Stanley that Facebook considered the photo-sharing site a competitor.
Instagram is not its only worry. Americans are increasingly turning to Pinterest to share shopping desires with their friends; Tumblr is a popular forum for self-expression, and Twitter continues to grow as a platform for news and entertainment.
Many people may no longer know all their "friends" on Facebook, which makes it difficult for the company to stuff the News Feed with posts that users will find relevant. Then there are ads.
"The bigger opportunity for Facebook is in cracking the relevance nut," said Travis Katz, founder of an online travel service, Gogobot, that is integrated with Facebook.
"The noise-to-signal ratio in the feed has increased dramatically," he added, "to the point where I often miss stories that were important to me."
At the Morgan Stanley conference, Mr. Ebersman said the company's filtering algorithms get "smarter" the more a Facebook user clicks on what is displayed on the News Feed.
"So of all the information we are able to show you on Facebook, we are trying algorithmically to pick out which pieces of content to put at the top of your News Feed because we think you will find them most engaging."

Facebook exec's new book urges women to 'Lean In'

For a book that has yet to be released, Sheryl Sandberg's "Lean In" - part feminist manifesto, part how-to career guide - has got a lot of people talking.In the weeks leading up to the book's March 11 release, pundits and press hounds have been debating its merits. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd called Sandberg a "PowerPoint Pied Piper in Prada ankle boots," and countless bloggers have suggested that Facebook's chief operating officer is the wrong person to lead a women's movement.
"Most of the criticism has to do with the position she is coming from," said Susan Yohn, professor and chair of Hofstra University's history department.
Sandberg, 43, hopes that her message of empowerment won't be obscured by the lofty pedestal from which she speaks. But is the multi-millionaire with two Harvard degrees too rich to offer advice? Too successful? Does her blueprint for success ignore the plight of poor and working-class women? Does the book's very premise blame women for not rising to top corporate positions at the same rate as men?
And just how big is her house?
The questions keep coming largely because few people have actually read the book. But in it, Sandberg seems to have foreseen much of the criticism. The book acknowledges that critics might discount her feminist call to action with an easy-for-her-to-say shrug.
"My hope is that my message will be judged on its merits," she writes in the preamble.
Sandberg recognizes that parts of the book are targeted toward women who are in a position to make decisions about their careers. Still, she writes, "we can't avoid this conversation. This issue transcends all of us. The time is long overdue to encourage more women to dream the possible dream and encourage more men to support women in the workforce and in the home."
Published by Alfred A. Knopf Inc., "Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead" will be launched Thursday with a reception in New York City hosted by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Arianna Huffington.
It's true that Sandberg is wealthy. She also has a supportive husband. Mark Zuckerberg is her boss. And, yes, her home is a 9,000 square-foot mansion in Menlo Park, Calif.
But as a woman in Silicon Valley, Sandberg hasn't exactly had it easy, and her tale shows she's no armchair activist. After all, not many women would march into their boss' office and demand special parking for expectant mothers. But Sandberg did just that when she worked at Google. Company founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin complied.
After Sandberg moved to Facebook in 2008, she became even more outspoken on the issues facing women in corporate America. At a time when other executives, male or female, have largely stayed quiet, Sandberg has delivered speeches on topics such as "Why we have too few women leaders."
And she's no workaholic. In an age of endless work hours, Sandberg is famous for leaving the office at 5:30 to spend time with her family. She does admit, however, to picking up work once her kids have gone to bed.
Of the many inspirational slogans that hang on Facebook's walls, her favorite asks "What would you do if you weren't afraid?" "Lean In" is about pushing past fear.
"Fear is at the root of so many of the barriers that women face," she writes. "Fear of not being liked. Fear of making the wrong choice. Fear of drawing negative attention. Fear of overreaching. Fear of being judged. Fear of failure. And the holy trinity of fear: the fear of being a bad mother/wife/daughter."
Sandberg peppers the book with studies, reports and personal anecdotes to back up her premise - that for reasons both in and out of their control, there are fewer woman leaders than men in the business world and beyond. For example, the Fortune 500 has only 21 female CEOs. Sandberg is among the 14 percent of women who hold executive officer positions and the 16 percent of women who hold board of director seats, according to Catalyst.org.
For minority women, the numbers are even bleaker. Women of color, she writes, hold just 4 percent of top corporate jobs and 3 percent of board seats.
"A truly equal world would be one where women ran half our countries and companies and men ran half our homes. I believe that this would be a better world," she writes. "The laws of economics and many studies of diversity tell us that if we tapped the entire pool of human resources and talent, our collective performance would improve."
At less than 200 pages, plus a good chunk of footnotes, "Lean In" does not purport to be the end-all solution to inequality. It deals with issues Sandberg sees as in women's control.
"Don't leave before you leave" is one of her catchphrases, aimed at successful women who gradually drop out of the workforce in anticipation of children they may someday bear. "Make your partner a real partner" is another. She says everyone should encourage men to "lean in" at home by being equal partners in parenting and housework.
"Lean In" is, by and large, for women who are looking to climb the corporate ladder (which Sandberg calls a jungle gym), and ideally their male supporters. She hopes it's the start of a conversation. To that end, Sandberg plans to donate all of the proceeds to her newly minted nonprofit, LeanIn.org.
Sandberg's book shares personal details that reveal a fair share of stumbles and lesser-known tidbits. Did you know she was an aerobics instructor in the 1980s -big hair, silver leotard and all? The book paints a picture of an exceptionally successful woman who admits to lacking confidence at various points in her career.
Sandberg writes about the "ambition gap" between men and women in the workplace - that while men are expected to be driven, ambition in women can be seen as negative. She writes about parents' gender-based approaches to child rearing that teach girls to be "pretty like mommy" and boys "smart like daddy," as she's seen on baby onesies sold at Gymboree.
And she writes about "feeling like a fraud" - that insidious notion, felt largely by women but men as well, that success is due not to her own merit but to some sort of gross oversight or accident.
Sandberg's book comes half a century after Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique," which identified "the problem that has no name" among largely white, suburban housewives who felt unhappy and unfulfilled in their roles at home. Friedan, too, was criticized for focusing on a privileged swath of womankind.
"Lean In" is a call to action to make it easier for women to become leaders. It's a call for women to take space at the table, raise their hands, speak up and step up. It's a personal account of a woman who, through a mix of talent, luck and ambition, but also with plenty of internal and external obstacles along the way, managed to do that.
Feminist icon Gloria Steinem, whom Sandberg thanks in the acknowledgements and cites as inspiration, praises "Lean In" on her Facebook page, saying that it "addresses internalized oppression, opposes external barriers that create it and urges women to support each other to fight both."
She adds that even the book's critics "are making a deep if inadvertent point: Only in women is success viewed as a barrier to giving advice."

Amid chatter of 'Facebook fatigue', a new look News Feed on the way

Amid chatter of "Facebook fatigue," real or imagined, the world's biggest social networking company is getting ready to unveil a new version of News Feed, the flow of status updates, photos and advertisements its users see on the site.

Facebook Inc. is hosting an event at its Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters on Thursday to show off "a new look for News Feed." The company offered no other details on what the changes will be in an invitation sent to journalists and bloggers. It will be Facebook's second staged event at its headquarters since the company's May initial public offering. The company unveiled a search feature at the first one in January.

If past site changes are any indication, the News Feed tweaks may take some getting used to and will likely lead to user grumbles. Facebook users often complain about changes to the site, whether it's cosmetic tweaks or the overhaul of privacy settings.

Gartner analyst Brian Blau says one change he'd like to see from Facebook as a user is the ability to control how much he's seeing from the businesses and other non-friend accounts he follows. Currently users can only tweak how much they see from their friends, not from businesses they follow.

"We have a 'like' but there is no degree of 'like,' it's binary," he says. "I need a 'like plus' or even a 'like minus.'"

The event comes a month after a Pew study reported that many Facebook users take a break from the site for weeks at a time. The report, from the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project, found that some 61 percent of Facebook users had taken a hiatus for reasons that range from boredom to too much irrelevant information to Lent.

Overall, though, Facebook's user base is growing, especially on mobile devices. At last count it had 1.06 billion active monthly accounts. The number of people who access Facebook daily is also on the rise.

That said, even the company has acknowledged that some of its users, especially the younger ones, are migrating to substitutes, but so far this has not meant an overall decline in user numbers.

"For example, we believe that some of our users have reduced their engagement with Facebook in favor of increased engagement with other products and services such as Instagram," the company said last month in the "risk factors" of its annual 10-K filing. "In the event that our users increasingly engage with other products and services, we may experience a decline in user engagement and our business could be harmed."

Facebook owns Instagram, but so far it has not shown any ads on it.

Samsung plans 4G phones for 5.5k

Mukesh Ambani's Reliance IndustriesBSE 1.03 % (RIL) is said to have finalized Samsung as a partner to source the Korean conglomerate's long-term evolution (LTE) technology platform for its much-talked about bundled data & voice services over high speed 4G networks across the country.


Samsung has agreed to offer entry-level 4G smartphones at a little over $100 (about Rs 5,500) for use with RIL's voice and high-speed internet services, said a source close to the deal.

The game-changer deal that is set to shake up the Indian telecommunications market is not just restricted to Samsung's technology but goes far beyond as Samsung has agreed to offer entry-level 4G smartphones at a little over $100 (about Rs 5,500) for use with RIL's voice and high-speed internet services, said a source close to the deal. A 3G-enabled Samsung phone can be bought for around the same price today. The entry-level smartphones are likely to be sold with data packages starting at as low as Rs 100, said the source, adding that even high-end smartphones will be made available at minimum down-payments and the equated monthly installments (EMIs) will be incorporated in subsequent bills at a 0% interest rate.

RILBSE 1.03 % is planning a soft launch in Mumbai and Delhi by mid-2013 and a formal launch is set to be announced later this year, most likely on December 28, the birth anniversary of Reliance founder, late Dhirubhai Ambani.

Both RIL & Samsung declined to comment on the deal.

However, sources in the know told TOI: "Samsung will not be just another vendor to RIL supplying handsets as it was when Reliance Infocomm was launched in 2002. They are seeking a much broader role. A possible joint venture could also be in the offering." Reliance itself is not averse to the joint venture model these days, unlike in the past.

For Samsung, the JV with RIL will not only pave the way to capture the third biggest mobile market in the world but also allow it to use the India launch to showcase it in the US market as well where it wants to give Apple a tough fight, said sources. Samsung has already scored in the Indian market by taking the first-mover advantage by bagging the RIL deal over its rivals Huawei and Alcatel-Lucent, among others.

RIL, which is known for pushing vendors to the wall when it comes to squeezing out margins, apparently hasn't been able to replicate it with Samsung this time as it did a decade ago. The reason: Samsung, which entered the mobile phone business in 1997, is now three times bigger than RIL in terms of sales and four times larger in terms of net profits and is seen to be giving a tough fight to Apple in many markets with its smartphones and tablets.

"We went to the Korean giants before the Reliance Infocomm launch to manufacture handsets at $100, a price never heard of then in early 2000. They didn't entertain us then. We came back to our drawing boards, did an in-house research and went back to them showing how handsets can be manufactured within $100 and told them if they don't manufacture handsets for us at that price, we will do it on our own. In the process, they will miss out on a billion-dollar opportunity. That's when they gave in," admitted a Reliance insider on how companies like LG and Samsung had fallen in line to manufacture handsets for RIL during the Infocomm launch 2002.

Health Benefits of Sleeping Naked

Shed those inhibitions, this is no time to be embarrassed. While some people may frown upon the idea of sleeping in the nude, keep an open mind as we discuss the benefits of sleeping in your birthday suit.

Natural pain reliever

Clothes restrict blood circulation, hence shedding that artificial skin is good for stimulating the same. It helps in eliminating tension and discomfort from the abdominal viscera nerve region and even relieves waist pain. Those tight elastic bands do little good and hence should be loosened for a sound comfortable sleep. Medical research have shown that sleeping naked is good for those suffering from insomnia as it has a comforting effect on them.

Sebaceous glands stay happy

Sleep is not a complete no-activity state. The organs are at work and so to improve their productivity it is important that we don’t put pressure on them by way of clothes. It is said that bare skin absorbs more nutrients than with clothes on. Going naked will streamline and accelerate the repair process of the skin. A healthy, uninterrupted air flow will help in the process. Sleeping naked allows the sebaceous glands to do their work best, which is sebum discharge and regeneration. This in turn helps in improving the metabolic rate of the body.

Protects privates

That wet feeling can be a little discomforting in women and can increase the possibility of infection. Sleeping naked increases ventilation to these areas makes them comfortable and keeps them dry, thereby avoiding chances of fungal infection. For men, it has also been found to increase fertility by keeping the testes at adequate temperature and retaining the sperm quality too.

Enhanced lifestyle

Tired or feeling uneasy? Try going naked! A hectic day at work at times makes it hard to get that sound sleep that we cherish. However, sleeping naked can ease the tension and help in giving you that adequate dose of sleep. It relaxes the body and helps in a comfortable sleep. As a result, people wake up refreshed and remain energetic all day along.
How to improve sleeping pattern

Try and take a bath to be germ free. Make sure that the temperature and humidity in the bedroom is adequate, in order to avoid catching a cold. Transform that bed into something fluffy so that the drape feels good on your bare skin.
Though considered a taboo by some, the requirement of sleeping naked can be talked out with your spouse. People may ridicule the idea, but trust me they will soon be taking cues to get that comfort sleeping.