Redefining Identity: A wonderful documentary about software and technology in Lahore, Pakistan

I just received a message from the folks over at FiveRivers who have produced this wonderful documentary on innovation & entrepreneurship in Pakistan. It’s really worth watching, and I love the underlying message: the notion that we can redefine our perceived identity with our hard work and achievements. I can certainly sign up for that, and I’m sure so would you!

Here’s a bit more about the documentary:

“Redefining Identity takes a look at the amazing entrepreneurship and creativity that is being unleashed in Pakistan, where young technologists are coming together to lead a very real revolution that has powerful social, economic and technological implications. In doing so, these young Pakistanis are also transforming Pakistan’s perception in the minds of millions of people all around the world who use their products and appreciate their creativity. This 10 minute film is a rare glimpse into the reality of today’s Pakistan. Anyone with an interest in technology and startups in general, or Pakistan specifically, will find it a very worthwhile watch.”

There are quite a few subtleties to catch in this video… listen for that line about not going by obviously assumed western names when fielding support calls. Sound familiar Plenty of other one liners embedded in here that make this a fairly engrossing and exciting watch. If you want to discuss the documentary, you are welcome to do so here, and also at the “Redefining Identity” facebook page, here.

If you are a software entrepreneur or involved in the tech industry in Pakistan, this video would be a great asset to share with partners, potential customers and others who might not have a clear view about what tech companies in Pakistan are truly like, and the quantum of innovation now being unleashed in Pakistan. I really see this film as a resource that everyone involved with tech in Pakistan should use actively, and hope there will be many more similar efforts in future.

Without further ado, here is the courtesy YouTube - be SURE to watch this in full screen mode - it’s definitely worth it:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhynv21jSkI

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Pepper.pk's Ninja Fruit Bash is their third World #1 App on BlackBerry AppWorld in 2011

Lahore-based Pepper.pk has been in the news quite a bit recently and that’s only because they’ve been doing newsworthy things! They’ve just completed a previously unparalleled feat – their third application, Ninja Fruit Bash, has hit World #1 on Blackberry Appworld. With over 25,000 applications now listed on the marketplace, this is no small achievement if you accomplish it just once. But three times, and that too, within the span of a single year, is just unbelievable.

The Express Tribune has covered their achievement here. And you can learn more about the application at this Pepper.pk micro-site focused on the game. Once can see that the finesse in these apps is continuing to become more and more pronounced. Some of Pepper.pk’s earlier games, like Cricket for the iPhone, got straight into gameplay. But now, they’ve taken the time and invested the effort in doing custom art work to walk gamers through the story behind the game. With some cool opening sequences, an eye-catching micro-site and good gameplay, they’re making waves and continuing the path towards becoming a really top tier product company. We will continue to keep a close watch on Pepper.pk’s future endeavours and wish them the best of luck.

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Another Pepper.pk app hits the Global #1 on Appworld!

Ok, I’m starting to sound like a broken record here, but when the news is this awesome, I hardly mind! You may remember that a few months ago we covered Lahore-based Pepper.pk’s Photo Editor application which had made it to World #1 on Blackberry Appworld. Well, they’ve done it again, and this time with a different app, called LED Notifier. How awesome is that?

There are a number of companies in our local industry doing excellent application development for mobile platforms. Some of these are gaming outfits like TinTash and GenITeam, while others are more generally focused, such as TkXel. Pepper.pk’s string of hits – which by the way are not restricted just to World #1 on Blackberry Appworld – but include other honours, such as placement on Handango’s Top 10 list, being picked as a Blackberry Regional Selection, producing a World #4 iTunes utility and much else.

This news has been covered widely and you can read about it over at My Pakistan, GadgetGizmodo, P@kBytes, SizzledCore and numerous other places.

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Participants listening to a presentation at the Gaming and Animation Conference in Karachi (Photo credit: PSEB)

Pakistani game developers are increasingly in the news. It seems that over the past couple of years, an entire sub-industry has been created out of thin air. Given the political and economic context, this is nothing short of remarkable. Prior to the new all-star lineup featuring companies such as Mindstorm Studios, Pepper.pk, TinTash, Tkxel and GenITeam there were only a handful of organizations focused on game or animation development. Systems Ltd.’s subsidiary, AniVista, was one, and then of course, a few digital media companies based in Pakistan, such as Post Amazers, that had fairly visible international success. Now it appears that gaming companies are here to stay and have most certainly grown beyond the very initial infancy stages.

Luckily, the PSEB (Pakistan Software Export Board) has put some wood behind this arrow and they’ve been trying to help these companies out in numerous ways. Recently, there was a Gaming and Animation conference held at the Indus Valley School of Art in Karachi at which the Managing Director of the PSEB, Imran Zia, spoke and expressed his interest in supporting game development companies in Pakistan. Soon after, the PSEB indicated that they would extend partial financial support to 12 Pakistani companies in their participation at the premier gaming conference, GameDevelopers Conference (GDC) in San Fransisco. This year, the event will be held between Feb 28th and March 4th at the Moscone Center and if I’m not mistaken, it’ll be the first time Pakistani companies are participating en masse. The hope is that this leads to joint development opportunities, ideas that might enrich our locally produced games and business development partnerships.

This area is particularly exciting because it allows our local software outfits to grow in a fundamentally scalable way, pursuing product development rather than service provision. We’ll be keeping an eye on how the Game development sector progresses with frequent updates. In the meanwhile, you can read more about PSEB’s support to local companies for the GDC, here.

Stay tuned for more!

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An Exciting Future! While we won't quite get all the way here in 2011, things will start falling into place.

I just have a good feeling about 2011. I think it’s going to be a great year. I’ve thought a lot about where the optimism is coming from, and I don’t think it’s all subjective. Very important things happened in 2010, such as the incredibly pivotal visit by the Chinese Premier to Pakistan, Pakistan’s establishment drawing a very clear line with respect to interests it is not willing to compromise, wonderful progress with important programs like the JF-17, the arrival of product-focused Pakistani software companies like Pepper.pk who “ruled the world” with their #1 BlackBerry application, the rapid implementation of That Coal projects under the able leadership of Dr. Samar Mubarakmand and much else.

And in addition to all these things there’s the visible progress one can see unfolding in our cities. For example, with a hundred kilometers of brand spanking new, 6-lane highways (The Ring Road) in Lahore, commuting across the city in 2010 was so much easier than in 2009. New services like Qubee, added to the competition on the broadband side and Pakistan’s cellular market continued to grow with near 100M cell phones now in use in the country. To put things in perspective, that’s more cell phones than the number of people living in the UK and Italy put together!

Also, in defence of my optimism, I have to say that I haven’t fared badly with my predictions in the past. That’s not to say I couldn’t be off for 2011, but here’s a glimpse into the past:

1. Evaluating TechLahore’s predictions for 2010

2. Evaluating TechLahore’s predictions for 2009

3. Evaluating TechLahore’s predictions for 2008

With that prelude, let’s get to it. Here is how I see 2011 unfolding:

Political Predictions

The parliament is not going anywhere. This PM may or may not last, but the Parliament is well on its way to completing its 5 years. I think it will navigate 2011 in tact. And if that happens, with less than a year to go in 2012, term completion will be well within sight and all but certain.

The Congress Government in India will continue to get less popular and Mr. Manmohan Singh’s “clean” image will become a thing of the past. Corruption is going to be a massive story for India in 2011.

Mr. Obama will see an increase in his popularity rating. It currently stands at -12 according to the Rasmussen Reports. We’ll see how he ends the year up in 2011, but my guess is he could be close to neutral territory. This improvement will come from the improvement in economic conditions in 2011, as well as a greater willingness to work with the Republicans in the House.

Security and the situation in Northwest Pakistan

2010 saw a 35% reduction in the number of terror attacks. 2011 will continue that trend. There will be a close to 25% further reduction in the number of terror attacks. The reach of these attacks will, for the most part, stay limited to the Northwest. The Pakistan Army will make moves in the NWA region, but these will not be in the form of a full-fledged onslaught at the scale of the Swat operation.

NATO will begin to significantly ease up on operations in Afghanistan. They will still be there at the end of 2011, but will no longer be looking to aggressively take on the Taliban. Most of the fights between the two parties will occur as the Taliban attack NATO convoys, posts or bases. NATO may retaliate, but will not run a strategic campaign of any significance. 2011 is the year that will see an increase in outreach to Taliban and the beginnings of negotiating at a post-NATO agreement. The biggest priority for the US will now be negotiating an exit for themselves and NATO which will allow them to claim a victory, even though the reality will be far from it.

2011 will see a reduction in the number of drone strikes in FATA, as compared to 2010.

Technology Predictions

Android will end 2011 as the dominant mobile platform. Apple will not be able to reverse the trend that began in 2010. I would predict that Android will go from its current 22.7% of the US smartphone market to close to 33%. Overall, while 30% of the current US population of cell phone users use smartphones, by the end of 2011, this 30% will grow to 45% at least. All these 2010  statistics are based on December estimates from Nielsen.

Tablets will be the major consumer device story in 2011. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. But non-Apple tablets will continue to increase their market share. Today, the iPad has 95% market share, but by the end of 2011, this will be reduced to 75%.

Mobile apps for phones and tablets will continue to attract more and more developer talent. I see 2011 ending with close to 700,000 apps available for all the major platforms. Currently, iOS and Android have about 400,000 apps between them and Blackberry probably another 12,000 or so. Windows Phone7 is so new, it hardly has any. By the end of 2011, you will likely see 400,000 iOS apps, 250,000 Android apps, 20,000 Blackberry apps and about 15,000 Phone7 apps. With tablet apps thrown in, this will get close to 700,000.

Pakistan’s software industry will see a good year. The momentum on the mobile development side will continue, and I see most of the established companies growing their teams and bringing on more talent. There are few metrics available to truly judge this, but we’ll pick a few leading illustrative cases in December 2011 and see how we fared.

Apple will launch the iPhone 5 this year, but it will be a defensive, bug fix kind of product rather than anything particularly innovative to help it leapfrog the numerous Windows Phone7 and Android devices hitting the market on a monthly basis. The biggest issue with the iPhone 4 was the antenna, and so the iPhone 5 will revolve around better antenna performance. Apple will do the usual dog and pony and claim that the iPhone 5 has the best designed antenna of any phone ever made etc. But in the end, the iPhone 5 will not succeed in stemming the tide of Android and Windows Phone7 phones. The important thing here is that 2011 will be the year of the commoditization of the Smartphone. There will be so many makes and models, with so many different OS choices that will offer basically equivalent functionality, that the market will start to make a shift towards the less expensive devices (i.e. Android).

We’ll learn a lot more about Windows 8 this year. While the central themes will be integration with the Cloud, make no mistake, this will be an honest-to-goodness PC operating system. It will showcase better visualization, add support for bigger, faster GPUs and will standardize 64-bit. We may see the first 128-bit mainstream OS among Windows 8′s several SKUs. No release in 2011 though, just more specificity on what the product will be and perhaps an alpha/CTP.

Virtualization, which has commanded the enterprise IT airwaves since 2007-8, will begin to take a back seat to other trends. As services that were once virtualized start to migrate to the cloud and outsource PaaS infrastructures, the value of virtualization in the enterprise will diminish somewhat. Obviously, the level of adoption is tremendous so it will take some time to happen, but 2011 will be the turning point and this will become evident with the decreased “cool” factor and reduced coverage. On the desktop side, inexpensive PCs, numerous new form factors like tablets with native apps and cell phones equipped with projectors etc. will begin to chip away at the desktop virtualization value proposition. I don’t think this shift will be visible enough to most to cause a major reduction in, say, VMware’s stock price (hovering around $90 right now).

Wateen and/or Warid will cease to be an independent operation in Pakistan. Their poor execution has cost them dearly. If it weren’t for the seemingly limitless capital available to them, they wouldn’t have survived as long as they have. They will likely be acquired by another major operator in the Pakistani market.

Netsol stock on the NASDAQ (NTWK) will have a good year, with at least one close above $2.25 during the year.

Financial and Economic Predictions

Pakistan’s GDP will grow by at least 4%, likely 4.3%. The current estimates of two point some are utter nonsense.

The KSE will continue to rise. I expect it to benefit from the improvement in the global economic environment and the greater clarity in the regional strategic equation. I’m projecting an at-least 15% rise, but it could be as high as 25%. If it comes close to the latter, then we may approach KSE’s all-time highs in the 16K range!

The US markets, the Dow and Nasdaq, will see an increase of about 8-10%.

Job data will be watched super closely in the US. There will be some improvement this year, but I don’t think it will be very rapid. My estimate would say a .4-.6% reduction in the unemployment rate by the end of 2011.

The housing market in the US will begin a tedious, painful and slow journey to recovery. With properties having dropped anywhere from 30-70% over the last couple of years, this year will probably see a 5% increase in average home prices.

The Pakistani Rs. will see some weakening this year. It fought off pessimistic estimates of a drop to 100/$ but in 2011 we may see a 5% or so weakening with respect to the US$.

Real estate prices will start to improve in Pakistan in 2011. More importantly, the number of deals being done will go up. I will use the index price of a 1 kanal plot in Gulberg, Lahore as an index when we revisit this in December 2011. The market price is currently at 1 crore 50 lacs.

And there we have it. I’ll revisit some of these through the year as they prove to be false or true. Stay tuned, and more importantly, have an absolutely amazing 2011! Happy New Year!

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The Karachi Stock Exchange was a star performer this year, showing near 20% gains, twice the Nasdaq and Dow!

Back in December 2009, I had come up with a list of predictions for 2010. I may have gotten a little lucky this year, because many of these predictions were spot-on to an uncanny degree. Here’s how I fared:

Political predictions

I don’t see Asif Zardari making it through 2010. I think he will be deposed as President.

Couldn’t have been more wrong on this. And for the second time in a row. El Presidente has shown himself to be a better survivor than I am a Futurist!

Though many political pundits talk about it, I don’t believe there will be mid-term elections this year. Whatever changes occur will be with individual and will not displace the entire post-2008 election scenario.

And thus it happened. No mid term elections, even though last year many pundits were proclaiming that this was a near guaranteed event.

Gen. Kiyani is scheduled to retire close to the end of the year, but I believe he will receive a rare 1 year extension of service. However it happens, I don’t believe we will see him retiring this year.

This happened too. Though the extension he received was even more generous than I had thought. Gen. sahib will be at the helm of affairs for another 3 years.

The surge in Afghanistan will not work. If not by the end of 2010 then in 2011 the US will have to sit and talk to elements of the Taliban. The commitment of these forces will prove politically costly for President Obama.

Has this not happened to the letter? Now we have news of a Taliban office opening in Turkey which Mr. Karzai has already supported and in fact requested the Turkish Government for. And Pakistan has come out in support of this initiative as well. We all know that the discussions with the Taliban have been initiated by NATO and not from a position of strength.

Security and the situation in northwest Pakistan

As I had mentioned last year, the Army certainly had an operation up their sleeve. What happened in Swat and South Waziristan was the result of meticulous planning that had occured for months prior to the execution of either campaign. I believe these campaigns will begin to bear fruit in 2010 in the form of a reduction in security incidents in Pakistan. While there will be a definite tapering off in 2010, the nihilists will continue to make their presence felt now and then. Unfortunately this is a process which will take a little bit of time to completely unfold. But 2010 will inshaAllah be more secure than 2009 and quite measurably so.

There was a 35%  reduction in the number of terrorist attacks in Pakistan in 2010, as compared to 2009. The number of people who perished in these attacks was roughly the same, but that was due mainly to the terrorists no longer having the reach they once did. The number of attacks in major cities was also markedly reduced. As I said, the process of securing Pakistan in light of what is going on in Afghanistan will take some time, but certainly, 2010 was an improvement.

The military will continue significant presence in Swat, Waziristan and will expand into other tribal agencies, expanding the writ of the government in an area that was always free of federal or provincial law enforcement since 1947. The action being conducted in these areas is certainly against the foreign nihilists who have taken refuge there and those who would seek to support them, but it also marks an expansion of writ into areas where it never existed previously (by design and by a 1947 era agreement which has clearly outlived its relevance).

The gorgeous Pakistan-China Joint Fighter (JF-17) wowed crowds at Farnborough and Zhuhai

In fact, the only agency where the Army has not entered in force is North Waziristan. And there’s a lot behind that, so I’ll avoid the urge to take that segue. The homes of Taliban terrorists have been converted to Girls’ Schools in the FATA area and the writ of the Government has been extended to areas that no central government has ever controlled in hundreds of years.

Pakistan will continue to implement its strategic weapons programs and reap the fruits of investment in tactical weapons development. In addition to the first JF-17 squadron being weaponized and fully operationalized, we will see the arrival of F-16 Block 52 (Yes, there will be no last minute ‘hitches’), additional Saab Eireye AWACS aircraft, significant progress on the FC-20 fighter program, new air-to-air weapons such as the AMRAAM, and air to ground munitions and the Sniper targeting pod. In addition, the missile program will continue at full speed and more details will emerge regarding the 7,000km range Taimur ICBM. Pakistan will, however, not make any official announcements concerning this system. The much delayed Pakistan Navy next generation submarine deal will be finalized – there is a German vs. French situation going on at the moment but this will succesfully be navigated and a firm deal will take shape in 2010.

It is absolutely irrefutable that Pakistan has made tremendous strides forward in national defence. The only item from the list above that did not materialize was the Sub deal with Germany and/or France. In stead, we know hear that the PN is evaluating Chinese submarines. There are even rumours that the Chinese – in addition to providing a diesel fleet – may also lease a nuclear submarine to Pakistan (an SSGN). Too little is known about this thus far to elucidate much further, but things are definitely in the works.

As for the Taimur ICBM, piece parts have begun to fall into place. The most recent Hatf-V tests in December were rumoured to have included a MIRV (Multiple Re-entry Vehicles) warhead, which goes hand in hand with effective ICBM technology.

In addition to the list above, the Pakistan Air force also took delivery of Iluyshin air-to-air refuellers, Chinese AWACS, in addition to the Swedish Erieye aircraft and the SD-10 Beyond Visual Range Air to Air missile made significant progress in its SD-10B incarnation. The JF-17s will be armed with SD-10As for now as the standard BVR weapon, soon to be upgraded to the B model.

The F-16 Bl 52s were delivered on time, the JF-17 squadron is impressing people within the country as well as without. They participated in a static display at one of the world’s most famous airshows at Farnborough, in the UK, and then wowed crowds at China’s largest air event in Zhuhai.

Technology Predictions

There will be a near-breakout level of success with a Pakistani based mobile software company. At least one company will claim 250K users for its mobile products by the end of 2010. It is very likely that two will.

Pepper.pk announced that they have over 1 million users using their software products, but what’s more, Pepper’s Photo Editor software for the Blackberry made it to World #1 on AppWorld. So not only was there a breakout success, Pakistanis were literally on top of the world as far as this area of technology is concerned. I’ve never been happier at being right about something! More great things will come from Pepper and many other Pakistani technology startups in 2011 inshaAllah.

Netsol will see its fortunes improve in 2010 from a share price perspective. Hovering now at around $1, they can expect to be at least 25% better off by the end of the year.

Netsol fared even better! They are ending the year almost 50% up, at 1.50. They traded as high as $2 in 2010!

2010 is going to be a really bad year for Palm in terms of adoption of the Pre. I had predicted in 2008 that the Hail Mary piece of technology demo’d at CES fail for Palm. It has almost happened, but not quite completely yet. Palm will be relegated to a fourth tier player at best and 2010 will mark a signifciant reduction in its brand equity and influence.

I covered this one earlier this year… Palm got sold to HP and for not all that much. It’s Intellectual Property portfolio (patents) was probably worth 60-70% of the price paid by HP. So the operational parts of the business and the products themselves got valued at almost nothing. The good news is that HP will continue Palm products and may even be coming out with a Tablet leveraging the WebOS platform. Let’s see how it fares. Either way, let’s be clear that the Palm logos you see now don’t represent the good old Palm we knew and loved. That Palm is gone forever.

The Apple Tablet will be released and it will be a major hit. Even though I don’t like Apple, I will buy it  It will be iPhone OS based and will not have the full functionality of a Mac. eReader apps for it will be absolutely killer and very successful.

“Apple Tablet”… what a blast from the past! We all know now that the “Tablet” I spoke of in December 2009 ended up being the massively successful iPad. Yes, I bought it, and the product didn’t just achieve success, it launched a new market for similar devices. eReader apps were in fact a killer app, with Zinio launching digital magazine subscriptions straight to the iPad, and Apple itself showcasing iBooks as a major attraction. And aren’t you impressed that I even got the OS right? The iPad is indeed iOS based and not derived from OS X.

Windows Mobile 7 will come out in 2010 but will not be ‘all that’. It will take several updates and major enhancements to improve it. It will not reverse the market share trend away from Microsoft based phones that has taken hold over the last few years. Android will be the biggest gainer on the Smartphone side and will continue to whittle away at the Windows lead. Microsoft will undergo some pain in this area in 2010.

Yes, Phone7 did launch this year and thus far has sold about 1.5 million devices. In comparison, 300,000 Android devices are being sold every day. Phone7 may still impress, but certainly it hasn’t been a 2010 winner. Android, as I had predicted, went from 5% to 25% market share within a year! It is the biggest tech success story of 2010 in many ways.

ARM based devices and cheaper laptops will start to chip away at Netbook growth. There will at most 20% growth in the Atom based Netbook segment. A market which went from 0 units in 2007 to close to 40M units in 2009.

Netbooks slowed down immensely in 2010. In 2009, about 36.3 million units shipped and according to estimates in 2010 the number will be 40 million. As I had said, growth would be under 20%, and so it was. In 2011, this growth will decline even further.

Nokia is not being succesful in its move from basic and feature phones to truly smart phones. Their UI development and OS skills are not in the top 3 at all. I think this will be Nokia’s downfall… as smartphones become less expensive in markets outside the US, fewer people will choose Nokia as it will no longer provide the best experience primarily due to software reasons. From the low end, Samsung and LG feature phones will continue to become better thus providing competition to the traditional Nokia feature phone niche. All in all, 2010 will see other mobile companies grow at the expense of Nokia.

Wouldn’t change a thing even if I wrote the above earlier this morning instead of last year. As you can see from this IDC report, Nokia indeed lost market share. Samsung launched Bada, focused on foreign markets and the lower end of the smartphone cost spectrum. LG continues to grow. And from the top end you have the iPhone, Android and Windows Phone7 appearing as significant challengers to Nokia.

I was wrong on this one last year, and this is almost too easy for 2010, but then again – you never know! The Software Park Tower in Lahore will be completed and will become fully operational in 2010. It is going to be too expensive sq ft cost wise for most companies so move-ins will be slower than expected.

The building’s done, but rates are super expensive and I think move-ins will be few and far between until something is done to incent companies to move in.

Financial and Economic Predictions

The S&P will show a better than 7% gain in 2010. The Dow and NASDAQ will also come close to 10% gains.

The Dow was under 10,500 at the end of 2009, and is just under 11,600 now. That’s a better than 10% gain, as predicted. The NASDAQ went from just around 2,300 to over 2,650 at the end of 2010, that too is better than 10%. The S&P went from about 1125 to 1260 which handily beats the conservative 7% projection I made.

The recession in the US will be over officially – it technically is already – but you’ll hear common people saying it. There will be a net reduction in the unemployment rate in 2010.

Unemployment went down a mere .2% from Jan to December 2010, as shown here. There’s still a long way to go. The recession is technically over and the markets performed well, but until unemployment is reduced significantly, common people will continue to feel the pinch. I was only half right on this one.

The KSE, having recovered more rapidly than expected in 2009, will show more modest gains of in the 10-15% neighbourhood in 2010.

Well the KSE was the star of the year, showing better than a 20% gain and hitting a multi-year high. It did twice as well as the US markets. There’s something to be said for the fortitude of the Pakistani markets!

The Pakistani Rs. will continue to trade between 82 and 86 to the USD through the year.

Well, here’s the list of daily closes and we stayed under 87, so there you have it!

In summary, of 18 predictions, I was completely wrong on one (Asif Zardari) and half wrong on the US recession (ordinary people have yet to feel the effects of the technical data). Probably my most successful year of predictions thus far! And hopefully I haven’t jinxed myself by saying that.

So, stay tuned for the 2011 predictions. Watch this space!

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The World's Top Selling BlackBerry Application is Lahore-based Pepper.pk's Photo Editor

Just a couple of days ago we shared Pepper.pk’s amazing achievement; their Photo Editor application for Blackberry devices had made it to the Top 5 best selling BlackBerry applications on RIM’s AppWorld. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, I received an email from the Pepper.pk team who sounded on top of the world and could hardly contain their joy! Photo Editor is now the World’s #1 Best Selling BlackBerry Application across all categories. And it’s made in Pakistan! How sweet is that?

Pakistan’s IT industry has come a long, long way. The capabilities and skills of our companies are developing not just in the area of software engineering, but project management, product marketing and promotion. It’s no easy feat to leave HUGE names like Facebook and Monopoly, among dozens of others, behind! But what Pepper.pk’s laudable achievement proves is that not only are Pakistan based software companies ultra-competitive, they are, quite literally, second to none.

In December 2009 I had predicted that 2010 would be a breakout year for Pakistani mobile software companies. Specifically, I said that:

There will be a near-breakout level of success with a Pakistani based mobile software company. At least one company will claim 250K users for its mobile products by the end of 2010. It is very likely that two will.

Well, Pepper.pk has blown past those estimates, with well over a million users of their applications, and a Global Top #1 title for a major platform like the BlackBerry.

I wonder if someone at Adobe is listening, but they certainly need to. This young company has gone from obscurity to stardom in no time flat, and if you listen to them talk about their future plans, it doesn’t sound like they’ll be stopping to catch their breath anytime soon.

Long live innovation, and long live ambition!

The World's #1 Best Selling Top BlackBerry Application is Photo Editor from Pepper.pk!

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Pepper.pk's highly popular Photo Editing suite for Blackberry devices is a global hit!

Stop the presses, ’cause here’s a piece of mind blowingly awesome news. Pepper.pk, a Lahore-based software company we’ve covered in the past, has hit it out of the park with their latest Photo Editor suite for Blackberry devices. Photo Editor has made it to #5 on the list of Top Paid Blackberry Applications ON THE PLANET! Yes, and across ALL categories. This is a monumental achievement and represents probably the most successful consumer software application ever developed in Pakistan. To see Photo Editor listed right next to apps like Facebook, and realizing that every last line of code for it was written in good old Lahore, is just plain thrilling!

When I spoke to the Pepper.pk folks, they told me that this isn’t the first victory for their image editing suite. Just last month they were also a Regional Selection for the Blackberry Super App Challenge!

Here’s the Blackberry AppWorld front page as of a few minutes ago:

Photo Editor for Blackberry, conceived, designed and coded in Pakistan breaks into the Global Blackberry Top 5 Paid Apps list.

What’s more, the app is getting excellent reviews at the Appworld webstore. You can visit the storefront by clicking here. There are comments like:

Review: Does everything it says + does it very well. Crop b4 rotate – it’s quicker. Love this app. I am very pleased =] Thank You xx

Review: Easy-to-use, simple, and effective. Takes a normal picture and turns it into epic shots that you’ll want to share with everyone.

Review: Ok, this is a fantastic app! If you use you blackberry to take lots of pictures, this is the perfect app to quickly edit the pics on the fly.

And there’s tons more showering praise on the app for being simple to use, having a clean interface and doing exactly what the developer claims it will do.

If you support the Pakistan software industry and are happy to see young Pakistani software developers making such a great impact at a global scale, whip out your blackberry, head on over to Appworld and download Photo Editor.

Good going Pepper.pk team! We hope to see many more successes from you.

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Pepper.pk's Cricket World Championship 20 for the iPhone is a great way to enjoy a fast-paced 20-20 match on your iPhone!

Back in October last year, we covered Mindstorm Studio’s exciting new cricket game for the PC. It is clearly “best in class” when it comes to a cricketing experience on the PC. Well, another Pakistani mobile gaming company just jumped into the fray! Pepper.pk has come out with a fun-to-play cricket game for the iPhone. What is it with Pakistani software companies and Cricket games?!

Pepper launched Cricket World Championship in the last week of April 2010, and from what I’ve heard, it’s doing pretty well thus-far on the Appstore. In talking to their development team, I learned that the developers thought long and hard about how a Cricket experience should be delivered to a smaller platform like the iPhone. In the end, they went for the “Simpler is Better” approach. On an iPhone, you just want to have a simple, fun gaming experience. You don’t necessarily want to tweak fifty variables and ten controls before you even get to play a shot. And in that spirit, Cricket World Championship 20 just lets you swing away and have fun from the very get-go! There aren’t any lengthy learning curves to contend with.

The game setting is pretty simple. You are leading your team’s run chase in a Twenty-Twenty international. You select your team, then pick an opponent country and are in to bat! Facing a bowler who can bowl a variety of deliveries, straight-up, on the off, or on the leg, with variable speed, you get to pick which shot to play with a single touch. And if you time it  right, you score singles, doubles, triples, a boundary or knock the cover off the ball, all the way into the stands for a MAXIMUM!

Pepper's iPhone cricket game is connected to Facebook

The game is also socially connected, so you can post score updates and victory records on your Facebook profile right from the iPhone. Pepper’s Cricket website also has a global score board that tracks player achievements. Pepper has many frequent updates planned for this game. I hear the next version will make it to the Appstore later this month and will include a new animation sequences and other features. Updates, of course, will be free to folks that buy any version of the game once. Get it now, and forever be kept up to date!

This is an interesting little app, so when I hear more from Pepper, I’ll certainly pass the news along. For now, good luck to their game development team. We hope Pepper and other Pakistani software startups do really well in the months ahead.

To play Cricket World Championship 20, hop on over to the Appstore via iTunes, or your iPhone, and get yourself a copy. And in the meanwhile, I’m going to chase down that daunting total South Africa have put up for me… till next time!

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Pepper.pk's location based Blackberry app, BerrySnooper

The New York Times published an interesting article on the state of IT innovation in India. In a nutshell, the Times found that while India continues to be a low-cost offshoring destination, Indian companies are not being able to truly innovate and create compelling new products. Within India, there appears to be an overwhelming focus on being a low cost body shop for western businesses while the environment remains unfriendly to innovation and risk.

Years ago, as India’s offshoring market was picking up, many analysts wondered whether India would eventually “learn the business” sufficiently to start producing innovating product focused companies that could scale. It appears that despite over 20 years of providing low-cost development services, the answer is still no.

Nadathur S. Ranghavan of Infosys, as quoted by the New York Times, explains:

“The same idea, if it’s born in Silicon Valley it goes the distance,” said Nadathur S. Raghavan, a investor in start-ups and a founder of Infosys, one of India’s most successful technology companies. “If it’s born in India it does not go the distance.”

Mr. Raghavan and others say India is held back by a financial system that is reluctant to invest in unproven ideas, an education system that emphasizes rote learning over problem solving, and a culture that looks down on failure and unconventional career choices.

Why is this? Personally, I think this phenomenon has taken hold because the skills necessary to create contract software at a low cost are completely different to what you need to dream up and create compelling and innovative products. When you’re implementing someone else’s vision, you really never have to think about Product Marketing questions, or exercise your imagination concerning new and unique capabilities you can deliver to users. You are instead focused on simply implementing a product definition as quickly and cheaply as you possibly can. Software product development requires a lot of creativity and it appears from the Indian experience, that this creativity is never allowed to develop or flourish in a body-shop environment.

So, how is Pakistan’s smaller but vigorous IT industry doing in comparison? Have we learnt any lessons from the Indian experience. It might be too early to tell, but it appears so. In recent times, I have hardly spoken to an IT entrepreneur in Pakistan whose goal is to build a services company. Everyone is talking products. And interesting, innovative ones at that. Now that enterprise software is not as hot as it used to be back in the early 2000s, thanks to open source alternatives and a resistance amongst F500 companies to freely spend on multi-million dollar licenses, applications with a more broad consumer appeal are back in the limelight. This is precisely where the Pakistani software industry appears to be focused.

Powering this significant shift within the Pakistani software industry are young and innovative companies like FiveRivers, TkXel, White Rabbit, Naseeb Networks, iScrybe, Pepper.pk, MindStorm Studios, GenITeam and others. iScrybe, for example, developed a marvelous personal organizer that attracted funding from Adobe. Naseeb Networks built one of the region’s largest job boards (Rozee.pk) and  has raised multiple rounds of funding from US investors including Silicon Valley based ePlanet Ventures, which is managed by one of the top 10 VCs in the world. Pepper.pk, TkXel and GenITeam are developing mobile products and an application developed by Pepper recently made it to the Handango Top 10 mobile apps list. White Rabbit just launched a promising Facebook game which has a good shot at catching on. And Mindstorm’s excellent Cricket Revolution 3D game has reportedly been signed up for distribution by a world-renowned gaming company.

These are all very promising and positive signs, but there is a long road to travel still. In the coming years it will become clear if the Pakistani software industry’s new focus on products and innovation is able to deliver dividends and create fast-growing, globally competitive software businesses.

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