The economic crisis that we are facing today may well benefit the SaaS market. Companies are now more conscious and careful about cashflow and will be less willing to invest high capital expenditure on software licences. Besides, one striking benefit of SaaS is the scalability and low risk of technology obsolescence since the risk is shifted to the provider. But, to all the SaaS providers out there, you gotta really understand that SMBs are usually less tech-savvy and have little IT resources at their disposal. In fact, many of the smaller SMBs are still relying on paper and pencil or basic excel spreadsheet to do their invoices and timesheet. To increase the adoption rate, SaaS providers should offer free training for first time users regardless how idiot-proof you think your application is and always offer free trial with no obligation. In addition, customer testimonials are always good to have. You can also see how to influence the government policies or work with business associations to provide some incentives to encourage the SMBs to adopt SaaS.

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Recent Palm Pre launch has created quite a stir. I was once a Palm fan. At that time you could only synchronise your emails by putting the Palm onto the cradle and connecting it to your notebook (oh my, I still remember that I used a Tohsiba Protege then). Then as smartphones took the scene by storm, Palm faded. Sad, but the reality was that the once-upon-a-time innovative company could not stay ahead of the curve. Symbian-based Mobile phones (mainly Nokia), Windows Mobile phones, Blackberry took the lion share of the smartphone devices market until...we all know, Apple iPhone came along.

Apple iPhone didn't immediately target the enterprise users when it was first launched. It targeted the lifestyle users who didn't really care about having their corporate emails on iPhone. That was a smart move. The addressable market for lifestyle users was much bigger and competition was less stiff. If Apple were to target enterprise users from day one, it would be attracting too much attention from Microsoft and Blackberry. It is a much wiser market entry strategy to build up a bigger base of customers by addressing the lifestyle user and leveraging on Apple's strengths in user interface and integrated entertainiment apps and its already big base of iPod fans. With the launch of iPhone 3G, Apple upped the ante with the launch of appstore. It's nothing revolutionary. Yes, you can already buy symbian or windows mobile applications today. But have you wondered why it never really took off in a big way? It never quite reached the tipping point that iPhone created. I'm not sure if the fact that iPhone 2G was jailbroken to allow the installation of third party apps through the Installer (for those who jailbreak your iPhone, you should be quite familiar) had accelerated Apple's plans to launch the appstore but I would say that the strategy of allowing third party to develop apps is definitely one big factor to increase the stickiness. It is definitely a plus point that most of these apps are priced at very affordable prices - at price point that most consumers won't mind paying to try out. Prices can be low because of the the large base of iPhone users worldwide. The phone has evolved to become a very personalised piece of device that is more than just making phone calls or texting someone. With mobile broadband through WiFi or HSPA, I can now run web-based applications with just thin clients on my phone. I can access my computer easily to retrieve files when I'm away from my computer.

So, the trend for mobile is clearly on the apps side. Nokia has its Ovi. Blackberry has its Application Storefront. Google has its Android Appstore. Now Palm is launching an appstore for its Palm Pre. The fight will be on the installed base. The more apps a user installs on his phone, the less likely he's going to switch out to another phone device, especially if there are one or two killer apps that the user must have. The market is now beginning to heat up. Today, most apps are non-enteprise. I can see that as companies become more receptive to cloud computing and web-based applications, mobile enterprise apps will be the next wave. As aptly put across by Gartner, "SaaS adoption is being driven by businesses' pursuit of cost savings and quicker implementations, as well as wider availability of high-speed Internet connections....initial concerns regarding the SaaS applications' security and reliability have faded somewhat as the model has matured"

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It has been a week since my last post. I am savouring the last day of my long break before I report back to work tomorrow. In the past one week, I had the opportunity to catch up with my reading.

If you are interested in management consulting, you may be interested in this book titled "The McKinsey Engagement: A Powerful Toolkit For More Efficient and Effective Team Problem Solving" by Paul N. Friga (http://snipurl.com/9ftfd)

The author uses TEAM FOCUS as the acronyms for the framework discussed in this book. While the contents make sense and will be useful as reference for team problem solving, I am not sure if this is THE Mckinsey engagement approach. It seems rather generic. I should mention that the author did point out that this book is not endorsed by Mckinsey.

In a nutshell, TEAM FOCUS refers to the following:

T: TALK
E: EVALUATE
A: Assist
M: Motivate

F: Frame
O: Organize
C: Collect
U: Understand
S: Synthesize

I will elaborate a little more on what the author means by each of these acronyms.

Talk (T): communicate constantly, listen attentively and separate issues from people
Evaluate (E): discuss group dynamics, set expectations and monitor results, develop and re-evaluate a personal plan
Assist (A): leverage expertise, keep teammates accountable, provide timely feedback
Motivate (M): identify unique motivators, positively reinformce teammates, celebrate achievements

Frame (F): idenfity the key issues, put into profitability issue tree, business issues, information tree, decision tree, articulate the hypothesis
Organize (O): develop process map, content map, story line
Collect (C)- collect ghost charts, interview guide, interview summary, secondary sources
Understand (U): undestand implications summary , insight -titled chart
Synthesize (S): obtain inputs from various stakeholders and ensure buy in from client and provide a final report

If you read enough of books on Mckinsey, you will remember that a key principle that all consultants must internalise is the MECE (mutually exclusive collectively exhaustive) framework. MECE means that when you break down an issue, you must consider be able to group the various underlying factors into distinct buckets. There must be no overlap of ideas across groupings and all the possible factors must be accounted for in one of the groupings.

If you are more into logic and thinking process, I would recommend you to read the book titled "The Pyramid Principles" by Babara Minto (http://snipurl.com/9fteb). If you read Japanese, you may wish to read the book "ビジネスカの磨き方" and "実戦!問題解決法" by Kenichi Ohmae. I have read almost all the books by Kenichi Ohmae. I first read his book "The Mind of the Strategist" more than 10 years ago. My key takeaway from his recent books is that what's important is the ability to harness your logic thinking skills for problem solving and develop your own thinking style.

Happy New Year!!!

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In my earlier post, I gave a short review on the Animoto iPhone app. Animoto is a classic example of why cloud computing works best for them. Animoto was first made available on Facebook in April and within a week, the company had to increase the number of servers with Amazon's Elastic Computer Cloud (EC2) from 50 to 5,000. To a startup company, it is going to be overly capital intensive to invest in so many servers. Besides, It will also be a hasty decision for the company to buy the servers and is also tough for the company to get the servers running up quickly due to the set up and installation required. An opex model where company only pays for what it uses will be a better business model for a start up like Animoto until it establishes its baseline of usage.

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I tried out photoshop.com. Overall, I'm quite happy with the application. The interface is clean and easy to navigate. On the left side bar, you can find your photos or albums and the links to the 4 key sites - Picasa, Facebook, Flickr and Photobucket. You can open and edit the photos that you have saved on these sites within photoshop.com. After you have finished editing, you can click and drag the file into any of 4 sites or choose to download and save it locally on your hard drive. If you choose to download (see the menu bar at the bottom of the screen), you can save in different formats (original size, email/web size or thumbnail size). Making photo edits is simple for novice like me as Photoshop.com provides different selections, showing the range of effects applied on the photo. Generally speaking, Photoshop.com provides more options for photo edits compared to websites like Flickr. You can also choose to put together the photos in a slideshow format or create an album and allow access to friends by emailing them a URL. However, it's also lacking in some features such as geo-tagging and does not accept videos, unlike Picasa or Flickr. In addition, free user has only upto 2Gbp of storage space. 

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I just finished Edward de Bono's new book, Six Frames (http://adjix.com/2tfc)

Six Frames is a set of tools for thinking about Information. These Six Frames are:

1. The Triangle Frame - to layout very clearly your purpose of requiring a piece of information. Is it for a specific need? For your general interest? For confirmation? Edward de Bono says that it's is important to be clear with (1) what is the purpose of this information; (2) why do you need this piece of information; and (3) and where to look for it.

2. The Circle Frame - to review the accuracy of the information as the degree of accuracy will affect the value of the information. Accuracy of the information can be influenced by the following factors: (1) authority - is the source credible?; (2) internal checking - are there inconsistencies in the information? (3) comparative accuracy - counter check the veracity of the information against other sources; (3) adequate accuracy - is the information sufficiently accurate in spite of some minor errors; (4) doubts - this will inevitably limit the accuracy of the information but may not totally eliminate the value of the information.

3. Square Frame - is there any biasness in the information? Are the views balanced or one-sided? Is there other way of looking at the information?

4. Heart Frame - to direct attention to matters that are of interest to you. This could be general interest or special interest due to the work that you are doing.

5. Diamond Frame - what is the value of the information? In this book, Edward de Bono also links the Diamond Frame to his 6 Value Medals
    Gold medal: human values and values that apply to people
    Silver medal: values that apply to an organisation or entity
    Steel medal: values relating to quality
    Glass medal: values relating to innovation and creativity
    Wood medal: values concerning the environment at large.
    Brass medal: perceptual values. How would this be perceived?

6. Slab Frame - this is the final stage where you lay down your conclusions using the information that you have to support the conclusions.

While I think this book is certainly not as interesting and insightful as his previous books, it is nonetheless a useful guide for those who need a quick framework for thinking about information. We also have to be cognizant that not everyone will have the same piece of information and it is possible that with different sets of information, different conclusions may be reached. If the conclusions are vastly different, it may be worthwhile to go back the process once again and to see if we have under-utilised any of the 6 Frames? For example, did we only collect information that only support our hypothesis or did we ignore the doubts cast by the information?

Having filtered the information throught the right framework is not enough. It is equally important that we are able to communicate our thoughts. I would therefore recommend that you consider picking up some books relating to story-telling in an organization setting. Two books that I have read are: What's your story (by Ryan Mathews and Watts Wacker) (http://adjix.com/u432) and The Secret Language of Leaders (by Stephen Denning) (http://adjix.com/u2q3).

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I am not sure how many SaaS aggregators / platform providers today are ready for the ICT world where telecom services and technologies converge.  

On the IT world, traditional software players such as Microsoft is also now taking a serious review of their web strategy (http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-12/ff_ozzie). Microsoft however believes that in the Web2.0 world, the winning formula is software+services where a client software will be combined with cloud services. There are also purist web-based providers such as Zoho (www.zoho.com) or Google (www.google.com). However, even then, we can't deny the importance of having access to your data or documents even when internet is not available. That's why Google provided Google Gears to allow off-line access. Just like we have seen in the mobile world where the game is no longer just about the phone hardware, but also the applications. We have seen increasingly web-based applications providers developing their own marketplace. 

Broadsoft, a leading VoIP platform provider, has launched its own marketplace of applications (http://marketplace.broadsoft.com/). Salesforce.com for example has a marketplace called AppExchange ( http://www.salesforce.com/appexchange/ ) that allows salesforce.com users to find and test drive and subscribe to third party applications that can be integrated into salesforce.com application. The benefit to a Salesforce.com customer is that he can enjoy a single sign-on (meaning using the same set of username and password for salesforce.com application, he can run access the other third party apps onboarded onto the AppExchange). System Integrators such as NEC also has its own SaaS solutions (http://www.applicationsnet.com/Solutions/SoftwareNet/FeaturedApplications__65.aspx). The benefit of a SaaS provider having its own marketplace of third party apps is that the SaaS provider can integrate the third party apps into its own application to offer mashups or data collaboration. 

On the telecoms world, we see that telecoms providers are also making an attempt to be a PaaS (Platform-as-a-service) provider, targeting at the SMB segment. Unlike SaaS provider, PaaS provider does not develop the applications. PaaS provider works more like a SaaS aggregator, collaborating with different applications providers to provide the services through a unified platform. 

Swisscom (http://labs.swisscom-mobile.ch/welcome.jsf) has a beta labs to offer web-based applications on a beta basis (the last time I checked, they collaborated with Zoho as well. Seems that this did not work out). Telstra has recently announced the launch of T-suite SaaS platform in November. ZDNet.com.au had done some testing and their first impression was that while the platform shows great promise (which probably is a nice way to say that T-suite is not exactly ready yet), there were many bugs that yet to be resolved (and I quote MANY). But then again, since Telstra T-suite is in beta mode, users should not complain (smart move by Telstra) and since it's in beta mode, users should not expect the same level of customer support, if provided. BT is probably more matured in the PaaS space than the other telecoms provider but too bad it seems a little hard to find the online SaaS portal on its website (http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/btbusinessProducts/displayCategory.do?categoryId=BTB-HOSTED-SOFTWARE-I). To give BT the credit, it has done alot more than just be an aggregator of services. BT also offers BT Tradespace, an online business directory and community site primarily for SMBs.  

As a PaaS provider, a telco player needs to work with different partners to onboard the service. The value proposition that a telecoms player brings is the single sign-on, single billing, single point of contact (at least for the first level support and the telco providers need to have a back to back arrangement with the various applications providers on the level 2 and 3 support), and an integrated bundle (telecoms + software). In addition, customers do not need to provide credit card details as the payment will be in a post-paid mode that can be included in the existing bills. 

Telecoms players have the advantage of knowing their customers as many of them have existing billing relationships with the service provider in one form or another. In addition, telecoms players are able to offer 'mass-customisation' of a bundle service to meet different requirements. For example, for a $200/month package, customer is able to choose his preferred combination in terms of its broadband speed and application that best meets its needs. 

SMBs generally have a deeper trust with their telecoms services providers than the smaller, independent web-based vendors. This gives an edge to the telecoms players. But if that's so great, why aren't the telecoms players jumping onto the bandwagon? My take is that they eventually will. We have to realise that telecoms providers have complex billing systems and order management and provisioning systems. Providing the front end (shop front) is probably the least of the challenge compared to integrating PaaS with the exsiting customer database and the order/billing systems sitting at the backend and to know when customers subscribe/terminate or renew/upgrade. The challenge is compounded if you include the traditional telecoms services onto the platform to be offered on-demand basis. To date, no telecoms player has proven the capability to offer traditional telecoms services such as broadband and software as a service on demand basis.

Another challenge is the onboarding process. Most of the web-based players are offering the SaaS directly from their website. APIs may be provided but tweaking and adaptation is required to ensure excellent customer experience. For example, a telecoms provider will develop its own e-shop that shows its own catalogue of services and applications. The telecoms provider decides on the end user subscription bundles to be offered to the market. The customer is likely to find it confusing if the apps provider which is onboarded onto the telecoms provider's platform does not mask out its own support helpdesk or subscription packages (which may very likely be in credit card payment mode and may vary from the telecoms provider as the telecoms provider may package it differently or bundled it with its own telecoms services). Beyond the initial onboarding phase, as a PaaS provider, it will help to increase customer stickiness if you are able to facilitate ease of data export/import across multiple applications. However, if the telecoms player manages to crack this part of the equation, it will be a strong contender and my take is that they will win the war in the ICT era.   

=================================

More about T-Suite

http://www.telstrabusiness.com/business/portal/online/site/productsservices/tsuiteapplications.52025

T-suite launched in beta mode in early November with hosted versions of Microsoft's Outlook/Exchange (messaging), Dynamics (CRM) and Sharepoint (collaboration tools) McAfee's desktop security, MessageLabs network security products and Telstra's own PC and server back-up products.

ZDNet Australia has done a very good review.

http://www.zdnet.com.au/insight/software/soa/Telstra-s-T-Suite-First-look/0,139023769,3392935500.htm

More about NEC Aggregated SaaS Solution-in-a-Box

http://www.applicationsnet.com/Solutions/SoftwareNet/FeaturedApplications__65.aspx

Globally organisations are shifting to rent applications, instead of outright purchase. A simple integrated model to purchase, manage and maintain SaaS ISVs (Independent Software Vendors) is essential to manage the ever growing SaaS landscape. The NEC Software Net platform uses an efficient, collaborative, user-centric and context aware Service platform to provide a simple and flexible network based application framework to achieve this. In addition, NEC has licensed leading application solution providers in the on-demand or SaaS space; this means that Software Net end users gain access to multiple best in class software application solutions all through one collaborative portal environment.

More about Broadsoft Xtended Marketplace

http://marketplace.broadsoft.com/

BroadSoft Xtended Marketplace is where you will find the latest Web 2.0 applications integrated with the world's leading voice over IP platform. Explore the Xtended Marketplace to find mashups with popular business solutions and social networking websites.

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If you are using web email for Microsoft Exchange, you may find that you can't access your emails through Firefox or Safari using http://mail.xxx.com . 
 


If this happens, you may wish to try using https://mail.xxx.com/ exchange when using Safari or Firefox. Do note that it is https and not http. 
 
Hope this little trick is of use to you.

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It's interesting to see that Twitter is now trying to monetize its popularity. This is nothing groundbreaking. Yammer, for example, is one that uses twitter kind of messaging system as an internal communications tool. Of course, to give credit to the company, Yammer has a different UI and implemented other features that have yet to be done on Twitter. ( http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/08/yammer-launches-at-tc50-twitter-for-companies/#comments ). Whether Yammer can take off, it the jury is still out. 

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Attended an IDC breakfast event last week on Cloud Computing. Here're the highlights.

1. In terms of IT growth worldwide, US and Europe are the dark spots. Japan and Asia (ex Japan) are showing positive albeit more tapered growth because of the financial crisis.

2.Definition of Cloud Services = Consumer + Business Products, Services and Solutions delivered and consumer on real time over internet (*note = it's real time!) t;/span>

3. Definition of Cloud Computing = emergent IT development, deployment and delivery model, enabling real time development of products, services and solutions over Internet (thus enabling cloud services)

4. Cloud Services attributes should have: -

    ~ provisioned off-site and by third party(ies)

    ~ via Internet (a hybrid will be over MPLS network to address the concerns of the large enterprises who are inclined to do outsourcing but not running the apps over Internet. Hey, Mr Telco, you have a part to play here!)

    ~ near real-time deployment; dynamic and scaable

    ~ pricing model = fine-grained, usage based (or at least as an option)

    ~ User Interface = Browser (or subsequent successors thereof)

    ~ Shared resources 

5. Worldwide IT Spending (precrisis estimates): in 2008, On-Premise IT $367M; Cloud IT $16M and by 2012, On-Premise IT$ 461M, Cloud IT $42M (CAGR for On-Premise 5%, for Cloud 27%). I think the economic crisis which leads to spending cuts and more outsourcing will be positive for Cloud Computing. Enterprises will be willing to "take some risks" at a more open system for the less sensitive applications. 

6. Top Apps for Enteprise Adoption over next 3 years include: IT Mgmt Apps, Collaborative Apps, Personal and Business Apps. 

7. Key trends for next year in the ICT area: NextGen Customer Care, Cloud Computing, Thin Client & Virtualisation, Sustainability and Green IT. 

8. Besides Cloud Computing, Enterprise Search and Next Generation Customer Care are equally important. Cloud Computing is primarily driven by the focus on cost savings whereas NextGen Customer Care and Search are new growth opportunities. 

In my view, the most immediate opportunity in cloud computing lies in the SMB segment, particularly those without their own IT departments and are growing. We should focus on the end-user apps that these SMB needs. In my experience, any SaaS apps in the Finance & Accounting area should not be the top priority. Many SMBs are cautious about having their financial data hosted off-premise and many still prefer to entrust it to a service provider (accounting firm) that they trust rather than a SaaS provider. Be patient. If your SMBs have not used other biz apps other than the basic productivity tools by Microsoft Office, it will take some time to educate them on the benefits. However once the trust level is built, they will hardly switch. Besides, SMBs have less complicated decision making process; in fact for the smaller size companies, the owners generally decide on the IT matters. Finally, prepare to offer similar solutions by various providers at different price tiers and complexities (of course, that only applies if you are an aggregator). If you are a SaaS app developer, make sure that your user interface is not too cluttered with too many functionalities. Sometimes a powerful tool may not be the right tool for the SMBs. They only need to meet one objective. Give them a simple software that meets the objective. Don't attempt to offer more if that means a steeper learning curve. Many SMBs are not tech-savvy and if you simply rely on online marketing and selling, that won't work. Work through channels, conduct free educational workshops. Offer incentives to try out and experience the benefits without commitment.  

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Okay, I got the Sony Ericsson C905 and tried it out for a week. Seems like SE is really trying to rejuvenate itself - launched its first windows mobile phone X1 Xperia and now its first 8.1 megapixals phone competing with the LG and Samsung in the camera phone market. Let's get down to the phone hardware first, and then the software. 

Phone Hardware

1. SE C905 is a non-touch phone. It's a slider phone and it feels kind of heavy at 136g and slightly bulkier than the equivalent touch phones like Samsung M8800 PIXON or LG RENOIR KC910. However, it is definitely easier to hold in the hands as a compact camera and yes it does have many features of a point and shoot camera (and I'll talk more about that later). 

2. Having used the phone day and night for a week, I'm still not quite used to the 'flat' keypad. I feel that the keys are a little too stiff for my liking. Same goes for the navigation controls just below the screen but the control buttons provide easy access to the menu and key functions without having to slide out the keypad. 

3. This is not a touch phone so the screen size is smaller. It's 2.4 inch screen with 262K color. The menu UI is easy to recognize and if you are a SE phone supporter, it's not difficult to navigate the phone. 

4. From the back of the phone, it does have the look of a Sony camera. The lens is behind a steel panel cover which you need to slide down before taking the photo. This helps to keep the lens clean and free from scratches. 

5. Like the rest of the SE phones, this phone uses a proprietary connector for the headphone. This is not the W-series phone so this is not surprising. However, I must say that if you are not an audiophile, this phone is good enough for decent music playback. No doubt, the headphone is a letdown but if you use the speaker, it's loud and sound is clear. 

6. The phone has an internal memory of 160MB and has an expandable slot using M2 (memory stick micro) which can have up to  8GB storage. This is one thing that I don't really like about SE. Most of the phones are using microSD (even Sony Ericsson's own Xperia X1) and yet C905 uses M2. There is 16GB for M2 but C905 only supports upto 8GB. So if you have multiple microSDs that you amass from multiple phones, I'm sorry to tell you that you gotta give them up if you want to buy C905. Of course, M2 can also be used in PSP. So all is not lost. You can also use the phone for mass storage. Just connect the phone to the computer and you can then easily transfer files to the M2 card. 

7.   Nowadays it seems to be a common feature for phones to be equipped with GPS and Google Maps. SE C905 has Google maps and Wayfinder Navigator. Wayfinder offers voice prompt but it is not free. Google maps is free and to me Google maps serves my purpose as I don't need a turn by turn voice navigation.

8. Given the small screen (2.4 inch), this phone is only meant for light browsing, preferably for websites that have web pages formatted for mobile screen. The phone supports WiFi. 

9. Last but not least, C905 has several navigation buttons (see pictures) for easy control and access to media, contacts or shortcuts to menu. When the phone is in camera mode, these navigation buttons become shortcuts to adjust the camera settings including flash, exposure, photo size etc. Convenient and easy to use. 

Phone OS and Applications

1. SE has included a video demo in the phone. The demo shows that you can easily upload your photos to youtube, flickr, blogger or facebook. The strange thing is that I can only upload my photo to blogger and I can't seem to locate the shortcuts or apps to upload my photo to youtube, flickr or facebook. I wonder is it because it's a test set and hence the sites are not properly set up on the phone. Otherwise, if you know how to install Shozu onto C905, you can do so. 

2. SE uses a consistent UI for the media. You see a similar UI for Xperia as well. The UI is probably adopted from the PSP where it shows a list comprising photos, music, video, games, web feeds and settings (see picture). This is a neat way. In addition, C905 offers simple, easy to use editing tools for its videos, photos and music. 

3. For those who need to use the phone as a voice recorder, C905 can be used for voice recording. But I don't see how I can mix this into any of its editing tools. It's a pity. It will be interesting if I can insert my voice recording when I'm using the VideoDJ or MusicDJ or even the PhotoDJ (editing apps on the C905). 

4. When you switch to the music player, the navigation buttons that serve as shortcuts for the camera function will become the control buttons for the music player. In addition, you can set the equalizer. I won't probably use it with my headphones since I'm quite particular with my earpiece (only Shure for me). I tested the phone by playing the music through its built-in speakers. Sound quality is decent and the speakers are loud. You can also stream music via WiFi. 

5. However, unlike the Pixon for example, you can't set the music piece as voice or video call ringtone or caller ringtone. Again, I must stress that this is not the W-series SE phones and I will refrain from having any unrealistic expectations in this respect. However, it may be nice if SE can have a one-click access to its PlayNow Arena music store (http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/15371.cfm)  rather than having to get out of the music player and go to the menu to access it. 

6. With the small screen size, this phone is not going to ideal for video. I won't bother to stretch this phone to be a portable video player. 

7. The phone has simple email function. I have set up my Gmail account using IMAP. It works but it cannot open attachment. Again, I just want to say this is primarily a camera phone. 

8. I must commend the camera features. Just to recap - it's 8.1MP with autofocus and 16x digital zoom. It has autoflash (a feature that you can turn off if you don't like). Oh, I should mention that it's Xenon Flash. In addition, the phone offers image stabalizer and several other high end features of a point and shoot camera. I have captured all the screenshots of the camera features (see pictures). In addition, you can easily upload the pictures after taking the photos. 

9. Since the USP of SE C905 is the 8.1MP camera, I will elaborate a little more on the features. Under Shoot mode, you can choose Normal, Smart Contrast, BestPic, Panorama, Frames. Under Scenes, you can choose Auto, Twilight Landscape/Portrait, Normal Landscape/Portrait, Beach/Snow, Sports, Document. Under Picture Size, you can choose from as small as 640x480 (best for MMS) right up to 8MP. Under Focus, you can choose Auto, Face Detection, Macro, Infinite. Under Flash, you can set it Auto, Red-eye reduction or Off. There is also a self-timer function and metering mode. You can also select the appropriate White Balance (Auto, Daylight, Cloudy etc) and Effects (B&W, Negative, Sepia, etc). Finally, the other features include picture quality, AF light, Stabiliser, Geo-tagging, Auto-rotation. 

10. Finally, SE C905 has a built-in slideshow function for photos and a TV out feature. All you need to do is to choose slide show and connect to the TV and you can start to enjoy all the photos that you have taken. The slideshow has several presets that you can choose. The presets are the transition animations between each photo. However, do note that the TV-out cable is an optional accessory that you have to purchase separately. 

Well, if you are a SE phone lover and need a good camera phone, this may be the phone for you, provided the price tag is right. Other than its camera features, it's a rather basic phone and I would not suggest you buy this phone if you don't really need the camera feature. 

See the full gallery on posterous

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