Although it is unfair to generalize this to all Indian software companies, unfortunately, it is mostly true. In my opinion the reason is mostly one of these three:
1) Some Indian companies, look to cash in the price arbitrage, and have a short term view (3 - 5 years). So they bid for projects, where they have very little expertise and experience. (In India, there is a huge market for sub-sub-contracting. Companies, win projects and then look for people with expertise to actually execute them. (Personally I have been asked to consult so many times)).
2) Education in general is in shambles and especially C.S. education. Also education is (unfortunately) a business. For example the latest fad is to start Android development classes. So many are coming up. (but most of them don't have good tutors. (Again, personally I am asked to come in as "Industry Expert"). Students join these classes and 3 / 6 months later they consider themselves qualified. (when in reality they know so little).
3) Most students (regardless of aptitude to software development) take C.S. is college because of better job prospects. Obviously they cannot be good engineers. There is such a shortage of engineers, that invariably such people do get hired (which feeds the cycle) and lowers quality of output.
About Me: I am an Indian software developer and founder of a software development shop.
This is the point I was trying to make in my comments earlier. Typography is a feature. Right now we're seeing Minimum Viable Ebooks. Ship.
What is the incentive for better typography? Most books are like mini-monopolies (over the short term). If the typography of a book sucks and it sucks on all platforms, what is a consumer to do if they want to read the book? Fallback to print? Publishers probably don't mind that. It's true that all things being equal, typography could be a deciding factor for the consumer, but my gut says that in most cases the content is weighted much higher.
I think the platform could benefit from typography. A consumer may choose an iPad over a Kindle if the iPad had a better reputation for typography. But since there is _art_ involved it might not be economical for the platform to pursue it. Which is a better selling point: Our platform has 100 really nice books or our platform has 100,000 books?
No, but this is how the iPod beat every other mp3 player -- it was just undefinably better to use. Typography is one of those features; most people don't think they even notice it, but they do.
Your mom might select a kindle fire if she hears from all her savvy friends and family that the kindle fire delivers a better experience. She may even hear why it does, but she may not care about the why, just that trusted sources inform her it is better.
I believe this is true in general. A few savvy people catch on that a product is better and it becomes a meme that others rely upon for their decisions.
Don't talk about my mom like that! (In all honesty she is not really into savvy/hip people;)
I do not think that there are enogh savvy-typography-valuing-people to induce some market driving meme. If this was the case Word would have died many years ago...
I am sorry, but I think I disagree with your viewpoint. My idol in being frugal (but not cheap) is Mr. Warren Buffett. I don't think he lost an opportunity by being frugal or has any regrets. Obviously it is a very personal choice. Some people do get pleasure by discretionary purchases, and some (like me) by knowing that there is money in the bank.
Google+ has the same buzz and expectation which was associated with gmail when it was first launched (with respect to scarcity of invites). I am based in India (not sure how location matters) and I remember I had to wait a few weeks for someone to invite me to gmail.
If that is some indication, then Google+ looks to be a winner. (I remember how I moved from Yahoo! and Hotmail email to gmail after I finally got the invite).
Yeah, but unlike Google Wave, you don't really have to explain it to people. "It's like Facebook without all the Farmville crap" seems to suffice for even the least techie of people (as long as they are already on Facebook).
1) Some Indian companies, look to cash in the price arbitrage, and have a short term view (3 - 5 years). So they bid for projects, where they have very little expertise and experience. (In India, there is a huge market for sub-sub-contracting. Companies, win projects and then look for people with expertise to actually execute them. (Personally I have been asked to consult so many times)).
2) Education in general is in shambles and especially C.S. education. Also education is (unfortunately) a business. For example the latest fad is to start Android development classes. So many are coming up. (but most of them don't have good tutors. (Again, personally I am asked to come in as "Industry Expert"). Students join these classes and 3 / 6 months later they consider themselves qualified. (when in reality they know so little).
3) Most students (regardless of aptitude to software development) take C.S. is college because of better job prospects. Obviously they cannot be good engineers. There is such a shortage of engineers, that invariably such people do get hired (which feeds the cycle) and lowers quality of output.
About Me: I am an Indian software developer and founder of a software development shop.