Pinboard (guardiantech)

iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus hit India’s grey markets, prices touch Rs 140,000 for the 64GB iPhone 6 Plus >> BGR India

guardiantech — 2014-09-23T10:22:58+00:00

Apple will be launching the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in India on October 17. With less than a month to go for the official launch, the smartphones have hit India’s grey markets, with prices touching a ridiculous Rs 140,000 for the iPhone 6 Plus 64GB variant. In Delhi’s grey markets, the 16GB variant of the iPhone 6 is priced as much as Rs 80,000. The bigger iPhone 6 Plus, on the other hand, is retailing at Rs 120,000 for the 16GB variant, and Rs 140,000 for the 64GB variant. Last year, before the iPhone 5S was officially launched, it too hit the grey markets in India. It retailed for around Rs 75,000 for the 16GB variant, and the rare gold colored variant was available for as much as Rs 115,000.

Rs 140,000 is about £1,400; the iPhone 6 Plus 64GB retails for £699 in the UK.

Unbundling mobile apps for the emerging markets >> Lightspeed

guardiantech — 2014-07-09T22:00:46+00:00

I think unbundling is a strategy that has not yet been applied with vigor in the emerging markets on smartphones. I think there are potentially disproportionate advantages to be had by unbundling in countries like India, in the short- to medium-term. Why is this? Because low device memory limits (typically less than 16 Gb), low bandwidth limits (mostly 2G) and relatively high bandwidth prices result in dramatic drops in conversion rates, download success rates and retention rates as app size increases. Also, in my opinion, discovery on the app stores is easier when there is a single focused value prop (kind of the approach that Whatsapp has taken with a singular focus on messaging).

The graph of downloads against file size is persuasive.

Mozilla to sell ultra-low-cost smartphones in India soon >> Total Telecom

guardiantech — 2014-06-11T11:44:02+00:00

Mozilla plans to bring what it describes as ultra-low-cost smartphones to India in the near future. The operating system provider on Tuesday said it has partnered with Indian device makers Intex and Spice to enable it to launch the first Firefox OS devices in the country "in the next few months". A statement from the company suggests the phones will be based on the chipset solution Mozilla has developed with Spreadtrum. In February the two companies announced they were working together to create a chipset that would power smartphones costing less than $25. That ultra-low-cost solution is now available, Mozilla said.

The right market to go for (India is giant, Nokia is fading, and people want something new) but will it be in time to compete with Android/AOSP phones from local and foreign names?

MS offers Windows Phone OS free to Indian players >> The Times of India

guardiantech — 2014-03-13T13:19:13+00:00

Javed Anwer:

Multiple industry sources with knowledge of Microsoft's negotiations with Indian phone companies told Times of India that it was in talks with local firms to produce affordable Windows Phone devices since last year. But the agreements were clinched only when Microsoft agreed to remove the licence fee it charges from phone makers for its OS.
This is unprecedented. Microsoft didn't even give the OS free to Nokia, which agreed to exclusively make Windows Phone in 2011. It reportedly charged Nokia between $20 to $30 for each Lumia device the Finnish company sold. Making the OS free also shows signs of growing frustration within the company at the lack of traction for Windows Phone in the market.

A tectonic shift.

Indian PC shipments fall 20%, Dell sees strong gains: Gartner >> NDTV Gadgets

guardiantech — 2014-02-11T15:35:13+00:00

Declining government spending on hardware hit Indian PC shipments during the October-December quarter, as sales fell by 20% to 1.96 million units, research firm Gartner said on Tuesday.
"Consumers accounted for 49% of total PC sales in the fourth quarter of 2013," said Vishal Tripathi, principal research analyst at Gartner. "In the absence of any government orders this quarter, the Indian PC market performed dismally, re-emphasising the fact that with current economic sentiments and the current political scenario, enterprises are deferring their purchases."

That's 2m sales per quarter in a country of more than a billion people.

Can Micromax become India's leading smartphone maker? >> Forbes India

guardiantech — 2013-11-29T11:39:17+00:00

Micromax has come a distance since making its first mobile phones in 2008. According to research firms IDC and CyberMedia Research (CMR), the company is the third largest seller of mobile phones in India behind Samsung and Nokia.
The mobile phone market is currently going through a major upheaval as hundreds of millions of users in India and around the world upgrade from cheaper and less-capable feature phones to smartphones. In the smartphone race, both these research firms place Micromax firmly at the number two position behind Samsung in market share—22.7% versus Samsung’s 31.9%, according to CMR; and 22.2% versus 25.7%, according to IDC.
Samsung India declined to speak with Forbes India for this story. A spokesperson said the company did not believe the IDC and CMR figures were accurate; they were more convinced by the GfK-Nielsen numbers (a proprietary subscription service, the specifics of which Samsung did not disclose). “We do not consider Micromax a competitor,” the spokesperson added.

Compare "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance".

Govt. violates privacy safeguards to secretly monitor Internet traffic >> The Hindu

guardiantech — 2013-09-09T20:52:27+00:00

Shalini Singh:

Amid fresh controversy following reports of the U.S.’s Prism programme targeting the Brazilian President, and the impending launch of the Indian government’s own Central Monitoring System (CMS) project, an investigation by The Hindu reveals that the Internet activities of India’s roughly 160 million users are already being subjected to wide-ranging surveillance and monitoring, much of which is in violation of the government’s own rules and notifications for ensuring “privacy of communications”.
While the CMS is in early stages of launch, investigation shows that there already exists — without much public knowledge — Lawful Intercept and Monitoring (LIM) systems, which have been deployed by the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) for monitoring Internet traffic, emails, web-browsing, Skype and any other Internet activity of Indian users.

There was a big row a couple of years ago over BlackBerry encryption and India. Was this a workaround?

Sistema India opts for Chinese smartphones, skips iPhone >> WSJ

guardiantech — 2013-09-02T17:42:40+00:00

Dmitry Shukov, chief executive at Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd., told The Wall Street Journal it decided not to carry the iPhone because Apple sets a floor for unit sales, making it more challenging to sell the smartphone because Sistema Shyam operates on the less popular CDMA mobile standard.
Apple sells phones running CDMA or code division multiple access technology through other channels in India. Of India’s 867.80m wireless users, only 73.18m were on CDMA networks at end-March, data from the telecom regulator showed.

(Thanks #rquick for the link.)

Phablets account for 30% of all smartphones in India, 67% smartphones priced below $200 >> BGR India

guardiantech — 2013-08-30T14:19:39+00:00

Rajat Agrawalj:

Phablets or smartphones with displays between 5in and 6.99in accounted for 30% of all smartphones shipped in India in Q2, 2013, according to the latest IDC figures. Phablet shipments increased 17 times year-on-year with smartphone shipments hitting 9.3m units compared to just 3.5m units in Q2, 2012. The magic formula for India seems to be having a sub-$200 smartphone with a large display and dual-SIM slots.
Local vendors continue to dominate the Indian smartphone space with Micromax shipping over 2m smartphones in the quarter making it the second largest player with a market share of 22% behind Samsung’s 26% share. IDC claims that local vendors now account for over half of the total smartphone market in India.

It's not a big market in volume terms, but the choice of phablets seems to point to a trend: countries with low PC penetration go for maximum screen sizes along with connectivity. Anecdotally, the Galaxy Note is very popular there.

World's first smartphone for the blind, made in India >> Times Of India

guardiantech — 2013-04-24T20:15:07+00:00

How it works • The smartphone uses Shape Memory Alloy technology, based on the concept that metals remember their original shapes, i.e. expand and contract to its original shape after use. • The phone's 'screen' has a grid of pins, which move up and down as per requirement. The grid has a Braille display, where pins come up to represent a character or letter. • This screen will be capable of elevating and depressing the contents to form patterns in Braille. • All other elements are like any other smartphone.

Android, we presume. (Thanks @beardyweirdy666 for the link.)

Apple belatedly makes push in India >> The National

guardiantech — 2013-04-23T16:58:53+00:00

[Apple] has created deals in India to help make its smartphones more affordable, launching a scheme this month that offers at least 7,000 rupees (£85) for a buyer's existing smartphone if they purchase the iPhone 4, one of its older models. That has reportedly resulted its iPhone 4 sales outpacing sales of the newer iPhone 5 model in India. Apple's rival Samsung quickly fought back, bringing out a promotion for 15% cash back on its Galaxy products, splashing its adverts on the covers of newspapers, just as Apple had.

(Thanks @Oisin75 for the link.)

2012 recap : the year mobile internet surpassed desktop internet in India >> Next Big What

guardiantech — 2013-03-05T21:51:50+00:00

The desktop market is shrinking, and it's a country where Nokia's S40 (aka Asha) and Symbian together make up the majority of mobile internet use - and Samsung is third. (Thanks @avro for the link.)

Indian Railways - Live! >> Google Maps

guardiantech — 2012-10-12T05:17:51+00:00

Yes: all India's trains in real time depicted on maps. Remember when this was done for London's tube trains?

Apple loses to RIM in Indian smartphone market >> Bloomberg

guardiantech — 2011-10-03T20:44:35+00:00

Sells fewer there than to Norway: "Sales for the world’s biggest company by market value are hindered because Indian wireless carriers, which started third- generation networks this year, have yet to offer nationwide services fast enough to take advantage of iPhone features, said Gus Papageorgiou, an analyst at Scotia Capital Inc. in Toronto."

Indians plan their time online more than before >> MIcrosoft India

guardiantech — 2011-06-07T21:23:58+00:00

"in India.. the study also sought to identify which portable devices consumers are using, allowing brands to modify their content by device. It also unearths evidence to demonstrate the growing importance of mobile usage in communication and creation as smartphone ownership continues to explode.

"The study shows that in India, the use of smartphones at 34% surpass notebooks which stands at 33% as the main method for accessing information. Except for information seeking and content creation, however, notebooks remain the main device used for transactions and entertainment."