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Vodafone India Defeats The Odds And Posts A Profitable Quarter

Aatif Sumar — Thu, 24 May 2012 11:21:54 +0000

The Indian Telecom Sector is not an easy industry to be in. Intense competition exists as there are so many players. Further, the Indian Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) is one of the lowest in the world, with rates being rock bottom. The TRAI doesn’t help, by making their life difficult with retro-active tax laws, re-auctions of a year old spectrum.

However, in this environment, Vodafone actually made a profit. It hasn’t been an easy road, with Vodafone losing money initially on their huge capital investment in India. Their income tax troubles with the Government compounded this. However, Vodafone Group has posted a 14% Growth in Operating Earnings, which now stands at Rs 9,740 Crores for 2011-12. Factors that have been attributed to this are good growth in voice minutes and a rising consumer base. Compared to 2010-11′s 3.85 Billion Pounds, Vodafone saw a surge in Revenue to 4.26 Billion Pounds. EBITDA too rose from 985 million to 1120 million pounds.

“Service revenue grew by 19.5 per cent, driven by an 11.8 per cent increase in the customer base, strong growth in incoming and outgoing voice minutes and 51.3 per cent growth in data revenue. In India, pricing showed clear signs of stabilisation after a prolonged price war. Our focus on the key growth areas of data, emerging markets and enterprise is positioning us well in a difficult macroeconomic environment. Our commercial performance and our ability to leverage scale continue to be strong, enabling us to gain or hold market share in most of our key markets, and reduce the rate of margin decline,”, said Vodafone Group Chief Executive Vittorio Colao.

We are not so sure of their statement that the ‘prolonged price war’ is over, given the falling 3G rates amongst all operators in India. Nevertheless, it is reassuring seeing a major telecom operator making a profit in our market. It is bound to stem the rising dissatisfaction in Vodafone’s ranks with the TRAI’s attitude toward operators.

What do you think? Will other operators too post successful financial results? Do let us know in the comments below.

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Jury Decides That Google Didn’t Infringe On Oracle Code

Denzil — Thu, 24 May 2012 10:46:40 +0000

In what has been an almost 2 year old case between Google and Oracle over the copyright and patent issues over the use of Java technology in Android, the jury of the U.S District Court of North Carolina has decided in favor of Google in the patent infringement part of the lawsuit. Both the company and Android enthusiasts can breathe a sigh of relief. The case has raised concerns from everyone on what would happen to Android if Oracle won the suit. The patent scenario is very complicated in the Technology business at present and a lot of company are suing each other over alleged infringements.

Source: Slashgear.com

The complication arose soon after Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems in early January for US $7.4 billion. The Java language and the subsequent framework were created by Sun which was now in Oracle’s hand. Google had chosen Java as a primary pillar in creating its Android platform. They use something called the Dalvik Virtual Machine which translates programs written in Java into a virtual executable files. Dalvik is licensed as open source under the Apache Open Source License. Google says that this is a clean room implementation (reverse engineering) of the Java language and thus it comes under fair usage. It was thus established that Google hadn’t infringed on Oracle patents i.e. U.S. Patent RE 38,104 and U.S. Patent 6,061,520.

Although the jury earlier thought that Google infringed upon the patents, it could not decide unanimously over the fact that Google used a clean room implementation. Some of the codes are indeed similar but they are not significantly infringing Oracle’s patents. The trial has begun as a very doomsday scenario for Google since if Oracle won, the company would have to license the infringing part and thus pay a huge sum of money ($1 billion) for it in damages.

And #Googacle The Trial is over. Judge Alsup dismissing jury. Since Oracle won virtually nothing, no damages phase at this point.

— Ginny LaRoe (@GinnyLaRoe) May 23, 2012

This trial is not over as the Judge, William Alsup has yet to make a decision on whether Google infringed Oracle’s Java copyrights, since the jury couldn’t get to an agreement on the issue earlier. This judgment is likely to be delivered this coming Monday.

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CBSE Pushes Out Results Via Mobiles

Alap Naik Desai — Thu, 24 May 2012 09:41:59 +0000

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has put out Class X results of the Chennai region through IVR & SMS. The rest of the regions will have their results ready by 4 o’clock today evening.

Quite some time back in 2010, Rediff had managed to offer SSC results online. The education system has come a long way on its own.

Source: newsreporter.in

How can students know their results:

Well, the board has offered two methods using the all-important mobiles for the same:

Students can dial +91 – 11 – 24357276 & make use of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) to get results. An all India number 011 –28127030 has been dedicated to offer the results too. Anxious students can also opt for the traditional route of SMS. They simply need to type CBSE10 and send an SMS to 9212357123. Though the service is free, standard SMS rates will be applicable.

Though the core education system is still at its nascent stage of technology adoption, many companies are already gearing up to offer quality education through use of modern technology. Following the fiasco of Aakash I, Kapil Sibal might have granted a huge monetory boost to Aakash II, but we still have to see the refined product up close. However, its competitors are already rearing their heads.

The use of Technology in the Education field has now become mandatory to ensure high standards & quick delivery of updated content. Realizing this, companies like Carveniche are working on innovative platforms. Furthermore, the cloud computing phenomenon can truly boost the education in our country where many regions are still inaccessible.

Though the CBSE board has taken baby steps, it is still inspirational for other boards as well. In case students want to access their results online they can visit to any of the following websites:

www.results.nic.in

www.cbseresults.nic.in

www.cbse.nic.in

Good Luck Students!

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Yahoo Launches New Browser Called Axis For iOS And Desktops

Denzil — Thu, 24 May 2012 09:33:40 +0000

The fact that search engines can devise their own browsers to leverage searches and make it easy for users to get their information easily came to light when Google launched their browser Chrome. Bing picked up by tying up its search with IE. Yahoo was the only other search engine to not have its dedicated browser and used to rely completely on its toolbars embedded in other browsers. Now that has changed with the struggling search giant debuting its own web browser called Axis.

Yahoo’s Axis is a browser which connects seamlessly between your computer, your iPad and the iPhone. This concept is not new since Chrome introduced the same feature after the Chrome 19 update. Chrome also offers mobile sync with its Android app. Yahoo is looking at edging Google by introducing Axis first primarily on iOS platforms. Axis is definitely more visual in nature than Chrome and has a very good UI in addition to its features.

Some of its salient features are:

1. Visual Search: The Axis browser focuses mostly on a more visual kind of search which can easily deliver more information to the user than mere text can. The visual approach is important and many content and search companies are looking deep into it. A prime example would be how Facebook has been focusing more on showing bigger photos and arranging them appropriately in their web and mobile interface. We will give Axis the thumbs up for this.

2. Bing integration: Yahoo’s search deal with Microsoft’s Bing makes Bing the default search provider on Axis. This will definitely drive up traffic to Bing. Both Bing and Yahoo seem to have united to take on Google in the search business. Although the market-share in terms of search may not change overnight, this is a good effort.

3. Yahoo on Mobile: This release brings Yahoo’s services to the mobile in a big way. Google may have conquered the mobile app space because of the proliferation of Android. The mobile device functionality of Axis will be one of the most innovative things Yahoo has come up in the mobile space in some time.

4. Cross-Platform: The most important aspect of any software/service is its cross platform availability. For a service to truly scale and see massive adoption, it is obvious that it needs to support multiple platforms. Axis works on the desktop and iOS devices. Currently, there is no word on Android, Blackberry and Linux support. The desktop support that Axis provides is not strictly accurate. There is no desktop app as such. It is a plugin which you can tie-up with your browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari and IE. The plugin opens up the Axis browser when you are surfing on the browser of your choice. Thankfully, it has been done really well, so it does not interrupt your browsing session in addition to augmenting your browsing experience. You can see more of this functionality in the video that we have posted below.

5. Cross Device Syncing: This feature lets you continue your reading, browsing and research from any of the supported devices. All you have to do is hit the ‘Continue on other devices’ button and you are ready to pick up where you left from on your previous device.

6. No Ads: As of now, there are no ads on the service. Yahoo is probably trying to gain more adoption from users before they try to monetize it.

Here’s the full demo video that Yahoo has provided:

There are some issues though. The Next Web reports that Yahoo hasn’t published any terms/conditions for this product and this is strange since the service requires some very serious user permissions. Secondly, a researcher has found that Axis’ Chrome extension is vulnerable to attack and Yahoo has pulled that extension down for now.

Besides these concerns, we think that this offering is a substantial leap ahead for Yahoo which has not been doing well particularly because of the problems in leadership that it has been facing recently. We hope that Axis gains significant traction and thus provide more options for people who want to access the Internet.

Check it out here: axis.yahoo.com

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Wipro Launches Free Corporate iPhone App

Denzil — Wed, 23 May 2012 14:10:50 +0000

iPhone apps are really picking up in this country. Wipro Technologies has just launched their free corporate iPhone app for anyone to download and use. Wipro Technologies is the Global IT, Consulting and outsourcing arm of Wipro Ltd.

The app is available in the Apple iTunes store for download. IT professionals (both Wipro and Non-wipro employees) can use this app to access Wipro Corporate News, its white papers, blogs and articles by senior management, press releases, new and events across all its global centres. Wipro Technologies is present in around 54 countries!

Suchira Iyer, Chief Marketing Officer, IT Business of Wipro Ltd. says the company understands the people’s demands for information.

“Wipro Buzz will not only keep our customers up to date with Wipro’s thought leadership but will also help better integration of our increasingly mobile sales and marketing teams. Today, users demand access to information on the go to do their business better and take quicker informed decisions. Wipro understands this need.”

The app sports social media platform integration and users can share interesting news and posts on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. One strange and seemingly random feature is the built-in route mapping tool and digital pedometer which will help runners keep track of their statistics. Wipro says that they are strongly associated with sports since they sponsor a number of marathons globally. The app caters to a pretty niche crowd. Only serious IT and Tech industry people will download and use it. Nonetheless, the most interesting part is the growing number of iPhone and Android apps that are rolling out of Indian companies. Think of this app like an official website, but only on the phone. That is how all companies will look at it now. The corporate mobile website is probably going to die soon.

What do you think?

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Monster Launches It’s iOS App; Makes Job Search Easier

Denzil — Wed, 23 May 2012 13:29:23 +0000

Monster India is one of India’s leading online career and recruitment services. The company announced the launch of its iOS app today. The app is tailored for all professionals and job-seekers who want to explore new career opportunities on the go. The app brings Monster’s full functionality to the iOS platform.

Some of the key features of this app are:

On the move access: Professionals and job-seekers can now create and use their Monster accounts right from their iPhone and iPad.

Search and apply on the move: The app gives professionals the ability check out new opportunities and apply instantly on the go from anywhere.

Career Services: Take advantage of Monster’s tips on acing job interviews and on success at the workplace.

Change Location: You can now use the app the change your location on Monster’s website and use it in different countries.

Sanjay Modi, Managing Director, Monster.com(India/ Middle East/ South East Asia) said the launch of iOS app was keeping in line with increasing sales if the iPhone among tech-savvy professionals in India.

“We are excited to introduce our latest addition, Monster iPhone and iPad applications to our suite of Monster Mobile Solutions. Monster Mobile Solutions is robust offering that caters to jobseekers who are constantly on the move. Owing to the pervasive nature of mobile, the Indian smartphone industry is witnessing high-intensity growth, and is expected to comprise 12%-14% of the mobile handset sales in 2012. And given the growing popularity of iPhone and iPads amongst gadget-savvy youth, the Monster app will provide jobseekers with a dynamic, efficient and convenient option to keep a track of jobs at their convenience. Coupled with Monster’s inherent understanding of user’s requirements and innovation amidst of its initiatives, we aim to extensively tap latest technologies including mobile to better connect with users.”

The introduction of the iPhone app now makes Monster a truly cross-platform service. They already have Blackberry, Android and Windows apps and this addition will definitely help them cover all its user segments.

The app can be downloaded for both the iPhone and the iPad.

Check out the app and let us know what you think of it.

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3G Tariff War Officially On As Vodafone, IDEA and Reliance follow Airtel, Aircel. [With Tariff Plans]

Aatif Sumar — Wed, 23 May 2012 13:07:36 +0000

3G Networks coming to India was a huge step forward in the Telecom business. The auctions had shattered all records and thousand of crores were paid for licenses to provide 3G in various parts of India. Since no operator had pan-India connectivity, operators got into Roaming Agreements with each other to help out their customers. Unfortunately, the Government did not like this and banned them from doing so. Since their launch over a year ago, most providers have been charging prohibitively high 3G tariffs, in an attempt to recover their huge capital investment of buying the spectrum. In fact, we had even pegged that as the reason 3G failed to achieve any critical momentum in India. Now, this is all set to change.

State run MTNL and BSNL always had the most affordable 3G Data rates, but other factors kept people away from switching over. Telecom operator Aircel started the war last month being the first private operator to reduce 3G rates. After that, market leader Airtel reduced their 3G rates a week ago.

Now, Vodafone (second in the country in number of customers) has slashed their 3G Rates. IDEA Cellular too has followed suit and slashed its 3G Rates. We also have word that Reliance also just reduced the pricing on their 3G Plans too.

The revised plans of these operators can be found below. Tariff’s courtesy TelecomTalk.info

Aircel

Airtel

IDEA Cellular

Vodafone

Reliance

The fact that most large players have reacted to the price revisions is a good sign for the average customer. So far, 3G charges have been between 5-10 times more expensive than the same 2G EDGE data plans. Further, 3G coverage has been spotty and battery intensive. This has caused a lot of people to give it a miss and stick to 2G, even though their devices can easily support high speed data transfer.

The introduction of more affordable 3G Plans will go a long way in making consumers switch over to 3G. A lot of mobile web services will be able to explore new avenues if more and more consumers switch to 3G. Audio and Video Streaming services too will boom soon as result of this.

We think its only a matter of time before the rest of the operators react and reduce their rates too. This puts 3G within reach of tens of millions of more subscribers. The next few months will be exciting and we hope 3G finally takes off. As the saying goes: better late than never!

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Dhingana Receives A Warm Welcome From Users; Golden Age For Legal Music Websites?

Alap Naik Desai — Wed, 23 May 2012 11:30:08 +0000

Indian music streaming website Dhingana.com has surpassed 10 Million users.

Source: yourstory.in

After a successful launch as an app on Facebook, music portal Dhingana now routinely gets about 10.5 Monthly Active Visitors. Unlike other companies that get users registered, but do not seem to be active, this number of users are actually listening & interacting on the site. With over 2,00,000 new users per month, the Dhingana app alone is able to garner a fan following 4.5 Million users.

Snehal Shinde, CEO and Co-founder of Dhingana is elated.

“We are excited to announce our usage statistics which show that we are the largest player in the Indian music streaming industry today and among the largest across the world”

What’s so special? After our Indian Govt. came down heavily on the websites that pirated music, many contemplated going legal. However, sites like Dhingana could have surely benefited from this as it never pirated music & stayed true to its core values of offering quality Indian music to listeners world-wide.

Interestingly, the Facebook app too is getting a great response, with average listener spending almost 15 minutes daily. With regional content including Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Dhingana has apparently set the bar high for its competitors.

What next? Judging by the growth pattern, the company could start introducing advertisements like many are doing. Or it could even beef up advertisements on its mobile apps. However, recent studies have proven this is not an effective strategy. Whatever the motive of the company, it surely shows that quality content is surely appreciated & supported by audiences worldwide. With more sophisticated devices & powerful hardware supported by faster internet, music streaming has nowhere to go but up.

Do our readers stream songs from the internet? How’s the experience?

Update: Check out this infographic shown below,

Source: TheNextWeb

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ValueFirst Acquires Way2Sms.com and 160by2.com; Becomes Largest Digital Media Company In India

Denzil — Wed, 23 May 2012 08:57:46 +0000

The news that Digital Media company ValueFirst has acquired popular Indian free SMS services Way2Sms.com and 160by2.com shows that consolidation has firmly set into the P2P SMS business in India. The SMS business in India is being threatened due to the rise of Instant messaging over data connections. This is because data connections are cheaper than SMS charges and the delivery of IMs is much faster and accurate than their SMS counterparts. There is also the matter of TRAI regulations that SMS companies have to deal with.

ValueFirst has announced that it acquired both the services in an all cash deal. This acquisition makes ValueFirst the largest digital media company in the country with a footprint over all the existing platforms like Internet, Voice, SMS and Email, according to their press release. The amount paid in the acquisition has not been revealed but ValueFirst stresses that this is one of the largest acquisitions in the Indian Internet industry. It is interesting to note that 160by2.com was acquired by Way2Online, the Hyderabad company behind Way2Sms.com just 4 months ago.

Here are some important figures which have come out of this acquisition:

ValueFirst now has:

50 million profiled registered users

40,000 registrations daily

250 crores annually

Speaking about this move, Mr. Vishwadeep Bajaj, MD and group chairman, ValueFirst Group said, “In the context of explosive growth in the digital advertising in the country which embraces both mobile & internet channels, the acquisition of Way2Sms is our inorganic route to grow the internet inventory. We have been traditionally very strong on the mobile media and this acquisition now leapfrogs ValueFirst as a lone provider of multi-modal digital interaction capability across mobile & Internet on a scale, which no other digital media company enjoys in the country.”

Raju Vanapala, CEO, Way2Sms Group spoke about the acquisition saying, “Over the last year we partnered with ValueFirst on a range of initiatives. Our relationship over a period of time has grown and I am very happy to know that way2sms.com will continue to grow under ValueFirst. The team at ValueFirst has a deep understanding of both the Internet and mobile mediums and I am personally proud that with this strategic sale I have been instrumental in creating the largest digital media company in the country”

We think ValueFirst is being highly optimistic about SMS actually doing well in the country in the coming years. As we see it, SMS will largely be abandoned in favor of IM and social. It is happening already, a personal example being me switching to Facebook Messenger for all my messaging needs. Others use Whatsapp and Nimbuzz. Small town India is discovering IM and Mobile Internet now but it will slowly eclipse the other kinds of Internet access and people will use IM apps more leaving SMS in the lurch. Unless ValueFirst is looking at transitioning all its newfound users post the acquisition to a probable IM product in the future, the big bet on SMS companies might not be all that great.

What are your views on this acquisition?

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New Social Network ‘My Last Wish’ Wants You To Share Your Bucket List

Aatif Sumar — Wed, 23 May 2012 08:53:05 +0000

There are a lot of Social Networks out there on the internet. From the mainstream ones like Facebook and Twitter, to the new starts like Google+ and to specialized ones categorized by religion like JewDate. With the hundreds of millions of internet users out there, most networks manage to find at least a niche audience. Today we have heard of one such network that aim to connect users based on not their age or interest or location, but rather on what they want to do before dying.

My Last Wish is a social network that, like Instagram, can be accessed from the user’s smartphone. In this case, it has just an iOS app out. The app has become pretty popular on the App Store due to curious users trying it out, causing My Last Wish to come in the limelight.

Says Kirtan Thaker, co-founder of the group behind My Last Wish, “I believed in the possibility that there can be two persons in this world with same hopes, dreams and wishes. I was confident that if we create a app where this possibility can be turned into reality, people will love this concept and they will get a chance to make friends who are unknown but having just one thing in common which is the last wish.”

The network has a tongue-in-cheek way of using standard features we have got used to through Facebook. Users post their last wishes on a ‘Wish Wall’. The purpose is to find people who have a Bucket List or set of wishes similar to you, and connect with them. If you appreciate someone’s wish, you can click tap on the palm icon and ‘Like’ their wish. You can also ‘give a five’ to a person to show them support. These are obvious modifications of Facebook’s Wall, Like and Poke features.

Source: Mashable

Users can update their profile and add their personal email address or phone number, and see information shared by other. Since it is integrated with a phone app, tapping a user’s information automatically adds it to your address book. Push Notification too are supported, so you can know in real time if someone interacts with you. The company behind the app, White Lotus said that they plan to add a location-based feature by which you can see users on a map. While it is currently iOS only, they have plans to release an Android version too if the network achieves enough momentum.

Two things are interesting about My Last Wish. Firstly, their decision to go with a dedicated mobile app instead of a website. Possibly encourage by the hit success of Instagram, which only has smartphone apps, they too skipped a conventional website. We could be seeing a rising trend of services that are skipping the PC. Could this be a sign of the ‘Post PC Generation’ famously touted by Steve Jobs?

Secondly, conventional social networks help you to connect with people you already know. Here, the only criterion for connecting with someone is their innermost desire of what they want to do before leaving this world. It is a very personal question and can give a lot of insight as to what kind of person you are. If used in the way it is intended, this could lead to some interesting connections, or at least conversations. It remains to be seen how comfortable users are talking about it with complete strangers though.

What do you think? Will you give My Last Wish a try or is it just another passing fad? Do let us know in the comments below.

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Small Companies Face Bigger Threats From Hackers

Alap Naik Desai — Wed, 23 May 2012 06:19:42 +0000

The rapid penetration of high speed Internet has surely helped India explore opportunities well beyond the traditional routes. However, this growth has not been supported by security know-how. Hence smaller & medium companies (SMB) are increasingly falling prey to online malicious activities.

Source: aboutbradsugars.com

According to leading online security firm Symantec, Indian companies either do not posses adequate knowledge for self-protection or build only minimal security cover.

How do the attacks work? Hackers routinely employ the much preferred, Social media route to spread the viruses. When an unsuspecting employee clicks on a infected link, a malware download is triggered. If the companies’ defenses are not strong or updated, this infection then find its way to other computers on the network.

Interestingly, hackers prefer poorly defended data stack of government and large private sector organizations. Once the malware wriggles in, it usually escalates its privileges or rights to seek the data that is financially profitable. The security firm has also warned that mobiles too are the new route to exploit & usurp data. With mobile devices routinely being used to carry out office related work, no wonder companies had been worried for long.

The statistics reveal an alarming growth in targeted attacks. Just last year there were 82 attacks reported per day, up from 77 a year back. However, security firms have upped their game & had managed to block more than 5.5 billion attempts. Maybe that’s the reason new virus development actually dropped by 20%. What this means is hackers are now using the same techniques multiple times instead of developing new ones.

Interestingly, smaller towns like Surat, Cochin, etc. have witnessed a rapid rise in such attacks. Wonder when will Gurgaon, who is witnessing rapid technological growth, fall prey to such attacks.

What steps have our readers taken to safeguard their data from possible attacks?

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e-Classifieds Site Quickr Gets $ 32 Million From Warburg Pincus & Others

Alap Naik Desai — Tue, 22 May 2012 12:14:27 +0000

Online e-classifieds company Quikr India Pvt Ltd has secured US$ 32 Million in its fifth round of funding.

Source: expressIndia.com

Private equity firm Warburg Pincus led the funding while existing investors Matrix Partners India, Norwest Venture Partners and eBay Inc also participated. The company plans to utilize the funds to diversify onto the mobile platform & acquire new customers through intensified marketing activities. This investment coincidentally marks the first for Warburg after a hiatus of nearly a decade.

Quickr has so far managed to get US$ 50 Million (Rs. 260 Crores). The company claims to have more than 17 Million unique visitors per month from 83 cities . Quickr offers a simplified platform to sell or buy just about anything online. Spread over 165 broad categories, one can buy/sell electronics, automobiles & even real estate here. Observing this drive to boost online e-commerce, multiple companies like Matrix & Omidyar, then Norwest & later Nokia Growth Partners put in US$ 4.13 Million, US$ 6 Million & US$ 8 Million respectively.

The online classified markets is not a niche one. In fact, Quickr faces competition from multiple companies like ReleaseMyAd, ibibo, MJunction etc. However, with the emergence of newer platforms like mobiles & tablets, the survivors will be decided on their ability to adapt & grow. We just saw how mobiles were driving e-commerce. Hence, it seems obvious that Quickr is developing classifieds platform for the mobile ecosystem.

With India’s online e-commerce market just breaching the US$ 10 Billion mark, there is ample opportunity for companies to exploit this new avenue. Last year private equity funds put in a total of US$ 10.58 Billion across 501 deals.

Do you use Quickr? How’s the experience?

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Online E-Commerce Driven By Mobile Phones; Changing Dynamics?

Alap Naik Desai — Tue, 22 May 2012 10:28:20 +0000

According to a recent survey by online ecommerce company eBay, Indians are now regularly making purchases using their mobile phones.

Mobiles have surely become ubiquitous just by their numbers. Additionally, they have reached places where even Banks couldn’t. Under such circumstances, it is no surprise that mobiles are becoming the preferred medium to shop. Add to it the various payment-centric innovations should make mobiles the ultimate shopping tool.

Given the rapid proliferation of mobile phones, people are now easily accessing Internet & buying on the go. Moreover, the telecom companies are supporting the same with better Internet capabilities. As mobile devices become as powerful as desktops, their usage in our daily lives will increase many-folds.

eBay conducted a survey across 4,500 users & an astonishing 68% confirmed they shop online using their phones. Furthermore 84% of them admitted to checking prices via their phones before making an offline purchase. This comes as no surprise that over 94% of Indians are now regularly on the Internet, using their smartphones. In fact a recent survey has confirmed India to be ahead of USA in terms of mobile Internet usage. Interestingly, after email and social networking, shopping is our third most preferred activity.

It’s not just eBay, but other companies are now realizing the power of the mobile phones to drive online commerce. Recently companies like Snapdeal designed a special shopping app, just for mobiles. Even offline giant Tata Croma setup shop online. With Banks & even Govt. supporting such initiatives with options for secure payment , it is no wonder people enjoy buying online while on the move.

Do you think this growth will be sustained in the future?

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Popular Instant Messaging Company, Nimbuzz To Shift HQ To India

Alap Naik Desai — Tue, 22 May 2012 09:08:24 +0000

With 24% market share & 1/5^th of its 90 Million users in India, Nimbuzz has decided to shift its global Head Quarters (HQ) here in India. The mobile instant messaging and VoIP company feels an Indian HQ will help it better leverage its position & has already began the re-structuring process.

Why such a decision? India offers a vast opportunity for mobile centric applications & companies. With such a huge mobile population, telecom companies are clamoring to offer new & innovative solutions to retain the customer base. Last week Nimbuzz had initiated an open API for its Messenger with Chat Buddy Developer Program. Nimbuzz is famous for offering automated chat bots that intelligently guide users to get information across various categories like cricket, astrology, shopping, games, and news. With an open API, Indian developers can easily access over 90 Million users across 220+ countries.

Just last month Nimbuzz had also launched location based advertising through its apps. By learning about the users & their location, Nimbuzz can easily serve contextual advertisements about products / offers nearby. While some have already started to offer similar services, it will be the popularity of Nimbuzz that will set is apart from the competition. Users are known to spend about 55 minutes a day on Nimbuzz! Our readers might also recall, Nimbuzz had also launched an e-commerce venture Ncarry.com to sell mobile phones.

With such a high amount of activity in India, it just makes sense to have an HQ in the country for quicker decision making & implementation. What do you think?

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Now An iPhone App To Take Care Of Your Plants!

Denzil — Mon, 21 May 2012 09:57:24 +0000

Hobbies are awesome! They make you take your mind off things and help you relax. In today’s world, everything moves so fast. Many people find it hard to balance between work, family and hobbies. Most of us are unable to pursue our hobbies because of this (I want to write a sci-fi novella!). Well, technology again comes to the rescue to make your life easier! For example: the fine art of gardening which is now practised by very few people (at least in my opinion!). The problems faced in gardening are many such general paucity of gardening spaces, lack of time to check on your garden patch and finally inexperience in terms of wannabe gardeners who want to take it up but find it really difficult. How do you make the whole taking care of your plants part easier?

“There is an app for that”.

Source: Koubachi’s Website

The Koubachi WiFi Sensor is an application which promises to monitor your precious plants and alert you in case things are looking ‘red’. The iOS app comes bundled with a sensor which is supposed to be placed with the plant. These sensor checks all the vitals of the plants by calculating conditions such as sunlight, water, humidity, temperature etc. against the parameters that it has been fed with. Any deviations from the parameters will result in the app giving you an ‘alert’.

This is a really smart application for a very unique niche. The distinguished thing about the application is the fact that it can work for any plant, both the local and the exotic ones. As any gardener will tell you, different plant require different conditions to thrive. The app has a backend directory/encyclopedia which helps it to track various plants and apply the parameters accordingly.

Check out the video which explains the app:

The sensor needs a bit of calibration everyday but will run on 2 AA batteries for a period of 18 months. We are very impressed with this and we are sure that gardening enthusiasts will like it too. The cost for the sensor is 7500 INR (Shipping not included) which is pretty prohibitive when you think of it. You can check the app’s homepage here and tell us what you think in the comments.

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Another 4G Player Quitting Market: Is Government Driving Them Away?

Aatif Sumar — Mon, 21 May 2012 09:30:30 +0000

India’s Telecom Sector has been both a success story and a nightmare for many people. While number of telecom subscribers in India is at a record high, and looking bullish for the future, all is not well. The combination of delays, missed deadlines and inefficient regulation has caused a lot of turmoil. A recent example would be the re-auctioning of 2G Spectrum Licenses that caused companies like Telenor to want to leave the country and Loop Mobile to greatly reduce its operations. The 3G Spectrum was auctioned off at record high prices with lakhs of crores of rupees entering the Government’s coffers. Yet the Roaming Agreement controversy between major operators and the Government took away a lot of sheen and exposed the fact that all was not well.

When we look at the 4G Spectrum, a glum picture exists too. The 4G Auction had taken place in 2010 and a lot of large players purchased spectrum. US Chipmaker, Qualcomm had purchased spectrum in 4 circles, and we know that they are looking for an exit path, with some reports saying Bharti Airtel is trying to take the spectrum off their hands. Now we have news that yet another 4G Spectrum buyer, France Telecom-backed company Augere Wireless is reportedly quitting the Indian Market by selling its 4G spectrum in the two states it holds them. The reason for this move being: Regulatory Uncertainty aka ‘no faith in the Government’.

Investors in Augere Wireless lost faith in their India Operations, and employees in India have been asked to resign.
In a telephonic conversation with the Economic Times, Henrick Stork, CEO of Augere Wireless said, “There is a lot of uncertainty hanging over the telecom sector in India. The cancellation of licences by the Supreme Court, TRAI’s rules for re-auction and the exorbitantly high reserve price, as well as lack of clarity on the new telecoms policy, which was supposed to be unveiled by mid-last year and has not happened yet… all these factors have resulted in our investors stopping funding for our activities here.“

Augure Wireless had paid Rs. 125 Crore in 2012 for the 4G Permit. In 2011 they announced that they would invest close to 300 Crore over the next 5 years in states like MP and Chhattisgarh and had plans for launching in 14 cities by April 2012. However, their investors lost faith in our Regulatory Environment. As their CEO stated, TRAI’s rules were perceived as harmful and unfriendly by their shareholders, causing them to lose faith. Interestingly, this is the first company to be packing up because of a funds crunch. Other players like Telenor lost their licenses and hence wanted to quit.

This is indeed worrisome. Other companies too aren’t very happy. With telecom giant Vodafone threatening to seek international help against the government for yet trying to make them pay $3.5 Billion for their 2007 acquisition of Hutch, one fine day they too might decide that enough is enough. It is not a healthy environment to operate in and it is up to the TRAI to listen to the woes of the players and try to improve the situation.

What do you think? Are operators and spectrum buyers being too fussy or is the TRAI actively making a more hostile environment by trying to mint too much money?

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After Telenor Now Sistema Threatens To Exit India Due To TRAI’s Proposal

mitesh — Mon, 21 May 2012 06:41:49 +0000

Sistema, the Russian oil to telecom conglomerate has threatened to exit India if government accepts TRAI’s proposal to sell CDMA airwaves for more than 4,078 Crore per unit. This translates a 14 fold increase in comparison to what the company paid in 2008. This is serious issue because Norwegian telecommunications operator Telenor has also followed in Sistema’s steps and threatened to exit India for the very ‘same reason’.

News of the exit from the Russian operator is a 180 flip as earlier it vowed to continue operations in India after Supreme Court declared one of its license null and void.

One of the senior Sistema official said that there is a lot of pressure on the company to pull out of India, a country where it has already invested $3 Billion. It had purchased controlling stake in Shyam Telelink which was subsequently been renamed to Sistema Shyam. The company is better known to the public as MTS.

Sistema has in the past pushed a petition in the Supreme Court against its decision to cancel Sistema’s mobile permits. There are chances that Sistema can commence arbitration before an international tribunal as the regulation goes against the bilateral treaty between Russia and India. Experts and company officials view the proposed TRAI policy as a coded message to build entry barriers for new operators.

Whichever way the matter swings, Indian policy makers need to take a deep look at the current and proposed policies as India, is now being viewed as a difficult and preferably avoidable investment destination. Due to non-friendly attitude towards foreign companies and the complex investment policies. Policy makers specially in the telecom sector need to quickly draw out a solution which will be favorable for all the stakeholders.

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Tower Bloxx Revolution Gets 10000 Downloads In One Month.

Denzil — Fri, 18 May 2012 15:56:30 +0000

Tower Bloxx Revolution is the latest game from Digital Chocolate, a game company which develops mobile and cross platform social games. The game is available on Mobango, Mauj Mobile’s cross-platform mobile app store. Mauj Mobile has made alliance with Digital Chocolate so that they can distribute over 100 popular mobile games on Mobango. The key difference with this deal is that Mauj Mobile provides these games via network operators as premium content.

The Game:

We checked out the game and were slightly miffed that it had so many loading screens. Simplicity in terms of UX is doubly challenging on the mobile but then we feel the game could have reduced the intros by quite a bit.

The game is basically a tower building content with a constantly swinging crane which drops the bricks one by one depending on your input. The key is to get the timing right and keep scaling the tower high. This might seem easy but it is not that simple. You get a lot of power ups on the way and the game can be quite addictive in that sense. The game has a feature where you can compete with other players and this can be quite exciting. There are multiple modes in which you can play the game such as Casual, Swift and Frenzy. All of them have slightly different mechanisms but they are entertaining none the less.

The game is awesome for a quick gaming fix when you have the free time but is not really very ‘sticky’ because even though the bells and whistles are all there, ultimately the game is all about making sure that the brick falls down at the right time. The challenging aspect is somewhat lost on repeat plays and after a while it can get purely mechanical.

Digital Chocolate and Mauj Mobile:

This game has garnered 10000 downloads within one month in India and that is a good feat for the alliance between the two companies.

“We are excited to know that Tower Bloxx Revolution enjoys such high popularity among Indian users”, stated Robert Unsworth, VP of Digital Chocolate. “We are confident that our partnership with Mauj Mobile will usher such continuous growth adding further value to our global expansion strategy.”

Mauj Mobile is stoked at the prospect of getting games of International quality to Indian audiences through this partnership.

“We are equally excited to receive such great response for Digital Chocolate games”, remarked an ecstatic Badri Sanjeevi, CEO, Mauj Mobile and Mobango. “Mauj Mobile has a strong presence in the Indian mobile market. We have an objective to provide new and exciting premium gaming content to mobile users. Our partnership with Digital Chocolate aligns with this goal and we are optimistic for the new offerings that we will bring.
The game is available on Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance and Idea networks. To download, you can message TBL to 57007.

Give it a try and tell us how you liked it.

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UC Browser Number One On Mobango; Still Behind Opera Mini On Other Platforms

Denzil — Fri, 18 May 2012 10:59:56 +0000

The Mobile India is reporting that mobile browser UC Browser, a browser originating from China has managed to gain more downloads from the Mobango App Store. The new browser has seemingly trumped Opera’s nifty offering by 33% more downloads. We will check how the app has fared on other platforms and if it really has the potential to topple Opera from its sweet spot.

Lets look at how both the browsers fare on Google Play:

UC Browser installs: 500,000 – 1,000,000

UC Browser ratings: 10,785

Opera Mini installs: 10,000,000 – 50,000,000

Opera Mini ratings: 266,081

Opera is enormously popular on Android in India due to the compression facility that it offers. Internet infrastructure is not really up to the mark in the country and hence the heavy usage.

We also checked how both of them were doing on the Itunes App Store but there is no install data available, hence we will have to resort to indirect means like Number of rating and the actual value of the ratings.

UC Browser ratings (Current version): 27

UC Browser ratings (All versions): 162

Opera Mini ratings (Current version): 90

Opera Mini ratings (All versions): 1735

We also checked Nokia’s Ovi Store and there was no data on which one was doing better except for the fact that both the browsers had the same 4 star rating. The UC Browser on the Blackberry app store has a 2 star rating while Opera Mini has a 4 star rating.

Mobango is a cross platform app store which has around 8 million users and sees 1 million app downloads on a daily basis. Google Play, iTunes and Nokia’s OVI are much bigger in terms of download and users. So Opera Mini’s number one position is still strong on almost all platforms. This is due to that fact that Opera has tie-ups with major device manufacturers who provide Opera directly on their phones, which are mostly feature phones. Thus, even though UC Browser’s download count might increase but currently it can’t compete with the Mini yet. UC Browser has indeed started gathering steam and is very hot right now. The browser has good webpage loading compression, a similar feature that Opera Mini offers. The Android version had voice commands too!

Check out the video here:

Have you used UC Browser? Share your experiences with us.

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Google Boosts Search Intelligence With Knowledge Graph

Denzil — Fri, 18 May 2012 04:30:50 +0000

I had come across an interesting comparison some time back when I read that the supposedly benign Google had an intelligence level of a baboon. Depending on how you view a glass containing a certain amount of water, you could say that this is pretty cool or frightening. Google Search converted us, Internet users, into Information junkies who had an easy access to whatever they wanted to search in the whole wide world. The fact that Google’s primate intelligence was not really enough sometimes because search keywords were not able to zero in on the right word, place or context was a little troubling but we all accepted that this was the best technology could offer. That is changing from now on!

Source: Google

Google today announced the next biggest thing in Search and it is called the Knowledge Graph. The knowledge graph is ambitious project which aims at eliminating the errors in context based results and ultimately hold a total repository of knowledge, just like what Wikipedia is doing. They had a pretty detailed blog post about it on their official blog. This is how it explains what the Knowledge Graph is all about.

“Take a query like [taj mahal]. For more than four decades, search has essentially been about matching keywords to queries. To a search engine the words [taj mahal] have been just that—two words.

But we all know that [taj mahal] has a much richer meaning. You might think of one of the world’s most beautiful monuments, or a Grammy Award-winning musician, or possibly even a casino in Atlantic City, NJ. Or, depending on when you last ate, the nearest Indian restaurant. It’s why we’ve been working on an intelligent model—in geek-speak, a “graph”—that understands real-world entities and their relationships to one another: things, not strings.”

The graph currently has more than 500 million objects and 3.5 billion facts and understands the interconnected complex relationships between these objects. The graph improves search in 3 major ways.

1. Human language is far from perfect in terms of universality and consistency in rules. English is a good standard to adhere to but it does have its own few flaws due to quirky grammar rules and other colloquial or contextual problems. The infusion of intelligence in the search will make it better at deciding exactly what you were looking for.

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Source: Google

2. The graph is located on the right side of your screen and will give you quick and relevant summaries of a keyword. Say, if you are searching for Einstein, it will pick up Einstein’s details like birth, death, achievements along with related people. This is excellent because now you can dig up information for your research project easily and find related terms, people and activities that are related to your keyword.

Source: Google

3. Finally, the graph might help you make interesting discoveries about people and topics because of the way it pulls data from various sources and summarises it nicely. This Search example by Google shows where Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons got the idea for his characters.

So, we are guessing Matt is Bart!

The graph is not just for desktop web users. Google has tailored it to run on mobile devices too. Check this image out.

Source: Google

The feature is currently being rolled out to Android OS 2.2+ and iOS4+ users. (I have yet to see it!)

So how revolutionary is this? Some are saying that it got 1000x smarter! Well, it is pretty awesome not just because of the search associations and results it throws but because of the fact that an artificial virtual engine has become smart enough to understand human context however primitive it maybe at this point. This is the first step towards artificial intelligence making the world easier for everyone who wants to explore it.

Intelligent machines, a web of things and augmented reality! These are the next biggest things to look out for from here on. I just hope we don’t end up in a Skynet like scenario however unlikely that may sound!

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