Reliance Jio to offer high-speed data, voice services using 4G technology

KOLKATA: Reliance Jio Infocomm has said it would use the mix of airwaves it owns to offer both high-speed data and voice services, while scoffing at analyst comments that the company could find it tough to attract customers without providing voice options.

The company is building "futuristic high-capacity infrastructure to handle huge demand for data and voice" using fourth-generation technology, a Reliance Jio spokesman said. "In addition to high-speed data, the 4G network will provid ..

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Infosys looks to rope in Israeli firm Goldratt Consulting to improve productivity

BANGALORE: InfosysBSE -0.54 % is in discussions with an Israeli management consultancy that counts top global corporations as its clients for a project to dramatically improve productivity in its business, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Bangalore-based company, which is aiming for a return to industry-leading growth and margins under chairman NR Narayana Murthy, is considering engaging the Israeli firm to help its operations become more efficient while also accelerating its top line growth, the sources said on condition of anonymity.

Goldratt Consulting, which is based in Tel Aviv and has among its clientele companies such as Procter & Gamble and Amazon, is proposing its proprietary 'Theory of Constraints' solution to help Infosys optimise the way in which it delivers software to clients, a senior executive privy to the development told ET, adding that no final decision has been made.

An email to Goldratt Consulting did not elicit a reply while an Infosys spokeswoman declined to comment.

The 'Theory of Constraints' is a management philosophy enunciated by the late Eliyahu Goldratt, a former physicist who founded the eponymous consulting firm. Goldratt Consulting, whose Indian customers include TitanBSE 4.15 %, Croma and Madura Garments, claims that the key is identifying and removing operational bottlenecks.

If a deal goes through, Goldratt is promising that it will help Infosys deploy its resources in such a way that the time taken to deliver software services to clients is crunched as much as possible, with potential reductions of up to 40%. Once Infosys is able to do more with the same resources, the sources said it will free up the company to chase more projects and help expand revenue growth by at least 25% a year from current levels. "It is an important change that we are trying to bring at Infosys," a senior executive briefed on the discussion said on conditions of anonymity.

The Israeli consultancy has proposed starting the initiative with a product vertical which will have to undergo an overhaul, including employee restructuring if Goldratt gets into the picture. The overhaul is expected to reduce time taken to build as well as deliver the product to the client, thus boosting employee productivity as well as profit margins. Infosys's product vertical is called Products Platforms and Solutions, which includes the company's core-banking product Finacle, contributing nearly 6% of its over $7 billion (Rs 42,000 crore) sales.

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Pc Vs Mac

 

 

 

PC As the most popular OS for home and office PCs, Windows is a trusted brand that works on any device. The latest Windows 8 is also a lot faster, more interactive and easier to use than previous versions.

MAC The defining element of a Mac experience is its OS. Fast, simple and reliable, the Mac OS is designed to work best with Apple’s hardware and is less compatible with other PCs.

From the standard Microsoft Office to the more advanced Adobe Creative Suites, most programs and apps now come in versions for both PCs and Macs. If you’re switching between a PC and a Mac, you’ll need the right version to run on that OS.

PC PCs offer users endless options for designs because there are so many brands to choose from. The latest Ultrabook™ devices are also pushing new designs and features with the addition of touchscreens and 2-in-1s.

MAC What they lack in variety, Apple makes up for with beautiful, clean and iconic designs that are instantly recognizable. As a premium product, Macs are also made with higher quality materials.

PC With a PC, you have the freedom to customize your computer before AND after purchase. Need more RAM? You can add more anytime. Want better graphics and sound? That’s easy to do too. This ease of upgrading your hardware lets you extend the life of your computer with newer components whenever you need.

MAC On the flipside, Macs are configured to meet the demands of most users. Specialized users who are looking for a more customized computer may find it hard to do so with a Mac. Any form of customization will have to be done before purchase.

The final comparison comes down to cost. For most users, cost is important; you want to get the most for your money. With so many brands and models available, PCs offer a much wider price range so there’s always something for every budget. Due to the higher cost in making Macs, they tend to be more expensive and have a limited price range compared to PCs.

 

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Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin get $1 salary while Eric Schmidt's package doubled

SAN FRANCISCO: Google paid co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin their customary $1 salaries last year while Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt's compensation more than doubled to $19.3 million.

Most of Schmidt's raise stemmed from stock grants valued at $11.4 million. Google issued them to make up for an administrative error in the handling of another large award given to Schmidt in February 2011, according to regulatory documents filed Friday.

If not for the mix-up, Schmidt's pay package last year would have risen 4 per cent from the $7.6 million that he got in 2012.

Page, Google's chief executive, and Brin, another top executive, have insisted on capping their salaries at $1 annually since Google Inc. went public nearly a decade ago. It's a symbolic gesture that many other Silicon Valley executives have made after amassing fortunes through the stock that they held in their respective companies.

Page, 41, and Brin, 40, each own Google stock currently worth about $26 billion.

Schmidt, 58, has accumulated wealth estimated at $9 billion by Forbes magazine. He also limited his salary to $1 annually while he was chief executive.
The pay scale has changed dramatically since Schmidt turned over the chief executive job to Page three years ago. In 2011, Schmidt received compensation valued at $101 million, with most of the money tied up in restricted stock designed to keep him working at Google. Last month, Google disclosed that Schmidt is receiving another stock award valued at $100 million this year.

As Google's executive chairman, Schmidt primarily deals with regulatory issues, government relationships and company acquisitions. The company thought Schmidt did such a good job last year that he received his maximum cash bonus of $6 million to supplement his $1.25 million salary.

None of the other Google executives listed in the proxy statement qualified for their maximum bonuses last year.

Google and its stockholders fared well last year. The company's earnings climbed 20 per cent from the previous year to $12.9 billion and its stock price gained 58 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 index increased by 30 per cent last year.

The Associated Press formula calculates an executive's total compensation during the last fiscal year by adding salary, bonuses, perks, above-market interest that the company pays on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock and stock options awarded during the year. The AP formula does not count changes in the present value of pensions, a benefit that Google and most other technology companies don't provide. 

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Amazing Google Glasses Demonstration at Google

Google Glasses Live Demonstration - During the Google I/O 2012 keynote, the audience was about to experience an amazing demonstration of Google Glasses

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New Apple iPhone likely out in September:

TOKYO: Apple is likely to release its newest iPhone globally in September with a higher resolution and bigger screens, Japan's business daily reported Friday.

The handset, expected to be called the iPhone 6, is expected to come in two versions with a 4.7- or 5.5-inch screen, up from the current four-inch panel, the report said, without citing sources.

US-based Apple is ordering its higher-resolution liquid crystal display screens from Japanese electronics giant Sharp, Japan ..

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Microsoft unveils Office for iPad

NEW DELHI: Microsoft took its time but it has finally accepted that iPad and iPhone are popular devices. On Thursday it announced a change in how it offers its services and said that MS Office is now available to iPad users.

In his first major press conference as CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella said that Microsoft will work to serve "users and organisations across devices" and not just those who use a computer or tablet powered by Windows. As the first example of Microsoft's new direction, Nadella then announced that the company is bringing MS Office, a popular productivity suite, to iPad.
The Office suite includes separate apps for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint and will be available on the App Store starting 11:30pm IST.

The three Office apps will be free to download and will allow reading and presenting without the need to subscribe to Office 365. A subscription will also enable editing features.

The Office apps feature an interface similar to the Windows and Mac versions but have been optimised for a touchscreen. Unlike the Office for iPhone app that allows basic editing, the Office for iPad apps offer advanced features including full file compatibility with desktop versions, support for re-flowing, and formatting. Nadella said the vision with MS Office 365 was to make sure that a billion users could access it from any device and not only from a Windows device.

"We're bringing Office, the gold standard in getting things done, to the iPad. A billion people rely on Office every day, and we've worked diligently to create a version of Word, Excel and PowerPoint that delivers the best productivity experience available on the iPad. It's built from the ground up for touch, is unmistakably Office in its design, and is optimized for iPad," he wrote in an official blog post, that appeared on the Microsoft website after the press conference ended in San Francisco.

Microsoft has been criticized for not bringing Office, which is arguably the most popular software made by the company, to iPad. In its absence, apps like Kingsoft, Zoho and Apple's iWork apps (Pages, Numbers and Keynote) have thrived on mobile platforms. In fact, Apple now offers its iWork Office apps free with new iOS devices. This also means that Office for iPad will face competition from these apps. 

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Competition Commission slaps Rs 1 crore fine on Google

NEW DELHI: The Competition Commission has imposed a Rs 1 crore penalty on Google for failing to provide information related to an investigation into the Internet major's alleged unfair trade practices in India.

The fair trade watchdog also directed the company to cooperate in the probe.

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Top E-commerce websites to save money

Coupondekho.com

Karan Bajaj, ET BureauThe home page lists recent coupons so that it is easy to view which website is offering new deals/discounts. It lets you share coupons via mail or social networks

Cashkaro.com

It is the leading name in cash back segment in India. For every successful transaction, the retailer pays commission to Cashkaro.com. In turn, Cashkaro gives you back a certain amount. 

Groupon.co.in

Select a city and it will show deals across various categories. Most deals are time-bound and tend to expire in a few days or till the stocks last. 

Groupon.co.in

Select a city and it will show deals across various categories. Most deals are time-bound and tend to expire in a few days or till the stocks last. 

Mysmartprice.com

You can compare prices for smartphones, laptops, cameras, appliances, TVs, even e-books, across various sites. A useful feature is the e-mail alert for price drop on a particular product. 

Junglee.com

In addition to electronics, books and appliances, Junglee lets you compare prices on different websites for clothes, shoes, health and beauty items, toys, sports and baby products

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Google Launches Managed Virtual Machines, Gives Developers A Middle Ground Between Compute And App Engine

Google is launching Managed Virtual Machines today, a new service on its Cloud Platform that gives developers the best new option for hosting their applications in the cloud. Instead of having to decide between using an infrastructure-as-a-service platform like Compute Engine or a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) service like App Engine, Virtual Managed Machines, the company says, gives them the best of both worlds.
If you’re planning the backend infrastructure for your web or mobile app today, you will have to decide whether you want the full flexibility of using a service like Compute Engine or Amazon’s EC2 to manage your servers in the cloud, or if you want to go with a platform-as-a-service provider like Parse or Google’s App Engine. By opting for a PaaS, you take away the complexity of having to manage your servers, but you also don’t get the flexibility to change to a different database later or make other modifications to your service.

Google is launching Managed Virtual Machines today, a new service on its Cloud Platform that gives developers the best new option for hosting their applications in the cloud. Instead of having to decide between using an infrastructure-as-a-service platform like Compute Engine or a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) service like App Engine, Virtual Managed Machines, the company says, gives them the best of both worlds.
If you’re planning the backend infrastructure for your web or mobile app today, you will have to decide whether you want the full flexibility of using a service like Compute Engine or Amazon’s EC2 to manage your servers in the cloud, or if you want to go with a platform-as-a-service provider like Parse or Google’s App Engine. By opting for a PaaS, you take away the complexity of having to manage your servers, but you also don’t get the flexibility to change to a different database later or make other modifications to your service.

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Samsung Galaxy S5 to be priced between Rs 51,000-53,000 in India

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Most-loved tech CEOs of 2014

Frank D'Souza, Cognizant Technology Solutions

* 2014 approval rating: 90%

* Overall rank: 24

What employees think:
"Transparent and proper visibility to the management. Good employee benefit programmes. Smart market strategy for overall company growth." – Cognizant Technology Solutions quality assurance engineer (Atlanta)

John Donahoe, eBay

* 2014 approval rating: 91%

* Overall rank: 19

What employees think:
"The CEO of the company is smart, passionate and sincere. John Donahoe is the real deal and a great leader. He may be the most approachable CEO Ie ever met." – eBay Inc director (San Jose, CA)

Tim Cook, Apple

* 2014 approval rating: 92%

* Overall rank: 17

What employees think:
"You feel like everything you do has a direct impact and you are a stakeholder. The VPs and CEO are not removed either. Its common to see them eating lunch on campus amongst everyone else." – Apple front end engineer (Cupertino, CA)

Jerry Kennelly, Riverbed Technology

* 2014 approval rating: 93%

* Overall rank: 13

What employees think:
"Jerry is a fantastic CEO with tons of enthusiasm and energy. Very personable and cares greatly about his company and people. Couldn't possibly be any nicer of a human being running a $1B company on this earth.” – Riverbed Technology sales (San Francisco)

Marc Benioff, Salesforce.com

* 2014 approval rating: 93%

* Overall rank: 12

What employees think:
"Marc is the best CEO in the business — different for sure — but the best." – Salesforce.com sales (San Francisco)

Larry Page, Google

* 2014 approval rating: 93%

* Overall rank: 10

What employees think:
"Sergey and Larry entertaining you every Thursday discussing whats happening in the company and answering your questions." – Google SRE (Mountain View, CA)"Larry wants us to keep the soul of a startup, even though we no longer are one. In some teams, like the ones I have been on, this has been possible — going from an idea to millions of users on a new product in 2 years." – Google software engineer (location N/A)

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook

* 2014 approval rating: 93%

* Overall rank: 9

What employees think:
"Of course the perks are great, but the most important perk is working for a company I truly believe in. Mark is an incredible leader who wants to make the world a better place, and I love doing work for a mission I care about." – Facebook 

Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn

* 2014 approval rating: 100%

* Overall Rank: 1

What employees think:
"The CEO is what helps spread the culture. He emphasizes culture." – LinkedIn associate Web developer (Mountain View, CA)"Culture of complete transparency. Bi-weekly company all-hands with the CEO." – LinkedIn engineering (Mountain View, CA)

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Mixpanel: iOS 7 Adoption At 90%, While Android Kit Kat Remains At Under 10%

Mobile analytics firm Mixpanel has iOS 7 adoption covering the vast majority of Apple mobile devices, with its real-time adoption stat tracker showing between 88 and 90 percent of devices on the latest major revision of iOS based on hourly browsing data. By comparison, you can see that according to its Android device information, only around 8 percent of those using Google’s mobile OS are using Kit Kat (4.4) or higher.

This stat shot says that Apple users are good at remaining fairly current on their devices, and it’s also great news for developers, since apps designed for iOS 7 are likely to be strikingly different from those created for earlier versions of iOS. Apple’s advantage when it comes to fragmentation issues mean less money spent on making sure software works across a range of different OS versions, and it’s something Android still lags considerably with, which is apparent from the current Kit Kat uptake.
As for Apple’s latest version of iOS 7, iOS 7.1, it’s already accounting for the majority of visits to Mixpanel’s partner apps and sites since it debuted March 10. Between that date and today, Mixpanel has seen 31 percent of visits come from 7.1, versus 29 percent via 7.0.6, which is the next closest. The bottom line: Apple users are quick to update and don’t show any signs of becoming more reluctant to do so, which in turn means the efficiency benefits of developing software for iOS over Android aren’t likely going to disappear anytime soon.

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Apple shares to be fueled by new iPhone: Barron's

Apple Inc shares could rise by 20 per cent over the next year, fueled by sales of a new version of its iPhone smartphone that is expected to have a bigger screen, according to an article in the March 24 edition of Barron's.

The iPhone 6, expected in late summer or fall, is certain to have a bigger screen than earlier versions, which could give iPhone users a major reason to upgrade or win back people who switched to other devices, according to the article.

The article notes that Apple shares currently trade at a deep discount to the market.

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Fact About Google

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Happy Birthday Twitter

Twitter's eight most amazing moments
About 500 million tweets are sent a day by more than 241 million monthly active users, according to Twitter. Here are eight memorable moments in Twitter's life:
1. SXSW
Even though the company launched nine months prior, Twitter's popularity took off at the 2007 South By Southwest conference. Live tweets about events were displayed on large screens in the hallways and daily usage of the service expanded wildly.
2. James Buck's release
University of California student James Buck was arrested on April 10, 2008, by authorities while photographing an anti-government protest in Mahalla, Egypt. He then sent a tweet with one word: "Arrested."
His Twitter followers in the U.S. contacted the media, the university and the American embassy, which in turn pressured for his release. Authorities let him go the next day.
3. Miracle on the Hudson
US Airways Flight 1549 hit a flock of geese when leaving New York City on Jan. 15, 2009. The engine lost power and Captain Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger successfully landed the plane on the Hudson River.
Twitter user Janis Krums, @jkrums, was on a ferry that day. He took a picture of the partially submerged plane and sent it out on Twitter. Moments later the photo, which is now copyrighted, went viral.
This January, on the fifth anniversary of the event, Krums retweeted his now-iconic photo.
4. Osama bin Laden raid
IT consultant Sohaib Athar inadvertantly tweeted the raid of Osama bin Laden's compound in Aboottabad, Pakistan. Athar heard a helicopter in the early morning hours and sent out an innocuous tweet. "Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event)," he wrote.
He tweeted for the next few hours about what he saw and heard. After reports came out saying bin Laden had been killed, Athar tweeted, "Uh oh, now I'm the guy who liveblogged the Osama raid without knowing it."
4. Osama bin Laden raid
IT consultant Sohaib Athar inadvertantly tweeted the raid of Osama bin Laden's compound in Aboottabad, Pakistan. Athar heard a helicopter in the early morning hours and sent out an innocuous tweet. "Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event)," he wrote.
He tweeted for the next few hours about what he saw and heard. After reports came out saying bin Laden had been killed, Athar tweeted, "Uh oh, now I'm the guy who liveblogged the Osama raid without knowing it."
5. President Obama's re-election
President Obama broke the then-record for the most retweets on Nov. 6, 2012, when he sent out a photo of him hugging Michelle Obama with the words, "Four more years." It was retweeted more than 800,000 times and sent to more than 200 countries, according to Twitter.
6. First tweet from the Vatican
The Vatican set up a Twitter account for former Pope Benedict XVI and solicited questions from the public with the hashtag #AskPontifex. On Dec. 12, 2012, the pope responded. He first posted, "Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart." The tweet has since been removed and Pope Francis is now using the account to reach digital audiences.

Pope Benedict XVI sent his first tweet Dec. 12, 2012, from his new account.(Photo: Gregorio Borgia, AP)
7. Super Bowl XLVII blackout
The advertising capabilities of Twitter became even clearer during a power outage at the 2013 Super Bowl.
While fans waited for more than 30 minutes for the lights to come back on, marketers got to work.
Within minutes, Oreo sent out a tweet that capitalized on the situation. "Power out? No problem," the tweet read. "You can still dunk in the dark."
8. Ellen's Oscar selfie
At the 2014 Oscars, host Ellen Degeneres broke the record for most retweets with a celebrity-filled selfie. She crammed as many A-list stars as possible into the frame and actor Bradley Cooper took the picture. It now reigns as the most retweeted photo ever, more than tripling Obama's record.

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8GB iPhone 5c Goes Up For Sale In Europe & Asia, As Apple Also Tweaks Global iPad Line-Up

As per the rumours we reported on yesterday, Apple has now added an 8GB version of the iPhone 5c to European stores (via 9to5mac).
On the U.K. Apple store the 8GB device is priced at £429 unlocked, shaving £40 off the cost of entering into the iOS world. The 8GB iPhone 5c is also for sale on U.K. carrier O2′s website.
Update: The 8GB iPhone is also now available on the French Apple store, where it will set buyers back €559, which is €50 cheaper than the 16GB version.
Update 2: The 8GB iPhone 5c is also now available in China, where it costs RMB 4,088 from Apple’s store (RMB 400 cheaper than the 16GB version); and in Australia, where it costs A$679 (A$60 cheaper than the 16GB version).
The 5c, which on the Apple store is marketed under the tagline “for the colorful” — a reference to its candy-coloured plastic casing — has apparently not sold as well as Apple hoped. Hence the capacity and price reduction.
But at £429 the ‘budget iPhone’ still carries a substantial premium vs low end Android devices. Motorola’s well-reviewed 8GB Moto G can currently be picked up for £129 on Amazon, in just one example of available budget smartphones running the Android OS.
At the time of writing the 8GB version of the iPhone 5c is not available on the US Apple store, with only the 16GB and 32GB options currently being offered

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Lenovo To Keep Buying Companies Until It Owns Everything, Everyone

Lenovo isn’t putting away its checkbook yet. The CEO of the Chinese PC giant said on Tuesday that the company will continue to acquire companies for overall growth. This comes as the company is closing two major deals.
Lenovo recently purchased Motorola Mobility from Google for $2.91 billion. The company also picked up IBM’s server business for $2.3 billion, which seems only natural after Lenovo purchased IBM’s personal computer division in 2005 for $1.25 billion.
Lenovo says it doesn’t plan any additional layoffs at Motorola Mobility.
“Motorola’s handset business has already reduced its head count to around 3,500 employees from 30,000 in the last two years before Lenovo’s acquisition. The remaining employees are all talents and most of them are engineers that can help improve Lenovo’s product development in mature markets,” the WSJ reported Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing said after the company’s shareholder meeting. “We can continue to grow our business without cutting any employees.”

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Motorola Introduces The Moto 360, Its First Smartwatch Based On Google’s Android Wear

Motorola is an early partner for Google’s new Android Wear smartwatch SDK, and that’s not surprising given that the company was Google owned until Lenovo began the procedure of buying it in January. The new Moto 360 has a round face, which is one of two options for Wear devices (square is the other) and features the “Ok Google” voice control highlighted by Google for its new spin-off mobile OS.



The hardware features “subtle alerts and notifications,” and Motorola is selling it as a premium, fashion-first advice that uses high-end materials in its construction. It’s coming in a variety of styles as well, and should launch this summer beginning in the U.S. first.

1. 

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Nokia X Android smartphone launched at Rs 8,599

NEW DELHI: Nokia has launched Nokia X, the first phone from the company to run on Google's Android operating system. The phone, priced at Rs 8,599, will be available through online and offline retailers across India starting Monday.

Nokia X was unveiled by Nokia on February 24, during the MWC at Barcelona in Spain, along with Nokia X+ and XL.

Nokia X sports a 4-inch WVGA LCD display (480 X 800p, 233ppi). The dual-sim phone is powered by a 1GHz dual-core Qualcomm Sn

NEW DELHI: Nokia has launched Nokia X, the first phone from the company to run on Google's Android operating system. The phone, priced at Rs 8,599, will be available through online and offline retailers across India starting Monday.

Nokia X was unveiled by Nokia on February 24, during the MWC at Barcelona in Spain, along with Nokia X+ and XL.

Nokia X sports a 4-inch WVGA LCD display (480 X 800p, 233ppi). The dual-sim phone is powered by a 1GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon ..

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Nokia X Android smartphone launched at Rs 8,599

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Facebook-WhatsApp deal may face detailed CCI scrutiny

NEW DELHI: Facebook's $19 billion deal (Rs 1,16,000 crore) to acquire WhatsApp may face a detailed scrutiny by the country's fair trade regulator CCI, especially since both players have significant presence in India.

The world's largest social networking site Facebook has around 1.2 billion members globally while WhatsApp -- a platform that allows exchange of messages and files through mobile phones free of cost -- is estimated to have 450 million users worldwide.

All merger and acquisition deals, involving companies having India presence, have to get approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) which has the mandate to keep a tab on unfair trade practices at the market place.

A senior official said the Commission is yet to receive an application seeking approval for the deal, but it would indeed face an elaborate scrutiny.

Both Facebook and WhatsApp have substantial number of customers in India and they may soon file a notice with CCI to seek its clearance for the deal.

While India has nearly 93 million Facebook users, the count of people using the popular WhatsApp service is around 40 million in the country.

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Former Apple CEO John Sculley to launch smartphone brand in India

NEW DELHI: John Sculley, the man who fired Steve Jobs, is targeting India's growing smartphone market by selling handsets at Rs 12,000 and less, starting next month. InflexionPoint, an investment and acquisitions company promoted by Sculley, has hired Ajay Sharma, former head of smartphones at Micromax, to head the Indian operations. Sharma had earlier worked with HTC India.

Sculley, who was the CEO at Apple between 1983 and 1993, will fund the venture, Sharma told ET. The investments will flow into Dragon Technology, a distribution company owned by InflexionPoint in China. It will oversee production and supply chain of smart devices coming into India.

"Both of us were exploring opportunities and he (Sculley) thought that India is a good market for smartphones," Sharma said. "The name of the brand will be decided next week and the first of the Android smartphones will be launched by mid-April." An email sent to InflexionPoint seeking confirmation on Sculley's level of participation in the venture remained unanswered. Apple and Sculley's ventures may compete in different price bands and it will be interesting to see who wins a chunk of market share in the country.

Sculley's former employer, Cupertino, San Francisco-based Apple, which has handsets mostly in the higher price bands, is also trying to grow its share in India.

Smartphone sales grew more than two-and-half times to 44 million devices in 2013 from 16.2 million in 2012, according to research firm IDC India.

Apple has launched attractive installment and buyback schemes to boost its currently negligible share in the market dominated by Samsung and closely followed by home-bred handset makers Micromax and Karbonn.

Surging smartphone sales in India have been propelled by the introduction of low-end devices by international and local vendors.

Mobile company to stress on quality control

 The introduction of low-end devices has narrowed the price gap between smartphones and feature phones, which offer basic Internet capabilities and are a notch above basic phones. Sculley and his team are targeting the affordable smartphones segment in India with devices that cost less than Rs 12,000.

Being based out of China, Dragon Technology will work with device makers in China on a daily basis ensuring quality control and production checks while working with suppliers to get the handsets into India. This will give the brand an advantage over others in India where most local smartphone makers only import completely built units for sale here without adding much value to the final product.

The smartphone brand won't be just another addition to the cluttered market as it will create a differentiation based on price, product, software and built-in services, Sharma said. "The smartphone share of the handset market in India will keep on rising. So everyone has scope to grow. We feel that it is the right time to launch a new brand as the market is set to explode," Sharma added.

Indians bought around 15 million smartphones in the October-December period, registering year-on-year growth of 181%, according to IDC. Samsung, Micromax and Karbonn cornered 64% of the sales in the three months through December.

"There definitely is room, especially for a non-Indian brand. It helps if the company is the kind that invests in in-house product development and keeps its ODM (original device maker) dependency to a minimum," said Jayanth Kolla, co-founder and partner at telecom research firm Convergence Catalyst. Sharma said 15 people had already been hired to man sales and support distribution in India.

Within six months, about 100 people will be taking care of the backend and front-end sales of the devices as the Indian unit will leverage all available retail channels, including large format stores and online shopping portals.

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450 million users is the magic number of WhatsApp valuation

A couple of weeks ago, Facebook announced that it was acquiring WhatsApp for $19 billion (Rs1.2 lakh crore). That sounded like an astoundingly high price to pay for a company with 55 employees and very little revenue in the most recent time period. While WhatsApp's messaging service has almost 450 million users, growing significantly by the day, the business model for WhatsApp, which emphasises that it accepts no advertising and charges users $1/year (after an initial year of free service) seems incapable of delivering the earnings that you would need to sustain the price paid by Facebook.

So, what was Mark Zuckerberg thinking when he made this offer? I don't claim to be a mind reader, but I do not believe that conventional valuation metrics (such as revenue, earnings and cash flows) were behind his offer. Instead, he was playing the pricing game, where you identify the metric that markets seem to be basing stock pricing on, and you deliver more of that metric.

Rather than be mysterious, let's take a look at the pricing of social media companies, which includes ad-based companies like Facebook and Twitter, subscription-based businesses like Netflix and some that use a mix of subscription and ads to generate revenue (Pandora and LinkedIn). What they share in common in early 2014 are skyhigh market pricing, paltry revenue and small or negative earnings, for the most part.

Looking at the pricing of these companies, the variable that explains 90% of the pricing differences across companies is not revenue or earnings, but the number of users/subscribers at each company. For better or worse, investors are rewarding companies that have more users by pricing them higher, and they are augmenting that price if the revenue comes from subscriptions (more predictable) than from advertising
Seen from this perspective, Facebook's game becomes clearer and more understandable. With its 1.2 billion users, Facebook has the largest user base of any of the social media companies, but it is judged by the market both on how much it increases this user base and on how much time these users spend on Facebook. WhatsApp is attractive to Facebook not only because it may bring new users to Facebook but also may increase their engagement in the Facebook ecosystem. It is true that we do not know how many of WhatsApp's 450 million users are already on Facebook but that is par for the course in acquisitions, where acquirers take actions on faith, rather than numbers.

Are there dangers in playing this game for Facebook? Sure. The market could be overpricing how much a user is worth in future earnings, but if it is, Facebook is at least partially protected by the fact that it is using its own stock to pay for $16 billion of the $19 billion. Should investors also play this game? If you do so, you have to recognise that your success will depend not on your understanding of the company's business or financial statements but in reading market mood and momentum, which can shift quickly and abruptly.
 

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Apple’s iPhone Seen As More Desirable In Emerging Markets Despite Android’s Dominant Usage Stats

Apple has a prime opportunity in high growth emerging markets, according to a new study by Upstream, done in conjunction with Ovum, showed that among buyers in Brazil, China, India, Nigeria and Vietnam, Apple is the top brand when it comes to consumer wants, with 32 percent interest from the survey pool, with Samsung trailing at 29 percent and Nokia still demonstrating strong brand appeal in third with 13 percent.

The usage stats are still strongly in Android’s favor: The study revealed numbers that suggest Android is powering 296,493 active smartphone devices in these regions, versus 90,184 iOS-powered mobile gadgets. But Apple beating Samsung as the top desired platform for 2013 (the Korean company had the top honors in 2012) bodes well for Cupertino’s ability to promote future growth in regions where it doesn’t necessarily have all that much penetration currently.

There are challenges to turning that desire for Apple hardware into sales, however, and device cost is not least among them; most people in these regions are using lower cost Android hardware, the study of 4,504 consumers found, with 40 percent getting their mobile software through Google Play, 26 percent getting it through local operator storefronts and only 28 percent accessing that content through the App Store. So to get more inroads in this market, lower cost hardware is likely the right ingredient. Whether Apple wants to go there, however, is another question entirely.

Last year, we saw the company roll out its iPhone 5c, but the cost dynamics of the iPhone line remained relatively the same to consumers. Apple didn’t go down market with new hardware, and that could affect its ability to turn emerging market desire into emerging market traction. Still, it is working more closely with retailers and partners in countries like India to make hardware more affordable and accessible in other ways, so that could make up for the absences of cheap devices.

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Apple And Google’s Biggest Threat?

Long before there were wearable devices, there was Jawbone. The brainchild of founder and CEO Hosain Rahman, the hardware and gadgets manufacturer is now a multi-billion-dollar company that is becoming a personal electronics powerhouse and brand.

Which is why we’re thrilled to announce that Rahman will be speaking at Disrupt NY in May.

There’s been more attention on Jawbone of late as wearables gain traction among consumers — the company just released its high-powered wearable, the Jawbone UP24, a wristband and app that tracks how you sleep, move and eat. Jawbone is also the maker of the wireless, portable speaker, the Jambox, and offers Bluetooth headsets. But unlike other device manufacturers, Rahman has been able to differentiate itself through design, applying the Apple playbook to more than just computers and phones.

But of late, Rahman has been exploring ways to emphasize the “connectedness” of his devices and help take some of the data accumulated by devices like the UP24, and create a better experience for the consumer. Last year, Rahman brought on Monica Rogati, formerly a senior data scientist at LinkedIn, to be the company’s first VP of data. The company also acquired nutrition company Massive Health to add to its data-mining effort.

As Rahman explained to us in the past, the company is taking it a step further than just showing how many steps you’ve traveled or calories burned. Jawbone wants to take deep dives on sleep, weather, nutrition and exercise data and connect the dots between these data points.

As we heard recently, the company has raised $250 million in funding at a $3.3 billion valuation, which will include hot new investor Rizvi Traverse. There’s a reason why the top VC firms on Sand Hill Road are continuing betting on Rahman and Jawbone. The company’s backers include Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, Khosla Ventures and Sequoia Capital.

It’s no secret that Apple is going to enter the wearables market, and Google’s acquisition of Nest is a strong signal that the search giant has ambitions of owning the connected device category, as well. In fact, Google has been sniffing around acquiring a wearable startup of late.

But as hardware enters a new renaissance with the advancements in mobile and data, Rahman is going to be the one to watch.

Tickets are currently available for Disrupt NY and are on sale until March 8th when they will jump in price by $250. There are also numerous opportunities for startups to exhibit, sponsor and pitch at Disrupt. 

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Walmart Planning E-Commerce Marketplace To Enter India, Challenge eBay, Amazon

India’s e-commerce industry is on fire. After eBay doubled down on its India play by investing $133 million in Snapdeal a week ago, the world’s biggest retailer, Walmart, is now looking to build a marketplace for tapping into the country’s e-commerce industry, which is expected to grow sevenfold to $22 billion over next five years.

As this report says, Walmart has already hired a team of over a dozen professionals who are busy fleshing out the marketplace.

We have been hearing about Walmart’s initial interest in acquiring an Indian e-commerce/marketplace. Sources confirmed that Snapdeal was among potential partners Walmart had looked at few months ago, but nothing materialized.

Earlier this year, Walmart established a new company in India after its initial alliance with Bharti Enterprises didn’t work out.

Having tried different ways to make the offline retail entry work, it now seems that the American retailer might just take a pure e-commerce route. But even there, the Indian regulations do not permit foreign investments. And that’s why Walmart is building an e-commerce marketplace.

As TechCrunch reported earlier this year, the Indian government is already considering proposals from Amazon and others to reconsider ban on foreign investments in e-commerce. By building a marketplace in the interim, Walmart plans to be prepared better for a bigger play when necessary approvals come in.

We will add more inputs after hearing from Walmart and others.

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Facebook launches election tracker app for India

NEW DELHI: In a bid to gear up for the general election, social media network Facebook India has launched a tracker for the upcoming polls. The 'India Election Tracker' is a new dashboard that will track mentions of candidates and parties throughout the election period.

Those who log into the app can see the livestream of candidates for the 2014 elections as well as take a poll about the issues that matter the most to them in the election and compare how much the Facebook community is talking about leading candidates and parties over time. 

Facebook says the app will be beneficial to the over 93 million Indians using Facebook in India. "We focus on making sure people have the power to share and to make the world more open and connected. This opportunity to engage actively and regularly with constituents have led campaign teams and leaders to use the medium, making Facebook a core part of the political infrastructure in the country," says Ankhi Das, director of Public Policy for India and South Asia, Facebook India. 

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Facebook In Talks To Acquire Drone Maker Titan Aerospace

Facebook, one of the primary backers of the Internet.org initiative, which aims to bring affordable Internet access to the 5 billion people in the world who still lack connectivity, is in talks with a company that could help further that agenda. TechCrunch is hearing that Facebook is buying Titan Aerospace, makers of near-orbital, solar-powered drones which can fly for five years without needing to land. According to a source with access to information about the deal, the price for this acquisition is $60 million*.

From our understanding, Facebook is interested in using these high-flying drones to blanket parts of the world without Internet access, beginning with Africa. The company would start by building 11,000 of these unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), specifically the “Solara 60″ model.

You can see an example of these UAVs, first introduced last year, here on YouTube. As the video explains, these drones are “atmospheric satellites” that can conduct most of the operations of an orbital satellite, but are cheaper and more versatile. The drones could potentially have many uses, including weather monitoring, disaster recovery, Earth imaging, or communications, the company has said, but clearly Facebook would be interested in that latter part.


The Solara 50 and 60 models can be launched at night using power from internal battery packs, then when the sun rises, they can store enough energy to ascend to 20KM above sea level where they can remain for five years without needing to land or refuel. Such capabilities make them ideal for regional Internet systems, like those that Internet.org would be focused on. (For those interested, Ars Technica took a more in-depth look at the technology and history behind Titan’s aircraft last August).

Titan Aerospace is a privately held venture with R&D facilities in New Mexico. The company has raised an undisclosed amount of funding through seed and Series A and A-1 rounds, and had announced in October 2013 it would open a B round soon.

Titan is currently led by CEO Vern Raburn, previously founder and CEO of Eclipse Aviation. The company was founded in 2012 by Max Yaney (CTO), in order to produce what it refers to as “atmosats,” new types of UAVs that do the work of near-Earth satellites at a fraction of the cost.

The designation of “satellites” is important here, as the idea has been to position these aircraft above the airspace that the FAA regulates in the U.S. Class A airspace ends at 60,000 feet stateside, and above that the U.S. doesn’t regulate, Fortune had pointed out last summer. That means the only issue in launching these in the U.S. would be the initial climb. In other parts of the world, the laws will, of course, vary. But in the developing markets Internet.org is focused on, it’s likely they’re not as far along in regulating such new technology.

Following the acquisition, all of Titan Aerospace’s production would be for the Internet.org project only, according to a source familiar with the matter.

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Google Loses Emergency Bid To Keep “Innocence Of Muslims” Film Online

Google lost a bid to keep the controversial film “Innocence of Muslims” on YouTube. One of the actresses, Cindy Garcia, who wanted the film taken offline after receiving death threats, claims she has some copyright control over its distribution.

The 9th Circuit agreed: “Garcia may assert a copyright interest only in the portion of ‘Innocence of Muslims’ that represents her individual creativity, but even if her contribution is relatively minor, it isn’t de minimis.”

To be sure, this case goes far beyond a simple copyright claim. Innocence of Muslims, which depicts the prophet Muhammad as a sexual deviant, sparked global religious violence and coincided with the fatal assault on America’s Benghazi facilities.

Given the enormous debate around freedom of expression, security and religious attitudes, Google argues that the public has an interest in being able to see the film. As they argued in the rejected motion, “the First Amendment protects not just the right to express information, but to receive it.”

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Zuckerberg's fortune grows by $15 billion as Facebook shares soar

NEW YORK: A sharp rise in share price of social networking giant Facebook has helped the personal wealth of its 29 year-old CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg soar by a massive $15 billion in less than two years.

Zuckerberg 's fortune has soared to about $33 billion, from $18 billion on May 18, 2012 when the company went public. This has come on the back of investors showing huge interest in Facebook shares amid the company beginning to make money from its mobile platform.

Within two years of entering the stock market, the share value of Facebook has soared over 80 per cent to $68.46 apiece on February 28, up from $38 per share on its debut on Nasdaq stock exchange.

According to a latest regulatory filing, Zuckerberg holds 478,914,465 shares of Facebook, which accounted for 19.6 per cent of all outstanding shares.

At the debut price of $38 each, his holding of nearly 479 million shares was worth about $18 billion.
However, at the company's latest traded price of $68.46 apiece, this holding is now worth about $33 billion -- which marks a surge of about $15 billion.

Facebook made a dismal stock market debut in May 2012 as investors dumped the stock amid concerns over growth prospects of the social networking firm.

However, Facebook bounced back smartly and the share price has gained ground especially in the wake of the company seeing a surge in its revenues from mobile advertising.

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As India User Base Nears 100M, Facebook Hopes To Earn Big Revenue From SMBs

India is set to become Facebook’s biggest market in terms of number of users later this year, but don’t expect that to translate into ad dollars for the Palo Alto company anytime soon. India’s online advertising market maxes out at around $360 million, making it difficult for the company to translate this horde of users into a billion-dollar business.

Companies like Facebook and Twitter are not new to this problem – their biggest user markets (mostly outside of the U.S.) are not necessarily top revenue sources.

But Facebook sees immediate opportunity to earn big ad revenue by targeting India’s around 50 million SMBs who are increasingly becoming tech savvy and leveraging their smartphones to connect with potential customers.

“It’s a huge opportunity and we’re just getting started. We are building products and features that target the needs of SMBs who can start with us for as little as $5 daily,” said Andy Hwang, Facebook’s director for SMB business in Asia Pacific.

India has around 50 million SMBs, and many of them such as Kaya Skin Clinic, and smaller retailers including Pigtails and Ponys are now spending over $5 a day with Facebook, Hwang added. Online fashion retailer Yepme is another such early Facebook customer that has seen its ‘likes’ touch 4 million recently.

“With a minimum advertising budget on Facebook, we got around 33,000 likes in a span of one month,” said Nivedha Charles of Pigtails and Ponys. The startups sells handmade hair accessories.

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Google Glass

Google Glass is a wearable computer with an optical head-mounted display (OHMD) that is being developed by Google in the Project Glass research and development project,[8] with a mission of producing a mass-market ubiquitous computer.[1] Google Glass displays information in a smartphone-like hands-free format,[9] that can communicate with the Internet via natural language voice commands.[10][11]
While the frames do not currently have lenses fitted to them, Google is considering partnerships with sunglass retailers such as Ray-Ban or Warby Parker, and may also open retail stores to allow customers to try on the device.[1] The Explorer Edition cannot be used by people who wear prescription glasses, but Google has confirmed that Glass will eventually work with frames and lenses that match the wearer's prescription; the glasses will be modular and therefore possibly attachable to normal prescription glasses.[12] On 26 Jan 2014, Google announced that they were adding four prescription frame choices for about $225.00 U.S. It is necessary to remove a small screw in order to move the Google Glass from one frame to another.

Hardware[edit]

A man controls Google Glass using the touchpad built into the side of the device
Touchpad[edit]
A touchpad is located on the side of Google Glass, allowing users to control the device by swiping through a timeline-like interface displayed on the screen.[18] Sliding backward shows current events, such as weather, and sliding forward shows past events, such as phone calls, photos, circle updates, etc.
Camera[edit]
Google Glass has the ability to take photos and record 720p HD video. While video is recording, the screen stays on.
The Explorer's LCoS display optics use a PBS, a partially reflecting mirror beam splitter, and an astigmatism correcting, collimating reflector formed on the nose end of the optical assembly.[19][20]
Display[edit]
The Explorer version of Google Glass uses a Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS), field-sequential color, LED illuminated display.[21]
The display's LED illumination is first P-polarized and then shines through the in-coupling polarizing beam splitter (PBS) to the LCoS panel. The panel reflects the light and alters it to S-polarization at active pixel sites

MyGlass[edit]

Google offers a companion Android and iOS app called MyGlass, which allows you to configure and manage your device.[36]
Voice activation[edit]
Other than the touchpad, Google Glass can be controlled using "voice actions". To activate Glass, wearers tilt their heads 30° upward (which can be altered for preference) or tap the touchpad, and say "O.K., Glass."

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Apple Made Over $1B On The Sale Of Around 10M Apple TV Units In 2013

Apple’s TV business still consists only of an over-the-top streaming media box, and not a proper TV set despite longstanding rumors that kind of hardware was on the way – but it’s showing impressive growth nonetheless. The company sold approximately 10 million Apple TV units last year, according to estimates based on figures Apple CEO Tim Cook offered up at the annual Apple shareholder meeting today.

Apple made over $1 billion in revenue from sales of its Apple TV devices and content in 2013, Cook explained during the meeting with investors, which translates to sales at or around 10 million units, as noted by Asymco’s Horace Dediu. With just over 5 million units sold in 2012, that makes Apple TV the company’s fastest growing hardware product category, according to the analyst, with around 80 percent year-over-year growth.

https://twitter.com/asymco/status/439465818867634176/photo/1

The growth of Apple TV could be ascribed to any number of factors; there wasn’t a major hardware revision last year for the streaming box, but Apple did add a wealth of new content sources through new partnerships with media companies. 2013 also saw a significant increase in Netflix subscribers, which could have helped its fortunes as that’s a key part of the Apple TV’s consumer appeal.

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