Apple to launch iPad mini in India @ Rs 21,900

Apple to launch iPad mini in India @ Rs 21,900

 

Apple, whose valuation in thestock market fell below $500 billion on Thursday, has reportedly launched iPad mini, fourth-generation iPad and Apple TV in India today. This comes less than a week after the company rolled out iTunes Store in the country, which has not been its priority for long.

iPad mini, which has a 7.9-inch touchscreen, has come to India at starting price of Rs 21,900 for the 16GB Wi-Fi-only version. The 32 and 64GB Wi-Fi-only versions of the device cost Rs 27,900 and 33,900 in the country, respectively. The 16, 32 and 64GB Wi-Fi+4G iterations of Apple's mini-tablet have been priced at Rs 29,900, 35,500 and 41,900, respectively.

The manufacturer has officially launched the fourth-generation iPad in India today. Compatible with 4G networks, the tablet has a 9.7-inch touchscreen with Retina display technology and runs on A6X dual-core processor. The 16, 32 and 64GB Wi-Fi-only variants of the latest iPad are priced at Rs 31,900, 37,900 and 43,900, respectively. Similarly, the 16, 32 and 64GB versions of Wi-Fi+4G enabled iPad cost Rs 39,900, 45,900 and 51,900, respectively, in India.

iPad mini and fourth-generation iPad were showcased by the company on October 23 in the US and began shipping a week later in the international market.

 

 

Samsung Galaxy S4 may have unbreakable screen

Samsung Galaxy S4 may have unbreakable screen

Samsung Electronics, the world's leading technology company by revenue, is likely accelerating the launch of its next-generation flagship Galaxy smartphone -- which may come with a breakthrough unbreakable screen. 

Codenamed "Project J" after mobile division chief JK Shin, development of the new Galaxy S IV could be aimed for release by as early as April, according to analysts and tech blogs. 

The Galaxy S IV is also expected to have bigger and better display, powerful quad-core processing power and a 13-megapixel camera, with picture density improving to 441 pixels per inch (ppi), a big improvement from the Galaxy S III's 306 ppi and better than the iPhone 5's 326 ppi. 

"Looking to the first half of 2013, we see evidence of Samsung likely accelerating the release of the Galaxy S IV - compared with May (this year) for the Galaxy S III," said UBS analyst Nicolas Gaudois. "We believe preparations for volume manufacturing of unbreakable plastic substrate displays continue. All in all, we could see a strong products push in the high-end in the first half, followed by other releases." 

Samsung declined to comment. 

Samsung, a major backer of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display, is a frontrunner in developing unbreakable screens, as OLED panels can replace glass substrate with plastic material. Down the road, mobile gadgets could be flexible as well as unbreakable. 

"Eventually, they'll have unbreakable and flexible displays. Either the Galaxy S IV or S V will have unbreakable and even possibly flexible and foldable displays by 2014. That's going to be a game-changer," said Mark Newman, an analyst at Stanford Bernstein in Hong Kong. 

"Samsung's strength extends beyond cool products, they're also a leader in the technology behind these devices. We see further upside to Samsung's stock as success in smartphones continues and chips and display profits also rebound," said Newman. "In smartphones, the opportunity is for Samsung to take more share from Apple in the premium segment, where Apple is still dominant." 

Intel to launch smartphones starting at Rs 7,000

 Intel to launch smartphones starting at Rs 7,000

 

US-based chipmaker Intel said it would develop smartphones with its chips, priced Rs 7,000 onwards, in India in partnership with handset makers.

The touchscreen-based smartphones, based on Google's Android operating system, would be available in the market by the middle of 2013, Intel South Asia Managing Director, Sales and Marketing Debjani Ghosh said on the sidelines of INFOCOM 2012 here.

In India at present, Intel has a partnership with Lava. 'Lava Xolo', which features Intel's mobile chip, was launched early this year.

"The first handset with Lava that we launched was a premium one. We learnt that it was important to have a portfolio and offer choice to the user. We will not have entry-level handsets but our smartphone range will be priced upwards of Rs 7,000," she said.

Ghosh, however, did not divulge whether the partnerships would be with homegrown or International equipment makers.

Free roaming likely from March 2013

 

After announcing plans to abolish roaming charges for mobile users when traveling within India from next year, the telecom department is likely to ask operators to implement this consumer-friendly move from March.

Mobile phone companies have opposed the government's plans to do away with roaming charges, which accounts for about 10% of their revenues, and have warned they would be forced to increase tariffs to offset this loss.

According to an internal DoT note (dated November 23) reviewed by ET, the department has listed this consumer-friendly move amongst 'key initiatives to be completed within the next three months'.

By March, the department also wants to expand the mobile number portability (MNP) provision and allow consumers to retain their numbers when they move to a new city or any location in the country without having to pay roaming charges. At present, MNP, the facility that allows customers to retain their number while switching operators, is restricted to a circle. For instance, a Delhi customer can switch to any operator within the metro, as this is considered to be the 'base circle' for that number.

The Cellular Operators Association of India, the body representing mobile phone companies on the GSM platform such as Vodafone and Bharti Airtel, has criticised the government's plans to abolish roaming charges, and has maintained that the DoT must first sort out a slew of policy-related issues, including migration to the unified licence, before asking telcos to do away with this charge.

Telcos oppose free roaming

Mobile phone companies have cited reasons ranging from higher tariffs, to security threat, undesirable competition to end of the concept of STD in opposing the move to do away with roaming charges.

"Currently, the roaming charges are borne only by those who avail of the roaming service. Operators would need to recover this loss in roaming revenues leading to tariff increase which will be equally borne by the non-roaming customer base. To create a new tariff equilibrium, the tariffs in some non-affluent parts of country will go up and in other parts will drop," said an executive with a leading GSM operator.

Mobile phone companies also say that removal of roaming charges would lead to free-flow of SIMs across circles on a permanent basis.

"It is possible that sims or mobile connections of the circle that offers lowest STD tariff in the country, would be picked up by customer residing in other circles, who will use these to make discounted STD calls since the tariff in their own circles are higher. This potential revenue loss on account of this tariff arbitrage would make it necessary for the players to adopt a single tariff pan-India, thereby also resulting in a doing away of 'Local' & 'STD' as a concept," the executive quoted above added.

Executives with telcos also said that 'end of STD as a concept would lead to huge revenue impact to the operators', which the industry would not be able absorb, 'especially in the wake of high spectrum costs'.

"There are more than 10 national long distance operators (that carry STD traffic) - in the event of merger of carriage charges with local tariff, the manner in which these operators will be compensated is unclear. In any case, it is ultimately up to the operator who will need to absorb this cost. Hence, it is possible that this might lead to a scenario where the carriage cost has been removed, but a differential terminating cost would become necessary because of the interconnection and call-routing issues which would need to be taken up between operators afresh," said an executive with another mobile phone company

Wishtel to launch sub-Rs 3,000 tablet

Mumbai-based Wishtel said it will launch computing devices, tablets and netbooks, starting at $50 later this month. The company has developed a Linux-based platform PrithV, which will be used for the tablets and netbooks, PCs, it said in a statement.

"Our objective as a technology and manufacturing company is to create affordable range of products that can contribute to society by extending education for free and without boundaries," Wishtel CEO Milind Shah said in a statement.

The platform, developed jointly by Wishtel and Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, supports 85 global languages which include 23 Indian languages. It also comes loaded with educational suite to offer self learning software for pre-primary, tertiary and higher education, it said.

Shah said that tablet PC will be available for $50 while the netbooks will cost $120.

Wishtel, which lost out to Datawind in securing a contract for manufacturing low-cost tablet Aakash, said "it will participate in the bidding for second round when the government floats a tender."

"We intend to offer our solutions to universities and schools worldwide and empower every student with a PC enabling them to learn and educate themselves beyond textbooks, access and create their own knowledge," Shah said.

solar powered bonsai to charge your mobile

A French designer has created a unique bonzai tree that will not only look pretty on your coffee table but also charge your mobile and other gadgets using solar energy.

Created by designer Vivien Muller, 'The Electree+' has 27 miniature silicon solar panels - or 'leaves' - that can be arranged in any style the users want to create their own unique tree.

The designer said he was inspired to make the product after observing real trees, noticing that their leaves acted as natural solar panels.

The base of the device conceals a battery that stores the solar energy and at full capacity it can hold enough power to charge an iPad twice and can charge a phone in just four hours, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

The tree conceals a USB connection underneath its wood-topped base unit.

Muller is waiting to receive 400 presale orders for the product before commencing production.

The bonsai tree will cost 283 pounds.