Technology News Blog

Sony India aims to achieve 30% market share

Consumer electronics major Sony India today said it was targetting to be the number one player in the LCD TV segment and was aiming to achieve 30 per cent market share this fiscal.

Sony was confident that it will be able to achieve the targets based on three strong pillars of technology — picture quality and design — said Sony India General Manager (Marketing) Takakiyo Fujita here.

The company had a 25 per cent market share in the segment in the corresponding period last year.

It also announced the launch of 24 new models in NX, EX and BX series under the Bravia umbrella of varying screen sizes ranging between 22 and 60 inches.

Sony would also launch 3D TVs in India and announcement in this regard will be made in June this year, he said.

“Indian consumer today is more technology savvy than ever before and with the launch of new technologies like 3D, Internet TV and LED, we want to ensure that they get nothing but the best,” he said.

Our aim was to double the sales this fiscal to 8 lakh units from 4 lakh units last year to achive 30 per cent market share, he said.

The company would expand its sales network by increasing the outlets to 5,000 from the present 2,500, he said.

Sony India eyes 30% market share in LCD TVs

KOLKATA: Consumer electronic goods major Sony India is targeting a 30 percent market share in the liquid crystal display (LCD) television segment
in 2010-11 from the present 25 percent, a top company official said here on Wednesday.

“We are targeting to achieve 30 percent share in the LCD TV segment in 2010-11. The total market size of LCD TV is 1.6 million units now, which is going to increase by 70 percent to 2.7 million units in the next fiscal,” Sunil Nayyar, general manager, sales, Sony India, told reporters.

He was here to launch the 3D Bravia NX TV priced between Rs 45,900 and Rs 3.50 lakh.

Riding on three factors, technology, picture quality and design, the company plans to double its sales in the next fiscal. “We plan to double our sales in 2010-11 from 4,00,000 to 8,00,000,” Nayyar said.

The company is planning to launch another 3D TV variety around June-July.

The company also plans to double its investment for marketing products from Rs.70 crore in 2009-10 to Rs.140 crore in 2010-11, and expand the dealer network to 5,000 from 2,500.

RealNetworks Settles Copyright Suit

RealNetworks has agreed to kill its DVD-copying software and pay $4.5 million in settling a copyright-infringement lawsuit filed by Hollywood studios.

As part of the settlement announced Wednesday, the provider of online entertainment services also agreed to drop its appeal of a San Francisco federal court ruling that barred RealNetworks from distributing or supporting RealDVD or any other technology that enables the duplication of the studios’ copyrighted content.

RealNetworks also agreed to turn off the metadata service that provides DVD cover art and movie information to the roughly 2,700 ReadDVD customers. The company said it was in the process of refunding the purchase price of the product.

Bob Kimball, president and acting chief executive of RealNetworks, said in a statement that the company was “pleased to put this litigation behind us.”

“Until this dispute, Real had always enjoyed a productive working relationship with Hollywood,” Kimball said. “With this litigation resolved, I hope that in the future we can find mutually beneficial ways to use Real technology to bring Hollywood’s great work to consumers.”

In August 2009, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel barred RealNetworks from selling RealDVD, ruling the technology violated Hollywood studios’ copyrights and the licensing agreement RealNetworks had with the studios’ copyright-protection group.

The 2008 lawsuit filed by Viacom and the Motion Picture Association of America claimed that RealDVD illegally circumvented the anti-piracy technology embedded in DVDs. The DVD Copy Control Association, which licenses Hollywood-sanctioned copyright-protection technology, joined the suit later, claiming RealNetworks was also in violation of its DVD CCA license.

The settlement was announced less than two months after RealNetworks Chief Executive Rob Glaser stepped down, saying that after 16 years at the helm, it was time to hand over day-to-day operations to someone else. Glaser remains chairman of the company.
(more…)

BSNL to scrap Rs35,000 crore tender; seek fresh bids news

The board of state-run telecommunications company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd yeterday decided to scrap its controversial tender for 93 million GSM lines, worth over Rs35,000 crore, and invite fresh bids, after the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) found irregularities in the original tender.

The troubled BSNL, which is rapidly losing market share partly because of limited capacity, was banking on what would be the world’s largest telecom equipment contract. The company ran out of cellular capacity in most circles nearly 18 months ago, it is reported.

The short-listed firms were Sweden’s Ericsson, Chinese network-gear maker Huawei and HCL infosystems, which has already bagged the HT (high tension) component of the deal. (more…)

IPL mops up cash by selling mobile rights

Indian Premier League (IPL), the world’s largest cricket league, on Thursday licensed the exclusive rights for its transmission over various mobile platforms across the world.

This move will curtail a revenue stream for the telecom companies, which were offering IPL updates to their customers for a fee.

Lalit Modi, chairman and commissioner of IPL said the league has partnered with Gurgaon-based vRock Mobile Communications (vRock Mobile) for taking the events and news related to the third edition of IPL to mobile subscribers.

“We did not find the technology earlier, so, we could not licence the same,” Modi added.

IPL matches are also available on Google and YouTube, the world’s largest online videosharing site.

vRock Mobile acquired the sole and exclusive worldwide rights for transmitting the live and lag information relating to IPL through mobile-based mediums, such as SMS, MMS and IVR over various mobile platforms like CDMA, GSM, GPRS, MMS, WAP, EDGE, 2G and 3G, among others. (more…)

GM India’s Feb sales highest-ever in a month

Carmaker General Motors India saw its February sales climb over two-fold to 11,111, the highest monthly sales since its inception in the country.

The company had sold 4,921 units in the same month last year, General Motors India said in a statement.

“This is the first time that the company has crossed 10,000 units sales in a month since the inception of the company in India in 1996,” the subsidiary of the US-based firm said in a statement today.

GM India attributed its robust growth to good demand for its two small cars — Beat and Spark.

The company sold 3,412 units of the hatchback Spark, 726 units of the sedan Cruze and 4,431 units of the latest compact car Beat in the reporting month, it added. (more…)

Cable ind to get 5% concessional customs duty for equipment

The government announced on Friday a concessional customs duty of 5 per cent, under Project Import, for the cable TV operators for importing head-end equipment.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, in his Budget speech, said cable transmission of entertainment was undergoing a transformation with the adoption of digital technology and that multi-service operators were keen on investing in digital headend equipments.

The Union Budget 2010-11 has proposed to provide ‘project import status’ at a concessional customs duty of five per cent to the initial setting up of projects where multi-service operators need to invest in digital headend equipment.

There would also be full exemption from special additional duty to the initial setting up of import projects. (more…)

BSNL rolls out India’s first urban mobile WiMAX service

KOCHI: BSNL today commercially launched the country’s first mobile broadband fourth generation Internet access network–Mobile WiMAX in
Kerala.

Union minister of state for Agriculture and Consumer Affairs K V Thomas, launched the facility at a function here today.

BSNL is also the first operator in the country to launch the service, for which technology has been provided by AVIAT, formerly Harris Stratex.

WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) technology, can provide a speed of up to 37 mbps. It is being deployed in Kerala with 900 BTS (Base Transmitting Stations) to cover the entire state, Principal General Manager, BSNL, Ernakulam, E M Abraham said.

In the first phase, 450 BTS would be set up to cover all major cities, district headquarters and important towns at a project cost of about Rs 100 crore.

In the second phase, another 450 BTS would be commissioned to cover the remaining towns.

The technology will provide access to broadband at a cost performance ratio that is far better than any other technology, he said.

It provides features like high speed broad band connectivity anywhere, anytime for devices like Desktop, Laptop on wireless.

It has two tariff plans – Home Plan with a fixed monthly charge of Rs 999 while the Business plan is Rs 1,999 for a band width 512 to 2 mbps.

BSNL customer mela in City

HYDERABAD: Over 30,000 customers visited the on-going customer mela organised by the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) at different places in City and Rangareddy district, Hyderabad Telecom District Principal General Manager Rajeev Agarwal informed today.

The customer mela was aimed at providing better service to the customers.

Speaking to media persons here today, Rajeev Agarwal said that BSNL is organising customer melas in 100 different places in the City and neighbouring Rangareddy district to provide on the spot solutions to the grievances of the customers.

The customer mela which began on February 15 will continue till March 31.

Elaborating about the new service IPTV, Rajeev Agarwal said the service has been launched recently and it provides interactive TV with high quality in addition to e-mail facility without a computer.

BSNL is planning to introduce 3G services in Hyderabad soon, he said. The Hyderabad Telecom District has the distinction of launching CDR based billing system which is first in India, he said.

BSNL offers new prepaid BlackBerry plans for subscribers in 3 zones

PSU BSNL introduced three new plans for services offered in partnership with Research in Motion’s (RIM) BlackBerry.

The three new plans are BlackBerry® Internet Bundle service plans, BlackBerry® Messaging Bundle service plans and BlackBerry® Social Networking Bundle service plans offering the subscriber to choose from range of services related to instant messaging, social networking and internet browsing requirements of the subscriber.

Commenting on the launch, Shri Kuldeep Goyal, CMD, BSNL, said, “BSNL’’s new service plans fill a void in the market; we are making it affordable and easy for customers to purchase BlackBerry smartphones and services. Our integrated plans for BlackBerry services are Extremely approachable and will be attractive to people who want connectivity at their fingertips,” he added. (more…)

Budget 2011- Turning point for India as a world power

MUMBAI: As per CEO of www.astromoneyguru.com, the Union Budget is an important financial document for the next one year.

The Union budget of India lays down guidelines and pronouncements on different types of taxes, financial allocations for various heads and developmental plans for different sectors.

Budget is also an important source of information on government finances i.e. which way that’s heading.

Every year before the budget is presented; there are expectations from people all over the country, industry and the masses alike.

This year there are a few concerns and challenges such as inflationary pressure from food and oil.

The Congress party-led government is expected to give an overview of the economy and highlight its economic achievements, at the time of budget 2011 announcement on 26th Feb 2009.

One of the most anticipated budgets is expected to release on Feb 26th because the usual budget release date Feb 28th falls on a Sunday and also for Prophet Mohammad’s birthday on 27th.

Finance Minister Pranab Muhkerjee will be presenting his second budget. It will be very critical for India to survive in the global economic crisis. On the other hand, the budget will also be targeting at the GDP growth maintenance.

As per Financial astrology year 2010-11 is represented by figure two and one and the Moon and the Sun are the key planets for figures two and one.

During budget there are four major planets which will be in very good conditions, Mercury, Jupiter, Sun and Venus who are in Kumbh rashi which is tenth house of Indian horoscope.

Tenth house of India is in aspect by Mars and Ketu while being in conjunctions with four important planets (Sun, Jupiter, Venus and Mercury). This is very unique and the most profitable combination for Indian economy.

All these combinations of Planets are most favorable for telecommunications, power, higher education, women’s education, real state, media, banking and infrastructure sectors. Special considerations for oil sectors are also expected.

This is the first time when Jupiter, Venus and Mercury are in close conjunctions with Kumbh rashi.

These unique combinations may lead to a positive path to banking, insurance, media, infrastructure, higher technical education etc. Lots of direct foreign investment may also be attracted in the above field.

As Budget will be placed on 26th Feb 2010 and figure 8 will be allotted to Saturn which represents metal, mining, agriculture, oil & gas, cement, infrastructure, chemical, higher technical education, tourism, art and culture etc. It is also indicating that the government will pay much attention to moderations of security forces, banking and insurance sectors.

Indian economy may show tremendous growth in next 3 to 5 years therefore strong financial infrastructure is one of the mandatory requirements. Hence, banking industries need big boost up to bear the load of world fastest growing economy.

Indian currency Rupee is almost at a turning point in terms of being recognized as major international currency therefore calling for strong banking infrastructure. (more…)

Audi Launches Winter Olympic Ads

After throwing a Hail Mary in the Super Bowl, Audi is going for the two points, with a pair of spots to air during the Winter Olympics’ Friday evening opening ceremonies. The new ads, via AOR Venables Bell & Partners, are directly competitive with Lexus, BMW and Mercedes-Benz vehicles.

Audi, the official vehicle of the U.S. Ski Team, will also host streaming coverage of the ski team, and recovery of injured skiers T.J. Lanning, who was injured at the Audi FIS World Cup opener in November, and Resi Stiegler, also injured in November. The content will be on Audi’s Facebook page and on an Audi-sponsored portion of the U.S. ski-team site.

Scott Keogh, VP of marketing at the Herndon, Va.-based company, says the Olympics are the right venue. “First and foremost, after the Super Bowl it will be the largest TV event of the year. If you look at the Olympics in Beijing and then hear that viewership numbers are going up, the Winter Olympics could be knocking on the door of 170 or 180 million viewers, so we plan aggressive rotation — lots and lots of ads.” The ads will live on in local market buys after the Games. (more…)

AUSPI & COAI express disappointment over NOIDA Authority’s telecom tower sealing drive

The bursting satellite township and commercial hub NOIDA came to a grinding halt with the sudden and abrupt sealing drive by NOIDA Authority during the weekend, causing massive disruption in cellular mobile communication service and therefore leading to inconvenience and public outcry.

Speaking on the critical issue, Mr. T.R. Dua, Officiating Director General, COAI & Mr. S.C.Khanna, Secretary General, AUSPI stated that they are most concerned on the action taken by the NOIDA Authority, as the same will adversely affect the daily lives of citizens/public. The impact will be more severe for those who rely on mobile services during the emergency situations.

Mr. Dua emphasized that the mobile towers are most critical for the provision of seamless communication services. Being the backbone of the telecom infrastructure, sealing of any tower, breaks the link in the chain leading to call drops and blackouts resulting in complete breakdown of communication services.

Mr. Khanna further stated that it was most unfortunate that NOIDA authorities decided to seal the towers before providing an opportunity to the service providers to put across their concerns on the tower installation guidelines, which were unilaterally prepared by theAuthority without any consultations with the industry on the implications and implementation issues involved in the same.

Both Mr. Khanna and Mr. Dua, pointed out that there were also several elements in the guidelines sought to be implemented that are difficult and impractical to comply with. For example, the provision that a tower can only be set up on a building that has a completion certificate, may be difficult to comply with as it is a well-known fact that there are many buildings where this formality has not been yet completed. (more…)

What Apple’s iPad Means for Your Wallet

LONDON—Phew! Thank heavens the iPad is coming. Solving the economic crisis should be a breeze—it has an app for that.

Apple’s new all-singing, all-dancing hand-held computer is the talk of the moment. Even thousands of miles away in London, when I staggered off the redeye Thursday morning, the front pages showed a gaunt but grinning Steve Jobs clasping his latest creation.

But if we can hack our way through the hype, what are the financial implications of this latest techno marvel—for consumers and for investors?
• Look out: The iPad may cost you around $1,000 after all.

Yes, the headlines note the prices will start at the low, low level of $499. Mr. Jobs on Wednesday even mocked those who had predicted prices nearly twice as high. But were those earlier forecasts so wrong? If someone buys the basic 16-gigabyte model with 3G, they will pay $629 up front—plus $30 a month from AT&T for unlimited data.

Cost for a year: $360. Add that to your initial $629 and your cost is … $989, plus tax (and whatever insurance you’ll need to cover your portable glass and aluminium treasure). Models with more memory will cost even more.

How often we ignore the monthly bills, or place them in a different mental category than the initial cost. But money is money.

Botttom line? If you’re getting an iPad, buying the $499 Wi-Fi-only device is surely the smartest financial move. Especially as you have to question whether the AT&T 3G network, already staggering under the strain of all that iPhone use, will really give you the full iPad experience. Streaming HD video for all? Good luck with that.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs holds up the new iPad at an Apple Special Event on Wednesday.

• Don’t assume it will mean that much for your Apple shares.

A lot of investing is about anticipation, and Apple stock had already risen ahead of the announcement. (There’s an old saying on Wall Street: Buy on the rumor, sell on the news.)

How much new demand will this device generate, anyway? A 5- or 7-inch iPad might have created a new market for pocket-sized computers. But the 10-inch, 1.5-pound iPad is a netbook without a keyboard, and a heavy, bulky handheld.

As I wrote earlier this month, the best thing Steve Jobs could have done for his stockholders would have been to start handing out dividends. Brian Marshall, an analyst at Broadpoint AmTech, says the company’s net cash pile is up to about $43 a share. But no dividends. Bah.

• Yes, it’s a challenge for Amazon.com.

Steve Jobs wants the iPad, and Apple’s new “iBook” store, to go head to head against Amazon’s Kindle for the e-reader market.

Expect Amazon to respond—maybe as early as tonight, when it announces results.

You have to figure sooner or later Amazon will cut its prices. The Kindle DX, currently $489, has to come down. So, too, do the charges for Kindle newspaper and magazine subscriptions. (Amazon has plenty of room to cut: Its margins are reported to be huge.)

But will the iPad really be a Kindle killer? Here’s a contrarian case:

Serious e-book readers don’t want a multifunction device with a light-emitting screen. Most are grownups with Computer Screen Fatigue, if not Computer Screen Revulsion. They spend far too long staring at those screens for work. They want to read normally, by ambient light.

The Kindle—and other devices that use a low-power e-Ink screen—also offers much-longer battery life. And since you should be able to read Kindle e-books on an iPad anyway, through the iPhone’s Kindle app, it may not become a either-or matter.

This battle is just heating up. The bigger concern for Amazon investors may be their firm’s lofty share price, now trading in the neighborhood of 40 times forecasted earnings.

• The real winners from the iPad—and the mobile Internet boom it represents—ought to be the cellular carriers.

It’s a case of supply and demand. Thanks to smartphones, mobile computers, streaming videos, applications and the like, use of their networks is rocketing. AT&T has struggled to cope with the traffic caused by all its iPhone customers. You have to wonder why it was so keen to sign up iPad users, too, at just $30 a month for unlimited data. It may end up suffering from the winner’s curse.

Rival Verizon Wireless (jointly owned by Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group) supposedly “missed out” on the iPhone and the iPad, but it, too, will benefit. Too much traffic on one network will drive customers to switch to the others. The cellular stocks are not expensive based on traditional measures. (Verizon has a 6.3% dividend yield.)

One analyst who covers Apple told me privately that the one worry that kept him up at nights was that sooner or later the networks were going to start raising their prices for data traffic, especially for the iPhone. They should. They control the bandwidth, which is the scarce resource in the supply chain. If they don’t make it pay, it will be their own fault.

Cellular networks may be the sleeper stocks in this story. Those who crave excitement may find all they need in Apple and Amazon.

Lenovo launches laptops for SMB market

NEW DELHI: PC maker Lenovo on Friday launched two new laptops as part of its ThinkPad Edge series, targetted at the small and medium businesses
(SMB) in the country, as it aims at expanding its market share in the segment.

“We currently have 2-3 per cent market share of the Indian SMB segment. Our focus would be on growing in this market and a double digit market share is achievable,” Lenovo India Managing Director Amar Babu told reporters here.

He, however, did not comment on the exact numbers and time-frame.

“About 10 per cent of our business comes in from the SMB segment, which has a huge growth potential. In the coming weeks, we would launch more products in the 14 and 15-inch screens,” Babu said.

According to analyst firm IDC, the PC market in India is about 7.6 million units, of which SMB’s share comprises about 40 per cent. The PC market is projected to grow to 13.8 million units by 2013, while the SMB segment’s market share would go up to 35 per cent.

The SMB segment is estimated to spend about Rs 5,275 crore in 2009 on PCs, which is predicted to grow to Rs 5,515 crore in 2010.

The price range of ThinkPad Edge Series starts at Rs 34,000, while another model ultraportable ThinkPad X100e starts at Rs 29,950.

Amazon’s Kindle Yet to Make an Impact in India

India is unlikely to be a volume market for Amazon’s Kindle reader in the short term, according to analysts. Estimates of the number of these devices sold in India since October, when Amazon started shipping the device to the country, range from a few hundred to about 1,000 units.

That is low for a country that had over 506 million mobile subscribers at the end of November last year, according to data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

The comparison may however be inappropriate, said Arpan Gupta, an analyst at research firm, IDC India. While communications is seen as a necessity in India, the ability to download books and read them from a device is not, he said. (more…)

New Ad Campaign by Idea Mobile

Idea Cellular has launched a new campaign in the What an Idea Sirji series. The aim is to boost the Idea VAS. The concept is to promote the use of value added services so that people depend less on paper and help the environment. It is a campaign that will also help other mobile service providers. (more…)

Microsoft Word may get a facelift, post patent loss

WASHINGTON: Microsoft, the world’s biggest software maker, is preparing to alter its popular Word software after it lost its appeal of a $200-million patent-infringement verdict won by a Canadian firm. The company, based in Redmond, Washington, was given until January 11 to make the change or stop sales, in a decision released on Wednesday by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington. Word is part of Microsoft’s Office software, used by more than 500 million people.

The court upheld a verdict that has since grown to $290 million, won by closely held I4i of Toronto. The dispute is over an invention related to customising extensible markup language, or XML, a way of encoding data to exchange information among programmes. Microsoft has called it an “obscure functionality.”

Microsoft said it has been working on making the change since the trial judge first ordered a halt in August and has “put the wheels in motion to remove this little-used feature from our products.” (more…)

Microsoft Ordered To Stop Selling Word In 2010

Microsoft, the biggest software company in the world, has been ordered by a court to pay $290 million to a small Canadian firm, i4i Inc, after it lost its appeal in the patent infringement case pertaining to its popular Microsoft Word application.

A Federal appeals court refused to change the decision of a Texas jury, which had found the software giant guilty for violating patents held by the Canadian start-up. The court has told Microsoft to stop selling the Word application which contain the infringing code.

The court had found that popular Word program, which is distributed by the Redmond based software giant, contained a custom XML feature which allows users to encode data that can exchanged between programs, whose patent is held by the Canadian company, headed by Loudon Owen. (more…)

MS India brings online solutions for textile SMEs

TIRUPUR, INDIA: Microsoft, recently announced the launch of online solutions for the textile manufacturing SMEs in Tirupur, under the aegis of Project Vikas, the Tirupur Exporters’ Association (TEA) through its Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), G-Tech Info Solutions (Intl.) Pvt. Limited (GTISPL).

The solutions include an Online Desktop by Airtel, Hosted Email by Global Outlook and Unified Communications by Wipro, these comprehensive and affordable enterprise solutions aim at enhancing the productivity and efficiency of the cluster, said a press release.

The availability of the online solutions also means that the manufacturers now have the option of selecting the relevant hosted solutions and take advantage of the ‘pay as you go’ model, rather than installing an on-premise solution. (more…)