Samsung has launched its cheapest tab yet in India, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7 inch), priced at Rs 19,900 — or about Rs 5,000 less than the outgoing Galaxy 620. The big news here is not that it is a better model than the outgoing Galaxy 620, which it resembles in nearly every way, […]
Worldwide sales of mobile phones to end users reached 419.1 million units in the first quarter of 2012, a 2 per cent decline from the first quarter of 2011, according to Gartner, Inc. This is the first time since the second quarter of 2009 that the market exhibited a decline. “Global sales of mobile devices […]
State-run mobile operator Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) has slashed its 3G data plan charges to a fraction of what others are charging. The company slashed its 3G data charges to just Rs 22.50 per GB for heavy users in Delhi, much much lower than what its competitors are charging. For example, Tata DoCoMo charges […]
State-owned mobile operators MTNL and BSNL are estimated to have increased their losses by 50% to more Rs 13,000 crore last year, according to numbers from DoT. The bigger company, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd or BSNL had a loss of about Rs 6,300 crore in 2010-11 and is likely to see it zoom to about […]
Indian government has extended by five months the deadline for cutting radiation from cellphone towers by 90%, the government informed the Lok Sabha today. The directive cutting radiation limits for cellphone towers was issued after a multi-year consultation between the government, the industry, scientific bodies and consumer associations. The directive was supposed to come into […]
Airtel has entered the online phone retailing business, entering a market already boiling over with competition. The shop primarily sells handsets. Going by the rates, however, only some handsets are priced below the rates offered by competitors like Flipkart and Letsbuy. For example, the Nokia Lumia 800 is available for 23,338 on Airtel’s shop, compared […]
You would be forgiven for thinking phone companies have just forgotten about people who enjoy typing on real buttons, not just on the ‘virtual keypads’ on phone displays. Over the last one year, smartphone buyers have spoilt for choice, with company after company launching bigger, faster and smarter phones almost on a weekly basis. Since […]
Qualcomm, the US-based chip designer and manufacturer, said it will revamp its entire Snapdragon chip architecture by the end of the year with a view to addressing the fast-growing tablet market. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor, the company’s primary all-in-one chip, is one of the most popular chips for making smartphones and tablets at present, but is […]
Government has issued show cause notices to the top four private mobile operators in the country violating the laws related to Mobile Number Portability (MNP). As of 2nd May, show cause notices have been issued to Bharti Airtel Ltd, Idea Cellular Ltd, Reliance and Vodafone for failing to carry out their duties under the MNP […]
Idea has managed to convert only 2.6 million out of its 113 million customers to its 3G platform, more than six months after the services were launched, according to the March-end numbers released by the company today. That translates to a conversion of just about 2.3%, highlighting the difficulties operators in India are facing in […]
The Datawind Ubislate tablet, a more powerful version of the Aakash tablet, was launched by the Canadian company today. Thanks to its cheaper price — a difference of Rs 2500 — the Ubislate 7C, which has a capacitive display, is now the most value-for-money tablet in India. It is also the cheapest tablet in India […]
Digital research agency comscore today said Amazon’s Kindle Fire now accounts for more than half of all the Android tablets sold in the United States. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab has seen its share tumble over the last three months, numbers revealed. Within the Android tablet market, Kindle Fire has almost doubled its share in the past […]
It was the result of much effort and pain by the mobile operators in India, but going by the latest signs, the uptick in average call rates in the industry may not have lasted more than a quarter. According to the latest industry numbers, everything went up in the December quarter of 2011- right from […]
India and Russia will be the first two markets to get Nokia’s next generation imaginging-oriented phones — the Nokia 808 PureView. Nokia said Nokia 808 PureView will start rolling out in May, starting with the two countries — now Nokia’s biggest markets. The Nokia 808 PureView has a 41 megapixel camera with high-performance Carl Zeiss […]
China has finally overtaken the United States as the world’s top smartphone market. According to numbers released by research firm Canalys, shipments in China doubled and overtook those in the US for the first time in the first quarter of 2012. In Q1, China represented 22% of global smartphone shipments, while the US accounted for […]
The numbers are in, and contrary to many expectations, India’s number portability has actually ended up helping the big three incumbent operators — Idea Cellular, Vodafone and Airtel. As of March end, a total 4.2 crore subscribers have used India’s mobile number portability — 15 months after they were introduced in January 2011. The sheer […]
Blackberry’s new Blackberry Curve 9220, priced at just Rs 10,990, will help the Canadian smartphone maker RIM to further increase its presence in India, Cyber Media Research said. Earlier in the day, Research in Motion announced that it was launching the Blackberry Curve 9220, targeted at the ‘mass’ market. Unlike the usual Blackberry, the Curve […]
Google Plus has expanded its ‘update and track via SMS’ feature to most of the countries in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa. The feature, which lets you update and follow others’ updates on SMS on mobile phones, was initially available only in the US and India markets. Others like Facebook and Twitter already […]
Call it the 3G effect, or the result of a relentless and ruthless assault on call rates by leading operators in India: today, the contribution of call revenues to overall sales has fallen below the 50% mark for most Indian telecom operators. An analysis of numbers crunched by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of Inda (TRAI) […]
TRAI’s decision to recommend steep auction reserve prices may have rattled the industry, but the telecom regulator had its own reasons for suggesting the relatively high price. It recommended a spectrum auction reserve price roughly double that of actual prices discovered in 3G auctions in 2010 for the 800-900 MHz band that has so far […]
