Category: Business

Qualcomm Joins Hands With Cyanogen to Give a Push to Snapdragon-Run Devices

At the Mobile World Congress 2015, Qualcomm Technologies and Cyanogen announced a new surprise collaboration. The two renowned companies are joining hands with each other to facilitate users with more improved features on the unique user interface of Cyanogen OS.

Chipset maker, Qualcomm will work in close coordination with Cyanogen to include features and UI enhancements on Qualcomm Snapdragon processors in the 200, 400 and 600 series. The software maker will make available all its unique features to the Qualcomm Reference Design (QRD) program.

The CEO of Cyanogen Inc. Kirt McMaster announced about the collaboration –

We’re delighted to collaborate with Qualcomm on their QRD program. We’re addressing the needs of device makers in developed and developing markets looking for a truly differentiated software experience that matter to consumers.

Jason Bremner, SVP of Product Management, Qualcomm Technologies further elaborated saying that they have chosen to work with Cyanogen because of their deep Android expertise and innovative approach to enhancing smartphone software.

Through the QRD program, the company aims to boost the production of low-cost smartphones. Qualcomm’s Reference Design program helps unrecognized companies to choose smartphone templates and launch them under their brand. Cyanogen’s Android version will replace Qualcomm’s own builds on devices embedded with a Snapdragon 200, 400 or 600 processor.

Through this deal, Qualcomm will be able to revamp its devices running on Snapdragon and Cyanogen and can widen its user base, which is now restricted to limited devices. Cyanogen is the true Android experience for people who prefer to tinker with the user experience. Qualcomm’s active support will help boost the reach of this amazing user interface to a broader user base.

March 3, 2015
BSNL Planning a 50 Percent Cut in 3G Data Rates

State-run telecom company, BSNL, has some great news for its mobile subscribers. In the next phase of network expansion, BSNL plans to slash 3G network rates by 50 percent.

BSNL is one of the most budget friendly operators in the market. They offer 3G rates that are at par with the 2G rates of the private telecom operators. The officials have said that they cannot reduce the rates at present as they have utilized 90% if their allotted 3G capacity but they will slash it as soon as they finish expansion. A sudden, drastic decrease in 3G rates might lead to an enormous increase in traffic, so the company wants to ascertain its capability to handle the traffic before reducing the rates.

BSNL at present is in its 7th network expansion phase that will cost Rs.4800 crores and is expected to be completed by June of this year. The company has already started working on the 8th phase and will begin the process of issuing tenders at the start of the financial year 2015-16 that begins in April.

Under phase-8 of network expansion, BSNL is planning to integrate 3G network’s with city-wide WiFi hotspots to have a better handle on traffic. With this process, 3G users will be able to switch automatically between 3G and WiFi networks. This will allow for the traffic to shift to WiFi which will help free up the 3G space. This unique approach to handling internet traffic might be good for the company but might lead to massive battery drain for the consumers. But it wouldn’t be much of a concern to folks who would be using the BSNL network at 50 percent of the cost of competing networks. Hopefully, BSNL’s initiative might encourage other telecom companies to give a break to their subscribers from massive 3G data bills.

March 2, 2015
Google Spends a Whopping $25 Million to Seize .app Web Domain

Google, today, added one more domain to its list of top-level domains (TLDs). The internet search giant paid a hefty sum of $25 million to procure a whole web domain.

As per Business Insider, Google made the highest bid of $25 million for .app, a top-level domain. Following this, ICANN, an organisation that holds a control over world’s domain names, declared Google as the winner of the domain. Google applied for .docs, .android, .free, .fyi, .foo, and .app; only managing to acquire the last one. The company presently owns four more web domains namely .soy, .minna, .foo and .how.

This isn’t a first, there have been several companies throwing millions on web domains. In fall 2014, Amazon spent nearly $5 million to purchase ‘.buy’, and $2.2 million for ‘.spot’. For now, users can register for ‘.how,’ ‘.soy,’ and ‘.minna’ domains under Google’s own domain registry service licensed by ICANN, which is still in beta version.

The company hasn’t revealed what it expects from this purchase, but it is likely that it may use the domain to promote apps in its mobile division.

February 27, 2015
Samsung Electronics to Freeze Salaries of its Employees

It doesn’t matter how aggressively Samsung retorts to challenge reports by analysis firms reporting it losing its stronghold in the market; reality cannot be concealed for long. Unfortunately, the company is currently in hot waters and is suffering a financial setback.

As per a developing report by Reuters, Samsung Electronics will freeze the salaries of their employees this year, as per a statement by the spokeswoman of Samsung. It is the first time the South Korean organisation has taken such a step since 2009. The company representative didn’t throw light on what made the company take such a drastic step.

Samsung is undergoing a rough patch as its profits declined substantially in 2014. It was the first time in three years that its earnings took a downward turn. Well, we have high hopes from the upcoming Galaxy S6 to be launched at the Mobile World Conference. If that turns out to be a hit, it might help Samsung regain its position as one of the top smartphone manufacturers in the world.

February 26, 2015
TRAI Lays Path For Reduction in Your Phone Bills

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has some good news for Indians today. The people of India will soon see a dip in the figures of their telephone bill. The regulatory agency has decided to slash or cancel the interconnectivity charges between various networks.

Telecom companies have to pay the inter-connectivity charges when one of their subscribers calls a person on a different network. These charges are defined as FTC (Fixed Termination Charge) and MTC (Mobile Termination Charge) for wireline to wireless calls.

This move will bring considerable relief to the landline subscribers. TRAI has decided to drop landline to landline and landline to wireless termination charges from 20 paisa to zero. On the other hand, wireless to wireless charges have been decreased from 20 Paisa to 14 paise that will also result in a decrease in mobile tariff.

Mobile telephony has reached the masses really fast since the arrival of affordable devices and connections. While there are over 94.40 crore mobile subscribers in India, there are just 2.7 crore landline subscribers in the country. BSNL told Times of India, that this move will pass on the benefits to the consumers by bringing the tariff down “substantially”.

Uninor, which is a tiny player in the mobile market, has also said that they will be slashing prices. The big trio of Indian mobile arena; Airtel, Vodafone and Idea are currently studying the developments. But when smaller companies will start slashing rates, the bigger players will be forced to follow.

This move will be a slight relief to the country whose cost of living has gone up significantly in the past couple of years.

February 24, 2015
Apple’s New $1.9 Billion European Data Centers Will Run Completely on Renewable Energy

Data centers are the bedrock of the smart device revolution. They take care of all the background processes that let us connect with the world using the various apps and service. As the usage base of services keeps increasing, companies have to constantly increase the size and volume of their data centers. These are some heavy energy consuming establishments. Apple is doing its part for the environment by investing 1.7 billion euros ($1.9 billion) to build a data center that runs on 100 percent renewable energy.

Apple will be establishing two data centers; one is Ireland and the other in Denmark. These centers will take on the traffic from their various services such as iTunes Store, App Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri for customers in Europe. Apple claims that this is their biggest project in Europe and will lead to the creation of hundreds of new jobs.

In Ireland, the town of Athenry, near Galway has been chosen as the site for the data center. The government of Ireland has said that the project will add close to 300 jobs in the country. It is certainly good news for the country where the unemployment rate stands at 10.50 percent of the population.

On the other hand, in Denmark, the City of Viborg in the western part of the country will house the second data centers. The massive investment from the American tech giant was welcomed by the government of Denmark.

The investment will be split evenly between the two sites. Apple’s dedication to renewable energy would get it support from the environmentalists who have long criticized massive tech corporations for utilizing coal-based power.

February 23, 2015
Former GM Boss Says Apple Should Refrain From Making Cars

Former General Motors(GM) boss, Dan Akerson has warned Apple to stay away from manufacturing their own car, instead he advised the Cupertino based giant to focus on making in-car technology (something like CarPlay). He also suggested that profit margins on cars are relatively meager in comparison to iPhone which is practically a money minting machine.

[quote text_size=”small” author=”Dan Akerson” author_title=”Fomer GM Boss”]

A lot of people who don’t ever operate in it(automobile manufacturing) don’t understand and have a tendency to underestimate. They’d better think carefully if they want to get into the hard-core manufacturing. We take steel, raw steel, and turn it into car. They have no idea what they’re getting into if they get into that.

[/quote]

Reports of Apple prepping its own electric vehicle surfaced last week. The report further stated that the Cupertino-based giant has a team of up to 1,000 employees working on a secret project code-named ‘Titan’. Anonymous sources also suggest the possibility of a car that resembles a minivan.

Meanwhile, earlier it was also reported that Apple’s market value stands at a whopping $745 billion, making it the world’s largest company in terms of market capitalization, could be a factor that prompted CEO Tim Cook to venture into a new territory.

February 19, 2015
Sony May Quit Smartphone and TV Segment in a Bid to Multiply Profits

The consumer electronics company Sony is not enjoying a good time it used to before. There’s a steep decline in company’s revenue in past few years and resultantly, Sony has decided to compensate the loss by focusing on camera sensors, entertainment and PlayStations entirely. The Japanese firm announced that it could shut down the audio and video business in order to boost 25-fold profit within three years.

Sony CEO and President Kazuo Hirai showcased an isolated picture the company’s future saying that it could exit smartphone and TV sector. He made a remark at the corporate strategy meeting –

The strategy starting from the next business year will be about generating profit and investing for growth.

As per Kazuo, Sony is not at all making money with their high-end smartphones and has been dragged back by Samsung, Apple and some cheaper Asian rivals.

Kazuo put forth the statistics of a profitable tomorrow saying that the spinoffs will raise the profits of the company by 500 billion yen ($4.2 billion) by the end of 2018, a massive leap from the 20 billion yen in previous forecasts. It’s yet not clear if Sony will not be dealing in the TV sector any more as the firm recently unveiled an Android-powered TV at CES 2015.

If Hirai is considering to cut out the smartphones and TVs division, Sony will be left out with three main businesses – Sony Pictures Entertainment; a major film studio in Hollywood, PlayStation; which has turned profitable for the company recently with its next-gen consoles; and the last one is the image sensors unit that is completely dependent on Apple for retailing camera sensors for its iPhones. The last one doesn’t seem to have long term dependency as Apple may anytime lose interest in Sony sensors and can move to other firms or decide to manufacture its own sensors. So the focus towards the PlayStation ecosystem is Sony’s best bet towards profitability.

The PlayStation business is Sony’s best bet towards profitability.

If Sony cuts off smartphone and TV business, it would probably be the end of Sony as a major and prominent electronics company. Meanwhile, the personal computer unit, VAIO, has already been sold out and if Sony Pictures is still reeling from the massive hacking attacks of last year. These are trying times for the Japanese electronics company and might have to take some calls to prevent following the path of Nokia.

February 19, 2015
With About $19 Billion Valuation, Snapchat To Become Third Most Valued Startup

Snapchat, the service that lets you send self-destructing text and picture messages is going places. In the latest round of funding, the company seems positive to raise its valuation to $16-19 billion. With this funding round, the company will become the third most valued startup after Xiaomi and Uber.

Last year, Snapchat raised $485 Million and was then valued at $10 Billion. This time around the company is targeting $500 million and is expected to be valued between $16-19 Billion. The company will over all raise $1 Billion after proposed funding.

Snapchat needs the funding as it plans to purchase the recording label Big Machine. This purchase is expected to cost Snapdeal a massive sum of $350 million. To raise its funds further, the company has said that it will be introducing ads on the platform.

Snapchat has been gaining popularity and is said to have acquired up to 200 Million monthly active users. For comparison, Instagram has over 300 Million subscribers while Whatsapp, the most popular of the messaging app has a user base of over 700 million.

February 18, 2015
Xiaomi Prepares to Step into the US market

Chinese electronics manufacturer Xiaomi is slowly trying to take over the world. The company is currently preparing to build a concrete ground for itself in the US market. The Vice President of Xiaomi, yesterday said in a meeting that the company intends to inaugurate an online marketplace Mi.com in the US in the coming months. He also made it clear that the on-sale products will not be smartphones, but other accessories like headphones, smart wristbands, etc.

Barra commented in the press meet –

The amount of effort required to bring those products to the market is an incredible amount of work. We’re accelerating our entering by bringing simpler products.

Barra gave the reason for not bringing out smartphones and tablets in the US saying that there are hardware certification, software testing, infrastructure, and other similar logistical challenges. He said that the company will start trading with those products that don’t have regulatory challenges.

Xiaomi said that they were about to secure a manufacturing partner in Brazil, which will help the company avoid tariffs on imported electronics.

The five-year-old company is doing tremendously well. It kicked off with smartphones and expanded its reach to different segments with Mi Purifiers, power banks, wristbands, etc. It has become one of the biggest smartphone makers in the world in a short span of time. With its first step in the US, if the Xiaomi plays its cards right, it may lead the game soon.

February 13, 2015
Qualcomm Deep in Trouble After Near-$1 Billion Loss for Antitrust Violation

A day before, the world’s biggest chip maker Qualcomm was penalized by the Chinese Regulators for antitrust violations. The chip making firm was fined with a record amount of around $1 billion and the company agreed for a settlement with Chinese antitrust authorities. But the trouble for the US-based firm hasn’t ended yet and the reason for the revenue dip this time is the smartphone producers.

Qualcomm gets a major part of its revenue from the royalties based on the handsets’ value and with companies like Xiaomi and Huawei reducing the handset price to set at the top of the competition, the profit margin is slipping for Qualcomm.

Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon made a statement –

You’ve got all these Chinese companies – like Xiaomi, Huawei and Lenovo – that want to go global and take share from Samsung Electronics, HTC and presumably even Apple, but they’re going to do it at much lower price points.

Yesterday, Qualcomm agreed to pay $975 million as fine for settlement with Chinese antitrust authorities. National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) held an anti-monopoly investigation and found Qualcomm guilty. The company underwent changed practices in licensing patents for mobile phones sold in China. Qualcomm did not contest and agreed to pay to the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission.

The chip maker is already under pressure because of increasing competition by Intel, Marvell, MediaTek and HiSilicon. Even major brands are dropping Qualcomm for the next top-tier phones. Qualcomm has to take a step now to sustain the top chip maker position.

February 10, 2015
State Telecom Companies BSNL and MTNL Not Participating in Spectrum Auction

The telecom industry is looking forward to the spectrum auction with bated breath. While the government expects to make massive profits, telecom companies will be battling each other to gain spectrum to stay in business. The competition became a little easy today as state telecom companies BSNL and MTNL have backed out of the auction.

The Indian government plans to earn about Rs.1 lakh crore. Both BSNL and MTNL have said that they would now be engaging in the auction as they have no use for any additional spectrum.

The Indian government has been criticized for the high base price for the spectrum; even TRAI had suggested lower base pricing for the spectrum. The association of GSM operators COAI and GSMA have said that the auction might end up being a dull affair because of the low availability of spectrum and high price tag.

During the previous auction too, the telecom operators had to borrow heavy sums of money from the bank to buy spectrum that led to a staggering debt for the industry worth Rs. 2.5 lakh crores. COAI has also said that the high spectrum prices will also act as a major hindrance in the audacious Digital India Project of the present government. The auction will be held on February 25.

February 9, 2015
Alibaba Invests Heavily in Chinese Smartphone Maker Meizu

Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, has been trying for a while to put its foot in the profitable smartphone business. The company created a record last year with the biggest IPO ever worth $25 Billion. Alibaba is now betting big on Chinese smartphone maker Meizu and has invested a sum of $590 Million in the company.

Through this merger, Alibaba would try to take its operating system Yun OS further in the market. The os is based on the Android platform and provides cloud-based features like e-mail, Web search, weather updates, and GPS navigation tools. It is also called Aliyun OS. Google had previously dissuaded Acer to ship devices based on Aliyun as it was incompatible with other Android devices, and Acer is a signatory of the Open Handset Alliance (OHA).

Meizu like Xiaomi, gets its design “inspirations” from Apple

Meizu has tried to emulate Xiaomi, which in turn “borrows” from Apple. This deal might also help Meizu to take on Xiaomi, which has replaced Samsung in China as the biggest smartphone brand. Meizu isn’t even in the top-5 of that points tally, and a push by Alibaba might work in its favor.

[quote text_size=”small” author=”Alibaba “]

Alibaba Group will provide Meizu with resources and support in the fields of e-commerce, mobile Internet, mobile operating system and data analysis with the aim of developing Meizu’s smartphone ecosystem.

[/quote]

Alibaba has, in the past, invested $280 million in a messaging app called Tango and $120 million in US game maker Kabam. But these investments are yet to bear fruit for the company. It makes sense for it to invest in an established brand rather than starting a brand from scratch.

February 9, 2015
MediaTek Aspires to Expand Business in India

MediaTek is an established name in the field of technology. Its chips power to many low-priced phones. The Taiwan-based firm wants to expand at our home ground and affirmed the same in a meeting with the Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today.

The company aspires to make technology accessible to everyone and remarked in an official statement –

MediaTek chairman (MK Tsai) shared his commitment to make technology more accessible for people. He was encouraged by the great market potential that India holds in the field of technology and high tech services. He shared with the Minister that MediaTek is keen on expanding its presence in India.

The maker only designs chips and doesn’t manufacturer them on its own. It gets the products made from its vendors. The Telecom minister made it known the flexible policies and great demand for technology in the country and highlighted the ‘Make in India’ program in which accessible technology is the prime criteria.

Mr. Shankar shared the views of establishing BPOs in rural areas and creating more IT hubs in small towns, which in turn will bring prosperity and growth to the lesser developed parts of India.

February 7, 2015
Xiaomi Reportedly Setting Up a Manufacturing Unit in India

Xiaomi is doing incredibly well in India as well as overseas. Infact India is one of the most critical markets for Xiaomi both in terms of user base as well as revenue. That’s the reason, the heads at Xiaomi are seeing India as the major market place. A report has arrived which says that the China-based smartphone manufacturer may enter India soon.

The Chinese producer is planning to expand outside China, and India and Brazil are reportedly the possible destinations. With latest updates coming from Digitimes, the Chinese giant has joined hands with Inventec and the former company will be doing its manufacturing business in Chennai, India, through the Inventec. It is said that the smartphone production will commence in second or third quarter of 2015.

A few days ago, Xiaomi said that it would soon retail its devices in India on its official Mi India website, rather than Flipkart. It shows the company’s inclination towards the Indian smartphone market. Additionally if this deal does materialise there would be an even further reduction in the prices on account of savings due to custom duty and octroi.

Meanwhile, there is no official word from the company and these continue to be mere speculations. An event is going to take place on February 12 in San Francisco, in which Xiaomi is expected to make certain announcements including this one.

February 5, 2015