Tag: igyaan edit

Edit: The Rise and Rise of the next Giant : Samsung

2011 was a year of Samsung, the company has taken the consumer electronics market by storm, grabbing attention one way or another. Samsung also led as India’s number one manufacturer for mobile phones in all categories. From basic feature phones to high end Smart phones, the company has managed to challenge all odds and gain the market respect.

But all this does not come cheap, Samsung employs a huge amount of its annual earning into marketing. In 2011 alone Samsung is estimated to have spent over US $ 2 Billion in advertising their products. Out of which a major 40% is targeted towards mobile devices and 6-7 % towards new phones. Samsung also deploys twice that amount into market research and development, so that its teams know what the next big thing from the company is going to be.

Galaxy S2

In 2011 Samsung took a huge stab at Apple’s dominant spot as the world leader in smartphone sales. By quarter 3 2011 Samsung had replaced Apple as the world most selling smartphone manufacturer ( if you consider number of handsets and not just one model of handset). Samsung Galaxy S2 was the phone that changed everything for Samsung, the new innovations in the field of mobility that challenged design and construction, and innovative softwares threw huge limelight on Samsung’s potential in this market space. Android loyalists were drawn by Samsung’s willingness to answer to their demands and stuffing their handsets with all features requested (and more) by the users.

Who ever imagined a device like the Galaxy Note, a fully capacitive screen that had massive scribbling promise, a handwriting recognizing monster with the capabilities of real time editing and project handling. Live annotations and screen captures were there in previous Samsung handsets, but the precision with with the Note is able to do these tasks is excellent. People want change and innovation and that what Samsung has started to give to its users.

The South Korean company is earning high praise for the design of its new line of OLED television sets, its oversized Galaxy Note smartphone and its

Galaxy Tab 750

new line of laptops, dubbed Series 9. Samsung has held the title of the top TV maker for the past six years, and recently surpassed Apple Inc. to become the world’s top smartphone manufacturer. Samsung posted a US$4.5-billion profit in the most recent quarter, one of the best in the company’s history.

The Company now has set its sights on the personal computer and tablet markets, hoping to replicate the success the company has had in its smartphone and television businesses. Targeting their efforts at Apple, Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc, companies which are current leaders in the domain. This won’t be easy for Samsung either especially because globally they don’t even fall in the top 5 PC manufacturers category.

nx System Camera

One of Samsung’s biggest strengths is its component manufacturing facilities. Samsung itself manufactures 75% of the components used in its TVs, PCs and smartphones, enabling the company to innovate and test new products quickly. Samsung is also emerging big in a category seldom seen with asian companies, Cameras. With a exciting range of digital point and shoot cameras from the company, including innovative flip lcd type cameras. The company also has pioneered the professional SLR segment with their range of NX cameras, that are getting appreciation from professional Photographers.

The future of the brand also seems bright, as people have less and less faith in Apple’s ability to give what the users want. The next revision of the iPad and the iPhone 5 no longer seem as exciting as the Samsung Galaxy S3 or the Galaxy Tab 3 headed our way in 2012.

Its been a long time since our last edit, this one was long over due. The smartphone industry is ever changing, with constant evolutions in a battlefield of major companies and small startups. In a world where companies become large in a matter of months and fall even faster, we can only guess what the future holds in the massive divide.

January 14, 2012
Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 / 10.1 Unboxing, Specs, Price and Video

The Samsung Galaxy Tab has been an elusive device from Samsung. We first got our hands on with the tablet at the Samsung forum earlier this year, where the device was officially announced.

Now that the Tablet was fully launched in India, we finally got a chance to grab hold of ours and here it is. in all its glory.The device runs on a dual core 1 GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, with a 7000mah battery which should be powerful enough with ample juice for hours of usage.

Full SPEC-SHEET

Images

Video Unboxing

October 5, 2011
Edit : Anticipation of the New iPhone 5/ 4s is higher than ever

What is pushing the iPhone to the top of the world?what causes the low supply and large demand? We say its basic rules of economics learnt in High School, to make the demand of a commodity more, the supply needs to be regulated. This time around anticipation of the next Gen. iPhone is higher than ever. With reports of a cheaper variant of the iPhone 4 looming, most users are delaying their cellphone purchases indefinitely.

The iPhone since its launch in 2007 has been the number one smartphone in terms of market share in sales. This has happened not only due to innovations in technology but also because of the fact that Apple is extremely smart when it comes to marketing the device. The first true capacitive touch phone, with the first true capacitive input OS. The first app store that revolutionized apps on a mobile platform. Everything along the smartphone business, Apple has changed the way we use our devices. Today companies like Micromax, Videocon and other budget phone manufacturers are eating off the profits of the Apple name.

Micromax even launched an AD-Campaign for the A70 stating “I can afford this Phone – emphasis on iPhone”. People often take the iPhone as a flagship and compare other devices with that. Sure there are hardcore Android fans and I am one of them, in-fact i love all OS types. For the sake of iGyaan I need to possess flagship devices from all platforms, yet if given the choice i will always choose my iPhone.

Over 90% of the total questions we receive at iGyaan ask us to compare simple Android phones with the fluidity of the iPhone, The answer always has been till now – no other device can match the responsiveness of the iPhone. Yes it crashes, yes you hate it, yes its closed, yes “Bharat is an ex-Apple man”, But it doesn’t change the fact that not only does the iPhone have the best resolution display till date, unmatched by any manufacturer,it also has the most fluid OS in the world. This device is meant to be touched and it only relies on that. No matter what hardware you stuff behind the touchscreen of the device, 2x Quad core processors for all we care, untill you iron out the lag between screen swipes, we prefer iPhones.

Apple is also a brand of the youth, it has always been. PCs have been boring for a very long time, since the beginning of computer time. Apple has been always loved by the youth, creative people, writers, artists, web designers, graphic artists and all new forms of young professionals love Apple and the ease of use of the OS and all the softwares around it. All non tech related ads have people using Apple computers in them, this is nothing but passive marketing for Apple and most non technologically sound people love it(that includes more than 90% of the global pop FYI) .

Not to forget the constant mis-marketing by websites like iGyaa ( if only Apple paid us a dollar for every-time we wrote their name on our website) feeds to the brains of technology loving people young and old alike (yes you reading this). People are constantly being hypnotized to believe that the iPhone is mother-ship and every thing else is nothing in-front of it. Althought that is so not the case.

So why is the iPhone now the most sought after phone? Despite its high price and low tech specs, most will still prefer it over their juiced up Android device. If an iPhone 4 was to be available at say 19 Thousand Indian rupees / 350-400 US$, you will see the likes of eBay and craigslist full of second hand Android phones and Blackberries. The new iPhone 5 in recent surveys has been on more than 30% peoples waitlist, that is more than 3 times of the next best OS = Android which stacks in at a mere 9.4% in the list of “My next phone”.

The iPhone 5 is coming and people are waiting for it anxiously, so are we. The device whether a major change or minor, will cause people to queue up and wait outside stores for weeks. It will also cause some people to sell their kidneys and some to be highly disappointed with its not so impressive upgrades. The only question that now remains is

HAVE YOU DELAYED YOU NEXT SMARTPHONE PURCHASE IN ANTICIPATION OF THE NEXT IPHONE?

[polldaddy poll=5510117]

September 17, 2011
Samsung Shows of the New Galaxy Tab 750 / 10.1 in Video Demo – Full Interface walkthrough

Samsung’s latest tablet is getting all the attention it deserves, the company has now made a full demo of the User Interface walkthrough.

Not only is the tablet thin and light its easy to use, says the video demo. Demonstrating the new multitasking features and the dedicated multitask button, makes us wonder why other companies haven’t thought of it.

It is also the first tablet to have individual speakers of either side, full stereo sound. Samsung sneakily also shows off the dock in the video, which makes the device, that tad bit more special.

The Samsung Bookshelf and new TouchWiz Keyboard are also shown off in the demo. The video also details the Social Hub , additional accessories and a detailed demo of the Music Hub which is Samsung’s own version of the music store.

Check it out.

Don’t forget to read our EDIT : Its Time To Tabulate

August 12, 2011
Edit: Its time to Tabulate with the Galaxy Tab 750

Its one of those things that takes time to reach its prime potential. Tablets were introduced in 2010 and primarily a couple of brands ruled the market. With the iPad eating the largest slice of the market share, Android tablets started to pour in by the second half of 2010.

The Original 7 inch Galaxy tab was the first true Android tablet to be launched in India. While it filled a major void that was left in the market due to the unavailability of the iPad, people were not quite ready for a switch to tablets and the tablets weren’t quite ready for human consumption.

2011 marked the era of the Tablets, with advancements in technology that allowed for powerful devices to be manufactured at prices well within the buying power of the consumer, Tablets have taken the market by storm, bent it, made space and created a new segment of electronic goods.

The year started with many tablets, The iPad 2 being the most impressive and the most dominating, followed by low numbers of the Motorola Xoom, RIM Playbook and others. Samsung had announced plans of launching the 10 inch tablet before the announcement of the iPad 2, but later changes in design and specs caused a major delay in the actual release date of the device.

Most are calling this tablet a true iPad 2 rival, a market favorite of sorts. So, in a market like India where people are finally making space in their life for tablets, where does the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 or the Indian Galaxy 750 fit in?

Here is our EDIT on why the Galaxy 750 is special for us and the Indian Market.

Galaxy 750

We already handled the earlier Tab ( thicker version), but for reasons unknown the device was never released and its a good thing. The new Galaxy 750 is just 8.6mm, it is 0.2mm thinner than the iPad 2. and weighing only 565g it’s also 36g lighter than the Cupertino tablet. The device is brilliantly built from from to back and is easily held in one hand. The shape and the design of the Tablet along with a good mix of materials make it feel like a luxury.

The Galaxy 750 runs Android Honeycomb 3.1, which is the latest version of Android meant for Tablets. This brings about much more usability to the device including resizable widgets and a better application management system as shown by us in out preview of Honeycomb.

The newer Galaxy 750 also drops the 8mp rear camera for a 3mp one, which doesn’t bother us and is still far superior than the iPad 2’s unknown less than 1Mp camera.

TouchWiz

The Galaxy 750 also adds the newer version of TouchWiz on what is usually a boring interface. TouchWiz not only makes the user interface on the device more attractive to look at, but also adds a whole host of features. The inbuilt task manager, ram management, Voice functions and several multimedia enhancements make the experience a lot better.

No Chains

One of the biggest deciding factors for the device has to be the fact that, people want to use a Tablet as a replacement for a laptop or a netbook. The iPad does not fulfill that gap because of the closed structure of iOS. While ruling the mobile structure , iOS does not quite answer to the day to day requirements for a tablet user.

Basic file sharing is disabled in iOS, where as Android allows all sorts of file sharing. The device also has the ability to read from USB host devices, but itself lacks a usb port. The Galaxy 750 will require a proprietary cable and will be able to read content from USB hard drives or flash sticks. Making it a far better laptop/netbook replacement than any other Tablet in the market.

The fact that the Galaxy 750 runs Android, also means that its an easily customizable device, if you don’t like the theme or layout, you can change it. Widgets make it easy to stay up to date on all sorts of information, from stocks to weather, from social networking to emails, new releases and quick actions. The widget- laden interface is a lot of fun to interact with and is also one of the primary reasons we like Android.

Companion

The Galaxy 750 can also be the perfect travel companion, not only for business, but also for fun. Download the Kindle App or read a book from the Samsung bookshelf, watch movies on the stunning 1280x800px display which is exceptionally bright. The Galaxy 750 also has a 4 way motion sensor, a Gyroscope, which would make the gaming experience better than any other tablet in the market, including the iPad 2. Samsung also uses this technology for panoramas in the camera and for navigating through the UI like in the case of the Galaxy S2.

If you didn’t consider buying a tablet prior to this, the time is now. Samsung have brought Tablets, especially Android Tablets, to a place where no one has been able achieve before. A portable media centre which begs attention, a device powerful enough to replace a netbook or even a laptop. Enterprise emails and Office Apps are already on the device along with a 16GB storage (expandable). The device also features a dual core 1 GHZ NVidia Tegra 2 processor with 1 GB of Ram dedicated to the Tablet.

The Future of tablets is here and its Time to Tabulate with the Galaxy 750.

Until something better shows up anyway!

We can’t express how excited we are to unbox and review this device for you guys! If you have some special requests please leave them in the comments below.

[polldaddy poll=5388771]

Full Specs for the Galaxy 750

Image Gallery

August 11, 2011
EDIT : A Smartphone or a Tablet, What to Buy?

The question haunts every smartphone buyer, “should i instead buy a tablet?”. In the past few weeks we have got over a hundred emails asking us this question.

Tablet season is here and its going to stay. When tablets were launched globally starting with the 1st iPad in the United Stated, analysts speculated that the market in India would not adapt to a tablet lifestyle. Today more than 25% of India’s mobile internet traffic is from iPads alone, another 10% from other tablets. Analyst have been proven wrong yet again, but the question still remains a Tablet or a souped up Smartphone?

We shall try and resolve this predicament for you.

A smartphone today has come a long way from what it was when the term was invented. Smart phones started off as basic day to day mobile phones that did a little bit more. A color screen, an mp3 player and customizable ringtones, a WAP browser and VGA cameras with infrared photo sharing. People were happy with these features and were shelling out Rs. 25-35 thousand for devices that were just smart.

Today you can’t be happy with what you pay for, A dual core phone, WiFi – N, Bluetooth 3.0, GBs of Ram, Multiple GBs of storage, touchscreens, slim designs, gorilla glass, unibody constructions and a whole host of Apps that do everything else. But its still not enough, we need higher spec’d displays LCD, SLCD, Amoled, Super Amoled, Super Amoled Plus and now Super Amoled Plus HD. Why is there a constant need for upgraded technology? Socially a man buying a phone always has the need to be on top of technology (This is directly proportional to the size of his, since this is a public page lets say “car”) The newer and more expensive the tech, the more a man feels like a man. Why shouldn’t we? we have a right to everything that makes us happy, and a right to get what we pay for and sometimes more than what we pay for.

A Smartphone today is the ultimate tool for a man ( student through Business men) from lectures, to calculations , wind speeds, weather info, document editing, printing , presentations, video editing, photo editing, emails, messaging everything can be achieved on a smartphone. So why should we not get one.

APPS ON THE DEVICES OF TODAY

Tablets in the market today are essentially blown up versions of the devices we carry in our pockets, the iPad 1 matched the specs of the iPhone 4 , (infact the phone had more ram) and the iPad 2 will be dwarfed by the iPhone 5s specs. Similarly Android phones dwarf the tablets, Galaxy S2 and Sensation are far more powerful than any Android tablet in the market today.

So is a larger screen a better option?

No one can really answer that question for you, it all comes down to what you do with the device you buy. I personally hate carrying my tablet and only like to carry my phone. A tablet is useful while traveling its a multimedia powerhouse- gaming , movies, videos even basic editing work can be done easily on a tablet. I also have met and often bump into folks who like carrying a tablet everywhere even to the GYM ( seriously what are they thinking?). Upon a little investigation you find out that they spent their budget on a tablet with phone call abilities and don’t own a phone anymore.

PADFONE

In an ideal world a product like the Asus Padfone would be perfect. A smartphone which converts into a tablet when you need it to be one, what else could one ask for? Devices like the Padfone are going to be the ultimate tool of a technology lover, but they still have time to arrive.

Till then our recommendation is:

If you really want to, then get a tablet and fulfill your dreams. But keep in mind that a tablet will never replace a phone and you should always have a phone handy, whether a Smartphone or a standard phone is what your budget will answer (even your day to day requirements). Carrying a tablet around as a phone will not only make you look, well how should we put it, like a “doofus”. Unless you are totally business oriented and your work calls for it. But then if you are a business man then you probably already own a smartphone, right?

According to us, tablets today are not yet there, not ready to beat a good phone. Invest in a good phone, you will get more done. A tablet is only eye candy, a large touchscreen that has been a part of Sci-Fi movies for a long time and today when the opportunity is here, everyone wants to grab it. Get one only as a secondary device, something between your phone and your notebook, as a notebook replacement even, if you don’t have much work except document editing than a tablet will fulfill your notebook requirements and look good doing it. Plus there is always the benefit of Angry Birds on a large screen.

[polldaddy poll=5187177]

June 28, 2011