Vuclip, mobile video and media company, has released its Q3 2013 Global Video Insights covering over 50,000 people globally, including around 8,000 from India. The survey reveals a high consumer appetite for watching full-length movies and television shows on their mobile phones even in areas where there is no fast network speed.

The survey throws up some interesting insights for Indians: shorter forms of movies or movie clips are not preferred by Indians. Instead, 62% of them said they prefer to watch movies or TV serials instead of short clips.

Long form content was preferred by as much as 89% of all respondents under the age of 18. If these demographics are gender differentiated, 90% of males and 84% of females said they would be happy watching their favorite film via mobile.

Along with movies, TV serials are also a favorite, with 81% of respondents saying they would prefer to watch their favorite TV serial on mobile, if available. This preference is particularly strong amongst the 18 and under age group at 95%.

All these clearly point out the fact that it is the youth who is driving the long form of content consumption via the mobile. The concerns which acted as a bottleneck were high cost of data access, buffering issue and lack of interesting content.

The high cost of data access topped the list with 39% of respondents citing this as a concern, followed by buffering at 19% and the lack of interesting content at 12%. The full survey results are can be found here.

Top searches

The searches focus primarily on the ABCD of content — A: Astrology, B-Bollywood, C- Cricket and D- Devotional — but Bollywood also rules the roost with Indians showing a clear preference to search for movies. Among the top celebrity searches in second quarter of 2013 – Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif and Sachin Tendulkar rule the roost!

COO speak – Arun Prakash, Chief Operating Officer of Vuclip said: "When you see what the under-18 crowd is interested in, that's when you know you have a lens into the future of mobile. We're seeing an important shift as people become more engaged in viewing full movies and television episodes. And apps offer the best possible user experience for this. Naturally, consumers do have some hesitations about cost and buffering, but through a combination of the penetration of apps and the deployment of network-friendly adaptive bit rate streaming technologies, these issues can be addressed."

More offer on plate? With Indian telcos offering 3G rates for as low as Rs. 123 for 1GB by Reliance and scores of cheap 3G handsets available in the country, these trends are soon going to be the new direction in which media industry is moving.

Check out all finding in this Vuclip presentation:

So, do you want to have a absolutely fantastic Diwali this year? Why not have a chance to win a very coveted Gorgeous iPhone 5S?

Yes, that's exactly what we are doing here for our Trak.in readers – We will be giving away an iPhone 5S.

Not many products have the power to create the sort of excitement and gripping interest like iPhones do. Every year, one date that everybody waits for with great anticipation is the day of iPhone release. From then begins a relentless wait to get hands on the device and perhaps save enough to get one.

If you are an Apple fan who goes through all these motions regularly and cannot wait to get your hands on the cold metal of a brand new iPhone 5s then November 1^st is the date you have already marked in the Calendar as the date when the new iPhone comes to India.

To help make this festive season special and brighter than ever before, we are giving you a chance to make it not just a Happy but, a #HappierDiwali. All you have to do is simply enter in your thoughts in the form of answers and stand a unique opportunity to win the device that is high on everybody's wish list.

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Here we often discuss about technology in various ways. Be it the new gadgets that are launching or the services that have been recently launched for our benefits. Internet speeds have been improving consistently and since the dawn of 3G, there is real hope for India becoming a broadband country.

However, our actual 'broadband' is still miserable as ever. In fact, its adoption has decreased and thus it no longer holds any priority in ISPs eyes at least where the consumer is concern. Businesses of course are a different story.

Technology is even more permeating than that. Recently, I was watching a show on Discovery. It was showing how they were making potato chips for the 4^th of July. The machinery was impressive to say the least. Be it potato cutter or the amazing light sensors that check if any potato chip is deformed or irregularly cooked. Any default piece was immediately removed from the lot by air jet. Besides this, they were checking the density of potatoes and the water content in the potatoes.

All this, to make chips!

I am pretty sure I have eaten plenty of deformed chips, burnt even, from probably the same company here in India.

The funny thing is that the whole process shown was automated on several levels. Therefore, the actual testing was being done by machines instead of being manual. This meant that the quality control was maintained by machines. Humans are there to ensure that the machine works smoothly. This ensures that there is no carelessness as the machine won't get tired.

This got me thinking- Is the reason for Quality control of the same standard is missing in India is that most of the work is manual.

India is a labor intensive country. We have cheap labor and it is often considered our biggest asset. However, my work experience in a manufacturing company some time back begs to differ at least where the quality is concerned.

People cut corners, machines don't.

Of course, in theory it is the responsibility of the company to ensure that its people are not doing such things but in reality, there is a limited amount of control that can be exerted in such matters.

I remember a certain minister saying during commonwealth games preparation that, our standard of hygiene is different from other countries. He was scoffed at for saying this. But a walk on a beach in Mumbai (our financial capital) or a lane in old part of Delhi (Our Capital) will make us realize that there is some truth in that statement.

So, either we really have lower quality standards or the quality control is simply a failure.

So, comes the hundred rupees question- "How do we tackle this problem?"

To be honest, I do not have an answer to that. Perhaps automation is the key to this. But that might leave a huge chunk of population unemployed. Also, I do not think we have that kind of budget for at least the whole country.

Maybe, we need a separate ministry- "Ministry of Quality Check". There are a few departments lying here and there but nothing of that sort. Then again, our trust in our government alone is enough to laugh at this proposition.

I can come up with these two things. What is your opinion?

Airtel, the largest Telecom Operator in India announced it's quarterly results for the second quarter ending September 20th, 2013. Their results are a clear indication that mobile internet will bring the next wave of revenue growth for telecom operators in India.

Operators in India have long struggled with wafer thin margins, thanks to extremely low voice call rates. In addition to this, TRAI in recent times have bought slew of policy changes, that have come as a cropper to Operators' VAS revenues.

On the other hand, rise of mobile internet usage comes as a much needed fillip for operators to push their bottom lines. The graph below gives the complete picture of Airtel customers' mobile internet usage.

The interesting and probably the most heartening thing to see in the graph above is growth in data usage per customer. It has grown from average of 133 mb per user in 2nd quarter of last year to nearly 231 mb in corresponding quarter of this year, a good 73 percent rise.

Another aspect is the steep rise in 3G adoption. While the overall data customer base increased by about 25 percent, the 3G customer base doubled from 4.01 million users to 8.02 million this year!

The consumption of mobile data by customers over Airtel network more than doubled from 15.14 Terabyte last year to over 32 Terabyte this year.

Right now roughly about 17 percent of data users are 3G users on Airtel network. Given the rise of smartphones and falling 3G rates, this number should easily double or even triple in next 12 to 18 months which should significantly improve data revenues as well.

Currently mobile internet revenues of about INR 15000 crore, is less than 10 percent of the total revenue pie (INR 21,324 crore). However, given the way mobile data usage is growing, the scenario is expected to change drastically over coming years.

Bharti Airtel 2nd Quarter Results Highlights

• Consolidated total revenues up by 10% Y-o-Y
• India up 6.1%; Africa up 16.1% (INR terms)
• Consolidated EBITDA up by 15.1%, EBITDA margin up 1.4%
• Consolidated EBIT up 28.7%
• Consolidated Mobile Data revenue and traffic have doubled; growth across geographies
• India EBITDA up 13.2%; margin up 2.2%
• Africa net revenues (USD terms) up 5.6% Q-o-Q and 6.2% Y-o-Y.
• Consolidated Operating Free Cash Flow at ? 4,693 crore, up 117.1%

"You either die a hero, or you live long enough to become a villain."

This line from The Dark Knight came to my mind when I was reading this news.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department have found that Infosys brought a number of its employees in US using B-1 Visa instead of the H1-B Visa. The B-1 Visa is fine for short stays and is perfect for small tours etc. It is easier to obtain and requires a fees of $160 only.

On the other hand H1-B Visa gives its owner the opportunity to work in US for 3 years and might cost an individual up to $5000. It is also not as easy to obtain and US issues a maximum of 65000 H1-B Visas per year. It is one of the most sought after Visa as well and thus a person faces fierce competition as well for it.

It is being said that Infosys brought some of its employees on B-1 Visa but these employees stayed beyond the expiration of the Visa. While Infosys maintains that they are not guilty of the charges, it seems that their erroneous hiring records gave them away.

While the actual amount of the fine will be set today (Wednesday), Infosys said that it had set aside around $35 million for the case and expenditure related to it. This would make it the most expensive fine ever levied by US on violation of immigration laws.

The investigation came into existence after a 2011 lawsuit filed by an Infosys employee named Jack Palmer, who sued the company for harassment and breach of contract. According to him, the managers of the company retaliated against him after he rose concerned against violation of immigration laws.

The biggest question from here is how does the reputation of Infosys is affected. There will obviously be greater scrutiny of Indian companies from here on and rules will have to be followed even more strenuously.

The image of the company itself will be tarnished because of this. While, it should not have a huge impact on the business incoming, spends might increase for Infosys in just following the procedures to the Tee.

I think it is time for other Indian Outsourcing giants like TCS, Wipro, Cognizant and others to check and correct their ledgers for any hiring discrepancies and malpractices.