WATBlog.com | Update
WATBlog.com | Update |  |
- RCom Ushers In A new Era Of ‘Phones On Contract’ In India And Makes iPhone 5S Affordable
- App Vendor AppsDaily Scores $5 Mn. In Series B From Multiple Investors
- Minglebox Seeks To Collate Information About Online Courses By Launching MOOC Section
- Twitter May Soon Encrypt Its DMs
- Housing.com Adds Agents Map To Its Offerings
- Cleartrip Teams Up With Nimbuzz, Launches Brand Buddy
- Intel Questioning Itself About Entering Internet TV Segment, May Sell-Out To Verizon
- Google Launches The Nexus 5 With Android KitKat
| RCom Ushers In A new Era Of ‘Phones On Contract’ In India And Makes iPhone 5S Affordable Posted: 01 Nov 2013 06:22 AM PDT Reliance Communications (RCom) is attempting to break the norm of mobile users purchasing phones on huge up-front prices. The company has brought the latest iPhone 5S and its slightly lower priced sibling iPhone 5C within the grasp of common man with 'Contract Lock' option. RCom will offer 16 GB version of iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S for Rs 2,500 and Rs 2,800 per month with unlimited data, calls and SMS. The contract will be valid for 2 years, during which the users won't be allowed to use the phone with other network. Essentially, RCom has introduced the concept of buying phones with relatively cheap EMI Option, bundled with services. So far, Indians have been relatively alien to the concept of buying high-end phones at throw-away upfront prices. Is 'Contract Locking' a viable option? 16GB iPhone 5C, presently costs Rs. 41,900 while, 5S is priced at Rs. 53,500 and this is where lies a crucial perception-based issue. By a simple calculation, it is evident that buyers of this 'iPhone Under Contract' will end up paying Rs. 60,000 for the 16 GB version of iPhone 5C which will cost just Rs. 41,900 in the open market, without any contractual obligations. RCom has certainly taken a bold step at introducing Contract Locked Phones that come with a very attractive sticker price. If the company offers excellent service and doesn't trick customers with crafty fine-print, Indians could certainly warm up to the concept. What do you think?
Image Source | etimes Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency  |
| App Vendor AppsDaily Scores $5 Mn. In Series B From Multiple Investors Posted: 01 Nov 2013 06:15 AM PDT AppsDaily a unique enterprise that develops as well as retails Software Applications, has scored Rs. 31 Crores (US$ 5 Million) in a Series B round of funding. Trio of Venture Capital firms, Ru-Net Limited, IndoUs Venture Partners (IVP) and Qualcomm Ventures participated. IndoUS and Qualcomm are returning investors, while Russian internet company Ru-Net is investing in this venture for the first time. So far the company has officially raised a total of Rs. 54 Crores (US$ 8.72 Million). The first seed-funding round was led by Mumbai Angels which put in Rs. 5 Crores (US$ 0.8 Million), after which AppsDaily managed to secure Rs. 18 Crores (US$ 3 Million) from IndoUS Venture Partners and Qualcomm Ventures. AppsDaily will utilize the funds from this round to expand its product offering, retail distribution reach (to more than 200 cities from 100 cities in 18 states currently) and for hiring key employees. What does AppsDaily do? AppsDaily's unique proposition has proven quite effective as the company claims to have sold over 1 Million products not just in India, but even in other countries like Australia, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Qatar, UAE, UK and US. The fact that company appears to have a vast market scope is not the interesting part. The company has opted to physically retail software products which have traditionally been sold via virtual App Stores. More so, most of its in-house products are pertaining to mobile security. Applications such as daily cop, daily protect, daily assure, daily complete security among others can be bought through its website as well as through offline retail outlets. To ensure operability across such vast markets, AppsDaily has employed over 1200 People. Having such a dual approach to hawk mobile applications has certainly been experimented earlier. But, do people still prefer to approach a person or a physical store to buy apps?
Image Source | appsdaily Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency  |
| Minglebox Seeks To Collate Information About Online Courses By Launching MOOC Section Posted: 01 Nov 2013 05:27 AM PDT Education centric portal Minglebox, backed by Sequoia Capital, has launched an interesting collative effort to offer information about Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC). The section appears to be an extensive attempt to aggregate information not just about the courses, but associated information as well. What is the intention behind such an undertaking? It is interesting to note that this MOOC section isn't built with an intention to generate revenue. The platform appears to have more of an informative nature. Just like Pagalguy and ItzCard this section has information about the courses and their respective providers, along with opportunity to register. All in all, the site intends to enlighten and educate users and visitors about the possibilities to learn and educate one-self, through such courses that offer unrestricted access and opportunities to re-take the classes at one's own pace. Judging by the amount of efforts spent at collating the information across multiple sources, it appears there is a two-pronged approach. The first and most elementary could be to jack-up visitor count. Minglebox competes directly with Info Edge's Shiksha.com and a couple of other players that have updated information about colleges and professional courses. The other possibility could be to seek opportunities of collaboration with Educational Content Generators in the future. Minglebox surprisingly has a separate e-commerce portal called MingleKart. However, this online shopping portal varies wildly and sells products across categories such as stationery, mobiles, engineering kits, games, watches, bags, wallets, belts, computers, cameras and even lifestyle. This trick of attracting visitors and then attempting to sell, was recently employed by IRCTC when it launched an e-commerce section in association with Yebhi. What started as a niche Social Network for college students was later expanded with a deliberate re-branding exercise with Minglebox getting a new tag-line 'A "college, education, career" Site'. Do you think this dual approach to ensure multiple revenue streams is a wise move?
Image Source | http://www.minglebox.com/ Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency  |
| Twitter May Soon Encrypt Its DMs Posted: 01 Nov 2013 05:08 AM PDT Reports are in that Twitter is thinking of encrypting its Direct Message feature. While Twitter is largely all public data, Direct Messaging or DM is the secure part of its services. DMs let users talk to each other without the rest of the Twitter users being able to get access to that communication. This plan for encryption comes at a time when it has been revealed that the NSA unlawfully accessed data from Google and Yahoo's data centers. The company which has an IPO coming up is already developing a range of security measures designed to combat snooping by intelligence agencies and other third parties. There are also rumors that Twitter is going to make its DM feature into a standalone app. If the data coming from this standalone app is encrypted then it will become a secure way for Twitter users to connect to each other in private. Also, this will herald Twitter's foray into the already crowded messaging space which is getting fragmented day by day due to the rise of various cross-platform messaging services like BBM, Line, Hike, Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat etc. While this bit of news might help Twitter get a positive reception from investors before its upcoming IPO, it remains to be seen when the new features will be ready for public consumption.
Source | The New York Times Image Source | tech2 Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency  |
| Housing.com Adds Agents Map To Its Offerings Posted: 01 Nov 2013 01:58 AM PDT Housing.com is one of the recent entrants to online house/rental discovery in the country. Recently, the company changed its official domain from housing.co.in to housing.com, which seems to have something to do with its plans of global expansion. Housing.com maps properties and listings on a map, one of the primary ways to navigate through its interface, something very akin to AirBnb. The startup has been adding many new features recently namely price heat maps, classified sections for farmers and villagers and now Agent Maps. While most online portals and services aim to cut the middle man out, the agent/broker system is very prevalent in the country and it is difficult to work around this. Housing.com seems to have embraced this and has started listing real estate agents on their housing maps. The company says that listing agents on the website will help property buyers to pinpoint and have access to homes and properties as per their requirements. Agents listed on the maps can be filtered according to these predefined criteria. 1. Locality Search: This filters out agents by the areas that they operate in. 2. Sub-Locality: This filter is more specific and applies to a smaller area or housing societies. 3. Landmarks: This filter finds those agents which operate near certain landmarks. Advitiya Sharma, one of the Co-Founders of Housing.com said,
The company raised $2.5 million in funding from Nexus Venture Partners in June this year and previously has raised an undisclosed amount of angel funding from a group of angel investors. Housing.com is operational in seven Indian cities namely Mumbai, Pune, Gurgaon, Chennai, Noida, Bangalore and Ghaziabad. Have you tried Housing.com in order to search a property for yourself? How have you liked it? Share your thoughts with us. Website | Housing.com Source | Techcircle Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency  |
| Cleartrip Teams Up With Nimbuzz, Launches Brand Buddy Posted: 01 Nov 2013 01:51 AM PDT Nimbuzz has collaborated with online travel portal Cleartrip to enable travel bookings on its platform. Dubbed as ‘Cleartrip Brand Buddy, the platform is aimed at making travel bookings easier and faster. Available to all Nimbuzz users from 31st October, the platform will allow users to explore travel options as well as make booking through it. Cleartrip Brand Buddy can be added to the regular chat roster, allowing users to make travel reservations with fewer clicks than ever before. Users can do the preliminary search on the Nimbuzz app by adding basic information for their travel plans, while in order to proceed to actual bookings they are led to a co-branded WAP page. Speaking about the collaboration, Vikas Saxena, CEO Nimbuzz said, “Firstly, the concept of travel bookings on a messaging platform through a chat module is unique and secondly, Nimbuzz Brand Buddies have been accepted as a marketing platform by the travel industry for the very first time.” Nimbuzz Brand Buddies is a platform for brands to reach out to their audience. These Buddies appear as regular contacts on the chat roster of Nimbuzz users and are available for download from N-World. Nimbuzz recently partnered with internet service provider Spectranet to launch a new low cost Internet-powered international calling platform. Meanwhile, Cleartrip which recently turned 7 has been focusing on its mobile apps for a long time now. Subramanya Sharma, Chief Marketing Officer – Cleartrip said, “Mobile is a top prioirty for us, and we are always finding new ways to reach out to consumers to use our mobile products, and happy to see platforms like Nimbuzz trying to help us in that objective.” Image Credits: nimbuzz Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency  |
| Intel Questioning Itself About Entering Internet TV Segment, May Sell-Out To Verizon Posted: 01 Nov 2013 01:31 AM PDT Global Chip maker Intel Corporation is second-guessing itself about trying to enter the Internet TV segment. The company is allegedly in talks with Verizon Communications to arrange hand-over of gathered intelligence and hardware based infrastructure. Intel had famously chosen to step into, the then promising world, of Internet based TV Streaming business. But it appears Intel seems to have failed in signing content deals with Media Companies despite offering considerably higher premiums than its competitors. Why did Intel even consider getting into such a market? To ensure the company continued to generate revenue, Intel had been trying to evaluate alternate streams and avenues to offer its core products. Though it has made a fair bit of progress by venturing into the Smartphone segment, Intel still hasn't been successful per say. So far only handful devices appear to be sporting the famous 'Intel Inside' logo. During these exploratory times, multiple companies, including internet giant Google, were experimenting with Internet Driven TV. Similarly, these enterprises were also working hard to secure content for their ventures. It appears, the primary reason for failure to launch a viable and sustainable platform, was Intel's inability to come up with large amounts of content that could be streamed. Ironically, Intel had grand plans since the conception stage. The company had even designed and was extensively testing, Special Set-Top Boxes (STB) that would be connected to TVs. Questions about Intel's plans, interestingly originated within the organization itself, when newly appointed Chief Executive Brian Krzanich himself warned he was taking a cautious approach to television, which is far from the company’s core business of chip manufacturing. Internet TV is surely a promising segment. But apart from high technical expertise, it also requires huge sources of stream-able content. Google seems to be positioning itself very well. Let's hope Intel manages to find success in the alternate revenue streams like mobile computing and the newly emerging Wearable Tech. What would you suggest to Intel?
Image Credits: ug Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency  |
| Google Launches The Nexus 5 With Android KitKat Posted: 31 Oct 2013 10:41 PM PDT Google finally announced the Nexus 5 along with Android 4.4 AKA KitKat yesterday night. The new flagship phone is bigger in size than previous versions and sports many improvements. Here is a rundown on the hardware features. Specs: The phone has a 4.9 inch 1920*1080 display at a pixel density of 445 ppi. The screen is protected by Corning's Gorilla Glass 3. There are two camera, one 1.3 MP front facing camera and an 8 MP rear facing camera which has Optical Image Stabilization. The phone weighs 130g and sports a 2300 mAh battery. The talk time is estimated to be around 17 hours and standby time runs up to 300 hours in ideal conditions. The device also comes with wireless charging capabilities. The processor is Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 which has a speed of 2.26 GHz and a Adreno 300 GPU. The phone comes with 16GB and 32GB variants and has 2GB RAM. Price: The Nexus 5 is retailing in the US for $349 for the 16GB model and $399 for 32GB model. We have to say that it is quite a steal at these prices. KitKat Features: While some features of KitKat were disclosed yesterday, the announcement opened the lid on a complete list of improvements to the Android OS. For starters, the UI has been polished and looks much better than the previous version. Users can now fire up voice search by saying "Ok Google" when they are on the homescreen or the Google Now app instead of tapping the microphone icon. With this you can use voice control to send messages, dial numbers, search maps and play music in an easier way than before. KitKat has a new immersive mode which hides the notification bar and everything else and only focuses on the what is at hand. This can be used for watching movies, videos, games and reading. The new Android is high on performance because it has been optimized to run on hardware with 512 RAM. This makes it really fast when it comes to multi-tasking on the Nexus and other high end devices. There are have been other upgrades too. The dialer has been made smarter and arranges contacts based on usage. Incoming calls from unknown numbers will have caller ID but only if those are business numbers which are listed openly on Google Maps. Hangouts will now integrate with SMS on your phone and thus become the default messaging app. There has also been a system wide integration of Emoji. They appear now on the default Google keyboard. You can now use your phone to send print instructions to a networked printer. Quickoffice, Google's new productivity suite is installed by default on KitKat. Other features include: Bluetooth MAP support, Chromecast Support, Chrome Web View, HDR+ photography, infrared blasting (remote control), low power audio playback, Secure app sandboxes, step counting ability for fitness apps and NFC improvements. You can check out all of these features on this link. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? - Contact WATConsult - India's Leading Social Media Agency  |
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