The Internet using population in India may be just 16% of the total population, but in a country with more than 1.1 Billion citizens, even this number will be enough to accord the country with the title of 'Second Most Online Populous Country In The World', revealed a report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB.

By the end of the previous month, India had more than 200 Million Internet Users. If the pace continues, India could have more than 243 Million Internet Users by mid of next year. This figure is higher than even the supposedly most advanced country in the world, the United States of America (USA).

USA presently has about 207 Million Internet using citizens & Indians could easily outnumber the same. However, by sheer magnitude of the region & the population therein, China has about 300 Million Internet Users. Additionally, despite the huge number reported, India's Active Internet users are relatively low in number. Still, these nascent users will surely turn into Active Users shared Nilotpal Chakravarti, Associate Vice-President, IAMAI, "There is every reason to believe that they will turn into active users in the near future."

What do Indians do when online?
Despite the growing trend of Indians consuming multimedia content via their mobile devices whilst connected to the internet, the people still execute primary & professional functions while on the Internet. However, College-goers remain the largest users of the internet in India, followed by young men. So e-mail & instant messaging, apart from Social Media are still the most preferred online activities.

Should India celebrate the growing usage of Internet?
While it is indeed a momentous occasion, India is presently highly divided in terms of distribution. There is a huge discrepancy in the usage pattern & a large gap between urban & rural India. While citizens living in urban areas are highly active internet users, many living in the rural regions have very little access to internet connectivity, let alone high speed broadband.

Under such circumstances, it is imperative for the Government as well as private Internet Service Providers (ISP) to ensure Internet Access to the remote regions. Just imagine, with over 70% of Indians living in the rural regions, Internet usage could easily surpass even the current leader China by a huge & insurmountable margin. What do you think?

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As you will have noticed, LinkedIn has been paying attention to content for some time now. They gave blog accounts to some of the world's top business leaders so that they could publish exclusively on LinkedIn. That was a really nice move, as it got a lot of LinkedIn members to engage. LinkedIn has practically owned professional networking and recruitment over the years and even though professionals pay a lot of attention to the network, the company wants to them engage them over some relevant content.

With this in mind, they acquired news aggregator Pulse sometime before Google Reader expired. Pulse was available post the acquisition as a standalone app and LinkedIn's plans for it were not known. Now, the company has announced that they have integrated Pulse technology directly into LinkedIn and it will replace LinkedIn today, which is the primary content delivery feature on the professional network. LinkedIn Pulse will be available for both mobile and desktop.

The service has undergone a design refresh. The service also provides LinkedIn feature integration with your content feed in Pulse. The app will also study your professional interests and recommend content tailored for you. You can get this content from your LinkedIn channels once you sign up with your LinkedIn account. You can discover LinkedIn content and also share content from your feeds on LinkedIn in a native way. Pulse will deliver LinkedIn influencer content straight to your feed and this has great implication. It will maximize the flow of professional content from leader throughout the network and make it spread even more.

Pulse was founded by Ankit Gupta and Akshay Kothari, while still at Stanford University. LinkedIn reportedly acquired the startup for $90 million.

You can check out LinkedIn Pulse here.

Source | LinkedIn Blog

Via | The Next Web

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Dropbox has been one of those cloud hosting and syncing service which has been the most useful for me. It integrates nicely with my desktop and helps me access these files from my mobile whenever I want to. Compared to other cloud services, I find Dropbox is the fastest and most efficient among the lot. While Dropbox has solved some major problems for individuals, its business offerings although robust were earlier not integrated with your personal dropbox account. This resulted in enterprise users having separate dropboxes, one personal and other for the company. The company announced yesterday that it has revamped its Business offerings and this is going to make it much easier for users to switch between their personal and business accounts.

Dropbox for Business has separate clients on the desktop and mobile. Now users will be able to pair both the accounts and use it for both types of needs. On mobile, once you sync both your accounts, you will be able to separately access both folders. Personal camera uploads will automatically be saved in your personal folder without the risk of the these private images being shared on your organization's dropbox. IT admins in your organization can apply policies without it affecting your personal dropbox. This eases the workflow for many use cases that customers might have.

Dropbox has big plans and these are evident from these new features that they are pushing out. What began as a cloud hosting company to specifically tackle the problems of disparate files on your many devices, is strategically growing to become something much more bigger. These do not seem to be random acquisitions and the plan seems to be that Dropbox wants to take over both the personal and productivity space. Their new mission seems to be the hard drive that people and businesses can access anywhere. They are adding many new features which hint at the company becoming the go to storage and productivity space for people. That is not a bad mission, as the company is committed to making life easier for many people who have problems storing and accessing their data from any device.

The new feature will be rolling out to all Dropbox for Business users over the span of the next few weeks.

Link | Dropbox Blog

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Motorola has finally announced its next premium phone called the Moto G at a throwaway price! This version is the follow up to the customizable Moto X, which apparently didn't do very well because its specs weren't as good as other flagship phones out there. The new Moto G is targeted at price conscious market segments. The main differentiator for this phone is that customers will get a premium phone with all the latest Google goodies at a very aggressive and affordable price.

You will agree that most leading smartphones are expensive, especially the Android powered one, case in point being Samsung's Galaxy S4, the HTC One X and other similar high end flagships. Motorola seems to be going for the average consumer who wants to get the best mobile internet experience and not have to pay a whole lot for it. This applies to most emerging markets. Since, there is a huge demand in this segment, companies like Huawei, ZTE, Micromax and even Samsung have been outfitting mid-end to low-end phones with Android. Even though these phones work, they do not provide the best hardware and software experience. Google has been focusing on making the latest version of Android work on low-end phones. KitKat aka 4.4 is designed on work on phones which have a minimum of 512 MB RAM. This is a the logic behind the new Moto G!

Here is the launch video,

Specifications and Pricing:

1. The phone comes with a 4.5 inch HD display.

2. The processor is Qualcomm's Snapdragon 400 which has four cores.

3. Moto G will be shipping with Android 4.3 and has been promised a 4.4 update to KitKat in early January.

4. The back-cover of the phone can be customized. Motorola has announced 19 different customization options.

5. The device is priced at $179 for the 8GB version and $199 for the 16BG version. The phone doesn't come with a contract and has an unlockable bootloader. This is good news for all you Custom ROM fans out there!

6. It is currently available in Brazil and some parts of Europe. Over the next few weeks, it will go on sale in Latin America, Europe, Canada and some parts of Asia. India, US, other Asian countries and Middle Eastern countries will be getting it in early January. By 2014, the phone will be available in 30 countries.

India Availability:

For the first time ever, Google/Motorola have given a clear date for the India launch of the phone after the global announcement. It makes sense that given the specs and pricing, there will be great demand for it in the country. The pricing, if it stays consistent across countries, actually has the potential to disrupt the smartphone market in India. Other players will have to adjust to this new pricing. Motorola had shut down its operations in the country after Google acquired it. It remains to be seen how they will be bringing the phone into the country.

On paper, it looks like a damned good device and the pricing is spot on. This will probably end up becoming my new phone!

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Online Classifieds and Listings host and contract marketing service provider Just Dial, is planning a much larger role of offering holistic e–Retailing solutions. These new endeavors will allow merchants to have very low online assets and liabilities for conducting e–business.

Just Dial is attempting to develop new solutions for its present and potential customers which would allow them to use the platform, to conduct a host of businesses than presently possible. Additionally, the company is ensuring its offerings find takers, by designing the add–on features, with affordability in mind, shared V S S Mani, Founder and Chief Executive, "If I can provide transactions at my end, it’s going to be value-enhancing for the customer".

What exactly is Just Dial doing?
Just Dial has always been associated with the Online Classifieds Business. Though the company hasn't abandoned development of this segment, it wants to have a larger share of Online Transactions segment which is witnessing healthy traction. Over the course of past few months Just Dial has already laid the ground–work for its new initiatives. The company recently started online food ordering vertical and has about 3000 and counting, restaurants tied–up with. Interestingly, the service has a pan–India scope.

Apart from the same, Just Dial is gearing up to launch electronics and durables shopping service. However, there is an interesting twist to the otherwise mundane offering that almost all e–Commerce portals have. The service is being developed for manufacturers and retailers. These makers and sellers will be able to list products and consumers will be able to compare prices and buy. Though the service may appear to replicate other portals like PriceBaba, FindYogi and others, it will be backed by Just Dial's much larger and extensive network as well as Data collation engines.

Just Dial has already acquired space in India's Silicon Valley, Bangalore, and earmarked the same to conduct software development, with expenses at 6–8% of revenues. Having gained the collective support of share–holders, Just Dial wants to expand its scope of proactive online business assistance and offer the ability to sell with a very lucrative Pay–Per–Use Model of charging the merchants. With a huge stockpile of Big Data about consumers, service providers and leads with proven interest (via call–in assistance), Just Dial could indeed gain strong foothold in these new ventures. What do you think?

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South Korean Electronics conglomerate Samsung Electronics became the top mobile handset seller across all continents, in the third quarter of this year.

According to US-based market researcher Strategic Analytics, Samsung Electronics became No. 1 mobile handset seller in all six continents, including North America, Western Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Eastern Europe as well as Middle East and Africa. The last two regions were of special significance for the company since it was for the first time Samsung surpassed Nokia in these very zones.

How well did Samsung do?
Samsung sold a total of 120.1 Million Mobile Phones across the globe in Q3 2013. In the Middle East and African region Samsung managed to sell 15.8 Million Devices which was higher than what Nokia, the undisputed leader, managed to offload. Nokia still sold a respectable figure of 14.7 Million devices. However, Samsung now dominates these regions with a market share of 36.4% which, merely a year back, was 24.4%.

Samsung's growth in the overall mobile phone segment is clearly marked with the adoption of Android as its Operating System for Mobile Phones. Rightly understanding market expectations, Samsung started to make Android based devices and cleverly designed devices that every pocket could afford. Additionally, the company correctly judged & rightly met, the demand of Dual SIM phones right when they were becoming mainstream.

Samsung has smartly launched multitude of devices simply differentiated with screen sizes. Right from the affordable Galaxy Pop and Neo series, the Korean manufacturer offered phones that almost matched screen–sizes of tablets. Devices like Samsung Mega and Galaxy Grand have captured consumer interest, despite their unusually large dimensions.

Samsung is a multi–faceted electronics maker. From laptops to refrigerators and home automation to aviation, Samsung has been making strong inroads into many markets. However, it has managed to find a great deal of success in the dynamic and oft volatile mobile market.

Despite the notion that market for the premium segments is now under threat, Samsung has cleverly hedged its bets with devices at every imaginable price–points. Do you think Samsung could face a threat from Nokia, who is now slowly rising after re–creating a niche for itself?

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The Indian Telecom segment, which forever appeared to be making substantial losses, could be making a turn–around demonstrated not one, but three Telecom Companies; Vodafone, Reliance Communications (RCom) as well as Aircel.

Anil Ambani led Reliance Communications (RCom), India's fourth largest Mobile Company, surpassed quarterly estimates by an astounding margin. RCom's Profits more than doubled, before factoring in a one–time gain. Meanwhile Vodafone, who is planning to increase stake in its Indian Operations, reported a 13.3% increase in quarterly revenue.

However, merely three companies making substantial profits is certainly not a yardstick that will forecast a good future for others. Still, Vodafone revealed a much more digest–able and agreeable reason. The company said the country’s regulatory environment, which has been a major drag, was gradually improving. Marten Pieters, Chief Executive Officer, Vodafone India, was quoted as saying,

"This time I can say that I am more positive about the environment than before. Customers continued spending on telecoms services despite slower economic growth and high inflation."

What this essentially means is that the Telecom Sector is relatively immune from inflation as consumers have elevated the importance of Telecom Service in their lives. Accordingly, they would continue spending equal or more amounts with disregard to the overall condition of the economy.

Additionally, a few telecom companies have deployed some interesting market augmentation and revenue ascension techniques that could assure them short as well as long–term revenue generation. RCom recently launched a simple EMI Scheme to own one of the most expensive smartphones; the Apple iPhone 5C and 5S. Instead of paying a huge amount upfront, customers could pay as low as Rs. 2500 or Rs. 2800 (For 2 Years) and take home either an iPhone 5C or 5S. These carrier locked phones also came with true unlimited Voice, Data and SMS (Cap of 3000 SMSes as per TRAI). Meanwhile other companies are bundling Data intensive services like Music Streaming.

Indian Telecom Companies have certainly come a long way from ultra–expensive Voice Tariffs. Additionally, with 3G and 4G, they are gradually moving to a Data Intensive Regime, where consumers will give higher preference to Data and associated services as compared to Voice and SMS. Could the Indian Telecom Companies manage this change of trend with customer–centric tariffs and dependable networks?

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