mayajaal

BIG is in BIIIGGG trouble????????

2008-10-31T18:39:00.000+05:30

Now the latest buzz doing the rounds in BIG is in BIIIGGG trouble. In fact the entire BIG label is in trouble if the stories were to be believed.

All the BIG units within the entertainment chain are in deep red and with the current stock market melt down, things are not all that well within the BIG chain.

A Zapak guy told me that ADAG is considering closing or diluting stake across the BIG units. Another fellow from the music arm said – the management was seriously considering closing the music business or diluting stake. A third person from BIG FLIX – from the DVD rental business said – the management has actually decided to shut shop.

The same source said that all is not well with the radio unit also with more than 60 people having quit the company in the last couple of months. The source added – the much hyped JV with AB Corp (Amitabh Bachchan) is not going anywhere and BIGADDA blog may be shuttered. Not surprising, since from the very launch period all the business looked shaky with doubtful revenue models in place.

Ah…so many rumors floating about ….who knows what to believe ….but mind you – one thing is for sure…the times they surely are changin’

Are the newly launched Music/ Entertainment companies in Trouble?

2008-10-31T18:38:00.000+05:30

Barely 1-2 years back, the music industry was experiencing a boom of sorts. Suddenly new & big players emerged / entered the industry. Among the big players who entered this space was:

Moser Baer Home Entertainment

Big Music

UTV Music & Entertainment

All of them backed by big money from the corporate behemoths like Reliance ADAG – Anil Ambani, UTV Software - Ronnie Screwalla, Deapak Puri – Moser Baer.

Good times alas don’t last forever. And in less than year after starting their operations only one player remains standing, Moser Baer, who actually changed the game was played by introducing DVD’s & VCD’s at price points well below the then prevalent market price, forcing all the incumbent players to slash prices to match Moser prices

UTV has recently announced they would be shutting down their Home Video and Music operations. In fact they were looking for buyers to buy out the company. And the names doing the rounds were BIG & Moser Baer.

News

2008-10-31T18:34:00.000+05:30

I have always tried to get the inside news of the telecom / entertainment world for my readers. News that you will not get in the media in general. Once again presenting the inside news from the entertainment world of India.

UTV new venture in trouble

2008-10-10T16:05:00.001+05:30

As per sources UTV new venture, UTV Music & Home Video is begin winded up after begin in the business barely for 18-19 months. They would be selling the business to either BIG Music or Mosaer Baer. Things are so bad they would be winding up in the next three months. All the staff and the senior manager have been told they might get absorbed in other units of UTV…..MIGHT?

They also did pretty nasty about turn with Sony BMG. They had signed up with Sony BMG India for 17 movie 30 cr deal for 2 years. Then just before signing up they did an about turn and did an agreement with T – Series for 36 cr. Shridhar – MD Sony BMG is said to extremely pissed by this development. Has to be, the poor fellow now has to find 2 years worth of content to fill up his pipe line for the next two years…and that too at a fairly high cost.

Youtube comes to India

2008-05-07T13:57:00.000+05:30

Ending speculation and rumors in Blogosphere Google’s Youtube has launched India centric in.youtube.com. Mayajaal had covered the speculations here. They also have a blog up and running here. What will become of the Indian home web sites? As it is these site are losing money heavily. My take – they will close shop or cash out. Only the biggies would be playing!!!

Vodfone brings I-Phone to India

2008-05-07T13:55:00.000+05:30

Vodafone has tied up with Apple to bring it iconic I-Phone to 10 of its markets including India, South Africa & Australia. While the pricing is still under warps it is possible that it would be priced at around Rs. 21k for 8 GB and 25k for 16 GB after taking adding all the taxes & duties. More Here.

Asia emerges as the growth driver of mobile with India & China leading the Mobile Race

2008-05-03T11:59:00.002+05:30

Emerging markets like India & China are firmly in the driver’s seat when it comes to global mobile growth, and in 2007 that growth accelerated as the top 10 racked up hundreds of millions of new subscribers.

Last year, the 10 developing countries that registered the most new subscribers gained a combined total of 320 million. That was 35 million more than in 2006, when the top 10 added more than 285 million new customers

By contrast, the world's mature markets are now so saturated that even if the ranking was open to them, too, only one, the U.S., would have made the cut.

The 2007 ranking, shown in the table below, has shifted somewhat from last year. While Ukraine – in 6th place last year, now down in 15th – and Nigeria – 9th in 2006, but now 13th – dropped off the list, Iran and Egypt made the cut thanks to the launch of new operators during the year.

China and India are once again far ahead of the pack, though this time China has claimed the top spot, boasting 86 million additional mobile subscribers compared with India’s 84 million. And the growth will continue unabated at least in the foreseeable future!

Zapack to enter Mobile VAS space in India with ABCL

2008-05-02T16:07:00.001+05:30

Zapack to enter Mobile VAS space in India with ABCL
Another exclusive from Matrixmaya. After taking the gaming world by storm in India Anil Ambani’s group Reliance Entertainment is planning a foray into the booming Mobile Value Added Services space through their group company Zapak Entertainment. The details as of now are pretty sketchy.
Apparently Zapak has tied with Amitabh Bacchchan, a close pal of Anil Ambanis, for content. The tie has happened between Zapack & ABCL.(I thought ABCL has now become defunct- but apparently it still exists on paper)
Exactly what the content would be is not quite clear yet but apparently content would be from the entire Bachchan khandan, beta Abhishek, bahu Aishwarya & biwi Jaya Bachchan. As a first step towards this initiative, Amitabh Bachchan has started to blog here on Big Adda, although the response to that has been lukewarm to say the least.
There might be a media announcement, when they are ready, till now you will read about it only here. Of course this might not take off altogether like their planned foray into TV – Zapack TV.
They have targeted 12 Cr revenues from this business for the first year and are setting up a team to execute the project. Watch this space for more!

Exclusive - Sony BMG & UTV Music does a 28 Crore 17 Movie deal

2008-04-28T14:59:00.001+05:30

Interesting developments has happened between Sony BMG & UTV studios new venture UTV Music & Home Video.

As was earlier reported in this blog, Sony BMG would do the distribution of UTV releases on Music & Video front. This would have helped UTV to distribute its product across on the physical side of the business using Sony BMG’s dealer/distributor network. It was win -win situation for both the companies as UTV would have saved on the physical cost of distribution and Sony BMG would get a certain cut from distributing its products. But there has been a latest development on this front. According to an insider close to the deal Sony BMG has sign a 17 movie - 28 crore deal with UTV to take the rights of it forth coming movies. Well it’s a bold move from Shridhar of Sony BMG. The only point is that will he be able to cover the cost?

AT&T Eyes Maxis’s 74% Stake In Indian Telco Aircel:

2008-04-23T11:25:00.000+05:30

It may be better to be late than never for American telco AT&T. After exiting India in 2004 by selling of its stake in Idea Cellular (then called Birla AT&T), the telecommunications giant is reportedly looking at re-entering the India’s fast growing mobile telephony market via a stake acquisition. AT&T is in talks with Malaysia’s Maxis for buying out the latter’s 74 per cent stake in Aircel, The Economic Times reported. The Indian telco has operations in nine circles and has received spectrum for 14 more circles, and by the end of the year, it will be a pan India operator. It has a strong presence in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Assam and North East circles.
The report also said, quoting unnamed sources, that AT&T had approached new licence holders like Videocon’s Datacom, Unitech, BPL Mobile subsidiary Loop Telecom, and other players who have started getting allocated spectrum. So this time AT&T is serious about its re-entry plans.
AT&T wants to do a Vodafone in India. The UK telco was another global giant which re-entered India by acquiring Hutchison’s stake in Hutch Essar by paying through its nose (at an enterprise valuation of $18.8 billion). Vodafone had earlier held stakes in Indian telco RPG Cellular, which it exited in 2003-04. It then entered India again by acquiring a 10 per cent economic interest in Bharti Airtel. Since a majority stake in Bharti was not coming its way, Vodafone jumped at the opportunity when Hutchison was looking to exit India.
If Maxis is looking at a quick exit from India, then AT&T may get a chance to acquire a large telco with pan Indian ambitions. In December 2005, Maxis acquired a 65 per cent stake in Aircel from Chennai industrialist C Sivasankaran at an enterprise value of $1.08 billion. Maxis’s total stake in Aircel will be 74 per cent after totalling its holding in its joint venture with Apollo group.

Nokia Comes with music now from Sony BMG

2008-04-23T11:24:00.001+05:30

Nokia and Sony BMG Music Entertainment have joined forces for Nokia ‘Comes With Music’, a revolutionary way for people to discover and enjoy music with their Nokia device.

"As one of the leading major music companies in the world, our collaboration with Sony BMG means we can offer a huge range of fantastic music from both international and local artists via Comes With Music," said Nokia Entertainment and Communities business head and executive vice president Tero Ojanperä.

Ojanpera continued, "Nokia Comes With Music is an innovation that not only helps people discover and enjoy music, but also expand the overall business and revenue for the benefit of artists, labels and other rights holders."

"This initiative represents a critical new way of gaining access to music, through which fans will be able to explore Sony BMG's vast catalog of recordings for an entire year," commented Sony BMG Music Entertainment president, global digital business & US sales Thomas Hesse. "We think this business model will encourage users to sample a wide range of material, expand their musical tastes, and listen to more music than ever before. In the process, we think it will provide new opportunities to artists from every genre of music, and increase demand for music overall."

People who buy a Nokia Comes With Music device will have a year of access to the Sony BMG rich catalog of music. Consumers will be able to download tracks to both their mobile device and computer through the Nokia Music Store during the first twelve months that they own their Nokia device.

At the end of the one year period, they can keep their downloaded tracks and, should they purchase a new compatible device or computer, they can transfer their downloaded material by substituting their new device or computer for the original devices. As a result, music fans who participate in the Comes With Music experience will be able to keep their downloads on their device and/or... computer for the rest of their lives.

Consumers will have a number of attractive options for continuing to get new music after the Nokia Comes With Music subscription is over: they will be able to continue to purchase additional tracks from the Nokia Music Store, or move on to a Nokia "unlimited access" subscription service to enjoy new releases and catalog tracks not downloaded during the initial year.

Comes With Music is expected to launch in the second half of 2008 on a range of Nokia devices in selected markets. Sony BMG is the second label to come on board with Nokia in this partnership. Universal Music was the first one to have signed up with Nokia for this initiative

Nokia Comes with music now from Sony BMG

2008-04-23T11:24:00.000+05:30

Mobile entertainment awards '08 announced

2008-04-22T11:23:00.001+05:30

IMImobile, provider of value added services for mobile operators and content providers, has been short listed for the Mobile Entertainment Awards 2008 (Meffys) in association with Nokia.

UnIspace, IMImobile's user generated content (UGC) platform is a finalist in the 'Emerging Markets Award' category following a highly successful deployment at Malaysian operator Maxis.

Tapping into the vast appetite for User Generated Content, IMImobile's UnIspace enables mobile subscribers to social network 'on the go'. Communities are created in the mobile space with users able to easily share their audio, video (including 3G video calls), pictures or text to earn rewards (airtime, freebies etc.) when other subscribers download that content.

Now in their fifth year the Meffys are regarded as the industry's most coveted awards and are independently judged by UK media and leading trade journalists and analysts.
IMImobile CEO Vishwanath Alluri commented, "We are seeing very strong demand from operators to roll out mobile user generated content services and it is great that Meffys; the Oscars of Mobile Entertainment have recognised that UnIspace offers a cost effective and very fast route for operators to do this."

MEF executive director Imma Perelmuter said, "This year's shortlist provides an excellent snapshot of this cutting-edge industry and an insight into what we can expect in the near future. The 2008 Meffys nominees focused on providing analytics, addressing usability concerns and tackling merchandising and pricing issues, which all goes to prove that the mobile entertainment industry is maturing. The stage is now set for an exciting awards show in Cannes appropriately timed to precede the world famous Cannes Film Festival."

The other nominees in the Emerging Markets Category were:
Celtel/Zain & Inmobia Mobile Technology – “Rock Your World!”
Geodesic – “Mundu Radio: Comprehensive Internet Radio Solution”
IMImobile – “IMImobile UnIspace”
Tata Indicom & Opera Software – “Opera Mini for Low Cost Handsets”
Telenor Serbia – “Telenor WAP Portal Project”

Other categories and short listed nominees were

Meffys 2008 Shortlist
The Games Award

Hands-On Mobile – “World Poker Tour: Texas Hold ‘Em 2”
Konami Digital Entertainment – “Metal Gear Solid Mobile”
Konami Digital Entertainment – “Pro Evolution Soccer 2008”
Nokia – “Hooked on: Creatures of the Deep”
Player X – “Hollywood Hospital”

The Music Service Award

Gracenote – “Gracenote Mobile Music Platform”
mBlox & Myxer – “Myxer Mobile Music”
Omnifone – “Vodafone MusicStation”
Shazam – “Shazam iD”
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications – “TrackID”

The Artist Campaign Award

Absolute Marketing & Distribution – “Wet Wet Wet SMS Pre-order Campaign”
Mozes – “Rascal Flatts Mobile Campaign”
Parlophone & New Visions – “Kylie Konnect”
RCA Music Group – “Cassidy B.A.R.S. Campaign”
Telenor – “Bigbang Fan Blog”

The TV & Video Service Award

Clippz – “Clippz.com”
inLive Interactive – “Interactive Mass Participation”
Rhythm NewMedia and 3UK – “Free Video on 3UK”
Rubberduck Media Lab – “Studio 1: Mobile TV Platform”
Vantrix – “Ad-Supported Video Weather Forecasts”

The Technology Innovation Award

Bango – “Bango Analytics”
Kyte – “Kyte”
MMCast – “MMCast”
Qualcomm MEMS Technologies – “mirasol™ displays”
Zeemote® – “Zeemote JS1 Controller”

The Content Award

BBH – “Cippi’s Trump Selecta!”
Fun Little Movies – “Fun Little Movies Channel”
MTV Networks International – “Digital Originals”
Orange Israel and Donna Productions – “Undercover”
Yam – “Quasi TG”

The Communities & UGC Award

Dada – “Dada.net, Powered by Me”
Flirtomatic – “Flirtomatic”
Gofresh – “itsmy.com”
Juice Wireless – “JuiceCaster”
UTEL – “Fotochat”

The Search & Discovery Award

AquaMobile – “Clic2C”
Gracenote – “Gracenote Mobile Music Platform”
JumpTap – “SmartComponents”
kannuu – “kannuu”
MCN – “Yahoo! Mobile Japan DigiCon Search”

The Marketing Campaign Award

BBH – “Cippi’s Trump Selecta!”
BBH – “Lynx Get In There”
Orange – “Frank TV”
Orange – “Wannabe Wicked”
Que Pasa Communications – “V Festival Cross Platform Project”

The Handset Application Award

fring – “fring”
Handmark – “Pocket Express”
Juice Wireless – “JuiceCaster”
MMCast – “MMCast”
Picsel Technologies – “Picsel CUI Browser”

Quality of Experience Award

News International – “Times Mobile”
NXP Software – “SportsDJ”
Picsel – “ePAGE/File Viewer”
Surfkitchen – “Cincinnati Bell ‘My Phone’”
Zeemote® – “Zeemote JS1 Controller”

Off Deck Services Award

Dada – “Dada.net for Web & Mobile”
Hungama Mobile – “FTV”
mywaves – “mywaves”
Refresh Mobile – “Mippin”
Thumbplay – “Thumbplay”

The Emerging Markets Award

Celtel/Zain & Inmobia Mobile Technology – “Rock Your World!”
Geodesic – “Mundu Radio: Comprehensive Internet Radio Solution”
IMImobile – “IMImobile UnIspace”
Tata Indicom & Opera Software – “Opera Mini for Low Cost Handsets”
Telenor Serbia – “Telenor WAP Portal Project”

The Innovative Business Model Award

Amobee – “Amobee Media Systems”
MMCast – “MMCast”
Nokia – “N-Gage First Access”
Reitek & Comdata – “Fiat Multi-channel Customer Caring”
Yam – “Quasi TG”

The Handset Award

Motorola – “MOTO Z10”
Nokia – “N95 8GB”
Samsung Electronics – “Soul SGH-U900”
Sony Ericsson Italy – “Sony Ericsson W910i”

The Operator Award

3 UK – “3 UK”
Orange – “Orange”
T-Mobile International – “T-Mobile’s web’n’walk 3.0”

Samsung working on water-powered mobile batteries

2008-04-22T11:20:00.002+05:30

Samsung announced that it will come up with new mobile phone battery that would be powered by water. The company expects the battery to be incorporated by 2010 which will convert water to Hydrogen gas and Oxygen when the mobile is switched on by reacting with metal inside the fuel cell. Samsung claims that users will get about 10 hours of battery charge using their water-cell battery, almost double the life of today’s batteries. However the only downside is that if you use your phone for about 4 days on average, you will need to change the hydrogen cartridge every five days - which could make this an expensive affair.
But the company is confident that within certain years the hydrogen cartridges need not be changed and would only require to be filled with water.

Samsung working on water-powered mobile batteries

2008-04-22T11:20:00.000+05:30

Nokia goes live with Engage

2008-04-07T14:44:00.000+05:30

In a much anticipated move Nokia has announced that it will go live with Engage today. Although it was live for some time the official announcement came today. With this Nokia starts its move to transform the company from mainly hard ware device manufacturer to a software and content service company.
"With N-Gage we're offering a seamless experience for people around the world to try and buy games that are engaging, accessible and have wide appeal," said Jaakko Kaidesoja, vice president of games, Nokia. "We're very excited to get this into the hands of our customers, because with them we will shape the future of mobile gaming."
The N-Gage platform has exclusive titles that are among the most ambitious and graphically rich mobile games ever produced. From strategy and sport to arcade and action, games of all genres are being developed for N-Gage by leading games publishers. The first set of games include: EA SPORTS(TM) FIFA 08 by EA Mobile; Brain Challenge and Asphalt 3: Street Rules by Gameloft; World Series of Poker (TM) Pro Challenge by Glu Mobile; and Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep and System Rush: Evolution by Nokia Publishing. These games will be followed closely by Tetris® and The Sims(TM) 2 Pets by EA Mobile; Block Breaker Deluxe and Dogz by Gameloft; and Snakes Subsonic, Space Impact: Kappa Base and Mile High Pinball by Nokia Publishing. Starting today, players will have access to a range of high-quality games, many of which are exclusive to the N-Gage platform. N-Gage games incorporate exclusive, industry defining online community features, and in many cases, graphical experiences never before seen on a mobile device.

Nokia has signed 30 game producers including Gameloft/EA Sports/ Vivendi Games.

MySpace and Record Companies Create Music Site

2008-04-07T14:43:00.000+05:30

In the latest effort by the ailing music industry to bolster its declining prospects, three of the four major music companies have struck a deal with MySpace to start a music Web site reports NY Times.

As part of the deal, MySpace will spin out its popular MySpace Music service as an independent joint venture in partnership with Universal Music, Sony BMG and Warner Music Group. EMI, the fourth major label, is not a part of the deal at this time, but people involved in the negotiations said it would probably join soon. The music companies will own minority stakes in the venture and will make their entire music catalogs available.

Chris DeWolfe, chief executive of MySpace, a division of News Corporation, described the new service, which will be introduced later this year, as a one-stop source for all music, in all its various digital incarnations.

Visitors to the site will be able to listen to free streaming music, paid for with advertising, and share customized playlists with their friends. They will also be able to download tracks to play on their mobile devices, putting the new site in competition with similar services like Apple, Amazon and eMusic.

A subscription-based music component, where users pay a monthly amount for unlimited access to downloadable tracks, is also being considered, Mr. DeWolfe said.

“This is really a mega-music experience that is transformative in a lot of ways,” he said. “It’s the first service that offers a full catalog of music to be streamed for free, with full community features, to be shared with all of your friends.”

Additional products like tickets, T-shirts, ring tones and other music merchandise will also be available. “It’s the full 360-degree revenue stream,” Mr. DeWolfe said.

Exact terms of the deal and details about the new site, like prices for downloaded music tracks, were not disclosed. But MySpace did say the site would offer songs free of digital rights management software or D.R.M., which is used to prevent illicit copying but can create technical hurdles for buyers. The songs would be playable on any portable music device, including Apple’s iPod.

The new venture will be run by an executive team that will report to a board s made up of representatives from MySpace and the major music companies.

For the music industry, the deal is partly born of desperation. In the face of widespread, escalating online piracy, music sales dropped to $11.5 billion in 2006 from a peak in 1999 of nearly $15 billion.

That has forced the industry into a new age of experimentation. Last year, all four major record labels backed Amazon’s nascent MP3 music store, partly in an effort to counterbalance Apple’s strength in the market for music downloads. The music companies say Apple now has too much control over the distribution and pricing of digital music.

The industry is seeking revenue that does not come directly from its customers — like the ad-supported element of the MySpace service. Along those same lines, music executives have recently raised more draconian ideas, like surcharges on the sales of iPods and Internet access to compensate for rampant file sharing. The moves have been met with widespread resistance.

Universal Music sued MySpace for copyright infringement in 2006. MySpace would not say whether that suit had been dropped before Thursday’s announcement. But insiders say the Universal is dropping the law suit in wake of the venture with myspace.

Google launched Voice based search in India

2008-04-05T11:40:00.001+05:30

Google Launched its Local Voice Based Search Engine (1 800 41 99 99 99) in India today. The first city to experience its services is Hyderabad (Birth place of Just Dial Services).
The best thing about this service is that once you get the information you have the option of getting connected to the other party absolutely free, you don’t even pay for calling from land line or even mobile phone. Anyway without any further due you can call on the following number to avail this service 1 800 41 99 99 99.
You can get information about Local businesses, Movies, Restaurants, etc, etc.
Ideally this service is suppose to be available across all networks, BSNL, Airtel, Vodafone, etc.. etc.. but currently Vodafone users are not able to use this service as the network does not allow calls to 1800 numbers.

Videocon lines up Rs 6,000 cr for GSM services, plans May launch

2008-03-28T12:26:00.002+05:30

The first of the new lot of applicants to run mobile services in the country has launched their plan to launch their mobile services in the country reports Agencyfaqs.

Consumer durables major Videocon Industries has roped in former Alcatel Lucent chief Ravi Sharma to head the new venture. The group is planning to invest Rs 6,000 crore for rolling out GSM services, notwithstanding spectrum and legal issues besieging the sector.

This is the first instance of the head of a global telecom infrastructure major moving over to a service provider. However, this could become a trend as others in a situation of talent crunch will follow suit.

Videocon Chairman and Managing Director Venugopal Dhoot confirmed the development, “We are making an initial investment of Rs 6,000 crore to kick-start the services across all the 23 circles in the country. The investment would be made immediately and we would look at increasing capital expenditure depending on growth.”

The Rs 6,000-crore investment would be made immediately to roll out the services, while the company has completed all technical formalities and is awaiting spectrum allocation.

“We don’t think the spectrum allocation would be delayed as start-up spectrum is available in many circles. Moreover, spectrum is also lying unused that will be offered to new entrants,” Dhoot said.

In the worst case of spectrum allocation being delayed, Datacom Solutions would take spectrum and infrastructure on lease from the existing players.

Datacom would rope in over 4 crore subscribers in the next five years and expected to break even in the next couple of years, he added.

The department of telecommunications (DoT) is planning to allocate spectrum in four circles – Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Orissa and Tamil Nadu (including Chennai) – to new licensees.

The move comes after the wireless planning and co-ordination (WPC) cell of DoT has identified 4.4 MHz spectrum under the 1,800 MHz band lying vacant in these 4 circles. This was expected to benefit nine new entrants, including Datacom Solutions.

Although renting out spectrum is not permitted under the existing telecom policy, DoT is looking at this option to enable new players commence operations.

Datacom Solutions has been awarded Universal Access Service Licence (UASL) that permits commencing telecom operations in all the 23 circles. The company is also leading the queue for spectrum allocation in these circles, except Mumbai and Delhi, where it is in the second position.

Besides engaging Ravi Sharma as chief executive officer of Datacom Solutions, the company has appointed around 200 administrative staff for the rollout.

Alcatel-Lucent has recently rejigged India and South Asian operations by elevating Sharma as advisor to Frederic Rose, the president of Alcatel-Lucent’s Europe, Africa and Asia business. The company had appointed Vivek Mohan in his place

India launces Digital video broadcasting tech for hand-helds

2008-03-28T12:23:00.002+05:30

Agencyfaqs reports that WiFi Networks, a Bangalore-based technology firm, has announced the launch of a platform which will enable television programmes to be beamed into a mobile phone or any handheld device.

The technology is called Digital Video Broadcasting for terrestrial/Handhelds (DVB-T/H), which will enable high video quality and is service provider agnostic. In other words, one need not depend on a service provider like Airtel or Vodafone to beam these programmes to your handset. So one wonders what strategy will the telcos adopt to get into the mobile TV market. A lot depends on the regulatory aspects I guess. Incidentally MTNL has launched mobile TV service from 1^st April 08. Any idea how is the quality? Readers let me know in comments if you have subscribed to this service

While this technology is showing some levels of acceptance in a few pockets of European Union, the entry of this service into India is expected only after one year and a half. The issue of licence and the requirement of spectrum for this service is yet to be finalised upon.

Broadcasters like Star TV or Sony TV will be bidding for this spectrum and a company like WiFi Network will provide this DVB-T/H platform for these companies to tailor feeds to a handheld. WiFi Networks will be getting into a revenue share arrangement with these broadcasters for its share of revenues.

Said Mohan Raju, managing director, WiFi Networks, “We have developed an end-to-end suite of products including interactive solutions using the DVB-T/H (digital video broadcasting) technology. Wi-Fi aims to provide interactive video services on TV and mobile devices on a revenue-sharing business model.”

WiFi Networks currently is running a Proof of Concept of its platform with a couple of broadcasters in countries outside India and they are hoping to get the deal going within this year. Currently, a mobile handset which will enable this transmission is available with a starting price of Rs 10,000 going upto Rs 40,000 and is manufactured by Nokia, Sagem and a few others.

The company has pacts with Sun TV, Suvarna TV, Radio Indigo besides a few other South-based focused broadcasters. The company currently employs 220 people. The market for these services is estimated to be in the range of Rs 500 crore and growing at about 8 per cent per annum.

The firm has till now seen investments of about Rs 50 crore. “We are set to break-even operationally in six months,” said Raju. It now has 95 per cent of the market in south India.

Big Has 30 line up for next 2 years

2008-03-25T12:50:00.000+05:30

After appointing Muthu of Sony Pictures - Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group's (ADAG) entertainment arm, is now planning to blaze into tinsel town with all guns firing!
The formal launch of the company's motion picture banner - BIG Pictures - is slated to take place in the coming two weeks. Additionally, all movies that were under the Adlabs umbrella are likely to come under BIG Pictures. All in all, the company has more than 30 movies lined-up that are under various stages of development reports BusinessofcinemaIn the regional cinema space, BIG Pictures has trained its eyes on Bengali films and has at least 12 films in the pipeline. Directors like Rituparno Ghosh, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Shwopan Shah and Haranath Chakraborty will be directing films for Ambani's banner. Ghosh's film Sab Choritra Kalponik starring Bipasha Basu is also a part of the bouquet.Apart from Bengali cinema, BIG also has two- three Tamil films, a Telugu film, and two Malayalam films. One of the Malayalam films will have south star Mammootty in the lead.As far as Hindi films are concerned, BIG Pictures has a five film deal with Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar's Excel Entertainment, a three film deal with Vidhu Vinod Chopra and a two film deal with Sudhir Mishra. On the other hand, film projects under Adlabs' wing, which may shift to the BIG Pictures banner include acquisitions and productions like Dulha Mil Gaya, Love Story 2050, Halla, Rajnikanth's animated flick Sultan, B R Films' Banda Yeh Bindaas Hai starring Govinda, Tabu and Lara Dutta, overseas rights of Aamir Khan starrer...
Gajini, Ahmed Khan produced Paathshala starring Shahid Kapur and Nana Patekar, 13 B starring Madhavan (which is also simultaneously being made in Tamil and is titled Yavaram Nallam) and a Punjabi film Mera Pind - My Home directed by Manmohan Singh.According to industry sources, Excel Entertainment will be delivering all five films by the first quarter of 2011. These include Don 2, Rock On, Luck By Chance and Voice From The Sky.
While Don 2 will Shah Rukh Khan, Rock On will be Farhan Akhtar's debut as an actor. The film also stars Arjun Rampal, Prachi Desai, Purab Kohli, Sahana Goswami and Luke Kenny and is currently on floors. It is being directed by Abhishek Kapoor and is slated to release in August this year.
Zoya Akhtar's directorial venture Luck By Chance will star Farhan Akhtar and Konkona Sen Sharma with Hrithik Roshan in a special appearance. Luck By Chance will go on floors in the first week of April and will release towards the end of the year.
Farhan Akhtar's second film Voice From The Sky is a period film depicting the era when telephones came into existence. This will be directed by Akhtar before Don 2. Other films include an untitled thriller by Reema Kagti.BIG Pictures' co-production deal with Sushir Mishra includes two films - Good Soldier starring Sanjay Suri and Mammootty and Who's Speaking tentatively starring Shiney Ahuja.The films from Vidhu Vinod Chopra's banner include Idiot directed by Rajkumar Hirani starring Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor along with two more which are still under finalization.Big is all getting ready to shake up the Bollywood Space!

Myspace India lures Google India Sales director

2008-03-14T15:28:00.001+05:30

Do unto other what you want other to do unto you. Well Myspace in India is doing what Google did to Microsoft Poaching /luring talent away. Google sales Director India has been roped in by Myspace India to head its sales division. After appointing Tarun Tripathi of Yash Raj this is the second high profile appointment for Myspace India

Sony Pictures Muthuram to Head Reliance BIG Motion Picture head.

2008-03-14T15:27:00.000+05:30

Sony Pictures country head N Muthuraman will be resigning to head Reliance BIG motion picture venture. Muthu as he is known was instrumental in setting up various division of Sony Pictures in India including setting up of their Home Entertainment division which has been a great success for Sony Pictures in India reports businessofcinema. com
Although no one has been named as Muthu’s successor as of now, insiders speculate that Keith Rebeiro might be in the running.
Keith had been Muthu’s right hand man during the launch of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment division in India and currently heads distribution function of the division. Previously he was with Sony Music heading the distribution for its South markets.
Insider adds that the entire Sony pictures might be in for reorganization with four different heads begin appointed to head the four regions of the country.

Virgin Launches In India

2008-03-11T11:35:00.001+05:30

Virgin mobile was recently launched in the country with much fan fare with the head honcho Richard Branson scaling down Hilton Towers Mumbai to unveil the Virgin Mobile logo. Virgin Mobile has launched in association with TATA’s Telecom arm TATA Tele Services (TTSL ). While this was an open secret that Virgin is making a back door entry into the Indian telecom scenario except a little bit of hullabaloo nothing much happened.

One of the interesting planes and a unque first that they have come up with is pay the subscriber 10paise for every incoming call origination from another network. Laymen might grapple with this concept. How can a company pay its subscriber money in return of its service usage? Well the answer is not a big secret.
By law it is required that whenever a call from network A is terminated in network B, network A has to pay net work B 30p for net work usage services. Thus if an Airtel subscriber calls Virgin Network, Airtel will pay Virgin 30p per call. It is from this 30p will Virgin pay its own subscribers 10p, keeping the balance with themselves.
Well it’s an innovative plan…but one has to wait and watch to see if it really takes off. By the way till date they managed to pull in around 500 subscribers

UTV Music & Home Video Label ties up with Sony BMG Music for distribution

2008-03-08T14:44:00.001+05:30

This another interesting development which has gone entirely unnoticed in the main stream media. UTV in which Disney hiked its stake recently, has entered into a distribution deal with Sony BMG Music India, for its recently launched Music and Home Video label. The first release to come out of the deal is Jodha Akbar begin distributed by Sony BMG.

The terms of the deal was not disclosed, though it sources in the know said it entails a fixed and a revenue share agreement between the two.

It’s not the first time that Sony BMG has done this kind of deal. It previously had this kind of understanding with EMI Virgin India.

Eros launches defective Om Shanti Om DVD’s

2008-03-08T14:43:00.001+05:30

This one is straight from the horse’s mouth. An insider with company said that the launch of one of the most awaited DVD releases of the year Shahrukh starrer Om Shanti Om has gone awry.

Many DVD have been found to be defective and customer complaints are piling up, especially at Key retail points like Planet M and Rhythm House. It seems the DVD skips quite a bit of the movie no matter how many times you replay it. The problem has cropped up because the Master copy it self was defective. Well, that’s bad new for EROS, which was banking on this title to bring in a lot of mullah. Now it seems the company plans to re-launch the DVD at a lower price point in near future.

After the Acquisition of Planet M…

2008-03-08T14:42:00.003+05:30

After the Planet M chain stores were bought by the Dhoots of Videocon thru their retail arm….the integration it seems is facing some problems. Insiders say most old hands have left Planet M ever since the acquisition happened. Basically people are pissed with the new management and looking out for options. The reason is that the compensation packages have been changed with changes happening in the salary structure and the leave structure which have left a lot of people disgruntled and hence the exodus.
Let see how this story pans out……

1m free ringtones from itsmy

2007-12-22T11:03:00.002+05:30

itsmy.com is giving away one million electro Christmas ringtones.
The twelve tracks have been produced by internationally renowned DJs Toni Montana and DJ Goodcut and include Little Drummer Boy, Oh Christmas Tree and Silent Night. They’ve all been mashed-up or something. Gofresh, the company behind itsmy.com, has also promised to donate one euro cent per download to an international aid organisation.The tones are available for more than 2,500 different handsets and in a realtone version for MP3-capable devices and a poly for the rest.itsmy has nearly one million registered users in the US and UK.

Android Full Of Bugs

2007-12-22T11:03:00.001+05:30

A “sizable number” of developers have complained that the Android tool kit is “plagued by coding errors” reports the Wall Street Journal, although the article only quotes two. “Functionality is not there, is poorly documented or just doesn’t work. It’s clearly not ready for prime time,” said Adam MacBeth, who earlier this year helped found mobile software start-up MergeLab.” As is pointed out, Android is new—Google (NSDQ: GOOG) describes it as an “early look” and said it is incorporating feedback into the next release. Rick Genter, a professional software engineer who is writing an Android application in his free time, said that Android was no more buggy than other software at such an early stage

Japan's NTT DoCoMo, Apple chiefs meet amid iPhone reports

2007-12-22T11:02:00.000+05:30

Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex reports that NTT DoCoMo, Japan's biggest cellphone carrier, said Wednesday that its president, Masao Nakamura, has met with Apple Inc chief executive Steve Jobs, amid reports that their companies are in talks about launching Apple's iPhone in Japan.'It is true that Mr Steve Jobs of Apple Inc and our president Nakamura held a meeting,' an NTT DoCoMo spokesman said.The spokesman declined to say when they met or what they discussed.Apple sees NTT DoCoMo as its top choice to market the iPhone, the Kyodo news agency reported, quoting unidentified sources.But NTT DoCoMo may be reluctant to accept Apple's demand for a share of subscriber revenue, the news agency said.NTT DoCoMo is competing with smaller rival Softbank Mobile, which has also entered talks with Apple about acquiring the sole rights to offer the iPhone in Japan, the Nikkei newspaper reported.Apple has signed exclusive contracts in the US with AT and T, in Germany with Deutsche Telekom, in the UK with O2 and in France with Orange for rights to market the iPhone -- an Internet-enabled cellphone, portable digital media player and digital camera in one.
Earlier Apple wanted to enter the Chinese market with I-Phone with China Mobile but talks broke down cause of revenue share.

Stronger growth rate than in console, handheld markets

2007-12-22T11:00:00.000+05:30

New research from entertainment analyst firm Understanding and Solutions reveals a stronger growth rate in mobile gaming than in console and handheld markets, albeit coming from a smaller market share.
This places mobile in second position behind the online games market.
"Global revenues from mobile gaming are pegged at USD 3.6 billion this year, and we predict this figure to rise to USD 6.0 billion by 2011," says Understanding and Solutions analyst, David Rouse.
"Although not seen as the killer application for mobile, games are increasingly important as the market continues to see major growth."
The report suggests that technological and infrastructure developments will allow consumers' gaming behaviour to evolve, thus opening up new business model possibilities. This, coupled with strong growth forecasts in the mid term, is leading to fierce competition in the sector and is impacting upon publishers, network operators, developers and IP owners alike.
"Subscription based and ad-funded models are on the rise," Rouse continued, "and microtransactions - the acquisition of additional levels or virtual goods during gameplay – are also beginning to play a part. However, pay per download is still the most significant revenue generator across all regions."
At the same time, an increasing number of traditional content owners are moving into the mobile games space, either by setting up their own mobile games subsidiaries (EA mobile, THQ wireless) or by licensing out content (Sega, Konami, MGM, Universal, Warner).
Conversely, existing players in the marketplace are consolidating through mergers and acquisitions.
Looking to emerging markets, particularly China and India, the segment is driven by snowballing mobile phone take-up rates. However, due to comparably low prices, Asia - excluding Korea and Japan - is still expected to account for less than 10 per cent of global revenues in 2011.

Thank You

2007-12-10T14:15:00.000+05:30

It has been sometime that I started to blog on moble 2.0/Web 2.0 related space. The developments and breakthroughs achieved both in the international market and Indian online and Mobile space.
Its has been a gratifying experience for me. When I started of it was more for me than for anything else. But later on I got curious, is anybody out therereading the stuff that I churn out, or am I the only reader/ writer of Matrixmaya.blogspot.com ?
To get a better idea and answer my question,I inserted some standard web analytics codes in Blog. This happened in October 07. And I am happy to say I am gratified by the modest results that have been achieved.

So for those of you who wonder if you are the only one reading this blog the answer is BIG NO. Below is the break up of people who have come from different parts of the world to read ……

The adjacent pie shows the %of readers coming in from the diffrent parts of the world.
With an average time spent on the site 3 min 08 secs. Well this is the highest till date.
So dear readers, a big thank you for coming here and spending time reading. Also would welcome your suggestions/tips on all things related to mobile VAS and Web 2.0 Space, be it internal changes/ new product launches all new developments you have come across the web/mobile space.
Be assured if you donot want your id to divulged it will not be. And be assured if you want to let the world know about you and your contribution it will be.

If you like something to be covered let me know. If you dislike anything let me know, if you like anything do add to stumbleupon/digg/furl it/blink it/add it to newsvine etc...

You dudes rock !- Mayajaal:-)

Universal Music Signs With Free Music Site imeem

2007-12-10T14:09:00.000+05:30

Soon after the announcement with Nokia Universal has pulled out another rabbit from its proverbial hat in its quest to drive revenues from the digital space.

It has signed on with imeem, the free music site/social network. The UMG deal means that imeem now has deals with all four major music labels, making it the only ad-supported music site to do so. CEO Dalton Caldwell says imeem's 19 million users will now have access to 4 to 5 million songs on the site - approaching the 5 million-plus songs on Apple's (AAPL) iTunes.It only gives users the chance to stream songs, not to download them. That makes licensing and payment a bit easier to figure out. But the model is basically the same: imeem will have to pay the labels an upfront fee, and then pay them a 50/50 split of all advertising revenue.Even without UMG's music, he says, the company has been able to sell more than $1 million worth of ads in Q4. He says the company has been able to command $20 to $30 cpms for music video ads, $8 to $12 cpms for audio-only ads, and cpms in "the teens" for traditional banner ads.

Well, as consumer I would like to listen to songs no doubt but the site looks a bit cluttered by my tastes. There is another site which does something similar is Songza.com . The Google like search interface is very easy and intuitive to use. Search for the songs you want to listen to and start playing. Allows you to stream, though, not to download. Your thoughts please!

Nokia completes the Avvenu acquisition

2007-12-05T17:14:00.000+05:30

Nokia today announced that it has now completed its acquisition of Avvenu www.avvenu.com, initially announced on December 4, 2007. Avvenu is a company providing secure remote access and private sharing technology that allows users to access and view PC files remotely, even when their PC is off. By acquiring Avvenu, Nokia plans to further enhance its portfolio of solutions for mobile operators, as well as deliver a secure file access and share service direct to mobile workers. Financial details of the deal was not disclosed.

Avvenu makes software that enables users to remotely access their PC on their mobiles or from another PC connected to the internet. The acquisition becomes significant in Nokia OVI strategy that Nokia would be pursuing. Integration of Avvnu product into Nokia Devices would give Nokia an edge over its competitors, where seam less connectivity and accessibility has increasingly important to mobile users

Nokia announces investment of USD 75 million in its Chennai manufacturing plant in India

2007-12-05T17:08:00.001+05:30

Nokia today announced fresh investments of approximately USD 75 million towards its manufacturing plant in Sriperumbudur, Chennai, India, for the year 2008. This investment is geared towards enhancing the capacity of the manufacturing plant to cater to the burgeoning need of the Indian and other emerging markets. The manufacturing plant currently employs approximately 6000 people.

Nokia started manufacturing in Chennai in January 2006 and has achieved the distinction of the fastest ramp up by any Nokia factory worldwide. The plant plays an integral role in Nokia's global production network of mobile devices.

"We are extremely pleased with the progress made by our manufacturing plant in Sriperumbudur, Chennai. The decision to make additional investment in the plant is a reflection of Nokia's commitment to the Indian mobile communications industry and of the increasing demand for mobile devices from Asia, Middle East and Africa. Nokia will continuously strengthen its manufacturing network to drive greater agility within the business and increase its competitiveness", said Raimo Puntala, Senior Vice President, Operations and Logistics, Nokia.

Currently, approximately 50 percent of the production from the plant is consumed domestically and the rest is exported to countries across Middle East and Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

Nokia comes with Music from Universal

2007-12-05T14:41:00.000+05:30

Nokia executives told investors this week that the company's increased focus on Internet-based services and software would provide the world's No. 1 cell-phone maker with the extra edge it will need to continue to grow its commanding share of the handset market in 2008 and beyond.
the handset-maker has just unveiled a new "Comes With Music" program that will give buyers of Nokia's next-generation music devices one year of unlimited access to Universal Music's portfolio. "Even if you listened to music 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you would still only scratch the surface of the music that we're making available," said Anssi Vanjoki, an executive vice president at Nokia.
Once the free subscription period is complete, subscribers will be permitted to keep all the music tracks they downloaded, Vanjoki explained. Moreover, Nokia is currently in negotiations with other major international labels and hopes to expand the free download service by the time it launches in mid-2008

"We set out to create the music experience that people are telling us they are looking for - all the music they want in the form of unlimited downloads to their mobile device and PC," said Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Multimedia, Nokia. "Even if you listened to music 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you would still only scratch the surface of the music that we're making available. Comes with Music fulfils our dream to give consumers all the music they want, wherever they want it, while rewarding the artists who create it."

The program will launch with Universal Music Group International, and Nokia is in discussion with the remaining major international labels.

Universal Music Group International Chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge was at Nokia World to launch the program with Nokia. "It's fantastic to work with Nokia on Comes With Music," said Grainge. "We feel it's an innovative way for people to discover and enjoy new artists, while at the same time having access to the amazing depth of the Universal catalog. Comes With Music allows our artists to reach new audiences in a very easy and affordable way."

Google ANDROID in warm embrace of Verizon

2007-12-05T14:40:00.000+05:30

Verizon Wireless plans to support Google's new software platform for cell phones and other mobile devices. Verizon Wireless had been one of several large cellular carriers withholding support from the Android initiative Google launched in early November.
But given the stunning U-turn Verizon Wireless made Nov. 27, announcing plans to allow a broader range of devices and services on its network, Chief Executive Officer Lowell McAdam says it now makes sense to get behind Android. "We're planning on using Android," McAdam tells BusinessWeek. "Android is an enabler of what we do."
Though skeptics see ulterior motives and question just how easy Verizon will make it for rival products to get on its network, the surprise embrace of an open-access model and of the Android software culminates a dramatic yearlong evolution in the company's thinking.
The effort, championed by McAdam, involved meetings with the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and late-night bull sessions with the top two executives at Verizon Communications, which owns Verizon Wireless in partnership with Vodafone.

Paymate targets US growth

2007-12-05T14:39:00.000+05:30

Mobile Entertainment Biz reports wireless payment solutions firm Paymate is gearing up to enter the US market with a new exec team in place.
It’s hired Dhruv Singh as Vice President of Americas to lead its growth initiatives in the region – especially into ‘unbanked’ consumer markets. PayMate has built a large ecosystem for mobile commerce in India by signing up merchants, banks, carriers, and consumers. PayMate and is accepted by over 3000 merchants.
"The cross border remittance and the US unbanked markets are worth billions of dollars annually. Through this expansion and local presence in the US, PayMate now has the ability to participate in and deploy innovative new solutions to these lucrative markets," said Ajay Adiseshann, CEO of PayMate.

Nokia Predicts 25% of Entertainment by 2012 Will be Created and Consumed Within Peer Communities

2007-12-04T15:41:00.000+05:30

Up to a quarter of the entertainment consumed by people in five years time will have been created, edited and shared within their peer circle rather than coming out of traditional media groups. This phenomenon, dubbed 'Circular Entertainment', has been identified by Nokia as a result of a global study into the future of entertainment resports CNN Money.com
The study Episode was carried out by The Future Laboratory, interviewed trend-setting consumers from 17 countries about their digital behaviors and lifestyles signposting emerging entertainment trends. Combining views from industry leading figures with Nokia's own research from its 900 million consumers around the world, Nokia has constructed a global picture of what it believes entertainment will look like over the next five years.
"From our research we predict that up to a quarter of the entertainment being consumed in five years will be what we call 'Circular'. " said Mark Selby, Vice President, Multimedia, Nokia.
Selby continues, "We think it will work something like this; someone shares video footage they shot on their mobile device from a night out with a friend, that friend takes that footage and adds an MP3 file - the soundtrack of the evening - then passes it to another friend. That friend edits the footage by adding some photographs and passes it on to another friend and so on. The content keeps circulating between friends, who may or may not be geographically close, and becomes part of the group's entertainment."
Tom Savigar, Trends Director at The Future Laboratory added, "Consumers are increasingly demanding their entertainment be truly immersive, engaging and collaborative. Whereas once the act of watching, reading and hearing entertainment was passive, consumers now and in the future will be active and unrestrained by the ubiquitous nature of circular entertainment. "

Of the 9,000 consumers we surveyed:
- 23% buy movies in digital format
- 35% buy music on MP3 files
- 25% buy music on mobile devices
- 39% watch TV on the internet
- 23% watch TV on mobile devices
- 46% regularly use IM, 37% on a mobile device
- 29% regularly blog
- 28% regularly access social networking sites
- 22% connect using technologies such as Skype
- 17% take part in Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games
- 17% upload to the internet from a mobile device
As part of the research we have identified four key driving trends; Immersive Living; Geek Culture; G Tech and Localism. In the Circular Entertainment phenomenon.

Immersive Living
Immersive Living is the rise of lifestyles which blur the reality of being on and offline. Entertainment will no longer be segmented; people can access and create it wherever they are.

Geek Culture
This triumph marks a shift as consumers become hungry for more sophisticated entertainment. Geek Culture rises, consumers will want to be recognized and rewarded - the boundaries between being commercial and creative will blur.

G Tech

G Tech is an existing social force in Asia that will change the way entertainment will look. Forget pink and sparkly, it is about the feminization of technology that is currently underway. Entertainment will be more collaborative, democratic, emotional and customized - all of which are 'female' traits.

Localism
The report uncovered a locally-minded sprit emerging in entertainment consumption and Localism will become a key theme of future entertainment. Consumers will take pride in seeking out the local and home-grown.

The extensive research identifies the trends, along with the technologies, that will be pivotal in the next episode of entertainment. In conclusion, the results of the survey lead Nokia to believe in the next episode; entertainment will be circular.
The research took place between July and September 2007. 9,000 consumers, who are active users of technology and own a mobile device [not restricted to Nokia] aged 16-35 were questioned. In addition 17 correspondents from the Future Laboratory's LifeSigns Network were interviewed. LifeSigns network is a community of 3,000 'superconsumers' thinkers, doers, creators and authors of culture. Interviews were also conducted with 10 leaders in different areas of entertainment who provided us with in-depth proven insights into this subject and what lies ahead. Experts were chosen from the areas of radio, internet, gaming, device developments, mobile telecoms, music, computing, legislation and marketing.

Nokia Nseries brings Digital Playzone, the battle for India’s No. 1 Technoholic, to Delhi

2007-12-03T16:56:00.000+05:30

Delhi is all charged up for the weekend as Nokia Nseries launches Digital Playzone – the ultimate technology challenge at Ansal Plaza, New Delhi. Four short-listed ‘Technoholics’, chosen in a month-long online hunt, will immerse themselves in the ultimate tech life for three whole days in the Digital Playzone, in full view of the public. This will include performing entertaining acts and completing a series of increasingly difficult tasks involving use of technology and multiple gadgets. The public can watch, participate, rate, interact, blog and comment on the tasks the Technoholics are to complete.
The last one standing will be crowned India’s Resident Technoholic and win a trip for two to Rio for Mardi Gras and Nokia’s new N81 multimedia entertainment device. The public stand a chance to win an N81 too! Simply participate in the Digital Playzone online and send in suggested tasks for the Technoholics. To be hosted by the country’s Tech Guru Rajiv Makhni, the Indian chapter of Nseries Digital Playzone is part of a contest being held in seven countries across the region.
Commenting on the state-of-the-art Digital Playzone, Mr. Vineet Taneja, Director-Multimedia, Nokia India, said, “Nokia believes in enabling connectivity, between people, technology and applications. So this challenge is a wonderful opportunity to showcase some of the latest consumer technology and create a fun competition that brings different communities together through participation.” The online Nokia Nseries Digital Playzone received a huge response from all over the country with close to 1500 entries from the time it was first announced on November 1st, 2007

BSNL has launched new FREE SMS SERVICE for family and friends

2007-12-03T16:55:00.000+05:30

BSNL has launched a new SMS Collect service where a sender BSNL suscriber can send message for Free and receiver receives the message and also replies back - all at a cost of Re.1 in the same circle and Rs.2 in case of inter circle. The service is useful in situations like earning parents paying for messages coming from their children or elders in the family who have limited budget or Employers may pay for receiving important messages from employees. Companies may extend these services to customers for whom the SMS could be free. This will also allow a BSNL subscriber to send a message to a close BSNL subscriber even at zero balance situation. BSNL has also inroduced 'CallNow' cards where international calls can be made at as low as Rs.1.75 per minute to Rs.4 per minute. These cards are available in denominations of Rs.100, 300, 500, 1000 and 2000.

Cellebrum goes in for rebranding before IPO

2007-12-03T16:51:00.000+05:30

Spice Group Company Cellebrum.com is set for a major revamp. The company is not only re-branding itself by changing its name to 'Spice mobile VAS' but has also identified three verticals under which it would now be operating. The verticals would be telco-centric services to take care of product innovation and management, mobile marketing and social networking and community services reports FE
The Parwanoo-based company, which has 14 I PRs to its name, has interests across various spheres covering the field of telecom solutions, office automation, information technology and most importantly Value Added Services (VAS). "Post re-branding, the company will focus more on creating new products. It has opened four R&D centers across the country in order to create innovative products especially across all three categories of VAS-SMS, GPRS and voice based," Saket Agrawal, COO, Spice mobile VAS, told FE.
As of now, the most popular services of the company are anytime anywhere music, hello tunes, ring tones, mobile radio which alone receives a whopping 10 million calls a day, background music. "Apart from this, the company has its keen focus on the social networking and community services like fastest finger. It is also looking at the potential of advertising on mobile," he added.
The company not only has about 70 products in its kitty but is also expanding its horizons fast. Notably, in the country, it is a leading WAP with installations for most of the telecom service providers like Hutch, IDEA, BPL, Escotel, BSNL, Reliance, MTNL and other corporate like Hero, ICICI, Vardhman, HDFC, Nahar International etc.
Currently, operating from Parwanoo, it has employee strength of about 400 and a growthrate of 100%. It has expertise in developing end-to-end technologies, solutions and innovative applications for the wireless internet industry using SMSCs, IVRS, ASR, VOIP, WAP. Going ahead, it would be introducing content up loader for mobile users.
This would be the second company preparing for an IPO, first begin Onmobile which filed its papers with SEBI recently. Wonder when IMI and Hunagama plans to follow suit

MTNL launches multi-lingual SMS services in 11 languages

2007-12-03T16:50:00.001+05:30

State-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) today launched multi-lingual short message service (SMS) that will enable its GSM subscribers to send messages in 11 Indian languages, besides English. Reports Sify

''With the introduction of this service, we are aiming at 10 per cent increase in the number of SMS sent through our network. Presently, we have five lakh SMS every month,'' company's Executive Director A K Arora told reporters here.
This value-added service, developed by Geneva Software Technology Ltd, is only for postpaid and prepaid customers of Dolphin and Trump, he said.
The service will be available in 11 languages such as Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Rajasthani, Tamil, Telugu, beside English in which the company presently provide this service.
The service will cost rupee one per SMS (local and STD) for the postpaid connections, namely Dolphin customers, and pre-paid users, particularly Trump subscriber have to pay rupees two for per SMS. The service can be activated by downloading the language specific application on the handset which requires a GPRS enabled handsets or a handset with Bluetooth, IR or cable facility

Radio One innovates with interactivity on mobile phones in Bangalore

2007-12-03T16:49:00.000+05:30

exchange4media reports that radio One 94.3 FM, a joint venture of BBC and Mid-Day Multimedia along with OnMobile Global Ltd has launched a premium service in Bangalore. The service allows radio fans to enjoy interactivity through mobile with custom offerings from Radio One by just dialling 505101094 (1255594 on BSNL). This service is a spinout of Infosys Technologies, which provides these services on a managed services model. The service which is currently available in Bangalore, would shortly be offered in other cities across India.
The service offers select programmes in many genres to suite different moods that one can access any time through mobile, be it comedy programmes like Rajni Sir, K T Kunjumon and Chamrajpet Charles. The romantics can record their messages for their loved ones and can get them aired on Radio One. There is also a quiz contest running that listeners can participate in through mobile. Also, the initiative provides better value to its advertisers as they can use the MVAS platform to reach their TG. Keeping in mind that interactivity is the key, there is special focus on programmes to augment the station’s participation quotient with its listeners.
Vineet Singh Hukmani, CEO, Radio One, said, “We have encouraged each of our station heads to come up with innovative revenue alliances that first impact a city and can be taken nationally with proper upscaling. The OnMobile tie-up is one such activity out of Bangalore. We will continue to innovate in the technology space that helps us create more listenership participation, adds to revenues and generates differentiated value to advertisers.”
Arvind Rao, CEO and Co-founder, OnMobile Global Ltd, said, “We expect good consumer uptake of this service because of the consumer connect that Radio One enjoys with its listeners. Our experience has shown that relevant and localised content is key to a successful MVAS service.”
“The mobile space is very fertile, and this move represents yet another foray towards creating loyal, young urban cool communities for the Radio One station. Additionally, we will now be able to offer more effective and measurable, 360-degree solutions to our advertisers,” added Shyju Varkey, Station Head ,Bangalore.

Google Will Apply to Participate in FCC Spectrum Auction

2007-12-03T16:47:00.000+05:30

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that it will apply to participate in the Federal Communications Commission's upcoming auction of wireless spectrum in the 700 megahertz (MHz) band.
As part of the nationally mandated transition to digital television, the 700 MHz spectrum auction -- which begins January 24, 2008 -- will free up spectrum airwaves for more efficient wireless Internet service for consumers. Google had put a lot of pressure on the FCC guys for change of rules so it comes as no surprise that they will participate.
"We believe it's important to put our money where our principles are," said Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO, Google. "Consumers deserve more competition and innovation than they have in today's wireless world. No matter which bidder ultimately prevails, the real winners of this auction are American consumers who likely will see more choices than ever before in how they access the Internet."
Schmidt also praised the leadership of FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and his fellow commissioners for adopting the new rights for consumers earlier this year.
Google's formal application to participate in the 700 MHz auction would be filed today with the FCC December 3, 2007 -- the required first step in the auction process. Google's application does not include any partners.
The big question is will Google actually try to win. Blogosphere as well as main stream media is of the opinion that Google will bid but not hight enough to win. The reason begin the recent opening up of network like Verizon which dilutes the economic incetive to actually get into this game also many feel that setting of a national network and running the actual service will dilute managements attention from their core business advertisement sales

Google Announces Launch of Google Maps for Mobile With "My Location" Technology

2007-11-29T14:26:00.000+05:30

Google took one more step towards fulfilling its mobile ambitions.
Google today announced the release of version 2.0 of Google Maps for mobile, New in v2.0 is a beta version of Google's "My Location" technology, which uses cell tower ID information to provide users with their approximate location, helping them determine where they are, what's around them, and how to get there.
With My Location technology, users who don't have GPS-enabled mobile phones will now be able to take advantage of the added speed and convenience afforded by location information. The My Location technology also complements GPS-enabled devices, as it delivers a location estimate faster than GPS, provides coverage inside buildings (where GPS signals can be unreliable), and doesn't drain phone batteries as quickly as GPS. Whether users are trying to locate a restaurant in an unfamiliar neighborhood, get directions to the nearest hotel while traveling, or just find a place to grab some coffee while shopping for the holidays, Google Maps for mobile with My Location can help them get what they need quickly and easily.
The My Location technology takes information broadcast from cell towers and sifts it through Google-developed algorithms to approximate a user's current location on the map. The My Location technology is available on most smartphones, including all color BlackBerry devices, all Symbian Series 60 3rd Edition devices, most Windows Mobile devices, newer Sony Ericsson devices, and some Motorola devices.
Google Maps for mobile enables users to view interactive maps and satellite imagery, find local businesses, get point-to-point driving directions, and view live traffic updates, all while on the go. The application is now available on and optimized for a wide variety of platforms, running on most J2ME-enabled devices; all color BlackBery devices; Windows Mobile devices with Windows Mobile 2003, 5.0, and above; Symbian Series 60 3rd Edition devices; and Palm devices with Palm OS 5 and above. Google Maps for mobile is being actively used by millions of people in more than 20 different countries around the globe.
Apart from Android its open platform for mobile this will add to Google mobile plans significantly as Location Based Services are thought to be the next killer apps on the mobile front.
To download Google Maps for mobile with My Location, point your mobile or desktop web browser to www.google.com/mobile/gmm/index.html

Myspace in India?

2007-11-28T13:59:00.000+05:30

Well myspace is gunning for the Indian market. Presently they appear to be in stealth mode in India and are just setting about there management here. Click here to check out the opening they have for their Indian operations.

The Indian social networking scene seems to be heating up by degrees. Recently HT Media acquired DesiMartini an Indian Social networking site. Couple of months back Reliance Entertainment announce they have got a million registered users on their social net working site BigAdda.com within a coupe of months of it launch

But till now the leader of the pack appears to be Orkut from Google.com.
However social networking in India is still in growth stage with low PC penetration and accessibility problems. However keeping in mind India’s 1 billion plus population and terrific economic performance in recent years there seems to be plenty room for other players.

Delaying decisions on Telecom Policy costs Indian Economy 800 Crores

2007-11-28T13:32:00.000+05:30

There is well written piece on the cost of delaying decision on the Indian economy by BS
The Indian economy stands to lose around Rs 800 crore daily if it continues delaying decisions on telecom recommendations

The asssumption is based on the fact that an investment of nearly Rs 34,021 crore (slightly over Rs 90 crore a day) has contributed to an increase of Rs 5,71,874 crore (over Rs 1,500 crore a day) to the GDP in fiscal 2006-07, according to a new report by Frost & Sullivan.

Even as the impasse over spectrum allocation continues, the report suggests that the de-linking of spectrum and the licence is essential as the operator who obtains a license might not need it at all.

The shortage of spectrum forces operators to increase their cost between 25-50 per cent which, in turn, results in higher tariffs.

The indirect costs too could be substantial as the telecom sector is one of the major export earners such as IT-BPO, notes the report that was commissioned by Nokia-Siemens Networks.

The impact of telecom growth is multi-fold – ranging from employment generation to economic benefits in key sectors such as agriculture. For every one per cent increase in tele-density, for instance, it is estimated that the GDP growth rate goes up 0.6 per cent.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) notes that for every one per cent increase in mobile penetration and broadband penetration in developing nations, the GDP per capita increases by about Rs 9,500 and over Rs 35,000 respectively.

India’s annual telecom services gross revenue was over Rs 1,00,000 crore in 2006, exhibiting a CAGR of over 21 per cent since 2004, notes the report, titled Telecom - Catalyzing India’s New Economy.

This is expected to grow at an annual rate of 26 per cent to reach nearly Rs 3,50,000 crore by 2012.

The estimates translate into direct revenue contribution of nearly Rs 2,40,000 crore to the GDP between 2007 and 2012, and gross value added (GVA) of around Rs 1,44,000 crore to the Indian economy.

Moreover, it is estimated that a one per cent growth in the number of telephone subscribers will lead to an exponential growth of close to two per cent in its contribution to the service tax revenue collected by the government.

India, it appears then, with its over 22 per cent tele-density is on the right track. It currently has over 200 million mobile users and is adding 6-7 million subscribers every month. However, to reach the 650 million subscribers mark by 2012, a focus on rural markets is imperative, notes the report.

Mobile telephony in urban areas is growing at a very high rate (50%) as compared with mobile telephony in rural areas (around 5 per cent). The main reason for low tele-density in rural areas is lack of infrastructure and lack of initiatives from both the government and the telecom service providers.

The report also notes that although increasing potential customer base in the rural markets is the objective of the USO fund contribution, the disbursement of the funds have not been performed efficiently.

The main issues with rural deployment are infrastructure (tower and power), affordability, availability of skilled resources and access devices. The current infrastructure is not adequate to meet the needs of the an additional 400 million subscribers.

The state of wireless technology is slightly better with 1,10,000 mobile base stations in place. However, there is a need of about 1,00,000 towers to achieve the subscriber target.

Currently, BSNL and MTNL combined have in excess of 37,000 towers across India – 80 per cent of which are within B & C circles.

With infrastructure sharing, the investment to roll out rural telecom infrastructure would be lower and also increase the competitive efficiency of rural markets by bringing in private operators to access rural areas and hence assist government in getting to the 650 million number well before the proposed date of 2012.

Singapore’s Media Development Authority brings in Mobile TV rules

2007-11-27T15:39:00.000+05:30

Rapid news reports that Singapore’s Media Development Authority is proposing to bring content on existing third-generation mobile networks under the same rules as any future mobile TV operations. And both sectors may now have to meet existing broadcasting content requirements.

The regulator has outlined its proposals for how mobile TV will be overseen. One of its proposals is “to require both [mobile TV service] operators and cellular mobile TV operators to obtain broadcast services licenses before transmitting TV services over their networks.

To date, 3G operators have not been required to have their channels approved by the regulator. StarHub, SingTel and M1 all offer 3G TV channels. But the MDA said that it was taken a “platform-neutral” approach to all mobile TV services, so would need to “regulate mobile TV services equally regardless of the technology platform (e.g. 3G, DVB-H, DMB)”.

“Current fixed TV services (eg. MediaCorp, SCV, SingTel) are regulated under the TV Programme Code,” said the MDA. “MDA proposes that mobile TV services be subjected to the same regime, ie. television programmes offered on mobile TV should comply with the TV Programme Code.”

Up for grabs are four 10-year multiplex licences which the MDA is putting out to tender. Each can support three to 20 TV channels. The MDA confirmed it would not mandate any particular standard, although DVB-H trials are underway. Multiplex operators would have to have minimum network coverage of 95% of the island state.

MDA also proposes requiring all multiplex licensees to offer capacity to third parties on “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory conditions

'Idle screen' content launches in Brazil

2007-11-27T15:38:00.002+05:30

Brazilian operators Telemig and Amazonia have launched ad-funded idle screen content services.
The regional sister operators (recently acquired by Vivo) have adopted UK-based Celltick's so-called Live Screen 'idle screen' technology, through which they can broadcast targeted content and advertising.

Called Se Liga, the service has attracted commercial partners in the form of Fiat and Unimed, and will offer a mix of news, lifestyle articles, sports results, ringtones and games.

It will initially be available to 100,000 Telemig/Amazonia customers, with Celltick managing editorial content, programming and advertising.

STAR application PLUS adds nee content

2007-11-27T15:38:00.001+05:30

Plus, STAR India’s mobile content service, has tied up with three international media companies, UK publication ‘The Sun’, US-based Fox News TV and the National Geographic Channel (NGC). Plus has also tied up with two Indian media companies, Bennett, Coleman & Co.’s lifestyle TV channel, Zoom TV, and the financial news and data website, MyIris.com. The Plus mobile entertainment package is a free mobile application which can be downloaded and installed on a mobile phone with no subscription fee, except for GPRS network charges.
Under the partnership, ‘The Sun’ will provide Plus users with lifestyle content. NGC will provide specialised content such as special animal ringtones. Fox News will provide international news, both text and video. Zoom TV will offer Bollywood news, animation, wallpapers and videos. MyIris.com will provide financial news, company news and market data, all updated in real time. Users can also research the stock
market, including upcoming IPOs and mutual funds. Initially, the stocks research service will be available free of charge, but a fee may be charged later.

Bharti to Establish Communication Center in IIT-Bombay

2007-11-27T15:37:00.000+05:30

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) - Bombay, one of India's leading technology education institutions, will establish the Bharti Centre for Communication in partnership with Bharti Foundation. The Bharti Centre will strive for excellence in research in communication theory and systems, and will foster technical collaboration between the research and user groups.
IIT-Bombay has received an assistance of $1 million through Bharti Foundation towards setting up this Centre of excellence in communication systems and technology, which under a single umbrella will encompass communication theory, practice and applications. The Centre, which will be set up in the existing building of the Electrical Engineering Department, will house state-of-the-art laboratories and infrastructure that enables a rich research environment and attracts the best faculty and students. Some of the broad research areas would include 4G technology, RF MEMS, Next-Generation IP/MPLS Services, Optical Fiber Communication.
On the occasion Mr. Rakesh Bharti Mittal, Vice Chairman, Bharti Enterprises said, "Today, India is one of the world's fastest growing telecom markets and we believe that the country also needs to emerge as a major communications technology hub. IIT-Bombay is a world-class institution and we are delighted to partner them in this initiative to promote education and research in this field of communication systems & technology. We are confident that this partnership will create a wealth of knowledge that will benefit the industry and the country".
2007 is the beginning of the Golden Jubilee year of IIT - Bombay and this initiative by Bharti Foundation is expected to provide impetus to the efforts of the institute to excel in communication research and achieve greater heights. Prof. Ashok Misra, Director, IIT Bombay said "We are thankful to Bharti Enterprises for establishing the Bharti Centre for Communication at IIT Bombay. This is an excellent example of our interactions with the industry and will provide a platform for collaboration between the researchers at Bharti Enterprises and faculty at IIT Bombay in the area of communication technology. The synergy between a leading industry and an academic institute will be of mutual benefit."
Bharti Foundation, in partnership with IIT-Delhi, has also set up the Bharti School of Telecommunication Technology & Management to groom and develop 'Young Telecom Leaders' for this dynamic and cutting-edge industry. The school offers post-graduate programmes, i.e. M.Tech, MBA, MS (Research) and Ph.D in telecommunication.

Nokia Ties up with Kylie for her new album X in UK

2007-11-19T20:05:00.000+05:30

Nokia today announced it has secured 5 days exclusivity for Kylie’s new album X five days before anyone after striking a deal with EMI for its UK music store
The tracks - available from November 21st - will be priced at 80p per track , with the full album costing £8. The Music Store supports downloads both from the handset or via a PC. Announcement doesn’t say if the tracks would be DRM free. Earlier this week also saw the exclusive version Girls Aloud album Tangle Up available from the Nokia store

Vodafone In US $ 2 Billlion tax dispute in the India?

2007-11-18T20:37:00.002+05:30

In what could be major set back for Vodafone and Arun Sarin India's Authority for Advance Rulings (AAR) has ruled that an overseas transaction between two US companies involving the sale of Indian assets is liable for taxation - and that the buyer is required to pay the tax liability. The ruling is significant as the situation closely mirrors that affecting Vodafone's recent purchase of Huchison International's controlling stake in Hutchison Essar, now known as Vodafone Essar.

Vodafone has argued that it is not liable for the taxes because the sale took place between offshore entities outside of the Indian government's jurisdiction. The company has also claimed that Hutchison, the seller, should be liable for any related taxes.

The ruling from the AAR affects the dealing of shares in the Hyderabad-based Trinity Corp. between two US based companies. The AAR ruled that the buyer of the shares should be treated as an "¬agent" under Section 163 of the Income-Tax Act, even though they are not Indian companies. It also ruled that the responsibility for paying the taxes due lies with the buyer.

While the court case is only binding in this specific instance, it will be a boost to the Indian government's attempt to claim upwards of US$2 billion in tax liabilities from Vodafone following its US$11.1 billion purchase of Huchison's stake in the Indian phone company.

The transaction itself was rather complex - with Vodafone International Holdings BV, a company registered in the Netherlands, acquiring the entire share capital of CGP Investments (Holdings) Ltd, a Cayman Islands based company from Hutchison International (HTIL). CGP, itself, owns 52 per cent stakes in Hutchison India.

Vodafone Essar has argued that Vodafone Holdings , CGP Investments as well as HTIL are foreign companies and as the transaction was structured through Mauritius, capital gains cannot have been accumulated within India. Also India and Mauritius have a double taxation avoidance treaty, so it would not be possible for India to apply capital gains tax on transactions that are already taxed within Mauritius.

Vodafone Essar has argued that Vodafone Holdings , CGP Investments as well as HTIL are foreign companies and as the transaction was structured through Mauritius, capital gains cannot have been accumulated within India. Also India and Mauritius have a double taxation avoidance treaty, so it would not be possible for India to apply capital gains tax on transactions that are already taxed within Mauritius.

Glu taps into India with IndiaGames

2007-11-18T20:37:00.001+05:30

Games included as part of the deal include Games included as part of the deal include Age of Empires III Mobile, Atari Legends 3, with classic games such as Pong, Asteroids Deluxe and Super Breakout, Brian Lara’s Cricket 2008, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Insaniquarium Deluxe, DC Comics, Kasparov Chess, Looney Tunes and Zuma.

Indiagames already has similar agreements in place with Electronic Arts, I-Play, In-Fusio, Selatra, Taito, THQ Wirless and Warner Bros.

Indiagames COO Samir Bangara said: "[We are] committed to bringing the best quality mobile content to Indian consumers and our partnership with Glu Mobile re-enforces that commitment. Consumers can look forward to all the latest content for their phones in the coming months."

NDTV readies itself to launch mobile portal NDTV Active in December

2007-11-18T20:36:00.000+05:30

Reports Agencyfaqs:NDTV Convergence, the digital media arm of the NDTV Group, is gearing up to release a beta version of a mobile portal called NDTV Active in December. The portal has been developed by the US-based July Systems.

Sanjay Trehan, CEO, NDTV Convergence, says, “The portal will be tested in real conditions for a few weeks, after which it will be launched commercially.”

NDTV Active will be packaged with various mobile sites consisting of text-based content like news, movies, astrology, music, lifestyle and stocks, powered by NDTV’s online content. Video content will be added later on.
The mobile portal will be promoted through online advertising on both group sites and non-group sites, says Trehan. A TVC will be developed, which will run across NDTV’s TV channels. Offline marketing will be used in collaboration with telecom operators.

Trehan says, “NDTV Convergence is planning to monetise the portal through ads, sponsorships plus offering some sections of the portal on a subscription basis. Apart from this, we have plans for content syndication and we are in talks with a few mobile operators to provide content for their mobile portals.”

NDTV Convergence has recently launched a cricket website (www.cricketndtv.com) and it is working to roll out a youth website, an education website and a Hindi news portal called NDTVKhabar.com early next year. There are plans to revamp the business news website, NDTVProfit.com, as well by featuring various tax, insurance and loan based applications.

A website for NDTV’s lifestyle channel, Imagine (www.ndtvimagine.com), was also launched on Wednesday. It is a showcase of the team behind the Imagine channel and indicates the programmes that will be broadcast once the channel goes live in January 2008.

BSNL AP circle launches Mobile TV

2007-11-18T20:35:00.000+05:30

In a significant step in mobile entertainment, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), Andhra Pradesh circle, on Tuesday announced ‘TV on Mobile’ service to its subscribers in collaboration with 12 channels as the content providers.

The subscription plans unveiled by the company include a one channel per day plan for Rs 10, one channel for one month plan for Rs 50 and 12 channels for Rs 150 per month.

According to S Ramalingam, chief general manager, BSNL - AP circle, city-based Apalya Technologies is powering the new value-added services being offered by BSNL by beaming the channel programmes through its streaming server to the mobile phone subscribers of the company.

However, only high-end GSM (global system for mobile communication) phones can support the service, according to him.

This offcourse beg the question - How many high end subscribers would BSNL have?

Nokia doesn't rule out joining Google alliance

2007-11-18T20:33:00.001+05:30

Nokia may still join Google's new mobile software alliance, which is seen as rivaling Nokia's own plans.
"It's not ruled out at all. If we would see this as beneficial, we would think about taking part in it," Kari Tuutti, a representative for Nokia's multimedia unit, said Tuesday. "We should never close any doors."
Web search leader Google said Monday it will enter the mobile phone market, asserting that its planned mobile phone software may boost Web use on handsets but without threatening entrenched players.
Analysts, however, said Google could have the means to disrupt the status quo in the wireless software industry, which is dominated by a handful of large phone makers and regional service providers that often tightly control customer choices.
Google's plans pit it against companies such as Nokia, Microsoft, Apple, and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion.
Nokia owns 48 percent of Symbian, whose operating system is behind almost three-quarters of the world's smartphones.
Google said it will work with some of the world's largest telecom players, including T-Mobile, Qualcomm, and Motorola, to develop an open software platform named Android for mobile devices.
Analysts said the platform could give Google a head start in the burgeoning mobile advertising market, which has been hampered by lack of agreement on standards and handset design.

Nokia ties up with Om Shanti Om for VAS services

2007-11-14T14:16:00.002+05:30

Exchange for media reports Shah Rukh Khan starrer ‘Om Shanti Om’ (OSO) has kept to its promise of being an entertainer. With ‘OSO’ Nokia has entered film entertainment in the mobile VAS space. Nokia has come up with special ‘OSO Crazy’ mobisodes, ring tones and wallpapers.
Bob McDougall, Director, Sales, Nokia India, said, “Through this tie-up, we bring alive our vision of combining Internet and mobility to provide consumers an enhanced media rich mobile experience. Bollywood is the most popular downloadable mobile content besides sports and fashion in India. We are confident that OSO Crazy and other exclusive OSO content will provide our consumers an enhanced media rich mobile experience.”
Nokia has created a special ‘OSO Crazy mobisode’, which has the animated proxy of Shah Rukh Khan’s character in the movie, ‘Om’. The mobisode can be downloaded exclusively on all Nokia GPRS-enabled handsets by dialing 55555.
Additionally, Nokia is holding a meet and greet contest for the star of OSO. Customers who purchase Nokia 5310, 3110 Classic, 3500 Classic, 5200, 5300, 5700, 6233, 6233 M, or 6300 handsets, would get to answer a question on Nokia and OSO. A lucky draw will facilitate 40 couples across the country to meet SRK in Mumbai in December. Interestingly Hungama Mobile is not mentioned in the release. And the rumor is that Nokia has directly tied up with T-Series and Red Chilies for content. Something brewing?

Nokia distributes Sholay

2007-11-14T14:16:00.001+05:30

Nokia is slowly but steadily entering the mobile content business. They have recen
Featuring large screens, wireless LAN, high capability cameras, dedicated music/game keys with customizable user interface and large flash memory Nokia
Nseries devices incorporate the full length movie, Sholay.
“Today people want to be more in control of how, what and where they acquire & consume their digital entertainment. They want to discover new favorites and share them without being confined to one location - and it’s devices like the Nokia N81 and N95 8GB that facilitate this. With these two devices and entertainment
content, we are aiming to offer the best of entertainment on the “fourth screen,” said Vineet Taneja, Business Director - Multimedia, Nokia India.
Nokia N81 comes equipped with Top 10 English music videos, 10 best-selling Bollywood and Hollywood songs as also 10 all time hit comedy scenes from
movies across genres. Nokia N95 8GB sports a 2.8-inch display, 8GB of flash memory, videos, games, full navigation with Assisted-Global Positioning System to locate the destinations.
The Nokia N81 8GB phone is comes for Rs. 26,250 and the N95 8GB device is available for approx. Rs 35,100.

Google Android launched - Announces 10mn reward for Developers

2007-11-14T14:15:00.000+05:30

Google has announced official details of the Android Developer Challenge, with $10 million in awards for developers who build mobile apps for the new open-source platform for mobile devices. In addition to announcing the cash prizes, Google said that the Android software developer kit (SDK) is now available.
The cash prizes, ranging from $25,000 to $275,000, will be awarded next year by a panel of judges. Andy Rubin, Google's director of mobile platforms, said in a statement that the Android platform "offers developers a unique opportunity to create truly innovative mobile software."
He added that the competition is a challenge for developers to "stretch their imaginations" and create "something amazing."
Android Challenge I and II
The competition is actually divided into two parts. Challenge I will accept submissions from January 2 through March 3 of next year, and 50 of those submissions will be selected to receive $25,000 for more development. The 50 first-round winners will be eligible to apply by May 1 for 10 awards of $275,000 each and 10 others at $100,000 each, with the winners to be announced at the end of May. The remaining $5 million will be distributed in an as-yet-unannounced fashion once the Android-based handsets start shipping in the second half of next year.
The winning entries, according to Google, will be those applications that "leverage all that the Andoid platform has to offer in order to provide consumers with their most compelling experiences." Developers will retain all intellectual property and other rights.
Virtually all of the developers will be starting with the same Android knowledge base, because the platform was just announced a week ago by a Google-led group of more than 30 companies, including T-Mobile, HTC, Qualcomm, and Motorola, that have come together as the Open Handset Alliance. The Android software stack includes an operating system, middleware, interface, and applications. Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt said in a statement that Android is "more ambitious than any single 'Google Phone'" concept that had been discussed in the press.

3G spetrum auction India

2007-11-14T14:14:00.000+05:30

The Government has released the guidelines for 3G services today. With the introduction of 3G services in the country, additional value added services will be available to the public.
Guidelines for 3G Services:The 3G (3rd generation) mobile telecommunications is the generic name for the next generation of mobile networks that will combine wireless mobile technology with high data rate transmission capabilities. The 3G networks will be capable of providing higher data rates and will also be capable of supporting a variety of services such as high- resolution video and multi media services in addition to voice, fax and conventional data services.
3G spectrum will be permitted in the 2.1 GHz band.
The 3G licences would be granted through a controlled, simultaneous ascending e-auction, by a specialised agency to ensure transparency in the selection process.
Besides the initial, one time spectrum charge, it has been decided that the successful service provider would pay additional spectrum charge of 0.5 % of their total Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR), as the recurring annual spectrum charge. This additional revenue share is proposed to be 1% of AGR after 3 years from the date of spectrum assignment.
The roll out requirements, including rural roll-out, as well as stiff penalties for non compliance of the same has been stipulated.
Mergers will not be allowed during the initial five years. No trading/ reselling of spectrum is allowed.
The CDMA spectrum in 800 MHz band for EV-DO applications would be treated separately from 2.1 GHz spectrum. If the CDMA based service provider(s) ask for the EV-DO carrier of 2 x 1.25 MHz, they would have to pay an amount proportionate to the highest bid for spectrum in 2.1 GHz band.

Number Portability

2007-11-14T14:13:00.000+05:30

After more than a year of TRAI recommending introducing Number Portability in the India, DOT has finally agreed to go ahead with it.
Market surveys have shown that up to 50% of all mobile users in India are unhappy with their operator, and are willing to switch to another service provider if allowed to retain their number. Number portability has so far been introduced in Australia, Korea, Japan, Canada, the US, the UK, most of Europe and Pakistan, among other countries.
Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the body representing GSM players said the “industry felt MNP was being introduced to benefit a select operator desirous of entering the GSM segment and thereafter poaching on the subscribers of existing GSM players.” Read as Reliance Infocom
While COAI’s director general TV Ramachandran refused to name this “select operator”, it is understood that he was referring to Reliance Communications, which had recently obtained the government’s approval to offer GSM services. He also demanded that this facility be extended to all fixed line customers.
DoT, in a statement, said all mobile operators, through a neutral third party, shall establish a “logically centralised database, the cost of which would be borne proportionately by the telcos.” This implies, a telecom company that has 20% market share in the circle, will bear 20% of the cost of creating the centralised data base. All that the customer has to do is approach the recipient operator for porting the number, the DoT said.

Videocon Retail Arm Next buys out Planet M from BCCL

2007-11-06T19:47:00.000+05:30

After months of speculation and as has been blogged here earlier(Planet-M Rumors )…BCCL has finally confirmed it. Videcon has bought Planet M from BCCL for 200 Cores.

The acquisition has been done by NEXT, Videocon’s retail chain for consumer electronics and home appliances. Business Standard reports that Dhoots would be investing around 500Crore in the next couple of years to take the store count of Planet M to 1000 from the present 150.

Other players in the organized music retail business with a national presence is Music World from RPG group. The Depot from the Future Group.

More on Gphone- Introducing Android

2007-11-06T19:27:00.000+05:30

After yesterdays release more on G-Phone has been made available. Android is a platform for mobile phones which will be a open platform so that devdelopers can create play around with different & innovative applications to give the end user a more seamless and enhanced mobile experience….developed by the Open handset Allinace(Open handset Allinace.com). The alliance has the following as founding partners

The alliance partners

Mobile Operators
China Mobile
KDDI Corp Japan
NTTDoCoMo
Sprint Nextel
T-Mobile
Telecom ItaliaTelefonica

Semiconductor partners
Audience
Braodcom
Intel
Marvel
NVIDIA
Qaulcomm
Sirf Tech
SynapticsTexas Instruments

Handset Makers include
HTC
LG
Motorola
Samsung

Software partners

Ascender
EBay
Esmertec
Google
Living Image
NMS Communications
Nuance Communication
Packet Video
Skypop
SoniVox

Commercialization Companies

Aplix Corporation
Noser Engineering Inc.

TAT - The Astonishing Tribe AB
Wind River

Google unveils G-Phone.....Its a O/S

2007-11-05T22:26:00.000+05:30

Google unveiled its long-awaited wireless plans this morning, announcing an ambitious software strategy intended to make cell phones much cheaper and Web browsing on them much easier.
For months, there has been feverish speculation about the so-called "gPhone," with rumors that Google was building something similar to Apple's iPhone: a revolutionary product that would take the world by storm.

Instead, the big news is that Google has gone generic, offering free software to anyone who wants it under the relaxed terms of an open-source license, which will allow developers to view the source code for that software.The approach has already been endorsed by 33 companies who make up the new Open Handset Alliance, including some of the world's largest wireless carriers and cell-phone manufacturers. new phones built around the software would be available in the second half of 2008 from four major manufacturers in the alliance: Motorola, Samsung, LG and HTC.

Eight carriers have agreed to ship handsets based on the Google platform: Sprint and T-Mobile U.S.A. in the United States, NTT DoCoMo and KDDI in Japan, T-Mobile International in 10 European countries and the United Kingdom, China Mobile, Telefonica in Spain and Telecom Italia. No Bharti Airtel as of now

Google hopes to make money by increasing the number of people who are exposed to its Internet advertising. Currently there are about 1.5 billion people in the world who can see Google's advertising on personal computers. In comparison, an estimated 3 billion people use mobile phones.

Major chip makers in the alliance - Intel, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Texas Instruments, Marvell, Nvidia and SiRF Technology Holdings - will open up the specifications of their technology to developers for "Android," as the Google platform is called

Finally, there are tools for individual developers. On Nov. 12, Google will release a free software development kit that will help programmers write applications.

Vodafone in Talks to Take Stake in Telekom Malaysia

2007-11-05T20:39:00.000+05:30

Vodafone appetite to gobble up other operators is seemingly endless. After taking over Hutch Indian operation for reportedly 11bn dollars, Vodafone is reported to be the front runner to take a 25% stake in Telekom Malaysia's (TM) mobile phone division when the company is separated from its landline parent in the second quarter of next year. Telekom Malaysia is creating a new company, RegionCo which will include TM's regional mobile operations under TM International, and domestic mobile operations under Celcom.
Telekom Malaysia recently said that it is intended for the RegionCo to be demerged from TM Group and be separately listed. Since then, the company has been courted by a series of private equity groups and operators seeking to purchase a stake in the company.
Citing unnamed sources, the Sunday Times newspaper says that Vodafone is now the frontrunner to make the investment, which could cost up to US$3 billion for 25% of the new company.
Vodafone declined to comment on the report.
Telekom Malaysia has stakes in mobile operations in Malaysia (Celcom), Indonesia (XL), Sri Lanka (Dialog), Bangladesh (Aktel), Singapore (M1), India (Spice) and Iran
(MTCE).

Nokia launches Music Store in the UK, supported by O2 and Vodafone.

2007-11-05T20:38:00.000+05:30

A link to the music store will be pre-loaded on every N81 and N95 8GB device that ships. At present the N81 has been listed by O2, Voda and sim-free by The Link and Carphone Warehouse. The N95 will be available exclusively from Voda till Christmas. Nokia remains confident that T-Mobile and 3UK will also range the handsets. Orange could be a harder nut to crack.Music Store is Nokia’s big entry into the content services space. It links users directly to a Nokia-controlled music shop, from which they can download songs, tag tunes, and listed to 30 second clips. Music is paid for using an e-wallet topped up using credit card, paypal or in-store voucher. The process can also be enacted online.ME was among those invited to the pre-launch. We tried the service, which was fast and easy to use. It also retrieved the weird angular jazz tunes we searched for. There will be two million tracks available from day one...1st November. Music Store will subsequently be pre-loaded on all forthcoming Nseries devices to launch, and eventually on mid-range Nokia devices such as the Xpress Music range. There will be a similar strategy for the new games service N-gage, also pre-loaded on N81 and N95. N-gage will be ‘switched on’ in December.

Nokia over the years have emerged as the most admired companies in the world. Few companies would try to metamorphose itself from a gadet and tech player to media communication power house. Although theire earlier attempt to do the same had failed (Nokia Club)

I-Phone Invention of the Year- TIME Magazine

2007-11-05T20:26:00.000+05:30

Time Magazine's Invention of the Year. That award is now part of the iPhone's resume, with the magazine making the announcement earlier this week.
In describing why the magazine made that decision, Time's Lev Grossman first noted that the much-publicized device has several drawbacks. It is hard to type on, he wrote, plus it is too slow, too big, doesn't have instant messaging, is too expensive, doesn't support his work e-mail, and is locked to AT&T.
Then there's the good news, which apparently tipped the editorial scales in the iPhone's favor. First, it's pretty. "Most high-tech companies don't take design seriously," Grossman wrote. Plus it revolutionized the cell phone indiatry in a manner few inventions have

Well I guess he is right about that I-Phone touch interface is way cooler than any thing I have seen in the market

Nokia Ties up BharatMatrimony

2007-11-05T20:24:00.000+05:30

Nokia, today announced a tie-up with haratMatrimony that will allow Nokia device owners in India to use their services through Nokia Catalogs, a mobile ‘shopping mall’ that offers a wide variety of content, applications and services on Nokia devices- anytime, anywhere.

Other content providers offering exclusive music and entertainment content and services on Nokia Catalogs include Jamba, Warner Bros Digital Distribution, Sony Pictures, Electronic Arts and Handango, Hungama.Today Nokia Catalogs is shipping on over 50 models of Nokia devices*and are already in the hands of over 40 million consumers worldwide.

NDTV Provides Content For SingTel’s mioTV service

2007-11-05T20:23:00.000+05:30

Contentsutra reports that NDTV has struck a deal to provide their news channels - NDTV 24X7 and NDTV Profit - to Singapore based telco SingTel for their pay TV platform ”mio TV”, reports Domain-B. NDTV is targeting the expatriate market. SingTel has plans to launch mioTV on the mobile as well. There was almost nothing on NDTVs digital media initiatives in their recent earnings release, only that they’ve hired a team of 60 professionals for work in mobile, lifestyle, news and entertainment.

Bharti Airtel Partner With Google On G-Phone Software?

2007-11-05T20:22:00.000+05:30

Google is expected to announce its Open Handset Alliance and Linux-based mobile software any time this week.
In India, Bharti Airtel is set to emerge an early partner for the project. Bharti already has a strategic partnership with Google on mobile search. Hutch Vodafone is powered by windows Live

Vodafone Launches music subscription service in UK with Omnifone-[FM8961-10]

2007-11-02T23:22:00.003+05:30

Weeks before Apple I phone is set to enter the UK market…Vodafone has upped ante by launching all you can eat offer for subscription with Omnifone “MusicStation”. With 1.2 million tracks available for 1.99 pounds/week subscription one has to wait and see how well this service does. Couple of weeks back Omnifone had done a similar deal with Hutchinson 3 three in Hongkong. Although the cost of the services available in Honkong is much cheaper than in UK. Will Vodafone plan to launch it in India soon. Airtel wake up and smell the coffee.

Google G-Phone plans coming on Monday?

2007-11-02T23:19:00.001+05:30

Wall Street journal reports that google is expected to announce its G-Phone plans on Monday. Possible carriers could be T-Mobile & Sprint. Possible handset partners HTC.
Although others like Sony Erricson/LG/Samsung could also be in the loop.

The impact of G-Phone would be difficult to judge though all major players in the market have their eyes firmly set on the Google’s plans.

Warner - Nokia Spat

2007-11-02T23:18:00.000+05:30

What could be termed as small set back for Nokia…Warner has withheld its catalogue to be put on MOSH Nokia’s social file sharing site. “We think we have done a lot to ensure that content owners' rights are not abused," Tuutti said. "We are hoping to reach agreement with Warner."
“There are still more than 2 million titles in the store," Tuutti said, adding that other major labels -- Universal Music Group, EMI and SonyBMG -- were involved, along with numerous independent labels.

With 6 million downloads already happening…the loss would be more for Warner than Nokia I guess

Nokia Engage delayed

2007-11-02T23:16:00.000+05:30

Nokia gamming phone engage which was supposed to be launched by November has been delayed by a month or so. The phone is expected to be launched by December now reports reuters.

"N-gage is coming in December. Software testing is taking a bit more time than what we had expected," Kari Tuutti said. "We are talking about a couple of weeks."

BIG plans from BIG

2007-10-28T18:39:00.001+05:30

The Anil Ambani led ADAG Groups enetertainment arm BIG has big plans on the digital front reports contentsutra.com. BIG Digital plans to offer music content on VAS, and set up an Interactive Voice Response System within the next three months says Archana Vohra, Director, Big Digital in an interview with radioandmusic.com. The company is looking at 3-4 more portals this year. Apart from the content that they already have access to (courtesy Adlabs and BIG FM), they have also planned offer radio online, shopping, blogging...the works. Expectedly, Vohra says that the company intends to use cross-media promotions to generate traffic - something which other media conglomerates like BCCL, Network18, NDTV and HT Media are already doing. More on BIGs plans here, at radioandmusic.com

Omnifone Launches Music Station in APAC

2007-10-28T18:38:00.000+05:30

This was broken earlier by radioandmusic.com.

Mobile music company Omnifone has rolled its award-winning unlimited music download service, MusicStation, in Asia-Pacific with Hutchison Telecommunications (Hong Kong) Limited's mobile operation 3 Hong Kong. 3 MusicStation will provide 3 Hong Kong's mobile users unlimited access, when subscribed, to a vast catalogue of music from all the major record labels like Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, EMI and Warner Music Group, as well as leading independents, on a range of new and existing handsets at an innovative price point of HK$12 per week. Is it going to be DRM free?

This is really major. Wonder when they would be launching such a service here in India? Although the price points are a bit steep for the Indian consumer, none the if such a service is launched in India at a decent price point…I am sure such a service will become a hit with the country’s youth. After all Are the Indian VAS players/music labels listning?

VAS sector hit by TRAI dictum

2007-10-28T18:37:00.002+05:30

Despite high monthly mobile subscriber additions, the VAS industry has actually shrunk in India, thanks to a TRAI order banning four digit short codes some time back. Now all short codes have to prefixed with 5.
Companies are reporting almost 50-70% drop in revenues and claim the order has hit them hard. According to the TRAI order, all short codes will now be pre-fixed with five and will be of five digits. It has meant that all users having old SIM cards are facing denial of services when they request for astro, news, sports, music, stock quotes, etc, through their pre-burnt short codes in the SIM cards.
All players in the chain — content providers, aggregators, developers and mobile operators are affected. “Even the government is losing revenues as it levies a service tax on each SMS sent of about 12.5%. It has taken the industry back by at least 6-12 months depending on company to company,”

RCOM prepeares to launch GSM services

2007-10-25T19:45:00.000+05:30

That RCOM was planning to launch GSM operation in the country is no secret.
It has prepared a plan to roll out its GSM services in over 100 cities and towns within six months of the government providing it spectrum (radio frequencies that enable wireless communications). This will be part of the first phase of its pan-India GSM services launch. Sources said a launch of GSM services in all 15 circles would be completed in around 12 months.The company is also expected to offer dual-chip phones that will operate both on its CDMA and GSM networks.

TATA telecom arm Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) & TATA Teleservices Maharashtra Ltd(TTML) is believed to have applied for licence to operate GSM networks

Mobile money transfer- VISA Power

2007-10-25T19:44:00.000+05:30

Visa is extending Visa Money Transfer service, which is currently available to Visa cardholders in India from 15 banks through branches, ATMs and the internet, to an initial 500,000 Visa cardholders. Visa is partnering with three of India’s leading banks – Corporation Bank, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank – and banking technology company mChek to launch this service.
“While India is the leading recipient of international remittances in the world, there is need for domestic remittance services as well, as Indians also send money to family and friends who live in other parts of the country. The extension of Visa Money Transfer to mobile phones provides a convenient means for Indians to remit funds.”
In order to use the service, you need to download the client from mChek, and the bank will issue a companion debit card. You can use the debit card to send money to anyone with a mobile/visa card

Onmobile to launch mobile advertising platform

2007-10-25T19:43:00.000+05:30

Pluggd.in reports that onmobile is planning to launch mobile advertising platform in India. Expected to be launched in about 6 months. The program would be similar to search giant Google.com mobile adsense program. Google launched the service recently.Also other Value Added Services (VAS) players in India are planning to launch similar products in the recent future.What remain to be seen if domestic players would be able to take on the likes of Google and Yahoo! In their on backyard

Google to introduce G-PAY?

2007-10-22T13:03:00.000+05:30

There are so many rumors that keep surfacing on Google. Latest is that google has filed for patient for m-commerce solution which envisages a payment gateway/mechanism on the mobile which enable one to buy/sell.
While this space has quite a few players in India like Paymate and such …. Entry of a big guy like Google will surely change the landscape. First filed in February of 2006, patent application number 20070203836 was published late last week. "The payment process may occur through the simple composition by the payor of a text message," such as a short message service (SMS), the application stated, with payee identification and payment amount then sent to a payment processing system" for debiting, crediting, or transferring funds

Google launches Adsense for Mobile

2007-10-22T13:02:00.000+05:30

Mobile Tech today reports that Google made a major move into the mobile advertising world on Monday with a new program -- AdSense for Mobile. The search king is banking on mobile devices becoming increasingly popular. Even now, there are more mobile devices worldwide than PCs and TVs combined.
AdSense for Mobile is Google's self-proclaimed effort to develop new ways for users to find the information they need anytime and anywhere, but the underpinning is advertising. The program contextually targets ads to mobile Web site content. As its name suggests, the program aims to give AdSense publishing partners more opportunities to earn revenue through the targeted placement of mobile text ads.
"With this program, advertisers can connect with the growing number of mobile publishers, ultimately providing users with an enhanced mobile experience that helps them find what they are looking for more quickly and efficiently on the go," Google said in a published statement.
Marketing in a Mobile World
AdSense for Mobile is not just for any advertiser. The new program aims at AdSense partners who have created Web sites specifically for mobile browsers and who want to monetize their mobile content via contextual advertising. That's a smaller percentage of Web sites today, but a number that promises to grow in the future.
Like Google's other AdSense products, mobile text ads run on an auction model. The system automatically reviews the content of publishers' mobile Web sites and delivers text ads that are relevant to the Web sites' audience and content. Publishers earn money whenever mobile users click on the ads. "Cell phones are the most personal of personal technology and carried by individuals everywhere, which makes them an almost ideal medium for targeted ads," said Avi Greengart, a mobile devices analyst at Current Analysis. "However, at the same time, that could also lead to a backlash. You don't necessarily want your device overrun with ads."

AdSense Opportunities Abound

The potential opportunities for Google in the mobile market are clearly vast. Frost & Sullivan figures the
mobile advertising market in the U.S. alone will generate $2.12 billion in revenue by 2011 compared to $301 million in 2006. The Shoesteck Group estimates $10 billion globally by 2010, while EJL Wireless Research pegs the worldwide mobile advertising market at $9.5 billion by 2011.
Google already has signed pacts to get its search software on mobile handsets, but the AdSense for Mobile program is more of a direct push into the mobile advertising market. The question now is whether Google will spend billions of dollars in the upcoming action for wireless spectrum or even develop its own handset.
"In some markets, particularly emerging markets, the phone -- not the computer -- is where you get your data. So this move takes a long-term view," Greengart said. "Google definitely sees the mobile market as a supplement or maybe even a potential successor to the wired Internet." AdSense for Mobile will be available in the United States, England, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Russia, Netherlands, Australia, India, China, and Japan.

New Device from Nokia to take on I-Phone?

2007-10-22T12:55:00.000+05:30

Amid rumors of an upcoming Apple tablet-like device, Nokia released its N810 Internet Tablet. The product, which the Finland-based company described as "a new phase" in portable Internet communication, can communicate through a Wi-Fi hotspot.
The N810, which updates the earlier Nokia N800 and N770 and is scheduled to launch next month, "packs the power of a traditional computer into a pocket-sized format," said Nokia Vice President Ari Virtanen.

For the Web 2.0
With the N810, the mobile user can make VOIP calls, go on the Web for e-mailing or playing videos, or use the integrated VGA camera. "You may feel lost without it," Nokia said in its announcement, "but you'll never lose your way," thanks to built-in maps and GPS navigation. If the user prefers to keep both eyes on the road, the N810 can be upgraded to use Wayfinder's voice-guided navigation.
Nokia chose the location of the announcement -- in San Francisco as the Web 2.0 Summit is opening -- for a reason. The targeted user is an inveterate Web 2.0 fan, looking to use Skype, Facebook, and other social-networking tools wherever they roam, typing away on the slide-out Qwerty keyboard. The price of this mobile sociability device is an estimated $479. In India I guess the cost would work out to Rs.19000-Rs 20000.
Of course, the N810 wouldn't be a very welcome companion if it didn't come with lots of party media. It can carry up to 45 hours of music on an optional 10-GB memory card, and offers a 800 x 480 screen for watching missed episodes of Heroes.

Some observers see an obvious resemblance to Apple's new iPod Touch, but Nokia is positioning the N810 as a more open platform. It runs the maemo Linux-based operating system, has a customizable user interface, and comes with Adobe Flash 9 installed on its Mozilla-based browser. Nokia said it is launching maemo platform support for developers. And owners of the previous N800 can upgrade to the current OS2008 version of maemo

OnMobile prepares for IPO

2007-10-18T20:36:00.000+05:30

After hearing about OnMobile’s plan for filing for IPO for sometime, they have at last taken the first step.

The company currently has 271 existing shareholders, excluding those with stock options. Lots of details about the company’s shareholding, financials and acquisitions in the DRHP, which you can download here

Some important high lights

Earnings before Interests and Tax: Rs. 510.38(million)
OnMobile’s net revenue for the fiscal 2007 was Rs. 1,329.7 million, up at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 80.2 percent from 826.2 million in the 2004-05.
Profit after tax was Rs. 337.2 million in 2006-07, up from Rs. 140.2 million in 2005 at a CAGR of 55.1 percent.
90 percent of 2006-07 revenue was from revenue sharing agreements with carriers. With a customer base of over 50, 81 percent of revenue is from its top five customers.
Most customer contracts are non-exclusive, of between two to five years. Licensing agreements with content providers are mostly for one year, and need to be renegotiated. Over 40 percent of revenue is from music, mostly CRBT) application based.
Net worth of OnMobile was Rs. 2,026.78 million as of March 31, 2007.

Key management Personnel & with significant equity held in the company:
Directors
Arvind Rao(CEO):10.95%
Chandramouli Janakiraman(CTO): 4.58%
Rajiv Kuchal(COO):0.12%
Rajeesh Moorti(CFO):0.08%
Amit Kumar Dey(Head International Business Development): 0.96%
Pratapa P Bernard(Head Marketing & Production): 0.86%
Sandhya Gupta(Head M&A): 0.18%
Rajeesh MV(SBU Head Media): 0.07%
Sidharth Sharma(SBU Head-PSU):0.07%
Sandeep Ganguly(SBU head – Private Operators): 0.08%

I-Phone not green after all?

2007-10-18T20:35:00.000+05:30

A research report released by Green Peace claims that the, I-Phone far from begin green is full of hazardous materials which go into the making of an I-Phone.

Steve Jobs has missed the call on making the iPhone his first step towards greening Apple's products," said Zeina Alhajj, Greenpeace International toxic campaigner. "It seems that Apple is far from leading the way for a green electronics industry as competitors, like Nokia, already sell mobile phones free of PVC".Dr. David Santillo, Senior Scientist at the Greenpeace Research Laboratories, commented, "Two of the phthalate plasticisers found at high levels in the headphone cable are classified in Europe as 'toxic to reproduction, category 2' because of their long-recognized ability to interfere with sexual development in mammals. While they are not prohibited in mobile phones, these phthalates are banned from use in all toys or childcare articles sold in Europe. Apple should eliminate the use of these chemicals from its products range."

Infact the report actually praises I-Phones competitor Motorola, Nokia, Sony Ericcson as begin environmentally more sensitive than Apple.

While Nokia is totally PVC free, Motorola and Sony Ericsson have already products on the market with BFR free components. Apple's competitors have also identified extra toxic chemicals they intend to remove in the future - beyond current minimum legal requirements.Nokia and Sony Ericsson have a global take-back policy for their phones and accept responsibility for reuse and recycling of phones they manufacture. That saves resources and helps prevent old phones from adding to the mountain of e-waste that has been dumped in Asia.Apple does not have a global free take-back policy so the eventual fate of the between four and 10 million iPhones expected to be sold in its first year is uncertain.With next month's European launch of the iPhone, Apple should sell a version which is at least as green as the offerings from Sony Ericsson, Nokia and Motorola.Only then can loyal fans of Steve Jobs believe that his promises of a greener Apple will bear any fruit. Right now Steve appears to have any green product news 'on hold'.The full report, "Missed call: the iPhone's hazardous chemicals"

Exclusivity and Control

2007-10-15T19:19:00.000+05:30

People this is really a good read in you want to understand the exconimic of the content industry..Below is the extract....check it out

Andrei Hagiuy Robin S. Leez
THIS DRAFT: August 26, 2007
Abstract
We analyze platform competition for content in the presence of strategic
interactions between content distributors and content providers. We provide a
model of bargaining and price competition within these industries, and show
that whether or not a piece of content ends up exclusive to one platform depends
crucially on whether or not the content provider maintains control over the
pricing of its own good. If the content provider sells its content outright and
relinquishes control over its price, the content will tend to be exclusive unless
there are su±cient market expansion e®ects. On the other hand, if the content
provider maintains control of its pricing, the strategic interaction between prices
set by the content provider and by the platforms leads to a non-monotonic
relationship between exclusivity and content quality: both high and low quality
content will multihome and join both platforms, but there will be a range of
content that will maintain exclusivity despite foreclosing itself from selling to a
portion of the market. In addition, we show that contrary to standard results on
double marginalization and pricing of complementary goods, a platform who
already has exclusive access to content may prefer to relinquish control over
pricing of that content and the associated revenues to the content provider as
a result of the incentive to reduce price competition at the platform level. The full working paper is available here http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/08-009.pdf

5GOOG- SMS search on Google India.

2007-10-15T19:10:00.003+05:30

An important pice of development missed out by me. Google has launched SMS based search services in India. Keeping in mind the low PC penetration in India it has rightly concluded that SMS is the way to go. Services on offer include Local Search, Weather, Glossary, Movies, Q&A, Translation, Web Snippets, Calculator and Currency Conversion. Google is using the short code 54664 (5GOOG), and is currently offering local information for Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. SMS is priced at premium rates, and it is currently limited to five operators - Aircel, Airtel, BPL, BSNL, Reliance; no Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) yet. And no Tata Indicom either.

BSNL Lunches mobile TV in Eastern India

2007-10-15T19:10:00.001+05:30

Update come from Contentsutra.com
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), a public sector telco, has launched mobile TV streaming services in Eastern India. BSNL is offering NDTV, CNBC, Aaj Tak, Times Now, Zoom, Bindass, ETC, TV9 etc, and intends to increase its content portfolio to cover 32 TV channels by 2007 end. [via Hindu] They’re initially offering the service for free, though pricing plans have not been detailed. Also, there’s nothing on the quality of the video - and how many frames per second are available on mobile. The service is only available on Nokia (NYSE: NOK) handsets initially, and will be extended to Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) and Motorola (NYSE: MOT) handsets. Idea cellular also has a video streaming service called Idea TV.

One needs to check out the quality of the streaming. Keeping the network constraints in mind I doubt if the video quality would be very high.

Google Launching Youtube in India?

2007-10-15T19:09:00.000+05:30

All the tech site are hot with this news….Google plans to launch desi version of youtube.com. Reported by Hindustan Times …“We plan to launch YouTube India anytime between January and March 2008,” said Shashi Seth, head of monetisation at the San Bruno, California-based YouTube. He spoke exclusively to Hindustan Times during his visit to India earlier this week. The question is how will rest of the me-to desi videos site will survive if Google were indeed to launch something like this. Looks like Indian video sharing site like meravideo.com, Apnatube.com, videodubba.com etc will have tough time …in times to come

Nokia content tie ups in India for their OVI vision

2007-10-03T18:25:00.003+05:30

Contentsutra reports that Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has announced new content partnerships for its on-device NSeries Video Centre, including one with Indian media company GBN for IBN News. Other partnerships announced include CNN, Jamba, Sony (NYSE: SNE) Pictures, RooftopComedy, ROK (LSE: ROK) and Versaly Entertainment. Nokia already has partnerships with Reuters (NSDQ: RTRSY) and YouTube. IBN News will available only in the Asia-Pac region. [via release].
IBN News is available free via Video Center, while the download section has paid content from Mauj, Indiagames, Zee (ISee) and Hungama Mobile:
-- IBN News: Accessible via Video Center, IBN News first has to be installed from among other video services mentioned above. The content is free and the video clips are downloaded. Too slow for me on Airtel GPRS (EDGE, actually) - and the download didn’t go beyond 2 percent and I eventually canceled. -- Mauj - Accessible via Downloads. Content available includes games, wallpapers, ringtones, phone tools, and some free content. -- Indiagames: content includes Cricket 20 20, Top Ten Games, Bikini Special, Sizzling Babes, Transformers, Harry Potter and 3D games...essentially - games, animation, videos and wallpapers. -- Hungama Mobile: Bollywood based ringtones, wallpapers, themes, animations -- Zee - has put up content from it’s mobile catalog ISee, which is already available with MTNL and Idea. Content includes ringtones, wallpapers, audio and video content related to Bollywood, Adventure, Cooking etc

BSNL to undertake Umbrella branding

2007-10-03T18:25:00.001+05:30

BSNL has recently announced that it would put its under one umbrella brand. Thus DataOne will be rebranded as BSNL Broadband, SkyOne as BSNL VSAT, CellOne (post-paid mobile) and Excel (Prepaid mobile) as BSNL Mobile, Tarang (WLL) as BSNL WLL, bfone as BSNL landline and SancharNet as BSNL Internet. The idea, says a spokesperson, is to not confuse customers with multiple brands. Also it brings the cost and also increases the sysnergy between the brands. Its seems the common sense of Mr. Kuldeep Goyal has started flowing into the organization…

Trai Again

2007-10-03T18:24:00.001+05:30

Ever since Trai had announced that closing of the application dates for the applying for telecom liceses there has been a virtual stampede to file the application in time. Today was the last date for filing up the applications. Among the biggies who have applied is AT& T along with Tech Mahindra as JV partner, also in the raise is the Hinduja TMT Group. Off course applying for license and actual allocation of the spectrum are two different stories altogather…..But me thinks Trai should first try to weed out the non serious players from the serious players

Bharti among top 10 operators in the world

2007-10-03T18:23:00.000+05:30

Well interesting things are happening in Indian telecom market. But first Kudos to Bharti Enterprises. The company has broken into the world top 10 telecom company and is also one of the fastest growing telecom groups in world with a present total subscriber base of 50 mn in a single country. That’s neat Mr. Mittal kudos to you and your team. You inspire us!!!!

G-PHONE Is it for Real?

2007-09-30T19:35:00.001+05:30

Google has not uttered a single word on this issue. However, even as Apple slashed the price of its iphone by $200, the buzz around the Google phone or Gphone, as it is better known, is getting stronger.If it is indeed a phone, it will essentially envisage a paradigm shift for the search giant — from software to hardware. But if it’s a mobile operating system (OS) or an Internet browser, as some speculate, it would still involve a whole new business model.The phone, it is rumoured, will support Wi-Fi, 3G, voice over Internet protocol (VOIP), MP3 and global positioning system (GPS), besides sporting a good camera and video lens, and finally a big screen.The OS (the buzz gained ground since Google acquired a startup named Android), on the other hand, is expected to enable Google launch low-priced smartphones.Do the write-ups border on the ridiculous or is there some foundation for the buzz? A post on searchengineland.com has compiled the rumours that appeared since 2004 as a timeline which the author promises to continue updating.For instance, in December 2004, Google Vice-President Urs Hoelzle spoke of mobile growth being stifled because “every device is different”, prompting rumours that Google would look at making its own phone.In January 2006, it was rumoured that Google got a CDMA patent to make CDMA data transfers happen at a faster speed. And in November 2006, Google CEO Eric Schmidt told Reuters that “Your mobile phone should be free” with ads subsidising the cost.Then there was the buzz of Google making the phone with O2, partnering with LG, buying radio spectrum to provide new services, and finally getting the phone off the ground with HTC.Even as this was happening, the buzz revolved around Google focusing on applications for various phone systems as well as its own mobile phone operating system, while other rumours reiterated that the Gphone will use Linux and GPS.Google has also filed a patent for a mobile payment processing system, GPay, again fuelling the rumours. And, according to analysts, Google used YouTube (which they acquired last year for $1.6 billion) for trials of an ad-revenue supported mobile service.This only added sparks to the Gphone buzz. Around 99 per cent of Google’s revenue came from advertising in financial year 2006-07. The remaining 1 per cent came from licensing and other revenues. The wireless arena is an obvious way to go for Google, given that it lags Yahoo and Microsoft in this space.However, there are quite a few unanswered questions. First, the Gphone trademark is not owned by Google, and neither is the URL (gphone.com). Second, Google CEO Eric Schmidt is on the Apple board. And Google has been collaborating with Apple in providing applications for the iphone. Why would it harm Apple’s interests?The answers should unfold in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, the clear winner is Google, having managed to keep the mystery alive for almost 3 years and get free online and offline publicity.It can be called phantom marketing — the ability to make the word-of-mouth marketing work for it without having a product. Considering that most journalists and bloggers have been writing reams about it, the whole issue has achieved more credibility. One can only wait and watch

Jagran launches consumer shopping division, J9 Shop

2007-09-30T19:32:00.001+05:30

J9, the enterprise division of Jagran Prakashan, has launched J9 Shop, a voice and SMS-based shopping service. There are plans to roll out an online site, too

Mobile congestion level gets better

2007-09-30T19:31:00.002+05:30

The point of interconnection congestion report analysis for the month of April 2007 to June 2007 shows that the performance of the cellular operators with respect to the congestion has improved a little in the month of June, as compared with the performance in March. The number of points of interconnection having congestion has decreased from 499 in March to 457 in June.TRAI cites improved interconnection among operators as reason

MagicBricks Launches GPRS App For Real Estate Search Via Mobile

2007-09-30T19:31:00.001+05:30

Times Group’s real estate portal MagicBricks.com has launched a GPRS based mobile application to allow users to search for real estate listings on the move. Users can also contact sellers by sms or phone via the application, which stores the history of contacts made

Indian Social Networking come of age

2007-09-30T19:30:00.002+05:30

BigAdda.com today touched the user base of half a million users. Officially launched just a month back on August 13, 2007, this is one of the first milestones for BigAdda. It is the first Indian youth networking site with all forms of expressions under one hat. BigAdda is targeting a user base of 10 million customers by 2010 and this is a significant step in that direction. They plan to launch various new initiatives in the near future.
Speaking on acquiring these numbers and about the entire networking industry, Rajesh Sawhney, President, Reliance Entertainment said, “Getting a user base of half a million users in a short time is an achievement for BigAdda. According to the 2007 NASSCOM Report, it is estimated that by 2010 there will be 20 million Broadband subscribers, up from 1 million and 100 million Internet users, as compared to 40 million today. These numbers are going to go up and the curve will only get steeper.”
“Also, the number of internet users has witnessed an upswing, and so has their need to socialize online and gain acceptance in the virtual world. There is a growth of 240% in the number of unique visitors per month for youth networking websites. Virtual hang out plays a key role, because it gives them the space to be amongst friends and peers, while sharing an image of their own, which they would like to project. BigAdda.com aims to evolve a youth community, inclusive and inspirational and create a youth culture that will be cool and inspirational for them.” he added.Siddhartha Roy, Chief Operating Officer, BigAdda says, “Our unique feature of icons as the community drivers and their active participation on the portal, our security features are few of the factors that have helped us touch this substantial number. Music, Fashion, Movies, Sports and Photography are a passion for all segments and age groups. The idea was to create a platform to encourage user interactivity with these youth icons and going forward, we hope to build this association with our users.''