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Developers offered Free Blackberry Playbook to convert Android Apps to BB apps!

Arun Prabhudesai — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:47:27 +0000

Here is a golden chance for Indian mobile developers to lap up a shiny new 16 GB BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet. We are slightly late in reporting this as there are only 4 more days to go, but I guess it is still worth all the effort!

Alec Saunders, Blackberry’s Vice President of Developer Relations made the announcement about this initiative a few days back on Twitter.

To qualify, developers have to simply repackage an Android APK into a PlayBook BAR (Blackberry App) and submit it to Blackberry App world. The submission of the repackaged app should be done by February 13th for it to be eligible for the offer. Also, applications need to meet the standard BlackBerry App World Vendor Guidelines. Its that simple!

Some important things that developers will have to keep in mind:

Developers will have to remove all mention of the word Android from their app, in the application description and in the app itself, before submitting your app to BlackBerry App World
Developers will Remove all links to the Android Market from within the submitted app.
The app should be built with minimum of OS 2.0 compatibility.
Ensure your app is signed. Learn about code signing.

Check out the FAQS, Terms & conditions and other details about “Free BlackBerry PlayBook 2012 offer!”

Smartphone Market grows 61% in 2011 [Market Share Stats]

guest — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:12:54 +0000

IDC recently released stats on Worldwide Smartphone market and its growth has beaten analysts expectations as well. According to the the IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, Smartphone manufacturers shipped 157.8 million units in 4Q11 compared to 102.0 million units in the fourth quarter of 2010. The YoY growth of 54.7% was higher than the 49.2% growth registered in 3Q11.

Top Five Worldwide Smartphone Vendors Market in 2011

Vendor	FY 2011 Shipment Volumes	FY 2011 Market Share	FY 2010 Shipment Volumes	FY 2010 Market Share	Year Over Year Change
Samsung	94.0	19.1%	22.9	7.5%	310.5%
Apple	93.2	19.0%	47.5	15.6%	96.2%
Nokia	77.3	15.7%	100.1	32.9%	-22.8%
Research In Motion	51.1	10.4%	48.8	16.0%	4.7%
HTC	43.5	8.9%	21.7	7.1%	100.5%
Others	132.3	26.9%	63.7	20.9%	107.7%
Total	491.4	100.0%	304.7	100.0%	61.3%

The total smartphone shipment volumes reached 491.4 million units in 2011, a whopping increase over 304.7 million units in 2010. However, in percentage basis, the growth was lower in 2011 (61.3%) as compared to 2010 (75.7%). IDC report also states that by December 2011, one out of every three mobiles phones shipped worldwide was a smartphone.

Top Five Worldwide Smartphone Vendors Market Share Changes

Apple:

Apple regained its market leader position by launching iPhone 4S worldwide. It also reached a new shipment volume record for itself and for the entire industry for a single quarter. The holiday season, delay in the product launch from 3Q to 4Q and the addition of multiple mobile operators has helped Apple achieve this record. The much hyped 4S has left few Apple fanboy’s disappointed as it lacked 4G LTE connectivity or a different size screen.

Samsung:

Samsung too had its share of milestones. It broke the 30 million units mark for the first time and also posted the largest year-over-year increase of the top lot (yeah true!! Who bothered about Samsung phones couple of years back ;)). Samsung also has concentrated on expanding in all kinds of market with Galaxy S2, Galaxy Nexus in the high end sector, Galaxy Ace and galaxy Y in the mass market. The biggest achievement for Samsung though was that it managed to marginally beat Apple in terms of number of units shipped!

Nokia

This is something which Nokia wouldn’t be proud of – Nokia posted the largest year-over-year decrease amongst the top manufacturers. But, Nokia has been in news again for good reasons due to the release of first set of windows smartphones – Lumia 710 and the Lumia 800. Nokia claims that it shipped over a million units’ in its debut quarter. However, the Symbian phones are losing their charm and Nokia could stop shipping these Symbian’s soon.

Blackberry

2011 has been a mixed bag of results for RIM (Blackberry). Firstly, the good things – The new BB OS 7-powered BlackBerry phones reached new markets. And then the not so good things – the global network outage in October (I almost died laughing at few of the jokes on BB!). Also the news that the first BB 10-powered smartphones will arrive only by the end of year 2012 has left the BB fans disappointed.

HTC

HTC has timed its releases quite well and it has been releasing the smartphones from time to time. It not only relied on Android smartphones but also released Windows Phone’s like Titan and Radar models. This strategy of HTC catered to both the mobile operators as well as the customers quite a well. However, when compared to the last quarter, HTC has shipped less number of phones.

[Source]

[This post has been written by Srikanth of PriceShred.com – An online marketplace to buy or sell second hand mobile in India.]

Android apps for Indian Entrepreneurs & Small businesses!

Kaushambi — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 11:44:06 +0000

There are more than a thousand great productivity apps available for smartphones, some Android ones which we have covered previously but this post is going to be of particular interest because we’re going to talk about great Android apps that may be mighty useful for Indian Entrepreneurs. Mind you, the utility of these apps can be extended to other Indian business persons too. The only reason that Indian entrepreneurs would be particularly interested is because they are always on the lookout for cutting costs and finding easier ways to manage their business.

Multi Courier Tracker

Are you running a home office and are breaking your head over tracking multiple couriers? Do you own a factory and have no spare monies to hire someone who could track office parcels and administrative communication in post? Then MCT is your savior. This app allows you to track multiple couriers in India with ease. Currently, they support six popular courier services such as Aramex, Blue Dart, First Flight, Professional, DTDC and TNT. The app makers claim that entrepreneurs and individual sellers who buy and sell a lot over Ebay, Flipkart and other Indian portals will find it very useful. This app awaits more number of downloads and reviews, but the concept is sure worth a shot.

Download Now

India Business Resource

“India Business Resource” is a Free app that consists of several important business tools in one package. It has financial calculators that compute income tax, EMIs on loan amount and property rates, and informative guide about ATM / Bank Branches, MCD circle rates of different Colonies in Delhi and Business News in India. The app also allows designing your custom visiting cards. This recently launched application by MapsofIndia is sort of a Swiss-knife for all your business needs!

Download Now

VAT Calculator

For those Indian entrepreneurs who have just started out in the commodities and services business and don’t have elaborate account departments to produce before and after VAT figures for them, the VAT Calculator can come to heed. Currently, this app works with VAT rates of European countries and India and you can also update your app to 2012 VAT rate figures. The calculated VAT figures will be displayed in rounded and two decimal values. This app sports a high download figure and a good user rating.

Download Now

inStocks BSE/NSE Stock Markets

This app claims to be the most download, comprehensive and highest rated app on the Indian stock market on Android. As an entrepreneur or a business person, even if you are not into trading yourself, keeping a tab on the movements in the domestic and international financial markets becomes imperative. From BSE and NSE Stock Markets Live, business news, stock tips, the Nifty, the Sensex, equity and NSE futures and options, BSE and NSE intraday charts to stock quotes of Indian companies, this app will allow you to stay on top of the bulls and bears.

There’s also a similar app called Moneycontrol Markets on Mobile for Indian stocks, but the user reviews for this app shout out many problems in its interface and loading. On the other hand, inStocks has garnered some great user reviews.

Download Now

City Navigators

If you are a business person whizzing from one metro of India to the other or are doing business with people of other cities, a few useful apps such as the Meru Cab app, the Delhi Metro Navigator app and the Meter Down app that we’ve featured before, will be very useful in terms of handy information and cost cutting. Are you a Mumbaikar attending a meeting in Bangalore? Get all the information including fares, parking fee info and an offline route map through the Bangalore Metro Navigator. Do you have to entertain international guests from the hotel to the airport in Hyderabad? Book a Meru cab for them. Indian entrepreneurs and business people have to make money by saving time too, right?

Let us know if you know of any apps that are mighty useful to Indian Entrepreneurs as well!

Naukri.com launches Android, iPhone & BB Apps – Introduces HTML 5 site

Arun Prabhudesai — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:48:45 +0000

Naukri has finally launched dedicated mobile apps for its Job search engine. Being the biggest Job site in India, they should have come up with these apps earlier – However, its better late than never :). From the looks of the apps they have released, they have done a good job of it.

TimesJob was one of the first Indian job search engines to introduce their apps for iPhone and Android based smartphones, however, they have not been too popular. Even after close to 6 months of launch Timesjob Android app has not crossed 50k downloads, whereas iPhone has witnessed even lesser. Even the user ratings and reviews have not been that good.

We downloaded Naukri.com Android app on our phone and found it to be quite good. Even other users who downloaded the app have given excellent ratings. In less than 2 weeks since its launch, Naukri Android app has witnessed between 10k to 50k downloads and users have rated it 4.8 on 5!

As far as the features go, Naukri apps have all the standard features expected – The app allows job-seekers to filter job openings by location, keywords, functional area, experience bracket, and minimum expected salary.

App also allows users to create up to five custom job alerts based on defined search criteria. The alerts are directly sent to the users’ inbox three times a week. Users can also track the number of times a resume has been viewed by an employer, and the companies they have applied to earlier.

Apart from these smartphone apps, Naukri also has launched its own HTML 5 site, which allows users to search jobs from a mobile friendly interface, when using Naukri site from a mobile browser.

All in all, Naukri has launched decent apps and they surely should be popular with Indian job seekers. If you are looking for a job switch, download this app and let us know what you feel!

No related posts.

Indian Mobile Subscriber base reaches 893.84 Million [Dec 11]

Arun Prabhudesai — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:22:47 +0000

9.47 Million new mobile subscribers were added in December 2011 taking the total tally to 893.84 million as on December 2011. December also registered the highest growth rate since March last year. Past 6-8 months, there had been a constant slide in the Mobile subscriber growth rate.

Indian mobile subscriber addition since March 2011

Highlights of Telecom Subscription Data as on Dec 31st 2011

Total Telecom Subscribers in India stand at 926.53 million, with Mobile base at 893.84 & wire line base of 32.69 million
4.93 million Urban subscribers were added as compared to 4.54 mln from rural area.
Urban Teledensity reached 161 percent, while rural teledensity stands at 36.56.
3.4 Mln subscribers opted for Mobile Number Portability in December 2011 alone, taking the total tally to 29.24 Million.
Out of total 893.84 Mln subscribers, active subscriber tally stands at 646.77 Mln. This percentage has risen drastically to about 73 percent, which was around 55% an year back.

Telecom Operator Net Additions [December 2011]

Idea Cellular has been the biggest beneficiary of MNP, as it has been consistently adding over 20% of all subscribers additions in last few months. In December 2011, it added over quarter of all net additions (2.38 Million). Even Uninor has been doing quite well – It added 22% of all subscribers (2.12 Million) followed by Bharti (10.1%), Reliance (10.0%) and Vodafone (9.6%).

Tata had lost significant subscriber base last month, probably due to MNP and even this month it has managed to add only 1.1% of all subscribers.

Telecom Operator Market Share [December 2011]

Bharti still reigns supreme with 19.65% of total Indian Market Share, followed by Reliance (16.79%) and Vodafone (16.53%). Idea, thanks to its stellar performance is now 4th with 11.90% of total Indian Mobile Subscriber Market Share.

Broadband Subscriber Growth

Total Broadband subscriber base has increased from 13.13 million at the end of November 2011 to 13.30 million at the end of December 2011, there by showing a monthly growth of 1.30%. Yearly growth in broadband subscribers is 21.88% during the last one year (Dec 10 to Dec 11).

At the start of last year, I was quite sure that India will reach 1 Billion Telecom Subscriber base by end of the year, but it has fallen short by a very large margin. To be honest, I had not expected such a sudden slow-down in mobile subscriber growth. Given the situation now, I think it will probably be by end of next year that we should see that figure…

What do you think?

[Source: TRAI December report]

E-Tutor Tablet: A Rs. 7500 Cloud Based Tablet for students! [Image, Specs]

Arun Prabhudesai — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:49:36 +0000

Looks like we now have an elite cousin of Aakash coming up – It is called “E-Tutor Tablet”. Many mainstream media newspaper including Times wrote about it saying it was yet another Government initiative. However, this initiative is anything but Government’s…

The news also mentions that this “E-tutor tablet” is a joint effort of Technopark based e-tutor and Oztern Technology. We spoke to Saiju V. Stella, CEO of Oztern Technology – He mentioned that both these organizations are Private Limited companies with no affiliations to Government whatsoever.

It is really sad that papers like Times of India report news so irresponsibly. The title of the ToI news is “Govt launches ‘e-tutor tablet’ @ Rs 7,500” and the only Govt. connection it has to the tablet is that it was launched by Sam Pitroda who is an advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh!!

Coming back to E-Tutor tablet – according to information sent to us, E-Tutor comes with comprehensive curriculum based digital content that includes syllabus for CBSE, ISCE and State Board. They have curriculum specific 2D and 3D animated content, simulations, diagrams, and experiments that create a fun learning platform for K-12 kids.

Hardware Specifications of E-Tutor Tablet:

Processor: ARM Cortex A8, 1.2 GHz or Above
GPU support: Yes
RAM: 1 GB
Internal storage: 4 GB
External Storage: Up to 32 GB
Screen: 7 Inches capacitive touch, 800×480 pixels
WiFi: 802.11 b/g
3G: Support 3G using built-in/external dongle
Sensor: Accelerometer, 3D Gravity Sensor
Audio: Built-in stereo speakers and microphone
Video: 1080P HD, GPU accelerated
Battery: Good battery backup at least 3hrs operating, and 8 hours standby
Ports:

1 X High speed Mini USB 2.0OG
1 x USB
1 X mini HDMI
1 X 3.5 MM Audio Socket
1 X Power socket

Software Specifications of E-Tutor Tablet:

OS: Android 2.3.4 or above
Applications: Flash 11 preinstalled and working, android market, browser, Games
Video: support for AVI, RMVB, MKV, FLV, MP4, and 1080 HD formats etc.
Music: support for MP3, wav, APE, FLAC, AAC, AC3, etc.
Image browsing: BMP, JPG, TIF, PNG, GIF etc.
Documents: word, excel documents read support, PDF

The specs of tablet look good. It has a capacitive screen and 1.2 GHz processor with 1 GB Ram. I think for Rs. 7500/- this may surely be a good device for students.

Let us know what you think about this tablet.

Nokia grabs 19% market share of dual-SIM mobile phones in India

Viral Dholakia — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:12:13 +0000

Just when it seemed that Nokia and Blackberry handsets are dying a slow death in the Indian smartphone market; Finnish handset manufacturer Nokia has made a sweeping comeback to claim its edge over Indian brands, powered by its recent lead in dual-SIM mobile market, according to a latest Cyber Media research report.

Nokia, the world’s largest seller of mobile phones by volumes, had recently lost substantial market share in India to domestic phone makers such as Micromax, Lava and Maxx Mobile, which were riding on low-cost, dual-SIM mobile handsets sourced mainly from China.

The Finnish major had witnessed declining shipments mired by pressures from open sourced Android system of Google which recently overtook Symbian, competition from low-cost Indian brands and whole new range of multi-SIM phones that accounted for 54% of the total Indian mobile handset market during Nov 2011.

Finally, Nokia took corrective steps by joining the bandwagon of dual-SIM mobile phones by launching its first ever C1-00 and C2-00 phones in mid-2010. However, Nokia, a late entrant in the multi-SIM device category, fast tracked the process of consolidation by rolling out five models by Sept 2011, to make its presence felt in every price segment in India.

Surprisingly, Nokia has briskly crowded the smartphone market by launching seven phones in the dual-SIM category to grab 19% market share, in order to obstruct domestic brands, such as Micromax (7.1%) and Karbonn (6.9%), from making further inroads into the Finnish major’s Indian dreams.

Further elaborating on this while announcing Nokia Q3 results, Mr Stephen Elop of Nokia was quoted as, “Nokia shipped approximately 18 million dual SIM devices globally, and in markets such as India where dual SIM is pervasive, we gained market share.”

Further, the report indicates that the local brands were forced to increase prices of their products, hit by margin erosion from dearer imports of components from China and other Asian nations. Contrastingly, Nokia managed to cope with forex fluctuations as it sourced its requirements for the low-end handsets from the domestic market.

Mr Ajjay Agarwal, Chairman and MD, Maxx Group ascertained this by saying:

“The sharp depreciation of the rupee over the last couple of months has understandably had an impact on margins in the industry. Many players have had to increase their prices to protect margins. And, we at MAXX have selectively revised the prices of some models, post the festive season.”

Will Nokia succeed in creeping back to its glorious, unchallenged leadership in India?

5 incredibly useful iPhone apps for Indians!

Kaushambi — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:56:00 +0000

We’ve already covered 10 Indian Android apps earlier so now it’s time to offer something to Indian iPhone users. Here are 5 India centric iPhone apps that will arm you will all the necessary information you need while you’re in the country. But, one thing you have to keep in mind, unlike Android Apps, most of the good apps on iPhone are paid ones, though they are mostly at cost of just couple of dollars.

Sari

For all the women out there in India and abroad who want to drape a sari but are relying on their mothers, a distant Indian friend or a YouTube video, your very own sari assistant is here. Developed by Siddhartha Banerjee, this app was on No. 4 in the list of the Top Paid Apps of iTunes India in March 2011. As the name suggests, this app is a step by step tutorial of sari draping. The makers say that more regional and international styles of sari draping and its interpretations are going to be upgraded on this app very soon.

Buy Now – USD 1.99/-

iPooja

Wouldn’t it be great to conduct your daily pooja or get assistance regarding preparations of a pooja from your app in the case of unavailability of your priest? This app will arm you with high quality audio recording, step by step guidance to perform religious rites and ceremonies, information regarding the history of the pooja and the ‘Aarati’ with English text amongst many other features. The in-app iPooja store also allows you to load a variety of poojas in multiple languages.

Download Now – (App is free, but poojas come at a cost)

Meter Down

If you are a Mumbaikar and have an iPhone then you simply can’t do without this app and if you are not a Mumbaikar and have an iPhone, then there’s all the more reason for you to download both these apps so that you don’t get taken for a ride with the street smart autowallahs and taxiwallahs of Mumbai. This app will keep you abreast of the fluctuating fares of autos and taxis in Mumbai so that you don’t have to rely and bargain while you’re on the move. From the maker of the Sari app, which is also featured in this list, the Meter Down apps are clear winners because of their clean interface. Simply look at the numbers in the meter and look it up on your app for the updated fare. Midnight fares are included for the nocturnal travellers.

Download Meter Down for Auto / Download Meter Down for Taxi [Free]

SwarGanga

To satiate the music lover inside you, try out the SwarGanga iPhone app created by Adwait Joshi. Music students can now gladly forget about carrying bulky books and simply refer to this app that provides detailed information about Taals, Bandishes, Instruments, Artists, Raags, Thaats and Gharanas in addition to informative articles about North Indian Classical Music. This is a niche app which will be more useful to you than simply downloading an app through which you can stream and listen to classical music.

Buy Now [USD 2.99]

Navigon India

Though it comes at hefty price of USD 70, Navigon India has lots to offer. For those of you who are hardcore techie travelers, you can convert your iPhone into a mobile navigation system with spoken announcements, address entries, real road signs, speed assistant, pedestrian navigation, SOS help, live weather info and information about all places of interest en route amongst many other features. This app is currently available on most iPhone platforms – iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and the iPad (navigation only available on the iPad WiFi +3G).

Buy Now [USD 69.99]

[Note: These kind of lists are subjective, and you may feel that some other apps should have included, but we have looked at many different apps and come up with a list that we think are not known much to Indian audience and yet they are very useful. Let us know if you agree with us]

iElection : Costliest [Rs. 25k] Android app for Indian elections!

Sriram Vadlamani — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 04:22:08 +0000

An Android app is designed and developed to reduce voter’s woes during the Indian elections. iElection, the app, will find out the voter’s details like the polling station and ward based on the voter’s name and an SMS can be sent to the voter with those details.

This app will reduce the hassle around not finding a name in the polling booth, a top reason for people not voting. Sounds like a cool app idea, but there are two problems with the app.

iElection Android app costs Rs. 25000 to Rs. 30000 and it is for Android tablets only.

This could probably be the costliest Android app from India and probably costliest Android app ever. The app costs more than many Android tablets out there. The app is specifically targeted for the politician aides who would like gather every single vote they can get.

“Any candidate who buys iElection gets a login-id and password according to the party he/she belong to. It also comes with a database of voters in that candidate’s ward, which is acquired from the local municipal corporation and the election commission. After entering a voter’s name, his/her polling station, room number and poll booth number will reflect on the screen. The user can send the information by SMS to that voter with the click of a button after entering the voter’s mobile number,” (Indian Express)

Handing out the voter’s list to party candidates? Is that even legal?

The app isn’t available in the Android market which means not everybody with a credit card can get access to the app. Which is one good thing.

One of the funniest features of the apps is this:

Voter’s name and other details can be changed in the app. But they will not be reflected anywhere else.

One question: What good is that?

On the first reading, this app sure looks expensive. On a second thought though, what this app does is get the voter’s list in the municipalities and constituencies and made it searchable. I’m not sure if this is legal and not sure if the voter’s list can be handed out to anybody and everybody, but a lot of effort has gone into making the app.

Choosing Android and not iOS/iPad is an interesting choice for such an expensive app. Probably they spent their efforts on getting the data and skimped on development.

If this app was for iPad, it wouldn’t raise as many eyebrows.

Looking at the clientele this app wants to serve, Rs. 25000 looks like a chump change.

[This post has been reproduced from our sister blog - The Gadget Fan - for benefit of trak.in readers]