Airtel today announced significant reduction in their 3G data tariffs, much to the delight of Airtel subscribers. As per the press release sent to us Airtel has also launched additional data usage plans “Smartbytes” for postpaid 3G data subscribers.

With Smartbytes 3G data plan, Airtel subscribers now have a choice of subscribing to incremental 3G data usage packs. What this means is – even if a subscriber has exhausted its 3G data usage, they will be able to continue enjoying uninterrupted access to 3G browsing on their mobile devices. Even though there is no restriction on the usage. However, as usually is the case subscriber will not be able to carry forward the data and will have to consume the limit within the validity period.

Airtel 3G Data Tariff plans

Along with Smartbytes, Airtel has also launched “snacking” packs which will allow consumers to pick up a 3G plan for as low as Rs. 10/-. It is interesting to note that Airtel’s smallest 10 rupee pack does not have data limit, but a time limit of only 30 minutes. This will be popular with lot of users who essentially want to do things like checking email or downloading files or checking out a short clip of videos.

These data plans bring about a significant rate cut, as much as 70% for volume based browsing – Previously, 3G data tariff cost consumers 10p per 10 kb of data. That has been bought down to 3 paise per 10 kb (Roughly Rs. 3 for 1 mb of 3G data transfer).

The above data rates are applicable for pre-paid, post-paid as well as 3G dongles and will be effective from today (17th May 2012)

Like we have mentioned many times earlier – there are 2 main problems due to which 3G has not really taken off. One is higher pricing and second is bad infrastructure. While former is slowly getting addressed, it may be sometime before the Telecom providers are able to offer more optimized infrastructure for increase of 3G penetration in India.

Related posts:

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4. Airtel launches 4G in Bangalore

Smartphones are going through an interesting transition. While on one end of the spectrum, the principle of Better, Faster and Cheaper seem to be driving Smartphone innovation, on the other end however, smartphones seem to be suffering from problems of differentiation.

When all phones start having more or less the same Operating System, the same hardware specifications, what can smartphone manufacturers such as Samsung or Nokia do to stand out? Smartphones of 2012 may arrive with few extra “features”; some remarkable, some outlandish and some just makes you wonder: Are Smartphones turning to Gimmicks?

Nokia PureView 808

Nokia’s recent spurt of radical innovation has taken newspaper headlines by storm. With incredible amount of advertising being done for its Lumia range of phones and a spree of events happening all around the world, Nokia have clawed its way back into the minds and hearts of the people.

It wasn’t surprising then when Nokia launched the Nokia PureView 808 that seemed more like a Super mammoth Camera with a phone than a phone with a camera, that only a few souls in the world would miss out on the excitement.

One begs to wonder however, whether such a massive 41MP camera on a dying Operating system is really valid? Symbian Belle’ is no doubt a good operating system and can definitely cater to all the basic smartphone needs.

But as the world moves on to decide whether to move to Windows phones by Nokia or not, such a mammoth offering by Nokia may just lead consumers to be confused. The 41MP camera (phone) is a never before innovation in itself thanks to the Remarkable picture quality, mesmerizing video quality but is it wasted on a Symbian phone? For now, India gets to see the phone first before anyone sometime in the end of May.

Sony Xperia Sola

Sony Mobile communication has come out with the new line of Xperia phones under the Xperia NXT brand line. Sony’s Xperia S , Xperia P and Xperia U will attempt to woo the smartphone customers in the upper, mid and the lower mid-price range respectively. Xperia Sola however has gained the most attention among the consumers and gadget fans around the world mainly due to its Floating touch technology.

Floating Touch technology lets you highlight hyper-links on the web pages just by hovering your finger over the mobile phone screen. What would be interesting to note however, is whether the user really cares?

While Sony has promised a slew of self-developed applications to support this new technology innovation as well as open up for more developers to make their own applications. On the face of it, this technology is definitely appealing, but one wonders, why the remaining models of Xperia do not have the same feature?

Whether Xperia Sola will fly out of the shelves solely based on its Floating touch, considering its specifications are below that of Xperia S and Xperia P in terms of processor, screen size and camera is to be watched. For an average user however, the specifications of Sony Xperia S is more appealing than the Floating touch feature of Sony Xperia Sola.

Sony Xperia Sola is now available for a reasonable mid-range price of Rs 19999.

Samsung Galaxy Note

(Image: theverge.com)

The excitement over the “category killer” seems to have died down a bit. People seem to still prefer smaller phones or larger tablets than go for the “phablet”.

With Samsung delaying the release of Android 4 Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade for Samsung Galaxy Note, it is clear that Samsung Galaxy Note is not the future of Samsung’s mobile innovation. It begs the question then, is the world’s largest smartphone really a technological innovation or were we being shown just another gimmick gadget with moderate form factor innovation to stand out among a crowded array of smartphones?

Samsung Galaxy Note features a massive 5.4” AMOLED capacitive touch screen, which made the phone just too unwieldy as a phone. People would definitely admire the giant screen while you show off your favorite videos and photographs but may just feel a bit a bit ticklish as you proceed to answer an incoming call. The phone has proven all the form factor critics wrong by selling over 2 million units in 2011.

The phone is currently priced at Rs 29,700.

Samsung Galaxy Beam

Samsung has in store for the typical android fan, the ultimate show-off piece with the Samsung Galaxy Beam.

The phone features a 1 GHz dual core processor and running on Android 4 Ice Cream Sandwich. The phone features a 4” AMOLED capacitive touch screen. The most remarkable aspect of the phone isn’t however its brilliant specs, but the HD Projector mounted on the top of the phone. It is interesting to see a projector on a smartphone.

While it can be justified, stating of course how so many businessmen would prefer having their presentations ready to be transported via smartphone and displayed on the projection screen, or how we often find ourselves in company of large amount of friends and need a big enough screen to share those fun pictures or videos.

What is interesting however is if this is a technology that seems “innovative” enough? The projector quality has been stated as being top of the notch, in fact (see video below) even better than the regular run on the mill phones or projectors.

Whether Beam is accepted as a technological must have or whether it will be overlooked as another gimmick is to be seen when it will finally make its entry in Q3 2012.

Summary

Smartphone manufacturers continue to innovate and produce better hardware and software manufacturers work to make equally enthralling Apps. However, with continuous innovation on all ends and smaller product development life cycles, products are soon becoming irrelevant.

It isn’t surprising then that innovation takes a life of its own and companies come out with a few Gimmicks to keep customers interested. While a Giant screen phone, Floating touch or mini HD projector on the smartphone may seem appealing ideas one does still wonder if they would be the norm tomorrow or would they just be a fad.

What do you think about these Innovative models?

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4. Global Mobile Handset Market 2012: Mobile Sales Decline, Smartphones Surge

A study by IT research and advisory firm Gartner pointed out that global sales of mobile phones decreased 2% in Q1 2012 for the first time after a similar trend back in the Q2 2009. Leading mobile manufacturer Samsung topped mobile phone sales worldwide in the same period with a slightly higher market share than rival Nokia.

Of the total worldwide mobile sales in Q1 2012, at least 40% of the market share was captured by Samsung (20.7%) and Nokia (19.8%).

That’s good news for Samsung because it signifies a spike of 28% in mobile handsets sales in Q1 2012 (8.65 crore handsets) as compared to the first 4 months of 2011 (6.87 crore handsets). On the other hand Nokia witnessed about a 21% drop in its sales for the same time period, selling 8.31 crore handsets in Q1 2012 as compared to 10.75 crore in Q1 2011.

Worldwide Mobile Device Sales [1st Qtr 2012]

Apple has reason to smile because its market share went from 3.9% in Q1 2011 to 7.9% in Q1 2012. It sold more than 3.31 crore mobile phones in that period this year as compared to 1.68 crore last year. Obviously the baseless assumptions by many who believed that Apple would plummet without Steve Jobs’ presence have been proved wrong. And with the whole world eagerly awaiting the launch of iPhone 5, Apple’s footprint is set to grow.

In terms of total worldwide sales and market share, the leaders Samsung, Nokia and Apple were followed by ZTE, LG, Huawei Device, Research in Motion, Motorola, Sony Mobile Communication, HTC and other smaller mobile companies.

Interestingly, market share of South Korean mobile giant LG dropped 37% with sales of 2.39 crore handsets in Q1 2011 vs. 1.47 crore in Q1 2012. On the other hand, Chinese manufacturer Huawei Device saw a growth of nearly 63% in market share with sales soaring from about 70 lakh handsets in Q1 2011 to 1.08 crore in Q1 2012.

Motorola, the company which invented mobile phones had a tiny market share of 2% of total mobile phone sales worldwide. It sold about 83.6 lakh handsets in Q1 2012 as compared to 87.8 lakh in the same period in 2011.

Worldwide Smartphone Sales [1st Qtr 2012]

Contrary to overall mobile phone sales worldwide, the smartphone segment witnessed a solid surge of 44.7% as compared to Q1 2011. Sales of Android based phones saw a jump of 122% from 3.6 crore handsets in Q1 2011 to 8.1 crore in Q1 2012.

Retaining number one spot and with a 56% market share, Android phones amounted to more than half of smartphone sales worldwide.

iOS based smartphones manufactured by Apple also saw a steep rise in sales of nearly 96%. 3.3 crore handsets were sold in Q1 2012 overshadowing a figure of 1.6 crore in Q1 2011. This brings Apple to a commanding 2^nd place in overall market share (22.9%) in worldwide sales of smartphones in Q1 2012. Apple and Samsung have a solid grip over the global smartphone market with a combined market share of 49.3%.

Almost all other smartphone platforms witnessed a decline in market share and total sales for Q1 2012 as compared to Q1 2011.

Sales of Symbian based phones slumped 54% from 2.7 crore in Q1 2011 to 1.2 crore in Q1 2012. This platform also lost its previously held 2^nd place in market share to iOS. In Q1 2011, 27.7% of all smartphone sales worldwide were those based on a Symbian platform. In Q1 2012, they make up only 8.6% of global smartphone sales.

Key Mobile phone Device Trends

• While the decline in overall sales is not the best of signs, it may very well indicate that users are slowly shifting from traditional handsets to smartphones. Total mobile phone sales decline 2% but smartphone sales meteorically rise 44.7%.
• Samsung beats Nokia to grab top market share in total mobile phone sales in the world in Q1 2012 as compared to Q1 2011. 20.7% of all mobile phone sales are attributable to Samsung.
• Figures for Apple expand as sales and market share grow 96% and 102% respectively. Apple sells 7.9% of the world’s mobile phones. A successful launch of the much awaited iPhone 5 could see Apple dominating the smartphone market.
• China based manufacturer Huawei Device’s mobile handset global sales increase 54% although its current market share only 2.6% worldwide. Founded in 1987, Huawei Device has expanded its footprint to 140 countries and has R&D centres in 20 countries.

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4. Global Smartphone OS Market: Android accounts for over half of it!

Mobile Banking has really caught up in India – according to recently conducted survey by ACI Worldwide, 76% of Indian mobile respondents used their mobiles for banking in last 6 months. This percentage is highest across the world.

Comparatively, only 38% respondents from US, and 31% from UK used mobile banking in last 6 months. China, came in after India with 70% users using mobile banking followed by South Africa (61%). The global average for Mobile Banking adoption rate stands at 35%.

Source: Aite Group; ACI Worldwide study of 4,200 consumers in 14 countries, Q1 2012

Mobile Payment Usage

India comes in 2nd in terms of making payments on mobile. 64% of the survey respondents from India used their mobile phones to make payment atleast once in last 6 months, while Chinese led the pack with 66%. Surprisingly, only 30% of US respondents & 23% of UK respondents have made payments on mobile in last 6 months.

Importance of Mobile Payments & Money Movement

According to the survey, the countries with highest levels of mobile payment adoption also display highest importance on mobile payments and money movement. Roughly two-thirds of Indian consumers consider making payments and moving money using their mobile phone in the next three years to be “very important” to them —in contrast only one in 10 French and Canadian consumers think mobile payment is “Very Important”.

Replacing Traditional Payment Cards with Mobile Payments

Over 8 out of 10 Indians responded that they would prefer using a mobile phone to make a payments instead of traditional payment cards.

The lack of importance of mobile payments and money movement in a number of countries belies the interest that many consumers across the globe have in using their mobile phone to replace carrying payment cards. In Brazil, for example, although 39% of consumers consider mobile payment and money movement to be “very important,” 75% would use their mobile phone to replace cards.

Even in France, where just 9% of French consumers place a high importance on mobile payments and money movement, 44% express interest in replacing their payment cards.

One surprising fact in all the above findings is that western countries like US, UK, France, Germany etc. are low on mobile banking and payments. One of the reason I see is that they transact more from Desktop PC’s. Whereas in countries like India & China, majority of consumers only have mobiles on which they can carry out mobile banking / payments ( as they don’t own personal computers).

Related posts:

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2. 43.7 million Indian users use Mobile Banking
3. HDFC launches Mobile Payment Service with Movida!
4. Mobile Banking to reach USD 350 bln by 2015 – Are these numbers correct ?

Ebay yesterday released “Battle of the Gadget” Rankings for the most popular gadget models & brands based on the transactions that happened on ebay between Jan 1st 2012 to March 31st 2012. The rankings showcases popular gadgets & brands across 4 categories of Laptops, Cameras, Mobile Phones & Televisions.

Samsung has been making huge strides in India, not only in smartphones, but in other categories as well – It maintained the tag of most popular Gadget Brand with 31% of market share all 4 categories of Laptops, Cameras, Mobile Phones & Televisions.

While Samsung was most popular brand for mobile handset and Television category, Nikon came up trumps in the Digital Camera category and Apple topped the laptop category.

eBay transactions have also been growing at a healthy pace – According to the report, a mobile handset was sold on ebay site every 3 minutes, a laptop every 13 minutes & a digital camera every 25 minutes!

Here are the details of Battle of Gadget Rankings:

Mobile Phone Category Rankings

1. Top Mobile Phone Brand: Samsung
2. Top Smart Phone Brand: Samsung
3. Top Dual SIM Phone Brand: Micromax
4. Top Value Phone Brand: Samsung
5. Top Mobile Phone Model: Samsung Galaxy Y S5360
6. Top Smart Phone Model: Samsung Galaxy Note N7000
7. Top Dual SIM Phone Model: Nokia X2-02
8. Top Value Phone Model: Samsung Galaxy Y S5360
9. Top Mobile Phone City: Delhi

Among Smartphones alone, Samsung captured over 35% of market share with Samsung Galaxy Note N7000 being the most popular Smart Phone. While Sony & Blackberry were neck-to-neck on the 2nd position. These 3 brands, Samsung, Sony and Blackberry, have together captured 87% of market share amongst transactions on Ebay in the smart phone category.

Delhi was the top city when it came to number of mobile phones bought across India.

Among the Dual Sim phones, Micromax is the leader, while Nokia X2-02 was the most purchased Dual SIM phone model. Bangalore consumers bought most Dual SIM phones on eBay India.

Digital Camera Category Rankings

1. Top Digital Camera Brand: Nikon & Canon
2. Top Compact Camera Brand: Sony
3. Top Long Zoom Camera Brand: Nikon
4. Top Digital SLR Camera Brand: Canon
5. Top Digital Camera Model: Canon EOS 550-D
6. Top Compact Camera Model: Sony CyberShot DSC H70
7. Top Long Zoom Camera Model: Nikon COOLPIX L120
8. Top Digital SLR Camera Model: Canon EOS 550D
9. Top Digital Camera City: Bengaluru

The sale of digital camera’s grew by 26% in first quarter of 2012 as compared to previous quarter on eBay India. Nikon and Canon topped the overall Digital Cameras category with 27% each. Sony came in at 3rd position.

Canon saw maximum growth in Digital Camera category with a growth of 84% over previous quarter and Canon EOS 550-D was the most purchased Digital Camera Model.

Bengaluru followed by Delhi and Chennai were the top three cities respectively, who bought maximum number of Digital Cameras.

Sony was the most popular brand when it came to compact camera’s, while Canon was the brand most bought in Digital SLR Category.

Laptop Category Rankings

1. Top Laptop Brand: Apple
2. Top Netbook Brand: Acer
3. Top Tablet Brand: Apple
4. Top Regular Laptop Brand: Dell
5. Top Laptop Model: iPad 2
6. Top Netbook Model: Acer Aspire One
7. Top Tablet Model: iPad 2
8. Top Regular Laptop Model: Apple MacBook PRO 13.3″
9. Top Laptop City: Bengaluru

Apple jumped to top in first quarter of 2012 in number of transactions of eBay putting Dell in the 2nd position. Tablets dominated the category with 44% share and iPad 2 being the most purchased Model. Bangalore was once again forefront as the city that bought maximum gadgets in laptop category on eBay.

In the netbook category Acer was most popular with Aspire One being the most sought after netbook model. Netbook demand is now currently going down with market share now shifting towards tablets. Among the tablets, iPad 2 was the leader.

The demand for 3G enabled tablet was on rise with 30% of all tablets purchased were 3G enabled.

Television Category Rankings

1. Top TV Brand: Samsung
2. Top LCD Brand: Sony
3. Top LED TV Brand: Samsung
4. Top TV Model: Samsung 40D5000
5. Top LCD Model: Sony Bravia KDL 32CX520
6. Top LED TV Model: Samsung 40D5000
7. Top TV City: Bengaluru

Samsung ruled the television category with Samsung 40D5000 being the most purchased television by Indians on eBay. LCD TVs led with 55% market share followed by LED TVs with 38% market share. Bengaluru bought the most TVs in India.

eBay’s Battle of Gadget survey clearly shows that ecommerce is on the rise in India and reiterates the fact that Indians love buying gadgets online.

[via]

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4. What do you look for in a mobile?

S Mobility, the company behind Spice brand have launched a mobile phone which has ability to receive analogue TV signals. The mobile handset called Spice FLO TV M-5600 allows users to watch free to Air Channels live.

The concept of watching TV on mobile is not new – but most of the offerings are from telecom operators. There are also plenty of Live TV apps which mobile users can use on the phone. All of them use data connections to broadcast the pictures.

However, Spice FLO TV mobile is probably the first one which offers it directly on the handset without the need of a telecom operator. Essentially, the phone can also be termed as a miniature Television. The only thing is, it will receive free to Air channels like DD News, DD National etc depending on the channel’s transmission signal.

This dual Sim handset a decent 3.2 inch QVGA screen and also sports 1.3 MP camera. Spice M 5600 has other features like SD Card support (up to 8GB), FM Radio with recording, and a 1200 mAH battery, which gives a talk time of up to 4 hours. The handset comes in 2 colors – Jet Black & Ivory white.

This newly launched handset is now already available with over 50,000 retail stores across India. It is also sold on most of the Indian online portals.

The Spice FLO TV M-5600 is sure to attract consumers as it is priced very competitively at Rs. 3099/-. The handset is available in online stores at Rs. 2549/- much below the retail price of the handset.

Live TV has not caught up in India as it has in rest of the world. The launch of this handset will surely help in increasing the mobile TV viewership.

What do you think?

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Paymate, one of the leading company in India for mobile payments has launched PayPOS, a mobile app that converts your mobile phone into a card processing terminal and allows merchants to accept credit card payments on the move.

India currently has plenty of mobile apps that allow consumers to make payments for array of services on their mobile, however, none of them had facility to accept payments. Paymate’s PayPOS is India’s first mobile app which allows small businesses, individuals & merchants to accept and process electronic transactions using credit and debit cards directly on their mobile phones at the point of sale (POS) itself.

How PayPOS works

The merchant or individual who wishes to use PayPOS needs to first sign up with PayPOS – Once registered as a merchant, they will be provided a Merchant ID (MID) and a Device ID (DID) that will enable use of mobile phone as a POS device and have your Merchant name show in the customer’s card statement.

The merchant has to download the mobile app and start transacting instantly. Currently, PayPOS is available for Android & iOS devices.

To charge a customer, Merchant has to simply enter his / her 10-digit mobile number and amount to be charged on the screen. The customer then simply enters their credit card details and 3D secure password. Once the customer has entered the details, the transaction will be processed within a few seconds.

PayPOS also provides transaction history and other reports on the mobile device as well as on the PayPOS website.

PayPOS pricing

The PayPOS app is totally free.

However, PayPOS will charge the merchant credit card payment gateway fee of 2.95% + taxes. It will be deducted from the transaction amount during settlement. Merchant has an option to pass on the fee to their customers as well.

Our Take:

One this is for sure, PayPOS will benefit businesses in the unorganized retail sector tremendously. Paypos will also be very attractive to individuals & freelancers who can now accept payments without much hassle.

Currently, PayPOS does not seem to have a physical card reader extension – equivalent to popular Square app in the US. However, I am sure Paymate will have plans to have something similar in the future.

I have personally registered for it, but was not able to use as the account has not been activated. One thing for sure – if PayPOS does what it says, it is sure to be a hit with merchants!

What do you think?

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Bangalore has become the 2nd city in India to have access to 4G LTE technology. After launch of 4G in Kolkata a few weeks back, Airtel has gone ahead and launched cutting-edge 4G LTE technology in IT hub of India, Bengaluru. 4G services are based on LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology which is capable of offering speeds of upto 40 mbps, three times that of 3G.

Although, Airtel is not a Pan – India BWA spectrum holder, it has taken the lead in implementing 4G services. It has secured spectrum in 3 Indian states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab along with Kolkata Metro.

Tariff for Airtel 4G services

On the face of it, Airtel’s 4G rates are not that cheap. However, as an introductory offer, customers subscribing to 4G services will be given a cashback for the dongle / USB stick bringing device cost to zero. For Rs. 2999/- 4G subscribers will get 30GB data transfer. They also have other plans:

• Breakfree: Rs. 999/- for 6GB data
• Breakfree Max: Rs. 1399/- for 9GB data
• Breakfree Ultra: Rs. 1999/- for 18GB data

Airtel promises download speeds of 40 mbps & upload speeds of 20 mbps on their 4G network. After the data usage is exhausted, the internet speed will come down to 128 kbps.

To attract customers on 4G, Airtel is offering 10 movie titles free of cost during the first month. If customers wish to continue movie subscription after 1st month they can pay a monthly subscription of INR 149 and watch unlimited movies. Currently Airtel has only 35 movie titles, but are expected to add more movies to their catalogue in coming months.

Airtel has already launched 4G enabled Mi-Fi devices to ensure that consumers can benefit from it even though they may not have 4G on their mobile phones.

Although, 4G promises ultra-high speeds, expensive data rates may be a deterrent for the masses. Yes, their will be early adopters, but I presume most of the consumers will wait for the prices to fall before they start riding the 4G wave.

What do you think?

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Smart phone enthusiasts, journalists, geeks and gadget freaks spent the whole of yesterday night tweeting, blogging and sharing about just one event. The launch of Samsung Galaxy S3 on May 3^rd, 2012 at 7pm, GMT was a momentous event in smartphone history. The phone was the most anticipated weapon from Samsung in their constant battle for smartphone supremacy against Apple.

Samsung has delivered a phenomenal upgrade to their successful Galaxy S2 smartphone although, in some aspects may have disappointed a few of those with lofted expectations. But undoubtedly, Samsung Galaxy S3 is set to revolutionize the way Android phones are perceived and even probably help them in the battle for supremacy against the Apple iPhone. Here’s a look at how.

No longer behind the iPhone

While there is no doubt that a large population of the world today use Android smartphones, more than any other Operating System, the devices by themselves have been regarded slightly below than an iPhone. The iPhone has always remained a premium device for the premium customer with some splendid hardware and software as well as the assurance that came with a stable OS.

There is no doubt that iPhone will continue to be a stalwart among smartphones and in spite of impressive launches by HTC and Samsung in the last month, there will always be folks who look forward to the next iPhone. The race however has become far too tight with competing models being launched at extremely short intervals with significant upgrades from competitors.

Android phones until now have relied on customizability of the phone’s user experience and its cheaper price to allure customers. Samsung Galaxy S3 will now move the Android to a new plane of existence; that of holistic user experience and supreme hardware (More on that below). Head to head with the iPhone or the premium Windows phone in the market, Samsung Galaxy S3 is a giant of a phone.

Its official, android phones are no longer second best.

The Holistic User Experience: Perfect amalgam of hardware and software

Samsung Galaxy S3 is the first Android to be the most powerful device on earth. The device oozes hardware and software superiority and what’s more, its more functional than the devices out in the market with little touches here and there to make the phone truly user oriented.

Android phones have in the past struggled to match the perfect amalgamation of mind blowing hardware specifications and brilliant software. The phone boasts of some truly remarkable features, such as Smart Stay, a feature that keeps the phone active while the user is still looking at it and goes to sleep when the user is not. While some have just been mere increments such as the Smart Alert that lets you know when you have missed calls, messages etc. by vibrating while you pick up the phone after a while or S-Beam which is essentially NFC sharing popular in most recent smartphones.

Most of the technologies in Samsung Galaxy S3 are not revolutionary; they are at best natural increments of the earlier version (faster processor, bigger screen, more sensors). However in a holistic perspective these changes have made for a completely new experience.

This is indeed a novel approach from Samsung, from the days of making bigger screens and faster hard drives and it will help Samsung win more hearts (mainstream user) than heads (geeks) in the coming years.

Convenient Pricing and the allure of premium value

As a user, you want a phone that is head over shoulders above competing smartphones and you need it at a price that is light on the wallet. You need something that’s personal and that gives you the feeling of satisfaction that doesn’t get out dated in 6 months’ time. Android Users have often been unhappy despite owning a top notch phone, as the specs often get out dated in less than 6 months.

Samsung Galaxy S3 was always going to be priced midway from the most premium Android and the Samsung Galaxy S2, the pricing of Rs 38000 makes this an extremely affordable and alluring smartphone for the premium customer. In case you aren’t a premium customer, you may still not mind getting one for an EMI plan with one of the many e-tailers or from an offline store.

The phone is undeniably a great Value for money for any customer. Brilliant hardware and some unique features and should ideally be in the purchasing schedule for most buyers for the next 6 months (until the launch of Apple iPhone). With over 10 million pre-orders, there is no doubt this phone will be the smartphone for the year 2012. Samsung Galaxy S3 should be a great purchase for any user and should keep you satisfied for a long time.

Olympics, Suspense and all that jazz

Samsung has already made marketing its forte’ among smartphone manufacturers. The company has outdone just about any recent brand launch with heightened suspense, those scrupulous leaks and constant denial. The aura of something big was already created much before the launch of Samsung Galaxy S3. The actual product had big shoes to fill, which it did more or less snugly.

Being associated with Olympics will propel the product to even greater heights. The official phone of the Olympics will be seen and admired by not just the 10 cities the phone is currently on tour to but over 167 countries around the world. 135 nations shall receive the Samsung Galaxy S3 in the next 2 months, a market that is only second to Nokia (150 countries).

Summary

Big things are expected in the next few months. Android phones are already set to dominate the world of smartphones in terms of sheer volume, through cheaper phones and higher number of manufacturers. Samsung Galaxy S3 isn’t about the sales volumes; it’s about breaking perceptions, about Android smartphone’s capability to be truly the best smartphone in the world.

Samsung Galaxy S3 will definitely be one of the top choices for smartphone fans all over the world in the coming months.

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