Indian Smartphone Market Sees 18% Growth In 2013

Smartphone adoption is at its peak in India and according to the latest report released by the research firm IDC 44 million smartphone units were shipped in India.

The number is upped from 16.2 million units in 2012. And if you look at the overall growth, it was calculated at around 257 million units for the year 2013 as against 218 million units in 2012, which is an increase of 18 percent.

Another remarkable progress is the switch from feature to the smartphones owing to the low priced smart devices now available in the market. The Indian smartphone market increased by a staggering 181 percent in the last quarter of the year 2013. Phablets were a hit especially during the last quarter, grabbing 20 percent of the overall shipments.

Samsung emerged as the leader with 38 per cent market share in Q4 2013 while smartphones sales by domestic manufacturers like the LAVA and Intex also increased.

Micromax was just 2 percent behind Samsung in Q3 2013 but Samsung widened the gap by grabbing 38 percent shares while Micromax stood at 16 percent. Then comes Karbonn claiming 10 percent of the market shares followed by the global brand, Sony, which received 5 percent. Then, there is Lava with 4.7 percent.

$1 Billion Product Development Investment By Yahoo India

Technology giant Yahoo invested $1 billion in 2013 on product development to beef up its media, news and entertainment offerings to serve advertisers and consumers better as it takes head on giants like Google.

Also, the California-headquartered company went on an acquisition spree, acquiring as many as 28 start-ups last year, as it looks to grab consumers' attention, especially those using mobile handheld devices. CEO Marissa Mayer, who joined the firm in 2012 to revive its declining fortunes, has been working on "re-imagining" Yahoo's core businesses across search, communications, media and video.

"Product development expenses for 2011, 2012, and 2013 totaled approximately $919 million, $886 million and $1 billion, respectively, which included stock-based compensation expense of $81 million, $74 million and $83 million, respectively," the firm said in a US SEC filing.

Yahoo continually launches, improves and scales products and features to meet evolving user, advertiser and publisher needs. Most of the software products and features are developed internally by the employees, it added. "Our engineering and production teams are primarily located in our Sunnyvale, California, headquarters, Bangalore, India and Beijing, China," the firm said in a the filing. Yahoo!, which is increasingly seeing a major chunk of its usersbase going mobile, aims to make compelling ads and integrate them with news and information.

Reiterating its strategy of "building products focusing on mobile first", the firm further said: "Today we have over 400 million monthly mobile users, an increase of more than 150 million users since we launched our new Mobile and Emerging Products team in October 2012". Today, mobile traffic represents more than half of its 800 million monthly users (the numbers do not include internet Message Access Protocol or Tumblr users), it added.

Yahoo said increasing mobile traffic has been the result of an "engaging and inspiring suite of new and revamped product experiences designed to make users' daily habits mobile."

Google To Focus More On SMBs In India

The world's most-used web search engine Google plans to help half a million Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) in India to go online by the end of next year. 

With India set to become second largest internet market in the world overtaking the US by 2015, Google sees India as a key market and is focusing on SMBs, which contribute significantly to its global revenues. 

Allan Thygesen, vice president and global head of SMBs for Google, told the media here that the firm has already launched an initiative to give SMBs a cost-effective way to reach out to customers. 

"It's a key growth initiative in India, which is the fastest growing market for us among top 20 markets," he said. 

Google has already made significant investment in India in terms of increasing the headcount and developing new products to drive the growth in SMBs sector. It is also offering services in English and nine regional languages in India. 

Google has 1,200 partners across India to help SMBs manage their businesses online. In the last two years, it enabled 300,000 SMBs to go online. Its premier partners cover 65 cities and this number is expected to go up to 100 this year. 

With over 200 million internet users, India is on its way to become the second largest internet market in the world after China. 

K. Suryanarayana, head of SMBs, Google India, said the surge in affordable smartphone was bringing more users online. The e-commerce industry, which was roughly at $10 billion in 2013 is projected to touch $80-100 billion by 2020. 

Out of the 50 million SMBs in India, only 5% have online presence. 

"Indian SMBs have been slower to adopt online strategies because of lack of time and understanding of the internet medium and self service model," he said. 

Google helps SMBs to get started online by creating a website, a social page, a mobile ready site and also bring them on Google search, Google maps and on other medium like the YouTube. The SMBs may also track their efforts through Google analytics. 

Google has designed products like AdWords Express, that makes it easy for SMBs to run advertising campaigns online.

West Bengal Makes Rapid Strides In IT Procurement & e-Governance

As a part of its endeavor to create a transparent, competitive and inclusive environment for public procurement in India, MAIT has taken-up the mandate to collaborate with various Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Government and to organize workshops and focus group discussions wherein industry representatives can interact with government officials and deliberate upon various aspects of public procurement. One such initiative that MAIT has embarked upon is the series of regional workshops that are being currently organized in the country to spread awareness on Model RFPs that had been promulgated by Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) in 2011.

As a part of these regional workshops, Manufacturers Association for Information Technology (MAIT) today organized a workshop in Kolkata on Model RFPs in association with DeitY, and Accenture being the knowledge partner.  Policy experts, Industry bodies and state IT decision makers from eastern India gathered together to share their experiences on the implementation of e-governance projects.

Inaugurating the workshop, Satish Chandra Tewary, Principal Secretary – IT&E, Govt. of West Bengal said, “I would like to thank DIT, Government of India and MAIT for organizing this regional workshop and for creating the opportunity to deliberate upon the best usage of IT to transform e-governance through streamlining of procurement process.”  He announced that the Government of West Bengal intends to accelerate the proliferation of IT and ITeS adoption in the state and has set up Hardware Parks, Electronics Manufacturing Clusters to expedite the same.

Tewary further suggested that given the dynamism of IT products and services, this discussion on Model RFPs and public procurement comes at an opportune time. He asserted that “some challenges being faced by the states in execution of e-Governance projects such as budgeting issues, neutrality of specifications, among others can be addressed and mitigated at the stage of formulating the RFP itself”. These Model RFP toolkits are completely in sync with the recently-announced Public Procurement Bill 2012 and they can address substantial amount of risks that are typically associated with bidding and undertaking ICT projects in Govt. Sector.

Emphasizing on the compliance to model RFPs Ankur Malhotra, Vice President, Public Policy, Accenture, said, “Critical assessment of various e-Governance Projects since the initiation of NeGP shows that issues like time & cost overruns, unmitigated disputes, poor quality of execution, etc. which are being faced across board can be mitigated or could be planned for at the procurement stage itself.  ” He also stressed that “Streamlining the entire set of processes related to tendering would lead to more successful execution of IT Services & Infrastructure projects in Government Sector, and this is where instruments like Model RFPs become all the more important”.

While addressing the gathering, Anwar Shirpurwala, Executive Director, MAIT, said “We are honoured to offer such platform wherein both industry and government can share their experience and issues on IT procurement and e-Governance. Through this workshop we aim to create ways to accelerate the awareness and adoption of Model RFPs. ”

This was an important event for State IT decision makers from eastern India and industry captains as it served as a platform to interact on ways of strengthening IT procurement processes and highlight the issues being faced by them in implementing e-Governance projects over the last few years. Representatives from states like West Bengal, Assam, Orissa, Sikkim, among others participated in the discussion and addressed the issues & challenges for e-Governance projects.

Digital Music Market To Grow $9 Billion Worldwide In 2014

Mahindra Comviva, the global leader in providing mobility solutions and Ovum Consulting, today released a research study on Digital Music Market. The study encapsulates future trends on the uptake of digital music in terms of adoption rates; devices used to consume music services and segregation of listeners and suggested target approach.

The research study reveals that digital music market grew by around 9% in 2012 and is expected to grow $9 billion worldwide in 2014. Strong growth is driven by the expansion of international and regional music brands as well as active smartphone growth in South East Asia, India and Africa, all topping 20% CAGR. It predicts that Asia-Pacific emerging markets are expected to approach $450 million and Latin America top $200 million in trade value in 2014.

Commenting on the latest trends in the mobile music industry, Atul Madan, Head of Digital Services, Mahindra Comviva said, “The music industry is witnessing dynamic changes and consumption patterns are shifting, driven by the increasing adoption of smartphones. The study reiterates our belief that the future of digital music will be based on enhanced engagement, 360 degree music experience and addressing the needs of price sensitive markets. Localized and customized content will play a greater role in enticing consumers.”

Across the nine markets surveyed (both emerging and developed), the share of devices used for listening, purchasing or downloading music has changed dramatically in 2013, as compared to 2010. Computer share has dropped significantly by 14% points with mobile and tablets together up 15% points, emphasizing the importance of mobile for reaching lean-back listeners.

Segregating the group of digital music consumers into lean-back and lean-forward listeners, the study suggests that there is a huge opportunity for operators when it comes to offering personalized music packages and targeted music services that will help reduce churn, drive subscription and increase revenues.

HOPE Foundation India to Receive SAP Business One to Optimize Efficiency

  

SAP has announced a donation of technology and integration support to community partner HOPE Foundation India. SAP Business One will enable more efficient management of its existing business management software systems, helping HOPE to run better and serve more citizens in need across India. This collaboration comes as a further commitment to SAP’s longstanding partnership with HOPE Foundation across education programmes and disaster relief since 2000.

In addition, the solution will be extended to enable HOPE to maintain a single source of information to effectively manage information on donors and participants in the various programs that HOPE manages.

In stage 1 of the project, HOPE Foundation will utilize the core financial functionality of the SAP Business One solution to enable them to have greater visibility in to their source and application of funding as well as streamlining their regular reporting. The Foundation will be able to better automate day-to-day processes, analyse socio-economic data, better manage donor database, community programmes, financials and provide transparency to its stakeholders.

Powered by SAPs in-memory computing platform, SAP HANA, SAP Business One will empower HOPE Foundation to analyze larger volumes of data in real-time to help the governing board of HOPE examine the financial health and effectiveness of its outreach programs.

SAP has donated INR 3,567,500 (€ 50,000) to HOPE Foundation for integrating SAP Business One technology to help the foundation. SAP will also provide customization and training, generating benefits to volunteers, beneficiaries, partners and employees.

“Sharing our technology with HOPE Foundation truly embodies our mission to empower organizations to run better and improve people’s lives,” said Anirban Dey, Managing Director, SAP Labs India. “We are fully committed to the success of our long-time partner and are proud to play a part in creating social impact and helping HOPE Foundation reach more people in need.”

HOPE Foundation has been a philanthropy partner of SAP India since 2000, beginning with volunteer education and computer literacy programmes for underprivileged children and youth, as well as disaster relief in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and, most recently, Uttarakhand. In September 2013, as part of SAP’s Project Lakshya initiative and on-going flood rehabilitation in Uttarakhand, SAP and HOPE Foundation have refurbished college science laboratory in Thatyur and opened a skills development centre, “SAP Centre of HOPE” Computer Training Centre, to serve hundreds of children, youth, women and villagers in the affected area.

“HOPE foundation seeks to bring about change in communities by focussing on one individual at a time. The support of credible and compassionate individuals in the government and the corporate world allows us to educate and equip children and young adults with the skills they need to pursue a career. Our teams help connect skilled men and women with job opportunities that allow some to earn more in their first year of employment than their parents do towards the end of their careers. We are thankful to see an India where many are coming together to be a ‘Force for Good”. This is allowing the needy to make the climb out of poverty.” said Ian Correa, Member, Global Coordinating Council, HOPE worldwide. ”By integrating SAP Business One into our existing infrastructure, we believe that everyone associated with the Foundation will be in a better position to effect positive change through the programs we run in villages, towns and cities across India.”

SAP’s collaborations with HOPE Foundation in India and Indonesia is one of the flagship corporate social responsibility partnerships of SAP Asia Pacific Japan, part of the company’s regional and global CSR commitment to entrepreneurship, education and technology donations.

Now Manage Emails More Effectively Using tZirr From Nascor Technologies

Nascor Technologies, an IT products start-up, has announced the launch of tZirr, a revolutionary email management tool, which enables working individuals to manage their inbox effectively, including attachments, prioritizing mails, sending effective responses and in the process facilitating better email etiquette.

This productive utility is aimed at Microsoft Outlook users on Windows OS. It drastically reduces the time spent on identifying actionable mails, dig attachments, store and tag notes, thus enhancing productivity.

Commenting on the launch of tZirr, Narasimhan Iyengar and Lakshminarasimha Bharadwaj, Founders, Nascor Technologies, said, “Email is a revolutionary tool meant to make communication easy. But at times its overwhelming expansion and dependence becomes a burden beyond belief, particularly for working individuals. This email management tool has been designed taking into consideration practical challenges faced by email users. We all know that one cannot live without emails and we have made it easy with tZirr.”

It has been found that an individual habituated to emails, gets distracted visiting the email Inbox at least 50 times a day. A poll conducted by McKinsey Global Institute revealed that 28% of the time spent by employees is wasted sorting, receiving, sending emails. Also, in one of the Harvard Business Review blog threads titled 'Email Is Not Free', it was estimated that “each individual email ate up 95 cents of labour costs”.

“tZirr performs helpful functions, which otherwise requires human intervention with valuable time to be spent. The time thus saved can be directed to focus on core emailing activities like reading and responding to mails to achieve Inbox zero,” Iyengar said.

The five highly productive features of tZirr are:

• Categorize Mails - A feature prioritizing emails in your Inbox by automatically color coding based on whether you are marked in 'TO' or 'CC' field. By coloring each category type, one does not have to spend time opening each email, decide on mail priority and organize them.

• Pen Thoughts - Tag personal sticky notes to an email, thus aid drafting careful responses, pen a check list, add comments, etc. With 'Thoughts Explorer', one can get a listing of all the Thoughts tagged to mails. 

• Attachment Explorer - Easily access email attachments buried deep inside mails. From the Explorer view, navigate to mails, list, filter, group based on the attachment type, name, sender, subject, date, etc.

• Bundle Mails - Selectively pack a set of mails to a single PST file; makes it very handy to be sent to anyone, personally store / archive, bundle, file offline in the way you want and even reduce Inbox size.

• Reply All Alert - With this configurable feature, every time you press 'Reply All', a prompt makes you stop & think whether you really want to 'Reply to All'. Drastically reduce mail traffic & better etiquette.

Elaborating further, Iyengar said, ”Who wants their employees to waste time each day on reading, writing and sorting mails? This tool, which is bundled with amazing features such as Attachment Explorer, Tag Notes and Reply All Alert,helps save time as well as business money.”   

According to Bharadwaj, there is tremendous scope for using such productivity tools for working individuals, who send or receive more than 50 mails in a day. “For now, tZirr supports all the languages supported by MS Outlook supports. Going forward, we have a lot of features envisaged and make them available on Mac OS and other mail clients such as Zimbra, Thunderbird and for smartphones/devices (Apple & Samsung) and other web mail clients (like Gmail & Yahoo!),” he noted.

tZirr is a home-grown product available for the international market. “Today when people are moving towards paperless office, email has become the best alternative to formal communication. Any email user has some pain points and also wants some key functions to be performed by mail clients without the need for human intervention. tZirr is an attempt in this direction to address simple needs of any mail user and our road map has lot more to offer,” Iyengar and Bharadwaj pointed out.