Panasonic India Unveils Festive Season Offers 2014

Panasonic India unveiled its consumer campaign “My Celebrations, My Choices” to mark the arrival of the auspicious festival season in the country. The campaign has been created keeping in mind the flavour and zest of the Indian festive season.

Speaking on the occasion, Manish Sharma- Managing Director, Panasonic India said, “It is well known that no other country celebrates so many festivals with such joy as India does, and buying new products during this time is considered auspicious leading to a very positive and high consumer sentiment. As the spell of celebrations has just started, we at Panasonic India, are delighted to introduce ‘My Celebrations, My Choices’ campaign. It is apt for consumers as, in every part of India, festivals are associated with cheerfulness. With this campaign, Panasonic aims to become everyone’s choice by being a part of everyone’s celebrations through an enthralling range of offers and products. We have allocated a budget of Rs. 85 crores towards marketing activities this festive season and are aiming 25% growth in sales as compared to the same period last year.” 

These special offers will help Panasonic touch its consumer base across cities and build deeper inroads into the country. India being such a diverse market, to amplify the reach across the length and breadth of the country, the brand has developed a strong channel ecosystem, catering to the needs of the consumers across segments. Consumers can avail these special offers at Panasonic’s 180 exclusive brand Shops Pan-India, multi-brand retail outlets and 90 active P4 (Panasonic Premium Partner Program) outlets spread across the country.

Panasonic’s incredible bundle of offers can be availed on the purchase of Viera, Microwaves, Refrigerators and Washing Machines. Adding sheen to the festive spirit, the consumers have a chance to win assured gifts and extended warranties on their favorite products, from Sept 4- Oct 31, 2014.

NetSfere Intuitive Internal Messaging Service For Businesses

NetSfere, a new cloud-based internal enterprise messaging service launched today to provide businesses with a secure platform for internal communication and give IT departments complete control over how employees send and access information across multiple devices. The next-generation enterprise messaging service enables employees to securely communicate business information in real time over a user-friendly web interface or mobile messaging app. The new service for businesses is built on a private, highly secure platform that gives companies complete control over user privileges and company data.

NetSfere is a cloud-based messaging service that includes message encryption, device-to-device encryption and full administrative control of all accounts and devices, enabling businesses to manage internal enterprise communication in today's increasingly Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) enterprise landscape. Through NetSfere's interface, IT administrators have centralized control of end user policies, enabling IT teams to manage what enterprise information employees exchange through the app. 

"Internal enterprise communication has evolved to include a wide range of devices and mediums – from strictly enterprise-approved email to communicating with coworkers on smartphones outside of work through over-the-top applications," said Anurag Lal, president and CEO of Infinite Convergence, a fully owned subsidiary of Infinite Computer Solutions in the US and the mobility solutions provider that developed NetSfere. "Many enterprises IT teams are struggling to control what information is sent and keeping that information secure on the many platforms employees communicate on. Although there are a number of other internal enterprise messaging services on the market today, none are as simple, intuitive, secure and controllable as NetSfere, which is deployed entirely as a cloud-based service and includes device-to-device message encryption."

According to Infinite’s 2014 Internal Enterprise Messaging Trends Study, 77 percent of IT decision makers believe a lightweight, secure internal messaging service would be valuable compared to their current means of enterprise communications. The survey also found that 68 percent say they are concerned about employees using third-party messaging and chat apps to communicate and send documents internally. As a cloud-based service, NetSfere is highly scalable and easy to implement, supporting global service availability, with the added security that enterprises don't get while using third-party apps. The service also boasts robust message delivery, ensuring seamless message delivery via IP Push, MMS and SMS under all circumstances, including instances of poor coverage.

NetSfere is available as a native app on iOS and Android, as well as via desktop and mobile web browsers. The transfer of messages and associated content (such as attached pictures, videos and documents) through NetSfere is fully encrypted with industry-hardened security algorithms, meaning the message can only be opened on the receiving device. NetSfere is available immediately for customer trials across the globe and general availability will follow in the coming weeks.

NetSfere is architected around several core capabilities. These include:

• Instant Messaging : Drives productivity with instant messaging for groups and individuals
• Opt in opt out: Add and remove participants at will; new participants have access to complete conversation history
• Cloud storage: Seamless updates of new devices
• Multi-device support: Syncs content in real time across all devices  and allows sharing between desktops and mobile
• Conversation list: Organizes related messages into named conversations
• Multi-media support: Accepts photos, videos and documents
• Contact Presence: Tracks contact availability on every user avatar throughout the app
• Centrally managed: Manages users and devices through an IT administrator's control panel

When consumers upgrade to the new iPhone 6, slated to be announced Sept. 9, enterprises will need a way to ensure sensitive information on employees' old devices cannot be accessed by anyone outside of the business. NetSfere allows IT departments to remotely wipe all data from the application on employees' old devices and on past employees' devices, and instantly update new devices with historical data giving enterprises much more control over the mass transition to the new iPhone.

The enterprise application was developed by Infinite, a next-generation wireless messaging and mobility solutions provider for enterprises and carriers. With a combined 2,000 years of messaging industry experience, NetSfere is backed by Infinite’s proven track record delivering trillions of messages globally.

Now MSN Aims To Deliver World’s Popular Content In India

 Microsoft has unveiled a first look of the new MSN in India. Designed from the ground up for a mobile, cloud first world, the new MSN combines premium content from the world’s leading media outlets with personal productivity tools that help you do more.  Built around the insight that the knowledge and information that enriches your life should be accessible regardless of where you are or what device you are using, the new experience is available on the web and will soon be available across all major device platforms, including Windows, iOS and Android.

Starting today, Microsoft is inviting people to try out the new web experience at http://preview.msn.com/en-in. 

 The new MSN focuses on the primary digital daily habits in people’s lives, helping them complete tasks on the web and across all of their devices, roaming data and personalized settings to keep users in the know wherever they are.

 Most Popular and Complete Content

 MSN is partnering with some of the world’s best and most authoritative sources, including The New York Times in the U.S., Yomiuri Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun in Japan, The Guardian and the Telegraph in the U.K., Le Figaro and Le Monde in France, and Lance and Estadão in Brazil, and many more. 

 “Microsoft has re-written MSN from the ground up for a mobile-first, cloud first world. The new MSN brings together the world’s best media sources along with data and services to enable users to do more.” said Sanjay Trehan, Head, MSN India, Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt. Ltd. “Microsoft has partnered with top local content partners from India for the new MSN, including Hindustan Times, NDTV, India Today, Indian Express and Network 18.”

Spanning multiple sections including sports, news, health & fitness, money, travel and video, the new MSN provides a global perspective from thousands of publishers across the world. Information ranges from the latest statistics on over 200 global sports leagues, reviews of over 1.5 million bottles of wine, to over 300,000 gorgeously photographed recipes and more. MSN’s expert editors are able to draw from the over 1,000 sources to hand-curate content for individual markets and cultures.

 “With an audience of nearly 425 million people coming to over 57 markets around the world available across the three major device platforms, the new MSN presents an enormous opportunity for publishers” said Adam Anger, General Manager for Asia Pacific, Microsoft Advertising “With over 50% of people accessing content on dedicated apps, this release is in lockstep with where usage is happening.”

 Know More, Do More

The new MSN brings actionable information and the opportunity to act directly at the point where people are actively engaging, from personal productivity tools like shopping lists, flight status and savings calculators, to integrated access to popular sites like Outlook.com, Facebook, Twitter, OneNote, OneDrive and Skype. At the top of the page, there is a personal stripe allowing you one click access to top services so you can stay on top of what’s happening in your life.  

These integrated tools cover eight categories letting you explore, plan, do, and track the activities you care about. You can set up topics to follow about the news you care about.  You can track “Game of Thrones spoilers” or “Wolves in Yellowstone” and MSN will stay on top of relevant articles.  When you’re searching for recipes and find one that you want to prepare, in one click you can convert the ingredients into a shopping list which will roam from the web to the mobile apps so you have it when you need it in the grocery store not on the printer at work.

Personalized and Available Across Devices

 A clean, fresh design makes it easy to find and enjoy content that interests you.  You can organize categories and interests making the layout your own. 

The new MSN makes it simple to personalize what you want to see regardless of which device you use.  In the coming months, we will release a suite of MSN apps across Windows Phone, iOS and Android. You only need to set your preferences once, and your favorite stuff will always be there. In the finance section for instance, when you setup your stock watch list (e.g. DIS) it will show up the same way on the corresponding apps and website. If you prefer to get your content from a specific source, you can set that as a preference (e.g. more stories from The New York Times.)  

 And it works the same way if you set it up on your phone – so no matter where you start, you don’t have to set it up all over again, changes and updates work the same way. So setup your favorite cities for weather or pick your favorite sports teams and those things will be with you at your PC at work, on your Windows 8.1 tablet in the living room, or on your iPhone when you are on the go.   

 New Opportunities for Brands

 For brands, MSN will continue to offer its loyal audience with a personalized web experience with the added benefit of the best-of-the-web publishers and the engagement of applications across all mobile operating systems. The new MSN is an ideal environment for seamless brand storytelling across devices. 

Though the face of MSN has transformed, the process of buying ads is simple. Brands can still enjoy ease of purchasing through similar IAB standard units available on previous versions of MSN. 

 “With premium content and productivity tools, we’re thrilled to offer a new experience to both advertisers and consumers that help people do more,” said Ken Chang, Commercial Director for Asia Pacific, Microsoft Advertising. “Our daily lives have become increasingly busy and with that comes more screens to interact with to make our days make sense. MSN streamlines this experience to the benefit of all people and allows advertisers to be in more moments and to capture consumers at the right mindset during the day.”  

Micromax Launches Canvas Nitro – Now Everyone Can!

In its pursuit of democratizing technology by offering innovative solutions, Micromax Informatics Limited, India’s leading handset player, today announced the launch of Canvas Nitro A310 in India. The new smartphone offers the perfect blend of sleek looks, powerful performance and innovative user interface with a host of inbuilt apps to offer a superior mobile experience

Commenting on the launch Vineet Taneja, Chief Executive Officer, Micromax said, “It has been our constant endeavor to listen to Indian consumers for better understanding of their ever evolving needs. Inspired by specific needs of consumers, Canvas Nitro is yet another product from the Micromax stable to democratize technology with amalgamation of superior technology, great design and seamless usability. Our partnership with Snapdeal further simplifies the process for millions of new-age Indian consumers who prefer to shop online to get Canvas Nitro with just a few clicks.” 

 He further added, “Micromax has always been the first to identify and address the gaps through its innovative offerings that provide best experience at an affordable cost. We will continue to simplify and enhance the consumer experience by introducing innovative products and services, taking the best smartphone experience to the last mile.”

 Delivering a combination of great aesthetics and superior features, the Canvas Nitro is power packed with a 1.7GHz Tru octa-core processor promising seamless multi-tasking and an improved application performance. Equipped with a 5-inch HD IPS display, the phone offers a dynamic contrast and color vibrancy with an immersive graphic quality. Running on latest Android 4.4 KitKat, users get access to a number of features including voice search, Google Drive, Hangouts for video calls, smart contact prioritization etc. Available in Mystic Blue and Pristine White colors with a premium leather finish back, Canvas Nitro comes with innovative software features like QuickLook, Smart Alerts, All-in-one camera widget and customized gestures.

Speaking about this, Kunal Bahl, Co-Founder & CEO, Snapdeal.com said, “We are excited to be partnering with Micromax to launch their latest product – the Canvas Nitro. The new product has most superior technology and we are sure that this will be well-received by our 25 million members. At Snapdeal.com, Mobile and Tablets is one of our fastest growing categories and this partnership is a strategic decision to add onto our offerings.”